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Better Late Then Never

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

I took a chance on buying this DVD after hearing that Kate Rusby featured heavily on the soundtrack. I like her English folk music style, and as a bonus she actually appears as 'the turn' at a motor-bike rally.A gathering of bikers , camping next to a pub as happens every spring and summer weekend somewhere in Britain.The film is set around South Yorkshire, I think at first, or perhaps even North Nottinghamshire. A faded pit town, somewhere Mansfield or a dozen others.The action moves on to places like Castleton in Derbyshire, and the area around Penistone, between Barnsley and Manchester. Ranging from quite bleak moorland to softer more rolling hills and trees.Colin is well portrayed as a simple man of relatively few words. The ones which spring from his lips invariably involve darts. His passion.The villain of the piece is a nasty copper, again well acted and the conniving Constable is after Colin's missus.Mrs.Col, and the copper take off to Blackpool,the 'Las Vegas of the North' and our hero sets off after them on his trusty Honda fifty (step-thru motorbike). The people he meets along thew way, from a predictably friendly group of bikers (the slightly mickey taking reception he got here was overstated)to a letcherous pub landlord really form the heart of the plot. He stumbles across a pack of Brownies on a camping trip, and , rather unlikely is instantly accepted.The scene where Col's bike is 'taken out was brilliantly shot & totally believable. Though having done a lot of motor-cycling myself his attire was less than adequate for his 'epic' trip.All the characters, with just one or two exceptions were very likable. From Mandy the overweight barmaid, disillusioned with her lover, and a mother of a cheeky wee actress who brilliantly captured a rebellion in the making, to Colin's wife. She had made a mistake in leaving him, and admitted it, would he have her back?I should have known anything involving Rusby's music would have a northern English flavour. The essence of the region, from stark beauty, to down at heel urban industry is here for all to see.Blackpool, the tacky town with such a proud heritage was filmed sympathetically, yet realistically.All in all a film which improves the more I think about it. I shall watch this several times I think. I really, and heartily recommend it to anyone with a soft spot for working class Brtiain.

At first sight this seemed to be one of those cheapo, feature-length, depressing British films that I have grown accustomed to over the past few years.I could not have been further off the mark. The characters were lovable, even if they weren't very realistic. The acting was very natural, and each scene was shot beautifully.I had not seen the Hero's Journey narrative used in this context before, but it worked well. Aided by the original Folk music score by Kate Rusby and John McCusker, the beautiful montages, and the unexpected resolution, this film brought a few tears to my eyes, and made me feel content.

I am an American, so I guess I missed the stereotypical treatment of the "hero" and his small town friends. I thought this was a charming little movie about a simple man who discovers some simple truths about himself and the world around him. The northern English countryside was beautifully presented. Since I live in a small town in the southern U.S., I am sensitive to stereotypical treatment of us provincial folk, but this movie seemed to be genuine in its affection for its protagonist and the denizens of the "north country". This well told little story shows us that life constantly takes strange little detours, and that sometimes it's best to go with the flow, and it does it without beating us over the head with the "message".

Why has this film only been released on DVD now, I never heard of this movie until I saw the cover sitting on a videostore shelf where are part-time.From the first scene to end of the credits I sat mesmerised by this film, the hapless hero Colin (Michael Sheen) travels to Blackpool on a moped to reclaim his wife Sandra (Jane Robbins) so simply a plot line done many times before but blows all attempts out of the water. The reason why he travels there wasn't why I loved this film, it was the journey, the people he meets along the way, the desire everyone has to just run free but are tied down by a 9-5 life. Colin's naivety is almost childlike that I smiled when he came across the fan turbines (sorry the name escapes me). It was shot beautifully, with superb acting and the soundtrack magnified it sheer brilliance.I put the DVD in expecting...well I didn't expect anything, road movies are usually repetitive and fail to keep you interested as the end closes in, however this film didn't do that it continued to amaze me until the end. This film is 100% fun.