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Reviews
The Singing Detective (1986)
What TV should be like
The Singing Detective is without doubt the best TV programme and one of the best films or serials I have ever seen. It is highly intelligent, complex and often disturbing. As a viewer, you sit glued to the TV, wondering where Dennis Potter is taking you and trying to work out what the various strands are leading up to. For me (highly critical viewer of a vast number of films) fascination was total and I cannot wait to tape it when it is next shown here.
A must for any film buff!
America's Sweethearts (2001)
predictable and cringe-making
What was Billy Crystal thinking when he wrote this? Perhaps the rumour I heard is true that the film was made from an unfinished script. Nothing else could explain the dreary predictability of the plot, which was only relieved by some moderately amusing stretches for most of the film. The acting was uninspired, as though the cast knew all along that this film was not worth the effort. About 20 minutes before the end things went from bad to worse and I literally cringed until the credits came up.
Only real highlights:
- the make-up job that converted a far too thin Julia Roberts into a fatso
- having free tickets
Verdict: 2 out of 10
Wo hu cang long (2000)
Give me Jackie Chan any day
Rarely have I been so disappointed in a film. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had been highly praised in all the national and international reviews available, leading a moderately full cinema last Friday night to expect an interesting plot, exciting fight scenes and visual artistry. Instead, the audience soon became restless.
My most damning criticism has to be that for the first time ever I found a film dull within minutes of its opening. Our row of seats consumed unheard-of quantities of chocolate and popcorn to compensate for the obvious lack of tension. We remained uninterested in the fate of the protagonists throughout and considered leaving the film before the end but stayed on because we did not fancy braving the sub-zero temperature outside.
Having seen several older films of genre on television, I had looked forward to the first fight scene. The audience collectively leant back to enjoy the fun, watched for a while and then started sniggering. Not only are the fight scenes not particularly well choreographed, they are astonishingly badly filmed. Instead of filming them like dance sequences, i.e. as full body shots, the film's makers give us small snippets of arms flashing in front of faces. There are countless multiple somersaults ending in about a second of slowing-down, like a rocket going into reverse acceleration, where the special effects people have obviously had to play around in order to have the actor appear to land on the ground and not several inches about it. The "best" bit in the entire film was when a character flew off, body rigid, one arm stretched out above his head. At least half a dozen voices in the cinema, including mine, simultaneously cried out "Superman."
Give me Jackie Chan any day!