Cutting Edge (Moira Kelly, DB Sweeney)

(Amazon UK link)

Doug is an ice hockey champion, skating in the winter Olympics, when a nasty accident leaves him unable to see well enough to play seriously again. His brother owns a bar, and expects Doug to work with him.

Kate is a rather spoiled figure skating champion, also skating in the winter Olympics. She has an unexpected fall which she blames on her partner. She is very demanding and has a hot temper, and it becomes increasingly difficult for her trainer to find anyone willing to skate with her. Yet her father wants her to win a medal at the next Olympics.

Anton, Kate's coach, is almost in despair when he thinks of suggesting that Doug re-train as a figure skater. Sparks fly when they meet, and Kate is disparaging of this working class ice hockey player. However he takes her disdain as a challenge, and gradually becomes very proficient indeed...

It's all rather predictable, rom-com style, with the amusing moments being the spars between the two main protagonists, and the romantic element quite low-key. Naturally Kate and Doug are going to fall for each other in the end - the chemistry between them on ice is incredible! - but neither wants to admit it, as they spar like siblings.

The rating is PG on both sides of the Atlantic, which accurately reflects that there is minimal violence, no bad language, and no nudity. However there are undoubtedly innuendoes and a couple of bedroom scenes (albeit covered up with nothing happening on screen). In my view, the storyline is unlikely to appeal to anyone under the age of about 12 anyway.

There's some great skating and some mild tension as they head towards the competitions.  I thought it was an enjoyable film, in a low-key kind of way.

I'm not entirely sure why Amazon recommended this to me, but am glad it did. My husband and our twenty-something son enjoyed it too.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

Life of Pi (Suraj Sharma)

(Amazon UK link)

The book ‘The Life of Pi’ was a literary hit in 2001. Billed as a kind of philosophical fantasy adventure, featuring a boy on a lifeboat with a tiger, it really didn’t appeal to me. So I never got around to reading it. The fact that a film of the book was made last year passed me by completely. Apparently it won several Oscars.

Visiting relatives recently, we watched the film, which they had been given. I wasn’t expecting much, but have to admit I found it quite mesmerising in places. I particularly enjoyed the opening section, where the adult Pi explains to a visiting journalist how he got his nickname. There are flashbacks to his schooldays, and we get a good glimpse of his background as the son of a zoo-keeper.

Then the family - and animals - board a large ship bound for Canada. A terrible storm erupts, and there’s high action (much of which I didn’t really follow) ending with Pi as the only human on a lifeboat, along with several animals. One of them is a Bengal tiger whose name (due to a clerical error) is Richard Parker.

Then follow several days at sea, with inevitable unpleasantness and an attempt by Pi to befriend the tiger. I didn’t much enjoy this part, and I found the ending puzzling rather than satisfying. However, it was excellently produced and I’m not surprised that the director and others won Oscars for it. I was slightly surprised that Suraj Sharma, who played Pi in the high action part of the film, did not also win one.

However, the deeper message of the film, which other people have observed and discussed, went rather over my head. The adult Pi mentions that he had an experience that made him certain God exists. But although as a child he tried to follow three religions at once, there’s very little mention of God or anything spiritual. At the end we’re left suddenly in doubt as to whether his story was (from a fictional point of view) true or metaphorical, which I found confusing.

We watched the ‘making of Life of Pi’ extra on the DVD, and that was well worth seeing. I was astounded at the lengths to which the crew and cast went to produce this film, and very impressed to learn that the animals were all produced by computer graphics; while I assumed that some scenes must have been done that way, the results were highly realistic. Both visual effects and cinematography were awarded Oscars, which I felt were well-deserved.

I’m glad I watched this film, which was very different from anything I had previously seen, right outside my usual comfort zone. It’s even inspired me to get hold of the book, to see if I understand the philosophy better when I read it.

