Reviews

Cards on the table - I am a massive fan of the original BBC Radio 4 series, and this was going to have to do pretty well to live up to my expectations.

In the event, it was alright. There was nothing wrong with it - the essential elements of the story are there, the casting was about right and all seemed to fit the roles - I think Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent was an excellent choice - and I was quite impressed with how they dealt with the tricky problem of a lead character having two heads, but somehow it lacked the spark it needed to make it from being an ordinary adaptation to being a great comedy - which it could have been. Maybe the atmosphere of Magarathia wasn't quite right. Maybe Marvin was not paranoid enough. But I think the real reason was that they did not make enough of some of the really stupid jokes in the original series - The joke about why Ford called himself Ford just sort of passed me by, whereas I thought it was inspired in the radio series. The other people in the cinema seemed to enjoy it well enough.

I wouldn't particularly recommend, but I wouldn't tell you to steer clear either.

Overall, underwhelmed one way or another. 7/10.

This is a marvellous film, a classic good vs. evil battle, with sweeping scenery, with epic battle, of fighting for what is right, and of individuals finding peace. And, yes, there are some spectacular fight sequences in the film, but to rate it solely on them is to miss the point. I dont think this is a Kung-Fu movie at all, its just a movie that has Kung-Fu in it. If all I wanted to see was fighting I wouldnt go to the cinema. I go to see a good story, well told, and this was certainly that. I was utterly absorbed.

Making films like this which are intended to appeal to the mass market without the use of English is also a very welcome step, as is the lack of a conventional 'happy ending'. This film is not instant gratification, which most of the cinema going public now seem to demand, and I for one am glad of it.

I honestly cant think how Ang Lee, possibly the best director working today, could make this film it any better. To the detractors in here critisising the film on the basis that people cant fly, well, no. I cant fly. Nor can you. But this is a FANTASY. That means that the content need not reflect reality all that closely. I think it unlikely that a small ring owned by a hobbit can control all the evil in the universe, but it didnt stop me enjoying a film about that.

The high rating in the top 250 is richly deserved, 10/10 every time.

This film left me wholly non-plussed. I came out of the cinema with very little positive or negative to say about it, and would have forgotten almost completely that I had even been to see it after a couple of months had it not been for the British Press, and for that matter the British Public, who had an almost rabid obsession with it. New British films are still calling themselves 'The new Billy Elliot!'. I couldn't believe my ears when I came out of the cinema. People were proclaiming it as the greatest film ever made, which it patently is not.

I think the problem is that the plot is virtually non-existent. Artist struggles to get recognition. Thats been a cliche for a very long time now, so the film just played on sentimentality, and therefore ended up very sickly sweet and unsubtle, with all the messages rammed down your throat. Anyone can be a dancer, even if they are from a mining town! Not all dancers are gay! Prejudice is bad!

To be fair, some of the acting is excellent, especially Julie Walters, who was magnificent as the Ballet Teacher who wasnt up to the job. Jamie Bell wasnt bad, but he overdoes it, although I suppose thats not terribly surprising for an actor in his early teens. The backdrop of the Miners Strike was handled in a surprisingly candid way.

But I found it impossible to get even vaguely enthusiastic about this film. I thought it was overwhelmingly average. I find it absolutely bewildering that 'Billy Elliot' has got anywhere near the top 250. 5/10.

Normally I dont have a problem with gratuitous swearing in films, but this one really annoyed me. All they did was swear. For the whole film. (And, as someone else noted, get cancer) It was boring, rambling and pretentious. I wouldnt If I were you.

Its also not that I dont like films which, as most people who like it will claim 'observe life'. I love Eat Drink Man Woman, and all that happens in that is that a load of Taiwanese people lead their lives. But I could relate to them. I have never met anyone who swore as much as the 'actors' in this film, and I used to work on a construction site. So go figure. Having said that William H. Macy made me grin. Once.

2/10. Avoid, unless you enjoy tedium.

Okay, Its like this. There are films which set out to inform. There are films which set out to make you think about your place in the Universe. There are films which question the basic premise of your humanity.

This film does none of these things, but it has some great fight sequences. I laughed like a drain when Rambo Poured the gunpowder in his wound and lit it to stop the bleeding. Hardcore! He ran, he jumped, he recovered from injury within seconds! Stuff blew up! He defeated the entire Russian Army! On his own!

You are not going to get any deep moral message here, but it's all rather fun in a pretty stupid way. I gave it 5/10, because it's really very stupid, but if you are sat around with your mates and a few beers it's great.

