Discs - Reviews by Quad5point1

Discs - Reviews by Quad5point1

« Member Page

Member	Item		Review/Comment
Quad5point1 6th Sep 2022		Blu-ray Operation Mincemeat [2021] - Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (2022)	Rated 4/10 If you've never seen the 1956 film "The Man Who Never Was" you would probably enjoy this. I think the way the characters that were played by Colin Firth (Ewen Montagu) and Matthew Macfadyen (Charles Cholmondeley) were terrible and the movie had this ridiculous love story going on in the background which was just so corny, Kelly Macdonald was like a square peg in a round hole and even Penelope Wilton was bad in this film and (for me anyway) that's a first. I honestly couldn't find one single redeeming quality in the film, it will be winging it's way to the nearest charity shop as it's not even worth a second viewing. Pity, I was really looking forward to this movie being brought bang up to date with all the newest techniques in filming available today. Instead what we got was (to use old parlance) a quota quickie where it appears this was just rushed off to get some money in or keep actors in employment. It says on the cover "Gripping & Incredibly Moving", the only thing I was gripping was the Remote Control to switch it off and the only way it moved me was to walk over and press the eject button. There was much to much emphasis placed on the fictional love story than there was on the historical aspect of the subject. Definitely one "NOT" to watch again. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 23rd Jun 2022		DVD Box Set Hitler's War [2016] - Cannon Vision (2016)	Review This documentary is a complete and utter waste of time that you'll never get back. Lousy film footage and terrible narration make this one fit for the bin. I got it 2nd hand for £2 and even that was too much to pay. Avoid at all costs. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 27th Nov 2020		Blu-ray American Poltergeist - Starmovie (2015)	Rated 1/10 This is without doubt the worst movie in existence. It beggars belief that somebody can actually get away with this. You would think that somebody somewhere at sometime would say to the director that this is just a pile of dog crap that needs shoveled up and put into an incinerator. Don't waste time and energy watching this and worse still don't under any circumstances pay out hard earned money for it. Walk away from it, you're not missing anything believe me. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 24th Nov 2020		DVD All Creatures Great And Small [2020] - Acorn Media (2020)	Review Having watched the original series from start to finish and thoroughly enjoyed it, I approached this new remake with some trepidation, knowing that remakes aren't always successful but this is one that bucks that trend. I really needn't have worried though because the casting is superb and the filming is amazing. I was already a big fan of Samuel West who plays Siegfried in this series and he doesn't disappoint. Nicholas Ralph as James Herriot is pretty good as well. I was disappointed that it didn't come out on blu-ray but maybe sometime in the future when they test the market with a DVD release. If you haven't seen it yet then keep an eye open for it, it doesn't disappoint 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 8th Sep 2020		DVD Blind Spot - Hitler's Secretary (2004)	Review The astonishing true story of Hitler's private secretary coming to terms with working alongside unspeakable evil after remaining silent for nearly sixty years. In 1942, Traudl Junge was an apolitical 22-year-old chosen from a clerical pool to work as one of Adolf Hitler's private secretaries. Working day-in, day-out for Hitler, Junge viewed him as a surrogate father figure, private and polite, nothing like the crazed rhetorician of his speeches. Shielded from the knowledge of Hitler's acts of atrocity and convinced she was in the center of information, she was actually in a blind spot. As the Nazi regime teetered on destruction and Hitler plunged further into madness, Junge witnessed everything up to the final chaotic days in the bunker. Completed just months before Traudl Junge's death,BLIND SPOT: HITLER'S SECRETARY is a riveting personal history which demands to be seen by all. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 19th Oct 2019		Blu-ray March Of The Wooden Soldiers - 3D Classics (2012)	Review Imagine an enchanted fantasy world of timeless characters and magical moments where nothing goes right for the clumsy toymakers Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee. When a notorious scoundrel, Barnaby, demands to marry the beautiful Little Bo Peep, guess who secretly emerges as the blushing bride? Based on the original Babes in Toyland, this movie is a dazzling spectacle of 6-foot wooden soldiers, Mother Goose characters and the beloved team of Laurel and Hardy. Spectacularly restored and presented in color, this release boasts superb graphics that are enhanced with a stunning stereoscopic 3D transfer. See the storybook characters come to life with imagery so real you feel you could reach out and touch it. It is like seeing this family favorite for the very first time, all over again! 