It’s not something I want to see again, so I was quite surprised when my husband decided to buy a copy, and declared it one of the best movies he had seen in a long time.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

Doctor Who, complete fifth series (Matt Smith, Karen Gillan)

(Amazon UK link)

Having watched our way through the first four seasons of ‘new’ Doctor Who, followed by the 2009 ‘specials’, we had become huge fans of the brilliant David Tennant. We had rather more mixed feelings about his various assistants, but he was, we felt, the ‘true’ Doctor of the 21st century. How could he possibly be replaced by Matt Smith, someone we had barely heard of before his role as the Doctor, and who was apparently only in his 20s. Could a 900-year-old Time Lord really be portrayed by someone barely older than our sons...?

Our sons assured us that we would soon find ourselves accepting the 11th incarnation of the Doctor, even comparing him favourably with Tennant. So I put the fifth series on my wishlist and was given it for my birthday. We started watching it a couple of months ago.

The first episode is quite dramatic, and introduces nine-year-old Amelia Pond. A delightful actress (Caitlin Blackwood) portrays a confident child who seems to look after herself on the whole. But she is becoming quite disturbed by a strange crack in her bedroom wall, and the voices she can hear behind it. She prays for help, and is not surprised when the tardis lands in her garden and the Doctor steps out. He takes her very seriously, then has to leave, promising to return in a few minutes.

Unfortunately the tardis’ time-keeping isn’t great, and he returns twelve years later. He finds Amelia grown up (played by Karen Gillan), now known as Amy, and her boyfriend Rory (Arthur Darvill). An exciting adventure ensues...

Rather than each episode being totally complete in itself, the storyline featuring the cracks in the universe is a theme across this whole series. It culminates in an exciting two-part finale where the young Amelia Pond re-appears, and the universe is threatened with total extinction.

This series marks more changes than just that of the main cast. The production team also changes, being led now by Stephen Moffatt, one of the writers. About half of the episodes on this DVD set are written by him, and reflect a rather more complicated underlying story than some of the earlier ones did. After we had finished watching the finale, my head was spinning. The following day I tried to make sense of it all. Why was the universe imploding? How could someone be erased from memory? Why was the tardis so significant?

The ‘wibbly wobbly timey-wimey stuff’ is quite complicated throughout this series. Various cracks appear in apparently random places, and scenes from past and future impinge on the present with mind-boggling results. I very much enjoyed the two episodes which featured, respectively, Winston Churchill (brilliantly portrayed by Ian McNeice) and Vincent Van Gogh (Tony Curran). 

Some of the Doctor’s old enemies appear too - in particular the daleks - and there’s a two-parter where the ultra-creepy ‘Weeping Angels’ introduced in an earlier series make their reappearance. But on the whole these episodes are more about people, with the aliens or other enemies taking far less significant roles.

There’s certainly plenty of tension - although we know that, one way or another, the Doctor and his companion will come through - and there’s some humour too. I particularly enjoyed the light-hearted episode ‘The Lodger’ in which the Doctor attempts to be an ordinary person for a while, something which he finds remarkably hard to do...

Fans of the series will probably have seen these episodes already when they were broadcast in 2010, but they’re well worth re-visiting in this excellent box set. I’m not one to re-watch films regularly, nor TV shows but by the end - when things were becoming clearer in some respects, if more confused in others - I felt that I would quite like to see this season again from the start, so as to make more sense of the overall story arc about the cracks in the universe.

Series 4 seemed to have rather too many aliens for my tastes, and was rather dark in places. Long drawn out battles and heavy scenes of violence (albeit non-explicit) do nothing for me, so I liked the more thought-provoking approach of this series.

As for Matt Smith... he’s not David Tennant, and doesn’t attempt to be like him, which was probably wise. He leaps into action in the first episode and shows his ability to think fast and move at speed, with plenty of rapid conversation (something which Stephen Moffat seems to excel in) and a light-hearted touch which I appreciated.

