Film Reviews by BN

Landau is spectacular in his Lugosi makeup which won the film an Oscar. Depp at times has sufficient drive & verve obtaining financing for his cheap pictures and following thru with a loyal little band of followers, none of whom seem to turn much of a hair to his films the man produces.

At the time I'd have assumed they might bring shock & universal condemnation to Americans but director Tim Burton has sidestepped any suggestion of this.

Bill Murray in his part as Orson Welles is eerily real but that is helped, I believe, with a dubbed voice. As corpulent back then as portrayed? Sarah Jessica Parker is the only oddball to me; she doubtless thought it might be her fame in Sex in the City that might pull the crowds but subsequent research revealed the girlfriend with the ghastly wig just didn't ring true. In an equally fake wig Patricia Arquette was the character who married and loyally stuck with Wood for 20 yrs.

The use of B&W filming is inspired as it keeps up the theme of Halloween-type spookiness from Horror stories to Sci-fi in Burton's repertoire

I got this version out because I'd recently watched the DVD of the 2004 remake of NORTH AND SOUTH with Richard Armitage, Daniela Denby-Ashe and Sinead Cusack. Like so many Dickens, Gaskell and Trollope novels, to name a few, they've had various versions made over the years, so I wanted to compare the two, plus I partly revere Rosalie Crutchley, she's great in anything.

To be honest, so far I've only viewed Disc One of this earlier version, containing a measly 2 episodes, but on reflection felt that compared to the newer one, it lacked much punch and verve.

All the sets and costumes and hairstyles were brilliant, as only the BBC USED to do so well, unfortunately nowadays we get very little of merit or viewing interest from that corporation.

Patrick Stewart, looking incredibly young and with hair(!) was a bit insipid as the factory owner and the lady playing Margaret (Rosalind Shanks, not really known to me, now or then) seemed to lack the fire and passion that Daniela brought to the role.

We got much more of a view of the horrors of the factory, its flying fluff, and the ire of the workers compelled to strike, plus all the dirt and squalor of the factory in the sordid Midlands town that Margaret rails about, in the newer version.

Will I persevere to Disc 2?

Yes probably, if only to see the resolution.

2016 series.

To be honest, I've never really gotten on with writer and creator Ben Elton in the past nor found him or his writings particularly funny in any way but I started with Series 1 for a little light levity and found it an absolute hoot. Loved it, so, so funny! Written, I believe as a commemorative on the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.

On then to Series 2, unfortunately the subtitles there I noticed were absolutely abysmal! Totally wrongly ascribed wording to what's genuinely said. Yer What??

How can it be so incompetent? Somebody hasn't got a clue!

Otherwise David Mitchell as Will flits about between his lodgings in London and his home in Stratford where his wife Anne Hathaway (Liza Tarbuck) lives with his acerbic parents Harry Enfield (John) and Paula Wilcox (Mary Arden), arriving and never failing each time to complain about the journey, so much in line with our modern moans about interrupted rail or slow car journeys.

Also, his entitled sounding children Suzanna (and the occasionally seen Hamnet) are typical prickly teenagers who talk back and are embarrassed by their betters.

All characters and actions provide unconscious inspiration for Will's new plays.

Says Will, "Boom. Act 3 just wrote itself... "

The opening credits are stunning, animated Elizabethan drawings. Just loved watching them and the cute flute-y soundtrack.

The script is a lovely juxtaposition with modern and Elizabethan mores. Words, phrases, observations, all tumble into Will's head to inspire the plots of Othello, Two Gentleman of Verona, Titus Andronicus, Romeo & Juliet, etc. His landlord's daughter Kate (Gemma Whelan) determinedly stands up for women's rights against fierce opposition, her father the landlord Bottom (Rob Rouse) provides grand comedy and wiser-than-his-station observations, and Kit Marlowe (Tim Downie) swoons about looking similar to the character of Lord Flashheart in Blackadder. Elton's script often alludes to the oft held views of Marlowe's plays actually having been written by Shakespeare and vice versa. Mark Heap as Robert Greene, Master of the Revels does his level best to scupper Will's works and shut down the theatre company putting them on. It's all a bit amusing like the brilliant tongue-in-cheek film 'Shakespeare in Love', one of my favourites.

