
Leofwine_draca
Joined May 2000
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I'm surprised to see another reviewer saying that this Children's Film Foundation production hasn't aged well, because I found it one of the better ones I've watched. The irrepressible Keith Chegwin is a natural fit for playing a youthful version of Robin Hood and Allington Castle in Kent is a wonderful setting for the action-packed adventures. This plays out with a couple of fun rescue missions with the usual surreal slapstick hijinks inbetween, featuring the usual scenes of dim-witted guards being outwitted by their youthful opponents. There are some good stunts too and the chance to see familiar British TV stars like Andrew Sachs, Leonard Fenton and Sydney Bromley do their bit; in addition, Maurice Kaufmann is a hammy delight as the villain of the hour.
AMELIE is one of those movies that you had to be around for at the time: I remember it getting rave reviews and massive word of mouth, a film impossible to ignore or dislike. I watched it and really enjoyed it, and twenty years later, I thought I'd better check it out once more to find out how it's held up. The answer is, pretty well. Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a much better fit for this kind of material than he was for ALIEN: RESURRECTION, and the entire quirkiness of the production works in its favour: it's high-energy, oddball, and often surreal, with a quick-fire gag rate. I was interesting how much of the film feels like a study in autism, or at least that's how it plays out to the modern viewer. I'm not entirely sure about Audrey Tatou's performance - there's something a bit too studied about it, almost creepy at times - but the rest works very well.
I had a feeling that this was going to be poor when I saw Zoe Kravitz's name attached as director. I'm no fan of her acting skills so I imagined her direction would be equally disappointing, and I was right. BLINK TWICE is an entirely routine mystery thriller set on a kind of playboy island full of ultra-rich tech bro types and a gaggle of attractive young women brought along for the ride. Inevitably there's a twist, which precisely nobody will have any trouble guessing, and the chance to see old-timers like Christian Slater and Geena Davis doing their thing. Sadly, the entire experience is scuppered by the lazy direction, which generates zero suspense and is all style over substance. Kravitz prefers to shoot superficial flower shots and the like and overlay the dramatic scenes with emotive music to do her work for her, which I found very lazy. Not for me.