egham1

The book is 800 pages of intricate plots with MANY more people and/or suspects than this episode. It is so different from the book that it is a travesty. Watch this and then read the book (or vice versa). It is not the same story!

I'm old enough to have seen it first time around but didn't until tonight! Always been a fan of the music and with such a strong cast (and nothing better to do) I gave it a whirl.

Said to my wife after about 30 minutes "Should have been called The Big Cliché" because just about everything that had happened was predictable (and almost everything that followed was as well) but this doesn't detract from what is an excellent film. The music is stunning (as I mentioned at the beginning), the photography is "out of this World" (as I said to my wife - sorry, but we do comment during films we're watching - "You don't see scenery and colour like that in today's films, and this is over 50 years old"), the actors could teach today's lot a few things (Burl Ives, especially, steals the show), the action is top draw (no cinematic tricks here). The only minus is the predictability. No spoilers needed, write your own script!

There are several very funny film actors in the World today but, unfortunately, Mike Myers is not among them. Perhaps it's a culture thing (in the UK we appreciate irony) or a generation thing (the humour is very childish) but, apart from a couple of belly laughs, I found this an irritating bore. The OTT (I know it's meant to be) "acting" of Myers and the wooden performance of Hurley (I'm sure she was wondering what she had got herself into) were excruciating. The Bond films (presumably it's a spoof of them?) are, generally, comical enough not to need "imitation". No doubt you will appreciate this if you are a teenager who loves "potty" humour but, if you prefer your comedy a little bit more adult, then avoid like the plague!