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Withnail and I - Criterion Collection

Withnail and I - Criterion Collection

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $23.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: We Are Drifting Into the Arena of the Unwell.
Review: With a film like this, you get a contact hangover. Such quantities of booze, medication and lighter fluid go into the two main characters that you start to get giddy by association about 15 minutes into the film.

Things are looking pretty bad for our heroes. The money's run out, the sinks's gone septic, the hangovers last forever, and the only person who comes to visit is a "purveyor of rare herbs and potions" ... . Since it can't get any worse, they hit up a rich uncle for the keys to the country cottage, figuring that a week of fresh air and solitude will restore their spirits. Yeah, that's the ticket! VACATION!

Ever have one of those REALLY bad vacations? The kind where you think "I should have stayed home"? Or maybe you started to wonder why God was so mad at you? Didn't it make a great story later? Now you're getting the idea.

Withnail and I is a bizarre, fascinating flick that really grows on you. About a week after your first viewing, you'll notice yourself quoting it. Quadruple the quote factor if you happen to go on a vacation from hell!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The funny side of squalor and desperation?
Review: Withnail And I captures the desperation of two out of work actors set against the backdrop of London at the end of the sixties.

Living in the horrendous squalor of a brutally cold flat their only escape is through alcohol and drugs. Things get so desperate at one point that one of them covers his body in "Deep Heat" just to get warm. Eventually both realise that they must escape the dull griminess of the city or they will surely go mad.

Withnails uncle Monty provides an escape route when he allows them to spend some time getting away from it all in his county house. Things do not look promising however when it looks as if they have swapped the dull grey of London for the dull wet grey of the countryside.

What follows is a story of survival as two city dwellers attempt to feed and warm themselves in the middle of nowhere. In one scene a chicken proves to be a worthy adversary just by being a chicken.

Throughout the adventure Withnail struggles heroically to do as little as possible and to persuade Marwood (the "I" of the film) to do all of the legwork. The fun really starts when uncle Monty turns up and attempts to get to know Marwood in the Biblical sense.

The performance of Richard E. Grant as Withnail is breathtaking. Paul McGann is wonderful as Marwood and Richard Griffiths plays Uncle Monty to perfection.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Definitely one of the top 20 best films of all time
Review: The best thing to do with this is watch it once, and laugh your arse off. Then watch it again with your mates and play the drinking game every student has regretted the morning after...watch the movie, and every time they take a drink on screen you match them. See how far you get. It's the only way to get the true experience!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Existentially British. Is that funny?
Review: As a fan of both Paul McGann and Richard Grant, I looked forward to the Criterion Collection "Withnail and I". But perhaps I'm too American to appreciate the humor found within this film, which I understand has quite a cult following.

The film is mostly a series of vignettes between the alcoholic, acerbic Withnail and the softer Marlowe. Withnail is the sort of person who is intelligent and talented enough to be anything he wanted to if he'd crawl out of a scotch bottle long enough. Marlowe is alternately exasperated by and in awe of Withnail. These are early roles for both McGann and Grant, and they show remarkable talent that would be exploited in later roles.

Though touted as a dark comedy, I found more "dark" than "comedy". There were long periods between laughs while watching this film (mostly mundane things like driving cars, watching them walk to town, and chase a farmer down to buy firewood) and it never quite felt that the film was actually building towards anything until Uncle Monty shows up to the cottage to put the moves on Marlowe. Watching McGann squirm his way out of this was definitely worth watching, but took too long to get to.

Not a horrid film, but one that generally left me with a feeling of, "What was the point of that again?"

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The production on this DVD is poor
Review: Despite claiming use of the latest techniques, the video quality and sound mix is poor. Letterbox is used for the main feature, already cutting resolution. The colours are washed out and the picture lacks contrast.

The 5.1 sound was handled quite badly, with voices inappropriately appearing in the rear (not only when narrating) and a lot of hiss. I've heard much better sound on movies much older.

The (good) extra documentary was in anamorphic widescreen, giving the main feature itself an even more bedraggled appearance.

