Comedy > D Comedy > Oscar

Advantages: Excellent Cast, Amusing
Disadvantages: Slightly Weak Plot, Slow To Get Going

...that explores the notion that Shakespeare wasn't that great a writer and was, in fact, simply a lusty man ever in search of a muse - or, in other words, a woman to lay that might, if he's lucky, give him some inspiration for a new play. I kind of like his style, actually. Trying to write "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter," Shakespeare - played by Joseph Fiennes - discovers he's suffering from writer's block, a phenomenon known to many of us ...
...appease both her desire for Shakespeare and the stage itself, Viola takes to the boards as a young boy and plays the part of Romeo in Will's new play. Shakespeare himself discovers quickly that this new muse has, indeed, unlocked his writer's block and he starts to write his new play, helped by the input of his financially depressed theatre owner, Hugh Fennyman (played by Tom Wilkinson) and his lead actor, Ned Alleyn, who ultimately suggests a new ... Read review

Advantages: Quite funny
Disadvantages: Too 80s. Doesn't stand up to Mrs. Doubtfire

The cover of this film looks crap and the name sounds crap even the blurb sounded crap but in my quest to watch all movies with Bill Murray I gave it a go. The film is about Michael Doresey (Dustin Hoffman) an out of work actor who is just too good at what he does. He doesn't get on with directors because he finds them stupid and as a result can't get any work. His friend Sandy (Teri Garr) takes him along to an audition with her and Doresey sees ...
...preceding him. He dresses up as a woman and gets the part, immediately becoming a hit. Strangely his character plays a very strong female role. He ad-libs his lines and as a result he ends up making the show alot less sexist and the female cast start looking to him for advice. This leads to poblems as he starts to fall for Julie (Jessica Lange) who has started to look on him as almost a mother figure as well as her father who has his eyes set on ... Read review

Advantages: Brilliant twists, fantastic acting
Disadvantages: Slightly long, but that's nit-picking

When I first heard of The Sting, I thought it was a horror movie about killer bees. Hence my surprise when I found out that it won the 1973 Best Picture and Best Director Oscars. However, since then I realised that it was a conman movie, and I liked the sound of this version even more. Particularly as I'm a huge fan of the BBC TV series Hustle, which in fact did a complete copy of this story for one of the episodes in the first series. So, if you ...
...the tail, which kind of spoils it. The story is set in Illinois in 1936, during the depression, and goes as follows: Robert Redford plays a young conman named Johnny Hooker, who plays the short-con, i.e. taking small amounts of money at a time from people in the street. After taking several thousand dollars from a man, his partner is murdered by crime boss Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). So he tries to track down the crook responsible and get revenge. ... Read review

Advantages: Cast, script, most things really
Disadvantages: A bit slow at times

Pillow Talk is a wonderful romantic comedy which has hardly aged a bit in the decades since its release. Remade a couple of years ago into the excellent Down With Love, this one can still hold its head up high (and though I personally still like the latter film more, I know that many prefer the original.) Jan Morrow (Doris Day) is a highly successful career woman, who is unfortunate in that she has to share a party phone line with playboy Brad Allen ...
...All in all, Pillow Talk is an extremely enjoyable film thanks to a witty script and an enthusiastic cast. Hudson and Day are terrific whether sparring or wooing, and their phone encounters contain some sparkling dialogue. Tony Randall as the rich wannabe husband who can't understand is very funny, particularly when taking great delight in Brad's failures (though he does turn out to be sort of a good friend in the end!) His performance is not all ... Read review

Advantages: A movie with it all
Disadvantages: None

...it strikes me that 1998's Shakespeare In Love is an incredibly misunderstood movie, furthermore those that are in the category "misunderstood" have some serious wrong views of exactly what Shakespeare In Love is about, many believe it is a straight laced romance. From first viewing 8 years ago it has become one of my favourite movies; a great romance, an epic tale, a intriguing romance, and last but not least a hysterical sense of humour. The owner ...
...get dried up author William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) to write a new play "Romeo And Ethel The Pirate's Daughter!" Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow) also has similar worries to Henslow, while wanting to become an actress (or at the least an actor) she finds herself due to be married off to Lord Wessex (Colin Firth). The dawning of a new play by Shakespeare and the knowledge that women are not allowed to act; Viola develops a character a pseudonym in fact ... Read review