Kevin & Perry Go Large is a 2000 British teen comedy film based on the Harry Enfield sketch Kevin the Teenager. The film was written by Dave Cummings and Harry Enfield and directed by Ed Bye. Enfield, Kathy Burke and Louisa Rix all return to their roles after previously appearing in Harry Enfield's Television Programme, and later Harry Enfield and Chums. James Fleet replaced Stephen Moore as Kevin's father. Although the film received mixed reviews upon release, it has since gained a cult following.
Video Kevin & Perry Go Large
Plot
The film begins at the beheading of Anne Boleyn, which turns out to be an erotic daydream, introducing protagonist Kevin, who is having sexual fantasies when he's supposed to be doing his homework about Boleyn.
Kevin has tried to lose his virginity for three years. He and his best friend, Perry go to a newsagent's to buy a pornographic magazine, which results in failure, as do all of Kevin's attempts at sexual exploration.
The boys come up with the idea to go to Ibiza to become DJs and get "guaranteed sex", but Kevin's parents Ray and Sheila (James Fleet and Louisa Rix) forbid the trip due to Kevin's bad grades on his school report. As a compromise however, they tell the boys they can make the trip on the condition that they get a job to pay for it.
The boys search fruitlessly for a job, ending up at a house party where Kevin again tries to succeed in finally having sex, and again fails.
Having failed miserably at all his attempts at success with women and gainful employment, Kevin is asked to sign for the delivery of his dad's credit card. Kevin then takes the card to the bank to steal the money for the flights from his dad's bank account. At the bank, Kevin accidentally foils a bank robbery, and the manager awards Kevin and Perry with enough cash to make the trip. With that, they plan for their holiday in Ibiza.
Once in Ibiza, the boys spot the 'girls of their dreams' Candice (Laura Fraser) and Gemma (Tabitha Wady). They also meet Eye Ball Paul (whose nickname derives from his practice of vodka eyeballing). The boys spend the day with the girls and although they are unsuccessful at having sex with them, they do begin to bond with them as friends.
That night, the boys walk down the high street filming the events around themselves. Kevin then films a couple snogging which turns out to be Ray and Sheila. Kevin sulks while he and Perry hang out with Ray and Sheila, finally ending up at the club "Amnesia" where they dance the night away. Their new friends, Candice and Gemma are refused entry by the doorman (Paul Whitehouse), citing their appearance as a reason.
The next day, the boys go to Paul's where he makes them clean his house in return for his listening to their tapes. Leaving Paul's house, they spot Candice and Gemma, but again their clumsy attempts at wooing them end up in failure.
After the girls have a makeover, they are admitted to Amnesia with Kevin and Perry. However, events again conspire to ruin their chance at romance with the girls. Later, Perry videotapes Ray having sex with Sheila. The following day, Paul listens to their music as the boys clean his kitchen. He stumbles across the taping of Ray and Sheila and shows it to everyone, resulting in Kevin ending his friendship with Perry after realizing he was responsible for filming them.
After a day of Kevin and he sulking around unhappily, Perry runs into Paul, who tells him that he likes their song, and that he will play it in the club. Perry tells Kevin the good news and the friends reconcile. That night they and the girls go to the club again. Their song is played but Ray and Sheila (who wanted to visit the club) are humiliated as the sex tape was used by Paul in the creation of the song. Nevertheless, the song becomes an instant club favourite. Paul becomes unhappy at Kevin and Perry's success, and turns off the song and makes the crowd angry. Kevin and Perry then take over as DJs with the club dancing through the night. The next day, Kevin and Perry finally lose their virginity to Candice and Gemma on a beach with other couples engaged in intercourse.
In the Epilogue, the boys are seen signing copies of their record in a music shop, whilst Kevin's parents are seen signing copies of a video they have made about better mid-marriage sex.
Maps Kevin & Perry Go Large
Cast
Music production
Enfield tried to use songs in the film that were top of the dance charts at the time.
DJ Judge Jules created the mix that Kevin and Perry create in the film, "Big Girl", which was subsequently released as a single credited to the Precocious Brats with Kevin And Perry. It was in the top 40 for 4 weeks in 2000, and reached #16 in the UK Singles Charts.
"Straight to Hell" by The Clash features at the beginning of the film when Kevin begins banging his head on the bedroom wall; the camera pans out to view the street, in which the film title appears. All of the cars are Ford Focuses, and all of the people shown outside are wearing red baseball caps and using Flymo lawnmowers.
In the film, Eyeball Paul is a wealthy and very successful DJ; however, actor Rhys Ifans admits he is a terrible DJ, but thanks to "the magic of film" he'll "look pretty sharp out there".
Soundtrack
This is a list of all the songs used for the soundtrack in the film (taken from the film's credits).
Since being set largely in Ibiza, the film featured are large number of dance, techno & trance tracks and DJs that were popular at the time.
- Y:Traxx - "Mystery Land (Sickboys Courtyard Remix)"
- The Precocious Brats feat. Kevin & Perry - "Big Up (All I Wanna Do is Do It!)"
