Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

bigverybadtom The idle son of an aristocrat wants to try working for a living, but what to do? He ends up working in his uncle's factory, where he finds himself engaged in a complicated struggle between the greedy industrialists and the equally sleazy radical labor union leadership.For its time and place (1950's Britain), the movie probably was quite popular and entertaining, but the story gets too confusing in present-day America. We don't have the aristocratic class that Britain ever did, our labor unions were never quite so leftist overall, and present-day industries have little to fear from labor unions-jobs can be given to illegal immigrants or moved overseas. The roles that Peter Sellers performed, anyone could do, even if this movie made him a major actor in Britain.Perhaps a classic in its era, but quite dated and confusing today.

Spikeopath I'm All Right Jack is directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting from a script by Frank Harvey, John Boulting and Alan Hackney. It's based on the novel Private Life by Hackney and is a sequel to the Boulting's 1956 film Private's Progress. Returning from the first film are Ian Carmichael, Dennis Price, Richard Attenborough, Terry-Thomas, Victor Madden & Miles Malleson. While Peter Sellers (BAFTA for Best Actor) and a ream of British comedy actors of the time make up the rest of the cast.Looking to force a crooked deal, Bertram Tracepurcel (Price) and his cohort Sydney de Vere Cox (Attenborough) convince Major Hitchcock (Thomas), the personnel manager at the local missile factory, to hire Tracepurcel's nephew, Stanley Windrush (Carmichael), knowing full well that his earnest and wet behind the ears approach to work will cause fractions within the work force. Then it's expected that Bolshoi shop steward Fred Kite (Sellers) will call a strike that will see the crooked plan to fruition.Between 1956 and 1963 the Boulting brothers produced a number of satirical movies, I'm All Right Jack is arguably the finest of the bunch. Given that it's now admittedly a dated time capsule, for some of the dialogue would simply be shot down in this day and age, one has to judge and value it for the time it was made. The first and most striking thing about the film is that nobody escapes the firing line, this is not merely a device to kick the trade unions with {and a kicking they do get}, but also the government, the media, big industries and the good old chestnut of the old school brigade. All are in the sights of the Boulting's and the team. The overriding message being that all of them are out for themselves, self-interest and feathering of ones nest is the order of the times.Also winning a BAFTA was the screenplay, with that you still need the cast to do do it justice. Ian Carmichael was an undervalued performer in that he was an unselfish actor feeding set ups to his costars. That is never more evident than it is here where the likes of Margaret Rutherford, Irene Handl, John Le Mesurier, Liz Fraser & Victor Madden benefit greatly playing off of Carmichael's toff twit twittering. But it's Sellers movie all the way. Which considering he didn't want to do the movie originally, saying he couldn't see the role of Kite being funny, makes his turn all the more special. Studying for weeks labour leaders and politico types, Sellers, with suit too tight, cropped hair and a Hitler moustache, nails the pompous militancy of the shop steward leader. It doesn't stop there, couple it with the contrast of Kite's home life, where the Boulting's are slyly digging away at facades, and you get a two side of the coin performance that's a joy from start to finish.Very much like Ealing's sharp 51 piece, The Man In The White Suit, this is cynical, but classy, British cinema across the board. Throwing punches and with cheek unbound, I'm All Right Jack has razor sharp teeth from which to take a bite of the comedy pie with. 9/10

eyeache Pauline Kael was an influential critic, and she deserves to be honoured for trashing Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange" (though for the wrong reasons), and praising Peckinpah. On the other hand, she veered erratically from being fairly perceptive to being singularly obtuse. Calling "I'm All Right, Jack" a "raucous farce" is way off-mark; in fact ridiculously inaccurate. There is nothing raucous about it, nor is it anything even close to being a farce. It is a blistering satire, and nails its targets with savage, pin-point accuracy. Although it's nice to see that there are some few Americans who seem to appreciate this kind of thing, in general one feels that the sheer professionalism and incredible precision of the nuanced performances of Dennis Price, Irene Handl, Terry-Thomas and Peter Sellers, are miles above the heads of non-European viewers. Humour does not always travel easily. My view is that there must be something seriously wrong with any European who finds anything the slightest bit funny about "Team America", or "Blazing Saddles", or anything else by Mel Brooks, but those dreadful disasters send many Americans into raptures.It is tempting to call "I'm All Right, Jack" of its time, and dated. It isn't. Although the so-called working class, and Union attitudes, so mordantly portrayed in this masterpiece have modified to some extent, if not completely disappeared, then the behaviour of top management and politicians in today's Britain is worse than it ever was, if such a thing is possible. Pull up the ladder, Fred, I'm all right.

bkoganbing I waited until I watched Private's Progress to get a feel for these characters from where they originated before writing about I'm All Right Jack. The only question was how did at least two of the repeating characters get out of the jackpot they were left in the previous film in order to be characters here. By all rights Dennis Price and Richard Attenborough should have been doing some time in Her Majesty's jail.Price and Attenborough, along with Terry-Thomas and Ian Carmichael repeat their characters from Private's Progress. World War II is over and somehow everybody's back to where they were before, Price and Attenborough up to some nefarious scheme, Ian Carmichael still a polished, but mindless upper class twit who can't even fit in at university and Terry-Thomas just being Terry-Thomas.Carmichael is almost Stan Laurel like in his innocence about all that goes on around him. He joins the working class work force and he muddles into a situation that has the potential to destroy labor/ management relations built up from World War II and the Labour government that took power. Especially if radical union leader Peter Sellers has his way, who joins this cast and fits right into the fun.A lot of the same themes are repeated from the Alec Guinness classic The Man In The White Suit and really both ought to be seen back to back unless one wants to view I'm All Right Jack with Private's Progress. Either way it's a fun filled evening you're in store for.