Reviews

I enjoy most SF and fantasy fare, and am always happy to make allowances for rough edges and failings where a film seems to deserve such indulgence. However, it would be unnecessarily generous to imply that Immortel ad Vitam is anything other than rubbish. It's overblown and tedious and it offers nothing that you have not seen done better in countless other films. Anyone who is familiar with the works of Philip K Dick, Frank Herbert and Roger Zelazny will see just how much shameless ripping-off is going on here, and (my only real complaint about this) how badly such material is being wasted. The same could be said of the excellent Charlotte Rampling.

Having read several of the reviews on IMDb, I expected this film to be something of a crapfest. However, while it would be fair to say it is by no means a masterpiece, it is also far from dreadful; it is also not such a bad way of passing time - provided you do not have a hot date arranged with an elderly Welsh actress named Sian Phillips (and if you do, *please* allow me to take your place!).

Obviously made somewhat on the cheap, Ghost Ship boasts some superlatively subdued special effects of the sort that you might easily miss if you blink - or even do not look closely enough. But it does have a coherent if insubstantial story, and a decent enough cast. In particular I would praise Emily Browning and Isaiah Washington; Gabriel Byrne, of course, is as dependable as ever.

If you must know, the film concerns the efforts of a stereotypical salvage crew to recover a passenger liner that has been drifting for around 40 years. It isn't going to scare the pants off you and it isn't going to sear itself into your memory; but if you have nothing better to do, you could do worse than watch it.

I do not make a practice of watching Holby (aka Holby City). It is a highly propagandistic and ridiculously unrealistic hospital soap, and on the few occasions I have seen it I have been astonished at its rose-coloured view of the NHS.

However, a very good friend advised me that this particular episode included a certain Welsh actress called Sian Phillips. As Sian is my GODDESS, I had no alternative: watch it I must!

It should be noted that the generous 7 out of 10 I have awarded for this episode is entirely due to the presence of the exquisite one; it could easily have been 10 out of 10, had there been a scene in which Sian had been required to remove all of her clothing and be examined in detail by a handsome young doctor.

I watched this film because it includes a performance by Sian Phillips (who is my goddess). I am sorry to say it is a pretty dreadful production all round - as gloomy and tedious as they come, with performances that for the most part can best be described as adequate. One notable exception is the portrayal of a fishmonger by Barbara Young (Sadie from the TV series "Family Affairs"); it is a very small role, but she plays it to perfection.

It may be worth mentioning, for the benefit of sensitive viewers, that toward the end of this film there is some quite horrific violence that seems wholly out of place in view of the preceding tone. I felt sickened - not because I am squeamish, but because I felt that this was a desperate attempt to enliven a terminally dreary story.