Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga Review: 4 Ups & 6 Downs

1. The Forced, Unconvincing Romance

Far more groan-worthy than the generic underdog narrative is the inevitable romantic subplot, in which audiences are asked to buy into a highly improbable relationship between Ferrell and McAdams' characters.

As much as studios and creators think that audiences need a splash of romance in order to become invested in characters and stories, it is nothing more than dead weight here - obscene, unconvincing bloat which contributes significantly to that overbaked runtime.

It's made clear early on that McAdams' Sigrit pines for an oblivious Lars, and of course, other potential lovers are thrown into the mix to complicate things, but we all know exactly where it's eventually going, and it gets there as tediously as possible.

Given the film's utter lack of heart and the relatively disinteresting nature of its central characters, this slushy, sentimental aside lands with a loud thud.

So, this isn't one of Ferrell's better comedies, then. But it's also not Holmes and Watson-bad, so here's what it gets right...