Two British films: Huge, and Risen

Have watched two British films lately. 

Huge tells the story of two stand-up comedians who struggle to do successful double-acts, and it's totally misleading if you think it's a comedy. It's exactly what a comedy is not - it tells of the hardship of stand-up comedians, how the ones who can't quite make it struggle to survive by playing chicken in commercials, for example. The actors are Noel Clarke and Johnny Harris, who I haven't really heard of before (I know I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to British film stars), and I must admit I was quite bored during the film. I don't understand, first of all, why there has to be so many close-ups, especially when people have lengthy dialogues. The dialogues aren't particularly funny or thought-provoking either, and the facial expressions (or lack of) don't really convey anything... it just made me very dizzy. Thandie Newton was introduced by the director (it's a premiere sort of thing that we went to) as someone really great blah blah blah and she showed up, but she only has a cameo performance in the film, and may I say, not a particularly brilliant one at that. All in all, the film's not really that good... 

Also saw this documentary-like film about the Welsh boxer Howard Winstone. It's not exactly a documentary as it's just about the true-life tale of this featherweight boxer, but I guess the director is too eager to include all the landmark fights in Winstone's career that it becomes a bit tedious. Perhaps boxing fans would know which is which, but for the general audience having to watch so many similar fights again and again in detail can be quite tiresome. One doesn't really understand or see under what circumstances does Winstone win / lose a match; it all seems very random.

What the film probably lacks is drama - of course, to stay true to the real-life story of Winstone is important, but as a film you need to make it engaging and cinematic. That's not what's present in this production of five years - and I wonder why it takes such a long time!