'Private Road' (1971) - Barney Platts-Mills. 

Deliciously handsome, Bruce Robinson, plays affable, dilettantish author, Peter, who quite understandably falls for the adorably timid, emotionally frail pixie, Ann (Susan Penhaligon), and their sweetly tumultuous relationship, fraught with obtuse parental meddling, financial woes, erotic exultation, and naïveté makes for compelling cinema, this uniquely photogenic pair are one of the more charming screen lovers! Private Road is a delicate, witty, playful, earnestly romantic film; a memorable, smartly written love story told without sentimentality, replete with engaging, naturalistic performances, pithy dialogue and a refreshingly light directorial touch. It is both a rare and hugely satisfying experience to watch such a humane, emotionally intelligent film dealing so sensitively with the exquisite travails borne of nascent love as the eminently lovable Private Road. 

The enervating conflicts between, Ann's reserved, controlling, conservatively middle-class family, along with boyfriend, Peter's profound anxiety over his best friend, Stephen's (Michael Feast) disturbing drug addiction, and his own mounting frustrations regarding the crass, innate emptiness of copywriting, plus his pronounced lack of ambition has lost none of its tender pathos. Gifted filmmaker, Barney Platts-Mills nuanced follow-up to cult classic Bronco Bullfrog (1969) vividly remains no less enthralling seen today than upon its initial theatrical release in 1971. Wholly deserving of its status of forgotten mini-masterpiece, if the colour palate were, perhaps, a little cooler, originating from navel-gazing Scandinavia, 'Private Road' may well have been unearthed a little sooner! The meticulous BFI restoration is sublime, images are sharp, colours are warmly appealing, soundtrack is perfectly crisp, and the two exciting bonus shorts are most welcome additions! 

 

 

 

'Basic Instinct 2' (2006) – Michael Caton-Jones.

Call me a kinky ne'er-do-well, but I'd rather watch a slinky-sexy sociopathic seductress like, Catherine Tramell sordidly shag her victims to death than some sexless scrote in a Hockey Mask!!! The belated return of the murderously manipulative man-eater entertainingly remains a glossily prurient, terrifically trashy treat! David Morrissey, Charlotte Rampling & David Thewlis are credible, and play it straight, but, thrillingly, the dazzlingly vulpine, Sharon Stone voraciously masticates the scenery like some cadaver-craving Hagfish, thereby making 'Basic Instinct 2' way more fun to watch than it has any real right to be! 

Actively opposing, Pat Benetar's earnest plea, the hyperbolically hedonistic novelist, Catherine Tramell has unrepentantly weaponized her sex in order to satiate her psychotically permissive peccadilloes! While the film's thunderous climax is momentarily satisfying, some more sensitive viewers might well feel a trifle soiled afterwards!!!! Frankly, I'd happily watch a sequel to a mediocre film, than a remake of a good one, and i'll joyfully take a lurid thriller over some lachrymose, cause-of-the-week dirge, and while I appreciate that my base enjoyment of 'Basic Instinct 2' will appear baffling, Caton-Jones is a competent filmmaker, and this saucy, slickly fashioned, oft derided sequel is certainly not without some amusingly salacious incident!

 

 

 

'Find The Lady' (1976) - John Trent.

This amiably scattershot British-Canadian Co-production sadly remains one of future comedy icon, John Candy's lesser known features. The chaotically pratfall-laden, proto-Police Academy, bungled kidnapping farce 'Find The Lady' is brought to witheringly noisome life by a remarkably ecclectic cast of entertainingly larger-than-life Thespians: Peter Cook, Mickey Rooney, Lawrence Dane, Alexandra Bastedo, Dick Emery, and a very young-looking, effortlessly likeable, John Candy is a dunderheaded delight as the catastrophically inept, perpetually blundering cop, Kopek!  

John Trent's overblown screwball comedy is an energetic, frequently misfiring, palpably unsophisticated 70s celluloid curiosity, and some may well find themselves immune to this gaudy lady's crudely comedic charms, but, to be fair, I sporadically enjoyed all the unrelentingly stupid slapstick shenanigans displayed so giddily herein! Peter Cook is miscast, the splendid, Dick Emery is sadly underused, Alexandra Bastedo is a distractingly beautiful kidnapee, and, frankly, it's all very, VERY silly indeed, but the hyperbolic, slapstick-on-acid finale in the fun house is arguably worth the price of admittance alone! As much as I hate to admit it, Mickey Rooney was a hoot as the anachronistic hood 'Trigger', and charismatic Canadian actor, Richard Monette, glistered no less gaudily than his sequinned bustier as serially quipping drag artiste, Bruce la Rousse.