Reviews

When a character in Local Hero says 'imagine a world without oil' I half thought members of the small audience might rise in protest. Take away the 80s 'tech': ' telex' and 'change for the phone' and this film is not dated even at its fortieth birthday. It is being shown at my local cinema to commemorate that anniversary.

The theme of oil v environment is just as relevant today, if not more so. The photography of the islands is beautiful, there are splendid performances from the leads and a host of character actors and Mark Knopfler's music rises to a rousing finish over the credits. See it if you can, it deserves the big screen.

It was about this point that I lost patience with Diagnosis Murder. It became less and less about a hospital doctor and more and more simply a police series. The notion the a homicide detective, who arrests a murderer et at least once a week, could spare the time to open and run a hamburger joint is ridiculous and equally ridiculous is the idea that a junior doctor could be a partner in the operation.

My grudge against Diagnosis Murder is similar to the one I hold against Murder, She Wrote which more and more moved away from Cabot Cove so that Jessica could solve murders all over the world, murders for which the local police had arrested the wrong person.

What would Colin Dexter have thought of this gross misuse of his wonderful character? To say it is reminiscent of Agatha Christie is unfair on Ms Christie. A bus load of passengers goes missing in Oxfordshire, come on.

I have been treating myself to a season of James Stewart westerns but this was disappointing and quite disturbing. Given that it comes a decade after Broken Arrow it feels like a backward step in its depiction of Native Americans. I was misled by the opening comedy, failing to notice it gained an A cert. We return to comedy at the end but in between it is a bit of a mess, a film the director thought was 'crap'.

Acting wise, comedy wise and production wise, this is one of my top six films of all time

Due to financial constraints this movie was shorter than planned. Thank goodness. A sad finale for both producer and director.

A so so western but some interesting support for Randolph Scott including Joycelyn Brando, Marlon's sister, a young Lee Van Cleef and Richard Boone who I best remember from TV series Have Gun Will Travel

Like another reviewer I too am old enough to have seen this at the cinema but I didn't and nearly 70 years passed before it came my way on Sony movies. Thoroughly enjoyable with a splendid cast as disparate as Alec Guinness and the ubiquitous Sam Kydd.

I note that this was the only episode written by Raymond Bowers but that he was trusted with 11 episodes of Crossroads.

I fairly recently reread some of Bennett's best known 'Five Towns' novels but was unaware of Buried Alive. What a delightful film it made and one which popped up on YouTube.

'(Doris) rises above the slapstick' (Radio Times Guide to Films) but only just and only because she can sing.

Just google synonyms for maudlin and you've got a review of this dreadful film

This is another one of those films, like The Man in The White Suit that I was convinced I had seen and certainly knew the basic premise but when I came to watch it I realised I hadn't seen it. It's message is simple: if people think you have money irrespective of whether you have or not they will treat you as if you had.As true today as in 1954.

I found this series instructive but would have preferred more of the experts Joe Fattorini and Jancis Robinson and less of the two comedians Matthew Goode and James Purefoy especially the former

This film bombed at my local film society. In an audience of over 150 almost 50% gave it the lowest possible rating of 1 star while only 7 gave it the maximum 4 stars. By some distance the least possible of the eight films we have seen this season and with another seven films to come I will be surprised if it is displaced from this position.