I have never hidden my distaste for sequels - particularly when they are TV-movies - thus when I saw "To Sir With Love II - TVM" advertised in my satellite listings magazine, I determined to avoid it like the plague - until I saw who had directed it. Mr Peter Bogdanovich.
Peter was a "hot" director during the Seventies, but his star has diminished since. However, the quality of his work has NOT. I have seen a number of pieces by him recently - some made for TV - and his style and mastery of his craft have never failed to please.
So I elected to see a movie wild horses would not normally have dragged me to - a TV-movie sequel of a classic. And I was NOT disappointed.
Despite having cameos by Judy Geeson and Lulu, after spending the first ten minutes re-visiting the original, this new movie gets on with Mr Poitier's adventures in a Chicago inner-city school, where guns, ghetto-blasters, security-guards, metal-detectors and drugs are the norm - things which would have been UNTHINKABLE in even the TOUGHEST inner-London schools of the Sixties.
Yet thanks to intelligent writing, great acting AND direction, this movie manages - against ALL odds - to recapture ALL the spirit of the original.
Of course, like the original, it stretches credibility a little far - but come ON! This is a MOVIE. And as such, it'll make you feel good for the rest of the day!
Peter was a "hot" director during the Seventies, but his star has diminished since. However, the quality of his work has NOT. I have seen a number of pieces by him recently - some made for TV - and his style and mastery of his craft have never failed to please.
So I elected to see a movie wild horses would not normally have dragged me to - a TV-movie sequel of a classic. And I was NOT disappointed.
Despite having cameos by Judy Geeson and Lulu, after spending the first ten minutes re-visiting the original, this new movie gets on with Mr Poitier's adventures in a Chicago inner-city school, where guns, ghetto-blasters, security-guards, metal-detectors and drugs are the norm - things which would have been UNTHINKABLE in even the TOUGHEST inner-London schools of the Sixties.
Yet thanks to intelligent writing, great acting AND direction, this movie manages - against ALL odds - to recapture ALL the spirit of the original.
Of course, like the original, it stretches credibility a little far - but come ON! This is a MOVIE. And as such, it'll make you feel good for the rest of the day!