hazells518

I think I wrote a review once on this film on the Amazon Lovefilm site, now defunct. This just didn't "do it" for me. The setting and costumes are good and atmospheric for this classic story but the treatment falls stunningly flat. Winstone stumbles through this, mumbling his lines (so I couldn't make out half the dialogue) and looking like he wished he wasn't there. The Dorset accents are laughable. I fast forwarded through it to say I'd "seen" it, and sent it back. Oh dear. A mess. Might be OK for the kiddies.

Oh dear. This had the potential to be so much better. Spanish made so did not need to be big and blousy (cue SEXY BEAST) and why does it have to appeal to the US market anyway. There is another world out there folks. Can't they also appreciate smaller European films. Potential beautiful locations wasted, including Madrid. Dialogue]script was just plain terrible - predictable and banal. Penelope Ann Miller and Henry Thomas didn't even put much effort into it. PAM whines all the way through, looking for her "daughter" with seemingly less frantic interest in her beloved "husband" and HT looks like he just got out of high school and is completely out of his element. The kid daughter just had to yell the lines, "Daddy, Daddy!" The subtitles, which I needed as an aid to understanding the mumbled English, were wrong as once again, no-one seems to be able to spell COLOMBIAN correctly !! Music reasonably OK, suspense lacking, characters all too incredibly 'pretty', the baddies look stereotypical and the opening sequence of the drugs raid seemed quite chopped like it had gone into a blender, so initially I had no idea WHO was WHO nor what was going on. I nearly turned off right then! The mafia family, Arias and daughter were more relaxed and believable. And what the heck was Dean Stockwell doing with a wavering attempt at a British accent in the US Embassy in...er, Barcelona. That should have flagged up one of the flaws as it would only be a CONSULATE. This is just a mess. You won't miss much missing it. Unless you need a sleeping pill.

*SPOILERS** Probably everywhere!... Quirky little film but for once I was grateful for other reviews which helpfully teased out niggling questions raised. One could take it at face value as a psychologic/horror thriller or elect to pick it apart by analysing each scene - but I don't think I'll bother. Thank goodness for DVDs where you can re-run scenes to catch action or dialogue you missed - which at least managed to defer my opinion that this one had totally sunk in the mire. It did have some redeeming features. Both children carried the film, however played by much older actors than the children they were meant to portray. The characters of the 2 adults and their performances were weak as dishwater. I didn't even recognise it was Ben Cross until halfway into the film! Gemma Jones, bless 'er, redeemed it by being normal and as always was the most professional. The boy Elliot and the female lead Charlotte Burke actually did a good job, but as 'Anna' she became intensely irritating after a while. Burke's general deadpan expression did nothing to make her sympathetic and was especially grating when she was continually rude and demanding to the grown-ups who took the unexpected treatment meekly. What was this child's true angst - Daddy simply being away? Did I miss some explanation of why? Glenne Headley as the mother was completely miscast and you can see when they are having soup in her room that her voice is dubbed (although apparently it is by the same actress having to disguise a North American accent). While you could empathise somewhat with the fruition of Anna's drawings in her feverish dreams, when awake she didn't seem to think the results of her scribblings were in any way odd. She seemed too selfish to ultimately care about the boy in the dream house. What on earth was the greenish gloop being dispensed from a machine in the hallway of the paperhouse? Ice cream? The interior of the flat (representing a London council or housing association block no doubt- from the rickety old lift and the mansion finish outside) seemed far too modern and "chi chi". And what was with the weird wall mounted "radio" in the house on the hill - looked a bit too techno even for Anna to draw? The later snogging episode was totally inappropriate and unnecessary.

***GOOFS*** Blink and you miss it! Once again we have X-rays in a hospital hanging on a lighted viewing box behind the nurse's head displayed the WRONG WAY ROUND. No doctor or health professional would look at them that way but it happens in film after film with monotonous regularity, almost too often for logical statistical probability. 'Though credits frequently list medical 'advisors' not one of them ever seems to catch these glaringly obvious errors! NB: Normally chest Xrays are viewed the same way as if you were facing the subject - ie: the heart shadow on the (seeming) RT hand side of the viewed piece of film. Plus, here we are in a Children's ward yet the images shown are of Adult chests which in itself is ridiculous. There is also a single view of an adult forearm hanging on another viewbox with no sign of the 2ndary image(usually a lateral view) anywhere. Both of the chest X- rays are clearly out of some X-ray department's box of embarrassing rejects. Each one is useless diagnostically as the lung bases of the left side of the chest are 'cut off' (in Radiology parlance) and the second image is 'underpenetrated'. Light boxes equally should not stay on all the time due to glare and heat.

An appealing children's story (but not too simple for the adults) of a brother and sister coming to terms with the dreadful wrench of being shipped hundreds of miles away from home when evacuated from London to rural Wales during the War.

Young Keeley Fawcett (the bespectacled downtrodden daughter who bought the winning lottery ticket in AT HOME WITH THE BRAITHWAITES ) holds it all together and does a brilliant job with great sensitivity as the elder sister playing grown-up to her dopey, naive, younger brother.

I must admit I had no idea that the poor evacuees were exhibited, on arrival, like slaves at an auction, picked out at random. I had always assumed there was far more care and deliberation to the choice of where and with whom each child was billetted...

Alun Armstrong's Mr. Evans stops just short of parody, and shows his tough exterior stiff with pride, does hide a softer side. All the other characters are appealing.

