matthew-scrutton

I hired this before it came out on DVD (pirated yeah I know, I didn't even get special features!) and was pleasantly surprised. Ford pulls the film off pretty darn well and it was quite amusing to see Marie Lynn Rajskub in a watered down Chloe O Brien role. It was especially good at the end with the fight sequence between Ford and the and bad guy (hes called Cox) really making you want to shoot the bad guy. Ford goes one step better by picking up a pick axe and swinging it over his shoulder where it wacks Cox in the back with a lovely thump. Its a good film, watch it. I have one grievance, the annoying woman who sets off the silent alarm in the airport bank. I could have gladly shot her in that situation.

the only reason I gave this a one is because IMDb doesn't run into negatives! I saw this at my grandparents on a wet day when I was 9, and as I am a big (maybe too big) fan of the TV version, I saw this as crap. The doctor is not an alien? What the hell, thats the whole point, so he doesn't relate to humans very well! Making him a doddery old fool who felt like building a bi-dimensional police box, doesn't really work for me. Also they got rid of the noise of the tardis! What sacrilege, instead we get a sound not unlike a microwave in trouble. I bet the BBC wouldn't grant them the rights to use the noise! The daleks are mobile Chubb extinguishers, ooohhhh i'm terrified, please don't get me wet!!! Granted the colouring was very good but the bit when the shed blows up made me wet myself laughing as it was blatantly from the Wickes store down the road. If you love Dr Who then never ever even think of this film again, I hate its guts for what is did to such a national treasure, but, butbutbutbut, I would like to see Daleks invasion 2150 as I would like to compare it to this!

IMD doesn't give you a 0 option, so I haven't put a vote in. Frankly, the fact that the US has taken over a firmly British idea saddens me. When I was a kid my dad used to take me to T studio at Shepperton Studios in the course of his job. Anyone who knows about the history of "T" studio will know that it was also where the similar show "Tugs" was filmed, hence "T" studio! Well when I went to the studio not only were the crew real cool guys, but let me onto the set and into the workshop as well! The sets were basically a massive model railway, and I distinctly remember one of the set builders saying that the ultimate aim was to put all of the different parts of it together and run it. Basically you would end up with a gauge 1 model of the entire Island of Sodor. I was given a radio control unit and allowed to make Henry's eyes do the famous "roundy-roundy" confused look. Good times, anyway back to the film. It absolutely DEFIES ALL prototypical railway operation. That might sound a bit too harsh, but the original TV series always tried to maintain a certain standard of correctness, and indeed, as a young railway enthusiast, gave me a insight in to how things like signals worked. The film just gives the impression that the engines can drive themselves, and that they can go wherever they want just on a whim. Rubbish, and all the actors were real corny, and painful to watch, I hated them all! As for that dumb diesel with the digger on its roof, WHAT THE HELL? How could even a child take that seriously? It looked dumb, and frankly if I had seen it in reality, I would just go up to it, kick it, and promptly get my large adjustable spanner and go on a wrecking spree! To sum up, this godawful piece of cinefilm garbage is a total train wreck of Rev Awdry's ideal, and Britt Alcroft, who doesn't own the rights anymore, should be pleased it made what money it did. The acting was awful, and it actually made me paranoid about films after other poor releases but I'm not mentioning them, it will take too long. Peter Fonda looked like he was about to pull a Colt 45 to his temple and fire, he was that depressed! I would have gladly done it for him, that way the energy required to move his finger could have been spent on other things, like wondering how he got into this movie. "Hmmmm, all I remember is Britt and that bottle of White Lightening..................."

I literally wrote this after watching the movie on 5, mainly because I am a railway enthusiast and hate Van Damme movies. But because of the railway content I did raise a couple of points. Firstly, the shots of the switch tower with frantic German signalmen trying to rouse the drunken freight train driver were quite good, if not hilarious! Another point is this, when Van Damme and co uncouple their section of train from the other section, the air hoses part and all, but the train does not stop! They resort to the coaches handbrake, which for some reason the mighty Van Damme cannot turn without the aid of 50 people! In reality the train would have stopped dead because of a lack of air pressure holding the brakes off. Also, the engine kept on plowing on despite being gutted internally by fire! The crashes were dodgy, the trains looked like models off my layout upstairs, and the flames had the usual "out of scale with the rest of it" syndrome. When the two trains finally meet on the grade crossing, the loco of the freight train explodes, but then it suddenly is in great shape again, despite having clipped the end of a SOLID STEEL passenger train! When the Apache's open up on the main locomotive, it suddenly stops as though the directors re-wrote the laws of physics! I thought it was dead funny, cheap (the readily obvious H0 scale models!), and ridiculous all round, even for a non railway enthusiast its bad! So watch for high octane, low budget drama, but expect glaring errors! (the rest of the story was poor!)

