Reviews

There is not a single genuine New Zealand accent to be heard in the whole movie.

A couple of actors sounded sort-of Australian.

I guess most Americans wouldn't know a New Zealand accent if they fell over one anyway...

This seriously impacted the authenticity of the movie for me.

Otherwise the movie is very poignant and enjoyable. As an aside, I found it somehow reassuring to see how ready the women were in those days to jump into bed with American servicemen.

This is all I have to say to make up my compulsory ten lines.

The worst part of all is the poor scripting, leading to superficial acting.

Dreyfuss' character is intensely repetitive and annoying, and Dreyfuss himself has the annoying face to match.

Holly Hunter's character is exaggeratedly self-centered, and Hunter herself indulges in serious overacting, as usual.

Brad Johnson was wooden. John Goodman made the best of it.

Furthermore, the whole death / ghost thing has since been somewhat overdone, and now appears rather lame.

Barely watchable only if you like old aeroplanes.

I had to read "The Catcher in the Rye" for English at school. I thought it was the most boring book I had ever read.

This film was an uncanny repetition of the same depressing chore.

The one revelation was that if anyone could become so obsessed with such a book; that if the book somehow spoke so deeply to this person, then their perception of the world is indeed impossible for me to relate to.

Like most of my generation, I loved John Lennon and all he stood for.

This film does not provide any meaningful insight into his death.

John Lennon was murdered by a nutter. That's all I need to know.

If you enjoy Cleese & all the British 'Pythonesque' humour of the time, then this little gem is absolutely hilarious.

Arthur Lowe is a real treat!

I saw this with friends on TV when it first came out, and its classic quotes have formed a part of our jokes for 30 years, and will do forever! I have it on tape and it is continually appreciated.

Perhaps some reviewers are taking it too seriously.

I can't believe it is now only available in the US (NTSC of course), and not in UK, where it should be an essential part of the history of British humour!!

Unlike a number of reviewers, I am of this era, and saw this film on the big screen when it first came out.

Unlike most reviewers, I think it is self-conscious macho trash. It epitomises the enormous chip-on-the-shoulder undercurrent to the whole hippie period; something you had to live through to really understand.

It was also too obvious then that aggression and bitterness was calculated to be the 'cool' formula for refreshing the tired image of "Sweet Baby James". What you ultimately get is massive insecurity.

That's it.

Apart from that it's typical '70s parochial rubbish, with the token US actors to supposedly lend it legitimacy. A depressing reminder of the bleak, class-ridden macho self-consciousness prevalent in Australia during that time.

I was around 6 or 7 (like everyone else it seems). My clearest episode memory is one where they are all walking around on the moon, and one man notices some sort of sand streaming down off a large rock, so he walks over & cups his gloved hands under the stream. He immediately starts screaming in agony, but I don't remember why. Maybe it was super hot, or else some extremely corrosive substance.

In another episode, one member of the team is terrified because he swears he saw something moving while he was walking around on the moon. Eventually they all discover that he had seen his own reflection in a sheet of ice. This was their first discovery of ice on the moon, and they realise the implications.

This show significantly helped to define the exciting world I was lucky enough to be growing up into. Now the world has regressed thousands of years.

Say what you like about the film; the story, the production, the direction, the score, all other members of the cast; but Lawrence Olivier delivers some of the best acting ever seen in any film, ever. Forget about Gregory Peck. Watch it just for THE GRAND MASTER.

This modest but cute film shows Kim Darby (Gussie) to be perhaps the most underrated actress ever. Every eye movement, every facial expression is a treasure. Her performance is simply brilliant. Why didn't she ever get more good roles? She is so natural, so believable, and has that special quality so many formula actors cannot access: the ability to make you remember and feel the real person inside yourself.

Also, Janet Margolin (Judy) gives a subtle and appropriately underplayed performance, at the same time showing her serene natural beauty at its best. What a pity she died so young!

What this film is really about is family; characters like Gussie & Judy. The role that Ann Margret plays is just a foil, and even the cover of the video shows that entirely too much attention has been focussed on her, detracting from the real value of the film.

Parochial, self-conscious, suburban drivel concerning an overbaked theme and presented by amateurish new actors together with a few worn-out small-pond veterans. Budget was low, and production gives the impression that the crew spent more time looking in a mirror than making a film. This film has been almost totally forgotten for good reasons.

An underrated film about social doom, typical of the 70s for this genre, yet permanently relevant. The budget was not huge, but the atmosphere is there. Mariette Hartley gives a beautifully subtle performance, and is perhaps in her most physically attractive and visually memorable role.