Fulvue Drive-In.com
Current Reviews
In Stores Soon
 
In Stores Now
 
DVD Reviews, SACD Reviews Essays Interviews Contact Us Meet the Staff
An Explanation of Our Rating System Search  
Category:    Home > Reviews > Scoop (British telefilm)

Scoop (British telefilm)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: C-     Telefilm: C+

 

 

IN what is supposed to be a spoof of early journalism, Scoop (1987) offers a fine cast that includes Donald Pleasence, Michael Malone, Denholm Elliott, Nicola Pagett, Herbert Lom and Renée Soutendijk, but is never really funny and almost seems afraid to push the envelope.  Based on Evelyn Waugh’s book set in the early part of the 20th Century in England and involves the wrong man (Maloney) sent to cover a war in a fake East African country, when he is not even a news journalist.

 

Instead, his specialty is wildlife, which may come in handy otherwise as he gets to examine the pack of lies and deception, but it never develops any kind of suspense either, so it teeters between the two as it tries its hardest to be “quality television” first, which means it falls into the clichés of said TV and the result is just plain odd.  The performances are good, but Gavin Millar’s directing never takes the material where it could or should have.  Just having a newspaper called The Daily Beast should have been the take-off point for such a thing, but Millar and the William Boyd teleplay plays it too safe and the result is two hours of missed opportunity.

 

The full frame color image looks like an older PAL transfer, though the work looks like it may have actually originated on film.  Cinematographer Roger Pratt, B.S.C., handles the locations well, but they do not forward the limits placed on the narrative.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also average and representative of the original TV mono, though likely is not first generation, with Stanley Myers’ score not too impressive.  The few extras are limited and text, including a Waugh biography, the same coverage on Maloney and Elliott (which seems lame as compared to what BFS usually offers) and quotes from Waugh.  That makes this a curio at best.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


Marketplace


 
 Copyright © MMIII through MMX fulvuedrive-in.com