Reviews by Citizen Caine

I'm new to Shyamalan. I've seen him talking in a few Hitchcock documentaries, but I had no interest in watching any of his films. My Dad bought a cheap VHS of this film from a car boot sale for me. From the cover, it looked interesting so I gave it a watch.
I's not bad either. It's a 'seen it all before' plot, but some very tense scenes just about make up for the bad acting and characterisation. In fact, it was quite gripping, unfortunately let down by the weak climax. Gibson is pretty bad as the widowed former vicar, looking after his kids with his brother, Joaquin Phoenix (who is decent). We are thrown straight into the story as crop circles appear across their farm, which of course sets up the possibility of an alien invasion.
Tense and thrilling, let down by some poor acting and sentimentality.

3/5

Second Viewing
Second viewing and a much, much, much more enjoyable one. Downey Jr is very believeable (I didn't pay attention to his accent this time round which is a good thing) and has a great chemistry with Law, Rachel McAdams is lovely and I love the Irish theme running throughout the film. Action felt much more engaging this time this time and I actually followed the plot, a clever one at that. Enjoyed the score too. A fun, fresh and entertaining update of the Holmes stories.

4/5

First Viewing
Before, I start, the 3 stars I am giving this film come from my head not my heart, as the cinema was very uncomfortable, not making me enjoy the film as much as I would have liked to.
I saw the film advertised and had no interest in seeing it. Sherlock Holmes bare-knuckle fighting? Robert Downey Jr? I admit I thought it was going to be quite poor. How wrong I was.
Downey Jr was fantastic capturing the eccentricity (and the accent) of Holmes to near perfection. The script is brilliantly intelligent and witty. The action is exciting and doesn't feel unnecessary as I thought it would. Rachel McAdams was decent too, other than looking gorgeous. Plus there was an extra that looked like Billy Connolly.

3/5

Not a bad film. Not great either. Connery and Hepburn are fine. There is a great supporting cast of Robert Shaw, Nicol Williamson, Denholm Elliott, Ian Holm, Ronnie Barker (one half of the Two Ronnies) but the trouble is we see soooooo little of them. I don't think Barker had more than 2 words to say! And to have the great talent of Ian Holm wasted on a less than 5 minute seen was criminal. Richard Harris stands out as the villainous Richard the Lion-Heart and has some great dialogue. Its a tad slow in parts but the battle between Robin and the Sheriff is worth seeing as is the final seen, which is very touching. (aided by Connery's performance). Interesteringly it was not Connery's only apperance in a Robin Hood film. He also had a speaking cameo as King Richard in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner as Robin.(although Costner kept his American accent!) I prefer Prince of Thieves to this version but I prefer Connery to Costner in the main part.
All in all good fun but could have been a lot better.

3/5

An improvement over the previous film with a much better, but still rediculous plot, that sees Rip Torn's "Alexander The Greater" break every single Ten Commandment. Robert Vaughn is on top form as Napoleon Solo but the stand out performance goes to David McCallum's Illya Kuryakin who has a much bigger part to play in the film. Dorothy Provine is the main girl here but is forgettable when compared to the gorgeous Yvonne Craig. Its also nice to see YOLT's Teru Shimada appear.
Great fun.

4/5

The fifth and final entry in the Harry Palmer series is a disappointment. After bringing back the classic character, Harry Palmer in, the flawed but very enjoyable, Bullet To Beijing and allowing Michael Caine to give a rather badass performance, this sequel should have been something along the same lines. It's not. It contains, at times, very poor dialogue and a cliched script. Its nice to see Jason Connery given a bigger role than in the previous film but his character suffers from the worst of the bad dialogue. It was criminal for Mia Sarrow not to return and instead we are given Tanya Jackson who is no substitute. The hallucinogenic score from the previous film has been replaced with a dull and uninteresting one. Michael Caine is always watchable but even he can't get the film above the two stars that I'm giving it. The worst in the series.

