Skip over navigation

Sofa Cinema

Gifts - NEW  |   Help   |   Sign in

Leon the Pig Farmer (1992) Certificate 15

Leon the Pig Farmer
Play trailer

Sign up

Rated 2.5 stars
Average rating
(54%)
 
Starring: Connie Booth | Brian Glover | Mark Frankel | Janet Suzman | Gina Bellman | Maryam d'Abo | David De Keyser
Director: Gary Sinyor, Vadim Jean
Run time: 99 mins
Genres: Comedy
Languages: English
Hearing-impaired: English
Released: July 15, 2002

Three classic cult comedies bound up in one box.
WILT:
The popular comedy duo Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith star in this comedy based on the Tom Sharpe novel. Henry Wilt (Jones) is a lecturer who is under the thumb of his domineering wife. Wilt lands himself in hot water when he makes a fool of himself at a party with an inflatable doll, which he later buries on a building site. Unfortunately, Wilt's wife has also gone missing and the local police--led by Inspector Flint (Smith)--are convinced that it was a real body that Wilt was hiding.
PERSONAL SERVICES:
A seemingly conservative woman and her clientele of kinky connoisseurs become daily tabloid sensations when it's discovered that her suburban brothel caters to some of Great Britain's elite. Members of Parliament, diplomats, judges, bankers, and even men of the cloth are all caught with their pants down in England's scandal of the decade.
LEON TH EPIG FARMER:
Leon (Mark Frankel), a young Jewish Londoner, quits his job at an uncouth real estate firm and begins to work part-time for his mother's catering company. On a delivery to a local sperm bank, he discovers that he is the product of a botched artificial insemination and his father's sperm was confused with that of a northern pig farmer. His family is disconsolate over the news, so Leon decides to go up to Yorkshire to meet his biological dad. The farmer and his wife are thrilled to learn that they have a son; they quickly make an effort to integrate his Jewish culture with their own, learning certain key Yiddish expressions and how to cook kosher food. Even so, Leon does not take easily to farm life. When he mistakenly injects sheep semen into a pig, however, Leon creates a stir by creating what might be the first ever kosher pig. He escapes with the animal to London, where both of his families meet and exchange "cultural dialogue." (Not to be confused with LEON, THE PROFESSIONAL.)

Rating of 3 stars out of 5
Radio Times

As a prime piece of crackling, this low-budget British comedy from Vadim Jean and Gary Sinyor isn't as hilarious as it thinks it is (arguably not as funny as that other porker-story, Babe). But, nevertheless, the story of a Jewish estate agent (Mark Frankel) discovering — shock! horror! — that his real father is a Yorkshire pig-breeder does have flashes of comic illumination to light up religious bigotry. The fantasy of a kosher pig is laboured, but there's still plenty of crisped flesh worth flossing for, especially Brian Glover as the ee-bah-goom breeder.

Highest rated reviews

2 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 3.0 stars
Early Appearance by John Molloy

Carl Anderson from UK, 9th June, 2007

A fleeting first - and last - appearance on the silver screen by John Molloy in the lift scene is the most compelling reason to rent this film.

Read all highest rated reviews

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 2.0 stars
Fair to Middling

Jo Smith from Watford, England, 3rd September, 2004

It's good, but not as good as I remember. With the cynicsm age brings with it, I found the acting a little bit hammy. But it's a fun story line - a good one for a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Read all highest rated reviews

Rated 1.0 stars
Surreal, but it just got a bit silly..

PCambridge from from Cambridge, 4th June, 2009

I thought I was going to like this film for the first 20-30 minutes, but Leon just continued to be whiney, and the comedy got more and more surreal, without having any characters that were at all sympathetic. The situations with the Jewish family trying to be 'English' and the Yorkshire family trying to be Jewish, just annoyed me by being a load of stereotypes. That was the point of course, and others might find it funny - just didn't appeal to me.. We watched the whole film, but that was more because we got about 2 thirds through before we realised how pants it was.

Read all highest rated reviews

Rated 2.0 stars
Leon the Pig farmer

Jenkins from , 18th April, 2009

Really enjoyed seeing this again. Well done to the two writers who made this for £160,000. Brian Glover is excellent among the rest of the Brits.

Read all highest rated reviews

Most recent reviews

Rated 1.0 stars
Dated Film

A Customer from Beckenham, 25th January, 2009

Found the film dated and slow aced and boring

Read all recent reviews