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 22nd Sep 2019		Blu-ray The Magic Christian - Fabulous Films (2017)	Rated 10/10 Extract of online review from HERE If you are not familiar with the film or its source material, The Magic Christian is essentially a “High concept” movie – it follows the exploits of an eccentric multimillionaire, Guy Grand (Peter Sellers), who takes a homeless young man (Ringo Starr) under his wing, and together the pair set about concocting a series of increasingly elaborate pranks and challenges in order to demonstrate that “everyone has their price”, having much fun at the expense of officious traffic wardens, arts snobs, privileged upper class twits, bigots, and the terminally trendy. Along the way, they use cash bribes to sabotage the Oxford-Cambridge boat race, that epitome of elitism and fair play, take a well-aimed shot at the world of advertising and boardroom yes-men, and we are presented with a memorable scene of the lovely Hattie Jacques discussing sex crimes and Nazi war atrocities, which I’m fairly sure never happened in Sykes. Its mischief-making theme, with its frequent overturning of class and social sensibilities and surreal detours, has a lot in common with Cook and Moore’s Bedazzled (not least the pulchritudinous presence of Welch) and feels more like a series of comedy sketches than a movie with a long-form narrative. Its sketchiness is no surprise when one takes into account the influence of its star, Peter Sellers, a man for whom the adjective ‘difficult’ may have been invented; it’s well-documented in Python biographies that the Python sketch ‘The Mouse Problem’ was originally written for this film, but rejected by Sellers because, according to popular anecdote, his milkman didn’t find it funny. It was Sellers who brought in Cleese and Chapman to assist with scripting The Magic Christian, after his endless impetuous tinkering had seen the film go through, in John Cleese’s words, “thirteen drafts by the time it got to us, Graham and I managed to put the script into shape in three or four weeks” before further interventions by McGrath (“A very nice man who had no idea about comedy structure”) saw the film “end up as a series of celebrity walk-ons.” For his part, Ringo Starr is basically playing the version of himself that had been honed in numerous TV interviews and newsreels, not to mention the two Beatles movies, as a laconic, dreamy layabout prone to droll asides and non-sequiturs. It’s the kind of unaffected performance you only get from non-actors with natural charisma who are at ease in front of the camera (his dumb-show when demonstrating facial exercises [“Silent scream… Tiny mouth”] before an increasingly apoplectic Spike Milligan is worth the entrance price alone). If you are a Python-head, The Magic Christian is also noteworthy as a small stepping stone between their pre-Python TV work for BBC, Rediffusion and Thames, and the Flying Circus. Cleese and Chapman both appear in the two self-written scenes that survived Sellers and Southern’s interventions, the former as a Sotheby’s employee aghast as Ringo vandalises a Dutch master, the latter looking ruggedly handsome as an oarsman for the Oxford-Cambridge boat race, but the film is strewn throughout with the kind of scenarios that became recognisable tropes in Python’s first BBC1 series when it aired later in 1969, most of them retained from Southern’s original novel: Eccentric behaviour in restaurants and art galleries, an upper-class hunting outing that soon gets wildly out of hand, a boardroom meeting full of fawning toadies constantly on the backfoot as they attempt to make the right noises in response to a mogul’s flights of fancy, and a brace of gags playing on drag and homoeroticism (It’s worth bearing in mind that such gags may seem reactionary now, but were transgressive in 1969 – it’s called progress). Another proto-Python element is the casting of broadcasters (in this case, Michael Aspel, Alan Whicker, Harry Carpenter) appearing as themselves, in the same way Python would later employ Reginald Bosanquet, Richard Baker and David Hamilton. Keen-eyed connoseiurs of queer cinema will also appreciate a cameo from Leonard Frey, aka Harold from ground-breaking gay drama The Boys In The Band. Fabulous Films DVD release of The Magic Christian is, to all intents and purposes, a clone of the decade-old Universal mid-price DVD (right down to the packaging and menu screen), and as such offers no tantalising extras, not even an original trailer. The Magic Christian is a real curio of its time, with enough celebrity cameos and ‘60s British Cinema, Beatles and Python connections to appeal to a cross-section of fandoms for cultural and historical interest alone. And it’s good fun: Daft, silly, flawed, patchy, but rarely dull, with Sellers and Starr