I went to see the romantic comedy The Holiday with fairly low expectations as the genre is very hit or miss for me. Whenever I see a trailer for a new "rom-com" as they are sometimes called nowadays, my heart does a simultaneous leap and lurch movement. I love many films that have made this ... Read review
As a pleasant dose of holiday cheer,The Holidayis a lovable love story with all the ... more
Christmas trimmings. In the capable hands of writer-director Nancy Meyers (making her first romantic comedy sinceSomething's Gotta Give), it all begins when two success...
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As a pleasant dose of holiday cheer,The Holidayis a lovable love story with all the ... more
Christmas trimmings. In the capable hands of writer-director Nancy Meyers (making her first romantic comedy sinceSomething's Gotta Give), it all begins when two success...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Meet Iris (Kate Winslet) and Amanda (Cameron Diaz), two women who couldn't be more ... more
different - one lives in a cosy English cottage, the other in a swanky Hollywood estate - but who are alike in their mutual bad luck with men.In desperate need of an esc...
Iris is in love with a man who is about to marry another woman. Across the globe Amanda ... more
realizes the man she lives with has been unfaithful. Two women who have never met and live 6000 miles apart find themselves in the exact same place. They meet onl...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Meet Iris (Kate Winslet) and Amanda (Cameron Diaz), two women who couldn't be more ... more
different - one lives in a cosy English cottage, the other in a swanky Hollywood estate - but who are alike in their mutual bad luck with men.In desperate need of an escape, they meet online and impulsively switch homes. Both find the last thing either wants or expects - a new romance - and discover that a change of address really can change your life.
Maestro Iris And Jasper Kayak for One Zero Dream Kitchen Separate Vacations Anything Can ... more
Happen Light My Fire Definitely Unexpected If I Wanted To Call You Roadside Rhapsodie Busy Guy For Nancy It's Complicated Kiss Goodbye Verso e Prosa Meu Passado The "Cowch" Three Musketeers Christmas Surprise Gumption Cry
Postage & Packaging:£0.00 Availability:3-5 working days
150 Bedrooms 13 Executive roomsShort walk to Telford Shopping CentreFree Car parking for ... more
all guestsThe Olive Tree Bar and 2 onsite Restaurants games room Revive Leisure Club with indoor pool inc in price onsite beauty therapist and hairdressing salon with discounts available for guests pre booking reccomended at weekends Short drive to the Ironbridge Gorge and heavily discounted tickets for Top Shropshire tourist attractions such as Wonderland local golf courses Ironbridge Gorge and Cadburys world
Postage & Packaging:refer to website Availability:Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Advantages: Highly enjoyable "rom-com" Disadvantages: hmm...can't think of any!
I went to see the romantic comedy The Holiday with fairly low expectations as the genre is very hit or miss for me. Whenever I see a trailer for a new "rom-com" as they are sometimes called nowadays, my heart does a simultaneous leap and lurch movement. I love many films that have made this Hollywood genre become such a staple in recent years. But for every Sleepless in Seattle or Bridget Jones' Diary, there is some wishy-washy yawn fest ... ...I'm finicky with regards to the manner in which my heartstrings are tugged and my funny bone simultaneously tingled. Meg Ryan, yes, Julia Roberts, no thanks. And so I ventured into this film on a mother daughter attempt to avoid Christmas shopping madness with some trepidation.
The film is set up with the two parallel female leads, Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz. Kate plays Iris, a newspaper writer in London. She is shown writing the ... more
I went to see the romantic comedy The Holiday with fairly low expectations as the genre is very hit or miss for me. Whenever I see a trailer for a new "rom-com" as they are sometimes called nowadays, my heart does a simultaneous leap and lurch movement. I love many films that have made this Hollywood genre become such a staple in recent years. But for every Sleepless in Seattle or Bridget Jones' Diary, there is some wishy-washy yawn fest with Goldie Hawn's daughter or god forbid, Jennifer Lopez. I get really annoyed by how lazily bad some of these films are.
So when I first saw a trailer for this it did seem terribly contrived and uninspired. Jude Law, more recently known for his nanny bonking than his acting, is not particularly high on my list of appealing leading men. Cameron Diaz is fine in everything but not really remarkable aside from still being beautiful with a very wonky nose. Jack Black? Erm, ok as a crazy, mildly amusing comic actor, but not much else. And Kate Winslet? What's she doing involved in this nonsense, can't they photo shop her into a corset anymore?
O.k. enough cattiness. As is obvious I'm finicky with regards to the manner in which my heartstrings are tugged and my funny bone simultaneously tingled. Meg Ryan, yes, Julia Roberts, no thanks. And so I ventured into this film on a mother daughter attempt to avoid Christmas shopping madness with some trepidation.