Great stuff, short episodes, barbed comments, hilarious. Give it a go.

Sometimes I have no idea why I put certain titles on my CP list, in the main it's because I have looked up specific actors [Jennifer Saunders, Peter Davison, Cherie Lunghi, Gemma Jones, Adrian Scarborough] They're all in it.

I must have cruised their repertoires months before and the title has risen up my list like cream to the top of the milk. After watching many serious dramas I also crave the lightness of a comedy.

Beattie Edmondson (Saunders' daughter) was unknown to me but she carried the film extremely well as a a slightly kooky, independent & unconventional woman who inherits a pug dog from her late grandmother. She doesn't want it, has issues with dogs and lives in a flat that won't accept pets so problems naturally ensue, but even the problems and solutions are quirky and different.

I found it charming and not trite, as other dog centric comedies sometimes are; it kept my interest throughout.

A lovely film for family viewing, a little gem, might even view again.

Lovely views of Richmond, the deer in the park, and Hampton Court. Give it a go.

Good natured 1952 film in the Long Lost Comedy Classics series. B&W, 62 mins. Made at Southall Studios.

On-screen instructions are only 3 choices: Play/Stills/ and Also Available - listing others in the series: ORDERS IS ORDERS, TIME GENTLEMEN PLEASE, MAKE ME AN OFFER, THE LOVE MATCH, & JOHN & JULIE

No subtitles.

Another comedic film featuring Richard Hearne before his Mr.Pastry days. He's a meek and mild writer Mr Wrigley who pens the hugely popular 'Miss Robin Hood' series in a comic magazine called Teenager, clearly beloved by all ages. One day he's approached by a Miss Honey, a real eccentric, played by Margaret Rutherford (and honestly, once you see the character who else could ever have played it?) who inveigles him to help her regain the supposedly stolen formula for the secret Macalister Honeycup additive known only to forbidding brewery owner James Robertson Justice.

Lots of funny moments ensue. MR swishes her capes again and wears the strangest dresses whilst presiding over a large houseful of school uniformed & loyal children that I think she's teaching, albeit entirely unconventionally. It's nearly shades of the antics of St Trinians amongst a bunch of pigeons (I think they're doves, as they're all white but hey ho...)

Sid James plays MRs on-tap taxi driver/cum chauffeur who's continually knitting, and other stalwarts appear, like Peter Jones, Kenneth Connor and Reg Varney plus a young Michael Medwin who's romancing Wrigley's daughter Eunice Gayson. Dora Bryan stands behind a pub counter exactly like in an earlier Hearne film, SOMETHING IN THE CITY and remarks

"I never did like a ginger ale drinker."

Even MR's husband Stringer Davis has a tiny bit part. When Wrigley resigns, SD says: "Pity about him, he really can write."

The slightly menacing closeups of the rather ineffectual Scotland Yard inspectors struck a strange note to me in this otherwise fairly whimsical piece with plenty of funny lines. Here are some:

1) Wrigley says to a girl in the lobby with an instrument case, thinking her a fan: "Hello I'm Mr Wrigley."

Girl: (sneering);"Well wriggle off."

2) Lord Otterbourne : "I was nearly lynched."

Menacing 10 yr old: "Don't speak too soon."

3) Mummy: "Sue have you noticed anything odd about Daddy? Daughter: " Not half - he's going bats."

4) Children eagerly procure copies of the latest Teenager comic. Peter Jones has written it in the absence of Wrigley and wants to inject some more highbrow elements which the children read with mounting horror. Cries one: "I want my tanner back!"

5) There's a part which is listed as Small Girl Who Sets Fire to a Comic...and she does!

Some genuinely funny laugh aloud moments, a rather uneven plot and dialogue, some strange camera angles and oddly speeded up sections like when JRJ gets out of his car, but don't let that put you off. Will appeal to children but still fine for adults.

And since 1952 obviously nothing much in the corporate world seems to have changed. Wrigley argues with Lord Otterbourne who's streamlining the paper and dropping the Miss Robin Hood stories: "Business. You think that justifies everything. What do you think you're selling? Trouser buttons?"

"It's the same principle."

"You would say that, that's what happens when anybody like you gets hold of anything, you get fatter & fatter. All you think about is balance sheets, profits and inter office memos. Before you've finished you've killed the very spark that keeps the whole thing running." Hmn.

