Gregory's Two Girls

He COULD never end a movie well...they always came to a grinding, heart-deadening halt.

But we forgive, given the actors, the characters, unselfconscious dialogue and charming natural feel. The wealth of talent from the Scottish theatre groups at the time.

The unsatisfactory phone box or Caracas sign marked a depressing end to otherwise enjoyable movies.

The original Gregory's Girl outpaced The Clash of the Titans. Perhaps deservedly so, but that movie had a structure...and a proper ending.

I think the fact that the deadening halt came quite early in this movie reveals its quality. Which is a shame given the quality of the actors. I believe Carly McKinnon stopped acting after this - I wish her well in Toronto - but she had that natural feel from earlier films and the makings of a very fine performer.

Add to this the uncomfortable - and uncomfortable in the 80s - creepiness of some of the themes and I don't think we have a winner here.

That, and the approaching-the-original "Weather Report on Diazepam" soundtrack, left me feeling entirely empty.

The good thing about this film is that it stands alone - you don't have to have seen the original. Unfortunately this is also it's biggest drawback. It would have been nice to have included a few of the original characters in the new story and seen how their lives had developed. Sinclair as in the original is excellent and provides the films best comic moments as he attempts to deal with awkward and embarrassing situations but the supporting cast is not as strong as in the original movie. Forsyth is to be congratulated on a brave attempt to move the character on and create an original sequel but the film is ultimately flawed and lacks the warmth of the original

There are many things that can be said about Gregory's Two Girls but i'm afraid not too many of them are good. This film cannot be compared to the original Gregory's girl in any way. This film lacks the charm ,comedy and script that the first film has and the only thing this bore has in common with Gregory's Girl is that it stars the very average John Gordon Sinclair . In this movie he tries to be funny but with a lousy story only manages to look like a poor version of Mr Bean. Another problem about this film is the way the Gregory Character changes as the film goes on. At the start of the film he a such a crush on the school girl that he even has a wet dream about her ( did we have to see the wet patch?)as the film goes on he loses the urge to be with her to the extent that the film has no meaning whatsoever and turns into a stupid , dull story about fighting human rights. Yawn. 5 out of 10.

Gregory Underwood is a secondary school teacher in Scotland now but his relationships with women is no stable than before. Despite the very clear attention of colleague Bel, Gregory prefers to stay at home watching Chomsky tapes and worrying about the general state of the world. Unknown to anyone else he has a major crush on a girl in one of his classes – football player Frances. Despite the risk, when she appears to come onto him he responds only to find that she just wants to talk to him about the fact that a local electronics company appears to be manufacturing torture equipment.

This film received bad reviews when it came out and I suspect many reviewers (like myself) just disliked the idea of a sequel to such a famous film after so many years had gone by. Of course opening the film with a sex scene between a teacher and a young pupil that is played for laughs was never going to be that good a move – especially in a time when paedophilia is the number one topic for a tabloid witch hunt on any given day. And so I found myself at the start of a very strange film indeed, one that has a teacher/pupil relationship at the core and stuff about corporations and globalisation etc around the edges – suffice to say that this is not just a retread of Gregory's Girl for the sake of making some extra money. However, why Forsyth chose to place this story within a sequel was a mystery to me because it does stand alone so much there appears to be no other reason to connect the two other than raising the money to make it.

The plot is a strange mix of issues and relationships and it is certainly never dull but this is not to say that it all works because it most certainly does not. It is a messy affair that starts off with the crush but gradually forgets it and instead wanders onto the issue of corporate social responsibility and globalisation but does it in a way that doesn't really ring true or allow for a clear message to be delivered. It is still interesting and I stayed with it for the couple of things that it was trying to do but even at my kindest I can't pretend that it worked out because it didn't. The plot doesn't flow that well and although it is interesting it doesn't stick in the mind as a good narrative or one that pulls anything in particular off.

