Film Reviews by MH

Director on an ego trip delivers a load of meaningless pretentious rubbish. Several people left the cinema at various points in the performance and if it had been possible, I would have gone with them. Waste of time and money.

Call me prudish if you will, but I felt this film should have come with a Government Health Warning.

Mesmerising story? Stunning performances? Was I watching the same film as whoever wrote the blurb?

Mark Rylance was a huge disappointment who, if he had acting talent in 1995, certainly wasn't wasting it on this rubbish.

Patsy Kensit thought sitting about trying to be gorgeous constituted acting, and Douglas Henshall, who was the only one to do any serious acting, unfortunately played a hugely unlikeable character who will mainly be remembered for waving his naked erect member in the camera's face (quite unnecessarily).

Kristen Scott Thomas looked throughout as if she was wondering how she got herself caught up in this boring mess.

I only stuck it to the end because I thought there MUST be a brilliant twist to the plot to make it all worthwhile, but no, it ended tamely like a damp squib.

I was not expecting a movie as good as this when I sat down to watch and I was enraptured. All the actors were really good, including the children. I'm not a person who laughs a lot, usually a broad grin is high praise of humour for me and I'm not amused by slapstick,, but I laughed out loud many times during the course of the action. You would have to be entirely without imagination not to love this movie.

Seen 'Meak's Cut-off' and 'Wendy and Lucy'. Why, of why, did I think 'First Cow' would be any better. It wasn't. Remind me to avoid all Kelly Reichardt movies in future. Self-indulgent rubbish.

I'm with the haters on this one - boring and tedious. I've never seen Julia Garner in anything else, but on the evidence of this film I would say she has no idea how to act. All we saw was the same blank, shut-down expression the whole time, no matter what was going on.

Real waste of time. I wish I could ask for my money back!

Why would you try to improve on a really funny, excellently acted and directed film (the 2007 version) only 3 years later? I can only suppose because this version is racially diverse and therefore 'woke'. Not to discredit any of the actors, but this is no competition for the original.

If you appreciate this style of entertainment you will love Pooter. The writing is brilliant and Hugh Bonneville delivers a tour de force performance which is, in many ways, superior to any of the Alan Bennett 'Talking Heads' plays - even the first productions, which were vastly better than the recent versions.

The Scottish accents were so thick that I scarcely understood a word. It might as well have been a foreign language film. Julie Walters seemed to have mastered the accent brilliantly. Boring story about a narcissistic would-be Country music singer who, sadly, couldn't sing. And the songs were sooo boring.

I assume the director was aiming for comedy. Sadly he missed. A great cast wasted on a stupid plot and sub-standard direction. But I have always thought Agatha Christie is a vastly over-rated writer, so perhaps it was ultimately her fault. At least Albert Finney was an improvement on the dire David Suchet.

I was really looking forward to this as I enjoy American humour and prefer it to British, but it really wasn't funny or witty or in any way worth watching.

Sorry, I just didn't get it and found the characters either obnoxious (Hilda) or boring (Sylvia), and when I realised I couldn't care less what happened to them I switched off. Not a fan of Mike Leigh.

What an incredible actor this man is. A brilliant performance in a very bleak and really not worth telling story. I rented it because I always feel he is worth watching, but the plot was just too unremittingly bleak and I had to give up and switch off.

It took me a while to get into this and see where it was going, but I'm glad I persisted. Convoluted plot that doesn't really come together until right at the end, but it's worth the wait. I nearly watched it a second time, and then realised that knowing what would happen would tend to spoil the experience rather than enhance it. Recommended.

A vast improvement on the Steve McQueen/Faye Dunaway version. There's lots of chemistry between the leads and the plot is ingenious.

A silly premise but well-handled by the lead actors. Rather slow-paced but altogether an undemanding and enjoyable entertainment.