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simplythunder
Reviews
Doctor Who: The Girl in the Fireplace (2006)
Broke my heart
Everything came together to perfection in this episode - the best ever. The chemistry between Sophia Myles and David Tennant was electric and the Murray Gold's music caught its poignancy to perfection. The costumes were sumptuous and there was just enough menace to keep kids behind the sofa now and again, and certainly will stop them looking under their beds at night. And a great one to put before next week's Cybermen as a complete foil to it. It went a long way to explaining a lot of the Doctor's motivation as a character in a variety of other situations. If this episode doesn't win some kind of award, I will eat my sonic screwdriver.
Separate Lies (2005)
intelligent, moving, exquisite
This is a stunning movie. Raw and sublimely moving. It felt like a very gripping, intelligent stage play (but without the overly theatrical feeling one actually gets from watching people on a stage) which plays on everyone's terror of a white lie escalating to monstrous consequences. All of the main players are mesmerising. Tom Wilkinson broke my heart at the end... and everyone else's judging by the amount of fumbling for hankies and hands going up to faces among males and females alike. Julian Fellowes has triumphed again. He's a national treasure. Gosford Park, Vanity Fair, Mary Poppins... and now this. Can he do no wrong?! GO AND SEE IT! This is a film for real grown-ups.
Thunderbirds (2004)
kids love it!
I have seen the movie in a cinema full of kids who adored it - the youngest were three or four and there were also teenagers there who also enjoyed it, as did all the adults who were all around me.
This is a kids' film for heaven's sake. The original was made for kids too, not critical old men, and if it gives huge pleasure for a couple of hours while still being as faithful a remake after about 35 years as it can be, what is the problem? This is not a religious rite, it's a bit of pure entertainment which made the audience laugh when it needed, is fast moving and colourful without being frenetic or confusing, is exciting, is witty, is camp occasionally which means that the Parker, Lady P bits and the Hood bits are a real laugh, and for a moment or two it is quite moving. By putting in the junior tracy story, it sets it up for lots more sequels. If kids hate it, OK, but all the ones I've talked to adored it. If we parents and grandparents can indulge in a bit of nostalgia, and at the same time enjoy watching a whole new generation lap it up, hooray. I have a horrid feeling that if hundreds of thousands of young kids go wild about it, the older people who treat it like a precious cult will become even more proprietorial and try to heap petty criticism on it because they feel it's their special thing. Getting heavy and criticising details which don't tally with the original series is like going to Jack and the Beanstalk or Mother Goose and trying to deconstruct them academically. IT'S A FUN FILM FOR KIDS! If the film transports its audience for an hour and a half and everyone comes out happy, even Gerry Anderson wouldn't be upset. Sylvia Anderson, after all, apparently visited the set and was photographed with the cast.