A Bunch of Amateurs

I don't go to the movies very often - in fact I can't remember the last time - but this was on offer and I'm very glad that I took it up. I have always liked Burt Reynolds, particularly Evening Shade, and I adore Charles Durning, so I squeaked a bit when the names came up at the start. It's a gentle mickey-take of English village life, English country types and the ageing movie start grasping at straws to redeem himself before it's too late. Beautifully shot - I don't care where - in British Countryside with cottages to die for, clear complexions and charming pigs, it is funny, engaging (by the yardstick I judge any film or programme - do I care if they all live or die; the answer in this case, is obviously "yes"). The characters are all wonderfully drawn and the story bowls along at a comfortable pace, witty, pretty and a damn good night's entertainment. I enjoyed an ice cream at the interval, but I shall buy it on DVD.

My wife hit it on the head by saying it was really a TV film and like Midsomer Murders without the Murders!

That's all I really wanted to say except that the performances were generally good and Burt Reynolds wig was excellent and looked almost real. I'm now trying to make this up to ten lines but don't really have that much to say and wish that short, pertinent comments were allowed. Oh I've just remembered that Suffolk suddenly had hills, moved presumably from the Isle of Man so that the film had a tax subsidy. I'm really struggling now to say anything else but I would like these comments to be seen by filmgoers. Phew

After reading some of the other reviews I wonder what you expect from a nice little English movie. Burt Reynolds was great, but Imelda Staunton was exceptional. She was hilarious in all her scenes and we laughed out loud. It's very British set in a very British setting.

If you liked Calendar Girls you'll like this. It's not great art, just great entertainment with a really good British cast, and an ageing but nevertheless very entertaining Burt Reynolds. Burt Reynolds who I must admit I did not think could act was quite good throughout and delivered his Shakespeare well. If there was one criticism it would be the scenes in the US were not brilliantly shot

The film has a lot of nonsensical points, but it's so predictable that you don't even notice. You just know what's going to happen because they're pantomiming a standard drama that is pantomiming real life badly throughout all of it.

One strong point about it is that it manages to be genuinely funny despite its predictability. I think it's from the excessively dramatic directing. It's about characters doing a drama but I think a bit of the irony is the fact that many of theme seem to have more dramatic reactions to daily problems than the characters in a play would.

A performance of King Lear is at the centre of it all and they pretend like it's related by having the subplot of Reynolds' daughter squabbling with him, but it's really not related to Lear in the least.

It's a pleasant and modestly funny watch, but don't expect anything further from it.

Honourable Mentions: Wild Child (2008). A spoiled US girl goes to England. It wasn't enough for the plot to have extremely predictable mechanics, now the very plot is recycled to the extent that all this horde of similar movies are technically remakes of each other.

I saw this twice today on DVD and loved it. Of course, it's pure fantasy and I wish it had really been shot in one of Suffolk's Stratfords, though the Isle of Man serves well enough. Burt Reynolds does grumpy very well and, as ever, isn't afraid to send himself up - and nor is the great Derek Jacobi as his bitchy rival. I thought Imelda Staunton's turn as his adoring, then disillusioned fan overdone, but Samantha Bond is a tour de force as his less enchanted director. The build-up to the storm scene is ingenious and when he gets out of his vehicle Reynolds shows that he can cut the mustard as Lear. Of course, the other members of the Stratford Theatre Company are improbably good actors, but I shan't complain. The final twist is an extra treat. What a shame only Her Majesty seems to have seen the film in the cinema