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DVD : Starter For 10 [2006] .
Rating: 
- Ever since I can remember, I've wanted to be clever.
Ever since I can remember, I've wanted to be clever.
This was a good British story as it had nostalgia for the 80s and students at the time and particularly University Challenge.
It was awash with cliches the working class boy makes good and goes to university . he wants to be clever so dreams of going on university challenge. he fancies the posh bird but does not notice the bird that really fancies him.
he achieves his dreams that muffs it entirely. he goes into hiding but comes out to carry on his life and shuns the posh bird and gets the right bird.
A team must have sat down to make sure this film had all the right ingredients in all the right measure.
It is a good romp and everyone and everything turns out right in the end.
All he wanted to be was clever and he made it.
I liked the film but it was light entertainment. Worth a couple of looks and I give it five for effort. I liked the background of Essex and Southend and his mates back home who didn't go to university.
It might be a bit dated now as everyone seems to go to university, so already it is a period piece.
The soundtrack was good but I am too old for it to be nostalgic for me but to those of a certain age they would have enjoyed it.
Rating: - Five Star Film
This is an excellent low budget British film based upon University Challenge, one of my personal favourite TV programmes. The film centres on the character, Brian, his obsession with the TV quiz programme, going to Bristol Uni where he manages to make it on their quiz team and fall in love with one of his team mates. It's not hard to see how the latter will pan out but there is a twist in the storyline when the team record their quiz show. Very enjoyable with good familar actors - perfect example of the genre. Do not buy or watch this film if you want an all action, exciting sets and smart dialogue experience.
As a lifelong Essex resident I was curious about the location as Brian's home is Southend but the location is actually Jaywick - not the most celebrated area of coastline but shown in a good light here !
Rating:
- Good actors let down by dismal writing
I sensed that the writer had taken as many ideas from his shoebox collection, mixed them in with bits he liked from 'Notting Hill', 'Gregory's Girl' etc, and then combined them with all the University Challenge horror stories (e.g. the abysmal recruitment at New Hall, Cambridge, when only five girls applied to be on the team). He hoped for the best, but the resulting, incoherent mess is just a ragbag of undeveloped ideas. If just one more writer had been added, the sharpened-up plot could have been at least 50% better, with the result that the contributions of many decent actors wouldn't have been wasted. This plot was crying out for Andrew Davies to come in and do the improvement job he did for 'Bridget Jones', and his experience with the university comedy 'A Very Peculiar Practice' would have been invaluable.
Very little was made of Macavoy's father dying. The only point seemed to be to get a reaction shot as he found his mum in the bath with another man.
Much more could have been made of his getting into Bristol University, a tier-one institution for most subjects. (Was it that the production team really wanted him to get into Oxbridge, but none of the colleges would be associated with the film?) It just didn't seem credible that only five students would want to represent Bristol on University Challenge.
Why did he cheat? What happened to the team after the match depicted here?
My final complaint is that by setting this story in 1985, rather than in the sixties or seventies, the production chose the worst decade in history for contemporary popular music. Yes, it's nice to hear the Cure again, but they're hardly the summit of musical achievement, compared to Elvis, the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin etc, are they?
Please, please, no more British films plotted by a solo writer with insufficient experience of film and TV. A terrible waste.
Rating:
- Just above average!
Having read the book of the same name,I must say that this is a good,if ,not fantastic interpretation.
As usual,much is missed out,and characters are altered and glammed up for tv,(e.g. the brilliantly feisty scot rebecca is transformed into a leggy beauty queen for the movie),however this is still an enjoyable movie despite quite a few alterations/omissions.
Good scenes include Alices cottage and a brill mum from catherine tate.
Worth buying for the cheap price and brings back cool eighties memories for those of us who are of a certain age!!
Rating: - Decent, likeable movie
In a nutshell: Set in the mid-80s, James McAvoy plays Brian Jackson, a working-class Essex boy with a thirst for knowledge who realises a dream to go to university (in this case Bristol) and enter University Challenge. On the way he falls in love with a beautiful blonde member of the quiz team but ultimately realises it's the plainer, but still attractive, brunette who is the girl for him - a la 'Gregory's Girl'.
Fear not, the above `love twist' I revealed won't spoil the plot for you. It's made blatantly clear within the first 15 minutes that this is what will happen. And that's maybe the problem with the movie - it's all a bit predictable and safe - save for a fantastic twist in the University Challenge studios.
It has nice performances from James McAvoy and Dominic Cooper, both set for future stardom, and the cast includes the always fantastic John Henshaw wearing a dodgy `tache. I must also mention the frighteningly realistic portrayal of Bamber Gascoigne by Mark 'League of Gentleman' Gatiss and Catherine Tate's sympathetic turn as Brian's mother.
Adapted by David Nicholls from his own book, the film isn't particular smart enough, funny enough or romantic enough to be a major entry in either the rom-com or just plain comedy classic stakes. But on its own limited terms it's a watchable and likeable enough movie to while away a spare hour and a half. `Starter for Ten' is a joint effort by the BBC and HBO and boasts a production credit for a certain Mr Tom Hanks. And if you're of a `certain age' you'll probably enjoy the not bad soundtrack of early to mid-80s hits by British artists.
