Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger – a 'thin' yet 'heart-warming' sequel
The second instalment of a local man setting up a community bank sees Rory Kinnear return

"You don't often hear the phrases 'feel-good' and 'Financial Conduct Authority' in the same sentence," said John Nugent in Empire. "But 2023's 'Bank of Dave' was as feel-good as they come, telling the 'true-ish' story of David Fishwick (played by Rory Kinnear), a businessman and Burnley bloke who defied the odds and snooty financial regulators to open a charitable community bank for his fellow Lancastrians."
A "proper heart-warming Brit-com in the classical mould", it became a surprise hit on Netflix – and now, "Dave is back".
'Force of feel-goodery'
The action picks up two years on from where the last film left off, with Dave – "now a minor celebrity" – taking on predatory payday-loan firms on behalf of the good people of Burnley.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"As with the first film, Piers Ashworth's script hammers its well-meaning message home with the subtlety of a Lancashire hotpot to the face", but "by God, it remains a powerful force of feel-goodery, powered in large part by the almighty piston of Rory Kinnear's gregarious, charismatic performance".
'Script is dire'
I'm afraid I found this sequel "a bit thin and crap", said Robbie Collin in The Telegraph. It feels "about as tethered to reality as 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts'"; and the script is dire. Dave's wife tells him: "You're an ordinary bloke standing up against corruption, standing up for ordinary people who don't have lawyers and who don't have a voice!"
The film sticks to the formula that made the original work, said James Mottram in Radio Times.
And while it does "stretch credulity", underlying it is "a very serious topic, smartly presented in a way that never feels too forced".
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
UN votes to end Lebanon peacekeeping mission
Speed Read The Trump administration considers the UN's Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to be a 'waste of money'
-
RFK Jr. names new CDC head as staff revolt
Speed Read Kennedy installed his deputy, Jim O'Neill, as acting CDC director
-
'America's universities desperately need a reset'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Millet: Life on the Land – an 'absorbing' exhibition
The Week Recommends Free exhibition at the National Gallery showcases the French artist's moving paintings of rural life
-
Thomasina Miers picks her favourite books
The Week Recommends The food writer shares works by Arundhati Roy, Claire Keegan and Charles Dickens
-
6 laid-back homes for surfers
Feature Featuring a home near a world-renowned surf spot in Hawaii and a house built to withstand the elements in South Carolina
-
Twelfth Night or What You Will: a 'riotous' late-summer jamboree
The Week Recommends Robin Belfield's 'carnivalesque' new staging at Shakespeare's Globe is 'joyfully tongue-in-cheek'
-
Hostage: Netflix's 'fun, fast and brash potboiler'
The Week Recommends Suranne Jones is 'relentlessly defiant' as prime minister Abigail Dalton
-
Music reviews: Chance the Rapper, Cass McCombs, and Molly Tuttle
Feature "Star Line," "Interior Live Oak," and "So Long Little Miss Sunshine"
-
Film reviews: Eden and Honey Don't!
Feature Seekers of a new utopia spiral into savagery and a queer private eye prowls a high-desert town
-
Critics' choice: Three chefs fulfilling their ambitions
Feature Kwame Onwuachi's grand second act, Travis Lett makes a comeback, and Jeff Watson's new Korean restaurant