Reviews

Many cinematic releases of late have excelled at contaminating us with dross, puerile swearing and mindless violence. Here then is an oasis of colour in both settings and characters. The first film was a heart-warming experience, which reacquainted viewers with what good cinema should be about. The sequel is equally as splendid - in my opinion, and judging by my fellow cinema-goers, by all of those attendees to. No violence, no swearing, no lavatorial humour. Gosh, what is the world coming to? Just dollops of old-fashioned (and I am not ashamed of using the term), gentle humour. The film is chock-full of some of our (British, that is) top-notch thespians and boy, do they knock anything our Yankee brethren could conceive in a million years into a cocked hat. Okay,Richard Gere pops up as the token 'American', but even he is out-acted by the British and Indian cast ten times over. For two hours of sheer entertainment, with a feel-good factor tipping the scales, then you will be hard pushed to beat this fine example.

The first few series were amusing and contained some above-average episodes demonstrating wit and humour – above-average for a sitcom, that is!

Alas, the departure of Tim Vine heralded the death knell of the show three series back, following which it has never quite managed to recover, and since when the writing and the gags have become boringly repetitive. Even the introduction of the bizarrely bland character played by Hugh Dennis in the latest run has failed to ignite any great hilarity.

Lee Mack's writing can be amusing with good comic one-liners, but now in its seventh (and possibly final) series, even these are sounding decidedly staid and forced.

Furthermore, some of the story lines of this latest series (November/December 2014) have actually been borderline offensive, particularly in the cack-handed way in which they have been portrayed – making fun of alcoholism, and then the sudden desire of Lucy's to have a baby by artificial insemination - well these are not normally topics associated with top-notch comedy writing.

The one enjoyable episode of this current run was the story involving the Pointless game show hosts. Here there were indications of a return to form for that one brief episode.

John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson had the right attitude with their comedy ventures – leave your audience hungry for more, rather than milking one basic idea for all it's worth.

It's a shame, because in its early days, Not Going Out could be relied on to raise more than an average amount of laughs.

An ocean's worth of clichéd characters inhabit the rusty old submarine (and script) skippered by an obscurely Scottish Jude Law in search of … well yes, in search of that old faithful of such nautical adventures – a cache of Nazi gold bullion nestling in the rusty hull of a sunken German U-boat. Or, rather, maybe it was Russian gold? Whatever; it's sitting there at the bottom of the Black Sea just waiting to be plundered.

Writer Dennis Kelly has surely populated his story with every stereotypical, sweaty, unshaven macho alpha-male he's ever chanced upon in similar though far loftier stories of this genre.

The film is shot mainly in shades of grey and black with the odd splash of red lighting to emphasis trouble is brewing way down beneath the waves, and forewarning the audience of a further onslaught of "effing and blinding" about to be unleashed on their eardrums. And as for those Russian accents….. 'The Man from UNCLE' conjured up more linguistic realism back in 1968.

Admittedly, the claustrophobic atmosphere aboard the sub is enthusiastically portrayed and some of the set explosive interludes are well orchestrated; but honestly, one feels no responsiveness towards any of the characters and I really couldn't have cared less as to who lived or died. Surely not what the author or director should have intended? If a viewer can't identify or empathise with at least one character in a film; then the whole point of that movie's existence needs to be questioned.

Some of the continuity was bizarre to say the least. At one point, in a fit of wrath following a member of his motley crew discovering he'd won the lottery (don't ask; it's a scene that is about as believable as The Tooth Fairy), our pseudo-Scottish Captain smashes the only receiver aboard the vessel with a wrench, only to be seen attempting to use the same said radio equipment an hour further into the movie, with ne'er a mark or dint to be spied on its pristine surface.

By the time the film's spiralling implausible narrative has successfully disposed of most of the unlikeable crew, and a sudden potential way of escaping the quickly-sinking script is 'discovered'- one that is set to trigger off yet further disquiet and fisticuffs amongst the survivors - I'd given up the will to continue and vacated the cinema ten-minutes before the (presumably) quite daft conclusion. Who survived, if any, I couldn't tell you, nor alas do I care.

And as for that Russian-cum-Nazi gold..............

Jude Law – must try harder! Please note.

A wonderful adaptation drawn from the characters immortalised in the books, this film is a major success. Heart-warming and humorous without being mawkish or over-sentimental, the antics and escapades of lovable Paddington Bear will surely delight fans of all ages.

How the animators achieved such a wonderful and memorable 'Paddington' is a minor miracle. His expressions and mannerisms are spot on, whilst the cast are obviously all enjoying themselves enormously in being permitted to perform in Paddington's World. It is obvious that a great deal of love and affection has been injected into the making of this film; the acting, graphics, editing, sets and storyline are all virtually flawless, and you must surely be a soul with no heart not to find some modicum of pleasure from this 90 minute magical movie experience.

I have deducted one star, which may seem a tad mean after such a glowing review, but that is simply because my family and I wanted the film to go on longer. And that is a sure sign of a good movie.

This truly is a shocking movie and must rank as the worst sci-fi film I have ever had the misfortune to waste 2.5hrs on.

The acting is appalling with some quite amateurish edits. The music drowns out a lot of the dialogue, which is probably just as well considering its triteness. The whole premise of the plot seems to have been cobbled together by the writers after they'd endured an overkill of everything from the Lost in Space TV series of the sixties (though at least that show injected some humour into the proceedings), through to 2001 A Space Odyssey, and the innumerable Star Trek programmes and films.

Any movie that casts Michael Caine as a scientific boffin must be struggling for starters. He utters, in one excruciatingly and barely decipherable scene, "I lied". Well he certainly didn't act! Anne Hathaway struggles to make any sense of the quite ludicrous script and often appears that she'd rather be undergoing root-canal work, whilst Matthew McConaughey mumbles and fumbles his way through lines he can't quite believe he is expected to say.

The continuity is confusing and the 'special effects' only reach mediocre, adding absolutely nothing new in this genre for the viewer.

I have watched hundreds of sci-fi films and programmes and do realise that we are expected to suspend belief to a greater extent, which is why a little humour would not have gone amiss - but every character in the movie seemed to be so darn miserable and brimming with angst. This film has no redeeming features whatsoever; one develops no empathy for any of the players, and there were a couple I longed would perish within a few minutes of them being introduced into the storyline (the child who portrays the ten-year old Murphy to name but one).

Sorry, but this film is not worthy of wasting over two hours of your precious life on. There again, you are quite entitled to think otherwise....