Reviews

I quite enjoyed this festive outing from Barnaby and the gang. There were some great performances from stalwart actors Tim Pigott-Smith and Judy Parfitt, and the returned-to-form Nettles/Hughes duo.

This Christmas story is set against the backdrop of a haulage firm owned by ex-Army type Matt Parkes (played by Pigott-Smith) and his wayward son James. As a sideline, Parkes is involved in running 'team-building' Army games for various organisations, which is where Barnaby and Jones come in. Son James is involved in a sideline of his own...

There are some comedic moments as we see dyed-in-the-wool Barnaby go through the exercises with less enthusiasm and ability than his younger police colleagues, providing light relief from a festive tale of subterfuge and classic Midsomer murder.

There are plenty of carols to keep you in the Yuletide spirit, and as it was filmed at the beginning of the year, it looks festively cold too.

I won't go into much detail as I understand this is the Christmas 2008 episode for the UK, but I think Series Eleven is a great return to form after some disappointing story lines and ham-laden performances - Shot At Dawn, Picture Of Innocence - had me convinced that this franchise was past its sell-by date.

I am a great fan of both the series and John Nettles, but the plots of Midsomer Murders seem to be getting more inane with each episode. Granted, there have been some contrived though enjoyable episodes - A Death In Chorus and Country Matters are recent favourites - but this one was terrible.

The scene where the digital photographer continually flashed the film photographer by way of intimidation brought laughter and derision from my family, and the ultimate premise was too far-fetched for words.

Usually, good acting and production values tend to carry even the more contrived episodes through to a reasonable denouement; for me though, this one was just so silly it was beyond saving.

I've read somewhere that the franchise is coming to the end of its run...I hope it goes out on more of a high.

Sheesh! What a dreadful movie. Dodgy camera work, a script with more corn than Kellogg's, and acting so hammy you could open a pig farm with it.

To cap it all, it doesn't know which audience to aim at - we have Cornel Wilde - or is that Corny Wilde? - getting on his soap box about the hazards of smoking any time someone lights a cigarette, dear oh dear, and in another awkward scene we have the baddie, Lobo, forcing his, ahem, if you will, 'male friend' to do a striptease dressed in a bikini. Try explaining that one to the kids...

Throw in an overly contrived Treasure Island-cum-Jaws type storyline, and the result is a film so unintentionally funny, it's enjoyable - I shouldn't expect a Special Edition DVD any time soon, though.

There are some people who think this is one of the worst movies of all time. I am one of these people. 'The Jazz Singer' is truly abysmal on almost every level.

This journey of despair has Lawrence Olivier hamming it up as a Jewish cantor, (what was he thinking of?) and meister-crooner Neil Diamond, (was he thinking at all?), as father and son at loggerheads because Diamond's character wants to pursue a career in - horror of horrors - Manilow-esque easy listening music!

Well, what happens next is a schmaltz-fest of cringesome clichés - note how "What happened to the groove?" elicits nothing but sniggers and derision when watched with friends - bad acting, bad accents, a weird bit with our Neil in the wilderness trying to discover himself...but hey, it all comes right for him in the end, and he and his father are conveniently reconciled during one of Neil's concerts. Larry may now like his son's music, but he sure seems to be having some problems clapping in time to it.

The only thing this movie has going for it is Diamond's music - I'm not a fan, but the man certainly has a talent for singing, if not acting. This still fails to redeem this unwatchable dross however, so you're better off buying the soundtrack album. Maybe you'll buy it on the web to save yourself the embarrassment of asking for it in-store.

Enough already!

As a big JD fan, I found this film to be an insult to the memory of not only a hugely talented musician, but an ambassador for peace and conservation. It was produced by Carlton, a UK company famed for producing brainless drivel, so I shouldn't have got my hopes up.

It's obvious that little research was put into this limp effort, and neither accuracy nor talent were high on the agenda when putting this heap of manure together.

The only consolation was music from the man himself, and even this did little to redeem a pointless waste of time. Did Chad Lowe really have to have that inane grin on his face all the time?

Somewhere a negative of this film exists - let's burn it!

Stewart is a good actor, but borrows too heavily from previous Scrooge adaptations. As a result, even his performance fails to redeem this quite unnecessary and inferior version of Dickens' seasonal classic. To see a more spirited Ebenezer, check out the George C. Scott version - it puts this half-hearted attempt in the shade.

This is one of those films that you can watch every once in a while, even though you know what's coming up. After all these years, Jaws is still a great movie. It's put up with a critical backlash, but only because of parodied rubbish like Piranha, and more recently, Lake Placid.

The overall film might appear less than the sum of its parts - that's due partly to the superb performances turned in by Shaw, Scheider and Dreyfus, and their interaction with each other. The other reason is that, despite the wisecracks about rubbery sharks, we don't really see the shark attacking that much; rather, the beauty of the film is about the presumptions we make and the fears we have about what's going on beneath the water, and what's out there in the deep.

You should see this film again - bear in mind how old it is, how good it looks, (the locations on Martha's Vineyard are beautiful), and how you'll jump out of your skin in the 'head' scene! Jaws is a masterpiece.

Well, after six years of good intentions, I finally got around to seeing Schindler's List. I was warned that it was sad, it was harrowing, it was this, it was that. Maybe it had been so hyped up, my expectations were just too great. The acting was great - Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes were superb.

I couldn't help thinking that the whole thing about the Holocaust was trivialised, though. The scene where the viewer assumes that the women were to be executed turns out to be a harmless shower - just as you're pulled in to think you're seeing the real thing, Spielberg turns on the schmaltz again. The same happens at the end where Schindler breaks down in tears, thinking he could have saved more Jews - it was so out of character compared to the rest of the film.

Nonetheless, a watchable film, if a wee bit too long. 6/10