Snooker Man

A man working as a celebrity lookalike competes in the miniature snooker world championship.

Johnny ''Snooker Man'' Bonnar (Hayles) works for the UK's lowest rated lookalike agency, where he is considered to be the country's 17th rated lookalike to English snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan. Johnny has another passion: miniature snooker. And he believes the time has come to prove to the world that he is the best snooker player in the world.

Shot as a mockumentary, this intriguing feature tells the story of Johnny, going through his experiences working as a lookalike and impersonator and as an actor, before moving on to his journey in the miniature snooker championship. The film has him being interviewed, describing his work experiences and filmed as he plays snooker. Other interviewees include actress Maggie (Gregory), with whom Johnny has co-starred in several films and filmmaker Barry Keane (Sheridan), who sent a lookalike of himself to be interviewed as initially he did not wish to take part in the documentary. Other characters include Wolfgang (Amalia), a professional miniature snooker player and Johnny's rival and a Daniel Craig lookalike named Peter Dobson (Christopher Sherwood). There are also clips from films Johnny has starred in, that include The Girl With Two Masks and To Kill a Princess, both of which were directed by Casserly.

The first part of this film is basically an insight into the world of celebrity lookalikes and filmmaking and then it is pretty much about snooker. Listening to the interviewees as they talk about their experiences is quite interesting and significant credit goes to Sherwood as he re-enacts famous James Bond movie scenes starring Craig.

Speaking of Bond, the Bond-inspired title sequence is rather entertaining due to the creativity and the song that accompanies it by Nekane. The brief animation sequences throughout the film also deserve credit.

This is a mockumentary that relies primarily on the amusing performances in order to have an effect and it is when it is about lookalikes and filmmaking that it is at its finest. On the minus side, when things are about snooker, viewers who do not have a particular interest in that cue sport might find themselves losing interest.