Quirky recent Acorn TV production Comedy-Drama starring Sally Lindsay, who writes and executive produces it.

(Was confusing her with rather similar looking Jo Joyner who fronts 'Shakespeare and Hathaway' which I loved as a series) Then wondered where I'd seen this gal before: Scott & Bailey plus Still Open All Hours.

Location filming apparently in Gozo, Malta substituting for the South of France. Certainly contributes to a warm and relaxed feeling you might yearn for as you watch but once I knew it was Malta it slightly popped the illusion as the architecture and countryside is quite different. I guess filming in S.of France is too expensive.

Interesting & different characters & situations, quite a clever premise, with an undercurrent theme running: Recently widowed Midlands antique expert Jean White is trying to find out what happened to her husband who's died in a single car accident near Ste.Victoire, a village seemingly full of expats.

Where has the expensive antique ring he was carrying disappeared to?

A mysterious woman with long painted nails is still pursuing her with veiled threats.

Meanwhile odd things happen and Jean helps the local gendarmerie.

Sue Holderness and Robin Askwith play blousy fools, the over-the-top local chateau owners for the comedy aspect.

Steve Edge plays an amenable & I suspect a potential love interest who's an expat local taxi driver.

So far I haven't heard any actual mention of why it's called Madame Blanc (hint: it's a pun on the fact she's Mrs White)

So far seen 4 episodes on this series on the first disc but looking forward to more.

Ace political satire, written by funny men Ian Hislop and Nick Newman.

Made into 2 series, 13 episodes but only Disc 1 seems to be available on CP presently.

Young Joe Prospero competently plays the PMs son Dillon, who finds life in #10 very tedious. He suffers from gross parental neglect (they're both usually too busy to bother with him) and school bullying plus the scorn of his older sister. He retreats frequently into a fantasy world where he imagines interviewing various family members in a Newsnight studio setting whilst they squirm trying to answer his tricky, barbed questions.

Robert Bathurst is wonderful as the sympathetic PM Michael Phillips and Carla Mendonca his wife, a financial whizzkid mother who constantly won't support her husband as expected at functions and conferences. Duncan, the PM's spin doctor, is a hoot, prevaricating throughout - as you imagine they all do.

When Dillon wants info for a school project in episode 6 he secretly rings the Foreign Office for help but unknowingly sets off an international incident. The fallout is hilarious.

"Get on to our man in Bolivia...."

"We don't have a man in Bolivia any more, Sir, he was part of the cutbacks."

"The F.O. used to be the envy of the world, Dobbs, we had a chap in every hotspot from Karachi to Caracas. What do we have now?"

"We have got a man watching CNN on the television in the basement. He's pretty reliable."

I laughed a lot. Give it a go.

I've seen several Carry On films recently, dotting about with their dates (early vs. much later ones) looking for a bit of light comedy to brighten up the days after a lot of heavy dramas but t.b.h. I didn't find this all that rib-tickling funny. I thought people in the cinemas doubled over with these? There were a few amusing bits but....

Lots of the school age children were up to cheeky antics, trying hard to scupper the promotion of their headmaster Ted Ray who wishes to defect to another school.

It was the 3rd of the Carry On - series (30 films, 1958 to 1978) and just getting going with its regular, much recognised cast and sending up particular professions or themes (ie: doctors, dentists, police, schools, westerns, horror films, and historical episodes) - but the best part to my mind was the Commentary in Special Features, narrated by 3 of the teenagers at the time: Richard O'Sullivan, Larry Dann and Paul Cole. The insights into the 1959 filming, the crew, Pinewood studios, the general set camaraderie, and frankly having a lot of fun in a more innocent time, were far more fascinating than the film.

Worth watching for that alone.

Was a 1979-1982 London Weekend Television production written by Richard Carpenter. Two series of 13 episodes each.

Richard O'Sullivan in serious mode as the famous highwayman, a latter day Robin Hood saying he's only robbing from those who can afford the loss.

Half hour episodes, filmed on location in Maidenhead, Berkshire. DT frequently has to valiantly fight or get out of perilous situations while being pursued by Captain Spiker (David Daker) egged on by the vindictive Sir John Glutton (Christopher Benjamin).