- Fatboy Slim - "Love Island (4/4 Mix)"
- The Wiseguys - "Oh La La"
- Underworld - "King of Snake (Fatboy Slim Remix)"
- CRW - "I Feel Love (R.A.F. Zone Mix)"
- Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra feat. Jamiroquai - "I'm In the Mood for Love"
- Fragma - "Toca Me"
- Fragma - "Toca Me (Inpetto Mix)"
- Ayla - "Ayla (DJ Taucher Remix)"
- Sunburst - "Eyeball (Eyeball Paul's Theme)"
- Yomanda - "Sunshine (Hi-Gate remix)"
- Oasis - "Wonderwall" (excerpts performed by Mr. & Mrs. Patterson)
- Mauro Picotto - "Lizard (Claxxix Mix)"
- Gladys Knight - "The Look of Love"
- Skip Raiders feat. Jada - "Another Day (Perfecto Dub Mix)"
- Samuel Barber - "Barber's 'Adagio For Strings'"
- Hybrid feat. Chrissie Hynde - "Kid 2000"
- The Precocious Brats feat. Kevin & Perry - "Big Girl (All I Wanna Do is Do It!) (Yomanda Remix)"
- Phil Pope & Los Lidos - "Mi Amour"
- Roger Sanchez - "The Partee"
- The Clash - "Straight To Hell"
- Lange feat. The Morrighan - "Follow Me"
- Tosca - "Fuck Dubs Parts 1&2"
- Groove Armada - "Chicago"
- The Birthday Party - "Release the Bats"
- Ver Vlads - "Crazy Ivan"
- Drew Milligan & Stewart Resiyn - "Elixir"
- Nick Bardon & Steve Warr - "Insanity"
- Dominic Glynn & Martin Smith - "Onslaught"
- Laurie Johnson - "Galliard"
- Mike Hankinson - "Death & The Maiden"
- Nightmares on Wax - "Sweet Harry" / "Emotion"
- Nightmares on Wax - "Ethnic Majority"
- Southside Spinners - "Luvstruck"
- The Precosious Brats feat. Kevin & Perry - "Big Girl (All I Wanna Do is Do It!) (The Shaft Remix)"
- Signum feat. Scott Mac - "Coming on Strong"
Venues featured in the film
The Ibiza club Amnesia makes an appearance in the film. However, the front view of the club, as shown in the film, is not the same as the actual Amnesia. The DJ booth that Eyeball Paul uses in the film is not the actual booth of the club, which is sited above the giant "spectrum analyser", seen in the film to the right of the fictitious booth. The Harlequin Shopping Centre in Watford was also used. Freemans Close in the small village of Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire was used for the location of the Patterson's house. Ibiza Airport was briefly used; however, the footage of a Virgin Sun Airlines plane taking off was actually filmed at El Altet airport in Alicante.
Kevin and Perry and Kevin's parents' apartment is in Santa Eulària des Riu in Ibiza. The beach that the boys go to is Cala Benirras on the western shore north of San Antonio. The buying of the indecent magazine was done in the high street of Shepperton.
The opening sequence where Kevin dreams of saving Anne Boleyn from execution was filmed at Dover Castle.
Viewing certificate
Harry Enfield suspected that the "two uses" of the word "fuck" (there were actually three, all by Rhys Ifans) were the cause of the film's BBFC rating being a 15, rather than a targeted 12. He revealed in the film's audio commentary that the 15 rating was given because of a scene where a group of men took drugs. According to BBFC guidelines, scenes of drug-taking often breach the rules of a 12-rated film.
Box office
Kevin & Perry Go Large was the top-grossing film at the British box office over the Easter weekend of 2000, taking £2 million and ranking as the number one film in the UK. The next week the film was knocked off the top spot by Scream 3, but it regained its number one position the week after, in a week in which box office revenues were down due to warm weather.
Critical reception
Kevin & Perry Go Large was generally given mixed reviews by critics and positive reviews by fans. Although it has a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes, this is only from a sample of five reviews. The Guardian said the film was inferior to "the wave of American gross-out comedies," but noted that "Enfield himself can raise a laugh simply by throwing his arms around and moaning--as he frequently does--'I'm not your slave!'" Empire rated the film 3 out of 5 stars. Radio Times also gave the film 3 stars out of 5, whilst the BBC rated the film 4 stars out of 5. Mark Sinker of the British Film Institute reviewed the film, saying "Go Large is an amiable roll through vomit, poo and erections, public-humiliation and hating-your-parents gags, working through the most obvious permutations and a scatter of clever ones. Fans of Harry Enfield and Kathy Burke's characters get pretty much what they are after. Their foray beyond the television-skit format of Harry Enfield and Chums cheerfully enters the revolting world of Farrelly Brothers' humour."
Since the film's release it has gone on to earn cult status amongst many clubbers across the UK and Ireland, largely for its soundtrack, humour and its references to rave culture.
References
External links
- Kevin & Perry on IMDb
- Kevin & Perry Go Large at Rotten Tomatoes
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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