As Time Goes By (Series 1 and 2)

(Amazon UK link)

We’ve had a boxed set of ‘As Time Goes By’, series 1 and 2, for many years. I’ve no memory of how we acquired it; but I did remember it being a good TV show when I caught a few episodes in the 1990s. We wanted something light to watch once a week, and Judi Dench is always good value. So we started watching series 1 about four months ago.

The opening couple of episodes introduce the two main protagonists: Jean (Judi Dench) and Lionel (Geoffrey Palmer), as well as Jean’s daughter Judith (Moira Brooker). Jean manages her own business, supplying editors and proof-readers, one of whom is Judith.

Lionel, meanwhile, is trying to finish a book he’s writing about his life in Kenya. Judith is allocated to help him, and finds her quite attractive despite over two decades’ worth of age difference.

It doesn’t take long to uncover a surprising coincidence: Jean and Lionel knew each other in the 1950s, during the Korean war. She was a nurse and he was a soldier; they were in love, and intimate, and hoped to spend the rest of their lives together. But each thinks the other was responsible for their having lost touch for thirty years.

The first series sees Jean and Lionel gradually getting to know each other again, with many misunderstandings that are gradually resolved. It doesn’t help that Lionel's agent Alastair (Philip Bretherton) finds Jean remarkably attractive, again despite a significant age difference, and is determined to win her. Alastair is a caricatured creation, full of enthusiasm, clichés and endless good humour as he attempts to encourage Lionel to finish what sounds like a decidedly dull book.

It could have been rather trite or predictable - and I am astonished to learn that this ran for nine seasons - but the main characters are impeccable in their timing, and there’s a great deal of humour. We found ourselves smiling regularly, even chuckling a few times as the series progressed.

I’m still not entirely sure what it is about this show that makes it so very watchable, but somehow we found it very appealing. One episode at a time was rarely enough. So we watched two episodes most weeks, and segued straight into series 2. By the time I realised that the second season had just seven episodes, I’d managed to order seasons three and four from ‘World of Books’, knowing we were going to want more.

Perhaps we wouldn’t have appreciated it so much when we were younger (I think I must only have seen two or three episodes). But now we’re older ourselves, albeit not going back as far as 1950, we can appreciate the subtleties, and the way the two principal characters resist being labelled ‘old’.

We watched the last episode of the second season last night, and since it didn’t feel like a season finale, we went straight on to the first episode of series three.

I doubt if we’ll want to see all nine seasons of this, but am very glad we decided to watch the first two, as we’ve both liked them very much indeed.  If you appreciate gentle 1990s humour, and a slow-moving mainly character-based story with middle-aged protagonists, then I would recommend these highly.

Review copyright 2023 Sue's DVD Reviews

Reluctant Angel (Megan Follows)

(Amazon UK link)

Browsing in a church charity shop, I spotted the DVD of the 1997 film ‘The Reluctant Angel’. I had never heard of it, but the cover looked interesting and the blurb on the back sounded intriguing, as well as rather different from most of the films we watch, so I paid my 50 cents, and last night we decided to watch it.

It opens with a crime scene: Jason (James Gallanders) is about to rob a till in a small shop. His girlfriend Lisa (Megan Follows) drives the car to enable him to escape quickly. Clear this is a procedure they follow regularly and Jason is the one in charge. It’s not a huge amount that he steals, but he evidently gets a kick out of the risk as well as some cash. It’s 25 years ago, and in small-town America, so there weren’t any security cameras. 

At the same time we see Donald (Jaimz Woolvett) staggering drunkenly along a bridge over the highway, then climbing on the railings, looking as if he’s about to jump. He’s pulled down by someone apparently passing by and then finds himself on the street where Lisa is driving. She can’t avoid him, but does what she can, and then spends a lot of effort trying to get him back to his home…

It’s quite a complex storyline but although I prefer something more straightforward, I didn’t have much trouble understanding. Jason is an unpleasantly manipulative crook who cares for nobody but himself; he has the surface charm of a classic narcissist, and likes to take risks with other people as well as himself. When he feels he’s been wronged, his revenge is unpleasant, made worse by his finding it amusing.

Donald, by contrast, is a likeable person who tries to right every wrong he sees by typing letters to organisations and politicians. He feeds pigeons, and mends toasters for people to buy at garage sales. But he’s also filled with angst, wanting to have some value in the world, and convinced he is worthless.

As for Lisa - her dream is to get her paintings displayed in an art gallery. She’s passionate about art although she seems to be in a bit of a blocked phase; Jason is supposed to be her manager, but he has not yet fulfilled any of his promises to her. His sister Clara (Anne Marie DeLuise) manages an art gallery but the two do not get on at all, and on principle she isn’t going to do him any favours. 