The film is set up with the two parallel female leads, Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz. Kate plays Iris, a newspaper writer in London. She is shown writing the marriage announcements for the paper so we do immediately get the "Oh sad singleton" vibe. Add to that it is the office Christmas party and she is moping around as we learn in voice over (both female characters have voiceovers, which is used well I thought), that she has been in a fruitless love entanglement with the office cad (Rufus Sewell) and can't pry herself out of it. She has devolved to being his creative crutch, while he has moved on to another woman.
He is shown to be very intimate and manipulative with her, and Winslet effectively conveys her hopelessness at resisting what little attention he gives her. In sweeping camera movements in full Bridget Jones-esque mode, we see Iris crumble at the announcement that he is engaged to be married to the girl he dumped her for. She is inconsolable but completely aware of how unhealthy his "friendship" is to her. Winslet's character is clearly the girl's girl of the piece.
And then there is the American Amanda, played by Cameron Diaz. Cameron Diaz is never quite going to pull off the girl's girl, rom-com lead effect. She is far too tall, thin and blonde. She has a sort of goofiness that endears her though, and her character is clearly meant to be the less typical of the two. She is emotionally stunted and sabotages her relationships. We see her ending a long term relationship without shedding a tear, and we learn that she in fact cannot cry. Amanda is a film trailer editor, and this adds a few cute moments to the film as she always gets the "movie guy" voice over in her head with mental images of the trailer of how her life is going. She is very unhappy, but not sure how to express it or change her ways.
Amanda and Iris both decide they need to get away from their unhappy lives for the holidays, fast. They simultaneously log on to the world wide web, and hey presto, house swap kismet! Winslet's cosy cottage in the Cotswalds countryside appeals to Diaz, plus "they speak English there" (who knew!). They agree to swap houses for a fortnight.
The differences in the two climes are amusingly shown, as Iris arrives at the warm, palatial splendour of the L.A. house, Amanda is dumped unceremoniously a few miles down the snowy lane from Iris's cottage. The cosy, snowy scene becomes more and more inappropriate for the California girl. The cottage is cold, the sleepy town dead, and she can barely drive down the road, not unsurprising as it seems to be the snowiest town there has ever been in England. She is packing her bags to leave when ding dong… (that's the doorbell…rung by Jude Law!)
I must admit when I saw the previews for this film the main thing that put me off it was Mr. Law. I have enjoyed performances of his in the past (The Talented Mr.Ripley, Cold Mountain), but the overkill of his private life in the press (which to be fair is not his fault), and a few turkeys in recent years have made me less inclined to want to watch him. Well I have to say humble pie on this one. He is a good enough actor to make you forget all of that, and the fact that he has thus far avoided the easy potential of a romantic comedy is probably a credit to him as he is really a natural at it. He plays Graham, Iris's brother, who occasionally crashes on her couch after too many tipples down the very quaint country pub. His character is possibly the most well rounded in the film, as what we initially think of him turns out to be wrong. Mr.Law manages to imbue a character that in the wrong hands could have been schmaltzy with genuine pathos.
His chemistry with Cameron Diaz is good. Their overtly sexual relationship slowly becomes something more, although the filmmakers clearly took advantage of the public desire to see Miss Diaz in her skivvies which, for me was overkill but I suppose there has to be something in it for the boys! The portrayal of rural England is limited to gorgeous snowy towns and cottages, but for me this was transporting and romantic. Maybe I was just in the mood, I would say it's not nearly as blatantly cutesy as Bridget Jones, it did make me want to visit the Cotswolds though!
The California storyline with Winslet has a bit more to it, as Iris's self esteem issues seem to go quite deep. Rather than restore her confidence with a new romance, she needs to re-establish who she is, find herself, etc. Winslet is an actress with enough gravitas to make the character very empathetic even when at her most pathetic. She becomes friends with an elderly neighbour, a former Hollywood writer called Arthur, played by veteran actor Eli Wallach. Again, in what might have been overly sentimental, this storyline manages a gentle humour as the two gain strength from each other's friendship.
At the same time, film score composer Miles (Jack Black), emerges as a potential love interest. He already has a girlfriend, though, to create a spanner in the works. His relationship with Iris begins as a friendship, and while I did like them together, Jack Black still reverts to mugging from time to time which does break suspension of disbelief. Although that said his humour is presumably his most attractive feature so I can see why they allowed some of that in. He is quite like-able and shows more vulnerability in this film that I have seen before.
