Change Your Image
m-knell
Reviews
Filthy Rich & Catflap (1987)
Yes it's silly but gloriously so
One of the funniest shows TV has had. Yes it's silly, yes it's rude in places but for all that it's still just so great. I loved it & it's one of the few I can actually watch over & over & still laugh about. I suppose anyone who is a fan of The Young Ones, Bottom & The Comic Strip Presents will already know this show but for those who don't (& there are some given it only ran for one series) give it a go. A fine testament to Rick (RIP) & Ade's bawdy humour, with some sharp commentary on 80's Britain, tabloid news 'culture' (spot one the money), celebrity 'culture' (again they predicted that so well) & the British enduring love of a saucy joke. Shame it lasted only briefly but I suppose they had said all that was necessary. Thanks for the laughs Rik.
Suing the Devil (2011)
Utterly laughable garbage, Malcolm what were you thinking?
I gave this film just the 1 star because I don't think you can give zero.....and in fairness Malcolm McDowell does his best and manages to be fun with one or two of his set-piece speeches but really, this was ghastly.
Seriously bad cinema. Think of a film version of the lamest 'Christian rock' and you have the idea.
This has a laughably ridiculous & predictable script, terrible leaden acting, no budget to speak of, so the effects are very feeble & far between (they must have spent it all on MM's fee) and it's so obviously some weak kind of an ad for Christian religion. There's nothing necessarily wrong in that but why do they always have to be so awful going about it?
The only thing that kept me going until the end was the hope MM might get a bit of script he could do something with, but frankly I doubt anyone could do much with this dross.
The Choirboys (1977)
I loved the book and the movie, sorry.
It seems like we're supposed to hate this one but I loved it, I'm sorry but there you go.
Maybe it was because it came out at the time when punk had just happened. To me the book & the movie were such a break from the usual stereotypical pro-authority nonsense we were being regularly served up at the time (and sadly we seem to have gotten back to these days).
Naturally the book was, by far, the better experience (a genuine 'laugh out loud' read to be highly recommended) but nevertheless I found both hilarious and a long overdue reality check on the forelock tugging blind belief in benevolent and always virtuous 'authority' (something which applies well outsides of the confines of any Police unit too).
I think it's a real pity we seem to have lost that very healthy irreverence & scepticism and are today saddled with way too much haughty hard-faced tedium and an expectation that we blindly trust authority figures.