Whether your a fan of the late, great Peter O'Toole, Martin Clunes, Dame Joan Plowright, or Alicia Silverstone, or just want to watch a charmingly fun movie that is guaranteed to make you feel better about your day, this film should be on your list. O'Toole shines in one of his best performances. Clunes is wonderful at playing the slimy two-faced agent. The chemistry between O'Toole and Plowright is very well done. There are some gems in the film not to be missed: a cricket lesson, a basketball lesson, and the insane newspaper deliverer and his battles with the lord of the manner. Some great lessons on getting along with others are included gratis.
Reviews
40 Reviews
Better than usual television fare for episode 1, but not great
17 September 2021
I'm hoping this gets better or at least doesn't get worse. The first episode was rather standard for these, enough mystery and symbology nonsense to keep things interesting. The problem here is the casting. Zuckerman is a rather good actor, but just doesn't quite have the gravitas to pull this off. I might believe him as a Harvard professor, maybe, if he didn't seem to be quoting his Latin from the script instead of really reading it, and he just seems more like a first year grad student than a professor, especially one with a distinguished reputation. Hanks pulls it off quite well, Zuckerman might in another 20 years. Izzard is okay, but hardly seems brilliant enough to be a Langdon mentor, and the villains are plastic and seem hardly more than deranged gang members. Still, in a desert where decent fare once was, this is still better than usual for this September so far.
Great first episode, but...
19 May 2021
Well acted, good Brit procedural, except for the sub-plot that the main character's career is in question and his boss plays the idiotic heavy who can't see his value. The stories don't need that, and the sooner that part goes away, the better. Just stick to solving complex mysteries without mucking with the main characters.
Please FIRE the writers immediately!
8 May 2021
Excellent series entry, one of the best.
6 April 2021
A well-crafted mystery that would stand up against the best of Morse, Lewis, or Frost. The clues are all there, but this one will likely keep you guessing until the end. There is also excellent social commentary which is still valid today and makes this relevant and real. It is a very refreshing episode to watch after the absolute plot disaster at the end of season 5.
Terrible and stale idea that never works.
6 April 2021
Avoid this episode like the plague if you like Mr. Gently. I have never understood why writers / producers have a compulsion to create stories where the main character is falsely accused of corruption. This episode goes beyond that disaster and makes it worse with a terrible ending. I won't spoil that, but just have Season 6 handy. Better yet skip this last Season 5 episode altogether and you're better off.
Excellent series entry!
20 February 2021
Gritty drama and intriguing mystery. I'd say the only negative is how they've turned Pascoe's character into a cynical git who constantly suspects his boss of all manner of wrongdoing. It's gotten old. I keep routing for Pascoe to take that transfer. Other than that an excellent story.
The writers get an F for this episode
30 October 2020
Weak mystery overshadowed by bad soap opera.
27 October 2020
Prisoners of the Sun
(2013)
Better fun than many free movies
5 October 2020
I'm potty about Egypt movies so I couldn't resist this one especially if they have a little bit of monsters and a little bit of SF, which this seems to have both and how can you resist a movie with both Joss Ackland and John Rhys-Davies?
But it's a free movie on Prime and as expected the plot is a bit weak, and aside from the two big name actors, well, while the others do a competent job certainly the writing for the dialogue is very weak; but hey it's free and you got a fast forward button so skip some of the corny dialogue and pseudo intrigue and it's not a bad free movie to watch.
I suppose one more area to consider is real archaeology; here also the movie is a joke because among other things, a how many thousands of year old stone slab with cartouches blocks their entrance, and they're smashing it with a hammer? Obviously they have the Heinrich Schliemann Playbook, smash first ask questions later. Hey buddy maybe I could take a photo of that first you know and like publish it or something? Nah just smash it! Who cares what it says! Don't show it to your archaeology students but it's a lot of fun. Hey don't miss the hornets who happen to live in a dark totally sealed tomb and they've been there for how long? What's their food source? Wait while I whip out my handy-dandy flamethrower! It might work better with a mystery 3000 overlay audio.
Special treat for series fans!
27 September 2020
Reunion episodes can be difficult to do well, but the writing here rises well to the challenge, with a mystery, that while not up to Christie or Allingham, is certainly decent. While weaving this though, the story does a wonderful job bringing in some old favorite characters to add to the fun. Not to be missed, and will certainly bear watching again over the years.
Well acted 9*, poor writers 1*
26 September 2020
I confess to be a addicted to space stories. The acting in this is good, you like the characters you want to keep watching you get involved with them but the stories they're given are just plain bad and one disaster after another it's like was the ship built by fifth graders no insult the 5th graders. And all of these crises in the home life it's just too much.
F minus to the writing and even lower to the suits who approved it.
Disaster of the day!
24 September 2020
This show is less about a Journey to Mars and more about everything that can possibly go wrong in the worst possible circumstances to any group of people this size. No aliens popping out YET but the writers of this series seem to create and Apollo 13 type disaster twice and episode if not more plus melodrama that reeks of daytime TV.
Waste of an episode, begins a wasted season. Sad.
28 August 2020
Whoever created the character of DCI Box should be banished to Dante's 7th circle. An otherwise good plot utterly ruined by a useless character whose only purpose, it seems, is to trash the other characters. How could they hate their audience this much? Very sad.
Endeavour
(2012–2023)
An overall excellent episode marred by DI Box
24 August 2020
This episode marks the unfortunate introduction of a character who infects the show for the entire next season. There's no need for that in Endeavor. No marks against the actor, merely the writing. Otherwise an intriguing mystery.
A whole useless season built around 1 episode
27 July 2020
The case of the screaming witnesses...
11 June 2020
A good series entry and a decent mystery. Several witnesses for the state, however, under cross from Mason, scream their innocence, prompting Ham Berger to object. I'm not sure the point of these histrionics, but maybe it was sweeps week in 1961. The solution seems unsatisfying.
Great Episode! Sears Tower aka Willis Goof
3 April 2020
But here's a goof I didn't see under goofs. Just re-watched it after many years and when they stop in Chicago in 1969 you get a clear view of what used to be called the Sears Tower. Charming, except that the building wasn't started until the next year and not fully built until 1973.
But one of the most fun episodes to watch again!
But one of the most fun episodes to watch again!
The good guy ACCUSED, again????
8 March 2020
Psychological warfare--Sweeney style
21 January 2020
Somewhat slow-moving but overall well done and well-thought-out episode in which Regan, with his constraints mostly removed by an ambitious superior, plays dirty tricks on a acquitted villain to get him or his team to crack.
Emergence
(2019–2020)
Decent start & good cast, but...
26 September 2019
Other than the father, who's the villain my generation knows from Highlander, the cast were all fresh faces to me. All did really well. The premise is fun, BUT having seen a number of these pilots, one is afraid that the rest of the story is not very well fleshed out, and that the writers, to avoid perhaps thinking ??? will avoid taking the plot much further it all and that's the real shame with these. It becomes like Lost or one of these other series that goes nowhere. One can only hope that this goes somewhere and doesn't drag out from episode to episode not revealing anything of significance.
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