It’s fairly typical, I gather, for people to be suspicious about each new incarnation of the Doctor, to compare him unfavourably with the previous one at the start of the series, and then to consider him the ‘best ever’ by around the time he announces his retirement. I’m not sure I shall do that; we loved David Tennant in the role by the time he was half way through the first episode, and I’m not sure he will ever be equalled. But still, Matt Smith makes an engaging Doctor, even if I didn’t quite manage to believe in him as aged time lord.

Definitely recommended.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

The Holiday (Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz)

(Amazon UK link)

According to the IMDb site, there are several films with this unremarkable title. The one which Amazon recommended to me a while ago, and which we recently enjoyed very much, is the 2006 film ‘The Holiday’, with quite a high profile cast.

Kate Winslet stars as Iris, a somewhat shy newspaper columnist in the UK who has a tremendous crush on one of her colleagues. He knows this, but plays around with her emotions until making a dramatic announcement that he is getting engaged to another of their colleagues shortly before Christmas.

Cameron Diaz also stars, as Amanda: an outgoing and highly emotional movie-trailer maker in Los Angeles. She has a huge fight with her boyfriend and throws him out of her luxurious mansion, then decides to take a complete break somewhere quiet. She discovers Iris’s cottage on a house-sharing website, and proposes a swap...

So the scene is set, and the two young women fly across the Atlantic to each other’s homes. Iris is overwhelmed by Amanda’s amazing home, while Amanda is decidedly underwhelmed by the cosiness of Iris’s cottage, and the extreme chilliness of a British winter. Amanda is on the verge of giving up and flying home when she meets Iris’s brother Graham (Jude Law), and they find themselves strongly attracted to each other... although it seems that Graham has several women in his life already.

Meanwhile Iris gets to know her 90-year-old neighbour Arthur (Eli Wallach) who is feeling rather useless despite having had an amazing career in the past. He helps her move beyond her loneliness and she helps him see that he still has a great deal to give. Iris also meets Miles (Jack Black) and they become good friends before - inevitably - deciding that they, too, are falling in love.

It’s typical rom-com, of course with some amusing moments and a predictable, somewhat slushy feel-good ending. There are some quite emotional scenes, too. My only slight niggle is that Cameron Diaz’s character is very over-acted and caricatured - perhaps it makes sense in the initial Hollywood scenes, but she seems to have little of substance or intelligence, and it’s hard to reconcile her with the quiet, loyal and very likeable Graham.

Still, overall we thought this was wonderful stuff, just what I like for a cosy evening in, even if it happens to be the end of July rather than the middle of Winter.

Rated 12 in the UK, PG-13 in the US, I think that’s about right. There are one or two instances of bad language and some significant talk about intimacies. It’s not the sort of film that would appeal to younger children anyway.

Definitely recommended for adults and older teens.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

Nativity! (Martin Freeman, Marc Wootten, Jason Watkins)

(Amazon UK link)

Yes, it’s July.

But our son gets fed up of Christmas films and songs in December, so we decided to watch this highly rated movie last night. Perhaps, we thought, it might detract a little from the heat and humidity that plagued us...

It’s the story of a struggling Catholic school where Paul Maddens (Martin Freeman) is a frustrated and often irritable teacher of small children. Once upon a time he went through a drama course, appearing on stage as an elf, and in a serious relationship with the beautiful Jennifer (Ashley Jensen). But then she went to the US in the hope of becoming a Hollywood producer, and so Paul decided to become a teacher. He also determined that he would never enjoy Christmas again.

So he’s not at all happy when his school Head (Pam Ferris) decides that he will be in charge of the school Nativity play that term. To make it worse, Paul’s old college friend Gordon (Jason Watkins) is a teacher at a local private school, where he gets rave reviews each year for his Nativity plays. And while Gordon isn’t exactly a villain, he’s rather snooty about Paul’s school and his chances. So Paul, thoroughly provoked, pretends that Jennifer will be bringing a Hollywood crew to see his school play. he doesn’t mention that he lost touch with Jennifer some years previously.

