What was the last film you watched?

Seaviewer

Seaviewer

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The Carry On movies were (and are) very popular here but, personally, I never liked that broad style of British comedy. There seemed to be a phase there for a while when someone would say "toilet" and everyone would laugh and that would be about it. Take Sid James, for example. He was excellent as the foil to Tony Hancock's more thoughtful humour but on his own he could be quite vulgar. I did like his Bless This House TV sitcom, though.
 
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The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016)

An unnecessary but nonetheless entertaining companion piece to 2012's Snow White and the Huntsman. The big question, of course, is why Snow White never shows up when her friends are in trouble, but I suppose you could ask that about a lot of spin-offs.
 
Swami

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Seaviewer said:
The Carry On movies were (and are) very popular here but, personally, I never liked that broad style of British comedy. There seemed to be a phase there for a while when someone would say "toilet" and everyone would laugh and that would be about it. Take Sid James, for example. He was excellent as the foil to Tony Hancock's more thoughtful humour but on his own he could be quite vulgar. I did like his Bless This House TV sitcom, though.
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The very last Carry Ons were like that following the loss of so many of the main performers. But the bulk of the movies were great.

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Mel O'Drama

Mel O'Drama

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Seaviewer said:
The Carry On movies were (and are) very popular here but, personally, I never liked that broad style of British comedy.
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Yes - it's not going to be for everyone. I think they fall into the category that people definitely know whether or not they like them.

For me they have the benefit of nostalgia, but they're also fascinating little time capsules of a Britain that never was. The period films with fancy costumes are - in general - considered better, but the "contemporary" films are perhaps the most vintage looking ones because they've dated. There are all these Sixties and Seventies clothes, plus old shops, streets with hardly any traffic and British Leyland cars on the drives. All of which I love.

The first six films had a different writer and were less broad than the series became. They were still formulaic, but there was also a real heart to them. Unfortunately, all the films tend to get grouped in together, and the early ones aren't the first image that comes to mind for most when the term "Carry On" is used.
 
Mel O'Drama

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The Wild Affair (1963)





With much made of Vidal Sassoon and Mary Quant's involvement, I was expecting a swinging Carnaby Street groove.

It was a surprisingly frank film in many ways. Basically about a woman trying to get laid at the Christmas party out of fear that, once married, she'll only ever sleep with her husband. So it's a nice mix of traditional attitudes (the office party is also doubling as her leaving party, since her getting married means she'll have a full-time role serving her husband) which get turned on their head.

It's kind of like The Seven Year Itch, where conservatism (and monogamy) wins out, which is fine. But having a woman - and an Asian woman at that - as the person wanting affirmation from others makes it feel edgier than it ever could with a randy man. I also found it quite poignant at times. It's one of those films where the audience feels connected to the characters even without knowing that much about them.

Lots of familiar faces from British comedy of the era: Betty Marsden; Terry Thomas; Frank Thornton (playing a salesman, naturally); Jimmy Logan; Paul Whitsun-Jones (you'll know the face, if not the name) and Victor Spinetti.​
 
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