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Reviews
Strange Girls (2007)
Great low budget horror comedy
The movie, set in working class Pittsburgh, centres around two seemingly near-mute twins who act out in synchronicity and occasionally communicate in a childhood language (similar to tones of Jodie Foster in Nell). The girls who are in a psychological facility want to be socialized and move out of the hospital so that they can live with each other. It becomes clear they are not that they will go to any lengths to make this happen and appear 'normal' to the authorities. If I tell you anyone more it will give away too much of the plot.
Anyone with an interest in true-independent film-making, low budget horror and John Waters' camp will love this film, the acting is great especially from the twins I was lucky enough to attend the international premiere at the Edinburgh film festival on Sunday June 22, the film was sold out and a lot of people were turned away at the door.
Definitely seek this film out if you can.
Gavin & Stacey (2007)
Bland, unfunny, I expect more from Ruth Jones
I taped all of Gavin & Stacey on the 'BBC Three' night that showed all of them, At the time I was happy because I'd missed them all on first run. I watched them all because even though the first one was not to my liking I was giving it the benefit of the doubt. What I found was a derivative, insipid and lame comedy.
Alison Steadman and the occasional cameo from Julia Davies (albeit practically reprising her 'Nighty Night' role) are the only saving graces in this cheap or at least cheap feeling production.
The obvious pratfalls and setups are painful to watch making 'The Worst Week of my Life' almost a pleasure to view (again Steadman notwithstanding) If it wasn't for the bad timing from the majority of the actors I'd have thought I was watching an ITV documentary about working class wedding arrangements.
I've found Ruth Jones to be very funny in Nighty Night and Little Britain but her hard character just wasn't humorous and the cringe-worthy comedy wasn't gross-out enough to warrant an 'American Pie' spoof or realistic enough to be a 'Curb your Enthusiasm' classic.
All in all I didn't care enough about the characters whether they married, divorced or fell of a cliff, and as for the occasional 'emotional' moment that felt like it was written by the 'Desperate Housewives' computer that just made me feel sick.
How dare the BBC use my license fee to commission such garbage.
Marigold (2005)
Definitely worth catching.
Marigold seems to have woken up to a world in which she serves no purpose. She's a deathly embarrassment to her son Jack and near invisible to her husband Kenneth.
Doing nothing all day is taking its toll on Marigold, she desperately needs an outlet for her emotions and interacting with Bargain Hunt and The Weakest Link isn't really cutting it.
She decides to plan a proper family meal for some unity but this will be no mean feat with no food and no cookery skills
There's a comforting air about this pilot that reminds you of the warm era of BBC sitcom: Mrs Slocombe's pussy, Reginald Perrin's hippopotamus mother-in-law, Tom and Barbara Good's pratfalls etc. This is combined with an edginess that would not have been considered in the past. The premise at first may seem a little pedestrian for what we've come to expect from BBC THREE, but what it delivers is certainly no bland sitcom.
I hope BBC THREE decide to repeat this a few times so that others can see it and perhaps it will get picked up for series.
Thriller (1973)
Enjoyable but not a 'Thriller'
I've been watching the DVDs recently. I have found the series enjoyable but not exactly thrilling.
The acting is very stilted and the dialogue surely would have been dated at the time of broadcast. It's nice to see a few faces from the past and the acting by the more recognizable few seems to be of a better caliber than a lot of the rest of the cast.
It seems like the concept of red herrings is far too complex a plot device for the early seventies as every part of the action is spelled out for the audience and most of the episodes have narrative laid on thick by the characters 'who'd have thought a dynamic doctor from the city and his American bride from Connecticut would be setting up home in the English countryside?' just in case you can't figure out the plot.
The sets are pretty good, very large, but typically unstable like that of Acorn Antiques fame.
All in all it's pretty watchable but not scary.