bjgaines

A genuinely entertaining film, not just a camp/MST-3K experience.

Yes, the Esperanto dialogue is bizarre, but it lends an other-worldliness that fits perfectly. Shatner's performance is solid, and he sounds more convincing than any of the others, some of whom are too obviously pronouncing every word phonetically. The cinematography is sensationally moody and the story compelling. It compares favourably to the best episodes of the original Twilight Zone.

As others noted, the jokes don't all work. But some of them had me rolling on the floor, especially the Iraqi passport gag. I caught it on British TV more than a year ago, but it is now (Sept 2002) finally getting released in the US. Definitely a cut above most big-budget Hollywood comedies.

I second the "worth a look" rating. McGoohan and Van Cleef are both excellent and the film makes wonderful use of a few tracks from Brian Eno's Music for Films. It is not action packed, but it is suspenseful just the same.

This story about the fiercely conservative, hockey-living priest Athol Murray is Canada's answer to American Graffiti. AG captures a slice of early 1960s life in the US with a surreal 24 hours of cruising, rock and roll, and teenage coming-of-age. HOND charts a 24-hour slice of life at an impoverished boarding school on the Canadian prairies in the war years (1940s). It is every bit as poignant as AG, though, suitably for a Canadian film, much quieter and easily overlooked.