Reviews

I would love to express how truly dreadful this film is in words, but words fail me! We wondered if it might have been intended to be a spoof, but then it lacks any humour.

Even my 8 year old daughter who loves anything to do with fairies or princesses lost interest after 15 minutes and started playing a game instead.

Acting - dire. (And we were absolutely gobsmacked to find Simon Callow making an appearance. No wonder he didn't want to be credited). Only the horse was believable!

Story line - primary school children have written better plots with more well developed characters.

Everything - absolutely everything about this film sucks: the cinematography, the special effects, the music, the acting, the casting.

You can see from my review history that I really hate leaving negative reviews. But if I can spare any other parents or children the ordeal of having to watch even 2 minutes of this then I feel it is my duty.

Easter family film night - the obvious choice really.

Still remains the best adaptation of the Gospels if you ask me. Highly accurate, and the characterisations & the narrative blank filling are all plausibly done. Even the reference to Sepphoris at the beginning is an interesting inclusion ... I never realised it's existence 'til one of my college lecturers asked the question "Could Jesus have been alluding to Sepphoris when he talked about a city on a hill?"

My children all had lots of relevant questions which showed they were comprehending what was going on and attempting to make it relate to what they already know. And the crucial Passion week events are all done superbly for a child audience.

Still kind of amazing that film 4 were involved with this production - can't imagine them doing such a straight Biblical interpretation now.

Seemed like an appropriate film to watch once again over the Easter weekend.

My 3rd viewing of the film now. It's naturally lost some of the impact of the very first viewing but still incredibly powerful. The brutality of the events still made me flinch and look-away on several occasions, though it was actually the events leading up to the more graphic scenes which made me well up a little.

It is possible to watch through 'humanistic' eyes as simply a story of man's inhumanity to man; tyranny of the majority etc. Though obviously it has far more impact if viewed with some theological understanding and sympathy.

The film does a superb job of accurately bringing the scriptures off the page - though obviously for the narrative gaps the Catholic influence is very evident. I think the portrayal of Satan and his subtle, sinister background appearances throughout give a really good portrayal of the fact that this wasn't just a Stansford Prison scenario but a real spiritual battle too. If nothing else then the film should at least be capable of dispelling the "Jesus the meek & mild hippie" image.

Wonder what it would have been like to be in Jerusalem that day?

Hope that familiarity never breeds contempt with this one.

What an awesome film - definitely worthy of all it's accolades. Hard hitting, challenging, poignant, entertaining, uplifting all at the same time.

Really don't understand the BBFC ratings though. This was a 15, but trailers beforehand were for films rated 12 which seemed to focus exclusively on guns, violence & menace. Yet here's a film which contained very little bad language, violence but not in the least bit gratuitous or gory (it was nice to be left to use our imagination on some of the scenes), a love interest with NO sex what-so-ever!, and a message where honesty, integrity, faithfulness & hope prevail - yet this is a 15! Go figure.

The scenes of slum life were thoroughly sobering & depressing. They certainly give an appreciation of the rule of law and of economic justice & fair play that we have as our cultural foundation and our inheritance. Got me thinking how would you ever lift a country out of such a malaise, and also how quickly/easily it would be to sink into one.

This is cinema at it's best - harrowing & uplifting. What more could you want?!

Being a child of the Madchester music scene, viewing Control seemed almost essential. Never did 'get into' Joy Division, but New Order were my introduction to all things Madchester, so the legends & legacy of all things Joy Division/Ian Curtis/Factory Records always have some fascination for me.

Dead rock-stars instantly get Legendary status. Ian Curtis is one of them but I actually knew very little about him. Two hours of "Control" and you still don't really feel you know him particularly any better, except to say that he seemed incredibly self-centred & immature. Maybe we don't know him better because if the portrayal is accurate he was incredibly withdrawn and insular. He was obviously a 'tortured soul' but if the film is at all an accurate reflection then he doesn't really elicit much sympathy. Most of the torture is self-inflicted. The only thing in his defense was that he was incredibly young with some of the additional pressures of fame - so no surprise that he was a bit stupid & selfish. Real sympathy must go to his wife and fellow band mates. Though the credits reveal that the film is based on the memoirs of his widow so maybe a little jaundiced.

The film itself is over-long ... lots of long, arty scenes of Ian smoking! Lots of swearing which maybe accurate [... though reading a review by his daughter reveals that at least one of the characters never swears so profusely in real life!] but still grates. But the outstanding thing has got to be the performances of the band characters - seem to have got all the mannerisms & nuances down to a tee. And the music itself is a treat.

Sad to discover that Tony Wilson died just days after the film was completed. What an interesting character Tony was!

Thought I'd introduce my 12 year old son to the wonders of 1980's kids TV. I failed ... or rather the film did.

They've taken out all the charm, thrown in lots of bad language & blasphemy and over complicated the plot (neither myself, my wife or my son really comprehended what was going on in the end!) - presumably to make it appeal to it's now adult audience.

What they should have done is kept it as simple, in-offensive, light- hearted & fun as the original so that the adults could reminisce and the kids be introduced to it's maverick charm. It's neither adult or family- friendly ... falls firmly on it's face between both stools.

