OK, I'm an old guy who loves Christmas movies I admit it. When I saw this was coming on I expected the usual formula of a kid helping Santa Clause out of a fix but to my surprise although frequently mentioned the old guy didn't appear in it, basically it was a love story, with likable characters. I thought it was well acted and was particularly impressed with the acting talents of little Isadora Swann, this appears to be her only acting role to date but hopefully not her last. If you see it coming on watch it, I'm sure you'll enjoy.
Reviews
11 Reviews
Pollyanna
(1973– )
Another take
27 November 2016
Having seen the 1960 version with Hayley Mills and the later 2003 version with Georgina Terry I was looking forward to a different take on the story. In general I was not disappointed, the lead actress who I had never heard of was pretty adorable coupled with a great performance from Elaine Stritch perhaps best remembered by many in Britain for her roll in the TV comedy Two's Company. The one thing I feel let it down a little was the terrible American accents (I'm British), most of the cast being British,I don't know if it ever made it to the USA but I can imagine Americans finding them hilarious. Having said that ignore the accents and enjoy it.
Return to the Secret Garden
(2000)
Liked it
7 January 2016
First of all I must point out that the storyline on IMDb bears no relationship to this film, it is actually from Back to the Secret Garden. A little American girl travels to Britain to stay with her aristocratic uncle Lord Craven and his Grand Daughter Margaret.Along with Margaret and a boy named Timothy she rediscovers the secret garden. The film is technically awful but a nice story . First of all the British kids are obviously American although they make a brave attempt at a British accent. Secondly they appear to all come from different periods of time looking at their clothing, Katherine is a modern day girl, Margaret seems to be from the 40's and Timothy appears to be from the 20's. When Katherine is taken ill an American ambulance comes to attend to her and the staff appear to be early 20th century. Despite all the faults it was a nice story, I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it particularly for kids.
Farvel, jeg hedder Kurt
(1969)
Beautiful little film.
24 December 2015
Warning: Spoilers
This was a lovely little film which obviously started life as a three part serial. A little 6 year old girl Alberte is scolded by her mother and decides to run away, actually to the bottom of the garden where an open row boat is moored. She makes a tent over it with blankets and is assisted by a mysterious magical woman who appears. She gets regular visits from Mom and Dad and also a couple of friends visit. The fact that is virtually a silent film with occasional narration means it is not hard to follow even for none Danish speakers. Some people might take issue with the amount of time the little girl spends nude particularly in part three but it is quite innocent, no different to what you may find on any beach. My only concern was from a safety point, at the beginning the little girl was using what was obviously a very sharp knife to cut bread. I would recommend viewing
Garden of Eden
(1954)
Enjoyable
9 December 2014
I remember this film hitting the theatres when I was a kid but of course I couldn't go to see it much to my disappointment. Having recently got a copy on DVD I found it a refreshing change from other "nudies" of the period, for one thing most of the people in it could act, including the little girl who later went on to be a regular in a TV series. Also it was great to see they didn't utilise the method commonly used in other films of the genre of people walking around with a beach ball or magazine held in front of there lower regions which frankly always made the scenes laughable, with the exception of a brief frontal shot of the little girl no one was filmed full frontal which took away the comic aspect and gave a more serious impression. One thing I wonder though is in today's so called liberated society would they still be allowed to show a man pick up a little naked girl and run his hand up and down her back while talking to her? I doubt it.
Act Naturally
(2011)
Accurate?
19 November 2014
Like several other reviewers I found it refreshingly pleasant to see a film which has people nude for none sexual reasons and generally a reasonably enjoyable film to watch. However despite several favourable comments on the extras portion of the DVD from people who are reputedly real nudists I didn't really feel that it portrayed nudism very accurately. Firstly nudism is usually promoted as a family activity, in this film all the nudists appeared to be single, an almost complete lack of any families, only in the final few seconds were a couple briefly seen with kids in there arms, maybe they were real members of the club used in the film. My other reason for deleting points out of ten is the the foul language frequently used by the two women who were the central characters, this was totally unnecessary, if it wasn't for that I would have said it was a movie the whole family young and old alike could have enjoyed. In some ways the movie parodied the nudies from the 50's and 60's where there always seemed to be some object which just happened to be in the right place to obscure the view, which seemed to be done more for comedy than anything.
