Amazon.com

Harrison Ford is impossibly young and handsome as an American pilot in the World War II romance Hanover Street; Lesley-Anne Down (The Great Train Robbery) is stunningly beautiful as the British nurse who falls in love with him, despite being married to British intelligence agent Christopher Plummer. In fact, everything about Hanover Street is just a little over the top, from the insanely romantic dialogue to the absurd war-buddy banter of Ford and his bomber crew to the love-making montage in which Down seems to have at least a dozen orgasms. Down and Plummer have a daughter (played by future Lethal Weapon 2 love interest Patsy Kensit) who's so precious and precocious you just want to smack her. The whole thing is almost a camp pastiche of a war romance--but when Ford and Plummer find themselves together behind enemy lines, you'll suddenly discover that you're caught up in the story. Through sheer movie-star charisma and cunningly ridiculous plot mechanics, Hanover Street becomes not only entertaining, but even touching. Plummer is particularly good as an ordinary man who wishes to become something more, Ford is stalwart as only he can be, and Down is just too lovely to resist (it's hard to understand how her career ended up with the likes of Beastmaster 3: The Eye of Braxus and Death Wish 5: The Face of Death). All in all, a surprisingly enjoyable cinematic experience. --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Reviews (20)

A must see for Harrison Ford fans!!
One of Harrison Ford's underrated best. Set during WWII, when Ford meet Leslie Ann Down the two can't help but fall in love because the sparks fly. The problem? She is married and truly loves her husband (Christopher Plummer) but can't help but be attacted to the dashing Ford who is a dare-devil ace bomber pilot. The stronger the attraction grows, the more cautious Ford gets in flying his missions. When fate send him on a mission with her husband, you can't help but not know who to root for. A really beautiful, bitter-sweet love story with enough action to keep the guys interested. Ladies - get out the tissue for this one. It is great!!!

ROMANCE ISN'T DEAD!
I first saw this movie about ten years ago, late at night, on my own and was pleasantly surprised. I had never even heard of it before. It is set during the 1940s during wartime - Harrison Ford and Lesley Anne Down meet accidently on - yes you've guessed it Hanover Street! - and of course they fall in love. There is only one problem Lesley Anne is married, but they both can't resist each other and even though you know it's naughty you just want them to go for it! I'll not say any more about the plot because I don't want to give too much away - but the ending is sad - so get those tissues handy! The chemistry between the two lead actors is superb and the photography and action scenes are good too. A brilliant little "Sunday afternoon" film.

Shame no one knows it
Hanover Street is definitely one of Ford's finest movies ever! The movie is unfairly underrated and as a result very few have ever seen it. It's a shame too, this movie is fantastic!! I love, love, love it!! World War Two... Harrison Ford... Romance... what's not to love?

Harrison Ford and Lesley-Anne Down fall in love during war.
Yet another World War II picture of a war-torn young man and a young woman who meet by chance and quickly fall in love. It all happens so quick. But what makes this film different than the others is a 36 year old Harrison Ford (who looks like he's 23) and Lesley-Anne Down star in the film. Harrison Ford did this film before he made Raiders of The Lost Ark and the other "Indiana Jones" films. This film plays like a soap opera and tries really hard to stir up emotion for you. This story has an interesting twist. Also in the cast is Christopher Plummer, Richard Masur, Patsy Kensit and John Ratenberger. DVD is in wide-screen format. Also includes Director's Audio Commentary and bonus trailers.

a young Ford and Down
A bad Harrison Ford movie. Those who like the simulated sex may rate it higher, it wasn't much better than fair (2 stars) though. ... Read more

Amazon.com

By the late 1970s, Monty Python's resident animator and occasional performer, Terry Gilliam, was ready to direct a feature film on his own (he codirected Monty Python and the Holy Grail two years earlier). Returning to the medieval muck and monstrosities that served as a backdrop for Holy Grail, Gilliam chose a darker satire for this erratic but funny outing. The result was a witty, modernist fable about an unprepared hero (Michael Palin) pushed through a heroic journey by uncontrollable forces of destiny, propelling him into a duel with a fearsome, man-eating dragon called Jabberwock. Raunchy, irreverent, and borderline cynical, Jabberwocky reveals a lot of Gilliam's flaws as a first-time solo filmmaker, but it also serves as a map of his obsessions and extravagant sense of art direction--elements of his artistry that certainly flourished in subsequent works. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Reviews (28)

Unsteady "Jabberwocky"
Anyone who has read Lewis Carroll's classic children's tales will remember "Jabberwocky," the screwball poem about a young man slaying the fearsome Jabberwock. While there are some likable moments in "Jabberwocky," it never really pulls itself together.

Dennis Cooper (Michael Palin) is disinherited by his about-to-die father, penniless, and inexplicably in love with the obese, potato-crunching, none-too-pleasant Griselda Fishfinger. So Dennis heads off to the city, only to learn that the fearsome Jabberwock, a horrendous monster that devours everything except the head and bones of its victims, is attacking the city.

