Blah, blah, blah - I'm bored and etc. Anybody got a car they want washing?
Blah, blah, blah - I'm bored and etc. Anybody got a car they want washing?
Member since:03.10.2000
Reviews:231
Members who trust:70
Ok, I'll admit, I only half watched this. I don't mean I was reading a magazine, ironing (heaven forfend) (she was doing that) or doing any one of the other 100 householdy type things that can distract me. I mean I could only stand to watch the first 45 minutes (well there was football on the other side and even though it was England it was definitely preferable)(actually watching Man U would have been preferable but enough of this football snobbery). Can I comment on a film after watching only half of it? Well I don't need to get hit by a bus to know that it's going to hurt (and having read some reviews I think I did well to watch even half of a film before commenting on it). Things don't look good do they?
The time is the first world war (1917 to be precise) and as part of the war effort, the entire landscape of the future UK is being charted. When a pair of English cartographers (map people for the unitiated) arrive in a small Welsh village, they discover that the village's prized mountain is in fact a hill (it's a few feet short). Cue all sorts of attempts by the villagers to convince them otherwise and restore the term 'mountain' to their lump in the landscape.
So why didn't I like it? That's what we all want to know and I'll get on with it straight away. Two things made me wary before it even started: Hugh Grant, and a story that didn't exactly sound rivetting (or comical). After the first five minutes I was even more worried given that a) It was set in Wales, b) the cast were sporting terrible Welsh accents, c) it was all period and filled with awful music (and I use the term reluctantly), and d) it wasn't funny.
Hugh Grant's hew-hawing gets right on my pecs and it has to be said that every film I've ever seen him in has annoyed the hell out of me (I haven't seen Four Weddings and now you know why). His very being immediately dictates the type of film that he appears in and Englishman-Hill-Mountain (I can't be bothered to type the whole title time and time again) is no exception. Extremely weak and 'gentile', with lots of 'nice' inoffensive 'humour', and a load of stereotypes that will neither offend or excite. If one word had to describe Mr Grant and his style of film (including this one) it would without a doibt be...bland. Grant's foppish personality goes hand in hand with the 90's accepted British comedy film and I have to question why he, and indeed the films, have such popularity. There are exceptions to the rule and The Full Monty proved this, but generally speaking, any film that is acclaimed as the 'next big thing' will more than likely be dull, boring, and well worth missing. I'm wandering off the subject though so back to Englishman-Hill-Mountain.
While Grant annoys in the lead, the rest of the cast do very little more than play trite, 'cute' little Welshmen. What the hell is Colm Meaney doing with a Welsh accent? To his crediit he covers his Irish accent well but we're expecting him to break out in the old blarney at any time and it's a shame that the film wasn't set in Ireland. I know a lot of people will argue that Wales is a lovely place filled with lovely people (although I bet Anne Robinson won't be one of them) and maybe it is, but the impression we get is of simpletons and this film does very little to shake that image - The villagers are these loveable olde worlde folk with hardly three brain cells between them. Bad marks to the creators for such stereotypes.
The locations are excellent and sometimes breathtaking but the characters and performances do little to inspire us, the soundtrack is all very 'ethnic', and the story lacks comedy and excitement. Yes there will be some who enjoy it's easy going, simple nature but I for one was, to put it simply, bored
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Another fine 1* review. Still haven't done mine yet, can't decide what I hate the most, but clearly, when it comes to acidic maulings of bad movies - you da man! By the way, what have you got against 'Jedi? Is it the Ewoks? It's the Ewoks isn't it? Jedi is actually my favourite Star Wars pic, does that mean I'm evicted from your C.O.T? Species 2 is, of course, another matter...
Screen favourite Hugh Grant (Four Weddings And A Funeral) stars as a young mapmaker who ... more
offends an entire town by declaring their prized landmark too short to be called a mountain. But he soon finds the eccentric locals, led by an outspoken innkeeper (...
![The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain [DVD] [1995]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/70074945.jpg "The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain [DVD] [1995]")
Jun 7th, 2001
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