Rockets Galore

(Hey, we watch the ABC here in Bris-Vegas, too, ye know.)

This is a fairly pleasant film, a light comedy that's easy on the eyes and ears. Not a terribly deep or unusual plot; yet another variation on We'll Band Together and Preserve Our Little Rustic Paradise Against the Modernist Interlopers and of course, Let's Get The Kids Involved. Some quite nice scenery at times, and the singing isn't of a grating quality. (Okay, some it's actually pretty good.) Not a great movie, but it's agreeable enough. Technically, it's pretty good for something shot in the late 1950s.

There are some funny characters in it (I particularly liked the policeman for some reason) and it does have that folksy/Scottish flavour to it -- I guess I like hearing the accents.

"Rockets Galore" is supposed to be a sequel, of sorts, to "Whiskey Galore!"...which was made about a decade earlier. However, most of the people in the film are different actors and characters, though the setting (a tiny Scottish island) is the same.

When the film begins, you learn that the British government is planning on building a missile base on tiny Toddaya island. And, this will also mean displacing many people from their homes! Considering how isolated the place is, clearly moving many families will cause a HUGE disruption in their lives. Much of the film is about how the locals do their best to discourage the government...and some of these schemes are rather funny.

This movie is funny but its main strength is in the sweetness of the characters and community. It also helps that unlike the earlier film, this one is in vivid color...and it looks lovely. Overall, a highly creative and fun film...one that is well worth your time.

It's completely silly, and very "British", but I rather enjoyed this daft caper about the inhabitants of the tiny island of "Todday" who resist Government plans to militarise their homeland. It is clearly intended as a sequel to "Whisky Galore" with a few of the same characters rallying to the cause. Like many of Compton Mackenzie's stories, it is quirkily put together offering us loads of characters with idio(t)synchracies that raise a smile rather than a guffaw. Donald Sinden is completely lost here, though. His typically theatrical style of acting drags this down from an otherwise, gently entertaining base. The rest of the cast - Gordon Jackson, Noel Purcell and Duncan Macrae help to pepper the slightly dull script with some charismatic nostalgia for the first film, and demonstrate the feistiness and independence of these Scottish islanders who want no law but their own... It is fun, maybe not great, but still enjoyable.

I can only assume that dj_kennett watched this film on the ABC, who usually show this film here in Australia in their last timeslot of the night, just before dawn. This may explain the falling asleep.

Though by no means a great film there are many little points of interest, including the scenery of the Isle of Barra that dj mentioned, the bits of Gàidhlig that appear here and there and some singing. See if you recognize Ronnie Corbett (listed as Ronald).

So, not something I'd go out of my way to see, but worth a look if it comes your way.

Slàinte!

Having seen the wonderful Whisky Galore shortly before I watched this, I turned the TV on expecting more of the same. Unfortunately this is not the case. I suppose taken on it's own merits it's not too bad, but for me it just had too many things wrong with it.

The casting for example. Apart from Gordon Jackson and maybe one or two others none of the cast from Whisky Galore makes a return appearance even though many of the characters are the same. One almost suspects the producers of just not trying hard enough to get the old cast back together.

However, the actor Duncan Macrae did come back but the producers committed the cardinal sin by casting him in a different role to the one he played in Whisky Galore. If you're going to have the same actor at least have him play the same part, otherwise just get someone else. This holds especially true for this film, which to be honest was made solely on the back of it's predecessor being so successful.

A major disappointment all round.