Marketic
It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.
Kaydan Christian
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
Matho
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
neilkendall
It's on DVD! (At last I can bin my beta-max tape.)I tried a few years ago to put together a stage version of BTK&GBV but it was quite some task trying to work out who held the performance rights. When I spoke to George Fenton (the EXCEPTIONALLY talented composer) he was flattered by my interest in the score but had no idea if there were any copies still in circulation. Obviously I was disheartened not get any further with the project but worse still is that the film print seemed to have disappeared as well. Thank goodness the DVD has now appeared.The cast is an interesting selection of talent, mostly seen on British TV rather than the movies. Never the less, an highly original musical - performed with GUSTO!
phil_hicks@hotmail.com
And I thought I was alone too. My mates laughed in my face when I mentioned a film called 'Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire'. I showed them the IMDb listing and the laughing stopped but I've never been able to show them the film itself. Indeed I've not seen the film for at least 15 years. I remember it from my childhood. I taped it from Channel 4 in a top-loading VHS recorder. I used to tape loads of films. I remember its unique quirky style - its odd songs and that character that undoubtedly was a nod to Ray Readon the classic 'vampire' snooker player.Alas through the years it was taped over - no doubt with a bond movie and I've not seen it since. I doubt it will appear on DVD as its not quite mass-market material. But what a lovely off-beat film. I'd love to see it again."Green stamps...." (Spooky)Cheers Phil
shimmy-2
How utterly amazing to discover other fans of this iconic musical - OK, maybe a little OTT, but nonetheless, a worthy description. I first saw BTK when I was a demure early-teen, being granted permission to stay up past ten-o-clock. I drifted off to sleep that night with all these bizarre images floating through my head and for many years, hoped I would once again be able to watch this odd little film. Lady luck clearly didn't like any of us, though, did she?Thus began my quest (and a deep blossoming love of Bruce Payne, receding hairline unnoticed)but without the delights of the internet and technology not on my side, I sat in hope with fading memories of BTK, beginning to wonder if I didn't imagine the whole thing.Several years later, I forget when exactly, Channel 4 deemed to give us all a repeat performance - thank god for my Saisho VCR (it had cost me £250, earned through a long, hot summer slaving in a cafe at 15) and thereby began my plugging for this wonderful film.Years on, my copy was just about had it, particularly around 'green stamps', 'wednesday man' and 'the one' (oh how I love TO's fake cockney accent.... let's face it, he was quite posh in that Wesley Snipes movie)from constant reviewing. The VCR did actually out-live the tape.Whenever asked that ever-popular getting-to-know-you question of 'what's your fave movie?' my reply was always the same. No one else had ever even heard of BTK, let alone seen it.Imagine my supreme delight on checking my e-mail one day a couple of years ago, to discover an e-mail from a friend, informing me that BTK was to be shown on Film Four the following week. Convinced he had to be wrong, I checked the guide and blow-me-down, there it was! With no ad breaks!!!!!To this day, I am still trying to educate the masses with the odd little home-screenings and I think we're finally getting through. The indescribable fabulousness of the final credits track has turned me into one of those annoying people who refuses to leave the cinema until the VERY end. What if you were to miss the best bit?!! Well, I never will.And, as a final note, how tragic that when you try and explain who Phil Daniels is, the only way people know is when you tell them he did the voiceover on Blur's Parklife. Beyond tragic.
garethm-2
As a long time snooker fan I'd heard whispers about this film for years and it was only recently after months of searching that I finally managed to get hold of a copy. It's true that only Channel 4 in its early days could throw up something as bizarre as Billy the Kid and The Green Baize Vampire. By the same token snooker was the most popular sport in Britain in the mid-80's so making a film about it and its rivalries (players, managers, fans and everything that they stood for) was perhaps less of a risk then compared to how it might now seem.As sports films go it's not bad but neither is it great. Perhaps the most unfortunate thing about the film is that the real snooker world was throwing up its own unparalleled sporting drama at the time, be it the black ball finish in the 1985 World Championship between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis or, more to the point, the riveting rivalry between Davis and Alex Higgins who really were like chalk and cheese. One had a squeaky-clean image, the other was a lovable rogue with a penchant for vices and they both hated each other's guts. The rivalry between Maxwell and Billy or indeed the players they are based on (Dracula look-alike Ray Reardon and new kid on the block Jimmy White) could never evoke the same passions and even then Phil Daniels and Alun Armstrong, talented as they are, are slightly unconvincing here. Like most young upstarts Daniels (resembling Dexy's Kevin Rowland more than Jimmy White) reels off a few cocky taunts but he's far from the booze fuelled, authority-hating and downright rude figure that Higgins was. The whole thing feels like little more than your token pre-match jibing session and it's not helped by the fact that the humour is laboured as well. Granted, the idea of both players having completely different sets of followers and standing for completely different ideals and generations is well handled but even then a far better illustration of this would be to witness the audience reaction when Higgins and Davis crossed cues in front of 3,000 people in the 1985 Masters at the Wembley Conference Centre.
In saying all this I think it's important to appreciate how difficult an obscure project like this must have been to tackle and those who did so obviously weren't afraid of trying something different. Furthermore even though this film ends up being something of a failure it does nevertheless contain enough flashes of brilliance to convince you that there is a really unique talent behind it all and one that has done or probably could do a lot better. Despite being entirely studio bound and having a limited budget, the whole thing is shot with real class and looks wonderfully expensive. I love the dimly lit snooker halls, Maxwell's creepy pad really brings those fantasy images of Reardon to life, there are a few memorable quotes and the costume department do a good job here too. It's also worth noting that there is none of that dodgy editing, typical of sports movies, whereby a player hits a ball a mile away from the pocket and yet it miraculously manages to reach its intended target. As for the music, well, it's a little bit uninspired and at times feels like it's fleshing out a script lacking in ideas but the film does open with an excellent jaunty sax sore, evoking shades of Francis Monkman's score for The Long Good Friday, and Billy launches his comeback near the end to the strains of a catchy little piece called 'The Fame Game'. Alan Clarke was, of course, the man behind it all and while this is ultimately one of his less memorable moments it was nonetheless an interesting little venture/ indulgence.
