The Enid Blyton Society

Depends how much you are into classic films, perhaps. I know a lot of people don't get that style of acting. Alastair Sim was basically a comedian...so I guess he does over-play the role slightly...but we can't all like everything! I know I feel the same about the film versions of Rebecca, which are always unsatisfying - even the Hitchcock one, which comes close, but not close enough for me!

MJE wrote:    
     Reading up a bit, I found that the films, and the book by Roald Dahl which inspired them, were in fact very controversial, with both strong supporters and strong detractors who think this quite unsuitable material for children to read/view; and I was just wondering if anyone else had any thoughts about any of the three works.

I watched the 2005 film around 5 years ago, when I was 10, I suppose. So I was definitely a 'child', and I can't seem to remember anything even remotely unsuitable at all. The good character got rewarded, the bad ones got punished, but there wasn't any violence, and there were highly appealing visuals of candyland.
I've read the book many years ago too, and in that, as well, I didn't find anything disturbing. To be honest, the Adventure Series/FF are probably way more unsuitable than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so I don't quite see what all the fuss is about.

Katharine wrote: The film I've watched most recently or should I say, am currently watching is 'Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire'. My daughter turned 12 recently, so is now old enough to watch the film, so I've been watching it with her. I'd forgotten how much swearing there is in it, maybe I was extra sensitive because I was watching it with her, but I found it quite uncomfortable, and unnecessary.

I don't remember Goblet specifically, but I watched my first HP film, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" when I was 5, and I understood absolutely nothing. Probably because I didn't even know what it was about. Anyways though, the last 5 films (Goblet, Phoenix, Half Blood and the two Deathly Hallows) are certainly for more mature audiences and involve swearing and romance. I believe I watched much worse when I was 12, (which was almost 4 years ago YIKES), but everyone to their own.

The most recent film I watched is Not Without My Daughter, for a school project. Quite an interesting film, and highly highly controversial. It's based on the true story of an American woman married to an Iranian man living in US. She goes to Iran with her daughter and husband to visit his family, and he bars her from returning home. The film is based on a book of the same name, and shows how the woman manages to escape back to USA with her daughter, after 18 months of captivity, Muslim extremism, physical abuse, etc. It's controversial mainly because on the surface, it portrays the Muslim world negatively, but personally I think there were a lot of positive Muslim characters who helped them escape as well. Anyways, it was a good watch but definitely not watching it again.

I also watched Dunkirk a few months ago. I'm not a big war movie fan, but I absolutely loved it. Did anyone else watch it?

Without giving away any spoilers, I have to say I really enjoyed Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Last night I watched 'Beauty and the Beast' starring Emma Watson - a live-action version of the classic Disney cartoon. I don't usually like live-action remakes, but this was extremely good. Beauty and the Beast has always been very much like a 'proper' musical even as a cartoon, and its been on stage too, so it seemed to adapt well to live-action.

Christmas Day we watched 'Love Actually' as a family (not the 12 year old!!). A must watch around Christmas time. For me it's quite a timeless film, apart from I couldn't help noticing all the old style TVs and computer monitors.

My daughter received the Emoji movie for Christmas which we took her to see earlier in the year. When I got up Boxing Day morning, she'd watched most of it, but I sat and saw the last half hour with her. Even though I've seen it before, I was still on the edge of my seat at the end - it's really quite nail biting!

One of my presents was a film version of Run for Your Wife which I saw on stage quite a number of years ago starring Christopher Beany. I don't remember all the details, but I know I enjoyed it, so I thought I'd take a chance and ask for it this year. Reading the cast list on IMDB it's going to be full of old favourites in small roles, so if nothing else, I'll have fun looking out for all the familiar faces such as Bernard Cribbans.

Christopher Beeny is such a nice man - I've met him when he was in Crazy For You at the Birmingham Hippodrome - we actually walked him to the car park where he had parked as he wasn't sure of the way!! He chatted to us all the way, telling us he was stopping in Solihull with his daughter during the run of the show. I've always admired him for being so down to earth.

As well as having Beauty and the Beast on DVD for Christmas, off my niece, I also had two old musicals to add to my collection - the Duchess Of Idaho - starring Esther Williams and My Dream Is Yours - Doris Day's second film.

