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Happy New Year, Colin Burstead comes from Ben Wheatley who usually provides us rather off-the-wall movies such as Free Fire, Sightseers and A Field In England, so there’s always something going on, it’s almost always entertaining, and they’re pretty brief.
This latest one, which was shown at the London Film Festival and now is only just getting its first showing outside of that, on BBC2, without even going to Blu-ray or DVD first.
Colin (Neil Maskell) is using Lord Richard’s (Richard Glover) huge mansion to bring the whole family together for New Year’s Eve, so break out the handheld cameras and film the characters as they go about their business.
Colin feels pressurised into lending his father, Gordon (Bill Patterson), some money, Bertie (Charles Dance) has a terminal illness while wanting to show his family that he now dresses as a woman, and Sham (Asim Chaudhry) is very unwelcome for reasons which will become apparent.
There’s various other family situations coming up, but… it’s just people talking and/or shouting in a random, disconnected fashion and… for a Ben Wheatley film, I was so disappointed since this is… how can I put it… boring.
Happy New Year, Colin Burstead isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but can be seen on the BBC iPlayer for the next 30 days.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 95 minutes
Studio: BBC Films
Year: 2018
Format: 2.39:1
Rating: 2/10
Director: Ben Wheatley
Producer: Andrew Starke
Screenplay: Ben Wheatley
Music: Clint Mansell
Cast:
Colin: Neil Maskell
Paula: Sarah Baxendale
Maya: Sudha Bhuchar
Sham: Asim Chaudhry
Ed: Joe Cole
Bertie: Charles Dance
Val: Sura Dohnke
Nikhil: Vincent Ebrahim
Jimmy: Peter Ferdinando
Lord Richard: Richard Glover
Hannah: Alexandra Maria Lara
Sandy: Doon Mackichan
Lainey: Sinead Matthews
Warren: Mark Monero
Gordon: Bill Paterson
David: Sam Riley
Gini: Hayley Squires
Fran: Nicole Nettleingham
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.