Fun with the Fab 5: The Beatles they ain't and they can't dance for toffee, but One Direction are so likeable their screen debut is a sure-fire hit
One Direction: This Is Us (PG)
Verdict: The only way is up
Rating: 3 Star Rating
Reviewers will be queuing up to badmouth the new One Direction movie. A chap in front of me actually booed the opening image, which was the logo of Syco, Simon Cowell’s company.
Fortunately for its commercial prospects, this pretty much defines the kind of movie that is critic-proof.
Fans of the biggest boyband in the world will need no encouragement to watch a rockumentary that brings them up close and more-or-less personal with their youthful heroes. The big surprise here is that even non-fans should find themselves warming to the five lads in the group.
Although they’ve risen more quickly than anyone to become a worldwide success, they’re nowhere near in the same league musically as The Beatles or even Take That. However, their vocal harmonies and showmanship have come on a lot since The X Factor, and whoever’s choosing their songs is doing a grand job.
Everyone’s favourite father figure Simon Cowell may have put them all together from the best-looking X Factor rejects, but he struck lucky with these boys, whose good humour, level-headedness and lack of pretension have turned them into the kind of global superstars they never could have been individually.
They don’t feel manufactured; they look like friends having an astonishingly good time. Towards the end, Louis sums up their appeal succinctly: ‘We’re normal guys, but terrible, terrible dancers.’
In a funny way, the band’s anarchic approach to choreography serves them well; they dance like teenagers having fun, and it’s infectious.