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allyno3
Reviews
Benidorm (2007)
An insult to Liverpool,that's all I can say.
This programme is awful example of the bias the Manchester media holds over my city.that of Liverpool. Has liverpool wronged them at some time? ITV are one of those who likes to jump on the lets pull Liverpool down band wagon. It is promoted as a comedy.
Take the Telle character,we are meant to laugh at her predicament yet that is what most girls in Liverpool are like,no escape. Or our home-grown Jonathan Vegas as a Jabba the Hut style moron. This is trying to say that people from Liverpool in particular make Rik Waller look thin.
please ITV,reason these things before you make them. A proud and true scouser.
The Wayne Manifesto (1996)
Compelling, fun drama (with Rainee Skinner)
This show is usually on Children's BBC in the morning in Britain, and, considering most of the garbage that's shown these days, it should be shown later when more people can see it. The cast are adequate for their given roles, the stories admittedly, are well written and know what buttons to push, in the right order, delivering many clever twists and turns. But one person sticks out in this: Wayne's mother, Rainee Skinner.
In my mind, she is one of the most beautiful, attractive actresses I have seen on a children's programme. She is so cool as well, and sort of anchors the show in realism whereas without her it would lose it's reality. I mean, in the first episode, the way she turns the rules of the manifesto inside out is extremely devious, as it seems to be so well written and infallible, yet she finds holes and uses them to her advantage.
Rainee should be on more programmes. If I were to make films, I would write parts for her and Nancy Allen straight away.
If anyone has info on her, e-mail me?
Pigeon Street (1981)
In Pigeon Street, their wings, wings beat!
I do not believe that nobody can remember this excellent See-saw programme of the early '80s! It was so colourful and trippy, and I looked forward to seeing it every Wednesday (although it was so long ago, I can remember even what day it was on). I was born in 1980, so I must've watched the repeats.
From the suspiciously Paul Macartney soundalike singing the theme tune, which was sung jazzily and monotone at the same time, and from excellent characters, like long distance Clara (a very pretty long distance driver, like Denzil from Fools and Horses, yet possibly the first female to EVER take up a job like this) to the Jamaican style window cleaner (Forgot his name though I loved his stripey hat, I could almost eat the candy colours off it)! The pet shop owner with the parrot (it might've been a budgie though)and a moustache was one of my favourites.
The guy who held it together was the narrator, George Layton. His voice is instantly recognisable, distinguised yet comforting. I can only remember his voice in it, even playing the girl characters.
Forget inane jumbled up childrens silliness such as the Teletubbies and their rip-offs, the Tweenies. This MUST be re-shown. I have a feeling if it does it could be remade and turned into a cult classic
Total Recall (1990)
Bloody marvellous!
This is arguably one of the greatest sci-fi adventures ever produced. You are grabbed from the opening by a beautiful and stunning montage of 3-dimensional credits, dropping down over what looks like the face of Mars. This is one of my favourite title sequences ever, though it seems to pass people by.
Then, after a brief shock opening, and being introduced to the main protagonists of the tale, we are plunged into a futuristic nightmare, full of viscera and tooth and claw carnage. This really could be one of the most vicious movies ever! But hen, that's really what to expect from Verhoeven, whos movies are great.
It is a hard film to write about without giving away the essence and twists in the film. Suffice to say that it contains some spectacular scenes and locations.
The baddies are really bad too, especially the evil dictator's right hand man, who casually shoots who (and what)ever he can. His demise is funny yet extremely sickening (you'll laugh with giddiness when you see what happens).
Scwarzenegger really hasn't made many bad films. This is arguably his most compelling and watchable one, filled with mutants, beautiful women, a massive brothel, and not to spoil it, an unexpectedly sweet ending, which only enhances the films appeal.
I'm surprised if there is someone who won't have seen it, 'cause it's been going for ages. Best bet, get it on DVD like I want to do, to get the best quality you can. You owe it to yourself to get a movie like this, fun and fast, yet cerebrally challenging.
Blow Out (1981)
Exciting, though sometimes very morbid mystery adventure
I'm surprised that not many people have written about this film. It uses the same techniques as a movie called Blow-Out (supposedly classic, though personally I wouldn't give it 1 star). When it was on T.V. about a month back I gave it a whirl because it contained my favourite actress, Nancy Allen. It starts out as pretty laboured & uninvolving, yet if given a chance it is strangely hypnotic. Allen is such a cutie pie in this film, and her final scene is so moving (I won't spoil it, but she does get a subtle, heroine's finale.
John Travolta, can carry any movie he's in, and is quite commanding in a lead act as a sound FX tech who saves Allen, & finds more to the incident she was involved in than meets the eye (well, he is a sound engineer, and the Blow-Up comparisons start there).
However, the overshadowing performance I think is John Lithgow's deliciously evil turn as a serial strangler (this has nods to Hitchcock's "Frenzy", a director admired and used as inspiration by Brian De Palma). This is also where the movie starts to falter though, as an investigation on what Travolta finds just stops and goes onto a new story, about the Murderer.
Reputedly Tarantino's favourite movie, after seeing this he grabbed Travolta as Pulp Fiction's leading character.
I'm not sure this is available in Britain on tape or DVD as yet, but if your in the mood for a little intellectual excitement, you can do a lot worse if you can find it.
Scum (1979)
Frightening, fast,thrilling,furious
I have seen this film once, and that should be enough for many people, yet they probably will have an urge to see it again and see the actors who are now making bigger, slicker movies (Cat off Red Dwarf in Blade 2 and Ray Winstone in everything!)
As it is about people around my age, this film hit me even harder. The rape scene counts as being the most sickening scene in movie scene history, yet it is all integral to the story. It is extremely bloody, racist and yet moving and heartbreaking. Ray Winstone is a cruel revelation as a top dog,a sympathetic yet violent hoodlum. Never been better since, I think.
The film moves at a breakneck speed and never seems to sag. I don't know what those employed at a borstal will think of it, but it would probably make them think more of the broken-down urchins as human.
A hard film to like, but even harder to forget. If I was rating it, a 3/5. I think I would give it a five if it wasn't so stomach-churningly realistic. Violence in films can be entertaining, but on no account this time.
American Pie (1999)
Funny,breezy,heartwarming
I remember going to see this twice at the cinema. It was the first day it came out. I found "American Pie" a genuinely amusing comedy, although it may have been the crudest comedy I had seen at the cinema at that time, but, unlike Me, Myself & Irene, this only poked fun at things which you thought wasn't funny but you yourself had to go through, while other, so-called comedies (such as the above) just shock for the sake of it.
Really, it is very lightweight, and possibly not as shocking or hilarious as many made out, but as a sex education, you won't get many better films, or come to think of it, a film as funny as it.