LONDON - Critics say a new made-for-TV, Wills-and-Kate movie is so bad it may end up being a cult classic.
"William and Kate: The Movie" treats the Windsor dynasty as daytime soap opera. The low-budget, rushed-to-completion movie is getting plenty of attention in Britain, for all the wrong reasons.
"So bad it's awful, toe-curlingly, teeth-furringly, pillow-bitingly ghastly," was the verdict Friday in The Guardian newspaper, which concluded the flick was probably destined to be a smash.
The movie chronicles the university romance of Prince William and Kate Middleton, who in real life met and fell in love while studying art history at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Airing in Britain and the United States before the April 29 royal wedding in London, it was directed by Mark Rosman and produced in the five months since the couple announced their engagement last November.
Critics have not been impressed with Rosman's ability to capture the nuances of Britain's eccentric, distinctive royal family.
The Guardian pointed out that the movie was shot entirely in the Los Angeles area, with poorly done British accents, countryside scenes that looked like California instead of Britain, and London buses driving, incorrectly, on the right side of the street. The acting was described as wooden or worse.
But that won't stop if from debuting in the United States on Lifetime on April 18 and in Britain on Channel Five on April 24. After that, the movie is to be sold as a DVD, possibly finding a niche among the legions of royal wedding memorabilia collectors.
