La isla de los cohetes

"Rockets Galore" is supposed to be a sequel, of sorts, to "Whiskey Galore!"...which was made about a decade earlier. However, most of the people in the film are different actors and characters, though the setting (a tiny Scottish island) is the same.

When the film begins, you learn that the British government is planning on building a missile base on tiny Toddaya island. And, this will also mean displacing many people from their homes! Considering how isolated the place is, clearly moving many families will cause a HUGE disruption in their lives. Much of the film is about how the locals do their best to discourage the government...and some of these schemes are rather funny.

This movie is funny but its main strength is in the sweetness of the characters and community. It also helps that unlike the earlier film, this one is in vivid color...and it looks lovely. Overall, a highly creative and fun film...one that is well worth your time.

The post-World War II British government wants to build an out-of-the-way rocket base on a tiny Scottish island over the objections of the inhabitants, some of whom will be evicted.

Remember when an overreaching government trampling over people's liberties was the boogie-man, before it became "corporations" (with no line drawn between big businesses and small groups of private citizens who band together corporately as in "Americans United"?) By the 1980s a similar plot was hatched, more cleverly, in "Local Hero" where the Businessman was not only the Big, Bad Wolf, he was (wait for it) an American! And the height of a corporation trying to raid a country is "The Coca-Cola Kid" with Eric Roberts and Gretta Scacchi, though all they wanted to displace was a local beverage of choice whose company was run by a crotchety old man (Bill Kerr).

This tale is Compton MacKenzie's own follow-up to TIGHT LITTLE ISLAND (a.k.a., "Whisky Galore") set on the same island with some of the same cast. But just because the same mind lies behind a sequel doesn't mean it's as good.

It has good moments, such as when a couple of residents mistake a boiling tea kettle for a rocket about to crash on them. And when a German scientist who went to Britain after the war and says things like "We British--!" But don't expect a lot of fast-paced car chase hilarity. It's not that sort of flick.

Mostly, it's a light-handed meditation on how far the government could and should dictate people's lives and how far is too far in protecting its citizens (the mention of an Orwellian "Ministry of Protection" is reminiscent of the French Revolution's Department of Pubic Safety--which was charged with lopping off heads).

In real life, the government, any government would win. In this flick--but that would be a spoiler.

Some very good performances, plus a few names like Donald Sinden and Gordon Jackson--not big stars, perhaps but known in America.

Not having read the original novel I can only assume that this film utilised the basic storyline but gave it a bit of a twist.Sadly failing to repeat the success of the original film.Donald Sinden gives a very theatrical performance and the romance is unlikely.In any event difficult to repeat the era of austerity in a time of rising affluence.

Based on one of the stories by the famous Compton Mackenzie, this is a feeble film about the residents of a small island in the Hebredies and their attempts to prevent the RAF building a rocket base on their island.

I fell asleep (which is unusual).

The main benefit it that it is in colour. Enjoy the scenery and ignore the plot.

(Hey, we watch the ABC here in Bris-Vegas, too, ye know.)

This is a fairly pleasant film, a light comedy that's easy on the eyes and ears. Not a terribly deep or unusual plot; yet another variation on We'll Band Together and Preserve Our Little Rustic Paradise Against the Modernist Interlopers and of course, Let's Get The Kids Involved. Some quite nice scenery at times, and the singing isn't of a grating quality. (Okay, some it's actually pretty good.) Not a great movie, but it's agreeable enough. Technically, it's pretty good for something shot in the late 1950s.

There are some funny characters in it (I particularly liked the policeman for some reason) and it does have that folksy/Scottish flavour to it -- I guess I like hearing the accents.