If you want to see an improved & contemporised "A Team -esque" film, I'd recommend the Oceans series rather than this.

An endearing, feel-good (unless you're Plymouth Brethren!), 1980's nostalgia fest. A bit of a cross between "Kes" & "Gregory's Girl". If you haven't watched either of those 2 films - or if you have watched them and didn't like them - then I doubt whether this film will do much for you.

If you can't relate to being in awe of a 'cool' French exchange student; or the thrill of being allowed in the hallowed ground of a 6th form common room; or dancing to The Cure, Duran Duran & Gary Numan, then you're unlikely to feel much of a connection with the characters in this film. It has so many uniquely 1980's British cultural references I suspect a lot of overseas audiences will be left just scratching their heads.

I also don't understand why they had to have so much bad language & blasphemy in it otherwise it would have been a really good family film. Why do British film producers do that? :o(

Just watched this with my wife, my 5 yr old & my 4 yr old for our regular Saturday night film night. We didn't make it to the end ... we all disliked it.

It's almost as if they couldn't decide who they were making the film for ... but one thing is for certain, it wasn't for children. Here's a few reasons for not watching it as a family film:

1) Way too much sexual overtone ... not the occasional clever innuendo that they often put in for the benefit of the adults, just plain sexual insinuations in songs, behaviour and speech.

2) The scary stuff was way too scary for little ones.

3) The story line was way too complex. The religious allegories, the alien allegories ... just too incomprehensible for children but too patronising for adults.

4) Full of the usual clichéd plot elements which seems more intent on making it's moral point than simply telling a story.

5) Too long.

Redeeming features that raise the score to 3 instead of 1 are the excellent graphics and excellent music ... but you can get those by buying a good music video compilation.

There seems to be a mindset now in some studios that as long as something is animated, it's a children's/family film. It's not. The best family entertainment films are those that are made explicitly with younger children in mind ... and then you weave in a few more subtle "adult" elements for the benefit of the grown ups. Those that seem to try and please everyone from the outset fall between two stools and fail miserably. Happy Feet is one of those. If they'd made a more simplistic, child appropriate film from the outset then I'm sure they could have weaved in a couple of elements for the grown-ups. As it is, it pleases no-one. A real disappointment.

Everything about this film is - well - average ... nothing outstandingly good or outstandingly bad.

After a bit of a slow & convoluted start, the tension level is quite high. But as other people have commented, the implausibility of parts of the storyline ends up detracting from the tension.

I ended up asking myself "Why" quite a bit. Didn't find myself caring that much about the characters and was able to guess some of the plot twists. Some not very convincing characters.

This is no "6th Sense" or Alfred Hitchcock. Basically a very middle-of-the-road thriller. Your wife might like it!

Really enjoyed this film. It's well paced and the characterisation of the leading people is all very convincing - not an easy job to do when the subjects are still alive and in the public eye.

Could have been an overly melodramatic or heavily political storyline (as I suspect it would have been if produced in the USA), but I think the producers have done a fantastic job of portraying it as a very human-interest story. They have treated the background politics in what seems a very even-handed way. Really got me and my wife thinking about the some of the conversations and emotions that would have been taking place behind the scenes during the week of Diana's death.

This film does a fantastic job of making you think of the tremendous public & political forces that shaped peoples behaviour in that week of history ... and of the sort of "background machinery" that influences & effects public offices week-in and week-out. It brought me to the conclusion (with the benefit of 10 years of history) that maybe the Queen might have been better not to have kowtowed so much to the irrational public hysteria. Watch it and see what you decide.

From the moment of the opening credits you know this is going to be a slooooowwwww film, and it doesn't disappoint. But that's about the only way it doesn't disappoint. It has just about every "first love" movie cliché you can possibly think of, and has nothing new to add to them.

Unlike Jack & Rose in Titanic, you have absolutely no empathy for the characters, and there seems to be no good reason for their lives to have crossed. The two main characters keep swapping personality traits throughout the film. First one is weak, the other strong. The next scene it's the other way around. A lot of their social behaviour is completely anachronistic.

Couldn't wait for the film to end. It almost (but not quite) made AI seem short!

There's no doubting the quality of the acting in this film. Leonado in particular is outstanding and Depp plays his role well too.

The subject matter presents such great possibilities and - thankfully - it certainly avoids all the potential Hollywood clichés that it would have been so easy to fall into. Unfortunately it avoids them so much that it just doesn't go anywhere much at all.

The film felt like 4 hours not 2 - which I guess helps us empathise with the lead character! And if the directors aim was to get us to feel empathy with Gilbert Grape then he's done an outstanding job. I now know what it's like to feel trapped, bored, numb, like I'm just passing time. Sorry, for all those of you who love it (my wife did!) it just didn't do anything for me.

This film succeeds for me in being exactly what it set out to be ... light hearted, low-effort, feel-good ENTERTAINMENT. It's strength lies in the self-parody - not only of the Spice Girls themselves but also some of the other cameo guest appearances [...some of which probably won't be appreciated by a non-UK audience].

Probably best watched (as I did!) with a cinema full of kids during the peak of the Spice Girls craze. Now that bubble has burst much of the appeal (& humour) has died with it. Still, it was FUN while it lasted.