British Cinema Collection: 8 Acclaimed Films

What a great price for over 12 hours of really good cinema. The 8 features are all films that first showed from 1994 to 1999. Each is 90 to 118 minutes and all are in widescreen and color. They are loaded with star performers in stellar accomplishments. It is a satisfying mix of comedy, historical drama, romance, and biography. What more can you say except the price is less than renting. And you will want to watch some of the offerings more than once. They are as good as any of the new cinema creations put out today. Restoration: Robert Downey Jr, Meg Ryan, Ian MacKellan, Hugh Grant, and more. London 1663 drama of one mans journey through the light and dark of the period times. R rating for sexuality, nudity. One of the best. An Ideal Husband: A delightful period drama/romance with stellar performances by Minnie Driver & Cate Blanchett. Another of my favorite from this lot. A Month by the Lake: An older (Vanessa Redgrave) lady finds romance in a wonderful adaptation of a story by HE Bates. My Life So Far: Scot lad Fraser lives a somewhat wild childhood and viewers get a very funny accounting of his coming to terms with puberty. Colin Firth is the dad. I'll watch this film again and again. The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain. What will Welsh townsfolk do to retaliate against surveyors (Ian McNeice, Hugh Grant) claiming their prized local mountain is less than 1000 feet--thus a mere `hill'? Another top winner. Sweet Revenge: 2 souls fail to complete suicides off London's Tower Bridge. They form a pact to play a deadly game of revenge against those that drove them to the brink. Lots of UK stars. Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown: Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) gets close and personal during her grief from losing the King with Mr. Brown, a man who cares for her horses and the emotional state of his queen. True love? Tom & Viv: A very accurate & well done fictional/biographic look a the life of T.S. Eliot (Willem Dafoe), poet with an insane wife. NO SUBTITLES OR Closed Caption--shame on ECHO BRIDGE. No bonus stuff. Yet highly recommended.

Great to find film collections of British cinema! This is a good one. I am super tired of the idiocy that seems to be contemporary Hollywood - at least those that make the headlines. I find pleasure in the different approach to life that seems typical of the best of British drama. And, I love having them at my fingertips of an afternoon or evening when nothing but mindless drivel is to be found on any of the myriad television channels that seem unable to do anything meaningful with any degree of consistency. Watching these films at home and in comfort at a reasonable price is, for me, a pleasant and affordable escape from the movie house crowd. (And I can make my own popcorn, too!)

Bottom Line First: Shop around. DVDs come in and out of print and even out of print there has to be some good prices somewhere. 8 Acclaimed (British) Films is clearly for fans of modern British movies, esp then up and commers like Collin Firth and Hugh grant as well as grand dames like Judy Dench and Vanessa Redgrave. No Jane Austin here but much in the way of literary refinances and history costume dramas. These are not something for everybody movies. You much like intelligent dialoged and subtlety and slower pacing. Evan the lessor of the movies here have fine performances and superior costuming and some amazing beautiful settings. Where they fail it is directing. <D<D<D<D<D<D<D<D<D<D<D<D<D<D<D<D I'll not review all 8 movies in this set but I will comment as to what struck me about most of them To start with the low moment. Tom and Viv is a film biopic of TS Elliot and his failed first marriage with the well-connected Vivian. William Defoe gives us a highly intense TS Elliot, by mostly never saying , doing or emoting. This is one seriously DULL poet. There are huge gaps in the narrative and we never know how much the marriage failed for lack of hormone treatments of because well the British Aristocracy had no ability to cope with metal derangement among their own. Restoration has its moments, and both Meg Ryan and Robert Downy Jr perform ably enough. After one or two surprises early in the movie the rest is too nearly predictable. Not a bad movie, just not as interesting as the costumes and scenery. THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN is a fun enough movie mostly a true story and Hugh Grant being Hugh Grant except before we knew his bumbling charm is his acting trademark. A MONTH BY THE LAKE is the almost mandatory almost chick flick about older people falling in love. Charming and Redgrave is marvelous. I almost came to hate My Life So Far, but the last ten seconds of the movie are save it. It is also a biopic, but these people are more likable. Sweet Revenge is the English version of Throw Momma Off the Train, less brash and just as pleasingly silly Helena Bonham Carter is as crazy as she usually is only funnier. Still I missed Ann Ramsey. There is no reason for you to be reading any of this if these topics and this generation of British film making is not your cuppa tea. 8 Acclaimed Films has enough quality movie time here for most of the people who have chosen to read this far. Find a copy at a cost you can accept and plan on at least 650 of 800 minutes to be good movie watching, all with fine acting and beautiful things to look at.

