Rich-188

I may be repeating the thoughts of others on here, but there is no doubt that this movie is a sham.

The "story" is banal, partly because of the terrible editing style but also because it is convoluted and crass. It may be like MTV, except with more music, but nothing impresses here. From the moment Keira Knightley says "I am a bounty hunter" the movie fails (because she is the most unconvincing bounty hunter imaginable.) The line is right near the beginning btw...

About Keira: she can swear and pout all she wants, but you never for one second believe she is capable of any of the things she plays out in this movie. Partly because she is out of her depth; partly because the appalling directorial style pushes the "characters" further and further away from the audience. Amazingly (to me), she does not even manage to convey any sexuality in her desert sex scene. She's fantastically good looking, in that boyish way of hers, but she has no raw sexual energy here.

Do not believe any suggestions of "daring" film-making. From the pathetic affectations of Keira's cigarettes to the mundane explosions, special effects and (yawn) gun-fights, this is Hollywood drivel when all is said and done.

Even now I feel guilty that I paid money to see this piece of macho-trash. The only comfort I have is that I was in America when I saw it and there's already a huge market for this kind of empty garbage there.

It was so bad I got up and left the theatre for 10 or 15 minutes and only returned because I knew my date for the night would freak-out.

This film has, I am certain, no value whatever and does not merit any further analysis. It is, however, a damning indictment on the American film industry and the American psyche. I wonder if Americans really understand how offensive this military culture is to the rest of the civilised world. Such a shame, since I still love the place and its people, though I struggle to include audience members to this monstrosity.

A touching,gentle movie,The Browning Version is perhaps hugely under-rated.

The simple tale of an aging school teacher forced into retirement actually contains many poetic metaphors for struggle.Crocker-Harris finds himself at one of life's great crossroads and wrestles with the inner turmoil of the knowledge that his life-work may have been futile.His convictions about language and literature are to be swept aside with the arrival of his successor and his still-beautiful wife,sympathetically played by Greta Scaachi,is as distant as his pupils.

Finney plays this role with a calm and measure that is evidence of a great actor at work.Perhaps only Hopkins could have hoped to have done so well with this role.

The score is excellent and the cinematography elegant.A great "English" film in every sense;my only wish is that it might have been a little longer.Somehow,an epic running time may have yielded the acclaim that it justly deserved.