roltzero

Not a patch on the original, which starred the great Robert Donat and the lovely Margaret Leighton. This film however did bring Jeremy Northam to my attention who was superb in this and anything I've seen him in, that's why I've given it 7. I thought the woman playing Catherine was rubbish and let the whole production down. She had none of the subtlety or underplayed pathos of Margaret Leighton, they might as well of had a wooden puppet playing the part. Nigel Hawthorne put in a creditable performance. One of the comic highlights of the original is Katherine Harrison's loud, cockney maid. The girl in this film seemed to sleep walk her way through the scenes, which should have made you sit up and at least smile. In fact that just about sums up Mamet's directorial style-somnambulent. If you want to see the definitive version though check out Donat and Co. you even get the screenplay written by the Author!

When I heard that the BBC were planning to re-make The Quatermass Experiment, I got quite excited. The original is lost forever (except for two episodes) and the film, although a fairly good version (sorry Nigel) is half as long as the original. Great, the BBC might beef this up with some good effects, a colour version to last and interest others in Nigel Kneale's much underrated genius. What planet was I living on? 'Here, let's remake Quatermass'. 'Good idea, ooh shall we spend some money on it like Dr Who? Make it something people will remember'? 'Nah let's cut an hour out, pretend CGi's never been invented, and do it live as a gimmick and instantly forgettable'! 'Oh, and then let's cock-up 'A For Andromeda' in the same spectacular style'! Unforgivable! My advice, buy the scripts in paperback and imagine yourself a better version!