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Reviews (11)
13 March 2008
Live And Let Die? Let Die.
0 of 2 found this helpful I bought this because I'm a fan of James Bond films, but had never seen Live And Let Die. Now I've finally watched it, I don't intend to do so again. My impression was that this film amounts to a series of not particularly exciting chases and a tepid romance between Roger Moore's Bond and Jane Seymour's character, Solitaire. Of course, there is a plot involving Yaphet Kotto's villain, Mr. Big, some voodoo and some drugs, but nothing that has really stayed with me because I found the film so dull. This is not to knock Roger's James Bond - his The Spy Who Loved Me, for example, is among the very best of the series - but merely to knock Live And Let Die, which also includes a number of irritating racial stereotypes who'd be highly unlikely to crop up on film nowadays. A huge disappointment. Avoid.
12 March 2008
The Best Blackadder
I bought this because I owned it on video but no longer had a video machine to play it on. It remains as fresh and funny as ever and is still the best of the Blackadder series - which is saying something considering the quality of Blackadder Goes Forth (also highly recommended)and to a slightly lesser extent Blackadder The Third. Television comedy at its most amusing.
13 March 2008
Pre-War Winston
3 of 3 found this helpful This is a fascinating reminder that everything wasn't always rosy in the Churchill garden. Albert Finney, who will one day be rightly remembered as a "National Treasure" in Britain - if not to the same extent as the great leader he portrays here - gives yet another of his acting masterclasses as Sir Winston, making it clear that, whatever his many qualities, Churchill could also be an extremely difficult proposition, with his manic depression, bad temper and determination to live as he pleased even when it had clearly become beyond his means. This film is set during the period immediately prior to the Second World War, when Churchill was generally regarded as an irrelevant nuisance within his own party and a spent force in politics. Through sheer force of will and a refusal to back down in the face of unpopularity within the House of Commons (and with a little help from those loyal to him), he gradually impresses on his fellow MP's that, even though no-one wants to believe another war is imminent, Germany is secretly arming itself for that very purpose. On top of his struggles in the House, Sir Winston also has to deal with feelings of domestic loneliness and jealousy caused by his beloved wife taking an unexpected long trip abroad. Vanessa Redgrave is, predictably, outstanding as Clemmie, his long-suffering spouse, and the remainder of the cast, which includes Jim Broadbent as a Whitehall mandarin sympathetic to Churchill's suspicions, Derek Jacobi as Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin (who really doesn't want to know), and the late, lamented Ronnie Barker making one of his final appearances as Churchill's butler, David Inches, rises to the occasion. This fantastic warts-and-all portrayal of one of the truly Great Britons during a crucial transitional period in modern history also serves as a reminder that the right approach is not always the desirable one, and that one of the strengths of democracy is it allows even a lone voice crying in the wilderness to be heard. Wonderful.