Conduct Unbecoming DVD

Advantages: A good laugh if you feel so inclined
Disadvantages: Awful, cringeworthy, badly directed film with very little plot

...I watched this some years ago - and wished I hadn't. The idea of a woman blowing bubbles and making wishes doesn't exactly fill me with a sense of fun, or indeed a sense of anything but utter boredom (and disbelief). The plot - if indeed there was one - the acting and the direction all mixed together to make one very rancid concoction, not quite the magical effect they were hoping for. The plot is so thin, they could have put one out of one's misery and made it ten minutes long. This film (other title: Unbecoming Age) left me wondering if I had just spent the past ninety minutes in some strange half-coma. I couldn't believe anyone could produce such nonsense. The direction is hopeless and confusing, leaving the audience wonding why George Clooney and the woman suddenly meet on a hillside somewhere (if I am remembering this correctly... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Superb production, fascinating footage, great music
Disadvantages: None whatsoever apart from wanting more

...others. Some of the conductors featured are Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Thomas Beecham, Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Richard Strauss, Leopold Stokowski and Bruno Walter to single out a few names. Right from the opening of the documentary you realise the high quality of the production values on this DVD as Beethoven's 5th Symphony segues seamlessly between different performances by very different conductors. Hearing the same piece conducted by Toscanini, von Karajan, Klemperer and Szell heightens the contrasts between the styles and interpretations of each of these highly individual maestri. One of the big plus-points of this DVD is that along with copious extracts from performances and rehearsals, one is given complete performances of several works including Beethoven's "Egmont Overture" conducted by Serge Koussevitzky... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: enjoyable, amusing, well acted, good twists
Disadvantages: not the most original of ideas

...This film is about the passage of time, and the unrealised importance of time itself; the fact that the film title has the words ‘two days’ in it should be enough of a clue, but just in case it isn’t, the tagline is “You have one minute to decide the rest of your life”. I’d forgotten all about this film until chatting to my Dad the other day – he said he and his friend had been watching it the other night, and he’d forgotten how beautiful Charlize Theron was in it. “What the Charlize Theron who just won an Oscar?” I asked, to which Ian answered, “No, the other one,” in an unbecoming sarcastic fashion. I kind of remembered it being a decent crime film, and looking at the back of the box confirmed this, but I couldn’t actually remember much else about it. I borrowed it (after much bargaining with dad to lend him “Pirates of the Caribbean... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful