Swallows and Amazons

source: Swallows and Amazons

This is a real shame for me. I haven't read the book and went into this blind, but didn't enjoy it all that much. What's saddening about this film is that it's one of those films that gets everything right, from the beautiful cinematography to the amazing directing to the great casting, but with a lacklustre script. Maybe it's true to the source, but it comes off as awkward and fake, with pieces of dialogue not making much sense followed by the previous piece, and characters going from upset to overwhelmingly happy in a split second. It doesn't feel real. This is sad because the script is only one element of a huge project, but a film needs a good script to be great. Overall, though, I did enjoy it. Not as high as other films released this year, but definitely not one of the worst I've watched. Children probably will enjoy it, as will fans of the novel from what I've read, but I'd recommend something else for others. If you're going for anything, it should be for the beautiful scenes and shots. Love the use of fog.

I took my two nieces and two nephews to this film today with their grandparents/my parents and my sister. It's a rare occasion when 3 generations can sit in a cinema and watch and enjoy the same film. For a start the film is visually LUSH. It's so beautiful to look at and combined with the music is a tonic for any frazzled parent/grandparent. Secondly the children were absolutely gripped by the action; and the boys immediately identified with John and Roger and the various injustices they suffered. The girls (both 13) were delighted to see girls who could do everything the boys did and more; who didn't care about appearances or looking messy and who stood up for themselves. I left wanting Kelly MacDonald to be my mum; I wanted to take the kids sailing: or better still let them go sailing on their own. I can't remember a more vivid evocation of childhood: the dialogue sounded so much like real conversations that I wondered at first whether it was improvised. I cried at the end because the children portrayed seemed so much more alive than child actors normally appear. And super support from the likes of Andrew Scott and Jessica Hynes. Enjoy and remember!

Unlike most reviewers, I thought this remake was a travesty, a tragedy, anything you care to call it. For one of a family brought up on Arthur Ramsome, this version is so totally wrong. What was a simple story of a bunch of 'decent' young 1930s children on holiday in the Lake District, trusted by their parents to sail the lake and camp on an island on their own, has been turned into something which may well amuse and entertain the children of today, but nobody surely who has read the books. A smoking Scotswoman for a mother, a grumpy old woman for the farmer's wife, a spy in Russia for Captain Flint, a man being chased on a train, a child proffering a gun, a family who argue and shout at each other, knives, guns, and a fight aboard a seaplane - no, this isn't Swallows and Amazons. The scenery is beautiful as you'd expect and I thought the original story quite sufficient for even today's children, so why change it? Quite fun if you don't know the story, but rubbish if you do!

Like many I grew up with Arthur Ransom's books & enjoyed the 1974 Swallows & Amazons film. Film remakes are usually cause for concern – "Why?" - but it is the exceptions that make me keep trying: Dredd (better than the dire Stallone version); The Thomas Crown Affair (at least equal to the McQueen original); Lord Of The Rings (being harsh to the animated version). The involvement of the great Jessica Hynes, Harry Enfield and Andrew Scott in this production made me think it would be worth a try. Far from being reassured by the BBC's stamp of quality, I should have registered the alarm bells set off at their meddling by changing Titty to Tatty. I sat down with some nibbles during a spare 2 hours to watch this on the big screen, thanks to my HD projector, to give the scenery the attention it deserved. Duffer – Give it a wide berth. Sadly the camera work was the only high point. (10/10) I really wanted to enjoy it. The plot has been hacked around to within an inch of its life and bears little resemblance to the original – so a blatant cash in. The characters, particularly the children, far from being role models for generations come across as whiny brats. (The young actors deserved better material and I hope their careers are not blighted by their involvement.) Worse than this, the plot at best just made little sense: precariously placed hampers falling overboard, followed by Roger later; knives dropped into boats; silence when a brief explanation would have fixed things; firing what exactly from boat to boat? At worst it was just a farce – a soft focus pillow fight reminded me of the great Zoolander Orange Mocha Frappuccino scene (Google it), but not in a good way. I cringed frequently all the way though and only kept watching because I hoped it might get better – it didn't. So what to draw from this. • I will re-watch the 1974 version which, though dated, is better in so many ways and hopefully will overwrite my memory of this one. • If you or your children have never visited the world of Arthur Ransom, you should, but I advise you to either read at least the first book or see the first film adaptation. Do not start here. • If you thought that this work in any way warranted more than 3 stars, then I question what you have been watching up to now. Take your kids to see Toy Story, Inside Out or Paddington perhaps. • BBC Film Makers (Lowthorpe & Gibb) – if you plan to adapt another classic literary work, then I suggest watching Blade Runner (if you plan a total re-write) or any of Peter Jackson's Hobbit or Lord of the Rings films. You clearly had the budget and team around you to make this great, but something went sadly wrong at your end. Pick another book and have another go - Missee Lee, with the panache of Pirates of the Caribbean perhaps? I waited some time to really enjoy this movie and sadly feel cheated enough to have written this review so that whilst I have wasted two hours of my life and sullied a lifelong memory you, dear reader, need not.

SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS is another example of the BBC at their meddling worst, supposing that they can improve on a classic novel by changing it for modern audiences. This version of the Arthur Ransome tale adds in a whole lot of sub-plots, most notably involving Russian spies headed by stock bad guy Andrew Scott, and more unforgivably changes the main characters for the worse. Where the girls were keen, practical and intelligent in the book, they're now hopeless and clumsy, their uselessness played for laughs. I'm sure I'm not the only one who found this aspect quite sexist. And don't get me started on the new character name 'Tatty'. It's a pity that the resultant film is such a dog because at least it looks nice, with decent location photography and the like. A few familiar faces prop up the supporting cast with Rafe Spall, Kelly Macdonald, and Harry Enfield, but they're very much going through the motions here and overall the film isn't a patch on the classic 1970s version with Virginia McKenna.

The makers of this rather odd film don't seem to have been able to make up their minds whether they were doing Swallows and Amazons or The Thirty Nine Steps, and so have gone for a rather awkward blending of the two. Clearly they don't think that Ransome's gentle story of a boating holiday in the Lake District is exciting enough for modern audiences, and they may be right. So on the train on the way to the lake District we get Sinister Spies erupting into the Walker children's compartment (mother has gone outside for a smoke) and one of them (Uncle Jim no less) ends up climbing about on the outside of the train and jumping off. Uncle Jim is in fact the world's worst spy ever. He leaves secret papers and photos lying about in the cabin of his boat in plain view, and doesn't even bother to lock the door when he goes out. He does everything to draw attention to himself except wearing a hat with 'Spy' on it. There is still room for some boating and camping on the island, and when the film stick to what is actually in the book it isn't bad, but the spy stuff weighs the film down, and gets steadily more absurd as the film goes on, culminating in a scene of such joyous absurdity i was reduced to tears of laughter. As a film of Swallows and Amazons this is badly flawed, but is worth 5 out of 10 for making me laugh so much.

How sad that someone's sensitivities (who's?) were considered so important that Titania's original name was changed to 'Tatty' for this film. The character's name is Titty, and has been since 1930 - a very long time - and I consider that the producers should be ashamed of themselves for giving in on such an insignificant matter. Do they not know the expression 'to Roger someone'? Do they not know what a 'John' is in certain societies? Where does all this lunacy stop? Perhaps the film lacks the intensity of modern, CGI, 'shoot 'em up' films, but the pleasure should lie in the bucolic idealism that Ransome illustrated in all his books. Oh, and the basics of how to sail, alongside other matters naval and historical. Fortunately interest in such activities remains high and will probably remain so for the next few centuries, unlike passing fads passed off as 'entertainment' but actually merely being another vehicle for profit.

