jacko07 Reviews

Watson & Oliver (2012–2013)

Dreadful unfunny childish rubbish.

[1/10 · 4 April 2012]

I was really embarrassed as I watched Watson & Oliver trying very hard to be funny. The whole show was very old hat and second rate. It had all been done better and funnier years ago. I painfully watched the first episode and some of the others before giving up. Any so called comedian can trawl the archives and steal sketches, change them slightly and have the cheek to say it is new. Unfortunately it is happening all the time, there are a lot of deceased writers and comedians having their work copied by unfunny charlatans.

Who at the BBC commissioned this dire stuff. Watson & Oliver conned this overpaid not very bright commissioning editor and his bosses. The whole lot should be fired along with Watson & Oliver.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Very Good adaptation

[21 September 2011]

Somebody on here put this film down as the worst movie ever. I can't imagine what the reviewers IQ is, double figures would be gambling. Did they get bored being away from the X-Box for a couple of hours, or did they think it was based on the nursery rhyme.

There were no over the top car chases, machine guns or fist fights that would make Muhammed Ali look like a slouch. In fact there were no childish gimmicks, it stuck to the story which is much more the dark real life of cold war espionage.

A very strong cast with some outstanding performances. Gary Oldman is one of the best film actors around today and his performance here was on par with the great Alec Guinness's portrayal of George Smiley. I would recommend this film to anyone who likes John Le Carre and especially those who enjoyed the TV series. I would advise those with a short attention span or can't handle thinking to steer clear. This film is not Bourne or Bond type Hollywood style entertainment The film deserves awards, let us hope it gets some good ones.

Bonded by Blood (2010)

A bad film

[17 September 2011]

We have some great actors, screenwriters and directors in the UK. This film employed none of them and it painfully showed. I picked it up in the 4 DVDs for a tenner in Blockbuster and still felt I'd been conned.

In the bonus features I was astounded as I watched the cast having a great laugh shouting you 'chants' at each other like demented schoolboys,not funny unless we were going to see 'Carry on Essex Boys'. I found it crass and unnecessary, a bad idea because if you watched the extras first you were already expecting it would be odds on that the film was going to be rubbish..it was. A good Producer and Director would have stopped that nonsense, it degraded the cast and the crew to flippancy.

We all know that morons swear a lot so leave it there, it was shocking when the 'Sex Pistols' did it over thirty years ago, not any more airheads. I just couldn't take these ham actors seriously after that. After the stupid bonus extras I watched the film...the weak script just carried it on until it became brain numbing. Right down to the copying of De Nero's putting the boot in, this lot just looked like cheesy amateurs doing a lot of hammish snorting, shouting and swearing in the guise of telling what was supposed to be a true story. I would think that O'Mahony could have directed it better than Sasha Bennett. At the end after two shots from a cut down 12 bore that would have put a horse's lights out, we are meant to believe Tate makes a dying hate filled rant at his assassin. Do us a favour! Talk about writers getting carried away..do they think we are all 'chants'.

On a brighter note, I thought Vincent Regan and Keirston Wareing were good and as far as I remember also bright enough to stay out of the crass bonus stuff, smart thinking. However, Terry Stone is nothing more than an extra and Tam the Sham and Sasha Bennett would do well to watch the performances of Ray Winstone, Ian McShane and Sir Ben Kingsley. Spend a couple of weeks watching 'Sexy Beast' on a loop...that is acting, directing and screen writing.

Skip Tracer (1977)

Why hasn't this movie gone to DVD

[14 August 2011]

'Skip Tracer' or the US title 'Deadly Business' is a very good film, I saw it on the BBC many years ago and I have tried unsuccessfully to find it either on VHS or DVD. It is a great story about a debt collector who begins to question his life and why he has become a horrible person by the terrible business he is in. Repossessing cars and chasing a range of people in money trouble. The story is good and although there are no big names in the production, it doesn't matter because the story is so good it keeps you entertained right to the end, I won't spoil the story just in case anyone gets the chance to see it. The actors are good, the shooting is good for what is a low budget movie.

It went to video in the US with a different title but I couldn't find it over there either. Unfortunately it seems another good Canadian film disappeared forever. Hopefully it will turn up somewhere. Wake up BBC and buy is some of these great Canadian films that get sadly overlooked.

Bridesmaids (I) (2011)

Base unfunny childish fart and vomit joke of the worst simple American humour.

