TheHoodedClaw

I must reiterate what's already been said. The 2 series available on DVD are brilliant and the last episode in the second series actually made my mouth open as the twist (regarding one of the bedroom's characters) was so amazing and unexpected. There are however quite a few instances when the microphone boom can be seen in shot and in another scene, you can make out the shadows of the camera-person as he/she tries to step away when the action moves from one place in the room to another. All that though adds to the charm of the piece. The acting is uniformly excellent throughout but a special mention must go to Alun Armstrong who is just the most brilliantly diverse actor, so believable.

I cannot quite believe I'm doing this; writing a less than sparkling review of a Woody Allen film. A friend of mine came to visit recently and she told me in passing that she'd never seen a Woody Allen film, I told her that we could sit and watch any one of a number of video's/DVD's and we were going to do that until she saw that his latest was playing at a local independent movie theatre. "Let's go to that" she said and I said "yeah, sure, why not?" I wish I hadn't said that. It was appalling awful. Rubbish dialogue, uncharismatic actors, plodding direction and tired plot. I didn't feel an affinity with any of the characters. I just wanted it to end. My friend was disappointed. "I thought Woody Allen was a great director" she said, knowing she would never watch another of his films ever again. Why? Why? Why? Why was this film allowed to be made? I would have given it 1 star but couldn't allow myself to, Mr Allen's given me so much viewing pleasure over the years, after all. Terrible.

I bought this film because Olympia Dukakis was in it. I thoroughly enjoyed her role as Mrs Madrigal in Tales of the City and so have looked out for her in other films since and most have been well worth the while but this dreadful film isn't one of them. It's not often you reach the end of a film and don't have a clue as to what it was all about but this is one of them. It has no storyline, no plot, terrible dialogue and is a complete waste of talented actors. The acting is good but you can't believe in any of the characterisations because you cannot recognise people like this in real-life! They seem to all be from a different planet somewhere. Please everyone, do yourselves a favour and avoid this horror of a movie. It has NOTHING good going for it at all and one can only assume, it was a stopgap part for all the actors involved. The one decent thing is the music, which is quite good. Don't waste any time watching this. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!