.

I’m not proud of this, it was a bit of a smug schtick, but when I was at university I occasionally did this thing where I’d get someone to name a movie, any movie, and I’d name the central cast. I’m sorry but I was twenty and eager to impress. In my thirties I’d do the same thing with the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game. Now the names don’t immediately come to me as easily as they used to so the time for this kind of thing has passed, although I have killed time on long car journeys with my daughters trying to think of an established Hollywood actor that hasn’t at some point worked with someone in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Anyway, back then I was good at it. My knowledge of films was such that it was rare that I didn’t know the details of one that was mentioned by one of my peers (It has to be said that I didn’t know much about foreign language cinema back then but that’s okay because neither did my friends). Then one day my college roommate caught me out by asking me to name the actors in a little known movie called Bernard and the Genie.

Ever since this point 1991’s Bernard and the Genie (starring Lenny Henry, Alan Cumming and Rowan Atkinson – I can tell you that now) has been personally synonymous with the idea of obscure movies. Not many people had heard of it then, and even fewer know it now. (I of course immediately sought it out, frustrated by the perceived gap in my knowledge. It turns out it was a TV movie so I was needlessly beating myself up.)

So it was that I was amused to discover that the new Richard Curtis film, that has just dropped on Sky and Now TV, is a Bernard and the Genie remake. Curtis actually wrote the original as well yet, natch, it’s not one that that gets talked about alongside Four Weddings, Notting Hill and Love Actually.

If the plan was to bring this story to the forefront of cinematic consciousness though, I’m not sure that’s going to pan out. It’s a sweet tale of a down on his luck Brit who tries to turn his life around following a chance encounter with the titular wish granting djinn, but then as now it is a slight narrative largely carried by an engaging cast (this time Melissa McCarthy, Paapa Essiedu and a returning Alan Cumming now in the Atkinson part). It is notable that once again it has failed to make it in theatres and as before I doubt it will stay long in the memory of those who see it.

This doesn’t mean that it isn’t pleasant enough while you’re watching it though. It has some nice jokes, courtesy of a rewritten script and the thankful exorcism of dated lines about Hollywood actresses underwear – although there is a runnng joke about Tom Cruise that is more chaste but equally underwritten. McCarthy is doing her usual thing which after The Little Mermaid, Nine Perfect Strangers and Can You Ever Forgive Me?, isn’t quite her usual thing anymore – which helps. The real draw is Essiedu who gives a nice twist on Curtis’ quirky Englishman.

The film also retains its Christmas setting which doesn’t do it any harm. This is the kind of easy viewing that people go for at this time of the year.

This certainly isn’t the best work of anyone involved, Curtis especially (his involvement in the first version was something else I didn’t know about it). It’s okay for ninety minutes though if not a second longer.

Still, I’ve seen it. Test me.