Make That Movie review: a very silly, very funny new comedy

In Australia, Sam Campbell is not (yet) a household name. Which isn’t all that surprising, as for the last few years the Queensland-born comedian’s been based in the UK. There, he’s won the UK version of Taskmaster, was runner-up in this year’s LOL: Last One Laughing UK, collected a string of awards for his stand-up, and become a regular on a range of panel shows.

Before he relocated overseas, his big Australian television credit was an appearance on The Hundred with Andy Lee. This year his appearances have been a bit more high profile: he’s currently Guy Montgomery’s assistant on this year’s season of Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee, and now that HBO Max have picked up his Channel 4 sitcom Make That Movie, he’s about to go … well, not quite mainstream, but streaming-mainstream. Mainstreaming?

A crack team of filmmakers

Sam Campbell (played by Sam Campbell) is a former big time movie director (credits include The Funny Wedding) who is now running a reality show – the show we’re watching – where he travels the UK to find people with an idea for a movie, which he and his crack team will then make.

Episode one of Make That Movie sees the crew bringing to life the dream of a movie about a man and a woman who turn into snakes, but only one at a time – so when one’s a snake the other is not, and vice versa. That’s not a lot to go on, even after the request to make the woman sexy is thrown in, but fortunately Campbell and his team aren’t short of ideas: how do you feel about a museum heist movie where the leads are dressed like they’re out of The Matrix?

Future film ideas include ‘a group of retirees go inside the computer to defeat all the online scammers’, which results in a Tron-knockoff that’s also a musical; the romantic tale of a teacher who relives her youth and gets to go to the prom with the love of her life (is it the 3000-year-old ‘bog man’ she’s an expert in?); and a heartwarming tale of a ‘forest friend’ who helps a local football team win a match… only it turns out the forest friend is a copyrighted character and the owner doesn’t want to do movies after the last one wasn’t quite English enough.

Skewering the screen industry

Much like the real film world, there’s a lot of nepotism and product placement in Make That Movie. Also like the real film world, everyone is a bit weird. Sullen sound engineer Pat (Helen Bauer) is a dodgy type who’s constantly involved in scams and cons, and spare wheel Sebastian (Australia’s own Aaron Chen) is only around because his millionaire parents invested in the show, so he’s stuck doing everything from stunt co-ordinator to puppeteer.

The sweet and committed Jess (Lara Ricote) also has a lot of family issues. Cinematographer Winnie (David Hargreaves) has something stuck on his forehead, and also gets into a bare-chested chain fight in an old folks home. As for Sam, he’s fully committed to his filmmaking vision – just don’t ask him to appear in front of the camera after what happened with Funny Wedding 2: The Funnymoon.

There is a lot going on here and a lot of it is pretty silly. Every episode in Make That Movie operates in its own world, with characters ranging from the somewhat plausible to the fully unhinged. There are plenty of jokes at the expense of the reality format – right down to the occasional look to camera – but there are also a lot of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it fake movie posters and ads popping up throughout.

Very silly and surreal commedy

The plotting is surprisingly rigorous, with the stories coming together in ways you might not see coming while still providing character-based comedy, surreal moments and takedowns of movie cliches. (The truism ‘we have to steer clear of CGI – it takes you out of the story’ is used as an excuse to hire a bucket full of live snakes that promptly attack Sebastian.) And sometimes there’s just a puppet ordering a gang of soccer thugs to bash a referee.

Campbell is the heart of the show. His character isn’t the most out-there, but he can get big laughs even when going small. When he says to a person who’s supplied a seemingly wholesome film concept, ‘We’ll whip up as many X-rated sexual penetration fuck moments as we can’, the line itself is funny – but it’s the way he squeezes his eyes shut at ‘fuck’ that really makes it work.

Each episode is a tight 22-odd minutes and it’s impressive just how much comedy is packed into each instalment. There’s enough consistency with the characters to build some running jokes, while each setting is so different from the next that the whole thing never feels stale or repeats itself. If you want a sitcom that’ll make you laugh again and again (and again), Make That Movie is not to be missed.

Though fair warning, Sebastian’s chatbot Superbreast – a computer generated bald woman with one giant breast – is not something you’ll forget in a hurry.

Make That Movie premieres 29 May on HBO Max.

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