carrying the film with their infectious personalities alone – for better or worse, a shining example of “They don’t make them like that any more” and “Drugs in the sixties must have been REALLY good 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 22nd Sep 2019		DVD The Magic Christian - Universal (2006)	Rated 10/10 Extract of online review from HERE If you are not familiar with the film or its source material, The Magic Christian is essentially a “High concept” movie – it follows the exploits of an eccentric multimillionaire, Guy Grand (Peter Sellers), who takes a homeless young man (Ringo Starr) under his wing, and together the pair set about concocting a series of increasingly elaborate pranks and challenges in order to demonstrate that “everyone has their price”, having much fun at the expense of officious traffic wardens, arts snobs, privileged upper class twits, bigots, and the terminally trendy. Along the way, they use cash bribes to sabotage the Oxford-Cambridge boat race, that epitome of elitism and fair play, take a well-aimed shot at the world of advertising and boardroom yes-men, and we are presented with a memorable scene of the lovely Hattie Jacques discussing sex crimes and Nazi war atrocities, which I’m fairly sure never happened in Sykes. Its’ mischief-making theme, with its frequent overturning of class and social sensibilities and surreal detours, has a lot in common with Cook and Moore’s Bedazzled (not least the pulchritudinous presence of Welch) and feels more like a series of comedy sketches than a movie with a long-form narrative. Its sketchiness is no surprise when one takes into account the influence of its star, Peter Sellers, a man for whom the adjective ‘difficult’ may have been invented; it’s well-documented in Python biographies that the Python sketch ‘The Mouse Problem’ was originally written for this film, but rejected by Sellers because, according to popular anecdote, his milkman didn’t find it funny. It was Sellers who brought in Cleese and Chapman to assist with scripting The Magic Christian, after his endless, impetuous tinkering had seen the film go through, in John Cleese’s words, “thirteen drafts by the time it got to us… Graham and I managed to put the script into shape in three or four weeks” before further interventions by McGrath (“A very nice man who had no idea about comedy structure”) saw the film “end up as a series of celebrity walk-ons.” For his part, Ringo Starr is basically playing the version of himself that had been honed in numerous TV interviews and newsreels, not to mention the two Beatles movies, as a laconic, dreamy layabout prone to droll asides and non-sequiturs. It’s the kind of unaffected performance you only get from non-actors with natural charisma who are at ease in front of the camera (his dumb-show when demonstrating facial exercises [“Silent scream… Tiny mouth”] before an increasingly apoplectic Spike Milligan is worth the entrance price alone). If you are a Python-head, The Magic Christian is also noteworthy as a small stepping stone between their pre-Python TV work for BBC, Rediffusion and Thames, and the Flying Circus. Cleese and Chapman both appear in the two self-written scenes that survived Sellers and Southern’s interventions, the former as a Sotheby’s employee aghast as Ringo vandalises a Dutch master, the latter looking ruggedly handsome as an oarsman for the Oxford-Cambridge boat race, but the film is strewn throughout with the kind of scenarios that became recognisable tropes in Python’s first BBC1 series when it aired later in 1969, most of them retained from Southern’s original novel: Eccentric behaviour in restaurants and art galleries, an upper-class hunting outing that soon gets wildly out of hand, a boardroom meeting full of fawning toadies constantly on the backfoot as they attempt to make the right noises in response to a mogul’s flights of fancy, and a brace of gags playing on drag and homoeroticism (It’s worth bearing in mind that such gags may seem reactionary now, but were transgressive in 1969 – it’s called progress). Another proto-Python element is the casting of broadcasters (in this case, Michael Aspel, Alan Whicker, Harry Carpenter) appearing as themselves, in the same way Python would later employ Reginald Bosanquet, Richard Baker and David Hamilton. Keen-eyed connoseiurs of queer cinema will also appreciate a cameo from Leonard Frey, aka Harold from ground-breaking gay drama The Boys In The Band. Fabulous Films’ DVD release of The Magic Christian is, to all intents and purposes, a clone of the decade-old Universal mid-price DVD (right down to the packaging and menu screen), and as such offers no tantalising extras, not even an original trailer. The Magic Christian is a real curio of its time, with enough celebrity cameos and ‘60s British Cinema, Beatles and Python connections to appeal to a cross-section of fandoms for cultural and historical interest alone. And it’s good fun: Daft, silly, flawed, patchy, but rarely dull, with Sellers and Starr carrying