[1/10 · 25 June 2011]

I gave it a go, but didn't make the end. Mind you, when I left the Cinema the youngish over made up tattooed audience were sounding like a pack of hyenas raiding a hen house. Will this rubbish be a hit in the UK, probably will as we seem to gone down the road of laughing like hyenas at stuff that is not funny. Maybe it a hysterical reaction to how dumb and how bad the Hollywood film industry is these days. I am annoyed that I paid good money to watch this rubbish. Do not believe the hype surrounding this awful rubbish.

The women in this film are as truly disgusting as it gets, if you like simple hackneyed rubbish about vomit, bodily functions and all that simple morons find hysterical you will die laughing. I thought I'd died and gone to hell!

Plenty of great humour comes from the USA but don't waste your time or your money on this rubbish.

The Shadow Line (2011)

Very Good don't miss it.

[8/10 · 27 May 2011]

I agree with the majority of reviewers, 'The Shadow Line' is a very good drama about the sordid world of double cross and drug deals. A few minor things lessen it's authenticity, but you can't have it all.

Without doubt it is certainly one of the best things this year.

It is a great script and the characters are are realistic. Rafe Spall is good but goes slightly over the top with an accent straight out of 'Little Britain', this in my view made his character slightly less believable as an arch villain. Spall is a good actor, not yet as well known as his father Timothy. Rafe is more in the like of Tim Roth and Gary Oldman. It is on the cards that he and several others in this drama will be in great demand when casting agents watch the performances in this.

Stephen Rea, Robert Pugh, Anthony Sher, Lesley Sharpe, David Schofield and Malcom Storry doing great work as they always do. Although fairly new to me, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Keirston Wareing were great, in fact the whole production was top class.

Great TV with a great British cast and a good music score make 'The Shadow Line' unmissable. It will be an injustice if this isn't up for several BAFTAs next year.

The Bank Job (2008)

Not very good

[1/10 · 7 May 2011]

From the first scenes I realised that this movie was going to be bad and what seemed like five hours later, I judged it to be truly awful. The research for this movie was non existent. After spending years in the motor trade during the period the film was supposed be set, I was reduced to tears of laughter at a guy turning a milometer back using an electric drill. You can be assured, that any motor trader from those days would not have needed a power drill to clock a car. The many inaccuracies contained in this film ensured that it couldn't be taken seriously.

Goofs in a TV movie are just about acceptable because the TV movie is generally of the low budget type, but this was supposed to be a pukka film. The really bad wooden acting of Saffron Burrows was painful to watch. Jason Statham and the rest including David Suchet made the best of a bad script. The story thinly based on the Baker St safe deposit robbery could have been so much more accurate and without the drill, miles better.

I could go on for a long time but I feel queezy just thinking about this bad movie.

I watched the film free on Film Four so it only robbed me of time.

In His Life: The John Lennon Story (2000 TV Movie)

A poor and somewhat inaccurate portrayal..

[6/10 · 25 April 2011]

This film came out in 2000 and I have just watched it all through for the first time. I had attempted to watch it once before but got bored with it. It is no doubt that The Beatles were the best band ever, well in my opinion they were. There are some great documentaries that chronicle the lives of the fab four much better than this low budget TV movie.

I am not going to slate the film to bits because it is based on some facts and it will give some an insight to Lennon and McCartney's coming together. Unfortunately, it strays away from the facts when the real story is far more worthy than this not very good attempt.

It will take one of the great directors to make a proper film about Lennon. Someone like Scorcese, Eastwood, Parker to name a few. I will look forward to it.

Mrs. Brown's Boys (2011– )

Sitcom strung together with ancient jokes.

[5/10 · 14 March 2011]

A show trying to drag laughs from swearing and smut..all of it is unoriginal and has all been done before. It is so ancient it should be aired between 'Bargain hunt' and the 'Antiques Roadshow'. O Carrol is a pantomime dame drag act who looks like a cross between Jimmy Cricket and an irish Mrs Doubtfire who recites ancient gags in a poor attempt at comedy. Like said, people will love it or hate it but I think most viewers will become bored with it fairly quickly.

Irish stuff has been pretty good in the past but this isn't Father Ted by a long chalk, it is more like bad farce. It isn't really very funny especially as anyone over 21 would have heard most of the scripts before as it is just ancient jokes and sketches.

