Reviews

written by the co-editor of Private Eye, Ian Hislop and Nick Newman and it shows. their love of the characters biting satirical humour in the face of the mud bath trenches of Flanders is plain to see and it works wonderfully. some critics have said that the device of punctuating the drama with faithful sketches taken from articles from the wipers times, got in the way of the story. but surely that is the point, humour in the face of a horrible drama. Chaplin as the sinister ringmaster/MC, complete with ghostly, flaking, pancake make up is brilliant, as is his co-star Rhind-Tutt. and there is a nice little cameo from Michael Palin as a sympathetic general. the 'Kermode six laugh test' was surpassed early on. oh, and i choked up a couple of times...

all in an excellent comedy/drama about the futility of war. wholly recommended.

peppa pig falls into the category of children's programmes in which the stars are actually the children.

peppa's little brother who rarely has a word to say is the star of the show. his laugh is thoroughly infectious.

peppa pig has the requisite moral centre of course: sharing is good, don't lie, etc etc but it's all done with such an innocent joi de vivre that you don't mind

damn catchy theme tune too.

peppa also has a website where you can play the various snorts like a piano (sort of) (click family)

'a work of monumental genius' 'an amazing feat of cinema' 'truly unique' 'a bloody masterpiece!'

...just some of the things said about this film.

IMDb rates this 125th best movie of all time. i don't think so. its heart is in the right place, but let's get a couple things straight to start with.

now i'm a Natalie Portman fan, but as it says on the rubric 'evey, a working class girl...' i'm afraid Nat's accent is worse than Rene Zegweller in Bridget Jones' diary. even radio 4 would reject her for being too posh. sack the casting director for starters.

and whilst it is fairly obvious we are sleepwalking towards fascism, to hold Guy Fawkes up as a shining beacon of freedom is incorrect to say the least.

this is a film adapted from a comic and unfortunately that's exactly how it ends up. comic book like. superman at that. not in it's look but in it's heart.

yeah there's some nice touches, but that makes it even worse for not being completely bad which would be OK if it wasn't trying to be serious, but it was.

about three quarters of the way through i thought 'aha! Ian Hurt HAS TO BE v, now that makes some kind of sense!' but no it descended into ridiculousness and in the end i felt it became:

'how one man can stand up to a fascist regime and end up justifying it whilst still remaining totally cool.'

but hey i guess it IS called v for vendetta not r for revolution. maybe it should be called y for why or b for bol**cks.

it's sad that in 2007 that this is what passes for revolutionary cinema (i will forgive you if you're under 15)

oh and a tip for future fascist dictatorships: avoid red and black in your backdrops. it's really unappealling

seen alongside 'brazil', 'nineteen eighty-four' and 'richard III (1995)', v for vendetta can be forgiven for attempting to update these classics. it cannot be forgiven for falling way short.

this is an important war movie. the best war movie i've seen since 'three kings' not much shooting or setpiece explosive action mind you. movie critics are uneasy at its stark portrayal of dysfunctional army ways and its psychopathic sergeant whilst we are still in the midst of that same war.

it seems disloyal somehow. to our boys in the field to lay bare the prosaic anatomy of torture so powerfully. but i think this is a film all true soldiers will love.

they say the first casualty of war is truth and they're not far wrong. because war is horrendous.

it's just a damn shame that after all the classic Vietnam war movies that there will be another crop of classic iraq war movies. (eg gunner palace)

two old friends meet up and reminisce about their student years living above a chinese take away, whilst coincidence plays fast and loose with the trip. kaitlin is a complete star (as usual) playing hannah with fantastic gusto.

tight direction, superb acting, stark beautiful locations and cinematography, laugh out loud moments, a hide behind your cushion moment, the coolest convenience store robbery on celluloid, a large explosion, and a 10 tissue ending.

classic.

unbelievable!

yes this works quite well despite itself.

a satisfying jumble of gilliamesque flourishes by an incurable romantic.