Excellent but underrated film

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I love British shows, but the characters have been done to death in the usual village scene with quirky personalities. I just don't find the characters realistic and I don't believe anyone with that personality would be interested in entering a field where you have to navigate people and interact with them, and I can't imagine villagers putting up with him. I think all the actors and actress are fine and play their parts as scripted. I haven't seen Martin Clune in anything else,so have nothing to compare him to, but given his character, and what he is, he portrays him well and does not veer off course where his personality is concerned. I have seem much better British shows and I think it is just a matter of personal preference and what you consider funny or good.

Typical of so many TV series in this present age, it seems the producers, writers & actors are there to take the mickey out of the audience! 'Let's see how much nonsense we can pile into a programme & how much the infantile public lap it up, ho ho ho.' As with so many medical, police crime & other dramas, it bears no relation to real life. If this social misfit, hemophobic doctor were in the real world he would never have passed any one of the dozens of exams in order to qualify! Absurd, a hemophobic GP who is so anti-social, so rude to people. Weak scripts, weak acting, weak drama. One episode of the three I watched springs to mind. His girlfriend is having his baby. Whilst she is pregnant he decides to return to London. She is actually having the baby when he then decides to stay & be with her & baby! I rest my case!

Having just completed viewing every episode of this series, there's some obvious problems with such a program. Number one being, it's impossible for the lead character to exhibit any growth or development, otherwise the whole raison d'etre for the show crumbles.Here you have a humorless, rigid, gruff, by-the-numbers doctor who seems utterly incapable of understanding anyone else's feelings or viewpoint. That's the central point of the whole series, so the doctor can't really change without killing the plot device off. So the show is locked into a ridiculous repetition of the same issues over and over again.But one has to wonder why the prettiest girl in town wants to spend any time with the Doc at all, let alone marry him. And yet they do marry, or try to, then separate and then get together again, then separate, then REALLY get married, and then separate, ad infinitum for no particular reasons whatever. It was kinda cute for the first few seasons, but eventually got really old. You could see the problem the writers had, trying to maintain the sexual tension between the two primary characters, and yet somehow have their relationship progress. And I think they did as well as they could, given what they had to work with. But ultimately it just got pretty silly.The overall lack of realism in the show eventually took it's toll. All the supporting characters in the town were somewhere between hopelessly stupid to the point of pathology to being just plain nuts. "Bert" in particular I found really annoying. No one could be that inept in real life and survive for more than a few hours. And the local constable (played by two different actors to the same effect) shows all of the ability of a retarded Jerry Lewis. Pathetic.So, watch the first couple of seasons, maybe. But the hackneyed plots only get worse with time. And then the Doc Martin movies are pleasant enough, though really lacking in any substance altogether. They show an altogether different Doc, though Martin Clunes is still playing the role. He's a far more likable character in the movies, though the writing is nearly non-existent.

My rating is 7, because it's a TEN for all previous seasons, but with season 6 the series is going downhill fast.Clearly Doc Martin was meant to have its fairytale happily ever after at the end of season/series 5, castle & all. The END. But now there's suddenly a 2013 6th season/series (just hitting the USA). Why?It's hard to believe the same writer who put together the most poignant ending in season 5 is the same writer of the first episode of season 6. Has he met these characters? The things they do & say don't mesh at all...Martin's blood phobia comes & goes when it's convenient for plot, paying no attention to his character. Dark, sinister plots including sex fiends seem to be the new norm. Bert is now not just a buffoon, but a mean-spirited jerk (at the wedding toward PC Penhale). Louisa is just plodding through her days with an unsatisfying new marriage to a sour-faced doc who no longer experiences any revelations or growth. Ruth is supposed to be intelligent, yet even when she suspects a sex fiend is after her she doesn't do anything about it until she's in mortal peril. In fact, she stupidly leads him right to her house!I never had one negative thing to say about Doc Martin in its first five seasons. It was the perfect beginning, middle & end. I wish I'd never discovered this latest season. Ruined it for me.Don't get me wrong. There are still small moments that are brilliant, but they don't add up to a cohesive, compelling storyline with consistent characters.Perhaps the fact that a new director is attached to all these subpar episodes explains the decline. It's important to pay attention to character nuances & consistencies, yet no one in production seems to understand who these characters are in season 6. Sad.