CorineJC

I must admit that I´m somewhat of a Bond addict. Brosnan is a very excellent Bond player, in my opinion. And so, how could I be disappointed by this film? Therefore, I wasn´t. I loved the combination of suspense and action. However, a little less "action" around women might be nice.

Something I noticed in the film: the appearance of Dr. Christmas Jones. Can´t help noticing that at her first appearance, she´s looking very much like Lara Croft. Same shirt, shorts and shoes, same kind of hairstyle. Only drawback: she´s not english. But she´s definitely not afraid of action and has some braincells in her head. I like that! Whose idea was this?

The new successor of Q (Cleese as R) is also fun to watch. Has obviously studied Q behaviour, and with his history of Monty Python, I think that we can have a lot of fun with him the next few movies. His appearance is made just at the right time, as our old friend Q died in a car crash recently. Very sad.

Anyway, I´m going to watch this one again. I´m sure there are still some details I have missed. I can advise this film for everyone who likes a good action movie with a lot of humor in it, and who´s not too picky about the quality of the storyline (though I´ve seen worse Bond stories).

The movie deals with a serious problem. Most people have a set of ideals and wish to live by it. The question is: are you just going to cherish your ideals, or are you going to act by them? In this movie, the problem is at first being discussed, by thinking of a virtual situation and how you´re going to act in it. For example: you meet Hitler when he´s still very young and is still far from the man he is in WW2. Yet you know he´s going to kill several millions of innocent people. Are you going to kill him or not? After a group of liberal students accidentally kill a racist, this question is more acute to them as ever, and eventually they decide to act: they invite people with extreme opinions for supper, try to persuade them, and if it fails, they kill them. However, after a short period of time, the supper gets shorter and shorter and there´s hardly any persuading left. Actually, as an outsider watching the film, you notice that some of the students themselves somehow start to resemble their victims. Some actually seem to enjoy the killing, while others start to get into more and more trouble with their conscience. Eventually this ends into a climax when the TV-top-extremist they invite turns out to be quite a nice and not at all extreme man. The moral is quite clear: yes, sometimes you must stand by your ideals by acting by them. However if you believe in democracy and liberality and things like that, everyone is entitled to have an opinion of their own and you don´t have the right to silence them: all you can try to do is convince them.

I must say I was somewhat disappointed from seeing this movie. The queen and the costumes certainly deserved theirs, but for the rest I had expected something more. The story didn´t really grip me, and the abundance of love scenes didn´t help much. I had expected something more from an Oscar winner. Like I said, the queen deserved hers: her performance was strong, her tongue sharp as a knife, and she was very convincing in her role, being captured in her high position and obviously loathing everything around her and bored to death. Lord Wessex performed well too: I was impressed at his portrayal of the disgusting and spoiled nobleman.

For some time now, I am following the TV-series "Ballykissangel". Why? Simply because it´s one of the few TV-series which is worth being watched: no unnecessary violence, no stupid, easy-to-see-through jokes, and a good storyline, combined with a set of good actors. I call this a real top british TV-product, and it´s a shame that the Dutch TV stations don´t show it on prime time! Ballykissangel is all about the life and complications of the people of a small irish village, where there has been assigned a new young catholic priest, which happens to be british. The main characters are the english priest, father Clifford, and the owner of a local pub, Assumpta, who gets sick from everything connected to the church. The fundamental differences of character of these two (Assumpta is verbally aggressive, sarcastic and sometimes even vicious, whereas Clifford is friendly, sweet, helpful, and unbelievably naive sometimes) result in a mutual love/hate relationship and neither of them knows what to do with it. Most episodes can be watched separately, however watching most of them gives you the best clue as to the development of the relationship of the main characters, or should I say, the non-development. However, it is very easy to identify yourself with one or more of the main characters. This, combined with the misunderstandings and tricks in every episode, makes it a joy to watch this series, time after time.

After seeing this film, I wondered what was it that makes it so exciting. Yes, the actors do a good job. But that's not it. No, what makes this film so special then? It's the camerawork! If you must still see this film or if you plan to see it again, mind the position of the camera's! More than 90% of the camerashots suggests that "someone" is watching. And I don't mean Santa! It's very subtly done, and that is exactly why it creates such a suspense in this film. The way that camerawork and editing have been cooperating on this film makes that there's always a large amount of suspense (eyes on your back), which makes you grind you teeth and keeps your adrenaline levels high throughout the picture. Magnificent!

There isn´t much that I need to add to the previous comments regarding this film: I bought it last week and have seen it 3 times since, and I´m still not bored. Of course, the performances of both Pullman and Bullock are great. However, after a couple of times of watching this movie, I notice more details, like the music. The next time you watch this film, try listening for the music score: music sometimes tells you more than the actors on your screen. The music to this movie is humor itself and reflects the atmosphere (the tensions between the main characters, the misunderstandings, etc.) very well!