Walk Like a Panther, the forgotten British comedy starring Stephen Graham, is airing on TV tonight.
The film sees Graham portray Mark Bolton, the son of a former wrestler known as Bulldog (Dave Johns). After their local pub, The Half Nelson, is threatened with closure, Mark and Bulldog enlist the latter’s colleagues from the 1980s to save the beloved establishment.
Boasting a stacked supporting cast of British talent including Jason Flemyng and Jill Halfpenny, the comedy made little impression upon its original release in 2018, grossing only £280,000 worldwide (via Box Office Mojo).
If you missed Walk Like a Panther upon its previous run, then Channel 4 has you covered for the time being, with the film set to air at 1am on Thursday (12 June). Even if you can’t catch it in the early hours, the broadcaster will likely add it to their streaming platform.
Written and directed by Dan Cadan, Walk Like a Panther was panned by critics upon its theatrical release, with the film currently possessing a meagre approval rating of just 8% on Rotten Tomatoes from 12 reviews.
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“Such ridiculousness should be funny, but it’s not, possibly because the world it’s lampooning was so laughable in the first place,” wrote The Times, while The Daily Telegraph described the comedy as “toe-curling”.
The Guardian praised Graham’s “likeable” performance despite opining that there “aren’t enough laughs”, with The Independent echoing these sentiments as they said the film is “never as funny as it needs to be”.
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Cultured Vultures was more positive, however, saying that the “stellar” and “high quality” cast made the film “impossible not to like” despite its “predictability”. The publication also praised Johns’s performance as the “heart of the film”, declaring it “charming”.
While Walk Like a Panther may not be one of the more notable works in Graham’s career, the actor recently landed a role in an as-yet-untitled detective series based on the Joona Linna novels by Lars Kepler.
Walk Like a Panther airs at 1am on Channel 4.
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Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media. His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.
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