Film Reviews by Dr Waerdnotte

Many Almodovar movies have a strong element of melodrama, and recently with Julieta and Parallel Mothers he seems to have settled into an easy going Mediterranean soap style. Parallel Mothers is fairly entertaining and has all the looks of a 21st century Almodovar movie, but it is nothing to get excited about. A pleasant enough way to pass a couple of hours.

Firstly, Whilst watching this and the other DVDs, I got the impression that, like Mick Jagger (My Life As A Rolling Stone), McCartney, Starkey and Ono had taken this opportunity to take control of their own narrative, and present a more balanced reading of the last days of the Beatles. Both McCartney and Ono come out of this looking a lot better than contemporary readings of their role in the demise of The Beatles would have us believe.

In this re-telling of the Beatles Let it Be project Jackson has created a sprawling opus which for me first and foremost reflects the often tedious hours spent noodling around, drinking tea and having mundane conversations, all of which would generally be edited out of a music documentary. However, with Get Back, Jackson gives a warts and all edit that for me is often tedious and occasionally enlightening. What did I take from this? Well, it has been well documented that from as far back as Revolver, McCartney had been trying to keep the band together and here you see the other three's boredom writ large. Lennon, Harrison and Starr don't hide how tedious they find the process. Harrison leaves the band and rejoins, Starr is obviously more interested in his burgeoning movie career (Peter Sellers cameo is hilarious), and Lennon swings from classroom clown to classroom bully. Most of the songs on the album are third rate, particularly when you consider what their contemporaries were producing.

The positives are, it looks good, you see how good a song writer McCartney is, Lennon's guitar playing is a lot better than I thought after listening to Anthology, Glyn Johns had a fantastic wardrobe and it's incredible to see how smoking was such an integral part of so many people's lives.

The negatives? So much of this is tedious to watch and not very interesting. I would love to see an edited version of Peter Jackson's Beatles: Get Back. Edited down to 2 hours yet presenting a different version of Lindsay-Hogg's Let It Be. It has to be remembered both the film and the accompanying album were pretty much junked by the Beatles. They showed no interest in it's release and for many years it was seen as one of the many reasons the Beatles split. Sub-standard music and a movie made to show the worst side of the Beatles and their entourage.

Does this redefine the end of the Beatles narrative? Yes. But sitting through so many hours of footage just to learn that McCartney and Ono weren't really the reason the Beatles split for me was not worth the time.

It's difficult to see why this was even made. Maybe it looked good on paper but the reality is that its a damp squid. Alex Winter is the only person who redeems himself, probably because he had so little to loose, while Keanu Reeves plummets the depths of caricature. More embarrassing though are Weaving and Lundy-Paine as the over enthusiastic daughters of Bill and Ted. No, No, No.

The movie does have its positives. The story is fun, well-paced and engaging. If you've got nothing better to do on a cold wet Sunday afternoon you could do worse, but really, you wood do better to bake a cake, smoke a pipe, throw a pot or plant a tree.

As Ian McDonald, author of Revolution in the Head pointed out when writing about the music, this was made when the Beatles thought they a could shit in a bucket and it would still be successful. It is quite obviously McCartney's project. He and Ringo are central to most of the film with Ringo effortlessly out acting him. John and George obviously couldn't give a shit and barely engage with the process. The outcome is an exceedingly poor version of the quintessentially 60s British movie which owes a lot to Richard Lester and films like The Knack with a hint of Jodorowsky. If it wasn't The Beatles it would have disappeared without trace never to be seen again, however, its only saving grace is the music, so worth it for that (the sound quality on the Blu Ray is magnificent). If you expect to be entertained don't bother, however, for a reminder of just what you could get away with in the British film and music industry of the 1960s if you were successful, then give it a go, it's only 53 minutes of your life you'll never get back!

A beautifully directed and acted film. The simple story perfectly encapsulates the dilemma faced by small island communities between the first and second world wars. Facing poor harvests, the migration of its younger people, and the lack of efficient transport and communications with the mainland, those left on the island have to come to terms with the fact that their way of life is no longer viable. Michael Powell throws into the mix tragedy, melodrama and soundtrack that is both haunting and uplifting, and with it creates a thing of beauty.

Utter rubbish. As other reviewers have pointed out a bunch of vile bullies intimidating younger students with a side story of cannibalism. If it's true that cinema goers found some of the movie so overwhelming they passed out then frankly they need to get out more. If the demographic this is aimed at want to watch some decent horror check out Ari Aster's and Jordan Peele's work. Avoid like the plague...now there's a movie idea!

I only managed ten minutes as the transfer quality was so poor. It looks like a transfer from video tape so the image is blurred and out of focus r needing the film unwatchable unless of course you don't mind your movies looking like your running a vhs video through an old Tv.