The cast are OK and seem to get the light tone of the film even if they don't always seem to know where it is all going either. Sinclair plays his usual character well and manages to keep the audience onside (not as easy as it sounds in this film); however again, did we need him to be called "Gregory" or was it just to get funding? McKinnon is surprisingly assured and gives a very strong performance. Between the two of them they make their scenes work really well, with both of them coming from their different angles well. Support is so-so but not really any better than that – Kennedy, Scott, Murtagh and others are very much secondary to requirements and their performances are a notch below the lead two. Forsyth's direction is good and he injects the film with a feel that is recognisable as him.

Overall though this is not a film to dislike for being an unnecessary sequel because, in fairness, it is actually a very brave attempt to do something different that unfortunately doesn't come off. The challenging relationship drama that could have been so impacting is gradually lost in a bigger story that never hangs together. Deserves points for trying but sadly it is just not that good a film.

By no means his best film, and by no means comparable to the original (how could it be, the original is a gem) - but still an enjoyable romp. The original hit movie, Gregory's Girl, oozed pubescent romance and bittersweet comedy.

But the long-awaited sequel starts with a dream sex sequence between a male teacher and his 15-year-old pupil in the school's shower block while the headmaster and police batter on the door.

The actor John Gordon Sinclair, who played gawky but charming Gregory in the first film, plays a Gregory who has become a 35-year-old teacher with a passion for schoolgirls. This in itself will be enough for many self-appointed moral watchdogs to condemn the film out-of-hand - they are the same people who tried to claim Lolita was a dog before anyone had even seen it. Yawn, snore... this kind of rent-a-gob puritan "outrage" looks so stupid from countries like Spain or Holland where a fifteeen year-old is several years over the age-of-consent.

This is indeed a funny film, in the politically-incorrect mould pioneered by several recent USA films. That's not to say it's a good film - but it's not bad either, and if you suspend disbelief (hey, you did it for Star Wars Episode 1 :) then it is at least very funny in parts - it's just that those parts don't hang together very well.

And it is shocking too, especially to the frosty English looking for another fix of comforting adolescent nostalgia. Liz Lochhead, the poet and playwright, said of seeing an early cut of Gregory's 2 Girls. "It does shock you. You go, 'Oh my God, what is going on here?' But it's a dream and that makes you laugh. The film is, of course, about that - it's definitely about Gregory's forbidden desires - but I think that's wonderful... The whole film is about him trying to run away from his own desires. It has big sweeping things to say about Scotland. It's an immensely sad and painful film too, but very, very funny. I think the best word to describe the film is sore."

According to one insider, an early script of Gregory's 2 Girls had several sex scenes, including the opening fantasy and a later sequence in which Gregory and the schoolgirl consummate their relationship. He said the script made a point of stressing that the girl was underage. The girl is played by a 16-year-old actress, Carly Mackinnon. Certainly very topical in Jack Straw's New-Labour hang'em!flog'em! 'we-will-rule-for-100-years' Britain, in which such teacher/teen-pupil relationships are daily fodder for Puritanical comment.

Bill Forsyth, the director who also made the original Gregory's Girl 20 years ago, has understandably refused to talk to the media since starting work on the film, which was reportedly fraught with difficulties and personality clashes, and went over budget and over schedule.

In June 1996, Forsyth submitted the script of his Gregory's Girl sequel to the Scottish Film Production Fund (SFPF) with a view to securing lottery funding. The fund turned him down and then 'withheld judgment' on the application. Sources say the film's subject matter was deemed "indecent" and the SFPF allegedly feared 'being crucified' in the tabloid press. This decision was later overruled by the Scottish Arts Council, who held final say on lottery funds, which instructed that Gregory's 2 Girls be awarded 1m, supplementing the 2m invested by Channel 4. Shooting finished in July 1998 and the film premiered at the 1999 Edinburgh Festival in August 1999, then at BAFTA in London in September 1999. For those wondering, the original film, made almost 20 years ago, became a classic for its innocent charm and offbeat sense of humour, and launched the career of Bill Forsyth who went on to direct such low-key classics as Local Hero. It's a pity he didn't try for a more low key piece instead of going for a A Fish Called Wanda style comedy-romp. It's as if the climate of the times caused him to shy away from dealing sensitively and humourously with a love relationship between a teacher and a schoolgirl.