The relative simplicity of the English storyline, with the main obstacles being the character's willingness to change their lives to let love in, contrasts a bit with the California storyline which at times feels mildly convoluted. The stakes of the romance are higher in the English storyline, it just feels more dramatic. The Kate Winslet character's story is as much about her regaining her confidence as it is the romance. I enjoyed both as the performances throughout are very good, and gave the film many different nuances. There is plenty of successful light humour in the film, which I particularly enjoyed.
I don't know what else to say, really. I liked this film a lot, it is far better than 99.9% of similar films I have seen recently. Despite the fairly contrived setup, it creates like-able, believable characters and plot lines. It is sweet and funny, occasionally poignant enough to get a wee tear in the eye, and made me feel warm and fuzzy, the litmus test for these films. It might have a chocolate box portrayal of the small English town, everyone is quite well off in this film, etc., but it is nowhere near as bracingly stereotypical as a Richard Curtis film. I will say other films by this director have left me cold so don't hold those against it.
My main critique is that it is a bit overlong at 138 minutes, they could have trimmed a bit to make it more pacey. That said I enjoyed watching it throughout, and it is essentially two films in one so it makes sense it's longer than the average film. I will happily add this to my DVD collection when it is released, a good romantic comedy is a very rare thing these days.
Advantages: funny, sweet, romantic, an interesting premise Disadvantages: mixed bag of performances, perhaps too cheesy at times?
When I first saw the trailers for "The Holiday" prior to its cinema release in 2006, I actually had just read a book called "Lifeswap" by Jane Green, about two women on either side of the Atlantic who swapped houses and lives - I thought this film was an adaptation of that book. After reading a couple of reviews of it at the time, I quickly realised it wasn't, but the premise of it was similar enough to intrigue me further, as well as the fact that ... ...all, it is set over the Christmas period, and has "feel good" and "cheesy" stamped all over it. You know it all has to work out in the end - this is Hollywood after all, how often do you get an unhappy ending? - but it is the events that unfold and the progression of the characters that keeps you watching all the same.
Iris (Kate Winslet) and Amanda (Cameron Diaz) couldn't be more different - one is an English journalist suffering from the affliction ...
Pmshack99 18.12.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Holiday (DVD)
Advantages: Characters fit the roles, decent plot, decent direction Disadvantages: Could have done with being a little bit shorter
...watch them but only on the odd occasion and there has to really be something appealing about them. So it was strange when I sat down to watch The Holiday on Sunday night that I was doing it purely on the recommendation of my ex girlfriend. As we’d had pretty similar taste in movies I thought there was a good chance I would enjoy The Holiday. It never really appealed to me while it was at the cinema but I decided that I wanted something simple to ... ...Arthur (Eli Wallach) and along the way starts to also see Amanda’s ex partner’s best friend, Miles (Jack Black). From there the film explores the relationships in both parts of the world. While it’s not my normal genre of films I felt that The Holiday was a reasonable film that did exactly what it was designed to do. While it isn’t the best romantic comedy I’ve ever seen it works quite well and other than some very silly moments, which seem to be ...
Andy.mack 08.05.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Holiday (DVD)
Advantages: Romantic, Looks Great, Good Premise, Some Good Performances Disadvantages: Silly, Diaz hams It Up Royally, Lazilly Plotted
...a British newspaper, mainly covering the weddings of the famous and up and coming. With Christmas coming around she is busy and her ex lovers, whom she still loves and hasn't moved on from, upcoming marriage to a co worker doesn't help. Living alone in the English countryside encourages her to get on the internet and look for vacation hotshots were she can get away and recover. Whilst searching she finds out about a house exchange programme, an idea ... ...seemingly perfect life she feels the need to get away from her surroundings to 'eat carbs without wanting to kill herself' and get away from the men in her life. What would you guess? She goes to look for a peaceful place to spend her holiday season. Fortunately Iris and Amana get to talking over the internet and agree to switch houses.... on the agreement that there are no men in their local areas. But as Christmas arrives and the girls learn to ...
JayHall1991 02.12.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Holiday (DVD)
Advantages: Funny, sweet, sad in places but FULL of Romance!!!! Disadvantages: Hmm. Wish I'd watched it at christmas.
The Holiday (2006)
All this waiting around to go into labour has to be spent doing something, and the something I've spent most of it doing (not including sleeping, you understand, which I have become quite amazingly good at doing at all the wring times of day…) is watching films. The latest in this long line of consumed movies is this rather romantic, humorous, and quite, well, seasonal, in a Christmassie sort of way film which I've wanted to see ... ...really don't care what's on the goggle box. That said, I am 4 days away from my official due date and quite frankly, turkey with all the trimmings PLUS pudding has nothing on how HUGE I feel! Who's in it?
