Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Megamind To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

trevorwomble And that pretty much sums it up for me. This should have been a great little family film, even if it is surprisingly violent for a PG. An interesting story of a child and his teacher being kidnapped is let down by some woeful dubbing and the child lead has a very thick accent that is hard to understand. The direction is very average and the great supporting cast of Toshiro Mifune, Hardy Kruger and Ronald Fraser is given very little to do (Fraser and Kruger also turn up in Euan Lloyds next feature, 1978s 'The WIld Geese' where they have far more substantial parts).Niven saves the film with a performance of charm personified and is surprisingly effective playing a reluctant hero who lies his way into a decent job and then spins glorified untruthful tales of his previous heroism to impress his young charge. Of course the lies come back to haunt him but his colourful character just about saves this film from oblivion. It is a shame in some ways as with a little more care this could have been a better film than it is but something went wrong . Clumsy dialogue, badly explained politics, some comic book baddied and pedestrian directing coupled with obvious voice dubbing for some of the cast really let a good idea down here. Bit of a shame really.

HotToastyRag David Niven's first autobiography The Moon's a Balloon was a fantastic bestselling success in 1972; when you watch Paper Tiger, you can't help but wonder if it was written for the star after someone read his memoir. In the book, Niven shares countless, incredibly detailed stories from his time in the service, and in the movie, he shares just as many entertaining war anecdotes. It was an absolutely perfect role for that time in his career.In Paper Tiger, David Niven, an English WW2 veteran whose war injury requires a cane, is hired by the Japanese ambassador to tutor his young son. Immediately, Niven and Ando, a most adorable little boy in his first and only film, bond as Niven talks about his time in the war. A terrorist organization kidnaps both the boy and his tutor and holds them hostage, in hopes that the ambassador will cave to their demands. What will the old war hero do?David Niven gives a wonderful, touching performance, and Ando is such a natural, I don't know why he never made another movie. Their chemistry is very realistic; it's really cute when Niven starts to describe a battle story and then Ando's imagination takes over, giving the audience a combination of a flashback and a fantasy to watch. I absolutely loved this movie, and I highly recommend you rent it during your next family movie night. It's family friendly, and has laughs, dramatic tension, action, very nice music, great acting, and a story that just might require you to bring your Kleenexes.

Jonathon Dabell Paper Tiger is a harmless adventure movie which tries to cater for juvenile and adult audiences. It is lifted slightly above its station by strong performances from David Niven and Toshiro Mifune. The central theme of what can go wrong if you live your life as one big lie is quite interesting too. It is neither a great movie nor a terrible one: merely a workmanlike, watchable time-filler. Niven plays Major Bradbury, an English gentleman who has got a job in a troubled Far East country tutoring a young and impressionable Japanese boy about western history. He entertains the boy, Koichi (Ando), by spinning him tales of wartime heroism and derring-do. However, all of Bradbury's tales are fanciful lies in which he presents himself as some kind of all-action hero. Koichi and Bradbury are kidnapped by guerillas, and Bradbury soon realises that he must try to live up the heroic stature he has invented for himself in order to help the boy to survive. Toshiro Mifune as the boy's father, a Japenese ambassador, gives a strong, moving and convincing performance. Niven also has his moments, especially when he looks into the mirror and is appalled by the "nothing" of a man he sees staring guiltily back at him near the film's climax. The story itself is interesting, but the handling isn't all that special. The film satisfies itself with being a straight-forward kidnap thriller fit for kids and adults alike, but the themes of real and imagined identity could actually have been explored much more closely and maturely if the target audience was just adults. Still, a family film is what the makers decided to make, and a family film is what they've given us. On that level, this will do quite nicely for a rainy Saturday afternoon - even if you'll have probably forgotten it by Sunday!

foz-3 You would be forgiven at first into thinking that this was an old Walt Disney children's film. The humour is family orientated and typically weak - this type of film always has an annoying American character in holiday mode who pops up every so often. However the story is quite clever, albeit moralistic - the moral is don't pretend to be something you ain't.The main problem with this film is that you are unsure what kind of viewers it is actually aimed at. In between the "sweet" scenes of David Niven and his young cheeky Asian charge there are shootings,terrorist bombings and assassination attempts - hardly Walt Disney.However, the story is quite good with nice appearances from familiar faces and, apart from the rather insipid and soppy vocal version of the theme tune, is wrapped up fairly well. A good Saturday-afternoon-with-nothing-to-do sort-of-film