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RICHARDBLACK80
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Dr. No (1962)
Bond Begins
The first but not the best of the bond movies. Still a good film though. Having recently sat through all the Bond films (I am Alan Partridge) this one now looks a little dated. Considering it was filmed in 1962 I suppose that is fair enough however when you look at From Russia With Love and Goldfinger apart from certain parts they don't look dated at all. Of course I'm being harsh here as its still a very good movie and Sean Connery makes a great start and is a really good Bond. In a way the Bond he plays in this and in From Russia with love is very different from the one he played between Goldfinger and You Only Live twice (the Bond he played in Diamonds are Forever was on auto pilot and doesn't count) he is a bit nasty in places which I think makes him a better Bond. Quality Bond girl, good baddie and great Bond ending. Advice to anyone who hasn't seen any of the Bond films and is about to, see the first two first and then watch the others in any order. Welcome to the world of Bond
Minder (1979)
Oh my good gawd its Chisolm
Minder was quality, without doubt. The quality dipped towards the end of the Dennis Waterman era but even those episodes when you watch them again now compared to a lot of current shows stand up really well. As mentioned in the trivia section this show started out as a post Sweeney vehicle for Dennis Waterman but soon the character of Arthur took over (maybe a little bit too much in the end). The series really hit its peak in the third and fourth series where it got slightly less violent and more inventive in its story lines. Episodes like 'What makes Shammy run' and 'You need hands' are fantastic. Like Fools and Horses it started to go grow as more characters where introduced. You could argue that with the exception of Chisolm, Rycott and Dave one of the reasons it started to dip was because the strenght of the supporting cast was not very good but its pointless to compare the two shows really. It must have been difficult for the script writers to find things for Waterman to do as he aged and he came more of an odd job man come friend to Arthur. The series finished in 1988 but returned in 1991 with a new minder (Arthurs cousin Ray). A lot of criticism came in for this new Minder format but the majority of it was good, especially the first series. Towards the end of the second series it got a bit too much and the plots ranged from good to boring to the daft. One of my favourite scenes is the first episode of the new format where Arthur is at a family wedding and holding court in the bathroom in a scene that is borrowed from the first Godfather film. I would really love them to do one last episode while its possible with an older Terry again saving Arthur, maybe with a little help from Ray. But alas it probably wont happen.
Porridge (1979)
"COPS" "What like a wooded glaze???" "Yeah a wooded glaze full of cops"
What a quality movie this is. I like this film so much that I would actually put this in my top ten movies ever (and I've watched a hell of a lot of films). I first watched this over one Christmas when I was a child when video players had first come out in the UK and my Dad bought a whole load of pirate videos back from his local boozer (about 1983).I saw this before I had experienced any of the brilliant series of porridge which is also very good. As said in previous comments a lot of these TV spin off either try and take the characters completely out of their environment (Are you being served, Holiday on the Buses or George and Mildred) or just rehash every funny joke from the original series (Rising Damp is an example). There is no amazing story to this film just a chain of events that lead to the bungled escape by Oakes who takes Fletch and Godber along with him and then their attempt to break back into prison. The jokes and various stories are all new and just as you think that it maybe running out of steam we have thirty minutes of them on the outside (but still not out of their environment as the theme is still the same). Even the soundtrack is really good with Joe Browns excellent 'Inside' (think thats what its called) and the opening credits, Neilsons 'Without you'. With Clement and Le Frenais you feel that they have thought through the whole story process and developed the story properly. The only other spin off I could probably say the same about is the Likely Lads which is also very good. The major criticism this film comes in for is that it came after the sequel series 'Going Straight' and there some confusion to whether the characters had ended up back in prison. I just see it as another story from when they where in nick. Simple.