Inadvands
Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess
Tyreece Hulme
One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
Kamila Bell
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Lela
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
secondtake
Make Mine Mink (1960)This has such an affected style—even in British terms, with an extreme use of accents and affectations, it seems to me—it's tiring. It's a comedy, so this is the worst of offences. Is it funny—I suppose so. In fact, I bet that some people absolutely die watching this. But I tried three times and found the style so forced and, well, stupid, that I never liked it. But is it funny? Yes, in a madcap way. But it's not really funny lines or clever comments, plays on words and whatnot. It's more the way things are delivered that matters, and that is largely a matter of whether you can adopt the style of speaking here or not. The plot, if you can call it quite a plot, is a matter of some bumbling blokes and gals who have decided to commit a crime. They get away with it, sort of, but are out of sorts and perplexed by the situation they are now in—the guilty! In all this is a parlor room story, a play adapted to the stage. So it's constrained from the get-go. My advice is simple—give it ten minutes. If you like it, and can stand the unbearable lead male (Terry-Thomas), you might make it to the end. If not, run, and fast!
rpowell-4
This is a real period piece (circa 1960) which hasn't aged as well as some of its contemporaries (eg its companion pieces Too Many Crooks and The Naked Truth).It has a splendid cast (the "gang" are all female apart from Terry-Thomas at his peak) and they act their socks off. But their immense and varied talent - both Hattie Jacques and Billie Whitelaw have major roles - have to contend with a script which must have seemed a little too contrived even at the time, and which now looks as if it came from another planet. It's of course practically a given these days that Ealing and its counterparts were mildly subversive of the established order. But for a group of down-at-heel members of the upper-middle class to fund orphanages by stealing fur coats? Is there a satirical subtext here? Did the jokes seem funny at the time?As I say, the performances are to be admired, as is the hidden or even subconscious feminist agenda, but I found it mildly bewildering - and this is the world I was born into. Perhaps we need a radical remake.
martingomme
A warm view of the criminal temptation as seen through the eyes of the comic displaced. Fine team performances, particularly from the female cast members, topped off by a Terry-Thomas character out of his own flawed top-drawer. A real treat for those who like their view of the British as slightly off-centre, warm and hypocritical...which is not a bad summary of the national character. Kenneth Williams in an early appearance shines as a character that he never really succeeded in developing for the screen but which points to a keen comic enjoying himself in very good company. Billie Whitelaw playing against type is also a revelation in a role that hints strongly at the type of role that she made her own in films later in the decade
Colashwood
Paris used to be the place where you can see all sorts of "rare" films. But how comes we always have Man in the White Suit and Ladykillers when it comes to British comedy ? I discovered Terry-Thomas in the Dr Phibes movies (IMDB kindly tells me he's showing as well in that great French war classic, La Grande Vadrouille. How silly of me) and, rather charmed by the gap between the teeth, bought a Terry-Thomas DVD set in London. Mark that, readers ! It contains Make Mine Mink, Too Many Crooks and Naked Truth. They're all very good but Make Mine Mink has the very special charm of its female cast, from oddly beautiful Billie Whitelaw to wonderful Hattie Jacques (and a special mention to Penny Morrell in a faultless dumb blonde part).