Film Reviews by KG

This film is so bad in all respects that I hardly know where to begin.

According to the credits it is based on Agatha Christie's stories including Nemesis and her Thomas & Prudence Beresford characters, but is it meant to be a serious crime mystery (doubtful), a comedy, a light hearted spoof, a farce? Who knows? I certainly don't. Cinemaparadiso describes it as a comedy so I will have to take their word for it. However, although I am, admittedly, not too familiar with Christie's novels apart from seeing several film and TV adaptations I find it hard to believe that she wrote comedies. It's even harder to believe that she would have had anything to do with science fiction, least of all time travel. There is an element of so-called 'time travel' towards the end of the film but it is so utterly ridiculous that it defies description! Suffice it to say that events akin to a Brian Rix farce turn a young child into his aged (very aged) future self; unfortunately our detective duo not only have no idea of how to return him to his real age, having lost the device that caused him to age, but seem unperturbed by the fact said child is facing imminent death from old age. They don't actually say "Sorry old chap that you've lost 80 years of your life in an instant but hey, these things happen" but they might as well for all they care.

The only actors I recognised are Catherine Frot (from The Dinner Game, One, Two, Three etc) and Linh Dan Pham who, as a beautiful 17 year-old, starred in her very first film, the excellent Indochine (1991) which is highly recommended. Shame she chose to appear in this rubbish.

Normally I don't write reviews because I'm too busy but I'm making an exception here (albeit brief).

I could write a long essay if I had time but I'll be very brief. This is a surreal series so be warned - you'll either love it or hate it and in 1960 most viewers hated it, apparently. Personally I think it's brilliant and way, way ahead of its time. Maybe, 60 years later, it still is.