How to Stop Being a Loser

How to stop being a loser tells the tale of Ian (a loser) and his quest to find a girlfriend. The film is heavily based on the American gross-out comedy genre and stars Simon Phillips in the lead role. Apart from an ill judged opening sequence (which oddly stars Richard E Grant) there are a variety of amusing scenes as Ian tries various methods to find his dream woman. That said, I warn you some scenes are extremely close to the bone and at points I would advise (as Moira Stewart would say) “if you don’t want to see the result look away now!”

Simon Philips gives a decent performance as the lead character and there are good supporting performances from Ian’s love mentor / guru and at times repugnant Ampersand played by Craig Conway. Colin Salmon also provides a good comedic role as Ian’s psychiatrist, although the stand-out performance comes from the gorgeous Stephanie Leonidas who plays is Ian’s loyal friend Patch. There was a truth to her acting and although with her skin a little too unblemished and her hair probably a little too shiny for a geek-ish character, gave a believable and genuine portrayal. The film also stars Jemma Atkinson, Martin Kemp and British hardman actor Billy Murray who is in a hilarious scene near the end of the film.

Overall the cast generally gave good performances and the premise (although seen before), is solid though more often than not the lines they were provided with were not and ultimately the banal dialogue lets the film down. Nevertheless this is a solid British comedy, but as I said (and I say this as a fan of gross-out comedies such as 40 year old virgin, superbad and American pie franchise) – not for the easily offended!