A lot of well known faces as guest stars, Susan Hampshire, Donald Pleasance, Oliver Tobias, Alfie Bass, Patrick Macnee and more. Found this a well filmed, gentle costume drama romp, and the music seems the same as the incidental music in my box set of Lovejoy.

Nice music. Dull film. Haven't read the book. Was looking for a good story along the lines of Judy Davis in My Brilliant Career, a feisty Victorian/Edwardian girl asserting her independence - but honestly switched my attention off , just let the film run on as I did other things, in case it got better. It finished and started again....then I thought, hang on, what was all that scene at the beginning with a gaggle of modern girls looking like a modern version of Picnic at Hanging Rock? Was it ever explained? Thought it was an ad for another movie as I was aware TPOAL was late 1800s.

Found Nicole's hairstyle weird, looked like Harry Houdini. Not a fan of Mr Malkovich either, he worries me and his simpering voice in his stilted speeches is most off-putting. The other men lusting after the women were oddly casted: Viggo? Richard E. with a beard? Not familiar with Martin Donovan but he was ok. Don't even know where Christian Bale fitted in.

Gielgud was simply Gielgud in a short part as yet another rich guy dying and leaving his fortune to someone. Of course they were all obsessed with money and class. Shelley Winters was almost unrecognisable apart from the drawly voice. Barbara Hershey was quite good.

Apparently, despite Jane Campion directing, this was not considered a particularly interesting film by various critics. Has she gone off the boil? I do like costume dramas but this just didn't do anything for me, which is a shame. I'm sure I'm missing something profound, it's a well known story by Henry James, but...

I'm just about to view The Undoing with Nicole and Hugh Grant. Let's hope that's more gripping.

1971 thriller directed by Sidney Lumet. With Sean Connery as Duke Anderson, a safecracker recently released from jail, Martin Balsam, Dyan Cannon and "introducing" Christopher Walken. Score by Quincy Jones.

It's a heist in a luxury block of flats in NYC. Actually pretty dull I found. I didn't get how Duke knew the rest of the gang but maybe I missed it as my attention wandered in the beginning. Somebody's following Anderson, recording his movements, hence the surveillance Tapes. Lots of technical bits that of course look pretty old fashioned, small TV screens, tape recorders, early huge computers, early CCTV, a switchboard with a daft and robotic telephonist, another small funny interlude, sort of odd in a thriller. All the tapes get wiped at the end as the surveillors are apparently illegally recording. The blurb said the ending was completely re-shot to ensure the criminals didn't get away with it.

Funniest line was the old lady (Judith Lowry) in a flat saying about her sister Margaret Hamilton(the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz) "Go take a look at what she reads. The Story of O! 73 years old and all she's got to think of is Sex!"

There's a short but interesting car chase minutes from the end.

I missed all the 80s popular teen movies, like this, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, St Elmo's Fire (should have been St Elmo's Dire!) etc. so thought I'd see what all the fuss was about. After StE'sF which I found very dull, this actually had some amusing moments, mostly of creativity, such as Ferris' excuses, his fake recordings, the figure mimicking him ill in bed, etc.

The parents seemed incredibly dimwitted especially the father, and the huge parade in Chicago made me question why it was held on a school day, given plenty of all ages in the crowd? The school headmaster played by Jeffrey Jones was a hoot who quite rightly doesn't believe he's ill and sets out to prove it, with rather painful and funny consequences. Ferris' friend Cameron was a guy named Alan Ruck, who seemed to me a pretty close double to Nicholas Lyndhurst (of Only Fools and Horses & Goodnight, Sweetheart fame) with a long lugubrious face. I've never seen him before or since yet he seems to have been in nearly 75 films,

at least on CP's list. Jennifer Grey just before Dirty Dancing fame plays his jealous and scheming younger sister, but in the end she seems to slightly admire how Ferris so blatantly gets away with everything and starts to cover for him.

For a feelgood movie without any mention of drugs, little alcohol nor appalling teen bad behaviour this one was reasonably amusing and clean. They may be portrayed as somewhat entitled, spoilt teens, but then most American movies do that unless they're portraying far more real grit types. Not really so bad, methinks, given its an American film.