Just like Home
(1978)
Very good film
7 November 2014
I spent a long time searching the internet to find a copy of this film on DVD as I have a great admiration for young Zsuzsa Czinkoczi after seeing her in what must have been a truly awful part to play in Nobody's Daughter, the only other part I had seen her in was as an adult in American Rhapsody. It was quite refreshing to see a film where a perfectly innocent relationship develops between a young girl and a man rather like a Father and Daughter in a very good story. The lengths the little girl went to get her dog back were truly heart warming.My only disappointment was in the awful picture quality on the DVD but that still didn't spoil the enjoyment of a great movie.
Foreboding
(1992)
What a waste
31 October 2014
As someone with a liking for post apocalyptic movies I tried for some considerable time to find a copy and eventually found one in North America. However what a disappointment, the movie consisted of a woman wandering aimlessly around a baron landscape uttering unintelligible moaning noises, even if you spoke Romanian they wouldn't make sense,she was accompanied by a young boy who frequently wears no clothes and followed by a mysterious tank driven by a nude man. There is basically no dialogue in the film and no real story. After watching it I sat there thinking "Well what was it all about" I will be using the DVD as a table coaster, that's all it's good for.
Dakota's Summer
(2014)
Worth watching
21 June 2014
I looked forward to seeing this movie, as a fan of the original I was looking forward to seeing the gang in action again. However the gang wasn't to be seen, the only two original characters are Madison who now appears to be the boss, and Walker who appeared only briefly in the original as the man in the stable who Ida thought was her Dad. The main character is 17year old Dakota, played by a 22 year old actress Haley Ramm who walks out on her family after finding out she is adopted to find her birth parents. The character of Terrence Parker is replaced by Austin Rose played by Keith Carradine. The main missing ingredient is of course Bailee Madison although more than compensated by the inclusion of young Jade Pettyjohn who plays Summer Jennings a troubled youngster from a foster home who tells tall tales about her none existent family but manages to tug at a few heartstrings towards the end. All in all an enjoyable movie and well worth watching.
The Secret Garden
(1975)
Close to the book
2 March 2014
Having recently had the opportunity to read the book "The Secret Garden" I was pleasantly surprised at how close this version is to the book. I now have four versions of this story, the 1947, 1975, 1987 and 1993 most of the other versions stray somewhat from the original story, even the majority of the script in this production is taken from the book. When I read the book I can visualise the actors in this production, the only change I could find was that Sarah Ann Medlock has been renamed Agnes. Sarah Hollis Andrews does a fine job as Mary and unlike other versions they used a genuine Yorkshire boy Andrew Harrison to play Dickon, David Patterson made a delightfully obnoxious (to start with) Colin. Of course this was a TV production so not in the same class as a Hollywood movie. Never the less full marks to the BBC on a great job.
The Secret Garden
(1987 TV Movie)
Enjoyable but not the best
15 December 2013
Whilst I have to agree with many of the criticisms of other reviewers I did find this movie quite enjoyable. But why on earth did they use American kids to play Mary, Dickon and Colin, Gennie James was one of my favourite child actresses of the eighties but she couldn't hide her American accent, and as for Barret Oliver, he had the weirdest accent I have ever heard, I will however give 6 out of 10 for a brave attempt by Jadrien Stelle. The accent problem was not confined to the American cast members, Martha is supposed to be a local Yorkshire girl but spoke with a Cockney accent. I also think the start and end sequences were totally unnecessary, also making Colin and Mary unrelated quite spoilt things. My vote for the best version would have be for the 1975 BBC adaptation although this may not have been seen in the USA.Another reviewer asks how Colin joined the army when he needed to use a walking stick, he obviously missed the point that Colin had been injured in the war and had just left hospital
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