King Bruno (Max Wall) has promised his romantic-minded daughter's hand to the one who slays the Jabberwock, and the princess duly falls in love with the hapless Dennis. So somehow this "beamish boy" ends up being sent out against the Jabberwock in a horrific wasteland.

It's hard to tell what the vision behind "Jabberwocky" was, but it came across as a limp spinoff of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." It has the same grimy, icky medieval look, klunky knights and abundance of filthy beggars, but it doesn't manage to be similarly hilarious. Is it a farce? A dark fairy-tale? The evil twin of "Holy Grail"? I was never really sure, and sometimes I wasn't sure if Gilliam was either. He flipflops through all three.

The Jabberwock is pretty good; though nobody could say it looks real, it's entertaining. The jokes are often either stretched out to the breaking point, or repeated over and over (like the urination joke). And while the tale of Dennis is engaging, there's no twist or offbeat quirk to make it really engaging. It proceeds and ends just as you'd expect it to.

Michael Palin is the saving grace of the movie. He's wonderfully bewildered as events spin out of his control, especially when the princess greets him stark naked. Max Wall gives a pleasantly offbeat performance as King Bruno,

So take up your vorpal blade, head off through the Tulgey Wood, and burble your way over to one of Gilliam's more cohesive works. This isn't one of them, unless you're a die-hard fan of Palin.

Should NOT be rated PG!
I saw this at a store one time and was intrigued because it shared the name of a classic Lewis Carroll poem, which I have memorized. The Monty Python name worried me (you know how British humor is), but it was rated PG. I asked my mom if we could buy it or buy it when I would be getting my tonsils out. Boy, am I glad we didn't buy it!

So we rented it, although I was the only one who watched it- really, half watched it.

The first scene was violent, and all throughout was potty humor and a glimpse or two of a male backside without clothes. Oh, well, I thought.
About halfway through the movie there was one particular scene. It showed the full nude back (from head to ankles) of a woman. She then started to turn around. No, I thought, they wouldn't show nudity in a PG movie. I could see her full nude side. I then put my hands about two feet away from my eyes, blocking the screen, but what I could still see was that she was continuing to turn, which meant that there was full frontal nudity of a woman. It wasn't long before she was dressed again, but I didn't care. I turned it off and didn't even watch the rest.
So you've probably figured by now I'm a prude, but I know I'm not the only one who will be offended so I thought I'd warn you.

What is it?
I'm a great fan of the Pythons, and this was the first "independent" film of theirs that I've seen. Overall, I enjoyed it, but I also found it confusing. It has some wonderfully funny moments, but it also has some serious moments. It is a comedy, and it is dark, but it is not a dark comedy. It's as if the movie can't decide which to be. The result is that you want to care about the characters, but you also want bad things to happen to them, because it would be funny. This is confusing, and ulimately annoying.

Sub-Python, and also not Python
When I went to see this in the late 1970s, I assumed it was another Python spin-off. After all, any film containing Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam and Michale Palin has to be at least half-Python. But as a comedy, the film left me strangely dissatisfied.

It is only now, browsing the DVD packaging some 25 years later, that I realise why I was so disappointed. The problem is that the writers were Terry Gilliam and (mainly) Charles Alverson. Much as I like Gilliam's animations, I have to admit that he was, at best, a minor contributor to Python's classic sketches. I hadn't heard of Alverson before, but according to the amazon site, he is largely the compiler of out-of-print joke books.

Whereas 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' contains many sketches (e.g. the autonomous collective peasants scene and the witch scene), there is nothing here that could stand on its own as a sketch. There are many amusing moments in 'Jabberwocky', but nothing that builds up, through Python's relentless pursuit of the logic of the ridiculous, into a self-contained sketch. Where the script tries to imitate the Python style -- e.g. the king's decision to kill the herald -- it often falls flat, or at best elicits a mild chuckle.

Watch this for its atmosphere, for the much-improved sound quality, for the strength of the supporting cast (e.g. John Bird and Graham Crowden in minor roles) and for its pointers to Gilliam's future directorial career. Just don't expect the humour to be at Python's level.

I'd pay full price to see this at the movies.
I normally don't see movies or check out videos because I don't really find anything that I really want to see. Everything is a a variation of a tired theme. Jabberwocky is anything but that. I really liked the fact that it wasn't predictable, there was a story to it, and I could laugh at it. Don't expect "Holy Grail" or "Meaning of Life" slapstick. The humor is often more subtle, punctuated by the really absurd moments. Although there is certainly social commentary in there, you can also see the movie as a movie for its own sake, which is the sign of a truly great film. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A nice romantic comedy for a rainy day.
For those of us romantics at heart, this is a wonderful short, sweet, and funny romantic comedy to watch on a rainy day- or any day for that matter. Molly Ringwald gives a fine performance. However, I fell in love with Robert Lindsay's character and became an instant fan of his after this performance. This story makes you believe that "love-at-first-sight" is possible, and that "with money or love, you've got to gamble to strike it rich". You'll walk away from the story believing that being "lucky" in love is the "richest" reward. ... Read more