4 episodes, 2 discs

It took a while to get going but glad I persevered as I found this one very funny.

The writer Malcolm Bradbury (also of the hysterical series IN THE RED) shows up the corruption of both the EEC and the newly independent tiny eastern European state of Slaka who desperately wants entry to the EU although it produces only tin and beetroot, so tinned beetroot is its only claim to fame.

Corruption everywhere is rife. Bradbury injects loads of visual and language gags into the almost insane pride in a country that really has very little.

- New president is a novelist, the gorgeous Francesca Annis.

- Ian Richardson plays very nearly the same persona from the previous House of Cards, only his disapproving expressions are a lot funnier.

-Carol Gillies as the stewardess on the national Comflug airlines is like the stewardesses on YouTube's skit Yorkshire Airlines ("put up, belt up and if ya can't see the &£#@ exits ya must be *** blind!" ) The Slakan language seems to be very akin to Italian, so much of her ostensibly incomprehensible lines are actually intelligible!

- Christoph Waltz as a somewhat inept banker is sent out from Brussels to sort out the countries finances but the corrupt officials on both sides keep kidnapping him to scupper proceedings

- Judy Parfitt races a clapped out yellow Mini around London knocking down signs

- She's desperate to get her husband (Richardson) back to blighty from Brussels before retirement to have a crack at elevation to a knighthood

- Roger Lloyd Pack has a little scam of his own going

- Jeremy Child from the British Embassy admits he still can't get the hang of driving on the Right even after living in Slaka for 11 years and insists on the wipers and hubcaps being removed every time he parks, supposedly due to pilfering, despite the fact he says the country has few cars

- His wife Maggie Steed is bored witless and constantly emasculates her husband in front of him when a new man arrives

- Trevor Peacock the priest hits on a surefire moneymaking scheme, charging $10 a pop to view the place in his rundown church where the miracle of the disabled girl who stood up and walked took place. On the scaffolding for the renovations hangs a sign about the builders, including contributions by Taylorim Woodrow.

Try it. A little gem. I might even view this one again.

What to say about this film?

Said to be a comedy but I found it singularly UNfunny. I got it expecting to see a side of modern South Africa from the non-tourist aspect. It was also filmed in B&W which I thought worked against it. A bit of colour (ha!)would have helped. It was frenetic and contained a number of oddball characters (mostly men trying to get a 'leg over') and a lot of drugs, on their way to a big rock concert that sounded the SA equivalent of Glastonbury, but we're not given much of a view

of it, nor much of the supposed routines of these stand up comedians. Half of the dialogue was incomprehensible due to the heavily accented English mixed with Afrikaans and possibly other local tongues (the Afrikaans being the only bit given any subtitles) so a lot of the meaning of the plot was sadly obscured. I persevered to the end thinking it'd somehow get better but...nah.. Oh well, on to the next disc...

I found this a very entertaining film.

I state "Robber" in the singular as Ethan Hawke as Lars was the initiator of the pseudo bank robbery in the prestigious Kreditbanken in Stockholm, yet extraordinarily his goal was not money. His hostage-taking in the bank was all a plot to spring a bank robber friend of his (played by Mark Strong). Noomi Rapace of "The Girl Who" triple Stig Larsson Millennium series is the bank employee who manages to keep her head amongst the increasingly kooky moves made by the 2 completely inept robbers and by the end has developed a sympathy for them - all of which led to the coining of the term Stockholm Syndrome, the formation of a psychological bond by the hostage with his/her captor. What I liked apart from Hawke the Texan and Strong the Brit was that the police and bank characters were all played by Scandinavians, thus having authentic accents (and Hallelujah) pronouncing names and places correctly. Keeps it more realistic.

The cars and lack of technology were refreshing (this was the 70s altho they seemed to have mounted surveillance cameras in the bank...would they then?) Certainly no bulletproof barriers, windows, locked doors, the overkill of today. The authorities, even the PM Olof Palme who got involved in the hostage negotiations, were no pushovers, they kept their cool but made cogent arguments against some of the increasingly crazy demands and it completely threw the perpetrators.

I loved it.

There are thankfully subtitles on this dvd, I tend to lose it whilst people are shouting and scrambling and shooting, so helps me to keep the narrative and plot straight.

No other features on this disc though.