the film with their infectious personalities alone – for better or worse, a shining example of “They don’t make them like that any more” and “Drugs in the sixties must have been REALLY good 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 20th Jul 2018		DVD The Winslow Boy [1999] - Columbia TriStar (2000)	Rated 9/10 Actor Neil North, who plays the First Lord of the Admiralty in this 1999 version, played Ronnie Winslow in the first film version of The Winslow Boy (1948). Nice touch of continuity. Jeremy Northam who plays Sir Robert Morton is absolutely suberb as is Nigel Hawthorne as Arthur Winslow. I feel the part of of Sir Robert Morton is I'm afraid to say head and shoulders above Robert Donats version in 1948, much more verve and vivacity to the character as oppposed to the original which is far to laid back. I did like Cedric Hardwickes version of Arthur Winslow as it seems more affective than Nigel Hawthornes version, but Hawthornes version is much more how I would imagine that character to be in reality with his obvious affection for his daughter and sons. It's hard to choose which performance is the best but I side with Hawthorne. The only thing I didn't like about the Catherine Winslow character in this movie is quite trivial, but at one point in the film she is wearing sunglasses which look totally anachronistic, they just don't look right. Gemma Jones is absolutely superb in this as she is in everything she does. The one big difference for me was the contrast between Kathleen Harrisons character (Violet) and the new version with Sarah Flinds (Violet). The two are poles apart, Kathleen Harrisons effervescent performance which seemed a tad over the top and Sarah Flinds performance which looks like she's on Valium. They went from one extreme to the other and somewhere in between would have been the way to go. Overall both movies are brilliant and hard to choose one over the other, if you get the chance to see either I Thoroughly recommend you sit down and watch, both are brilliant and worth the watch. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 1st Dec 2017		DVD A Crude Awakening - Artificial Eye (2008)	Rated 10/10 This is a film that should be on everybody's "must see" movie list. It charts the oil industry from it's beginnings to the situation we find ourselves in today. The political shenanigans over who controls the oil supply just beggars belief, the wars that have been fought over the head of it, the people who have died over the head of it, and the consequences for the environment today. This is another movie that should be on the school curriculum to teach the up and coming generations just what we've done to the planet and where we should be going in the future. Oil will one day run out and leave civilization completely stranded so the development of all the other energy sources are of vital importance before that happens. Definitely a very important piece of education for us _all_ 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 7th Nov 2017		DVD Conspiracy - Warner Home Video (2003)	Rated 10/10 I can't believe it was 2001 when this was made. A very chilling account of what went on at Wannsee in January 1942. Kenneth Branagh's portrayal of Reinhard Heydrich is excellent and manages to convey the absolute coldness of the man who, in a matter of fact way, discusses the plans for the final solution. Stanley Tucci (Margin Call) playing Adolf Eichmann is just brilliant. This is a must-see film for anyone who doubts the callousness of the Nazi regime. 10/10 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 30th Oct 2017		DVD Bilitis - Blackhorse (2005)	Review One of the worst quality DVD's I've ever seen. This is no more than a very poor transfer from VHS (or worse) to disc. It is completely unwatchable so I have no idea what the storyline is because after about 5 minutes it's only fit for ejecting. I'm afraid this is another one for the shredder. Stay away from this at all costs. Total rubbish 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 31st Aug 2017		DVD Love Is All - BFI (2015)	Rated 10/10 LOVE IS ALL (DVD) A film by Kim Longinotto, with music by Richard Hawley A hundred years of love and courtship on the silver screen, from the acclaimed filmmaker Kim Longinotto with music by celebrated singer-songwriter-producer Richard Hawley Love is All takes us on an exquisite journey through the twentieth century, exploring love and courtship in all of its shapes and sizes on the silver screen across decades of unprecedented social upheaval. From the first kisses caught on film, through the disruptions of war and on the birth of youth culture, free love and gay liberation we follow courting couples as they flirt at tea dances, kiss in the back row, shack up together and fight for their right to love whoever they choose. This celluloid love letter is directed by Kim Longinotto (Divorce Iranian Style) and edited by Ollie Huddleston (From the Sea to the Land Beyond) using a selection of spellbinding footage from British archives, including the BFI National Archive and the Yorkshire Film Archive, all set to Richard Hawley's stunning soundtrack. