robgas68

I've seen this film twice in two days and I've been struggling to explain to friends why I think it is so amazing. Every explanation I give (the airport scene, the ASTOUNDING quarry scene), makes it sound clichéd. But the great strength of this film is the fact that it is so real. All the characters are three-dimensional. It is so clear that Braff has moulded both the Garden State and its characters out of a great love. That love has not been diluted in making the film. The character of Sam breaks my heart and I feel such a bond with Large that it's hard to ignore. In the late '70s there was a period where year after year amazing films were put out - The Godfather 1 and 2, The Deer Hunter, Ordinary People (OK I know that's 1980) - this is the first film I have seen that reflects that power. It is a story with flesh, bones, blood and nerves. It is a living, breathing thing. It gets inside your head and resides there. I am a 23 year old male and I rarely cry in movies. But I have wept twice now when seeing this. Not because it is in anyway sad but because it is so beautiful. The hope that is latent in it is overwhelming. My medicated generation can be free! We can love without destruction and grow old without growing up. My god, this is an amazing film. Please see it and tell your friends to see it.

I'm surprised to see the largely negative response to this programme.

I think it's one of the best Pythonesque shows that has emerged. I watched it religiously and was hyperventilating with laughter.

There are so many classic skits: Ming the Merciless hanging around his house and singing along with the telly tubbies, A Cat and a mouse having a fight after a night at the pub, show jumpers wanting to be fire fighters and, of course, the staring competition grand finals. What made the sketches so appealing was the immense absurdity of the whole thing, yet the amazing cast was able to ground it in some reality.

These great actors have since emerged in shows like "Spaced" and "How do you want me?". That's an indication of what level they were at.

The best show of its kind in decades. It buries "The Fast Show".

This is potentially the worst movie I have ever seen - and I consider myself a connoisseur of the awful. It is so boring! None of the characters come to any new understanding of themselves or each other. They are all as selfish and pathetic as they were at the start. I guess Davies could be seen, on some weird level, as becoming self-assertive. But it's more a case of him just losing it totally. The film is a study of how, through sheer boredom, a bookish geek can degenerate into a repellant freak. And he has sex with his mum! There are two laughs in this movie. I'll save you the hiring fee. One involves a dog watching Davies on the toilet. That's actually hilarious. The other is Davies being accused of being gay, and then a rapist, by his neighbour. That's it. That's all there is that's good about this movie. Don't see it. Sleep in, do anything. I can never get back the hour-and-a-half of my life I wasted watching this. I should say, however, that David O. Russell, despite this albatross of a film, is a fantastic director. "Flirting with Disaster" and "Three Kings" (especially the latter) are fresh, funny and touching. So don't let this sin blight your idea of Russell.