The characters are great, the writing, not so much. Leaden pacing and way too much Exposition Fairy, plus Lucy is bitter than she doesn’t get to see Diana Rigg mug a nun.
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Story Analysis & Ratings:
Lucy says: 2.5 Pops ~ Some nice moments and a great premise buried under heavy layers of expositional dialogue and questionable motivation. Someone remake this the way it should have been? Please?
Lucy’s rating breakdown: Structure: 2, Romance: 3
Jenny says: 3 Pops ~ A terrific premise and solid characters kneecapped by lousy writing; a criminal waste of a great cast. This one’s ripe for a remake.
Jenny’s rating breakdown: Structure: 2, Romance: 4
Blog Poll Rating: TBD
Movie Info:
Story: A newspaper reporter hires an assassination bureau to kill its owner. Release Date: April, 1969. Writers: Michael Relph and Wolf Mankowitz from novels by Robert L. Fish and Jack London
9 responses to “Ep. 38: The Assassination Bureau”
My love of this movie makes so much more sense now. I love the Great Race too. “Push the button, Max.”
Oh I love The Great race! Ever since I was little. “With a small friar, sir.” “Leslie escaped with a CHICKEN?!”
Me and my sister watched this over Christmas break together and we were both totally swooning over young Oliver Reed. Especially the part where he’s wearing the gondola outfit.
I’ll be back with more insightful comments after I listen to the podcast but I just had to throw that out there: Oliver Reed was a pretty, pretty man.
I don’t know that I’d go for “pretty,” but “hot” is definitely on. And Diana Rigg just glowed.
I don’t know why those gondola stripes were so attractive but he definitely had me there. And her, as it turned out.
I feel like I should’ve been keeping track of the movies that started with great ideas but failed to deliver. it seems to me that would be a great list.
okay, I swear I wrote the above comment before reading EW this week. ” Don’t remake good movies. Remake bad movies…..Remake a movie that had a good core but was poorly executed or has aged badly – not a movie that was actually good.”
Stephanie, I think that’s key. And evidently the remake of Cactus Flower really is an improvement (I’ll believe it when I see it). The Assassination Bureau is definitely a candidate for a great remake.
I just saw the Shakespeare Retold version of Taming of the Shrew, and Rufus Sewell would make a dynamite Ivan; Shirley Henderson was excellent, too.
The remake of Cactus Flower is NOT an improvement. It’s just bad in a different way.
Sounds like the movie last night. I thought it was bad, but Lucy and Alastair were voting for vile. First time I ever saw Lucy scoot her chair back to get farther away from the screen.