I picked this up on DVD for two pounds at a secondhand stall a couple of years back, and then upgraded to the blu-ray version when it was three quid in HMV recently. Still, I hadn’t actually watched it until now. I bought it (twice), really because people made such a big deal out of how great it supposedly was—according to Wikipedia, Total Film readers named it the third best comedy ever in 2000 and the 13th greatest British film in 2004. It also landed at number 38 on Channel 4’s 100 Greatest Films list in 2001, was voted second-best British film of the last 25 years by an Observer poll of filmmakers and critics in 2009, and made it to number 118 on Empire magazine's The 500 Greatest Films of All Time in 2008. Anyway, so far this film has cost me five pounds. I’m giving it a 2/10, and that’s being nice about it. What a load of garbage! "Third greatest comedy"?!? There's absolutely no way I would ever consider it a comedy, by any standard. It wasn't even trying to be funny; I didn't realize it was attempting humor at all. The only amusing thing about the movie was how anyone could have thought it was worthwhile. Basically: It’s set in the late sixties, and two upper-class actors (the titular Withnail and his companion, played reasonably well by Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann, both of whom are quite posh), living in squalor like a pair of simpletons—they don't seem to know how to use basic things, like the kitchen sink—decide they need a break in the countryside at a cottage belonging to Withnail’s gay uncle. They go, it rains constantly, and they fail to get along with the locals simply because they are such unpleasant idiots. Then the uncle shows up and spends the rest of the film creepily pursuing Paul McGann's unnamed character. They return home, tolerate a drug dealer and his friend who have broken into their house and moved in, “I” gets an acting job offer and leaves. That’s it. Complete rubbish. Actually, I'm making it sound better than it is; reading this back, it sounds vaguely like a particularly bad episode of Bottom played seriously instead of for laughs. While there are hints of the Rick/Rich character that Rik Mayall has portrayed throughout his career in Richard E. Grant’s performance, Withnail & I isn’t even as good as a weak Bottom episode—and I didn't even care for Bottom much to begin with.

Source on TMDB