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Reviews
Wide Open Spaces (2009)
For aficionados of downbeat humour
Imagine the Irish boom years never happened. Everything is run down. No-one has any actual money, everyone relying on other peoples I.O.U.s. Politicians are grubby and self serving. "Entrepreneurs" and "Developers" are loud mouthed chancers. Some of the best Irish comedians came out of the grimness of the pre-Celtic Tiger era, and now the bad times are back, Arthur Matthews obviously feels back on familiar territory.
Less a conventional film, more an extended shaggy dog story. Echoes of Father Ted? They are there beneath the surface, though disconcertingly Ardal O'Hanlon has morphed from Dougal to Ted. The archetypal comedic paring, stuck together like Vladimir and Estragon, Myles is a self-aware loser, struck by the despair of his situation, unable to part himself from Austin, an innocent fool, never able to see quite how bad things have got.
Owen Roe is the star attraction though, with his famine theme park, and worship of Michael O'Leary. The DVD extras where he is interviewed about the park are almost better than the film. Ted Fans will spot Father Todd Unctious and Father Cyril MacDuff in nice character rolls.
Would the film have been better with more development and a bigger budget? No doubt, but that sort of thing really doesn't matter to connoisseurs of the offbeat.
Those who like Father Ted for its slapstick outrageousness (more Linehan's style) will perhaps be disappointed, those who value it for its sense of place, quirkiness, and getting under the skin of deeply flawed characters are more likely to warm to this film.
The Saint: Vendetta for the Saint: Part 1 (1969)
Must see for saint fans
Nice to see Simon Templar out of the studio for a change. Most of the 1960s ITC TV series looked pretty glossy for the time, having the budget to be shot on film, and latterly in colour. Even so, they didn't spend much time on location, often faking exteriors in the studio, and only using location establishment shots, many of them looking like library footage. By that measure, Vendetta for the Saint really does look like a proper movie, with great use of the Italian locations, and only a few obvious studio shots. As it was also intended to be shown as a TV double bill, it is possibly a bit over-extended for its material (a fault shared by some of Leslie Charteris's novels). That said, the pace doesn't let up too often. Good solid performances from the main cast, Ian Hendry is interesting as the ruthless villain who will stop at nothing to get to the top of the mafia (despite slipping in and out of his New York mobster accent a bit erratically), but this is Roger Moore's film, and he is rarely off screen, so if you are looking for a masterclass in eyebrow acting, this is the film to watch. A fitting end (more or less) to the series.
The Rockford Files: Sticks and Stones May Break Your Bones, But Waterbury Will Bury You (1977)
Jim saves the careers of his fellow Private Investigators
A classy number from David Chase. Cleavon Little (the Gucci Saddled Sheriff from Blazing Saddles) makes a rare and welcome appearance as a fellow PI who has lost his license after being set up by a "client" on a breaking and entering charge. Things get stranger as Rockford comes across other PIs in the same boat, including Vern St. Cloud (played with obnoxious class by Simon Oakland - did David Chase bring him in from Kolchak?) It transpires that the Waterbury detective agency - a large corporate concern - has a covert honey-trap plan to discredit LA PIs to increase its market share, operating from a secret 13th floor of its headquarters.
The Rockford Files: The Oracle Wore a Cashmere Suit (1976)
Jim meets his match in a fraudulent psychic
The excellent Robert Webber lands another Rockford role as the famous Roman Clementi, a TV psychic who "helps the police with their enquiries". Clementi gets his "insights" by using an informant in the police department, and hiring another PI to bug Rockford's home and car. By revealing details about a missing person case, Clementi lands Jim in trouble with both Chapman (who seems to have taken over from Diehl as Jim's least favourite cop) and a drugs gang who think he knows where a stash of 80 grand of drugs money is. The scenes where Jim looks on with incredulity as the police buy into the psychic hokum are priceless - particularly when Clementi predicts that the corpse will be found "near a body of water" which is by turns a water tank, and the pacific ocean.
The Rockford Files: The Competitive Edge (1978)
Jim in classic Chander territory
Neatly borrowing themes from "Farewell my Lovely" this episode finds Jim investigating an extremely exclusive health club (which inevitably is a front for dodgy deals) to try and track a disappeared banker, who has apparently jumped bail with a stolen half million. There are classic characters like the health guru doctor who is peddling methamphetamines to his high achieving clients and his brother who makes a living off running a private asylum packed with people who get too close to the truth about the health club. The comedy portrayal of the "lunatics" would probably be (rightly) considered insensitive today, but the Doc Holiday character (who gets his "hat wearing privileges" removed for starting a "bar room brawl") and "Bond" who spies on the other inmates, played the late John Fiedler of 12 Angry Men fame, are memorable.