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Bill

Play trailer Poster for Bill 2015 1h 34m Adventure Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
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90% Tomatometer 21 Reviews 59% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
Hopeless lute player Bill Shakespeare leaves his home to follow his dream, explaining the "lost years" of Shakespeare.
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Bill

Critics Reviews

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Mark Kermode Observer (UK) 09/20/2015
4/5
Nicely balancing its historically literate gags with broad knockabout slapstick, Bill is a crowd-pleasing treat that should tickle audiences young and old alike. Go to Full Review
Kevin Maher The Times (UK) 09/18/2015
2/5
Don't let the two-star rating throw you completely, for there are some nice gags in Bill. Go to Full Review
Geoffrey Macnab Independent (UK) 09/18/2015
3/5
Richard Bracewell's Elizabethan-era comedy, starring the cast of Horrible Histories and Yonderland, is brisk, cheery fare that yields as many laughs as it does groans. Go to Full Review
Grant Watson Fiction Machine Jun 29
7/10
If the ultimate point of a comedy is to make its audience laugh, then Bill is certainly a big success. Go to Full Review
Charlotte Harrison Charlotte Sometimes Goes to the Movies 05/10/2021
Bill explores what may have happened during William Shakespeare's lost years upon arriving in London to hilarious effect. Go to Full Review
Tori Brazier One Room With A View 05/04/2019
4/5
This quintessentially British film has mixed together the best bits from inspirations like Blackadder and Monty Python with a cheeky, imaginative approach to history and added song-and-dance. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Rose D May 18 Very artfully and carefully written by people that have immense talent and intellect, but fills a niche that doesn't quite land. Throughout, it's about 25% too far in it's own comfort zone: the peril needs to be more perilous, the baddies need to be badder etc. It's so keen to not take itself too seriously, it stops the audience from doing so as well. I wanna see Ben Willbond play truly and sincerely bad, not a charming sweetheart who's pretending to be mean. See more David N @Nolan305 02/25/2024 Enjoyable family fun with the cast of Horrible Histories/Ghosts. The humour is along the same lines with some Monty Python undertones. A few laugh out loud parts but mainly smiles and chuckles along the way. See more 08/06/2022 Improves as it moves along. Ends up "feeling good." See more 09/11/2021 --ABSOLUTE AND UTTER BILGE--PROBABLY THE LEAST HUMOUROUS COMEDY(??) IN THE HISTORY OF CINEMA-- See more 06/21/2021 Not the best movie but the six idiots made me laugh all the same See more Ethan T 05/28/2021 Bill departs from Horrible Histories in several ways, despite the persistence of the comedic tone and the same core cast that lit up several seasons of the show. The most clear difference is that while Horrible Histories moved from period to period and sketch to sketch, this persists with the same setting for almost 90 minutes. The material, then, needs to be better for feature length as the luxuries of being able to quickly and easily move on from a dud must disappear. Unfortunately, Bill never inspires the raucous laughs of the best HH sketches. Its reliance on drama constantly falls flat, and while there are decent instances of slapstick, wordplay, and clever gags, one feels that the film could certainly have implanted more. Baynton as Shakespeare is a woeful main character devoid of humour and set on a predictable journey that never ranks among the story's strengths. The subplot involving the assassination attempt on Elizabeth I (played by the recently departed Helen McCrory) is more interesting. All in all, the funny parts are too sparse and mostly unoriginal to galvanise much excitement, and the random moments of drama not effective in creating a well-rounded experience. I would recommend sticking to the show, or leaving this to the kids if the show also has not aged well in my estimation. See more Read all reviews
Bill

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Movie Info

Synopsis Hopeless lute player Bill Shakespeare leaves his home to follow his dream, explaining the "lost years" of Shakespeare.
Director
Richard Bracewell
Producer
Richard Bracewell, Tony Bracewell, Alasdair Flind, Charles Steel
Screenwriter
Laurence Rickard, Ben Willbond
Production Co
BBC Films
Genre
Adventure, Comedy
Original Language
British English
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 18, 2016
Runtime
1h 34m
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