Ìý User Rating 
Smart, witty tales of growing up - about that attractively comic moment when adulthood appears on the horizon but childhood still exerts a strong pull - often come from the States, the products of well-fashioned scripts. It is, then, good to report that "The Jolly Boys' Last Stand" - British to its core - is easily in the same league.This highly accomplished debut from writer/director Christopher Payne is the story of a group of friends - lads to a man - who cherish those rituals which revolve around childish antics and free-flowing booze. Like all youngsters of that age, they regard their behaviour as a switched-on expression of freedom. Until, that is, Spider (Andy Serkis) - the self-appointed 'El Presidente' of the gang - twigs that he's growing up and, as his tiny mind begins to entertain thoughts of job promotion and marriage, he realises that this new direction is actually rather attractive. His clumsy and pretentious attempts at organising lunch parties (to impress his new boss), wearing a blazer and playing golf are both amusing and pointed. All this and more is captured on camcorder by his best friend Des (Milo Twomey) who would rather his video capture the essence of his chums than simply be a pre-wedding celebratory souvenir of Spider's life and times.
And so the boorish, sex-centred egotist, the dweeb who gives himself to God and the yob turned yoga-worshipper all appear on Des' recording, providing three of many moments that Payne includes as a means of perceptively spoofing the agony and silliness of growing up. There is nothing here that doesn't have the authentic tang of reality: the director's ability to pull completely natural, unforced performances from a cast of unknowns helps considerably, as does his talent for being brief (and thus more powerful) with his witty insights, never once being tempted to milk the best ones. Hilarious.