He doesn’t really suppose that Gordon will believe him, or that anything will come of his remarks, but unfortunately they’re overheard by Mr Poppy (Marc Wootten) who is Paul’s new classroom assistant. Not a normal quiet helper, he’s like a big kid himself, joining in with the children with great enthusiasm, and trusting everything he’s told. So he passes on the ‘news’ to the school Head (his aunt)... and the press get involved... and the silly lie gets more and more out of hand.

Most of the play is about Paul’s attempts to produce a Nativity play - or, rather, a musical - using children with little or no experience. And it works remarkably well. I don’t mean that he eventually produces a wonderful extravaganza - that’s pretty much taken as read, with a family Christmas film. But the children themselves are an absolute delight.

We wondered how stage schools managed to produce such natural kiddies - and learned, when we watched one of the ‘extras’, that these were not stage school children, but ordinary ones, since the director wanted them to be natural. And that’s exactly what they are, although apparently the audition process took many months.

The film - as we also learned from the extras - was not closely scripted. Much of it was improvised, which probably explains why it really does feel like a typical British primary school, with a bunch of very ordinary children who, when gently pushed, do some fairly extraordinary things.

There are humorous scenes, one or two moving scenes, and a wonderfully schmaltzy ending which we had pretty much foreseen, although not entirely so. The whole is rated U (or G in the US), meaning that it’s entirely suitable for young children; certainly there’s no violence or bad language, and the romance, such as it is, consists of a few kisses and a little sliding about in snow.

There are some great performances by the children - they are all stars, and I hope that at least some of them have continued with their drama careers. The adults all play their parts well, with caricatures, admittedly - Paul Maddens is really very irritable, and Desmond Poppy so very boisterous - but it all works, and makes for a totally captivating hour and a half. Even if we did see it in July!

The extras - deleted scenes, interviews and ‘making of’ - are well worth seeing too.

Wonderful stuff. Don’t expect any depth of plot (although the point about a small lie growing out of control is well made) or character, or even any great surprises. Watch with your children or grandchildren, or perhaps your grandparents... and have a good clean laugh, and the satisfaction of a fairytale ending.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Dev Patel)

(Amazon UK link)

We weren’t quite sure what to expect from this, but it came highly recommended by various people - and since it featured both Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, as well as some other top names, we thought it would be worth seeing. All I knew was that several people set off for a retirement home in India, and found that it wasn’t quite what they were expecting...

The start of the film introduces us to the seven people who all end up travelling to the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Judi Dench plays Evelyn, who has recently been widowed and really doesn’t know what to do with her life, or how she can afford to keep going. Maggie Smith plays Muriel, a woman who urgently needs a hip transplant, but does not want to have to wait several months for the NHS. She is very bigoted, so is not at all impressed with the idea of travelling to India for a quicker operation, but reluctantly agrees to it.

Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton play Douglas and Jean, a married couple who are just retired, and really don’t know what they want. Jean is discontented, not wanting to settle down in a small flat, but not remotely interested in anything in India either. Douglas seems endlessly patient, but gets frustrated by her constant negativity.

More forgettable are Madge (Celia Imrie), Norman (Ronald Pickup) and Graham (Tom Wilkinson). Madge wants a wealthy husband, Norman wants a woman - any woman, but probably not Madge - and Graham is returning to India to catch up with his past; he lived there for a while as a young man.

We get to know each of these characters briefly in their homes and work environments; each of them finds the advert for the hotel, purporting to be a new and wonderful retirement home. Not all their travel arrangements go smoothly, but they eventually arrive... to find a young and cheerful host called Sonny (brilliantly played by Dev Patel) who somehow finds a reason - or excuse - for every one of the hotel’s deficiencies. And there are many... it needs major renovation and upgrading, and is a far remove from the wonderful, up-to-date residence that was advertised...

