Singles - As And Bs, The - Rick Derringer

Rick

Advantages: Strong acting, black comedy, nice visual look.
Disadvantages: No characters that are likable.

Rick is a modernised adaptation of Verdi?s ?Rigoletto? opera. I did not know this before seeing it. It doesn?t really make that much difference to me afterwards either as I?m not familiar with Rigoletto. That said though, it is still useful to know this going into Rick, as it makes the kind of absurdist twists you?d only usually find in an opera easier to accept. Without this, the film does at times seem a little ridiculous. It?s still all very enjoyable, save one vital plot point, and upon reflection, it does make sense. Our titular protagonist is Rick (Bill Pullman), an annoying kind of man you could only really find in the corporate world. He works at Image, and despite most of the film being set in or around the company, we never learn what they actually do. This is because it doesn?t matter in the context of the plot. We just ...

eddie7sf 14.12.2004 · Read full review
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Review of Rick DVD

The definitive history of Britain's most durable band

Advantages: Nearly 20 years of priceless pop history
Disadvantages: One or two disposable corny moments

Formed in 1959 as a backing outfit for singer Brian Poole, the Trems are still working the nostalgia circuit, albeit with several line-up changes and without founder member Alan Blakley who succumbed to cancer in 1996. If you want their (almost) complete history post-Poole in one package, look no further. This 51-track, low-price double album is indispensable for anyone who ever had a soft spot for 60s and 70s pop. While the title track, their version of a Paul McCartney song from the Beatles' "Revolver", never troubled the charts, they hit the ground running next time out with a good-time retread of Cat Stevens' "Here Comes My Baby", and then made No. 1 with the falsetto harmonies of "Silence Is Golden", which they took from a Four Seasons' B-side. You'll find all the hits, the should-have-been hits and the B-sides here ...

JOHNV 14.07.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Good Day Sunshine: Singles As & Bs - The Tremoloes

Singles

Advantages: perfect little gem of a film
Disadvantages: none

(I?m Dick)?) emblazoned on the wall behind him? It?s not just the music itself but the whole culture of it that seeps into your mind watching this film. Some films are dated, some merely nostalgically, pleasantly representative of their time, this is one of the latter. ?You? belong? with?. ME!? Coming away from Singles I hope you?ll feel, like I do every time, that you?ve seen a charming, touching, human film, laughed a lot, cried a bit, and recognised something of yourself in every one of them. It?s not often you come across a film where the different characters are unique and yet not stereotypes (except perhaps Cliff, and that strikes me as deliberate) and the interlinking is incidental rather than the main focus of the story. Paradoxically, the fluency is helped rather than hindered by the divisions in the film, because you ...

ruth_cole 29.12.2003 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Singles (DVD)