Rob's (cricket) Film Review Blog

Lions, jungle, Africa, all sorts going on, seemed a bit soppy - to think that 30 years later Kenya would slay the mighty West Indies in the World Cup - a West Indies team with Ambrose, Walsh, Richie Richardson, Ian Bishop and a little known player called Lara. It also contained Roger Harper, one of my favourite players. I once saw him flay Middlesex for 7 x 6s and 6x 4s at Uxbridge in 1985, including a one-handed six over third-man off a Wayne Daniel beamer. Oh, happy days. He made Daniel toil that day, but Middlesex had the last laugh and whopped us by an innings. I seem to recall Flash Cowans was on a hat-trick and who should come in: one of cricket's all time worst batsmen Jim Griffiths. Griffiths kept him out for the hat-trick, but then was run out for a rare high score of one. Griffiths is in that select category of players who have taken more wickets than they have scored runs.

Roger Harper was a world-class fielder too, possibly the finest ever groundfielder. In a neat twist, he is now Kenya's coach.

Flash Cowans had played his last test for England before he was 25. Ironically, when he dropped his pace he became one of the finest exponents of seam bowling in England at the time, and at a time when the England team was crying out for such a player, Cowans was ignored. I defy anyone to prove to me that the England selectors of the day actually went and watched any matches and assessed the players rather than picking the team from the averages published in the Times.

Oh, yes - the film, 1 star, for some nice pictures of lions.

At last! At last! A mention of cricket in a film - not a lot, just a couple of lines, but TMNT managed what Casablanca, It's a Wonderful Life, and Citizen Kane didn't. I would give it 10/10, but I have just sat through 93 minutes of utter drivel, so I'll knock 5 off - thus 5/10.

A plot more confusing than a tax form written in Hungarian. The film would have been greatly improved with a tour of how cricket grounds were being utilised during the war. The Oval, for example, was used as a PoW camp. Hence: 0/10

Wes Hall was an athletic, fearsome fast bowler in the days of uncovered pitches and no arm-guards or helmets. Annie Hall couldn't even frighten Peter Visser into submission. 1/10

The title of this suggested that it might be an incisive study into English Cricket's perpetual no-balling problems in the 1980s. I couldn't have been more wrong. 1/10.

Amusing film. I thought it lacked the smack of leather against willow, and the gentle flutter of applause. 2/10.

Was it a musical? No mention of Botham's 1981 Ashes, not a sausage about Compton's 3000 runs in 1947. Bizarre. I nodded off after 5 mins, but was assured that the phrase "Warne has added another flipper to his armoury" was not uttered. 1/10.

James Stewart, not Alec Stewart. 'Nuff said. 0/10.

Palin, Cleese, Klein, Lee Curtis - would have preferred Holding, Garner, Marshall, Roberts. Not a cricket ball in sight. 2/10.

This movie should have starred Trevor Bailey, Boycs, Tavare and Hanif Mohammed. But no, it was Dustin Hoffman being pursued by Laurence Olivier pretending to be a nazi dentist. not bad though, hence the two stars. 2/10.

Amazing to think this was made in 1968 - the season Geoff Boycott topped the Yorkshire averages with 77.23 - when the next best averaged only 33! There is no mention of this in the film though.

Couldn't work out what on earth (or in space) was going on at any point. Gets a star though for some nice space pictures.

I think there was more to be had cricket-wise here than some mafia related tale. To be fair, I did nod off for most of it, so if there were cricket bits in there I missed them. The bits I saw did not mention cricket or even WG Grace at all. Grace was possibly the single most important factor in making cricket England's summer sport - in over 800 games he scored over 50,000 runs and took 2809 first class wickets at 18.14. He was the 'Godfather' of our national summer sport, but Francis Ford Coppola missed this point entirely. Perhaps I should have watched Godfather I first?

Quite funny in parts this - though reference to Graham Gooch's 333 against India in 1990 would have ensured a much higher score. 3/10.

I thought there was an outside chance of a discussion of Abdul Qadir's career (236 test wkts @ 32.80) I was sorely disappointed. 1/10.

I sat down. I watched. I fell asleep. I woke up. I went home. 0/10.

I was rather hoping for a movie showing the highlights of Gordon Greenidge's career (test average 44.72 with 19 centuries) but this sci-fi movie fell well short. In their defence, Greenidge had only played 30 tests by 1980 - so a career highlights package would have been too soon. 1/10.

The title looked promising. A missed opportunity though. No mention of the majesty of Viv Richards, the swash-buckling Gary Sobers, the brutality of Walcott, the sheer class of Lara, or the blood-curdling ordeal that is the whispering-death of Michael Holding. And I couldn't work out who the hero is supposed to be. 2/10.

Lots of guns and shouting. Not a cover drive in sight. 1/10.

Not a mention of cricket in this so-called classic. Poor.