Film Reviews by Francis Scott

Brilliant - 007 on steroids.

All the familiar elements - slower start than usual but couple of superb chase scenes towards the end.

Wow! Indy’s still got it!! Riveting storyline with superb real action sequences & clever special effects. Phoebe W-B is a revelation, Ford as good as ever (& weirdly convincingly deep-faked to look like a 30-something for about 1/2 hr. 5 different & totally-believable recreations of historical periods - loved the tuk-tuk chase through 1960s ‘Tangiers”. Great music as always and def. worth watching on DVD as the extras (mainly about how the film was made) are really interesting.

I’m guessing this was some kind of homage to mid-20th century ‘films noirs’. But cinema has moved on and this felt too slow and the dialogue self-consciously smart-alec. Decent performance from Neeson and Alan Cummins added some light relief but the female co-leads were less convincing. Didn’t work overall for me.

Touching film, but not as good as the Swedish original. Shame that Hollywood (and US audiences with them) simply can’t take a film seriously if it’s subtitled or dubbed. Mariana Treviño is a revelation, and it’s interesting to see Truman Hanks in action. But don’t rely on this making for a lovely evening in.

Old-style rom com, expected more scenery etc - not really like the book.

Additional features quite interesting on the relation between the writer rebuilding the property and rebuilding her emotional life. Pleasant enough for a film of that era but the world has definitely moved on!  

Mark Roland’s gives a brilliant portrayal of the extraordinary character who was Maurice Flitcroft.

 If it didn’t happen to be true you’d laugh at how far-fetched the whole premise of the film was. The fact  that it was all true means I just laughed.

Sally Hawkins also excellent as Flitcrofts long-suffering wife.

Brilliant songs with incredible music/ melodies/ arrangements/ harmonies and delicious lyrics, gorgeous choreography, set, costumes, the lot Story difficult to follow but not that important, character development is all-consuming. Loved it.

Bon Voyage takes us through the early months of the Nazi invasion of France and a web of seemingly chance relationships that mesh neatly together around some of those key events. A carefully-made film, with real atmosphere and attention to period detail, but it seems to assume you know roughly what is going on more widely, no doubt most French do, but I suspect not many Brits.

Enjoyable, especially if you can follow it in French rather than read the subtitles.

Not really a family film, it drags too often and doesn't seem to know whether it's aimed at tweenagers, gospel musicos or Beyonce fans.

Some good musical items but thin on comedic moments and not a patch on, say, Sister Act.

Enjoyable enough in itself as an early-teen chick-flick', this film is actually much cleverer than it looks - or than your teenage girls may realise!

The DVD extras show how this is actually a drama based on some well-researched theory about group behaviour amongst high-school girls. Interesting, clever, well-acted and fun - well worth a rental.