Mrs Henderson Presents (2005)

2007 #31
Stephen Frears | 99 mins | DVD | 12 / R

Mrs Henderson PresentsJudi Dench is clearly having a whale of a time in this 1930s-set comedy about a 70-year-old widow who starts up a nude revue.

It begins as light comedy with a gently risque edge (rather in-keeping with its subject matter!), but things get a tad serious when the war hits. Luckily the film finds its lightness again in time for the ending, which is much more suited to the general tone.

All told it’s simply a bit of fun, but its overall quality just about nudges it into a four.

4 out of 5

Mrs Henderson Presents is on BBC Two tonight, Sunday 14th December 2014, at 10:30pm.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

2007 #30
Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris | 97 mins | DVD | 15 / R

Little Miss SunshinePeople will tell you this is a comedy, when really it’s a comedy-drama. A TV critic once said, not wrongly, that a comedy-drama is something that isn’t especially funny nor especially dramatic so tries to do both.

Luckily, Little Miss Sunshine is frequently laugh-out-loud hilarious, from the opening dinner scene to the send-up of inherently paedophilic beauty pageants at the climax (so hilarious it almost single-handedly pushed my mark up to a five). There’s also some competent drama threaded through to make that side worthwhile. And I suspect that loveable little Abigail Breslin was more deserving of the Oscar than that irritating Jennifer Hudson.

4 out of 5

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)

2007 #27
George Clooney | 109 mins | TV | 15 / R

Confessions of a Dangerous MindGeorge Clooney’s directorial debut is part biopic, part comedy, and part spy thriller.

It’s the last part that works best, but perhaps that’s just because I have a predilection for spy thrillers; that said, the filmmakers would seem to agree as, after a late appearance in the plot, it comes to dominate its climax. It’s also nicely shot, especially the excursions to Europe.

I would recommend it (though not quite as heartily as Clooney’s second film, the excellent Good Night, and Good Luck).


4 out of 5

Fargo (1996)

Fargo2007 #23
Joel Coen | 94 mins | DVD | 18 / R

Fargo is the latest film to have been inducted into the United States National Film Registry, donchaknow. It’s also 105th on the IMDb Top 250 [it’s now 153rd], and the 21st film from the 1990s. So it’s pretty much a modern classic then.

It is indeed very good; the only thing holding me off giving it 5 is a lack of that Something which leads me to rate so highly after one viewing. Maybe it will go up in time.

4 out of 5

Johnny English (2003)

2007 #21
Peter Howitt | 84 mins | DVD | PG / PG

Johnny EnglishAlmost the flip-side of Hot Fuzz’s coin. Johnny English doesn’t quite manage the action sequence thing (though the car chase is quite good), and the humour is a lot gentler. Every joke is sign-posted at least a good few seconds in advance, sometimes several minutes, yet that’s half the fun — you know what’s about to go wrong and that nothing can stop English doing it anyway.

Not brilliant, then, but an entertaining enough bit of nothing.

3 out of 5

Hot Fuzz (2007)

2007 #20
Edgar Wright | 121 mins | cinema | 15 / R

Hot FuzzHere come the fuzz!

I wasn’t hyped enough about this film to pay £10 to see it a week before release, and instead paid just £3.75 to see it in a big screen with just myself and a friend. Now that’s entertainment.

The brilliance of the situation aside, this is a damn good film. Most of its running time is devoted to high-quality comedy, and then it kicks into a full-blown action movie! Fantastic! I unreservedly recommend this to everyone, and especially to fans of action films and British comedies — do not miss this.

5 out of 5

Hot Fuzz placed 2nd on my list of The Ten Best Films I Saw For the First Time in 2007, which can be read in full here.


UPDATE (16/9/2012)

Having had a rant about current cinema prices on twitter the other day, the fact this review mentions how much I paid back in 2007 led me to look up the current cost of tickets at the same cinema (a branch of a well-known chain).

It’s five-and-a-half years on, so of course prices will have gone up, but nonetheless I have two observations:

1) The cost of a regular (peak time) adult ticket is now £9.
2) The cost of the equivalent ticket to the one I bought is £5.40. That’s a 44% increase. An inflation calculator tells me that my 2007 ticket would today be exactly 20% more expensive.

Make of that what you will.

This is Spinal Tap (1984)

This is Spinal Tap2007 #15
Rob Reiner | 80 mins | DVD | 15 / R

I think my viewing of Spinal Tap may have suffered from years of hype. In some ways it was exactly what I’d expected; in others, not. There are plenty of funny moments, and the odd hilarious one (Stonehenge), but there were times when I felt a little underwhelmed by it.

Maybe you had to be there; maybe it is indeed a victim of hype.

4 out of 5

This is Spinal Tap is on ITV4 tonight, Thursday 18th June 2015, at 1am.

Romance & Cigarettes (2005)

2007 #13
John Turturro | 102 mins | DVD | 15 / R

Romance and CigarettesI was attracted to this because it was billed as a modern musical, with an impressive cast. Tsk.

Some people are put off by the musical tag — well, don’t be. The characters occasionally sing along to some popular songs (and sometimes to ones you’ve never heard in your life), and sometimes do fun dance routines. This sits at odds with the gritty-ish melodrama of the plot, but that’s the fun.

It’s worth a punt, but expect to dislike it.

3 out of 5

It (1927)

It2007 #10
Clarence G. Badger | 72 mins | VHS

Proof if it were needed that the format of the rom-com has gone largely unchanged for at least 80 years! In that respect It makes for a fairly entertaining film, with some story elements that modern audiences might find surprisingly, well, modern.

Entertaining but not essential.

3 out of 5

A Cock and Bull Story (2005)

aka Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story

2007 #5
Michael Winterbottom | 90 mins | DVD | 15 / R

A Cock and Bull Story
I forget which British paper described this as “the best film ever, ever, ever”. It may’ve been The Guardian.* They’re not right, of course, but it has its moments — most of them courtesy of the excellent Rob Brydon, who far outshines Steve Coogan. It’s worth watching for the former alone.

3 out of 5

* It was.