Mary Poppins on Boxing day. I adore it, it's a must watch at Christmas without fail, to the point that when it was taken off the schedule last year I actually wrote to the BBC and complained .

I love Mary Poppins, and have it on DVD. I remember when I first watched it at the cinema aged about 10 and my dad who was with me became very amused by the scene where Mr Banks looks for the torn-up letter in the fireplace and bangs his head. My dad was tickled by this and kept exploding into barely-suppressed laughter for about five minutes after the scene was over. I was sinking down in my seat embarrassed, as any self-respecting 10-year-old would do!

The last film I watched was last night, when dad and I watched 'One Sunday Afternoon' (1948) starring Dennis Morgan. I bet no-one has ever heard of it! It was very good, based on the earlier Cagney film called 'The Strawberry Blonde'

That bit has always made me laugh too, even more so when he's then startled by his wife moments later and bangs it again . The 'I Love to Laugh' bit makes me start laughing too, I think it's impossible not to. I don't know how Julie Andrews kept a straight face filming that, the others could hide their expressions and giggles as part of the scene but she couldn't!

IceMaiden wrote: I don't know how Julie Andrews kept a straight face filming that, the others could hide their expressions and giggles as part of the scene but she couldn't!

...maybe because she probably filmed the scene on her own...not sure how it was filmed, but I should imagine the special effects of the floating characters were added at a different time to Julie's responses. I agree, its a great scene! The film is pretty perfect (or should I say 'practically perfect in every way?) - and I'm not too keen to see the remake/sequel that is being done!

Not watching at the moment, but just heard a piece of music floating through from the other room. I thought I knew what it was and went to check and I was correct - Whistle Down the Wind is on, and the piece of music is 'We Three Kings'. I don't think I've watched the film that many times, but it left a huge impression on me the first time I watched it, and I still find it very moving, so obviously that piece of music has lodged itself in my brain so deeply that I instantly knew where it was from.

Rob Houghton wrote:

IceMaiden wrote: I don't know how Julie Andrews kept a straight face filming that, the others could hide their expressions and giggles as part of the scene but she couldn't!

...maybe because she probably filmed the scene on her own...not sure how it was filmed, but I should imagine the special effects of the floating characters were added at a different time to Julie's responses. I agree, its a great scene! The film is pretty perfect (or should I say 'practically perfect in every way?) - and I'm not too keen to see the remake/sequel that is being done!

Yes that makes sense, I never thought of that. It would certainly be the only way I could do that scene and keep a straight face, and she still looks like she's struggling to do so in places .

I'm not watching the sequel (although I believe it's actually a prequel) to see Disney make a screw up version of the best film they ever did. Maleficent was on at teatime New Year's Day so I thought I'd see what it was like. What a woefully boring dull film! Not a bit of the charm or excellence of Sleeping Beauty, all it seemed to be was trying to make you pity Maleficent by giving her some broken love story to excuse her being evil . I lasted ten minutes before switching over to The Mummy which is far more enjoyable!

IceMaiden wrote: I'm not watching the sequel (although I believe it's actually a prequel) to see Disney make a screw up version of the best film they ever did. Maleficent was on at teatime New Year's Day so I thought I'd see what it was like. What a woefully boring dull film! Not a bit of the charm or excellence of Sleeping Beauty, all it seemed to be was trying to make you pity Maleficent by giving her some broken love story to excuse her being evil . I lasted ten minutes before switching over to The Mummy which is far more enjoyable!

I usually dislike remakes or sequels, especially to Disney films, but I must admit I really enjoyed the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast. My dad and I watched it on DVD over Christmas and we both enjoyed it. Its not as good as the animated version, in my opinion, but it comes pretty close, and some scenes are really exciting and well done! No wonder it was the top box-office film of 2017.

As a rule, I'm largely indifferent to the post-Roger Moore Bond films, but I just saw Spectre for the first time and found it very entertaining. The trouble is, there's a lot of continuity references to Daniel Craig's three previous Bond films. Although I've seen them each once, I can't remember much about any of them!

Tonight I watched 'In The Good Old Summertime' on DVD with my dad. Its one of my favourite films starring Judy Garland - excellent all the way through. It was a musical remake of 'The Shop Around the Corner' and was in turn remade more recently as 'You Got Mail'.