imdb-382
Joined Jun 2000
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imdb-382's rating
Although a reasonably low budget film, the story and portrayals are sound. Yes, it's not a blockbuster, but (probably more as an indictment of the present day film industry), it is more enjoyable, believable, and entertaining than many of the fayre currently on offer.
A nice balance of humour and mild suspense, with a good plot and actors - I'd find it difficult to dismiss this film as 'just a B movie'.
A nice balance of humour and mild suspense, with a good plot and actors - I'd find it difficult to dismiss this film as 'just a B movie'.
Where to start - as pretty much has already been said by other reviewers as to the feel and authenticity of this mini series?
My beef is with the glaring historical inaccuracies that make it nigh-on impossible to suspend disbelief.
I am 52, and don't recall steam trains in action on Britain's railways - but even I recognise an American loco whistle when I hear one. This was the first error by the Foley Artist and researchers; that began to irk and to break down the fourth wall for me.
The list is long, but keeping to the transport theme as a rich source of errors - when the sound effect was sourced for a taxi, the team must have simply looked up 'taxi sounds' in their set of BBC sound effects disks. However, to my knowledge the popular Austin Six was never fitted with a (then emerging and very rare in cars) Diesel engine. Nor did the starter motor sound like those now fitted to modern cars.
Likewise, British police cars never used the US siren, as anyone who has ever watched a film made before 1970 will know - bells were fitted to emergency vehicles. These are not ground breaking historical observations!
LNER (London and North-East Railway - clue in the title) didn't run services to Andover, and Andover never looked like Saltaire, or Beamish (or whatever the unconvincingly pristine open-museum location was which was used as a stand-in for the town).
Continuing on in 'transport bore' mode -the Underground train used is a late 50s model and in any case would have been painted red, whereas the tunnel walls used during a sequence were of some modern construction (concrete not constructed with metal tunnel plates) - with clearly modern light fittings.
The CGI as particularly unimpressive - sometimes a location shot at a preserved railway is work a million computerised pastiches. The skyline during the chase across the 'railway' might as well have been a painted canvas backdrop.
The uniforms and equipment of the Railway Guard - coupled with the ubiquitous fascist symbolism made one wonder if, at times, we were drifting into 1984 territory.
I could go on and beyond the transport theme - but by now you get the gist.
This was truly an opportunity lost. Style over substance, lazy or poorly briefed Foley Artists, location scouts and historical researchers. In the end it was more an attempt at an 'arty' production (which failed) - when it might have been a good drama.
Back to basics Beeb - it's not big and it's not clever. I suggest you watch the boxset of 1980s/90s Sherlock Holmes to see how it might have been if you'd done a little more research and tried to build an atmosphere supportive of the narrative.
My beef is with the glaring historical inaccuracies that make it nigh-on impossible to suspend disbelief.
I am 52, and don't recall steam trains in action on Britain's railways - but even I recognise an American loco whistle when I hear one. This was the first error by the Foley Artist and researchers; that began to irk and to break down the fourth wall for me.
The list is long, but keeping to the transport theme as a rich source of errors - when the sound effect was sourced for a taxi, the team must have simply looked up 'taxi sounds' in their set of BBC sound effects disks. However, to my knowledge the popular Austin Six was never fitted with a (then emerging and very rare in cars) Diesel engine. Nor did the starter motor sound like those now fitted to modern cars.
Likewise, British police cars never used the US siren, as anyone who has ever watched a film made before 1970 will know - bells were fitted to emergency vehicles. These are not ground breaking historical observations!
LNER (London and North-East Railway - clue in the title) didn't run services to Andover, and Andover never looked like Saltaire, or Beamish (or whatever the unconvincingly pristine open-museum location was which was used as a stand-in for the town).
Continuing on in 'transport bore' mode -the Underground train used is a late 50s model and in any case would have been painted red, whereas the tunnel walls used during a sequence were of some modern construction (concrete not constructed with metal tunnel plates) - with clearly modern light fittings.
The CGI as particularly unimpressive - sometimes a location shot at a preserved railway is work a million computerised pastiches. The skyline during the chase across the 'railway' might as well have been a painted canvas backdrop.
The uniforms and equipment of the Railway Guard - coupled with the ubiquitous fascist symbolism made one wonder if, at times, we were drifting into 1984 territory.
I could go on and beyond the transport theme - but by now you get the gist.
This was truly an opportunity lost. Style over substance, lazy or poorly briefed Foley Artists, location scouts and historical researchers. In the end it was more an attempt at an 'arty' production (which failed) - when it might have been a good drama.
Back to basics Beeb - it's not big and it's not clever. I suggest you watch the boxset of 1980s/90s Sherlock Holmes to see how it might have been if you'd done a little more research and tried to build an atmosphere supportive of the narrative.