- Ever since I can remember, I've wanted to be clever.Ever since I can remember, I've wanted to be clever.
This was a good British story as it had nostalgia for the 80s and students at the time and particularly University Challenge.
It was awash with cliches the working class boy makes good and goes to university . he wants to be clever so dreams of going on university challenge. he fancies the posh bird but does not notice the bird that really fancies him.
he achieves his dreams that muffs it entirely. he goes into hiding but comes out to carry on his life and shuns the posh bird and gets the right bird.
A team must have sat down to make sure this film had all the right ingredients in all the right measure.
It is a good romp and everyone and everything turns out right in the end.
All he wanted to be was clever and he made it.
I liked the film but it was light entertainment. Worth a couple of looks and I give it five for effort. I liked the background of Essex and Southend and his mates back home who didn't go to university.
It might be a bit dated now as everyone seems to go to university, so already it is a period piece.
The soundtrack was good but I am too old for it to be nostalgic for me but to those of a certain age they would have enjoyed it.
Rating:
- Five Star FilmThis is an excellent low budget British film based upon University Challenge, one of my personal favourite TV programmes. The film centres on the character, Brian, his obsession with the TV quiz programme, going to Bristol Uni where he manages to make it on their quiz team and fall in love with one of his team mates. It's not hard to see how the latter will pan out but there is a twist in the storyline when the team record their quiz show. Very enjoyable with good familar actors - perfect example of the genre. Do not buy or watch this film if you want an all action, exciting sets and smart dialogue experience.
As a lifelong Essex resident I was curious about the location as Brian's home is Southend but the location is actually Jaywick - not the most celebrated area of coastline but shown in a good light here !
Rating:
- Good actors let down by dismal writingI sensed that the writer had taken as many ideas from his shoebox collection, mixed them in with bits he liked from 'Notting Hill', 'Gregory's Girl' etc, and then combined them with all the University Challenge horror stories (e.g. the abysmal recruitment at New Hall, Cambridge, when only five girls applied to be on the team). He hoped for the best, but the resulting, incoherent mess is just a ragbag of undeveloped ideas. If just one more writer had been added, the sharpened-up plot could have been at least 50% better, with the result that the contributions of many decent actors wouldn't have been wasted. This plot was crying out for Andrew Davies to come in and do the improvement job he did for 'Bridget Jones', and his experience with the university comedy 'A Very Peculiar Practice' would have been invaluable.
Very little was made of Macavoy's father dying. The only point seemed to be to get a reaction shot as he found his mum in the bath with another man.
Much more could have been made of his getting into Bristol University, a tier-one institution for most subjects. (Was it that the production team really wanted him to get into Oxbridge, but none of the colleges would be associated with the film?) It just didn't seem credible that only five students would want to represent Bristol on University Challenge.
Why did he cheat? What happened to the team after the match depicted here?
My final complaint is that by setting this story in 1985, rather than in the sixties or seventies, the production chose the worst decade in history for contemporary popular music. Yes, it's nice to hear the Cure again, but they're hardly the summit of musical achievement, compared to Elvis, the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin etc, are they?
Please, please, no more British films plotted by a solo writer with insufficient experience of film and TV. A terrible waste.
Rating:
- Just above average!Having read the book of the same name,I must say that this is a good,if ,not fantastic interpretation.
As usual,much is missed out,and characters are altered and glammed up for tv,(e.g. the brilliantly feisty scot rebecca is transformed into a leggy beauty queen for the movie),however this is still an enjoyable movie despite quite a few alterations/omissions.
Good scenes include Alices cottage and a brill mum from catherine tate.
Worth buying for the cheap price and brings back cool eighties memories for those of us who are of a certain age!!
Rating:
- Decent, likeable movieIn a nutshell: Set in the mid-80s, James McAvoy plays Brian Jackson, a working-class Essex boy with a thirst for knowledge who realises a dream to go to university (in this case Bristol) and enter University Challenge. On the way he falls in love with a beautiful blonde member of the quiz team but ultimately realises it's the plainer, but still attractive, brunette who is the girl for him - a la 'Gregory's Girl'.
Fear not, the above `love twist' I revealed won't spoil the plot for you. It's made blatantly clear within the first 15 minutes that this is what will happen. And that's maybe the problem with the movie - it's all a bit predictable and safe - save for a fantastic twist in the University Challenge studios.
It has nice performances from James McAvoy and Dominic Cooper, both set for future stardom, and the cast includes the always fantastic John Henshaw wearing a dodgy `tache. I must also mention the frighteningly realistic portrayal of Bamber Gascoigne by Mark 'League of Gentleman' Gatiss and Catherine Tate's sympathetic turn as Brian's mother.
Adapted by David Nicholls from his own book, the film isn't particular smart enough, funny enough or romantic enough to be a major entry in either the rom-com or just plain comedy classic stakes. But on its own limited terms it's a watchable and likeable enough movie to while away a spare hour and a half. `Starter for Ten' is a joint effort by the BBC and HBO and boasts a production credit for a certain Mr Tom Hanks. And if you're of a `certain age' you'll probably enjoy the not bad soundtrack of early to mid-80s hits by British artists.
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