C W This is a much funnier film than A Fish Called Wanda. A relatively simple concept, left versus right, winds up into a clock spring of comedy. The final scene brings together all the threads of all the characters and scenes visited en route, in a similar style as that of the traditional British farces (e.g. The Wrong Box) There are so many wonderful characters that to list them would be to take away from the experience of watching them and rolling about the floor in laughter, but I have to say that the old ladies on their outing from the Home are some of the funniest in the entire wonderful film. If there had ever been any doubt in anyone's mind that John Cleese was capable of sustaining an entire comedy movie without aid from the other members of Monty Python's Flying Circus, "Clockwise" should have convinced them. Not to be missed.

TheLittleSongbird A very fun film, despite the flaws, that is great fun to watch on multiple viewings. While I did find the film's structure occasionally episodic, the pacing sometimes a little too fast and the direction a tad on the leisurely side, it is a hugely enjoyable farce. The chief element that makes it so is the performance of John Cleese, his comic timing assures yet another really funny performance. He has been better but he is still the John Cleese I know and love. Sharon Maiden assists him well too, she really stands out among the cast who all do more than acceptably. The script is inspired and the sight gags are even better, the soundtrack is good and the camera work is fine. The film is typically 1980s, and that is not a bad thing, quite the contrary. While flawed, it is solid and very funny as a farce. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Framescourer A road movie in which the bloated pomposity of an English headteacher is systematically punctured by a series of unforeseen events. It's essentially a one-trick concept film for the talents of Cleese: it might even be said that it's Fawlty Towers, The Movie, complete as it is with ill-matched wife and with the same car as driven by Basil Fawlty. It's a well-weighted film and it's little surprise to find that the script is by Michael Frayn (whose most famous film adaptation to date is the farce Noises Off with Michael Caine). It's a great film for 'where are they now' (or perhaps 'what they were there, then!?') spotting. Naturally though the film is Cleese's property and although the shtick is familiar he does seem to put it on the big screen unselfconsciousnessly. 5/10

gcd70 "Clockwise" is a dead boring, mostly silly and rather stupid story about an extremely efficient, amazingly punctual headmaster who finds his whole world coming apart at the seams when his strictly organised schedule goes awry. Director Christopher Morahan is unable to do anything with Michael Frayn's terribly bland plot, which is full of unfunny antics and awfully ridiculous situations. Some mildly effective humour is not enough to save the picture.Even ingenious British comic John Cleese is not able to transform the mirthless goings on, and being typically typecast doesn't help his cause. Luckily for the lanky comedian he was able to bury the memory of this disaster, and thus resurrect his career, with "A Fish Called Wanda".The support cast are totally uninspired, and George Fenton's music is not much better. Put plainly, "Clockwise" is never wacky enough or straight enough. This disappointment tends to sit on the comical fence, which inevitably backfires.Sunday, December 17, 1995 - Video