Not Going Out (2006– )

Funny and fast moving

[7/10 · 10 February 2011]

I have always liked Tim Vine doing stand up, he doesn't give you the chance not to laugh with the jokes coming so fast. Reminiscent of Tommy Cooper, Tim is a very funny guy and a good comic actor. Same with Lee Mack, he is one of our best stand up comics with a face made for comedy. These two are the show's main characters, a crude working class northerner and a posh middle class southerner, it is an unlikely but great combination. Wait a minute, the show could be called 'The Unlikely Lads' in tribute to another great sitcom...sorry..only joking.

Lee and Tim are great at smoothly bouncing off each other in Not Going Out, it is really funny. The show is easy to watch and although there are a loads of gags and one liners but they are well timed, well written and performed. In my view it is what keeps the show moving along smoothly without the boring bits common to so many sitcoms.

The show is made better by both Sally Bretton and Katy Wix. I also think the whole cast of this show past and present have been excellent. This comedy gets better with each series and in my view should win a few awards along the way.

Come Fly with Me (2010–2011)

A big budget but not very good

[5/10 · 9 February 2011]

Not near as good as Little Britain series one, but possibly as funny as the later series. Some of the characters are good but others are awful and not at all funny. Walliams and Lucas are becoming tiresome and although this show is on prime time it doesn't really deserve to be there.

I would imagine one sketch in Come Fly was as expensive to make as two whole episodes of Little Britain first series which was easily the best thing they have done so far, well except for Walliams channel swim which was great but not many laughs.

Throwing money at something doesn't make it funny or better, they have gone to town on make up, costume and so many characters but it lacks originality. Many of the Easyjet employees in the real doc were just as funny while acting themselves. I like Walliams and Lucas but I don't like this show much, they have done much better things in the past.

Harry and Paul is a far better show, so the boys must try harder if they want the big audiences. On the doc of the making of the show, Matt said he didn't care if it got bad reviews, so I guess that's OK then.

Brighton Rock (2010)

Amateurish and awful

[1/10 · 8 February 2011]

I didn't walk out half way through but I must have checked my watch half a dozen times, 110 minutes seemed like eternity. I was in Brighton as a mod in 1964 and this movie got the period all wrong. Sure, the mod extras were dressed 1964 and were riding vespas and lambrettas but everything else was 1954. Don't forget in 1964 we were four years into the sixties, we were in the height of Beatlemania The Stones and the most significant fashion change since the start of the century.

Sam Riley was like a dummy out of Montague Burton's window, utterly unconvincing as an up and coming gangster. Helen Mirren and John Hurt should seriously think about retirement. This poor remake is badly written, badly researched, badly acted and very badly directed...it should go straight to the £1 DVD basket. This version of Brighton Rock could have been made by students, it is dreadful, do not waste your money on this piece of rubbish.

Getting On (2009–2012)

A great bit of true to life comedy.

[2 February 2011]

Set on a geriactric ward in a NHS hospital..Getting On is one of the best comedies of 2010. Jo Brand is a funny woman and turns out to be a great comic character actor. She is so convincing as the as the ward's dogsbody, the portrayal is as true to life as you will get and without being reminded Jo Brand was a former psychiatric nurse..this part must be written on her experiences. Joanna Scanlan and Ricky Grover are great and Vikki Pepperdine just brilliant. This first series is possibly the best and funniest scripts I have seen for a while. I am writing this on just seeing the first three episodes on DVD. I have just ordered the second series and hope it is as good as the first.

What I have seen so far 'Getting on' is as good as 'The Office'..I hope it gets even better. The BBC seem to be putting on a lot of good stuff of late. This certainly has cheered me and a few others up these dark winter nights.

Hyperdrive (2006–2007)

Missed this great sci-fi comedy in 2007

[10/10 · 26 January 2011]

My girlfriend bought the Hyperdrive DVD because she is a big fan of Miranda Hart and this popped up on Amazon when she was looking for Hart stuff. We read the reviews on here and most were positive and the cast was a list of top comedy actors. We both thought it was a good show and felt it deserved more than a couple of series. By the second series we were really into it big time. Unfortunately there were no more.

It used to be the best but the BBC are very half hearted about comedy these days, they seem to have lost their way. The BBC are pretty poor these days, most comedy is farmed out to BBC2 or 3 and just disappears as most of us viewers never hear of it. I cannot recommend Hyperdrive highly enough, it is cool funny and well worth watching.

I have written this because Miranda Hart had a big spread in the Daily Mail yesterday and I thought our enjoyment of Hyperdrive worth a mention on IMDb.