There'r strong characters in this film with good plotting and comic magazine ethos and cheekiness. The entertainment value is high and atmospheric.
The continuity faults etc can't detract from the overall quality of the film.
Reviews
8 Reviews
The most watchable episode in the series
22 November 2017
This is the most watchable because the fair story is truly boosted by the acting skills of Soul, Glaser and especially Joanna Cassidy whose chilling and then warm performance lifts it to eery heights. For a change it's Starsky where we might expect Hutchinson. The direction is fair and involving though could've been tighter - that'd definitely have strengthened the story. The chief letdown is the poor editing: one scene ought not to be there in the beginning. I've been a fan since the eighties and re-appreciating the series...some episodes are forgettable...but the Avenger abides...
Die Another Day
(2002)
Astro Bond
3 September 2017
The first 25 minits is promising and forgivable: Bond languishing and of tricks? Bond can make mistakes. Yes, all right, all right but there'd better be some stupendous compensation. A flashback t put things in context? Or perhaps he's been sabotaging North Korean Kim sperm bank?
Alas, none of that...quite the opposite.
Then like a bad case of diarrhoea, it's all over the shop. Just as in TWINE, Brosnan tries so hard...but very unevenly so. He isn't helpt by the inept direction, inept script, inept chipboard acting, inept cgi...CGI?! It adds a silly plastic cartoonish element - quite obvious in the more outlandish stuntwork. So many nails in the coffin being self-hammered. Plot less, clueless, no real villainy, No searing intrigue, no characterisation, no STORY... Yet more badly sewn patchwork quiltiness. High on astro-boyish gadgetry...the odd line sparkles amongst the thickly wooden acting. Cleese should not be in Bond film. Samantha Bond....is she Munnypenny owing to her name? I can't think of any other reason. Rosamund Pike ought to have cast is the bond girl... Halle Berry - is good t look at all right (ante/post cosmetic surgery) but her acting, well, welcome the woods. I see Tomahori directed 'once we were worriors' he's made this 'once this was James Bond'. Daniel Craig has not helpt - he simply cannot act. He thinks 'one' rhymes with 'gone' - not 'fun'. Bond will be back. Still awaiting his return as is a martini. we yet remain unstird and unshaken.
Alas, none of that...quite the opposite.
Then like a bad case of diarrhoea, it's all over the shop. Just as in TWINE, Brosnan tries so hard...but very unevenly so. He isn't helpt by the inept direction, inept script, inept chipboard acting, inept cgi...CGI?! It adds a silly plastic cartoonish element - quite obvious in the more outlandish stuntwork. So many nails in the coffin being self-hammered. Plot less, clueless, no real villainy, No searing intrigue, no characterisation, no STORY... Yet more badly sewn patchwork quiltiness. High on astro-boyish gadgetry...the odd line sparkles amongst the thickly wooden acting. Cleese should not be in Bond film. Samantha Bond....is she Munnypenny owing to her name? I can't think of any other reason. Rosamund Pike ought to have cast is the bond girl... Halle Berry - is good t look at all right (ante/post cosmetic surgery) but her acting, well, welcome the woods. I see Tomahori directed 'once we were worriors' he's made this 'once this was James Bond'. Daniel Craig has not helpt - he simply cannot act. He thinks 'one' rhymes with 'gone' - not 'fun'. Bond will be back. Still awaiting his return as is a martini. we yet remain unstird and unshaken.
Alien: Resurrection
(1997)
Alien: The Panto
24 August 2017
And there you were leaving the Pictures after being short-changed by Fincher's Alien 3. Well, good news...it gets much better - for the short-changer that is. I mean the Alien Resurrection manages to out bad Alien 3 in badness. How on earth does it manage such a feat you might rightly wonder: well, a plot is a definite no-show; a story? admittedly, it's a rehash of previous bits that'll pass muster (again) for those aficionados...And to make it a fait accompli certainty - get a French director, who'l, bet you franc to a centime, inject equal measures of: French philosophising, romance (well, foreplay, and dance...
(note to french directors: can u please make a decent picture sans philosophy? Yes I'm talking to you, Mr besson, Mr goddard et al - leave it at the Sorbonne).
The plot and action of the actors in scenes is beyond comic - it really is Alien in Pantoland. All that was missing from the Alien piece de resistance was a: 'Ripley, it's behind you!'Or (C'est derriere toi!) n'est-Ce pas, jean-Pierre?
(note to french directors: can u please make a decent picture sans philosophy? Yes I'm talking to you, Mr besson, Mr goddard et al - leave it at the Sorbonne).
The plot and action of the actors in scenes is beyond comic - it really is Alien in Pantoland. All that was missing from the Alien piece de resistance was a: 'Ripley, it's behind you!'Or (C'est derriere toi!) n'est-Ce pas, jean-Pierre?
The World Is Not Enough
(1999)
a bond unbonded
19 August 2017
This is a Bond adrift.. Sure there'r the explosions, beautiful woman...as if these elements alone could possibly the film. Pity the producers thought so. Innuendo was made for Bond; Bond was not made for innuendo.
Casting Cleese is a mistake. the comedic element is again given centre stage rather being kept in the wings, so to speak.
