Reviews

I live in Vung Tau...the Vietnamese city mentioned several times in this movie and 50km away from Long Tan where this movie is set.

I live amongst a number of Australian soldiers who were involved indirectly and directly with this situation and I've heard the stories and 1st hand accounts.

I thought this was an excellent portrayal of the events I've heard and read about many times.

I've not yet heard the soldiers views.... I will read and ask them, but I thought the movie was so good I'd come here and write first.

I thought it was excellent. Excellent balance of story telling and history.

The actors were all great, everyone of the Aussie soldiers remind me of the old buggers I've met and talked to here in Vietnam.... The lead Yeah...a really good movie, respectful and enjoyable.

I really enjoyed this movie for what it was...a great introduction to some great Brazilian 80's music.

I've been learning Portuguese for two years now and still had to use a lot of the subtitles...I'd never heard of Renato or Legiao Urbana before...and I understand that for "die hard" fans the movie was perhaps a little simple...but for me, and millions like me, I think the movie did exactly what it set out to, gave me a great intro and ignited my curiosity to look deeper.

I would totally recommend it to anyone learning the language for a number of reasons:

1. It's a straight bio-pic...so fairly easy to follow the plot and work out what's going on without too much "deep" dialogue.

2. Renato's songs are beautifully written and easy to listen to and hear all the words...they're good songs (obviously a little dated now) and they use Portuguese brilliantly...I have learned so much from trying to translate the lyrics...it's even inspired me to pick up my ukulele and for the first time in my life attempt to sing in Portuguese...could you ask any more from a film???

I understand that for real fans, it may be a little light, but for new fans, it's perfect....by the time the 2nd part comes out, I'll be an old fan!

The acting is also very good...and the main actor is brill and also looks just like Renato...so much so that when I googled Legiao I had to do a double take!

A great little movie...funny and heartwarming.

It feels like a movie Wes Anderson has been trying to make for a long time. I'm not sure if "less self-conscious" is the right word, because the movie is self-conscious, it knows what it is and where it's going and it's not embarrassed by this fact.... if Wes could just relax a bit he would return to being as great as this movie is. Wes Anderson fans will love it!

I recommend it for everyone....and if you're learning Portuguese, it's a double gem due to the simple dialogue and clear narration.

I think if there had been a Star Wars reference in the movie, I'd have given it a 10! (If I missed one please let me know!)

Over the past decade I've watched The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad and The West Wing.

Rumpole stands alongside them as classic TV.

Great stories, brilliant scripts and fantastic acting.

It has that mark of a really great piece of drama in that after watching an hour long episode, I'll sit and discuss it for an hour more.

It's amazing to see, almost 40 years later, how much has changed in the UK....and how much hasn't! It may be dated in a few places, but it's universal in many many more....I imagine that it cost less to make EVERY episode of Rumpole (and there are lots!) than it did to make one episode of Breaking Bad or West Wing.

Just go watch it!

This film is perfect.

The story is lovely, the music fits brilliantly, the animation, especially in the way. with a few lines and a little colour, it catches the "character" of the dogs is incredible in it's simple perfection.

I came to England (from Scotland) and fell in love with the place thanks to H.E. Bates' books...this little film reminded me so much of them....it's very restrained in it's beauty, summed up by the first line: "In being quite unable to love each other, the Englishmen turn to their dogs"

Why did this film not sweep the Oscars? No other animation comes close...apart from perhaps "Mary & Max".

Everything about it is perfect.

The reason that you've heard the word "ninja" is because of this movie.

It's a mid 80's chop sockey film that inspired a huge (sub) cultural movement.

Ninjas are to martial arts movies what Zombies are to horror movies...and Ninjas were introduced to us in the west via this movie.

Jeez Louise with the negative reviews! I guess you had to be there at the time...but this movie caused a revolution...kids all over the world went from wanting to be Bruce Lee to wanting to be a Ninjas as soon as they saw this.

Also, it wasn't really part of a trilogy...the others were just cash ins or vehicles for Sho Kushogi, they bore nothing to do with this movie other than the word "Ninja" in the title.

I love Kitchen Sink Dramas...this one was good, but something was off about it.

The story was good, a great cast, brilliant cinematography. It just felt like the whole thing was unrehearsed, poorly directed and badly edited.

Did they spend so much of the budget on the cameras that they had none left for rehearsals? It also feels like the director couldn't decide on just how to portray the father...one min the family are terrified of him, the next they are picking on him and joking with him....I'd love to see some stage productions and see how other directors deal with this...here it even sometimes feels like the actors were not in the same room when their scenes were shot as the reactions are all over the place.

Lots of great bits about this movie...and I enjoyed it...but it was let down by the direction and editing.

An excellent and powerful wee movie.

The movie lasts 13 min and I think I sat for another 13 min speechless, thinking about the impact of what I had just seen.

It should be shown in schools.

Geoff's other short "Bouncers" is also excellent...hope he will get to make a feature soon.

Knowing Geoff, he will!

It's also worth checking out the books that he writes.

There's an excellent autobiography: "Watch my Back!"

And some brilliant motivational stuff...

Mike Leigh has made some fantastic cinema...Easily the very best to come out of the UK in the last 30yrs, a league above the competition*...but this is a turd of a movie...deeply patronising.

Over simple and under developed, why oh why did he not just say "This is not working!" and scrap it?

The "Green Cauliflower" line at the end made me want to slap him.

But his other work is so fantastic that it is easy to forgive him.

Please, go watch Abigail's Party, Nuts in May, The one about the adopted sister, Naked & Vera Drake, but give this a miss.

*mmmh, I wonder what a Mike Leigh/Guy Richie collaboration would end up like? It could be either the greatest or the worst movie ever...I say go for it!