Unfortunately, it will probably be some time before a better version appears. This is a well-loved movie which deserves far better treatment.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BRILLIANT
Review: This portrays the story of two terminally out of work actors in London, 1969, not only is it vomit-inducingly funny but at times genuinely touching, the character of Withnail is tragic and complex, the I character (named MARWOOD in the script) plays the straight man.

The DVD features the trailer and a 30 minute doco on the film which is actually pretty interesting.

Great Film, Good DVD.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hang out the stars in Indiana....
Review: The first time I sat down to watch "Withnail & I," I turned the movie off approximately five minutes into it. I'm not a squeamish viewer in any sense of the word, in fact I gravitate toward movies that don't pull any punches, but I could not take either of these guys, could not stomach the squallor, the discolored tongues, the mess in the kitchen and the dripping egg sandwich. "Awful," I said of the movie. "overrated and disgusting. Not funny!"

Later that night, I became violently ill, a condition that lasted for two days and left me sweaty, feverish and delirious, unable and unwilling to consume any solid food at all. When I finally emerged from the haze, after promising myself to never take decent health for granted again, I wondered whether my impending illness had affected my opinion of "Withnail," or -- on the contrary -- whether the film itself had somehow infected me with stomach flu.

When I watched it again the next day, carefully sipping ginger ale, I realized that whatever had happened, I was seeing a movie that would become one of my favorites ever.

Plenty of reviewers have pointed out the highlights of this film better and more faithfully than I ever could. There's so much to love: Grant's uncanny ability to channel the inebriated spirit, Danny the drug dealer (who seems to have stumbled directly out of "Message to Love," the Isle of Wight concert documentary), the "huge spade in the bath," Uncle Monty, the drama surrounding the diverted Wellington funds, the tea room scene, and the hopeful but heartbreaking ending.

It's a shame there's no commentary on the DVD. I would've loved to have heard Bruce Robinson, Richard Grant, Paul McGann, Ralph Brown... with individual cast and crew channels. Fortunately, they at least appear in the making-of supplement that appears in the special features section (which, as "look backs" go is not nearly as depressing, or as schmaltzy, as the title "Withnail & Us" had me to believe).

I think the reason that I like this movie is because I've been there. Not the English countryside in the late 60's, but i've experienced the same circumstances and i know variations of those characters, and you probably have too if you've had any wild years... i've even acted like those people once or twice. But only once or twice, I assure you.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Britain's funniest movie
Review: "I shall never play the Dane", shouts out portly Uncle Monty, "Balls... I'll swallow it and run a mile" boasts Withnail standing in the middle of his grim living room in Camden, "Fine wine and cake, I want it here and I want it now, where's the manager?" demands tipsy Withnail as he wastes Monty's rubber Wellington boots money on booze... just a couple of the thousand oft repeated quotes from Withnail and I that every British student worth their salt knows backwards. Those who know this movie (and I understand it) revere it and regard it as a cult classic. However, be warned, it may be incomprehensible to non-Brits or Aussies... it's heavily nuanced and full of idioms and turns of phrase that will probably be lost on the uninitiated and go unnoticed by those that have never been to a pub.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hilarious jaunt
Review: "I shall never play the Dane", shouts out portly Uncle Monty, "Balls... I'll swallow it and run a mile" boasts Withnail standing in the middle of his grim living room in Camden, "Fine wine and cake, I want it here and I want it now, where's the manager?" demands tipsy Withnail. A classic British film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Withnail and I = good times
Review: Withnail and I was scripted by Academy Award nominee Bruce Robinson (also directed) witch is an slight bio pic about his growing up as a strugling actor. "I" portrays him in the movie. "Withnail" is a friend that he met then. Withnail is played great by Richard E. Grant. Grant plays a person you love to hate but hate to love.

As the movie gose, The two are struggly actors who can't find, and don't really look for work. They move out of thier city crap hole they live on for a relaxing time in the contry. The only problem they have when they get there are...no food, no booze, no drugs, and [upset] neighbors.

The movie has great diolouge that can often be repeated and each time you watch the movie you pick up more and more....just gets better eatch time you watch it.

This is kinda like a more enjoyable British version of Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas....so if you like that I strongly recommend this.


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