Product: British Cinema Collection: 8 Acclaimed Films (2012)
Rating: 4.0
Good buy: Eight star-studded Miramax Britflicks from 1994-99 in widescreen on 2 discs
All but two of these eight are movies I'd seen on the big screen years ago. Four I'd liked well enough to know I'd want to see them again from time to time--especially Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal Husband," if only for Rupert Everett's hilarious performance. Also Judi Dench as Queen Victoria in "Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown" and Vanessa Redgrave's middle-aged war with a very young Uma Thurman for the affections of Edward Fox in "A Month by the Lake", and "My Life So Far," based on Sir Denis Forman's memoir of his Scottish childhood*, with Colin Firth as his roving-eyed father.The two I didn't much like the first time I saw them I liked even less the second time. ("Restoration" with Robert Downey Jr. and "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain" with Hugh Grant) but I suspect that's a minority viewpoint.The two I was seeing here for the first time made this purchase well worth the buy all on their own. "Sweet Revenge" with Helena Bonham Carter, Sam Neill and Kristin Scott Thomas is an absolute hoot and I can't believe I'd never heard of it. "Tom and Viv" with Willem Dafoe and Miranda Richardson tells the sad story of author T. S. Eliot's angst-ridden first marriage, back in the days when women with "female" problems were diagnosed as mentally ill and carted off to the looney bin.There are no extras--no subtitles, no closed-captioning, no scene indexes. Also, from the product info above you might get the impression that Gerard Butler is Dench's co-star in "Mrs. Brown." Her co-star is Billy Connolly; Butler plays a supporting role as Connolly's brother.*Seeing "My Life So Far" again reminded me how very much I've loved the book it's based on,Son of Adam, now also sold under the titleMy Life So Far. I wanted to see if Sir Denis had continued on with his bio and indeed he had, with a World War II memoirTO REASON WHYthat I've just ordered.Addenda 12/31/12: Also, Firth fans please note that, despite his dominance on the cover of this set, he is in only one of these 8 movies and, like all the adult roles in it, plays a supporting role to the wonderful child actor Robert Norman who plays the lead.