"Tea With Mousillini", Dorky film alert -- Danger -- Dorky film alert.

Okay, so there were British people in Italy when World War II broke out. Maybe that would be an interesting story. Okay, so Cher can act a little, Lily Tomlin still has talent, and I really like Judi Dench. All things considered there might have been a good movie with all these ingredients. It sure didn't work this time! The movie seemed to have no focus. Perhaps, if it there had been just one main character, and then maybe develope a plot -- I might have understood the movie. If there had been some kind of theme or purpose to the story, I might have been able to enjoy it. Alas, such was not to be. The movie meanders from scene to scene, aimlessly telling an uninteresting story with a boring beginning, a muddled middle and an anti-climatic ending. The little kid grew up (predictable). The war ended (a matter of historical record). The old women who seemed silly, and unmotivated survived being terribly inconvenienced by fascism. A pitiful movie like this makes us appreciate the really good movies we see.

With a little luck this film was bad enough that we won't have to suffer through this becoming a genre. I don't think I could stand "Midnight snack with Togo", or "Sunday Morning Brunch With Hitler".

On the scale of 0-255 (zero being "Spawn" and 255 being "Apocalypse Now") "Tea With Mousillini" gets a 25. It has Judi Dench in it, and Lily Tomlin does have some talent so it never actually bottoms out to a zero, then again I wouldn't advocate anyone watching the movie for pleasure either.