Kate Winslet plays Iris, a newspaper journalist sort who is deeply in love with the ex who cheated on her and can't seem to snap out of being nice to him, despite him having moved on considerably faster than the average Boeing 747. Cameron Diaz ...
phoenixgreen 17.09.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Holiday (DVD)
Advantages: Believable storyline, okay cast, great soundtrack Disadvantages: England comes off badly! Works on stereotypes
The Holiday
PLOT
Two women, lives in crisis thanks to the men in them, decide to swap homes for the Christmas period. Each then go on to meet a different, local man and develop varying degrees of attraction.
Iris (Kate Winslet) is a reporter for the Telegraph. She lives in a little cottage, in a tiny hamlet, in Surrey - it's a very stereotypical looking English cottage in the middle of English country side and a nearby small village. If it wasn't ... ...lover Jasper in England. (Cue the 'this house is so big' scene that was inevitable) Over the next two weeks she meets several of the locals, developing a great friendship with an old man, Arthur Abbott (Eli Wallach). It turns out he's more than just a frail old man, he used to be a movie author in the time when Hollywood was about more than just Box Office ratings. He teaches her a lot, and together they prepare him for an award ceremony in his honour. ...
liz1102 05.01.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Holiday (DVD)
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Advantages: Brilliant moral lesson to be earned out of the movie- MINUS the intense heavy and boring stuff! Disadvantages: Not as Romantic as I expected!
. Personally, I think that this is the scene which englobes the whole moral behind 'Last Holiday'.
DVD Extras :
1) The Last Holiday Packing Light:
This feature provides a description about how the film was born, and what lead the team to create this movie. There are interviews and comments of the Laurence Mark, the Producer, Queen Latifah and L.L Cool J, the lead actors and Wayne Wang the Director. The interviews are occasionally accentuated by some cuts in the movie, such as the scenes where Georgia faints and the shopping scene.
In his interview, the Director speaks about how he wanted to lay emphasis on how Miss Byrd gives up her fears to live life- and this is highlighted by the scene where Queen Latifah sky-dives from the dam. Wang adds how he was swayed to produce this movie upon seeing Latifah?s passion for Last Holiday.
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diamond_sparkles 22.06.2009 (15.07.2009)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Last Holiday (DVD)
Advantages: A good happy go lucky musical film Disadvantages: By it's nature it's very lightweight
, of his musical films, this is the arguably the one with the best music.
As I say I first saw the film at the cinema in 1963 when I was just 8 years old. I have since watched it a few times on the TV and now have the DVD.
The film follows the adventures of a group of four young mechanics who work for London Transport as they go on holiday to tour Europe in one of the red London double decker buses. They are fed up of the rain in England and so they modify a London Transport bus to make it into living accommodation for their holiday and off they go.
On their travels they come across three girls, led by Una Stubbs, whose car has broken down. The girls are singers who are on their way to a gig so the boys offer them a lift. At this point a young boy stowaway also boards the bus.
The film continues following the relationships between ...
I would just like to write a reviewon the DVD of Mr Beans' Holiday, the main character of which we are all familiar with no doubt. You all know of Mr Bean, from the short series and cartoon versions that have been shown in the last few years or so.
This film is actually the second that Rowan Atkinson has done in the form of Bean, the first one being when he went to America in order to unveil the new painting of Whistlers' Mother. But anyway, that is enough on that one as this is a new one.
The basics of the story are hat Mr Bean wins a holiday to Cannes at a local church village fete, but it just so happens to be when the Cannes Film Festival is on. During his train journey through France, he meets many people; films his journey; supposedly kidnaps a young boy (but only because his dad failed to get on the train - his dad is also ...
An English journalist and an American film trailer editor make contact through a holiday website and agree to swap homes for two weeks to escape their disastrous personal lives.
Consumer Advice
Contains strong language and moderate sex references, Contains infrequent strong language and moderate sex references
Video Category
Feature Film
Country Of Origin
United States of America
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
UNIVERSAL PICTURES UK; CINRAM LOGISTICS (SWINDON), UNIVERSAL PICTURES UK; UNIVERSAL MUSIC OPERATIONS, Universal Pictures UK Video Rental
Nancy Meyers' romantic comedy THE HOLIDAY stars Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet as two women who exchange houses in order to get a new lease on life. After each suffers her fair share of romantic disappointments, Englishwoman Iris (Winslet) and L.A. woman Amanda (Diaz) meet on-line at a website devoted to helping people exchange houses for vacations. Each agrees to spend the Christmas holiday at the other's home. While each suffers from a minor case of culture shock, both women also end up becoming involved with a man. Iris makes the acquaintance of an upbeat everyman played by Jack Black, while Amanda spends time with a handsome Brit played by Jude Law. Both women must decide what to do with these new relationships as their pre-arranged house switch is scheduled to last less than two weeks.
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