TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Leofwine_draca A good-natured Disney adventure which borrows its title from the WW2 flick ONE OF OUR AIRCRAFT IS MISSING. This is a distinctly '70s production, packed with action and humour and an ensemble cast of stalwarts who appear in regular cameos. The plot is preposterous nonsense of course, and the film as a whole is laced with lurid racism and general silliness, but it's all handled in such a lively spirit that it becomes impossible not to like.Peter Ustinov headlines the cast as a Chinese agent searching for a secret formula hidden within a dinosaur skeleton by a British spy. Such plotting is merely a loose excuse for the film's pivotal and extended set-piece, which sees a huge Brontosaurus skeleton transported on the back of a wagon through the streets of London, with various villains in pursuit.The cast give engaging, witty performances, with Joan Sims and Helen Hayes particularly shining as the committed nannies and Ustinov holding it all together with his perfectly-mannered turn (which reminded me of Peter Sellers in MURDER BY DEATH). Watch out for the likes of Jon Pertwee, John Laurie, Joss Ackland, Bernard Bresslaw, John Bardon, Joan Hickson, and Amanda Barrie in minor parts.

malenoid It is not necessary to give a synopsis of one of the worst movies ever made. There are good reviews of this movie available online. I just want to add that as a young teen of about 13 years I went to see this movie with a friend and his father. The movie was double-billed with a Disney classic, Cinderella, which ran first in order to draw an audience. One Of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing began and the audience just kind of slowly filtered out of the theater. Our group was one of the last to leave, and the theater was probably empty before half-an-hour of the movie was through. Don't buy the DVD unless you are a collector. So the next time Disney announced the opening of its "Golden Vault" the video of this stinker better stay right where it is: collecting dust on a shelf.

Goatbeyondhope This was one of the most memorable films of my childhood, and I hadn't seen it since it came out in the cinema in England when I was seven years old, until I was given a DVD of it again today, thirty-one years later. Although today it didn't have me rolling in the aisles or have me doing Peter Ustinov impressions for hours afterward like it did back then, it still was a charmer, and it was simply just fun to watch. It deliberately encapsulates a bit of the paradoxically innocent yet bigoted flavor of England back in those times, and there are many little delicate touches for those with an appreciation for the idiosyncrasies of the English. Peter Ustinov is perfectly cast to be given license to run amok with his non-politically-correct character, considering he was one of the most well-read, culturally-sensitive intellectuals of his generation. (Check out HIS Bio!) It's certainly all about him. Overacting? I'd say "playing it broad" instead, and yet with real skill. Ustinov was a master raconteur on many subjects: political, cultural, and musical, and his comedic timing was also very acute. I think it shows. Is this film racist? Well, it certainly couldn't have been produced by Walt Disney in today's social climate, but I'd say rather that it is really a grand romp in satire, made at a time when we could more easily laugh at ourselves and each other, and forgive a little easier too. Sure it's completely "wrong" that the Chinese guys are actually played by Europeans in make-up. But the very joke lies in just how much a parody this "Chinese" make-up actually is, and how no-one is remotely intended to be fooled. Paraphrasing lines of Ustinov's (Chinese) character explains this perfectly: "How can you tell Europeans apart? They all look the same...those eyes." The film left me with the wistful feeling and hope that here was the England and these were the kinds of adventures that we had when we were children. (How dearly I would still love to run around with a squad of Great British Nannies or Chinese Agents looking for a microfilm on the Diplodocus in the Natural History Museum.) It's a wonderful time to look back to, even if it probably only ever existed in imagination. Sadly, the once-free-to-wander-in- during-our-summer-holidays Natural History Museum now charges a hefty admission fee. And that's a fact.

Palicot Helen Hayes and Joan Sims are British Nannies that get involved in espionage trying to find Lotus X. A brilliant comedy, with great performances all round. There are also a lot of familiar faces in small roles. A memorable plot line and a great fight near the end of the film between the Chinese and the Nannies.