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.

there's the feeling that this film was designed and constructed by a committee out of focus-group friendly but disconnected components; they then seemingly accidentally hired some great talent to do some of the work. The script is often funny and sharp, but frequently slumps into sentimentality. A lot of the acting is very good, but Burt Reynolds is mostly helpless: he can't act the part he has been given except for some of the calmer domestic comedy. Acting the part of an actor acting King Lear? No, he's lost. Most things are done very well, the photography and direction are fine and the music only really grates during the prolonged sentimental guff that spoils the flow of the film particularly in the middle and at the end. It's worth watching for some fine comic acting from the English part of the cast, and for some very professional filmmaking too. It's worth fast forwarding through some of the sentiment, and some of the American acting too.

A Film that i saw advertised never got to see,but came in the cinemas and went out again straight away.

i found it for a fiver in tescos and thought why not, a good casting, reynolds as lear playing with a British tour de force.

A wonderful i think piece of British cinema, some great one liners and reynolds doesn't steal the show, he shares it with the pigs and his sterilised hot tub and a wonderful cast who all admitted they were starstruck working with "burt reynolds".

even the dog gets some great lines in my opinion watch it, its one of them little gems that i will go on about.

with such trash in the last few year being made Indiana jones and the X files ripoff (thank god i didn't buy it or even cinema to view that ) around this film is a tonic to watch.one i can watch again and again i think.

thank you "you bunch of amateurs".

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'm a Burt Reynolds fan - there i have admitted it! Anyway, to see a film of his get a theatrical release made this a must see film for me...and i wasn't disappointed. No need to go over the plot but all the performances in the film are excellent and Burt is the best he has been for years..in fact since Boogie Nights in my opinion. Like the other comments, there were no really laugh out loud moments but just a nice stream of funny,well acted and moving moments. The scene at the start were Jefferson Steele was watching an old home movie of his daughter was moving,well acted by Burt.

He obviously was quite happy to send himself as the has-been star (so appropriate) but still with a lot to prove. Despite all the bad plastic surgery he has had, he didn't look too bad in this film..and that in itself made me pleased.

So overall, this is charming,warm hearted film with some great performances. As for Burt, his best film in years, without any doubt. He is obviously still a great actor, with tremendous screen prescence and is rightly hailed as Hollywood legend. I just hope we see more of Burt in films of this quality.