An Inspector Calls

As an English teacher, I'm always looking for ways to bring texts to life for my students. Watching this version of An Inspector Calls was painful - the acting, particularly that of Arthur Birling, is horrendous. It was laughable.

I would not recommend this version - at all. It's not worth it.

Such a shame, for such a great story! The setting and the younger actors (as previous reviews have mentioned) were doing an alright job, but knowing the story and the fact there was never going to be a time when Mr Birling was not in it, I could stand no more than 10 minutes unfortunately.

The actor who plays Mr Birling is clearly the directors father who appears to have no acting experience, or the gift of being able to retain a script to memory. The woodeness and side glances at script cannot be ignored and distracted from everything else! I admire those who could give full reviews of the entire drama.

I've watched at least two previous versions of AIC and ten minutes into this one (which I watched on YouTube) started to wonder and nearly switched off. Like others, I was not impressed by the acting of the three older actors, though the younger ones did well enough.

At one point I wondered if this was a video of a local dramatic society's production but, as far as I can make out, those involved were a bit more than that, and I gather that they all worked very hard.

Under these circumstances, then, a reasonable effort and there's no reason why it shouldn't be on YouTube (where many DIY efforts are far less worthy).

But who could compare with such "inspectors" as Alastair Sim and David Thewlis?

I'm not even saying this just because I studied the play, this is absolutely horrific in every conceivable way, one of the worst things I've ever laid eyes upon. Watching this makes a 10 hour testicular torture session from Hades look like a spa day. I wanted to pour disinfectant on my eyes for every soul suckingly horrendous frame of this steaming pile of dung. What an absolute heap of visual faeces. I wouldn't wish a full viewing of this tripe on my worst enemy. The fact that this won best ensemble cast is beyond me, if this is the best, the worst must be a group of decomposing corpses. I wish nothing malicious upon the cast and crew, I just pray to every God that has ever been believed in, that they never attempt anything like this ever again. I've seen better acting from a parapalegic cow.

Absolutely appalling, totally unconvincing performances by every single cast member. Loosely based on the great JB Priestley play, this film is a very pale imitation.