Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

mark.waltz An accidental explosion in the London district of Pimlico leads to the discovery that almost 600 years ago, it belonged to the state of Burgundy, and evidence of this convinces the locales to cede from the mother country and create their own. This creates chaos amongst the law and order of the region, and before you know it, passports are required to go from other parts of London through Pimlico which now has its own customs agent before even crossing the channel over to the mainland. Later, barbed wire fences are installed and the water supply is cut off, but the London neighbors, aghast by this, begin showing the new country support in ways that Parliment didn't expect.This is a grand political comedy with dark overtones that really makes one think of how much we both love and hate our own individual governments, loyal to the ideals on which they were created, but aghast by the abuses the people in power take on. The locales of Pimlico here go haywire as the news breaks, a huge party at the local pub breaks out (with the constable on duty joining in!), and with the recent world war still having an effect on society, and rationing the law of England, the townsfolk break out their goods for sale and begin peddling them on the street as they had before the war. An all-star cast of some of England's greatest actors all deliver excellent performances, with Hermoine Baddley as a local dress shop keeper, Margaret Rutherford as a history expert, and Stanley Holloway as one of the local leaders standing out. Some of the references to British culture and trends may seem a bit foreign to American audiences, but it is a good way to learn a little bit of another culture and understand some of the slang terms (at least of the times) while having a good laugh at convention and the leadership of government which at some times still seems like schoolboys playing cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians. There's a very funny metaphor concerning the temperature which rises immediately upon ceding from England and the results of what happens when the plot is resolved.

italianredbird54 My cable TV has what's called the Arts channel, which is a "catch-as-catch-can" situation sometimes, sometimes films, sometimes short clips of films or ballets, and I came into this just as the bar scene came on, where they tear up their coupons. Excellent, exquisite, Ealing wins again, my wartime-Glasgow-raised mother would love this, should I ever find a copy of it. Some of Britain's best artists, from Mr Holloway to Wayne and Radford and the delicious Miss Rutherford, having a wonderful time gently sticking it to the Home Office. Loved the last scene, where as soon as they are "back in England!" the temperature plummets and it rains...

The_Secretive_Bus One of Ealing's most fondly remembered comedies and for good reason; it's another one of their "little man stands up to the establishment" films, this time with the people of Pimlico sticking by their rights to be independent from Whitehall. There are some problems with the set-up - most notably with the fact that many of the problems the Pimlico citizens get into are their own fault by deliberately spiting the British government (ridiculing the police a few minutes before demanding they have police protection is a good case in point) - but overall the film gets by with its charm and almost fantastical quaintness. The satirical edge has been blunted by the passing years but for a film over 55 years old it still stands up today rather well. A glimpse into another world, really, where everybody in the district knows each other and life goes on amongst glimpses of bombed out buildings following the Blitz (for more of this sort of thing, see the earlier "Hue and Cry").The characters are an amiable lot and Stanley Holloway is a likable lead, embodying the Ealing Comedy spirit very well. Watch out also for a rather depressed pre-Carry On Charles Hawtrey, wandering in and out of the story at regular intervals. However, the absolutely wonderful Margaret Rutherford steals every one of her scenes, playing her eccentric, dotty old lady character as reliably and enjoyably as she ever did. I'm always amazed at how energetic her performances were. She was certainly one of British cinema's treasures."Pimlico", despite some story problems, remains a fun little picture that at 80 minutes doesn't out-stay its welcome, and probably gets better with repeated viewings. Well worth a go.

tedg I believe that what separates modern nations from the old model — and affiliations that aren't nations — is in the consistency of the national narrative. These days that is molded in cinematic terms.The much-celebrated sound bite phenomenon only works because as a shortcut it refers back to that narrative. All sound bits are cinematic. If we want to understand ourselves, we need to understand the stories we've joined.That's why I'm spending a bit of time with films that define what it means to be British. I'm not British myself, so It should be a bit easier to see. I write this shortly after terrorist attacks in London, an event which forces the UK to snap back to references of who they are. I saw this on a double bill with a quintessential Battle of Britain movie. You can see there that the whole enterprise is designed to convey a short list of characteristics. War movies are seldom about war and always about who we are.This is different. Possibly no collection of films define the Brits more than Ealing comedies. And I think this is the clearest.The setup concerns a small suburb of London. Ordinary folks... that's important.By some plot device, they become non-Brits in the midst of Britain. They cling to this, as one says they fight so hard to be non-British because they ARE British.As this unfolds, what we see is self-evaluation of what it means to belong and what the characteristics of the group are. I could list what I saw, but that's boring.Much more interesting is that everything I saw was a mild version of what we'd see later with the "Goon Show" and Monty Python. The "Minister of Silly Walks" bit seems pretty tight.Slight fun. Important. InsightfulTed's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.