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Fisherman’s Friends 2: Fish Harder… sorry, Fisherman’s Friends 2: One and All, which feels like rather a mouthful and which doesn’t quite scan, but on watching this overlong film, I understood it’s a Cornish motto, and basically the same as The Three Musketeers’ “One for all and all for one”.
Now, I haven’t seen 2019’s Fisherman’s Friends, but I got the impression from the trailer that it’s hardly ‘The Usual Suspects‘ in terms of plotting, and most modern comedy sequels tend to be a carbon copy of the first one, so I didn’t want to watch the same film twice in quick succession. I’ve been caught out too many times like that.
Following the death of Jago (David Hayman), the sea-shanty band are looking for a new member to join them – enter Morgan Jenkins (Richard Harrington), and Jim (James Purefoy – Momentum) isn’t finding any of this easy to deal with, frequently talking to his Dad, leading to Hayman appearing onscreen at the appropriate times. I get this, as I would still frequently talk to my Dad after he died in 2015, and even today, there are still times when I’ll think about something, and imagine how he would react.
His Mum, Maggie (Maggie Steed), runs a B&B in which they both live, and coming to stay early on, is washed-up singer-songwriter Aubrey Flynn (singer-songwriter Imelda May). Jim and Aubrey get on like two peas in completely different pods, so you can imagine how things will go from there.
However, accompanying the singing is a plot which has surface-level detail at best. They’re about to put out a second album, which Universal Music’s Leah Jordan (Jade Anouka) is trying to help promote, while boss Jez Chandra (Ramon Tikaram) is indifferent about them, during which Jim’s depression-led drinking doesn’t help matters and might just derail the whole project.
Additionally, for any jokes, you can see them coming a mile off, such as when Leadville Trebilcock (Dave Johns) dials in to a record company conference from his home phone, learns he’s first to join, then puts the handset to the side while he struggles to pay a visit to the lavatory, given his age. By the time nature has eventually taken its course, everyone else has since joined the meeting, and have heard his eventual success loud and clear. There was a lot of laughter in the audience, but I like jokes to surprise me, and there’s not too much of that.
However, I quite enjoyed the ‘media training’ session led by Petra (Fiona Button), where the politically incorrect Leadville is shown the error of his ways, even if the entire group experience comes across like an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
Overall, Fisherman’s Friends 2: One and All is too long, and with at least one or two unnecessary subplots that could easily be trimmed out – for example, one being where Jim’s mum has had an accident and is in need of assistance, and he now thinks that since his Dad has passed away, his Mum might also.
And while I know the original band ended up at the Pyramid Stage in Glastonbury in 2011, they attempt to recreate this here with long shots of the band on stage, and bad CGI adding the cast’s faces to the screens by the side. Any close-up shots of the band, only show a handful of audience members. Okay, so it’s not going to be the done thing to take up time on a busy weekend to shoot one scene from a film at the REAL Glastonbury, as that could take up the entire afternoon, but it still adds to the feel of this whole production that it’s rather half-assed.
As a couple of asides, the screening I saw had subtitles, which actually helped, because – and I don’t know if this is always the case or just on the screening I saw – the dialogue was rather muffled at times.
Also, there’s a very brief close-up on a boat labelled the Port Isaac Shuttle Service, the initials in capitals to highlight “PISS”. According to Latitude 50, there is a service by that name, but given that it’s for getting about the village, it sounds more like a road-based one rather than sea.
Fisherman’s Friends 2: One and All is in cinemas now. It’s not yet available to pre-order, but you can still buy the first film on Blu-ray, and DVD.
You can also buy the new film’s soundtrack on CD and pre-order the Vinyl.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 112 minutes
Release date: August 19th 2022
Studio: Entertainment Film
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Format: 2.35:1
Rating: 4/10
Directors: Meg Leonard, Nick Moorcroft
Producer: James Spring
Screenplay: Directors: Meg Leonard, Nick Moorcroft, Piers Ashworth
Music: Rupert Christie
Cast:
Jim: James Purefoy
Rowan: Sam Swainsbury
Leadville Trebilcock: Dave Johns
Aubrey Flynn: Imelda May
Leah Jordan: Jade Anouka
Morgan Jenkins: Richard Harrington
Jez Chandra: Ramon Tikaram
Jago: David Hayman
Cadan: Kevin Patrick McGarry
Meryn: Rory Wilton
Jowan: Jim Main
Lowen: Michael Scott
Becky: Libby Walker
Gareth: Joshua McGuire
Reporter: Rachel Leonard
Maggie: Maggie Steed
Tamsyn: Meadow Nobrega
Sally: Mae Voogd
Kenwyn: Frida Voogd
Petra: Fiona Button
Himself: Chris Evans
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.