Film Reviews by IR

Well, this was a bit of a wild ride!

I'm probably an unusual reviewer in the fact that I had never read or seen the story of David Copperfield previously. I can well imagine how fans and others who knew the story would get enjoyment out of how the interpretation of the characters and settings was handled.

I, for one, struggled with the tone and pacing. The first half was incredibly wacky, to the point (for me) of ridiculousness and annoyance. Others would be fine with it. I was more interested and engaged when that tone shifted to a more restrained and slow one in the second half. There was were I better got to grips with the characters.

Nonetheless, very well acted, lush sets and costumes and beautiful sets. On the whole, quite good.

Where to even begin with this movie, which can easily work on so many different levels?

Is it a parody? Satire? Horror? Thriller? An ode to family and love even? Yes. Yes it is. Go in with no expectations, and you'll be confused, amused, terrified, appalled and moved.

What an achievement by Director Bong. So pleased it won the Oscar just to illustrate that the western way of telling a story is not the only one.

Having read rave reviews about Siena Miller's performance, I was looking forward to seeing this. I didn't last longer than 20 minutes, which were filled with excruciating anger, tension and frustration. This is surely testament to the effectiveness of the story-telling, but I didn't relate. It's not you, it's me on this one.

Love this. Razor-sharp script, lovingly delivered with real pathos and style by the two leads and by every fully fleshed out supporting character.

Do we truly need yet another coming of age high school story? Yes we do, it seems, when it has this much to say about friendship, pre-judging, righteousness and all that pent up teenage angst.

I starting laughing within the first 15 seconds and basically didn't stop.

Incredibly researched, as usual from this master documentary maker, this is an at times heart-wrenchingly brutal tale that will be so familiar to many. That doesn't make this lack any lunch though. I didn't know much about her story, so to have it all unfold on front of my eyes with such staggering access to home videos, snippets of film and interviews just blew me away.

What a talent. What a loss to the world. What a way for those who supposedly loved her to let her down time and time again.

If you're looking for a rip-roaring, fast paced yarn of punchy one-liners, this ain't it.

If you're looking for slow, thoughtful, meaningful and sympathetic story-telling, this is entirely for you.

Brilliantly acted, wonderful script, slightly unnerving pacing at times, but full of empathy, pathos and frustration.

I enjoyed this a lot. Plenty to keep you thinking, silliness kept to a minimum and only right at the end, and a pervasive sense of jeopardy which isn't always present in the others.

Some great performances and good humour round it all out.

I've never been a big fan of Laurel and Hardy, so had no preconceptions at all of what to expect. Yes, I'd seen a few clips, so I got some of the tropes and twitches, but didn't know even that Stan was English.

I found this an engaging, tender and lovely portrayal of male friendship through thick and thin. Tour de force by both main leads, and to call the female leads supporting does them a real disservice - they were worth a whole movie by themselves.

Really enjoyable and, like all great biopics, encouraged me to find out more about their story.

Rami Male rightly gets loads of plaudits, although for me he never quite seems to get used to those teeth! The supporting cast did probably even better as they had less to work with. And of course, the music is just outstanding. The Live Aid set piece was masterfully done.

Lots of fun and moving at times.

A very difficult film to categorise and describe - a thought-provoking, intelligent thriller with enough twists to keep Chubby Checker in business for centuries.

Some truly outstanding performances, no dumbing-down and some properly evil adversaries. In fact, my only slight gripe is that I didn't truly feel able to connect with the main female lead. I truly admired her determination, fight and ruthlessness, which were brilliantly portrayed, and perhaps so well done that I didn't feel I could warm to her. I understand, but don't empathise.

Nonetheless, a refreshingly brilliant take on a classic genre.