Let Down by the Songs...


All very polished and neatly performed by a high calibre cast, but let down by the mawkish sentimentality of the Proclaimers' songs.

Anodyne in the extreme... made me want to go out and smash things.

Good luck!

Ricos.

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Not to be funny but if you don't like the Proclaimers, why did you watch the film?

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Film reviewed well/good cast/and hoped it might be an ironic treatment of their saccharine 'music'.

;0)

Ricos.

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I'd hardly call their music, 'saccharine'

In terms of songwriting they are very underrated.

"Perhaps he's wondering why someone would SHOOT a man before throwing him out of a plane"

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I'd hardly call their music, 'saccharine'

Quite. There's nothing "saccharine" about the likes of "Sky Takes the Soul", "Letter from America" or "Misty Blue" (although admittedly the film chose not to use the verse about wanting to shoot "thugs and rapists in their stolen suits"...)

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I'd more describe their music as sometimes melancholy. But they're songs do have a sense of humour and irony.

Love their music, which probably helped in liking the film so much.

"Perhaps he's wondering why someone would SHOOT a man before throwing him out of a plane"

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Sadly I have to conquer. The opening song is the only one that stuck in my mind. The rest of them is utterly forgettable at best and after 4 or 5 songs strung together and forced into the plot, bringing nothing at all to the story or characters, I rolled my eyes at each new addition, more pointless and devoid of emotion than the next.

Shame to waste that cast and the storyline on those "musical" numbers.

For every lie I unlearn I learn something new - Ani Difranco

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I watched this at a friend's house, on DVD, and I feel I did watch it with an open mind, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I'd known how "jolly" and "cheesy" it was going to be. I felt that using the amputee character, and the other soldiers, was cheap and emotionally manipulative.

It could have been so much better. I actually wish I hadn't watched it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAIJ3Rh5Qxs

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I never regarded The Proclaimers as sentimental!

Its that man again!!

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The songs weren't forced into the storyline - it's a musical, set in a world where people burst into song. If you can't suspend your disbelief you'll struggle with it, and don't even go near The Sound Of Music or West Side Story (knife wielding gang members prance around in a very camp manner and sing in that one).

The Proclaimers have never featured in my top ten artistes, but I have always considered them rough-hewn and gritty, far from mawkish or sentimental. Some of the songs in this movie are used incredibly well - Sky Takes The Soul and the title track for example. I'm as cynical as the next person but this movie really moved me.

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