Memorable, crazy movie

Better Late Then Never

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

A loving, careful, reverential adaptation of Terry Pratchett's first "Discworld" books. The delighted viewer will recognize many a beloved character : Rincewind, the most inefficient wizard since centuries ; Cohen the Barbarian, whose life of fighting, looting and wenching has not kept him from reaching a venerable old age ; the ruler with the iron hand in the silken glove known as the Patrician ; the vicious but wondrously efficient Luggage, with its dozens of mean little legs. The production values are high and the visual and special effects are good, as are the costumes and props. This allows the city-state of Ankh-Morpork (aka London's seedier twin) to spring to life in all its twisted glory, complete with magic university, assassins' guild and painfully enterprising real-estate owners.The series sticks closely to Pratchett's work, complete with dialogue. As a result there's many a gem to be savoured, such as the episode where Cohen the Barbarian, a very old man, is the honoured guest of some fierce warrior nomads. What, asks one of the nomads, is the highest glory, the greatest pleasure that Man can achieve ? What is it that makes life worth living ? Is it the feel of the wild, untamed wind through one's hair as one rides along the steppe ? Is it the knowledge that one has defeated one's enemies ? Is it the sound of enemy women lamenting their loss ? All eyes are upon Cohen, who ponders the matter before deciding : "Hot water, good dentistry and soft lavatory paper". The cast is a treat - where else are you going to find both David Jason AND Tim Curry ?If I've got a quibble it is that the Twoflower character was a bit simple, in both senses of the word ; not so much the fault of the actor, as of the way the character was written for the series. Apart from that, a very enjoyable series, and an excellent introduction to the "Discworld" universe.

One thing I don't understand. Pratchett wrote quite a lot of Discworld novels, and some of them are simply begging to be put on the big screen. Most of the "Watch" novels for example. "Small Gods" as another. However, when Pratchett actually gets on the big (ok, small) screen, they seem to make the worst choices possible. First it was the "Hogfather", which is probably one of the most esoteric and confusing Discworld novels out there. Now they take the very first Discworld novels which - while perhaps being the funniest in the series - do not really present what Pratchett's work is all about. These early two novels are basically Terry taking a jab at (but also making homage) to a fantasy genre in general. Well, perhaps the entire Discworld series is like that, but in "Color of Magic" and "The light fantastic" this parody takes the front seat while a coherent story and characters sit in the back. And this works well in written form, but as a cinematic narrative it simply fails; clever jokes get cut, simplified and/or drowned in the overall chaos, the plot has to move quickly so it is nearly impossible to absorb everything that happens (let alone enjoy it) and overall it represents a rather frustrating experience, both for the Pratchett fans as well as the general audience.The first thing that bothered me is the casting. Sean Austin is a fine Twoflower, even though I think it perhaps should have been cast by a more exotic-looking actor. David Jason, sadly, is a complete miss as Rincewind. This particularly bothers me since David is probably my favorite British actor; however he is just too likable to pull of a Rincewind. Someone like Rowan Atkinson channeling his Black Adder persona (but with less malice and much more cowardice) would be perfect. The thing is, you need to take pleasure in Rincewind constantly being put from one peril to the next; David's Rincewind is like a kooky old grandpa that you feel bad for when he gets thrown from a cliff, threatened or trampled on. And whenever he does something Rincewind-y (like taking off with Twoflower's gold), it actually feels out of character.The rest of the cast is hit-or-miss. Death is horribly puppet-like - I endured him in Hogfather but here the rubber skull should really have been lees pronounced. Vetinari is on par (even though in those early Discworld novels he most probably wasn't the "Patrician", but that's fan service for you). Tim Curry overplays Trymon to the extreme, but I guess this is due to the bad direction - many characters seem to be overacting their bits probably to infuse a sense of lightness and silliness. Just check out the faces leader of the Krull makes while doing his speech; inexcusable.However the biggest culprit is the plot. It is just too hectic, too chaotic and doesn't let the characters to develop or even establish themselves. This perhaps has a lot to with with (un)necessary exposition given by both the narrator and the characters - the plot hardly gets a chance to move along before the next bit of exposition has to get its turn.It's not all bad however. There are some superb actors involved in this, the sets and effect look fantastic (especially for a TV movie). And even though I said Jason makes a bad Rincewind, it still is a joy to watch this fine actor doing his schtick. And it IS Pratchett, after all.So I guess that bottom line I can give this a passing grade, but it's still a deeply disappointing venture. I hope they do "Guards! Guards!" next, and I hope they do it good.

Until having seen "the Colour of Magic" a couple of days ago, it seemed impossible to me that the essence of a work of literature could successfully be transported into the plot-based medium of the film: this production, however, managed impressively to concentrate on the discworld novels' linguistics. The whole film is a glorious firework of puns, absurd dialogues, hilarious speeches and twisted theories, full of witty allusions to our real world's historical, philosophical, cultural, social, political, economic etc. realities, just like in the novels. The narrator's introductions sparkle playful rhetoric; the scene changes abound in funny little parallelisms; the plot follows with complete logic the discworld's crazy intrinsic reality; all characters are represented with convincing comedy, far from being ridiculed – a superb achievement especially among those "of the elderly persuasion"; thankfully, the audience is spared the usual trivial matters and unconvincing special effects; the most brilliant performance, of course, is Sir David Jason's magnificent characterisation of Rincewind in his countless dangerous confrontations from neck-romance to informal death, whose accomplishments mere words cannot describe adequately. Failing to understand the adverse criticism, I assume that many expected more loyalty towards the novels' details and maybe have not properly paid attention to the film as a whole: From hub to rim, all the important things have been preserved, the pathetic coward Rincewind, yet the only mentally sane person on the whole Disc; the ancient barbarian Cohen who has heroically survived his own legend; the frighteningly ambitious and maddening orderly wizard Trymon; the ingenuous tourist Twoflower, an expert in starting annoying discussions at precisely the wrong moments; his loyal luggage with its "homicidal attitude towards anyone who threatens its master"; and all the other peculiar personalities, officious magic devices, spells with speech impediments and curious disc dwellers carried through space on the majestic Great A'tuin... there is no reason to dwell on petty little details, when the adaptation has turned out to be the Best Film Ever. Hopefully, we will face another "near-Rincewind-experience" soon: it won't be long until he comes running past again, will it?

I don't think other reviews on here have quite captured my feelings on David Jason's performance in this. He made for an excellent Albert in The Hogfather, but that will never in a million years make him Rincewind. I can think of about a million other people they could have cast. Mackenzie Crook from Pirates of the Caribbean and The Office would have been incredible, or the bloke who plays Superhans in Peep Show... why not? Fair enough I guess they wanted a big-name actor, but almost anyone else would have done the trick. What if, say, Eric Idle had done it? I can see that working. Well the point is that I could read off names all day, and I'm sure you can think of a handful more. Instead of all those actors, though, we've got David Jason reciting his lines veeeeeeeeeeery slooooooooowly. Rincewind is not stupid! He's an intelligent, shrewd guy who is made pathetic by his all-consuming cowardice and his utter inability to take a noble stance on any issue. David Jason acting like he's reading lines off an autocue does not cut it.This film is eye-gougingly bad. Tim Curry reprises his usual role from everything he's ever been in and plays a Massive Ham, and the special effects range from acceptable to woeful (some of the bluescreen stuff is appalling, and their attempt at dragons was beyond poor). The plot has been hacked to smithereens, which I expected, but what's less excusable is that the film does occasionally actually contradict the canon established in the books, which is senseless. I'm not even a massive fan of the books, but this film does NOT do them justice. Avoid!