There’s a lot of humour in this film, and also some very moving moments. One or two parts are unexpectedly poignant, and much is thought-provoking. Criticisms have been made that the story is demeaning to India... yet the country is displayed in its colourful, chaotic glory; it’s the stuck-in-a-rut lifestyles and expectations of the Brits that are more caricatured.

There isn’t a great deal of plot, but we enjoyed it very much. Not that one necessarily wants to think about retirement or growing old, but somehow that isn’t the main focus. Some of the hotel’s residents gain a new lease of life as they discover something - or someone - new.

Judi Dench is excellent, as always, but in my view Maggie Smith is the real star, transforming from an irritable old lady to someone observing everything that goes on, eventually taking on a very important role and looking twenty years younger. Dev Patel is also superb - and the whole was a great family movie.

Rated 12, probably because of a few instances of minor bad language and the racist inferences made in the early part of the film. Unlikely to be of much interest to anyone under the age of about 12 anyway.

Definitely recommended.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

Doctor Who: The Complete Specials (David Tennant)

(Amazon UK link)

It was not until we reached the end of Doctor Who Series 4 (starring David Tennant) a few months ago that I realised that Series 5 opened with Matt Smith established as the famous time lord. We had expected him to regenerate at the end of Series 4, but he didn’t. Research led me to the revelation that series 4 was mostly broadcast in 2008; series 5 not until 2010.  In the intervening year, there was no full series; instead, fans were treated to five longer ‘special’ episodes, as found in this box set.

The first episode, 'The Next Doctor', is a ‘Christmas Special’ broadcast in December 2008. The Doctor is in England in the middle of the 19th century, and meets someone else claiming to the ‘the Doctor’.  He has a sonic screwdriver - of sorts - and even a tardis, though it looks a little different from the usual police box... Meanwhile, the Cybermen are kidnapping children, and the two Doctors - naturally - sort this out.

The second episode, ‘Planet of the Dead’, was shown as an Easter Special in 2009.  There’s a rather cool upper class jewel thief, Lady Christina, who joins the Doctor on a bus as it travels through a wormhole to a strangely deserted planet. They have to figure out what’s going on, while experts back on earth try to work out how to get the bus back again without killing all the passengers.

The third ‘special’, 'The Waters of Mars', is more violent than the earlier two, and has some rather scary implications. The Doctor finds himself on Mars, meeting people he knows about from archive news stories.  He also knows that something terrible is going to happen, but - he claims - cannot do anything to change the course of history. In the meantime, something terrifying is happening to members of the crew...

The ‘specials’ end with a two-part episode, 'The End of Time', in which we finally have to say goodbye to David Tenant. It’s fast-paced and exciting, with the background of a prophecy by the Ood (from a previous series), and the regeneration of the evil time lord known as The Master, in a scene oddly reminiscent of Lord Voldemort’s regeneration in 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'. While it was undoubtedly thrilling in places, and quite moving in others, I felt that this double episode was a bit over-long, and could probably have been condensed into just one episode.

David Tennant is excellent in this entire series, evidently determined to go out as one of the most memorable Doctors. His acting ability shines through, to the extent that the character even becomes a little scary at times with a tendency towards playing God which was a little at odds with the previous series.

In addition to the main episodes, each of the five DVDs in this box set comes with a ‘Doctor Who Confidential’, a documentary about the making of the episode; one that we very much enjoyed was about ‘Planet of the Dead’. It explained how the production team managed to transport a double decker London bus to a desert in Dubai... and the problems that hit unexpectedly! Well worth seeing.

Definitely recommended if you like Doctor Who (or, indeed, David Tennant), but I wouldn't necessarily suggest this box set as an introduction to the series if you are unfamiliar with it.

It's quite expensive for what it is in the UK - only a couple of pounds cheaper than the full 13-episode series box sets - and decidedly over-priced in the US (at the time of writing).

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews