British comedy and humors are often hard to comprehend for Americans. But this one has some heart-warming effects that appeal to all people. Of course, it has lots of nudity like a good British film would have. In addition, it has the techiness of time stoppage, Kung Fu humor, and the single-mindedness of testosterone-charged men, and your typical Dilbert humor with a n overbearing boss and dumb coworkers.
Ben, the central character, couldn’t sleep after being dumped by his girl friend. He decided to take advantage of the extra 8 hours and went to work in a supermarket. His ability to stop time allowed him to spend lots of time sketching the time-frozen, beautiful girls – customers and the co-worker, Sharon, who he had a crush for. Wouldn’t it be nice if you can put your surrounding environment in pause and catch up with whatever you want to do?
The movie flashed back to Ben’s childhood on how he relationship to girls/women grew. Of course, he had a childhood friend who acted out the rudeness toward women that often ended up with drinks being poured over his face.
Things happened around the supermarket provided a few laughs: the soccer game where the boss ended up with a stiff neck and bloody nose, the Kung Fu kid co-worker who applied Kung Fu to his cleaning chores, and co-workers who gazed at gifted woman customers and played sexually-explicit pranks.
A misunderstanding at the birthday party of his boss caused a rift between Ben and his new girlfriend, who dreamed of traveling and seeing the world. But they made up after Ben became successful with his arts, thanks to the prank played on him by his co-worker.
I like the film technology of freezing the scene where everything is practically at standstill except for the central character who can roam freely – very nicely done; I didn’t see anyone move an inch – must be done by computer graphics. The story line is a bit out there (fantastic) but manages to be believable like a good Santa or Cinderella movie.