The films are ok to good, depending. BUT, there are NO closed captions or subtitles. Please be aware of this.

THIS IS A COLLECTION OF MOVIES AND ALL BUT THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN --I HAD NOT SEEN THE REST BEFORE--THESE ARE GOOD MOVIES MADE FROM ACROSS THE POND AND IF YOU ENJOY A GOOD STORY YOU WILL ENJOY THESE--DISC ONE HAS SWEET REVENGE, MY LIFE SO FAR, THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN AND A MONTH BY THE LAKE--DISC TWO YOU HAVE- HER MAJESTY, MRS BROWN, RESTORATION, TOM AND VIV AND AN IDEAL HUSBAND. SOME SHOW MEN AND WOMEN WITHOUT ANY CLOTHING...

Restoration is a movie of hope although I was surprised to see Hugh Grant as a villain. Robert Downey evolved his character into a mature, compassionate person to the amazement of the King. The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain was so funny and Hugh Grant as usual. It is amazing no matter how science can prove hill is not a mountain those who believe in the mountain tried to make it so. My fav - An Ideal Husband. Although I love Jeremy Northam you have to admit the interaction between Minnie Drive and Rupert Everett was fun to watch. In the middle of all the misunderstandings and intrigue, these two find a way to co-exist. Sweet Revenge was way too out there but it was a little humorous while being dastardly. I enjoy watching Helena Bonham Carter but it took some time to get into the movie because of her outlandishness. Dame Judi Dench is a marvelous actress and this movie, "Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown", was so spectacular. There are times in our life when we need a friend, not just tea, sympathy and a pat on the head. No matter if you are a queen or horseman, there are times that try your very reason for living. Judi Dench was absolutely real and marvelous in her role of Queen Victoria. T.S Eliot is a favorite poet. Tom & Viv was masterfully portrayed and so realistic that I felt that I really had a peek at what they must have been going through. I have a renewed interest in re-reading works of T.S. Eliot because of his love and the dedication of his life to her. I am sure you will have an interest in his works as well. I have mentioned my favorites on the DVD, but they were all well worth watching over and over again.

When you see a movie collection with Colin Firth, Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett on the front cover (plus Hugh Grant, Jeremy Northam, etc.), you just assume it will be good. Well, it isn't. It's marketing. I already owned an Ideal Husband (on VHS) so saw it was in this DVD collection and assumed the other films would be similar quality. They are not. I own almost every Jane Austen and period movie ever made and love that genre and usually love British cinema, BBC, etc.; however, the only good films out of this 8-movie collection are An Ideal Husband (excellent, 4.5 stars, really fun movie about politics, love, forgiveness, second chances, etc.) and Her Majesty Mrs. Brown (3.5 stars) about Queen Victoria mourning her husband's loss and the Scottish servant who helps her move past her loss. I also found Restoration very moving/poignant. However, I couldn't even get through the rest of the films -- A Month by the Lake was incredibly boring and pointless with Vanessa Redgrave as an older lady chasing an older man who was flirting with a young nanny (Uma Thurman) and the same basic thing kept happening over and over again -- I had to force myself to watch it. My Life So Far was crass, with an awful performance by Colin Firth as a second-rate, eccentric husband flirting with his brother's wife while his young son looks at naked lady pictures. The Englishman who went up the Hill is okay (3 stars) as it's kind of interesting that a town would put dirt on a hill so it gets taller and can be called a mountain, but most of these movies aren't even the kind I would watch if they were on TV (definitely wouldn't buy or watch again). I haven't watched the others yet -- Sweet Revenge or Tom & VIV, so maybe one of those will be good but I'm not expecting much. So far, only 3 of the 8 were worth having. At the price, it's worth buying the set only for An Ideal Husband and Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown (plus Restoration was good) unless you can get An Ideal Husband by itself for less. Again, not sure why these films are "acclaimed" as most of them seem pretty poor.

The couple of winners in this movie collection make it more than worth while. Right now so friends have borrowed the collection so I have to review it by memory that is at least 3 months old (and at my age, 60's, that's sort of difficult). I particularly enjoyed the Mr. Brown and the Queen, as well as The Men Who Climbed Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain (sic?). Great British dry humor. The Robert Downey Jr. movie about repentance or atonement was the worst to me although the visual effects of British royalty and the costuming was really worth watching; so even my least enjoyable movie in the collection was still ok.