liam-18 Reviews

A Bit of Fry and Laurie (1987–1995)

I want all of this on dvd now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[19 December 2003]

A real gem of a program for anyone who likes their humour dry with a hint of genius! It is said that there are two types of comedy performers, clowns and wits but Fry & Laurie break this rule from the off. With perfect awareness of their characters physical presence they bring the intelligent, charming, surreal and downright odd sketches to life with zest and sheer love of wordplay and being silly for the sake of it. Note to the BBC please pull your finger out and release every last bit of this fine comedy series on dvd right now!

Enemy at the Gates (2001)

Great idea for a film poorly handled.

[5/10 · 9 December 2003]

I remember saying to my brother in 1994/95 that the story of the 2 snipers(or should I say 4) hunting each other down in wartorn Stalingrad would make an excellent film if it was done right, sadly this is not the film I had in my head. Give Wolfgang Petersen 20 actors, and permission to film in some godforsaken industrial wasteland in present day eastern Europe with a host of cheap extras and you would get the goods, i.e something intense, realistic and tightly edited. Instead we are treated to film by commity as boring, ineptly handled and inappropiate romance is injected into this film which drags the whole thing down, featuring the worst sex scene I have seen in a long time. What should have been a tight 80-90mins ends up over the 2 hour mark. As well as this the humour is dire, characters shallow and action scenes have no real tension. If you want an example of war films at their best check out "Beast of war", "Das boot" & "Stalingrad".

The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978 TV Movie)

The horror! the horror!!!!

[1/10 · 17 October 2003]

The worst thing I have ever seen in my entire life! Ed Wood's "Plan 9 from outer space" looks like oscar winning material compared with this soul destroying, bowel shuddering, mind rotting well of unspeakableness! My advice is watch once and then spend the rest of your life recovering, with the words "Holiday special" making you vomit any time you hear them. I expect George Lucas's last words are going to be "HOLIDAY SPECIAL.........?????!!!!!"

Gorgo (1961)

The Irish Godzilla.

[10/10 · 17 October 2003]

It's nice to know that Ireland has it's own huge, radioactive, pissed off reptile. I would love to see Gorgo and Godzilla sizing up to each other and flattening most of Dublin in the process(why should the Japanese have all the fun?). We could finally find a use for the giant spike that they have built in the Capital, as the two monsters compete to impale each other on it. I would go and pay money to see that.

Desert Hearts (1985)

An all time classic.

[10/10 · 7 September 2003]

Classic is an overused term, but not in the case of this movie!. I first saw it in 1990 when I was 17 and it had a huge impact on me, I had never really enjoyed romances before with the possible exception of "Marty", but this movie with the 2 very attractive, intelligent, charming leads(Helen Shaver & Patricia Charbonneau), insightful script, subtle direction and gorgeous landscape shocked and moved me. I had never seen women express such profound sexual yearning for one another before, and even in this day of lesbian chiqe this is THE lesbian movie in my mind. I would like to see this movie given the credit it deserves, for starters I would like to see a deluxe DVD re-issue, complete with a documentry including interviews with the cast and crew, background notes about the novel it is based on "Desert of the heart" by Jane Rule, etc, etc. With the 20th anniversery approaching I think a campaign should be started to rescue this movie from "cult" status and put it where it belongs.

An Everlasting Piece (2000)

A movie so bad it's really bad! 1 point too much!

[1/10 · 27 June 2003]

Happy, crappy "feel good" (it made me feel bad) so-called comedy(I thought comedies were supposed to make you laugh?) I come from Northern Ireland and I found this leap upon the peace process band-wangon condesending and feeble. Even the great Billy Connolly and the gorgeous Anna Friel can't save this turkey.....avoid.

The Lord of the Rings (1978)

A flawed masterpiece.

[10/10 · 28 August 2002]

I have a confession to make, I have watched this movie over 300 times since the early 80's, usually in the company of my brother(it was he who introduced me to it after his form teacher at school showed it repeatly to the class) or friends. Now does this movie stand up to repeated viewing? Ok the animation can veer from 1978 state of the art to decidely dodgey, there are gapping holes in the plot, it has a very abrupt ending and a few other niggles, but the these can been seen as resulting from a desperatly small budget which criminally robbed the director of at least finishing the task he set himself. The good points of this movie far overtake the bad, it has excellent atmospheric music, fine voice talent, good character animation, some moody backgrounds, tight directing and a real feel for the world of Tolkien. Peter Jackson may have made the nearest thing to a perfect film inteperation of "The lord of the rings" that we will ever see, but the 1978 version should not be overlooked or dismissed out of hand, it has a place in film history.