Film Reviews by Karrie

Believe the three reviews Burn before Viewing, Burn After Reading and Forget after Viewing.

Rare I don't like a film, I love slow enigmatic films and dry comedy. Despite enjoying the perfomances of the main actors ( John Malkovitch being very John Malkovitch, Tilda Swinton being great as ever, Frances McDormand's self-obsessive, Brad Pitt as an amazingly cringy youth and George Cluney being really creepy) - it was dire: the whole family thought so.

A potentially hilarious storyline and characters, missing most of its targets.

I enjoyed this immensely, but pick the right moment to watch it. I watched this when I was alone, in comtemplative mood. Don't think it would have suited a "I want to be entertained" moment!

I am not a history buff, I have no idea how much of this could have taken place and cannot write a critical review of such a serious time in world history. Go to imbd for more erudite musings!

It was thought provoking and sad. The pressure of being who they were, trying to both pretend WWII wasn't happening and distracting "Adi" from real life, whilst also appearing to be rather terrified of contradicting a man who was half mad, was poignant. The most chilling scenes showed the behaviour of the staff (household and military), the women guests and the right hand men - all of whom acted with unreal gaiety, contradiction and subordination - under the gaze of a tired, downtrodden but still scarily, powerful fuhrer who has lost control of the great, mad world. The attitudes of the leaders to the rest of the world was alarming. You feel no sympathy for them at all.

A chilling imagining of the most bizzare of times. Excellent.

This is from the age when it was the story that was the main horror event. The stories are still gripping, but they do show their age in styling (obviously) and special effects (which are almost non-existant). Enjoy your trip down memory lane. My daughter (13) has found them a good intro to "scary" films and because 2000 is old fashioned to her, was barely aware of the old fashioned feel.

I chose this because my 13 year old wanted to watch a horror film. The reviews didn't mention the scary word. It is a 15, but the single use of a certain swear word seemed to be the only reason a lowly non-censor trained person could identify. The zombie scenes are suggestive of the horror of zombies but not excessively graphic or violent.

And the outcome.....my teenager loved it. The story was entertaining, I watched it all without complaint, no-one was scared. The film was funny (it was meant to be), wasn't too "suspend your belief in real life" (I got annoyed with the electricity supply, car security systems and road quality better than most of the UK after 8 years of no road crews - but I'm a pedant).

The Cinema Paradiso critic review is spot on, as is the other customer review - "surprisingly watchable" - but we gave it 5 stars because the whole family were prepared to watch it again!

If you like slapstick, this is so funny. The trouble caused by one plank of wood is sometimes foreseeable, sometimes a surprise. It is ridiculous and daft. There is barely a script - very little dialogue at all. It's like a cartoon, only acted.

If you don't like slapstick, it's still worth trying. I live in a house with slapstick lovers and I think slapstick's a waste of time, but I still loved The Plank.

The first review is so accurate, all I can add is:

Loved by my 12 year old - she understood the darkness of the fairytales and loved the beauty of the animation.

Loved by me.

"Useless", said my 10 year old - "there's no action", but he sat glued to it and complained when I had to send the rental DVD back!!

Kids thought this was a real swashbuckling adventure. Loads of knights, peasants, celts, a feisty princess and a big dragon. "Funny, silly, cool, a little scary!"

Lacking a little interest/comedy factor for the adults, but still an enjoyable film.

The CS Lewis story is well known, one of a collection of children's fantasy fairy tales with adult moral messages - but I'm not getting into that here!

This is the version I watched as a young adult - shown on a Sunday afternoon on the Beeb. Not as sexy as the Hollywood version, but slower paced and honest.

It is an honest reproduction of the book shown with puppetry, costume and overlaid animation, not full blown CGI, which is less frightening for young kids (5 yrs) who are already worried about the dark mysterious wardrobe, talking animals, soldiers and the wicked witch on the other side. We loved it!

The kids loved it, 12 bite sized adventures for Asterix and Obelisk on their way to Rome (aka tasks of Hercules). The kids could stop the film, watch their favourites again (and again). However, for an adult, it lacked the classic Asterix feel and felt "bitty". Still, there were all the classic jokes to laugh at, so it was easily watchable.

In the days when a spy film meant spies not action, the BBC adapted this classic. Lots of thinking, shadowy men having meetings, talking in code, and it's not obvious what the outcome will be. Superb character acting.

Safe to let the kids watch alone, didn't leave them hyped up and battling everything in sight. Aged 5 and 7, they were less interested in the story but this is frequently interspersed with quirky car behaving badly and great racing stunts. And they watched it three or four times before we were allowed to return the film!

For the adults, there is plently of gentle interest and humour through out the film and Herbie's infamous antics are still enjoyable. The DVD extras on making the film are brilliant - the lengths people went to in the days before CGI are most impressive.

Visually stunning and eerie social commentary on the future - I love both the innocence and cynicism of this film. There is an audio commentary available with this that I found fascinating and annoying in equal measures. However, you can watch the film twice!

I wish I'd borrowed the Disc 2 now...

The visual impact is so great that it kept my 5 and 7 year old enthralled, though they were "peturbed" by 45 minutes in!