"London Betty" Review - Written by Anthony Thurber

London Betty
Year: 2009
Director: Thomas Edward Seymour
Stars: Nicole Lewis, Thomas Edward Seymour, Daniel Von Bargen
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Hale Manor Productions
Running Time: 80 Mins



“London Betty’ is the latest film from one of the co-directors of the “Bikini Bloodbath” series, Thomas Edward Seymour.

The film is about a woman from England, who moves into a small town in America to work for a local newspaper. Not liking the assignments that she’s given, she decides to look for a good story. She begins to find out that the town’s mayor is involved in illegal activity. While investigating the mayor, she becomes involved with Billy, a small time socially dysfunctional thief and his two associates. Soon, the mayor hatches a plan and kidnaps Betty and her pet bunny. Now, it’s up to Billy and his associates to free Betty and stop the mayor’s corruption. This will lead to some fun and debauchery in this hilarious comedy.

“London Betty” is a funny laugh out loud riot. Director Thomas Edward Seymour, who co-directed the two previous “Bikini Bloodbath” films, really does a great job with his direction here, as this is more of a straight forward comedy than those films, which were also good. He’s able to focus more on the story and the timing of the comedic action, which makes his direction very good and funny. He really did a great job with all of the characters, as they came off as funny. It helped keep my interest, as the characters come off as humorous and entertaining. Seymour also does a good job, not overkilling the narration, as that part was perfectly placed and used properly. It wasn’t annoying or the fact that Clint Howard narration wasn’t distracting. Also, another thing that makes this film very good is the acting. Everyone including Seymour, who plays a major part here, seems to be having fun, which made his or her character even funnier from what was written. It just that these characters were very fun to watch. You need to bring personality to these characters if you want your comedy to be entertaining.

Seymour’s screenplay was also very good, as this felt like an old-school comedy. It’s a more mature screenplay than in the “Bikini Bloodbath" series. The jokes and comedic action made this film very fun to watch. One of the things he does to make this story very funny is to have characters that were written well and would make the audience be invested in them. Seymour writes them in a way that every time when they appeared onscreen, you managed to laugh out loud. Whether it's the two main characters, the egotistic mayor, the whinny and wimpy bodyguards, or the karate master, I was able to get a good laugh in. The reason for that was the characters were given personalities that made them enjoyable to watch. The screenplay is more disciplined than in his previous films. He develops subplots like the relationship that his character that he plays in the film has with his two friends and the situation that the title character has to adjust to new country and the changes that come along with it.

“London Betty” is very funny and charming crime caper that guarantees that you’ll have a fun time.

Review Rating: Four Stars