Product: British Cinema Collection: 8 Acclaimed Films (2012)
Rating: 2.0
Not sure how this got "acclaimed"; most of the movies are poor
When you see a movie collection with Colin Firth, Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett on the front cover (plus Hugh Grant, Jeremy Northam, etc.), you just assume it will be good. Well, it isn't. It's marketing. I already owned an Ideal Husband (on VHS) so saw it was in this DVD collection and assumed the other films would be similar quality. They are not. I own almost every Jane Austen and period movie ever made and love that genre and usually love British cinema, BBC, etc.; however, the only good films out of this 8-movie collection are An Ideal Husband (excellent, 4.5 stars, really fun movie about politics, love, forgiveness, second chances, etc.) and Her Majesty Mrs. Brown (3.5 stars) about Queen Victoria mourning her husband's loss and the Scottish servant who helps her move past her loss. I couldn't even get through the rest of the films -- A Month by the Lake was incredibly boring and pointless with Vanessa Redgrave as an older lady chasing an older man who was flirting with a young nanny (Uma Thurman) and the same basic thing kept happening over and over again -- I had to force myself to watch it. My Life So Far was crass, with an awful performance by Colin Firth as a second-rate, eccentric husband flirting with his brother's wife while his young son looks at naked lady pictures. The Englishman who went up the Hill is okay (3 stars) as it's kind of interesting that a town would put dirt on a hill so it gets taller and can be called a mountain, but most of these movies aren't even the kind I would watch if they were on TV (definitely wouldn't buy or watch again). I haven't watched the others yet -- Restoration, Sweet Revenge or Tom & VIV, so maybe one of those will be good but I'm not expecting much. So far, only 2 of the 8 were worth having. At the price, it's worth buying the set only for An Ideal Husband and Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown unless you can get An Ideal Husband by itself for less. Again, not sure why these films are "acclaimed" as most of them seem pretty poor.