Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Scott LeBrun Pleasant and funny, if not uproarious, comedy is an ideal vehicle for the legendary John Cleese. He plays Brian Stimpson, the strict, demanding headmaster of a private school. His big character detail is that he lives life by the clock. Everything must be done when it is scheduled to be done. Therefore, it becomes an unending headache for him when everything goes wrong while he is on his way to speak at a headmasters' conference. Before the day is over, he'll have the cops after him, he'll enjoy some R & R at a monastery, he'll hitch a ride with Laura Wisely (Sharon Maiden), one of his students, and he'll hook up with an old acquaintance, Pat (Penelope Wilton).This enjoyable little effort seems somewhat forgotten when one looks at Cleeses' career. Therefore it could use some more exposure. Seeing that it takes place over the course of one day, it's paced pretty well, and everybody in the cast gets into the spirit of the thing. Young Maiden is appealing as Laura, and the top notch British cast also includes Stephen Moore, Alison Steadman, Joan Hickson, Pat Keen, Sheila Keith, Tony Haygarth, and Geoffrey Palmer. Cleese is perfect as the anal retentive, somewhat uptight person who gradually loosens up, a la Steve Martin in "Planes, Trains & Automobiles". And just like that other film, there is a certain lunacy in what can only be described as a comic nightmare. Things just keep getting worse for Stimpson, and you can't help but feel bad for him while also chuckling at these misadventures.The ending is not all that satisfying, but getting there is still fun.Seven out of 10.

Framescourer A road movie in which the bloated pomposity of an English headteacher is systematically punctured by a series of unforeseen events. It's essentially a one-trick concept film for the talents of Cleese: it might even be said that it's Fawlty Towers, The Movie, complete as it is with ill-matched wife and with the same car as driven by Basil Fawlty. It's a well-weighted film and it's little surprise to find that the script is by Michael Frayn (whose most famous film adaptation to date is the farce Noises Off with Michael Caine). It's a great film for 'where are they now' (or perhaps 'what they were there, then!?') spotting. Naturally though the film is Cleese's property and although the shtick is familiar he does seem to put it on the big screen unselfconsciousnessly. 5/10

palexandersquires If you are ever late or have got to be there for a certain time, and yes you are organised, (Brain Stimpson) Then this is the film for you. At the school where he is the headmaster, you cannot do anything wrong, or bully anyone, as he can see everything! This is the ideal school for all children, place the headmaster very high up, give him some powerful binoculars, and a good p.a. System glass windows all around his office, and you have got yourself, a very good surveillance system. Right, or is it left? the train is for 10:25 for Norwich, he asks a very famous ticket collector (John Bardon) now Jim Branning in Eastenders, " Are we on time today?" the ticket collector says to him, "Norwich on the left" Mr Stimpson then gets on the wrong train the 10:27 to Plymouth! then it all starts to go wrong. he leaves his speech paper, on the train, he hijacks Laura just as she is pulling out of her parent's driveway, in a Morris 1100 car, They go to a hospital to find his wife, they then fill the car up with petrol and he does not pay for it, and so on, But he arrives on time 17:00 for his funny, but different speech! All in All a very good Brirish all round film, Some of this film, was filmed in Grimsby, I also like the Music! in the film. I also like his "right, you over there, 9:20!!" when you misbehave in the playground! for example, he says, "Don't run Sharon Seeds, 9:20" by the end of the morning, at 9:15, there is a long Que to see him in his office! I really enjoy this good British Film, by Thorn E.M.I. John Cleese is a very good actor and a funny man. Remember Fawlty Towers ? in this film he does behave very Basil like in the scenes with the phones. when the money runs out.

James Hitchcock In "Clockwise" John Cleese plays a character who has much in common with Basil Fawlty from the television series "Fawlty Towers". Like the manic Torquay hotelier, Brian Stimpson is a control-freak who finds his own life going out of control. The headmaster of a small-town comprehensive school, he is a stickler for discipline, with a particular obsession with punctuality. He is the sort of man who knows the school timetable off by heart; upon seeing a pupil idling about the school he can instantly tell that pupil exactly what lesson he or she should be attending at that precise moment. (The school is, in an in-joke, named after the famous English clockmaker Thomas Tompion).Stimpson is disliked by his pupils and staff, who see him as authoritarian and patronising, but he is evidently held in high regard by the wider teaching profession, because he has been elected Chairman of the prestigious Headmasters' Conference. The film tells the story of what occurs on the day on which Stimpson is due to address the annual meeting of the Conference in Norwich. Things start to go wrong when, due to his misunderstanding what he is told by a ticket-collector at the station, he finds himself on the wrong train and ends up missing the train he should have caught. Told that there will not be another train to Norwich for several hours, he decides to make the journey by road and returns home, only to find that his wife has taken the car. He meets Laura, one of his sixth-form pupils, and in desperation persuades her to drive him on the 163-mile journey to Norwich. A further chain of misunderstandings leads to them being pursued across the English countryside by the police, by Laura's parents (who suspect that their daughter is having an affair with her headmaster) and by his wife (who suspects the same thing). On the way they kidnap a former girlfriend of Stimpson's whom they meet by accident, drive the car into a field and get stuck, find themselves in a monastery and, in their desperation to get to Norwich on time, end up holding up a passing motorist in order to steal his clothes, his money and his car.The film's central joke is that a man who is so obsessed with punctuality should find himself running very late in his attempts to get to the most important meeting of his life. Although Stimpson is the sort of man that most people would automatically dislike if we were to meet him in real life, Cleese manages to arouse a certain sympathy for his character, whose sense of panic arises from a sense that he is the victim of circumstances, that the entire universe is united in a vast conspiracy to prevent him from fulfilling what should have been a relatively simple task. His desperation is increased by the remote possibility that he might just be able to get to Norwich on time. ("It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand). There can be few of us who have not had, at some time or other, a similar feeling.Although the film is sometimes described as a farce, that word should not be taken as implying that it is a purely mechanical comedy; character also plays an important part. Fortunately, Cleese is not only a very good technical comedian- his timing in this film is superb- but also a very good character actor. (A gift shared by another ex-Python, Michael Palin). Cleese also receives good support from the rest of the cast, particularly from Alison Steadman as his long-suffering wife Gwenda and Sharon Maiden as the wild and headstrong Laura, for whom driving her headmaster cross-country is a much more interesting way of spending her day than a few hours of boring lessons.The film is not quite in the same class as Palin's two great post-Python comedies, "The Missionary" and "A Private Function". For most of the time it is very funny indeed; for most of the first hour and a bit I was laughing out loud. (Remarkably, my wife was too- normally she loathes the Pythons and all their works). Unfortunately, the scriptwriter Michael Frayn was unable to maintain this sense of comic invention to the end. The story needed some dazzling twist to finish on, but instead it fizzles out rather tamely and the last quarter of an hour or so, after Stimpson finally arrives at the Conference, is rather disappointing after what has gone before. Nevertheless, this is still one of the better British comedies of the eighties; I certainly prefer it to the overrated "A Fish Called Wanda". 7/10