I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Best movie of this year hands down!

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

THE LAVENDER HILL MOB by KudosIt is very easy to live in the present and dismiss the past, ignored it if its not in 3DHD5.2 WS but certain aspects of films ride over their time, clever scripts, top notch acting and less reliance on FX means some films don't look dated, just look their time.LAVENDER HILL MOB is one of them, character based drama with a solid heist plot, it is oceans 11 with out the need to ramp up the action or acting, if you cant rely on flashy effects and big stunts then you are forced to get the other elements pin sharp and it does, you get hints of why Sid James became as big as he did and one very clever car chase but it is the two main leads that carry the plot and draw the viewer into rooting for them ….........even though they are the "bad guys", 90 mins of faultless acting and story telling This is only my second toe I have dipped into this era, but this and "I'm alright Jack" means I would be happy to take plunge and give some time to understanding the roots of modern cinema THE LAVENDER HILL MOB by Nigel HareSunday, the day of rest. Church in the morning followed by a roast dinner with lots of vegetables and fruit pie and custard to follow. The afternoon spent on the sofa watching old movies, while mother did the ironing. After a light tea, left over roast in sandwiches perhaps, its the bath before bed ready for another week. That was pretty much my life back in the early 70s.Today there isn't church, dinner is now in the evening and it's me doing the ironing. But ...the movie is still an old one, although it is a better description to call it ancient now. Alec Guinness (Old Ben in the first Stars Wars movies) is superb in this witty crime caper. Yes it's black and white and it doesn't have violent thugs, it has gentle middle class thieves who team up with likable trusting professional criminals to steal a million in gold. There aren't any high speed chases or double crosses, it's Ealing Studios Britain. What this fifties movie has is laughs: 'Dutch' scrambling around after being tied and blind folding after the theft, running down the spiral staircase to beat the lift descending down the Eiffel tower and the policeman singing 'Old Macdonald' verse about pigs among many. You will be fully entertained for 90 minutes if you give this movie ago.

I had recorded "The Lavender Hill Mob" and thought that this was bound to be good. The Guardian TV guide said it was a "sublime Ealing comedy with an Oscar-winning script." The August edition of Uncut magazine gave it 5 stars and told us that the director Charles Crichton "seduces with his charmingly angled take on post-war London". OK, that doesn't exactly have you foaming at the mouth with anticipation but everyone knows the Ealing comedies are brilliant. Everyone.Ninety minutes or so later I sat in my chair stunned into silence. It wasn't a revelatory stunning such as a really great movie can give you. This was a mind-numbingly bored, can't believe I just watched that, did they swap the real film for a bogus film, pass the whiskey bottle quick type of stunned. How could so many people be so wrong? Why have they lied to me about this "sublime" film? Is it me? I think that the facts speak otherwise.So first let me say that Alec Obi-Wan Guinness and Stanley Holloway act well and that there is a nice chiaroscuro effect reminiscent of German expressionist cinema during a scene in a cellar workshop at night. Other good points are…… oh, I'm sorry, there aren't any other good points. What about the bad points then? The whole thing is set in dreary post-war London and is faithfully dreary throughout – the clothes, the buildings, the people, the acting, everything is dreary to the nth degree. The plot is unremarkable, the script pedestrian. The lighting and camera-work is uninspired. There are only one and a half laughs in the entire film and they are more slightly and elliptically amusing than downright funny laughs. There are no pretty women (oh, sorry Audrey Hepburn appears for 3.7 seconds early on and then disappears but I didn't count this), all the men are nerds of the unfunny type and the action looks like it was filmed by the technical crew from Crossroads. I've seen Bergman films that are funnier than this.Recently I heard someone on the radio drawing a parallel between Ealing comedies and modern British comedies like 4 Weddings and A Funeral and Not the Full Monty. I think that they are right about this. In 40 years time people will see British films of the 1990's and be completely mystified as to how anyone could find most of them either interesting or funny. Weddings, Monty, Lavender Hill – all weak jokes based around the English class system that we are supposed to find endearing and funny but which actually practice a deep and nastily patronising attitude to the working and middle classes. There is no affection for ordinary people in these films just a thinly-disguised disdain. Come the revolution and I'll be lining these films up in Wembley stadium, along with all film trailers, for termination with extreme prejudice.

Amusing, if not hilarious British comedy. I expect the film was a belly-laugh when first released and the material was much newer. The pacing is certainly lively, but now such comedic centerpieces as criminal capers gone humorously wrong, and slapstick escapes with speeding cars, appear somewhat shop-worn. Fortunately, however, there are also pleasures that refuse to fade, such as the lowly functionary (Guinness) outwitting a smug employer, or having a brilliant plan tripped up by pre-adolescent schoolgirls. Then too, I expect the slapstick was welcome relief for British audiences still recovering from the horrors of WWII.Guinness is his usual droll self, but also stuffy when he needs to be, while Holloway mugs it up shamelessly. Together, they're an amusing team. Too bad, however, there wasn't a shapely girl to relieve the eyes from the four guys. Then too, I think I could have done without the spiraling descent from the Eiffel Tower; I'm still reeling from that one. One thing for sure, that effect is no cliché.Anyway, the movie appears to have influenced a number of later British comedies, including the St. Trinians series. But whatever its historical value, the comedy is still a very entertaining 90-minutes. Besides, I really like that twisty last shot.

A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipment of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country as miniature Eiffel Towers.What is great about this film ,as others have said, is its simplicity. The film is short, the story is pretty simple, and it is just fun. Well made, but fun. It is a bank heist, but not a crime drama. It is a comedy, but not outrageous (most of the time). It is just a light story with enjoyable characters.Watch this film if you like bank heists or old comedies, because this is great for both of those. Maybe do not watch this if you are looking for Audrey Hepburn. Yes, she is in it, and yes, this is a very early role for her... but you can't say she "stars" in it or even call her a supporting actress. This is Alec Guinness all the way.