Based on the 1930's novel, four children sail out to an island near their holiday destination until they come across another group of kids in their own boat which then leads to a series of incidents with a mysterious man living in a houseboat. Apparently this film is based on a "timeless,classic novel". Unfortunately this adaptation is neither timeless and I highly doubt it will ever become a classic. This is mainly due to the fact that a film that seems to be a sloppy mixture of a bad BBC 90's Christmas special, dodgy Countryfile and the acting and script of a primary school production (but a little bit worse) has and never will be a classic. As you may well have already worked out from the opening of this review, I didn't enjoy Swallows And Amazons. One line of dialogue is "This was going to be a very long summer" and I just sat there and thought "This was going to be one extremely long film!". And it was. It went on and on and on and as it went on the plot and the events unfolding on screen become more and more ridiculous. Yes it's a fictional film and you can stretch the boundaries with this sort of thing, but even with where this film goes it goes well over the boundaries and near the ending goes from about 90 to well over 1004 on a scale of how much nonsense the film is producing. As for the acting of the four lead characters all I can say is it is some of the worst acting I have ever seen by children in a film, even the older ones couldn't act for all the money in the world it's like primary school play, but much worse and ten times more annoying. One stand out child actor in this is the youngest lead who doesn't stand out for the best reasons. In a year where we've seen brilliant performances from younger actors in such things like Pete's Dragon and The BFG, this child knocks down that giant well built and strong tower with a piece of A4 paper. It's one of the worst performances of the year and yes he's a child but still a primary school production with an angry child in the supporting role not delivering his lines properly because he wanted the lead role is better. In fact it seems that the only person who can act is Andrew Scott who is one of the only decent and bearable thing about this film, unfortunately he's not actually in the film that often and doesn't have very much to do.What doesn't help is the fact that the script is unbearably stupid and annoying, all one character seems to say is "I don't like this..", "I don't like that...", "I want this...", "I want that.." and "Let me do this or I won't do that" and it gets so annoying and repetitive and causes the film to become longer and longer than it actually is. And that's about the middle ground of things along with the film getting more and more ridiculous as it goes on. There is so, so much wrong with this film and it get's worse and worse as it goes on. If you enjoyed the original book then you'll hate this adaptation of Swallows And Amazons, if you haven't read it, you'll still hate it, if you hated the book, guess what.. You'll still hate it! From the most annoying child actors ever to one of the worst scripts ever Swallows And Amazons gets more and more ridiculous as it goes on. ** <-- Two Stars (Out Of Five)

The story of 'Swallows and Amazons' occupies a small place in my heart. Every night, I used to read a little bit of a book to my kids when they were tucked up in bed. And one of these books was 'Swallows and Amazons' by Arthur Ransome. I thought it might be a nice read and so we launched into it. The book grabbed me as much as it grabbed my kids. Here, you see, give or take a few elements, was my own childhood transcribed in a book. The lake, the boats, the island, the camp fire, the fish, the adventure. The little story transposed itself effortlessly into the vivid geography of my own memories and validated the adventures of my youth. So, this afternoon, I set off to see the brand new film that's just been released in cinemas. I'm glad to report that those places in my heart are safe and sound and, if anything, have been made just a little bit bigger. There are additional story elements in the film, necessary to enable the transfer from page to screen in a completely engaging way, and these work admirably well. But it is the very 'outdoors'ey, adventuring nature of the book that weaves the main magic here. And that's the thing with Swallows and Amazons, it is a real accessible adventure. You don't need to be able to fly or leap tall buildings in a single bound to have an adventure. All you really need is a back garden, some conspirators, and a will to venture out. That's why the kids at this afternoon's show remained enraptured. The parents might have been nervous on their behalf, for where was the million pixel animation and where was the primary-coloured super hero? These heroes point their bow to the centre of the deep lake and, before they are done, will hold real fire in their hands. These are adventures that can be carried out from the cinema and into the real world. Children can see all that. Children know. In my own childhood adventures, I was definitely Roger. My elder brothers kept the knives, real and metaphorical, for themselves and always stood a little in defence between me and the world. You could see it clearly in young Bobby McCulloch's eyes, on screen. The burning need for acknowledgement, to be a bona fide big boy. I was Roger and he was me but each of the Walker children will find a soul mate in each darkened theatre where the film plays. Tatty is so wonderful, literate and feisty and the elder children carry the pressures and responsibilities that come with their station. This is, at the end of the day, a story for children and there must be an element of gentle threat and conspiracy and ultimately a general 'winning of the day'. But lots of adults, like myself, will come to the picture house with their furtive popcorn and they, too, will find what they seek. A sense of the outdoor childhood that we all remember a little better than it actually was. A time of freedom and adventure. A sense of home. I would highly recommend Swallows and Amazons. If you know the book and have some regard for it, or if you just want your children to see an adventure of the kind they could then go out and create for themselves.