Wide Blue Yonder

I like this film because it works for me on many levels. The basic story line is that a sailor named Skip has died and wanted to be buried at sea. This is not the done thing this century so the authorities have organized a proper church yard burial. However his life long friend Wally wants the sea burial to happen and stealing the corpse is the way to make this happen.

Writer director Robert Young and his producers have set out to make a little story told well and they have succeeded. It's a sensible use of film funding money which was able to attract Brian Cox , Lauren Bacall and James Fox.

The script has some good laughs and the support characters look and act well.

If given the opportunity this is the sort of film I would like to make.

I'm not sure people realize this, but you can actually watch Wide Blue Yonder (2010) for free online at wideblueyonderthemovie.com. I don't know when this site became available, but I streamed the whole movie for free a couple of days ago and all I had to do was basically enter my name and email address.

But why is this movie so hard to find and not available on DVD or anything? I saw it at the Emden Film Festival when I was visiting some friends and keep waiting for it to become available on Netflix here but it never does. I love these kind of quirky indie Euro movies, so this was right up my alley. You will not even believe how crazy Brian Cox looks and acts in this movie! He doesn't usually do comedies like this, so this is a pleasant surprise because he's actually really funny and goofy in the movie. To me, the acting was really good and the writing was sharp so I don't get why people haven't seen or heard about this movie.

Brian Cox plays a happy go lucky salty sea dog who is determined to bury his recently departed best friend at sea, against the wishes of just about everyone.

Whimsical, gently comedy with some funny lines and scenes occasionally punctuated with just about palatable sentiment. It lacks an element of panache that it badly needs, but the cast are fine, it's nice to see Lauren Bacall and all in all makes for a pleasant but hardly groundbreaking 90 minutes.

This is a very fun film that goes overboard (yep, a pun) far too often. It's too bad. It could have been an excellent film about smart feisty older folk who take charge of their own lives when eejits try to overrule them to prove their power and make more money.

That said, there were some bursts of brilliance, thank goodness! And many good laughs. One of the best was the opening scene. It was a great action scene (YES!! I said action scene - it's all relative).

Brian Cox is at his uninhibited Scottish best.

This is a fun film to watch to just watch. Don't take anything too seriously. If only there had been a bit more care to take out the slapstick, it could have been a great one! Enjoy it anyway!

A movie slated by too many! It's essentially a reimagining of the classic Jack Lemmon/Walter Matthau combo The Odd Couple with Brian (not Professor) Cox and James Fox trying to do right by an old friend. A good gentle comedy that Ealing would have been proud of. Ignore the nay sayers and give it a go. For me a good Christmas Eve movie when nothing else was on. Enjoy.