Reviews

Based on my experience, the distributors may have committed a terrible misjudgement for they should have made this a film for TV rather than the cinema. There were 4 people in total when we went to watch the film and that was par for the course for the week apparently. The cinema manager suggested it would be pulled pretty quickly.

Such a shame, because it is a fine film, excellent when the scenes are based in Belfast, with ALL the actors who played the Irish parts absolutely first class. You felt you were in Belfast and the tension took you there. Location scenes good.

Less so the part played by Gillian Anderson. She was OK but a bit wooden. The MI5 scenes generally did not get off the ground until near the end when there was a great twist.

Clive Owen was the biggest enigma of the film. I am still not sure if he was OK, average or weak in the part he played. First impressions were could have been done better definitely, but the low-key interpretation may have had some merit. Owen just seemed to drift through it all and when he got angry it fell flat.

I would recommend anyone to go and watch this well-directed film. It is a good story from the writer which needs all the support it can get based on our experience of row after row of empty seats.

People tend to forget their history even that happened in their lifetime. Tragic truth be told.

Plot very thin at best and full of holes at worst. OK acting apart from Bill Nighy who irritated, though to be fair his script was unhelpful and repetitive.

In that period a film about Britain, with the appeasement of many of the upper classes prevalent, should have lent itself to a much better effort than this.

The scene near the end at the vets out in the sticks was truly bizarre, when poor old Lawrence was found in a bag.

A poor man's,(or woman's), 39 steps.

Now that was glorious.

If this film was meant as a bit of fun for just under two hours then fine. After wearing my serious historical hat in vain for about 30 minutes, I then settled down with this in mind. Trouble is no-one in the very small audience even raised the quietest chuckle, so maybe they were expecting something different all the way through?

It is impossible to really analyse the acting skills too much because of the style of the film. That said I liked the portrayal of Louis, King of France, again for the laugh, while Orlando Bloom must have watched countless Leslie Phillips films to perfect such a sound-a-like voice. And he was playing the Duke of Buckingham.

I thought the actress who played Milady was effective, but D'Artagnan with his American accent and who was towered over by most of the others, was very wooden. So too the beautiful blonde lady servant to the Queen, whom he was casting eyes at for most of the film. To be fair she was given little to say. Their chemistry did not exist. Poor casting or poor acting or maybe both? As for the Three Musketeers themselves well they did what they had to do with various degrees of enthusiasm and at times who could blame them. Their rapport, shown at the beginning of the film, soon evaporated when D'Artagnan arrived on the scene and four was certainly a crowd here.

The fighting scenes throughout were a cross between those true to the fencing, Jackie Chan and the Spanish Armada in the sky.

Go to the cinema the day when the prices are lowest, don't expect too much and just treat it as a reasonable way of spending some spare time.

I have seen the original on many occasions so there are bound to be comparisons in my own mind. However the Alec Guinness-led version has much longer to expand the characters so that must always be taken into account.

The most important factor is whether you would recommend someone to go and see this film and the answer is a definite yes. So what of the film are the best and the not-so-brilliant? Excellent were Gary Oldman, as good as Guinness and less frustrating in his meekness and Tom Hardy as Ricki Tarr. Very good were the rest of the cast, with the exception of Benedict Cumberbatch and Stephen Graham.

These fine actors are obviously perfectly capable, but were. for me miscast. Cumberbatch was far too young for Peter Guillam, the man who "ran" Ricki Tarr as his boss, underlined by the fact he is only one year older in "real-life" and comfortably looked it. The last time I saw Stephen Graham was as Billy Bremner in The Damned United and with his scouser accent it just did not work for me in the role he was given.

Unfortunately the climax to the film when the "mole" is revealed was over in a flash and there were times in the film where we spent longer watching the pouring out a glass of whisky or the many silences to music.

The Director also failed completely to give us even the remotest idea as to why the "mole" had served his Soviet masters for so long and betrayed his country and colleagues, sending people to their death. The late scene including the traitor and Oldman promised to do so but then ended, again far too quickly. The film was unbalanced with a slow start and a rather speedy conclusion.

That been said it was a good film, but I have to say that I was just a touch disappointed. I was hoping for better and the reaction of the small audience when I viewed the film, upon the end was a bit like "is that it"? I have given the film 8/10 but it could easily have been a 7 mark and viewers would do well to concentrate hard or else they will in trouble following the plot. There are so many short scenes that quickly move on. Hence the inability of the director to allow most of the character's profiles to be made better known to the audience, who would then find the end scenes more satisfactory as a result.

I would suggest another Director is given the opportunity to work on the Smiley's People follow-up, with Oldman in place and definitely a new Peter Guillam.

First the good bits and that mainly centres around Simone Signoret, who as usual is excellent. But this poses a problem, for the "love-affair" of the film, which involves her and a young Gordon Jackson who looks and acts as though he had never been out of Cowdenbeath. So hardly the material to interest a sophisticated European lady as played by Ms. Signoret. Not good casting, indeed one of the more ridiculous romantic combinations in the history of motion pictures.

That being said the film, in black and white, has some atmosphere, tension and you feel that you are there, which is important. The rather bizarre casting continues, however, with the unlikely scenario of a rather elderly Jack Warner playing the part of a commando. Still if he was still an active policeman at 80 years of age in Dixon of Dock Green , who are we to argue with his credentials. In addition he is part of the two most memorable scenes in the film, one when he meets the Irish girl working for the Germans and secondly when he has to contend with a very angry Ms. Signoret holding a pistol.

James Robertson Justice is, as always, very believable as the organiser of the missions working from base and there are some good supporting actors who play around his character. For some reason the part played by John Slater irritated me from start to finish, though the rest of the cast, including Robert Beatty, were sound if a touch wooden.

I would summarise this film as a pleasant and nostalgic way to spend a rainy afternoon and if it is on sale for around £5 then worth a look.