Well what can I say? What can you say? I know what my 16 year old cohorts would say; "it's rubbish, there's no sex and drugs etc". Well to them I say grow up, there's more to film than that. A red-headed friend at school is talking with Channel 4 about doing a documentary on ginger people, and while everyone else says "oh god not another awful waste of disk space", I say good luck. Back to the film, It is brilliant. It puts a lot more emphasis on the crews actions to save that wonderful ship than Camerons and the actor who played Molly "unsinkable" Brown was credible, believable and so what if the designer, Thomas Andrews, had somehow lost his Irish accent. It was awful for me having to watch as he lent so casually by the fireplace, and adjusted the clock to time, only for it to be frozen in that position for all time. And when E J Smith calls for everyman for himself, and the sense of the ship plunging into the abyss beneath everyone, the atmosphere is tense, and you really start siding with characters, I personally sided with Lightoller, who was portrayed as the brave, professional seaman that he was. Cameron's Lightoller; "GET BACK OR I'LL SHOOT YOU ALL LIKE DOGS", was awful and I personally resented that cowardice portray-el of the real hero of the Titanic story. The model is pretty good for its day, and although the smoke stacks are a bit too tall the ship is still identifiable as Titanic, so no need for computer graphics there. The sinking was very well executed and although films don't upset me much, when the old boy with the little kid on the ships fantail are huddled together, with the old man reassuring that he will see his mother in a couple of minutes, that sent a chill through a my body, and I feel really upset as I write this.

In short, its a very good film, and does not resort to stupid love stories, and really is quintessentially British!!!!!!

It may sound odd, but this is one of my favourite films. Why? Because when I watched it, I had not read the novel. It was only when I obtained a copy that I realised the movies shortfalls. However, when you see the frankly fantastic model breaking the surface, it makes you think "yeah this was worth the wait". The dialogue (or lack of it) is wooden, and the movie does little to explain properly the Sicilian project and its potential, but the model and its raising is fairly well represented. But have you ever considered the consequences of its raising. In the film it comes up damned fast, like the novel, except that instead of stern first it comes up bow first. Well sorry, but if that happened the stacks would be shorn off along with the masts, the film was so hurriedly put together that the film makers forgot that. Also, when it breaks surface it comes up sssssssssslllllllllllllllloooooowwwwwwwwlllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, why the massive deacceleration? One ironic thing about the movie is this, when the enormous 50 foot model was built, the leader of the team responsible for its construction was justly proud, and for good reason. When built it was finished as the ship as built, because originally the film would feature the sinking, but that footage was cut out to cut the time down. When the ship was weathered and damaged for the "sunk" Titanic, the movie folks bought an old liner to play the part of the raised Titanic, with a few cosmetic modifications. This old Italian liner had two mast things next to the main fore mast, and so when the model makers weren't looking, they added these to the model! The guy who built it was absolutely furious! I am a Titanic enthusiast who knows a fair bit about the Titanic story, and so watching the Titanic break surface was magic, its like a dream come true! Alas though, it is impossible in reality. And its more magical with it sunk! Bring the Titanic back to the surface and the legend becomes reality, and nobody will care after 10 years or so.

Watch it for a laugh, and the raising, but be prepared for a few unanswered questions, and a poor ending, which seems to try and end the film as quickly as possible. I recommend watching, then reading the book, which is very good, so that all the questions you raise can be answered.

One of my all time favourite films, I could go on forever about this film but I am only going to say this, Northiam as Gladstone the engine was the star of the film to me, and while funny, it is sad to see her blow up at the end! The way it was driven was also very funny. I am a steam loco driver and when Will Hay lets all the steam out of the boiler I have to say now that the boiler must have been very poorly maintained! Also the fact that it was steamed on hay (no pun intended!) was also a little funny, especially when the chicken pops out of the firebox! The Irish mafia type cretins are also very funny and do really good accents. I really hope you watch this film, its funny and endearing without resorting to sex and violence, or bad language. In conclusion, a very good film!

OK, so Titanic may not be everyones idea of a great film. And I agree with them. Despite his good intentions, Cameron has apparently used the tragic disaster that was Titanic as the backdrop for a forbidden romance. Now I am an enthusiast of the Titanic, and know quite a bit about it. And because of this, I raised a few questions in my head. What about the Californian, the ship whose captain was blamed for standing by and doing nothing (which was proved wrong 60 years after the sinking)? If you look carefully as the ship leaves port, the stacks are red! Now this is potentially historically accurate. Had the ship lived, she would have these colours put on when Cunard took over the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company (or White Star Line). But for the film it is wrong. There was too much emphasis on the love story, but seeing the two lovebirds run around the huge interior of the ship did give a nice tour! However, it did start to get annoying after a while, because I only watched it for the ship! The underwater scenes were credible, well executed, and looked very good. It was a very good and dramatic way that the ship was portrayed sinking, and when the stern is in the air, and the lights go out and the ship breaks her back, it really brought a few shivers as the windmill sized screws slammed back into the water, crushing a few people on the way. In conclusion, the story of the sinking was very well played out, the love story was good to a point, after which it got a bit tedious, and the whole essence of "panic" as the ships complement realise the great liner is irreversibly sinking beneath their feet is excellent. I especially enjoyed watching the engine room scenes. However, if Cameron ever makes another film about a luxury liner going down (Lusitania HINT HINT) then would he be so kind as to not put a love story into it, because really, the film only succeeded because girls went to see the "pretty boy" actor make his debut, and ended up sobbing because he had to "die".

Watch it if you love the RMS Titanic, if you don't, then don't watch it at all, because 3 hours of Leo D Capro professing his love to Winslet will bore you, as he really doesn't look like he's seen the action in this film!