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uglyklown
Reviews
Dot and the Kangaroo (1977)
Beware the Bunyip!!!
This film was repeatedly shown on british TV early on Saturday mornings, and I NEVER missed it. Boy did I love this film in the 80's whilst growing up. Well now nearly 30 (BOO HOO!!), nostalgia starts kicking in and I started to remember what I loved about the 80's. I remembered this movie and set off using the world wide web to track a copy down. I found help from a most unusual source, the director himself! Yoram Gross helped me obtain, via e-mails from Oz, a DVD copy. HOW COOL! Was I disapointed?
No............
The film looks dated, then so do I. Compared to the excellent CGI these days used for animated giants like Shrek and Toy Story this comes last in the egg and spoon race. But this film oodles charm. The story is very innocent, even compared to Shrek and Toy Story, and children will love it. Now I'm definately not one of those people who bang on about films causing kids to rebel and hurt, maim and kill folks. But if you are this film will only cause your kids to "jump in the pouch of a red kangaroo, hippety hoppety, hippety hop". I had not heard the songs for maybe 20 years yet still knew nearly every word. The way the animation is mixed with real time footage is charming and adds to the film, even if Roger Rabbit did it 100 times better. The animals are truly adorable and you warm to them all, exept the Bunyip which is just frightening enough for the age it's aimed at, still don't wanna meet one at 30 though!!!
So dated, yes. Fun, massively. Heart warming, definately. Memorable.........."Quack, quack, quack, quack, all we wanna do all day is quack.......quack, quack......QUACK!"
Restless Natives (1985)
The clown and wolfman rules!
There has not been a finer film made in Scotland ever, so sod you braveheart.........
I saw this film at the cinema and was captured by it. The film is about two every day losers who are trying to find a way to escape their every day drudgery and make some cash too. So they come up with a way of robbing American tourist cruising the highlands on coach tours. After some trial and error they invent the clown and wolfman routine and become Scotland's public enemy number one.
The film has charm, love interests, robin hood influences, comedy and will's wart...........
Also for all those Two Towers fans get a chance to see Bernard Hill before his defence of Helm's deep.
A small note to Warner Bros. who own the distribution rights to this film. Get it on DVD now. This is unavailable on DVD or VHS anywhere in the world. I have no way of seeing this gem without paying £40 plus on EBAY for some dodgy secondhand ex-rental copy. So pull your fingers out, and let others find this little beauty.....
Condorman (1981)
Ready for a Re-make.............
I saw this on VHS rental in the early 80's and remember it with massive fondness. Over here in the UK the film has been deleted from VHS for over a decade so my chance to see this film again was nil.
So along came DVD, I had no player and this was only available in the US. I bought a player that could play all regions and imported me a copy, and when it bounced through the letterbox to the floor I was like a kid at Christmas.
This is the story of an American comic book artist drawing his books from Paris. His best friend, and flat mate, is a CIA office clerk. When a job comes up for a civilian to carry out, Woody is recruited. After the success of the first mission, all be it by pure luck, Woody is requested by a KGB agent to help her defect.
Now this film is still one of my favourites at the age of 30. And that's not seeing through rose tinted glasses anymore. This film is funny and you really wanna see the good guys win. The gadgets blow James Bond away and I dare anybody who doesn't wanna own a old wagon that converts to a car, or a massive condorman suit that helps you fly.
Now for the bad bits. The film doesn't relate to today's audience with the cold war long since dead and the Russians our friends and allies now. Michael Crawford will always be Condorman to me, but his American accent is very poor. The films print looks lifeless with no colour and the music still lives in 80's ville. Also the plot is very loose, why they went across the alps and through small villages when they could of got on a plane and been in the US in a few hours is never explained. But please do not let this put you off. This is a gem of a movie that still makes me wanna be Condorman. So Speilberg you ever make a remake of this count me in...........