**POSSIBLE SPOILER ** But - I hate these sorts of unresolved questions : WHY even in the late 40's and 50's could she not have found out from Evans or anyone else in the village, what had actually happened at Druid's Bottom after seeing it in flames from the train ? Why harbour guilt or assume blame through all those years ? Post and telephone was available! And, she left the scruffy bunny behind. An lovely film, with good location period re-creation and costumes, and sympathetic characterisation. A delight. Great family fare.

***SPOILERS**** I was prepared for this one to be a drippingly saccharine bit of foolishness, although somehow it manages to transcend that, but the script is weak and predictable. With some beautiful on-location scenes in Venice and Paris, and the luxury of the famous Orient Express, it's as good as any Barbara Taylor Bradford TV movie for a wet afternoon.

Cheryl Ladd is strikingly beautiful as Lily, who is pursued by handsome Alex (Stuart Wilson) whom she met on a train 10 years before and had an affair with while travelling through Europe. Lily harbours a secret, and so does Alex, who disappeared, abandoning her without a word in Paris, plunging Lily into a distrust of men and commitment. Wilson, in a rare romantic straight role, is gorgeous and once again handles a change between a youthful 22 year old backpacker and a groomed 10-year-older-businessman remarkably well considering he was nearly 40 when it was filmed. Wilson still manages to transcend age gaps astonishingly well (recently in MASK OF ZORRO, LUZHIN DEFENCE) and is worth the price of the video. Did anyone ever consider him for Bond ? John Gielgud hams it up as Alex's stuffy rich father. Ruby Wax provides comic uplift as Lily's brassy friend and travelling companion who eventually confides Lily's secret accidentally to Alex, bringing about the happier ending. Lily's moping indecision, stubbornness, and uncommunicative attitude when Alex desperately and apologetically tries to explain to her what happened that fateful time 10 years ago, is so irritating you want to shake her, but though tears flow, you know that everything turns out fine in the end. And ultimately that's all you want of a reasonable feelgood movie. 6.5 out of 10.

I first saw this film coming up on WETA, a US PBS station in the mid '80's and couldn't wait as the book had been my absolute favourite from the early '70's. I was not disappointed.

Filmed entirely on location in Iceland, this BBC Scotland production, released January 1979, is a first class action adventure.

Former British agent Alan Stewart is blackmailed by his former boss Slade into delivering a package. It seems a simple messenger boy's job but things soon take a dramatic turn, and Stewart finds himself being chased across the ruggedly beautiful volcanic landscape, pursued by his nemesis, Kennikin (character actor Vladek Sheybal).

Excellent characterisation and performance by versatile and under-rated actor Stuart Wilson (1994 DEATH AND THE MAIDEN, several PRIME SUSPECTS and the 1998 MASK OF ZORRO ) as Alan Stewart, as well as 3 former U.F.O. series cast members (Sewell/Bishop/Sheybal) this is a taut and well told drama. Wilson's hairstyle and '70's tight flares are a bit dated, but Icelandic actress Heida Steindorrsdottir is flawless as Stewart's girlfriend, in what appears to be her only acting role to date.

There is strangely no concession to subtitling for the Russian and Icelandic dialogue nor for the written signs and one revealing newspaper article but these are minimal. The actors also seem to be doing most of their own stunts.

Based on the novel by Desmond Bagley, RUNNING BLIND has proved by far the truest adaptation of many of Bagley's stories. Five have been done - 3 are rubbish and the 4th, MACKINTOSH MAN, is a muddled Hollywood adaptation of THE FREEDOM TRAP which should have been far better than it was, given the likes of Paul Newman/James Mason, and John Huston directing. Filmed earlier (1973) MACKINTOSH MAN is incidentally the effective sequel to the story of Slade from RUNNING BLIND, where Sewell replaces veteran actor Ian Bannen as Slade.

Overall vote: 9 out of 10. This is a great adventure story and should be released on VHS/DVD. Please, BBC ??

This fine mini-series, directed by David Drury (THE CRY, RHODES, and PRIME SUSPECT 3) is a touching and thought-provoking depiction of the futility of the Great War, a slaughter which wiped out a generation, and changed the role of women forever. Written by Peter Barwood (TV series HEARTBEAT) it includes the cruelty of the courts-martial and executions for desertion, the further losses from the the post-war influenza outbreak, the blurring of class distinctions, and the disappointment of women who must relinquish their wartime jobs to the returning men. Beautifully and sensitively acted by Juliet Aubrey as Carey's strong-willed daughter Sophia in one of her best roles since GO NOW and STILL CRAZY. Sophia plays a Nurse who has suffered her own losses and feels very strongly for the disabled men as they and their families try to adjust to normal life. She falls for one of her patients, the enigmatic Unknown Soldier (Gary Mavers, PEAK PRACTICE's hunk Dr. Attwood) found shell-shocked and wandering naked in No-Man's Land. The men call him Angel, as he saved the life of another officer, but who is he really? Is he an Officer or an enlisted man ? In their efforts to find his real identity he faces the horrors of electric shock therapy, accusations of malingering, threats of being returned immediately to the fighting at the front, court-martial as a deserter, and conflicting witnesses including a couple desperately claiming him as their son. Compared to the epic THE English PATIENT (beautifully filmed but too Hollywood) this is more grittily realistic. Mavers' performance is wooden, and Aubrey is altogether too modern and earnest in her commitment to those men (why is she attracted to Angel?) but the cast includes familiar British faces Frederick Treves, Pip Torrens and Tom Chadbon who are as excellent as ever.