Johnny Mnemonic was a dreadful film. The idea is that Keanu Reeves plays a kind of Data Courier who carries the information inside his brain, having had it transferred there by a fibre optic link.

The idea is not too bad, and could make a reasonable film with a decent scriptwriter and some actors. But neither of those was in evidence. As well as Keanu we get the 'talents' of Ice-T, Henry Rollins, and Dolph Lundgren. My gods! They really went all out on the third rate actors on this one. Dolph plays Jesus, in an unintelligible move. There are also a load of Hong Kong Action people, including Takeshi Kitano, who are passable.

As other users have said the computer scenes are awful. You would think Hollywood would have realised that people who are into Sci-Fi also tend to be into Computers, but evidently not.

The plot is jumpy, and very difficult to follow. There are various almost totally random bits in there. Visually the film is quite nice, and I seem to remember the trailer being pretty good, but the promise was not fulfilled. It looking nice does not excuse it from its other numerous faults.

This is one of only 2 films of the god-knows-how-many I have rated on here that I gave 1/10. It is shockingly bad, and deserves to be consigned to the dustbin as quickly as possible.

Avoid at all costs.

While it had some alright moments, particularly the spectacular battle scenes, this was, overall, a pretty poor movie. Essentially I was bored. It was so very long, and so much of what went on was overly moralistic. Some of it was just laughable - at times I was expecting them to come into a clearing and be greeted by the Knights who say 'Ni!'. The love story stretched credibility, and was blatantly made up so we could get some steamy action between the sheets, as, it would seem, a film without isn't worth the effort.

We also had the unseemly spectacle of a Young Scotsman being played by an middle aged American who seems to have decided after all these years that he would give acting a go, and not making a very good job of it. His accent was poor, and he tried to do emotion and stuff, but it really didn't work. Go back to what you are good at, Mel, Lethal Weapon X or whatever. It still dumbfounds me that he won best Director. I realise it was a bit of a thin year, but you can do better than this.

This film is also one of a long line which insists on ramming the morals of the story down your throat. I would rather be allowed to use my brain, in a film made by a director who lets me think for myself.

Overrated, Overlong, Overmoralistic. 3/10.

Eat Drink Man Woman is the Film that turned me on to Ang Lee. The tale of a Father and his 3 daughters in Taiwan, it cleverly shows the erosion of the traditional family due to changes in society, due to the influence of Religion, Music, Technology, Sexual Liberation, and the 'Westernisation' of Taiwanese Culture.

The family does, however, retain one ritual, one which is sadly missing from most families now, the evening meal. And what meals! The fathers existence seems to rotate around the preparation of the meal, as his other roles within the family diminish. And, of course, the meals are a hotbed of discussion, mainly on the subject of relationships.

Each member of the family has their own relationship, and each with a very different person. This causes no end of conflict, and ultimately a neat surprise.

Involving, Touching and Light Hearted, Eat Drink Man Woman is a beautiful film, beautifully observed. It's a simple story, but all the better for it.

At least 9/10

As other users have said this may not have been the greatest film ever shot, the acting may not be perfect, and I suspect a lot of what was originally shot ended up on the cutting room floor, making some of it difficult to follow, but this kept it to a manageable length, rather than having it ramble on for 2 1/2 hours, which far too many films do at the moment.

The film had some stunning visuals, and while effects don't make a film they certainly help. It also succeeded in scaring me, which is rare. And for that alone it gets a good mark from me. Most 'Horror' now is appalling, it's all either very very tame (I know what you did last summer) or so tongue in cheek it becomes a comedy (Scream 1+2, Bad Taste), so it's refreshing to see something that went out of its way to make me jump.

I gave it 8/10.

This is the first of the two travelogues of our anonymous commentator and his companion Robinson, the second one being the awesome Robinson in Space.

Essentially this is a travelogue of London in 1992. It concentrates on locations and issues within London precious to the commentator, and also on the political and social events of the time. The film is shot mostly as stills of the locations visited, and is very well observed. One sequence which lingers for me is the film of the aftermath of the IRA bombs in the City of London at that time, which are eerily beautiful.

The election of 1992 is recorded and commented upon, and the monarchy dont escape unscathed. The writer is very very obviously a socialist, and the commentary is heavily 'Old Labour', but is in turns informative, witty, and thought provoking.

It attempts some major social points, but is preaching to the converted somewhat, this is definitely for the Art House Crowd - You would never see this at a Multiplex. However, is good to see it on film

I gave this 8/10, but Robinson in Space got 10. If you get the chance to see either, do, opportunities are few and far between, and it's made in a very unusual and exiting style.

