HuntinPeck80
Joined Mar 2009
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HuntinPeck80's rating
I can't believe one of the other reviewers described this unforgettable production as 'soft core (sic) porn'. Pornographic material is concerned with nothing other than sex, and The Green Man is not only much more than that, it isn't even close to qualifying even as softcore (all one word, dear) on the explicitness front.
I saw this when it was first broadcast and I've never forgotten it. And on those rare occasions when I choose to revisit it, it loses none of its interest or charm, not even after so many decades.
It put me off threesomes for life.
Albert Finney is superb as Maurice, the proprietor of a fancy Cambridgeshire hotel, The Green Man. The hotel is reputed to be haunted, and nothing makes Maurice happier than playing MC and telling the tales to tourists, particularly to credulous Americans. That is, until bad dreams are succeeded by actual sightings. Is he coming apart?
I tell a lie, there is something that makes Maurice happier than playing host, and that's playing the cocksman. He is, as his aged father insists, a "bad lad". A rover with a roguish smile the ladies find quite irresistible. It is his carnal appetites that make him so susceptible to the malevolent spirit that walks the midnight corridors, deathly pale and deadly earnest.
Nobody else in the cast really puts a foot wrong. The gay vicar who doesn't believe in the afterlife is quite amusing, and Josie Lawrence is charming as the one person who takes Maurice's visions as something more than DTs brought on by alcoholism (my goodness but can he drink!). The only character/performance that is a little hard to accept, being so far against the stereotype, is Phillip Franks's The Visitor. He is, however, admirably stern and unsentimental.
Excellent production all round. The first two episodes are especially good. Coming back to the not-very-explicit sex in The Green Man. It probably felt racy in 1990. Now it all looks pretty tame stuff, barely any nudity. This was before the early 1990s vogue for eroticism in movies and TV, mere foreplay compared to the Beeb's 1993 Lady Chatterley production, and even that looks tame in the 21st century. But as I say, this is a sex comedy and ghost mystery combined, and a tasty combination indeed.
I saw this when it was first broadcast and I've never forgotten it. And on those rare occasions when I choose to revisit it, it loses none of its interest or charm, not even after so many decades.
It put me off threesomes for life.
Albert Finney is superb as Maurice, the proprietor of a fancy Cambridgeshire hotel, The Green Man. The hotel is reputed to be haunted, and nothing makes Maurice happier than playing MC and telling the tales to tourists, particularly to credulous Americans. That is, until bad dreams are succeeded by actual sightings. Is he coming apart?
I tell a lie, there is something that makes Maurice happier than playing host, and that's playing the cocksman. He is, as his aged father insists, a "bad lad". A rover with a roguish smile the ladies find quite irresistible. It is his carnal appetites that make him so susceptible to the malevolent spirit that walks the midnight corridors, deathly pale and deadly earnest.
Nobody else in the cast really puts a foot wrong. The gay vicar who doesn't believe in the afterlife is quite amusing, and Josie Lawrence is charming as the one person who takes Maurice's visions as something more than DTs brought on by alcoholism (my goodness but can he drink!). The only character/performance that is a little hard to accept, being so far against the stereotype, is Phillip Franks's The Visitor. He is, however, admirably stern and unsentimental.
Excellent production all round. The first two episodes are especially good. Coming back to the not-very-explicit sex in The Green Man. It probably felt racy in 1990. Now it all looks pretty tame stuff, barely any nudity. This was before the early 1990s vogue for eroticism in movies and TV, mere foreplay compared to the Beeb's 1993 Lady Chatterley production, and even that looks tame in the 21st century. But as I say, this is a sex comedy and ghost mystery combined, and a tasty combination indeed.
I saw Knock Knock, one night, on television when I was on holiday. It was perfectly hideous as a viewing experience. I didn't realise until afterwards that it is an Eli Roth movie. If I had known I wouldn't have wasted my time.
Actually, Knock Knock is a remake of Death Game, a Seventies shocker which at least offered some consolation at the end, the sociopathic duo getting a truck in the face on account of their carelessness. Unfortunately, we live in more pessimistic times, so no such providential outcome in the 2000s version. It's possible such a dismal ending may have been inspired by Funny Games, the German nasty in which the sociopaths are two lads. Inspiration or not, the existence of Funny Games and Death Game only serve to make Knock Knock appear doubly derivative and utterly pointless.
The moral is, if people come to your doorstep in need of succour, don't even think about opening the door. Some moral, huh?
Actually, Knock Knock is a remake of Death Game, a Seventies shocker which at least offered some consolation at the end, the sociopathic duo getting a truck in the face on account of their carelessness. Unfortunately, we live in more pessimistic times, so no such providential outcome in the 2000s version. It's possible such a dismal ending may have been inspired by Funny Games, the German nasty in which the sociopaths are two lads. Inspiration or not, the existence of Funny Games and Death Game only serve to make Knock Knock appear doubly derivative and utterly pointless.
The moral is, if people come to your doorstep in need of succour, don't even think about opening the door. Some moral, huh?
Watching this, I kept thinking, Quentin Tarantino, if he saw, this, must have been ejaculating all the way through the movie. This is his wet dream on the silver screen. Then, you guessed it, I realised he directed part of the movie.
There's a Woody Allen movie - I love comparing Tarantino to Allen; they're more likely bedfellows than you probably imagine - called Wonder Wheel. The story is boring and the acting performances are so-so. The most noteworthy thing about the movie is its cinematography, its colour symbolism, something quite unique in Allen's cinema. Or anybody's. It looks good, even fascinating for that matter. But the style can't disguise the lack of any real interest in the story. I'd say the same is true of Sin City. How it looks far outshines the moribund dialogue and dramatic vacuity of its cartoon strip source material.
Save it! I know, I know. It's you who doesn't.
Very cool. And a waste of time.
There's a Woody Allen movie - I love comparing Tarantino to Allen; they're more likely bedfellows than you probably imagine - called Wonder Wheel. The story is boring and the acting performances are so-so. The most noteworthy thing about the movie is its cinematography, its colour symbolism, something quite unique in Allen's cinema. Or anybody's. It looks good, even fascinating for that matter. But the style can't disguise the lack of any real interest in the story. I'd say the same is true of Sin City. How it looks far outshines the moribund dialogue and dramatic vacuity of its cartoon strip source material.
Save it! I know, I know. It's you who doesn't.
Very cool. And a waste of time.