Brosnan does try his hardest, and this is to be cummendid. Coltrane as Zukovsky is excellent. However, Denise Richard's acting leaves much to be desired. she and Marceau who is miscast - sink the film. Unfortunately her Frenchiness is all too evident plus she has very littl chemistry with Carlyle - who isn't bad as the villain but is under-written which detracts badly and adds t the film's incoherence. A very promising start though Maria Grazia Cucinotta is all too fleeting- pity, she'd'v' lifted the film no end I daresay. But the bathos overtakes... the action sequences are more set pieces rather than augmenting the overall plot - which is little existent. This picture doesn't care for the viewer much, I mean taking them to exotic sunny locations that ooze with espionagy atmosphere (I must ask did someone forget that JB is a actually a 'spy'?) Back t basics.
Casting Cleese is a mistake. the comedic element is again given centre stage rather being kept in the wings, so to speak.
Brosnan does try his hardest, and this is to be cummendid. Coltrane as Zukovsky is excellent. However, Denise Richard's acting leaves much to be desired. she and Marceau who is miscast - sink the film. Unfortunately her Frenchiness is all too evident plus she has very littl chemistry with Carlyle - who isn't bad as the villain but is under-written which detracts badly and adds t the film's incoherence. A very promising start though Maria Grazia Cucinotta is all too fleeting- pity, she'd'v' lifted the film no end I daresay. But the bathos overtakes... the action sequences are more set pieces rather than augmenting the overall plot - which is little existent. This picture doesn't care for the viewer much, I mean taking them to exotic sunny locations that ooze with espionagy atmosphere (I must ask did someone forget that JB is a actually a 'spy'?) Back t basics.
Tomorrow Never Dies
(1997)
Bond? Slough of Despond!
12 August 2017
Bit of a patchwurk quilt of set pieces, this wun and not too tightly stitcht together. Weak story and plot. I feel sorry for Brosnan - he just didn't get the breaks although he's a much better actor than Craig - and can pronounce 'one' 'wun' -correctly unlike the northerner Craig who's not really a good actor.
Incoherent story telling, too much vehicular for 'stars' Michelle Yeoh - there because of Crouching Tiger. And gadgets and BMW - car, motorbike...and more gadgets galor really are the stars. Bond (litrally takes a back seat).
The dialog seems choppy and wooden...and the villain...more suited to panto in Brighton. Always cringewurthy when non-actors appear...the directors, the producers really let this wun go. And the americanising in the film eg 'elevator' instead of 'lift' is just plain inauthentic. This is a very dull blunt unengaging soulless Bond. No amount of gadgetry nor stunting (some just silly) can substitute plot and story. This is just amateur...Alas.
Incoherent story telling, too much vehicular for 'stars' Michelle Yeoh - there because of Crouching Tiger. And gadgets and BMW - car, motorbike...and more gadgets galor really are the stars. Bond (litrally takes a back seat).
The dialog seems choppy and wooden...and the villain...more suited to panto in Brighton. Always cringewurthy when non-actors appear...the directors, the producers really let this wun go. And the americanising in the film eg 'elevator' instead of 'lift' is just plain inauthentic. This is a very dull blunt unengaging soulless Bond. No amount of gadgetry nor stunting (some just silly) can substitute plot and story. This is just amateur...Alas.
Prometheus
(I) (2012)
Patchy, hammish and amateurish
15 January 2017
This is an amateur rush job with incoherent unnecessary elements that jut out like sore thumbs - worthy of a cartoony loony tunes effort that almost parodies the more seamless and logical story lines of earlier Alien - and Aliens, and dares to ride cheap on their coat tails. Naomi is utterly miscast. Her English accent is a cardboard papier mache type. Guy Pearce is superfluous. Matching Naomi in cosmic hamminess is Idris Elba's acting - woefully wooden. The twists and turns have all the impact of broccoli gloop on a cold plate. Fassbender might as well not have bothered. Badly edited, silly story line and wasted opportunities. Let's hope prometheus II - covenant is better bowled.
Carry on Follow That Camel
(1967)
Passes muster - gets better with age
21 December 2016
Regardless of which title it goes by, this film is enjoyable- though somewhat tepid for a Carry On full throttle. I remember watching it as a child - but as an adult now, I'm more appreciative of the story line (yes, there is one), the clever innuendos and British humour charged double entendres: Nookie, Nocker, camp 68, Mustapha Leke, Le Pice. I've no idea why Carry Ons haven't been big in North America- suppose that's why Sergeant Bilko-Phil Silvers was drafted in - and he does very well to hold his own. Carry-Ons are more Are You Being Served rather than Monty Python. The other cast members Dale, Williams, Butterworth, Hawtrey are once again, superb examples of their craft - particularly impressive is the turn of the ever reliable Williams as the German commandant, as is Bresslaw as the excellent Arab chief. As I have mentioned, this is rather carry-on lite - subdued perhaps owing to the absence of Sid James, and or indeed to less screen time to women though they do get a fair bit compensatory exposure. Anita Harris is a revelation, but Angela Douglas is a bit more staid in this - the late great Joan Sims with and emphatic character presence is unfortunately and inexplicably underused and muted.
What also must be noted, is the eerily prophetic/authentic terrorism theme. How harmless then - but the same thinking is a driver now. (The Arabic is impressively authentic though the words are in the wrong order! and some bizarre 'abdul' (actually means 'slave of'...)is made cultic.
All in all, an understated Carry On but doesn't let you down too much.
What also must be noted, is the eerily prophetic/authentic terrorism theme. How harmless then - but the same thinking is a driver now. (The Arabic is impressively authentic though the words are in the wrong order! and some bizarre 'abdul' (actually means 'slave of'...)is made cultic.
All in all, an understated Carry On but doesn't let you down too much.
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