Strictly average movie

An absolute waste of money

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

I won't say that this 39 Steps is completely irredeemable, the Scottish scenery is gorgeous and it is sumptuously and atmospherically shot. However, I wasn't at all convinced by the story. Others have said about the minimal resemblance to the book and its inferiority to the 1935 Hitchcock film, and while I am going to judge this version solely on its own terms, I can see people's disappointment. The story here is leaden in pace, is lacking in suspense, the romance is pure overly-sentimental schmaltz and is just not as exciting or as plausible. They even add a scene that looks like it was paying homage or something to the classic crop duster sequence from North By Northwest, but with little of why that scene was so classic in the first place. The rest of the action seemed unexciting and even generic. The script is rather stilted and leaves a lot of characters underwritten. Hannay is not as charming or resourceful as he had potential to be, sometimes he comes across as a buffoon, and the female lead feels like a clichéd femme-fatale sort of character. The acting was also lacking, Rupert Penry-Jones I have always found a conscientious actor who works wonderfully in well written roles and dramas like Spooks or Silk, but here despite his handsome persona, he is wooden in alternative to brooding or charming and does nothing with his lines(no wonder). All in all, a real disappointment, in comparison and on its own merits(the latter I find more of a problem in all honesty). 3/10 Bethany Cox

The 39 Steps has a long film history.It was first done by Hitchcock in 1935 ( more to follow). Then it was a TV film in the late 1950's (I never saw it), It was remade in the 1970's. (you had to hunt for the theatres it played in).It was released as a double bill with another weak remake of NIGHT MUST FALL.Now we come to the current version made for BBC television. Lizzie Mickery wrote a decent adaptation of John Buchan's pre-World War 1 novel.I remember seeing the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock in a re-release with another Hitchcock film JAMAICA INN.I was about 13 years old at the time,I remember liking it very much. It did star Robert Donat (Oscar winner Goodybye Mr Chips) & the beautiful actress Madeline Carrol ( her beauty made up for acting ability).Rupert Perry-Jones is our hero this time out & he is very good, Lydia Leonard is the heroine this time out & she is quite talented. Both of them do come over is somewhat standard roles.Like the Hitchcok version, there is quite a bit of humour (British humour, that is.)The 39 Steps is nowhere near a classic thrilling story. However it is what we go to the films for----to be entertained.I was, I think you all will be as well.Ratings: *** (out of 4) 88 points (out of 100) IMDb 8 (out of 10)

The BBC must be full of clunk-heads to remake a film-school-classic- that-worked into something that is a disjointed series of random plot points full of anachronisms. It was painful to watch this, even though the acting is very good and the scenery and sets are exquisite. Hannay, a bored ex-pat mining engineer, too easily jumps into the role of a heroic swashbuckler saving the country with very flimsy motivation. The rest of the plot, equally severely disjointed, is an homage to a great film where things DID work organically.Here are a few problems with the script. The plane that shoots through the propellers wasn't invented until two years after WWI began. Airplanes in 1914 weren't even equipped with guns of any kind, the pilots shot with pistols. Any self-respecting writer would have checked that with a little cross-town trip to the Imperial War Museum. Maybe the director put it in the film against objections. Doofus! When Hannay runs across the moors and tumbles on the ground in front of the lady's car, why does she jump out and assume his name and that he's the liberal MP from London? This isn't a comedy but that scene makes it one. Was she expecting to meet an MP cowering in the moors rolling in crap? Yes, very well done.The sexual innuendo worked very well in the original film because it was germane to the era. Handcuffed together and sharing a bedroom was a bit of juicy no-no in 1935. Showing a bit of stocking here and there was racy for the time. In this film, they decided to modernize the love affair but it doesn't work because the writer through confusion or a series of script meetings with executives forgot that we were trying to portray that era, not the current one.The writer cannot take any credit for a job well done here because he borrowed from something that already worked and meddled. Is that thunder I hear or Hitchcock's spirit growling in the wind? Hey BBC execs, why not re-make Gone With the Wind or Casablanca?

Shades of Robert Donat, Kenneth More and Robert Powell hover over this festive production from the BBC of John Buchan's classic novel, heck I can't even get Michael Palin's brilliant "Ripping Yarns" spoof out of my head, but it entertained pretty much all the way by taking itself just seriously enough without reverting to knowing post-modern sarcasm or worse yet campness. This is a "Boy's Own Adventure" and can only ever work by playing it straight. Don't mess with the Buchan in other words! Rupert Penry-Jones makes a fine Hannay, good looking, muscular if oddly blonde (the perfect Aryan specimen, ironically enough!) and interacts well with Lydia Leonard as the resourceful suffragette-cum-spy Victoria. I really liked Eddie Marson as the rent collector in the BBC's recent "Little Dorrit" dramatisation and so felt a little short-changed with his early demise. Of course the story is one long chase stopping only long enough for the various action or suspense-punctuating set-pieces and I rather liked the fact that these were accomplished without SFX or CGEN tricks.I last read the book years and years ago so can't state for certain how faithful to source this was, (I only recall the political meeting episode from the novel if truth be told) but otherwise was perfectly happy to sit back, admire the glorious Scottish scenery, ancient cars period costumes and see True-Brit spunk and ingenuity triumph over the evil Bosche. The plot is of course wholly unbelievable and barely hangs together (including to top things off, a literally death-defying recovery by Victoria at the end to complete the happy ending), but just swallow an improbability pill beforehand and enjoy.There are a couple of respectful references to Hitchcock scattered about (there must be people out there who think the original Hannay was a Hitch original, so ingrained in the memory is the Robert Donat/Madeleine Carroll film prototype) although quite how "North By North-West's" crop-duster scene found its way in here I'm not sure and perhaps more could have been made of the handcuff-scene, treated much more cheekily by the Master 70 odd years ago.Nevertheless, I'll take this standard "Tally-Ho!" British fare over Indiana Jones any old day and hope there's a follow-up of sorts as I for one would welcome a revolt into style away from big-budget effects-fests in favour of more homespun dramas like this, tongue-in-cheek or not...