Comedy > Parental Guidance Comedy > World Cinema Feature Film

Getting to Know Martha

Advantages: Martina Gedeck, Maxime Foerste, Sergio Castellitto, Nettelbeck’s script and direction.
Disadvantages: Ending just a tiny tad too facile.

At one point in ‘Mostly Martha’, the title character finds herself at her wits’ end and says to her niece, Lina, ‘I wish I had a recipe for you that I could follow.’ Unfortunately, learning how to deal with the complex psyche of Homo sapiens defies easy formulas. However, whatever recipe German director Sandra Nettelbeck used to create this lovely and bittersweet character piece, I can only wish that more filmmakers would follow her lead. The eponymous ...
...fancy restaurant in Hamburg. A reserved woman with a strict creative aesthetic and work ethic, she takes great pride in her efficiently-run kitchen. As she tells her gourmet cuisine-fed therapist, precision and timing are of paramount importance in her field of work. Martha seems to live solely for her elegant culinary creations, devoting her days off to experimenting with new dishes. She has a neat, meticulously arranged and well-appointed kitchen ...

zerbine28 27.07.2003 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Mostly Martha (Subtitled) (DVD)

"I'm Not Very Operational In Life"

Advantages: Thoughtful French film that is an adventure of sorts
Disadvantages: Not one for action fans

...She mentioned this thing called the green ray, a pretty rare phenomenon that happens when the sun sets on a very clear day, when just before it sinks there is a flash of green on the horizon. I presumed my mother must have seen this film Le Rayon Vert by Eric Rohmer which features the very mentioned green ray, but she insisted she had not. This was a film I had seen in a French film class at University (yes I skated my credits nicely thank you). ...
...the tedious, pretentious Truffaut type stuff - Jules et Jim put me to sleep. Eric Rohmer is sometimes said to be the Woody Allen of French cinema, so it's unsurprising I would have been drawn to his films I suppose, having generally always liked Allen. So anyway I was reminded of this film, and lo and behold a few weeks later a Saturday paper (The Observer?, can't remember sorry) was giving away this very film. Kismet! I was quite excited to watch ...

venice105 23.03.2007 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of The Green Ray (Subtitled) (DVD)

A recipe for success

Advantages: Funny, warm, simple; great acting, visually appealing
Disadvantages: None at all

...already done research into the kitchen habits of Swedish housewives and now they want to turn their attention to those of Norwegian bachelors. The set-up is simple: one observer will be matched up with each participant and will sit in a high chair in one corner of their kitchen, having no contact, verbal or otherwise, just taking notes as the subject goes about their work in the kitchen as usual. But when Isak receives an ornamental toy horse, he ...
...off when he leaves the kitchen fully aware that Folke isn’t allowed to get down from his perch and turn them back on, and he leaves a tap dripping so that Folke is forced to listen to it for hours on end as Isak starts taking the carrying out his usual kitchen chores upstairs in his bedroom instead. One night when Folke is asleep in his caravan parked outside Isak’s house, one of his colleagues comes hammering on the door in a state. He’s been reprimanded ...

fizzytom 05.10.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Kitchen Stories (DVD)

One Man And A Piano

Advantages: fantastic comedy show
Disadvantages: some dodgy camera angles

...you would like. 1 Ready For This. This is the opening song for the show and Minchin comes onto the stage in a blaze of strobe lights and opens the show with a great little rock ditty where he manages to poke fun at himself while accompanied by a recording of him beatboxing with back up singers. 2 Prejudice In our modern free spoken society There is a word that we still hold taboo A word with a terrible history Of being used to ...
...to gingers, the playground taunt of choice. A hilarious song that manages to use more ginger puns than you thought existed! 3 America America is not a song but a stand up routine which discusses how forward Americans are compared to Australians and British people and are not afraid to shout about their achievements. Somehow the dialogue manages to veer onto the big bang and what will happen to a certain office block in Times Square in Manhattan ...

wigglylittleworm 30.12.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Ready For This - Tim Minchin

A night you would want to remember!

Advantages: Funny, Famous cameo, Unpredictable
Disadvantages: slightly unbelievable at times.

Well I saw the Hangover in the cinema, and I plan on purchasing on DVD in the near future. I thought this film was hilarious - one of my friends more so as he decided to go to watch it in the cinema about 3 or 4 times! I personally felt the star of the show so to speak was Zach Galifianakis who played slightly odd soon to be brother in law Alan. I just thought his stupidity/twisted sense of humour was really funny, and entertained me all the way ...
...really, but at the same time quite amusing. I won't go into too much detail of what happens as I don't want to spoil any of the suprises during the film. Basically, the film is about a group of guys who go to Vegas for a bloke called Doug to have a stag night. Doug doesn't really feature in the film other than the beginning and end - as he goes missing - which is the point of the film. They wake up the morning after with a trashed hotel room, and ...

adz_mc 30.12.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of The Hangover (DVD)