Reviews

Just finished viewing this long film with the mega star cast. Military historians may relish every minute of this WW2 drama, but this film left me cold, bored and totally unengaged.

As there are so many strands and so many characters the overall narrative is completely disjointed. We have a series of protagonists who each get their obligatory 2 lines of dialogue before cutting to the next sequence.

The actors were not at fault - and one wonders why such big names from the Hollywood pantheon like Olivier and Redford agreed to be cast as characters with very 'little meat to their bones' so to speak. Contrary to the praise Goldman received for writing this film - in my view he's actually written a big turkey. The poor box office receipts would tally with this view. The public know a bad 'un when they see it!

A shorter running time, a stronger point-of-view narrative from say Bogarde's character General Browning, would have made this film far more effective. It seems that Attenborough was so keen to get his historical facts right, that he forgot to think of the needs of film lovers and cinema-goers. The only way this film could have succeeded was as a drama-documentary.

Overly ambitious project, obsessed with the details of the key events, renders this a forgettable war pic.

If you ever get the chance try and see the rarely seen and vastly under-rated 'All Quiet On The Western Front' starring Richard Thomas and Ian Holm. Beautifully structured story, with excellent cinematography and a strong central performance,makes this, for me, the best anti-war film ever made.

Saw this film yesterday for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm a student of screen writing and I loved the way the minor characters intervened just when something pivotal/climatic happened in a scene.

I thought the dialogue was very sharp and the premise of story is rather shocking - at one particular point Barbara Stanwyck is openly flirting with her daughter's boyfriend; AND rekindling some passion in her husband whom she hasn't seen in ten years; AND with the gunshot signal 'two shots and then one' she hooks up with her old shag mate Dutch (the reason she left town in the first place!) ALL AT THE SAME TIME! The moral majority must have been totally incensed when they saw this flick back in the 50's.

Love the costumes and cinematography and the straight from the hip dialogue - just to watch Barbara Stanwyck and Co doing the 'Bunny Hug' is good enough reason to rent this film on DVD.

One of the best films from that period I've seen in a long time.

Having absorbed all the hype about this film I went along to see it with great expectations. How disappointed I was. There are many defects and errors in this film. Here is my list:

I found the dialogue inaudible and when I did hear what the characters were saying I found it completely incomprehensible.

The lead who played Brendan has to be the most uncharismatic actor I have ever seen on screen. Top marks to this guy for being able to deliver the gibberish dialogue, but aside from that this anti-hero character that he plays is truly repellent. Even the poorest most unpopular student in high school wouldn't have bad hair, bad shoes, and completely ill fitting denim pants. Do all squares have to be so unstylish? How can someone so skinny and badly dressed walk around like he's a jock and not to be messed with? The Laura character is prematurely middle-aged and totally pretentious and irritating and that's only when you can hear what she's actually saying. If this film is a satire on American youth - where everyone is sixteen going on 42 then it works on this premise. However I don't believe for a moment that there is even a high school in Hollywood where all the kids talk in hyper-slang with perfectly polished sophisticated responses. This film could never be called realistic.

The only redeeming feature in this project is the lovely Emilie De Ravin who unfortunately plays the soon-to-be dead girlfriend Emily. If she played Laura she would have had more screen time and perhaps would have delivered the strange dialogue with more clarity than the actress who played her.

De Ravin is like a composite of Jodie Foster and Michell Pfeiffer when they were younger. And and yet far from reminding us of them, she also seems to possess an ethereal quality that transcend that initial impression - innocence corrupted springs to mind when I saw here in this flick. I hope this is the start of a glittering career for her.

Watch out pointy chinned Witherspoon!

I've seen this film about five times now and I never cease to be delighted by its charms.

Where do I start? Firstly Jon Cryer is truly excellent as the precocious adolescent amateur photographer who spouts sophisticated adult dialogue but is really naive on the romantic front. The way he blushes at the right moment is very credible. He plays the blushing virgin with gusto - we don't doubt for a moment that he's never had sex or kissed a girl.

Firstly I must admit here to being a major fan of Demi Moore's films in the 80's. I've seen all of them from that period and I adore the characters she plays - Moore is what I call 'value added'. Whatever role she plays she brings something special, whether it is a brilliant range in temperament, downcast eyes, the husky voice, the tearful eyes the shiny hair. Most Hollywood actresses can't manage this, but Demi manages to be the girl next door and screen siren all in one.