2/5

The Harry Palmer Series :

1. The Ipcress File (1965) 5/5
2. Bullet To Beijing (1996) 4/5
3. Funeral In Berlin (1966) 4/5
4. Billion Dollar Brain (1967) 3/5
5. Midnight In St. Petersburg (1997) 2/5

A pretty damn good action movie with James Belushi on the run from gangsters from whom he has stolen $12.5 million. Michael Beach is in support as a Federal agent. The script is very witty and, minus the F-bombs, very intelligent and the cinematography is stained a weird orange colour - giving an odd dream-like quality to the proceedings. I guess that sounds rediculous for standard action fodder. But its's Timothy Dalton's corrupt, badass sheriff that really stands out in the film. The action isn't that exciting though and is a bit of a let down when one of the selling taglines of the film is "from the biggest action producers of the decade".
Still, all in all, a decent time-filler.

3/5

Quite something really. Reading up, I learnt that this film is one of the earliest films to have a narrative - the opening scene, of the fireman wishing he was with his wife and child, really impressed me with it's use of lighting to disguise the fact that his 'thoughts' were playing out on a stage behind him. Not sure of the original purpose of the film - some kind of morale booster? Or to make the audience feel empathy towards the firemen and the dangerous work they undertake? All I know is that this is a real milestone in filmaking and a fairly entertaining one at that - if only for it's historical meaning. The use of music is also refreshing for a film as old as this as it features a someone singing, rather than just an organist.

5/5

Intense drama starring just Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune as American and Japanese naval officers, respectively, who are both stranded on the same jungle-like island in the pacific, akin to Lord Of The Flies. After the beautiful opening shot, the film is rather hit and miss for me, especially the abrupt ending. The two leads are fine, the cinematography gorgeous, but the story is a bit muddled. Maybe it's because I was tierd. The weird score surprisingly enhances a lot of scenes.
My second Boorman film after The Emerald Forest, I understand I have not seen his best work, but so far, for the most part, I've been impressed.

3/5

*Spoilers*

I haven't watched a Bond film in ages, particularly this one, and a rush of excitement came over me, something that hasn't really happened since I was introduced to the Bond films as a young kid. I'd forgotten how brilliant Sean Connery is in this one. His performance is effortless and there are plenty of oppurtunities to show a lighter, relaxed and in control Bond, spewing out amusing and intelligent lines without becoming silly. Some people argue that this was the film in which Bond became much more of a superhuman relying on gadgets, but I disagree. Even here Bond is much the same man of Doctor No and From Russia With Love. An example of his vulnerablity occurs when he slips on a roof, dropping his gun, at Palmyra. It's just a small moment, but it's brilliant. Then we have the beautiful Claudine Auger as Domino, looking particularly stunning in the pink dress during the Mardi Gras sequence. I think she's a really underappreciated Bond girl. She captures the loneliness of the original character spot on. From her first meal with Bond, we can see she's unloved, looking for a man in her life, only really talking about her friends and her brother. If only her love of the sailor from the Players Navy Cut cigarettes in the novel had been included somewhere. Adolfo Celi as Largo, is an underrated villain in my opinion. He has much more of a presence than probably every villain since. He's really mencaing, what with his striking white hair and eye patch. And then we have Luciana Paluzzi as Fiona, a character so brilliantly sexy. What a minx! I love her exchanges with Bond after they slept together.My favourite sequence in the film is the two of them in the car and, with John Barry's excellent score cranking up the tension, we get another sense of Bond's vulnerability. More favourite scenes of mine include; the hijacking of the plane, the chilling killing and discovery of Paula and the brutal end fight aboard the Disco Volante, all superbly directed by the master of the Bond films, Terence Young. A shout out to Rik Van Nutter too, who is the Felix I imagine when I read the books. Great cinematography, locations, sets and dialogue make this one of the best Bonds.

5/5

Incredible. Really incredible. Brock Peters is an absoulte revolation, Gregory Peck is naturally brilliant, and the young cast is just fantastic. An engaging, gripping and heartbreaking story, accompanied by a score that fits the film so well it was as if the film was written with the score in mind, not the other way round. It's great that music appears throughout the film and then disappears during the trial, it's as if you are sitting in the courthouse yourself, watching the injust manner of the trial in which Peck's lawyer, Atticus Finch, has no power of control other than saying the right thing. I love the scene in which Finch sits outside the room in which Peters' character is contained, and the scenes with 'Boo' Radley, in particular. And the way the film is split into thirds, going from the children to Finch, to the children again is excellently done. One of those films I feel I ought to talk about for hours but find difficult to put into words. A true masterpiece.

5/5