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 23rd Aug 2017		Multi-Format I Am Belfast - BFI (2016)	Rated 3/10 I had great hopes for this documentary whenever I read about it, I have to say I was bitterly disappointed with it. I had hoped it would've been in the same vein as "From Scotland With Love", "Faces Of Scotland" or "From The Sea To The Land Beyond" but it wasn't even close. I found it to be a load of pretentious nonsense, some of it was actually embarrassing. The creator makes great play of the symbiotic relationship between the music and the footage and all I can say is he hasn't watched enough documentaries such as another BFI disc I have called "Love Is All" which has a soundtrack by Richard Hawley and the aforementioned "From Scotland With Love". I was surprised to read in the booklet that this film has been deposited in the BFI. Maybe I missed something (I don't think so) but I'll maybe give it another go sometime and see if I change my mind, but after the first viewing my inclination is to deposit it in the bin 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 16th Aug 2017		DVD Germany Awake! - AG Plate	Rated 1/10 Completely unwatchable. I must be more vigilant when buying DVD's as I have been caught once before with a disc that was equally as bad as this one. I don't know who this company AG Plate are but they definitely produce some of the worst quality DVD's ever. This particular one got precisely 10 seconds before it was ejected and shredded. Complete and utter rubbish 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 5th May 2017		DVD A Decade To Remember: The 1930's - AG Plate (2007)	Review This has to be the worst History DVD I ever purchased. The Production is abysmal, the quality of the footage used is amongst some of the poorest I've ever seen. Clips don't run chronologically, some are with sound and some are not. If you really need to buy anything like this then buy the Pathe News series A Year To Remember which is far far superior to this drivel. Save your money and stay well away. In fact after entering this onto the database it's going in the shredder !! 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 16th Mar 2017		DVD Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe : An Evening Of Yes Music Plus - Voiceprint (2006)	Rated 10/10 This concert for me represents all the Yes members represented at the top of their game. From the very start of the concert you are welcomed by Benjamin Brittens Young Persons Guide To The Orchestra followed by a walk down through the auditorium by Jon Anderson showcasing his unique vocal talents with a compilation of his songs. This carries on in the same vein with the other band members, Rick Wakemans set is just awesome and this DVD is worth it just for that alone. They then proceed to play YES material to absolute perfection. This concert is an absolute joy to own as I always get it on the player whenever I need to feel that good music has never _really_ died. If you like YES and AWBH you absolutely need to own this along with the second disc (Big Generator) which is available seperately. As Stan Unwin would've said " Absolutely Smashing Flaked He Was, Oh Dear What A Mind Blast" 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 15th Nov 2016		Blu-ray It's A Wonderful Life - Paramount (2016)	Rated 10/10 Light up your Christmas with this timeless classic starring the unforgettable James Stewart as George Bailey and featuring a superb ensemble cast including Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore. Regarded as a cinematic masterpiece and one of the most popular films of all time, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is the very definition of the Christmas feel good family film. This acclaimed favourite has been re-mastered in glorious colour providing you with the option of enjoying the film in its original black and white form and in full colour. This high spirited Christmas classic directed by the legendary Frank Capra ranks among fans and film critics alike as one of the most universally loved films ever made. BONUS MATERIAL Digitally Remastered Black and White Version Feature Trivia Tracker It's A Wonderful Life Theatrical Trailer Picture in Picture 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Quad5point1 15th Nov 2016		Blu-ray Holiday Inn - Universal (2014)	Rated 10/10 Classic Hollywood movie about a song and dance man who decides to turn a Connecticut farm into an inn, open only on holidays. Trouble is the joint proprietors of what is now a roadhouse hotel love the same girl. This disc comes with both the original B&W movie and the newly restored and colourised version which I have to say is superbly done. Bing Crosby is his usual self in this but Fred Astaire is the ever consummate professional putting on a superb performance. Highly Recommended 10/10 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?