Anyway she plays this aspiring niteclub singer with bad taste in 80's clothes and even worse taste in music. To her credit she doesn't sing any of the songs as they were recorded by other people, so she just lip syncs along quite nicely. That song 'Hotheaded' is actually quite catchy in that Michael Bolton, Bar 'rawk' sort of way. Overall her character, Laura Victor comes over as a really likable human being. And the final scene at the airport is truly touching. Moore's says two simple words 'thank you' and we know she means it.

Another to reason to love this film is that it was filmed entirely on location in San Francisco, and studio interiors are very few and far in between. Most of the shots are on real locations which adds to the movie's overall charm. This combined with the corny dialogue: that scene where she barges into the High School language laboratory dressed in a coctail waitress (read hooker!) outfit in very high heels and pulls Cryer out of the language lab is really funny - especially when she says "F*** Off ez Vous" to the French teacher.

Some of the scenes are chauvinistic, including the one with frat boys and the hired hooker - which really doesn't have any relevance to the overall plot. And I agree with a previous poster who says that Cryer's on screen mother is one of the most irritating characters to appear in movies. That line about the sausage of Cryer's brother going cold is truly risible. When I watch this film I try very hard to ignore the flaws!

This is corny, cheesy and highly entertaining. It really captures the spirit of the 80's. I'll never stop watching it - I love it.

Bonus: watch out for Jennifer Tilly and Tim Robbins in bit parts playing Cryer's classmates. Robbins was 28 when he played this role. Teenage high school student he ain't! But it's still good to see him in this. Also the very catchy song 'Eiffel Tower' by Malcolm McClaren and the McClarenettes.

Moore wears some wacky clothes and has that 80's penchant for long evening gloves with hundreds of bangles, very Material Girl! I love that cabin on the boardwalk apartment she lives in while working at Jakes's as a singer. Very bohemian, very cool, very 1984!

Someone has previously posted that this film is about class and social division which is certainly true and one of the many sub-texts of the screenplay. It interests me that reaction to this film also seems to be delineated along class lines and social division. When I've mentioned this film in passing to middle-class types they turn their noses up in horror and say this film is so 'depressing'. In contrast, to anyone from a hum-drum town anywhere in the British Isles (in my case Ireland) or inner city working class background, a mention of the film if they've seen it, brings on a laugh and smiles of recognition of shared experiences.

Hyper-realism may prevail in this film but there are many many reasons to watch it. The most important of which is to be reminded, if one needs reminding, what devastating changes took place during Thatcher's political reign during the 80's. The appalling errosion of social housing and services, and the introduction of the exploitative Youth Training Schemes which paid a pittance to participants. Overcrowded classrooms, and few opportunities to socialise meant teenagers had to make their own fun just like Rita and Sue.

To me no other film evokes the 80's like this film, it always brings me out in tears of laughter as I recognise the characters from my own life. Practically every girl in my home town dressed exactly like Rita and Sue, bare legged and white stillettoed. I can't remember any other film that captures the teenage mischieve-ness and innocence of 80's teenagers. That scene where they go to the museum with the other school girls and exiting onto a cobbled Yorkshire street Sue utters the immortal line: '..she called me a slag so I hit her!, after assaulting a virgin classmate, is a real hoot. For me the funniest scene is when Rita and Sue start giggling in embarassment as Bob and The Wife start having a barny after returning home after a night on the tiles. (N.B. if Rita and Sue have been hired as babysitters how come we never see the kid they're babysitting?)

This film is not depressing. The two main protagonists (Rita and Sue) are finding fun, excitement and adventure (isn't it better to be walking around in cow dung getting fresh air and a 'jump' from the middle class neighbour in a car than loitering around a dreary housing estate?) as an antidote to their hopeless circumstances. They don't feel anymore more victimised than Bob's wife. They maybe poor and working class; but they're getting bonked regularly unlike Bob's missus!

The performances are absolutely sterling, there are no false moves or corny lines. And Lesley Sharp is truly comical as she jumps on Bob's suit and calls him every name under the sun. For me the actor who shines most is Michelle Holmes, and I always love watching her whatever role she's playing ever since seeing her in this film.

I wish the bourgeois critics could put aside their own prejudices and snobberies and see this film for what it really is. A gritty realistic picture of 80's England and a precursor to the highly successful 'Full Monty'. It is also a great heart warming film for adults that was way ahead of its time when it was being made in the mid 80's. Every time I see it I laugh out loud - if you're ever feeling a bit down, watch this film! It will blow the cobwebs away completely, trust me!

As far as I'm concerned this is up there with 'Brief Encounter' as a classic British film. I'm serious!