So there’s an interesting set of characters, all the more so as Donald is convinced that Lisa is his guardian angel. She tells him her name is Cheryl, and they seem to have a good rapport. The contrast between the two men and their influence on her is strong, and it makes for an interesting tension; all the more so when her desires as an artist contradict her desires as a human.

I wouldn’t have called it a comedy, although there are a few amusing moments that made us smile. It’s caricatured, of course, but with a lot that’s thought-provoking too. Revelations about the childhood of each of the three main characters are contrasted, as are the directions they have taken in life. Lisa/Cheryl and Donald realise they can help each other, but she can’t quite get Jason out of her life…

The pace is quite fast, and while it’s not the kind of film I would usually like, with a fair bit of strong language and rapid action, I found myself absorbed in the story. I disliked Jason more and more as the film progressed. I’m not sure I ever really clicked with Donald, who also seems oddly self-obsessed despite his altruism. I liked the way the story progresses as he begins to take charge of his life. 

The acting is good, the film nicely produced and directed, and there are some quite poignant scenes including one involving dancing. The rating is 15 which I think is about right, given the amount of language used and the clear intimations of sexuality, even though nothing explicit is shown. Donald’s depression and attempts to take his life are somewhat sordid, too; I don’t find that a good topic for comedy, even though things (inevitably) work out better for him as the film progresses.

I’m glad we watched it, and it’s gone on our DVD shelves to see again at some point, rather than being donated back to the charity shop. Recommended if you like a relatively light action film with an unusual storyline, and one or two unexpected turns towards the end.

Review copyright 2023 Sue's DVD Reviews

Sister Act 2 (Whoopi Goldberg)

(Amazon UK link)

We watched the original ‘Sister Act’ film with Whoopi Goldberg back in January, and liked it so much that I decided to acquire its sequel, unoriginally titled ‘Sister Act 2’, with the byline ‘Back in the Habit’. Back in the UK on another visit, I ordered it from Amazon Marketplace and it arrived promptly, in excellent condition.

Whoopi Goldberg is singing at a club as this movie opens, in her public role as Deloris, when she spots some of the nuns she befriended. They have come to ask her a huge favour: they want her to consider helping them as they try to teach unruly teenagers at a Catholic school that’s failing, and likely to close. Deloris is at first reluctant, but she’s always up for a challenge so eventually she agrees, expecting it to be for no more than a week or so…

Back in her role as Sister Mary Clarence, dressed as a nun, Deloris meets the music class - a group of teens who are able to rap, and organise themselves, but have no interest in learning anything about music. She nearly gives up after a couple of failed attempts to get their attention, but eventually, predictably, she succeeds and starts forming them into a choir.

The story is not a new one. It reminded me forcibly of both ‘Music of the Heart’ and - a tad bizarrely - ‘Nativity’, both movies that depict an inspiring teacher moulding unwilling children into musicians, ending with a prestigious or winning performance. The classic 'Sound of Music', of course, is another film along the same lines, including having a theme of nuns at the start. But just as those three films are done very differently, with quite distinct storylines, ‘Sister Act 2’ takes yet another route into the expected and encouraging ending.

There’s a side plot with a ‘villain’ in the form of Mr Crisp (James Coburn), a school administrator who apparently wants the school to be closed, and recommends it to the diocesan body in charge of education. However he’s not the rather scary and evil villain of the first ‘Sister Act’, and she’s never in any danger; so this might be seen as a rather tame story by comparison.

It was good to see some of the nuns from the previous film, including Maggie Smith as the Mother Superior, still keeping charge of the convent, but much more open and willing to adapt than she used to be. There are monks involved in the school too, as varied in style and appearance as the nuns.

pWe were impressed by the teenagers in the music class, including some with excellent singing voices. I didn’t understand everything they said - like typical teens, they talk at great speed, and some of their jargon went right over my head. It didn’t much matter. Most of them blended into similarity, although one or two stood out: in particular a rebel called Rita (Lauryn Hill) who, it turns out, is passionate about singing. But she has a very pushy mother who wants her to take a more academic route, so as to get a good job.

Whoopi Goldberg is excellent, as expected, and overall this made a good light evening’s viewing. Recommended, although best seen after the first ‘Sister Act’. 

The rating is PG, which I'd say is about right. Mild profanity, some slightly provocative dancing and a few innuendoes, but no violence, nothing explicit, and nothing to disturb even the most sensitive of children. Not that it's likely to be of interest to anyone under the age of about twelve. 

Review copyright 2023 Sue's DVD Reviews