Reviews

I thought it was the British who did Social Realism, but this film shows that Hollywood 'gets' it too. Steve Coogan is sturdy and the other actors also very believable.

I can see why some people just wont 'get' this film at all, why some will wish to be offended by the side story of Challenger, nothing I can say will help you see the parallel yet opposite story that runs through the piece.

I don't often go for this genre of American drama (sorry, but I generally prefer European drama), but I do like Steve Coogan so thought I would give this film a go. Within 10 minutes I was hooked and embroiled into this little world that is so different and at times uncomfortable.

I gave an 8, it would have been 9 but I was a bit confused by the newspaper cuttings Campbell Babbitt took from the pin board in Sam's flat, they were important to the story but flashed past too quickly for me to understand the relevance. I look forward to seeing it again to clear this up.

Spoilers, but it is a factual documentary.

Ian Hislop, Private Eye editor and team captain from the UK TV show Have I Got News from you, broadens his usual cynical and comic outlook to present a touching and excellent four part documentary following selected human stories from the Great War.

The series is based upon the fact that many have stopped seeing the more than 37,000 World War One memorials found around the UK. Ian tries to make us stop and look at them, remember that all those names we just see were actually sons, brothers, fathers, daughters and now Grandfathers, Great grandfathers.

The program recounts personal stories rather than the usual battles or history from the media or historian. We see how war affects those at home, how families are destroyed rather than just the fallen.

The last episode focuses on those who actually survived and came home. We are shown how Lloyd George's promise of a land fit for heroes was only true for a very few returning soldiers, in many cases; poverty, illness and mental problems were common but terrifying realities.

Ian Hislop shows great compassion and knowledge, we do not feel we are sitting through a lecture, but listening to a man who really feels this pain. He once again shows that beyond the funny man, a fascinating and intelligent historian lurks.

Well worth watching, show the children, never forget.

In almost an eerie coincidence I have been through exactly what this man (Fonda) went through. In my case I happened to get onto a railway carriage and sit opposite the victim of a crime a few weeks earlier.

For over a year, I like Fonda, watched with no control as people questioned, was it me? For me it was like watching a story of my own experience, the line ups, the very polite police, which they were, Hitchcock got that right, he did not try to make them monsters like many other directors would. The scared victims I saw at the line up. Going to court, the friendly lawyer, who at the same time made me feel I was doing all the legwork. I would also tell him things I felt important which he would brush off, similar to how Fonda was treated.

I am sure others who have had this happen to them will understand how scared you feel and as an honest person, I never have fully recovered from my experience.

Hats off to Hitch, he really did his homework on this one, nothing was out of place, all this really does happen and still happens, just because one person mistakes your face for a criminal's.

Maybe it is being European or above 16 years old, but I actually found the stereotypes uncomfortable and not funny.

The basic plot, boy damages on on line relationship by sending off an email while drunk telling his German pen pal to leave him alone. His German pen pal turns out not to be a man but a gorgeous young nubile, what else! His only way to fix this is to travel to Berlin to find her and apologise. Which he does with much side splitting hilarity on the way, well not really, but that is the hope of this movie.

A child goose stepping with a Hitler moustache in Germany, football hooligans in Britain, Casanovas in France etc etc they are all there.

If you want to write a spoof make it funny, this seems to be an easy rule to follow. I think this film shows where the USA still is regarding it's opinions of Europe.

Sorry not funny and not worth wasting time watching. The saddest day will be when they release Eurotrip two, just to show how bad the first one really was. Nothing good at all to say about this painful film.