Horrible Histories Rotten Romans REVIEWS: Is movie good? What’s the Rotten Tomatoes score?

The film has landed in UK cinemas today with an impressive cast – including Kim Cattrall, Nick Frost, Kate Nash, Warwick Davis, Rupert Graves, Sanjeev Bhaskar and Lee Mack.

An adaptation from the iconic Horrible Histories stories by author Terry Deary, it’s about a Roman teenager who upsets Emperor Nero and sent to Britain.

Reviews are reasonably positive, with a 75% score currently listed on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

Contributing to that score is a slew of three-star reviews from the British press, with occasional two-star and four-star verdict.

“Destined to form an idle televisual backdrop while families one day slip into a Yuletide coma, it ain’t horrible, but it ain’t historic, either,” said the Telegraph in one of the more negative reviews (two stars).

The Daily Mirror, in a three-star write-up, called it an “amiable lightweight romp”, while the Guardian, also giving three stars, said “there’s a fair bit of fun to be had”.

RTE gave three stars, saying: “Good educational fun. Not quite a high V, more of a thumbs up from Hibernia. We give it III out of V.”

Metro gave two, reasoning: “There are hints of what this might have been: a Life Of Brian for kiddies.

“Instead, it’s more like a mediocre Carry On movie where every punchline is poo, rather than sex.”

HeyUGuys gave four stars. “Horrible Histories makes the transition to the big screen with a spring in its step and a beaming smile on its face,” they reasoned.

Shadows On The Wall issued three out of five, writing: “Aside from some dull sequences that get bogged down in exposition, scenes are jam-packed with random bits of humour, most of which hit the target.”

And Movies4Kids gave two stars, posting: “The only giggles here are provided by Lee Mack as a Roman officer dreaming of home, and a daft ‘Farticus’ joke, as everything else falls very flat…”

Cattrall recently spoke out on her involvement, telling the Evening Standard she is “making choices right now about doing things that really make me laugh”.

Pointing to one gag in the film, she said: “I come back from a holiday and I’m showing pictures of my vacation and they’re all chiselled out on a tablet. That crossover of very ancient and very ‘now’ was very clever.

“What I really loved about this experience was that I felt that I could do things and then our director, Dom [Brigstocke] would look at it and say, ‘Well, go with that’.”

Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans is out now.