Film used to be the best program on TV if you wanted to find out about what movies were at the pictures, It didn't even matter if you didn't want to go to seem them because it was presented in such a nice relaxed way with host Barry Norman sitting in his chair, realizing that the show was going to be on about 11:30, Monday night, he made sure the pace of the show resembled this. Since he left/got fired in 1999 and Jonathan Ross took over, the show has sadly gone downhill and has become more like a chat show rather than a movie review program. It seems that each week he has someone on there trying to plug their God awful film and it works, if you do give an interview to Mr. Ross he will then, with out fail give the film that his interviewee was in a glowing review and recommend it to the viewers.
Because of this he has often flogged a few turkeys, like when he said 50 cents movie 'Get Rich or Die Trying' was a good movie and should be seen, while only 2 minutes earlier he was criticizing the other well-worth seeing movies. This was no coincidence that he had 50 Cent on his chat show that week, anyone who has seen Friday Night With knows that he will never EVER say a bad thing about an actor or their movie, even if the actor/actress admits that they was in a box office bomb. He will often boost their ego with the phrase "Ok, the movie wasn't that good but I thought that you was great in it." I don't have any problem with his sucking up as I don't watch his dreadful chat show anyway, but I do watch Film because of how much of a good job Barry Norman did with the show, like visiting a grave yard so to speak just to show my respects.
Another thing that I liked about Barry Norman was how he wasn't afraid to review the lesser known film of that week, even if you didn't agree with what he said he did at least show you something different, and then let you make the choice not to watch it. Ross only seems to go with films that have won awards, been nominated or got good/bad reviews from other critics. I remember seeing him review an African made film (The Title Slips My Mind Sorry) about a boy who steals a woman's car and then finds that her baby is in the back, leaving him to look after it. The movie has subtitles and didn't really fit in with the films that he reviewed normally, i.e. The Romantic Comedy or The Action Blockbusters. That is probably why it still sticks in my mind that he reviewed it, until about three days later, when I found out that it have won or been nominated for countless awards, including a BAFTA.
The last point I want to make was how much in this show Jonathan Ross complains about the state of British movies and their lack of funding, which is kind of a slap in the face when it was leaked to the press about how much his three year contract with the BBC (One of Britons film makers) is costing the licence payer. I can't remember how much it was but it was so high that they didn't want anyone to find out as they were worried that they (The BBC) would be accused of wasting money on one person who does about 5 jobs, when it would be cheaper to hire 5 individual people and have more that enough to make a good British movie. Since this information came public he has stopped moaning about the state of the British film industries funding and started about the amateur way they are made.
The strangest thing about Ross is that it was found out that he doesn't see all the films that he reviews??? Why do they have someone who hasn't got the passion about films to go and see them?