While brutal in its portrayals this film is an effective comment on the capacity of the average man in the street for violence.

The main members of the cast are Undercover Police, so clearly know the difference between right and wrong. However, they get so caught up in the thrill of the fight they find themselves unable to control their actions. One of them is so carried away he prefers his new life.

This film is a tricky one to watch, due to the closeness to home of the subject matter. Brutal and unmotivated violence is graphically, and very effectively, depicted, and takes place in everyday locations; the pub, the street, the football terrace.

Avoid this if you are sensitive about screen violence. However, while uncomfortable viewing, this film does ultimately reward, with full hearted performances and more than one or two difficult questions left in your mind. 8/10.

Ben-Hur has always been my Grandad's Favourite film. Until recently I never really 'got' this film, only having seen it on TV.

I then got the opportunity to see this in its full 2.76:1 ratio from 70mm stock with proper, well maintained, 6 track mag sound on a Cinerama screen in Bradford, England. Never before have I been so totally swept away by a film. CG is great, but this is awesome. I saw Titanic on the same screen later, and its effects just paled in comparison. Obviously the Chariot Race is incredible, but the scale of this whole film is beyond belief. As The Emperor is greeted and the camera pans out over Rome all I could do was wonder at the Jaw-Dropping scale of it.

Just that would have been enough to justify this film to me, but the story was great too, and the performances of all involved masterful. However, this film loses all its magic on TV - Think about it, you are losing over half the picture when its shown 'pan and scan'.

This film is a genuine cinematic masterpiece. I think only having it rated at #84 (on 4 April '99) is unfair. It's certainly in my top 10. Go convince your local cinema to put it on, preferably in the original 70mm, and see it in its full glory.

Robinson in Space is a contemporary interpretation of the wanderings of Daniel Defoe around Britain. Robinson and his Companion travel around to places of industrial note, both past and present. In this sense it is travelogue, but it is so much more.

The Commentary notes major developments in the country, and makes dry comment on the state of the nation and its Industry. This film visits both the empty Warehouses of Manchester and the New factories of the Midlands. It can almost be regarded as an essay on Britain in the mid 1990's.

Many have described this film as egocentric and boring, and I can see why. It is shot almost entirely as stills, there is no acting, and there are no characters beyond the commentary. However to me this was a refreshing piece of film making. It was incredibly well observed, and comes pretty close to defining what it is to live in this country. I suspect, however, that for anyone who lives outside the UK this will just be boring, you have to be able to relate to the places on the screen.

However, if this appeals even slightly take the opportunity to see this film, before its forgotten. I loved it, and I will never forget it.

Bulworth completely blew me away. I was expecting either a comedy with the odd bit of vacuous comment or a commentary with the odd bit of lame comedy. I was surprised to find a great comedy with real bite.

This film managed to make me laugh out loud, rare in any setting, and still made me realise what an amoral place America can be, and make some heavyweight points about, among other things, Racial Discrimination, the funding of American politics, Governmental Intervention, or the lack of, Recreational Drugs, The Banality of American TV and corruption of certain Police Departments.

This was a fantastic balancing act, and Warren Beatty as the Senator Bulworth is awesome. Even Halle Berry was good. If only all satire was this good I'd be a happy man.

This is one of the most disgusting, amoral pieces of filmmaking I have ever seen. Normally I am against screen censorship in any form, but In this case I made an exception.

The film was egocentric, and deeply boring. At the film society where I saw it we had a record number of walkouts - over 1/2 of the audience left, many of them citing how distasteful it all was, the rest through sheer boredom, but I saw it out, mainly as I was the House Manager that night.

It was basically showed all aspects of Human sexuality. I have no objection to this, although watching people parade around naked is quite dull. What I do object to is the scene which clearly suggests paedophilia. It was cut to show, and I quote, 'The intention but not the act'. The intention is too much. I wish the censor had either cut the scene totally or refused a release. I was physically repulsed.

A lot of people accused this of being 'Erotic Art'. If you want erotic art see 'The Pillow Book', its infinitely superior, and a hell of a lot more erotic. If you want porn go and buy something from the top shelf of the local newsagents. Whatever you do, don't see this film.

This is the silliest movie ever made. The start is quite silly, the middle is sillier and the end is just plain daft.

This is also greatest quote a line film ever made. I just sit there reciting it. And it still never fails to put a smile on my face. There are so many silly things in it I can't be bothered to list them. If you haven't seen this you need to now. You'll never see repression in the same light, and you will laugh for at least a week.

The funniest film ever made.