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My family has owned many films over the years, this is one of the few that we still watch every year. In fact it has become a family tradition to watch it every christmas eve.
There are many reasons to love it. For starters it includes not only the high profile muppets, but also all of the seame street gang, the fraggles, and Jim H. himself. Being a christmas special, it also has alot of suitably festive music, in an inimitable muppet style. Being a muppet film, it has a sense of humour unequalled by anything alse.
The reason though that I think this film really deserves its place amongst all the classic muppet films is its warmth. That may sound silly, but this film has a sense of involving you in the larger muppet family, that no other does.
So, if you've ever, even briefly loved the muppets, this could well be the film that will allow you to relive that enjoyment.

What a charming film with the late great Bob Peck. I knew nothing about this film, even though it was shot near where I come from in Keighley, until I read about it in MADE IN YORKSHIRE. It is also based on true events which happened in Yorkshire.

I had thought it must be dire otherwise I would have heard about. How wrong I was. Was it shown in the cinema ? I have a job tracking it down but found a copy in the Keighley lending library.

Check it out as its well worth watching.

A bit slow at first but once it gets going it's hilarious - My favourites are the penquins and the lemurs.

I must have watched this film five times now and I will definately be watching it again.

"Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave". ;-)

Just as some movies that should be great turn out to be awful, some movies that should be awful turn out to be great - Masters of the Universe. Unfortunately, for a film that's based on a cartoon that today's 20-somethings used to watch in the 1980's, none of the said 20-somethings are going to admit to liking it now. Few will give it a chance and realize the direction is good, the acting is good, the music is good, that it's exciting, funny, scary, suitably epic and absolutely action-packed and that it looks fantastic. But Superhero Cinema does. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was a hugely successful mid-80's cartoon based on a line of action figures. The success of each fed the other, as well as a popular comicbook and loads of other merchandise. Finally in 1987 came the big one: the motion picture.

What looks like suicide at first glance - converting a cartoon based on action figures into a full-length feature - gets more appealing when you look at thes ource material closer. The cartoon is a epic hybrid of fantasy and sci-fi, with ancient castles and sorcerers mixing with laser guns and cyborgs. It also has a very mythic feel, mixing Ancient Greece-era monsters and challenges with fairy tale locations.

There are also hordes of exotic characters - warriors, mutants, monsters, magicians of every description, so the film makers could pick the coolest ones to bring to the screen. The ones they've chosen are He-Man and his arch enemy Skeletor (obviously), amazon-type female warrior Teela and her dad Man-At -Arms, the Sorceress of Grayskull, Skeletor's second in command Evil Lyn (which is always pronounced 'Evil-In'), and Beastman. Added to these are four characters that were created for the film - Gwildor, a dwarf-like inventor, Karg, a cross between Captain Hook and a bat, snake-like Sauron, and Blade, a sword and knife-obsessed slaphead. So that's eleven fantasy characters running about, which is a pretty good total.

Masters of the Universe succeeds because it takes the cartoon and adapts not it's superficial qualities, but it's essence into a movie, turning it into a mature sci-fi/fantasy adventure. This is where so many comic and cartoon based movies fail. They don't adapt their source material properly to make a successful feature film. You need to make the movie a natural progression from what it's based on, altering the look enough so it looks acceptable in real action, altering the characters into real people, choosing actors who can give real performances. It's not simply dressing superstars up as characters from a comic or cartoon, it's re-imagining the ideas as a movie. MotU does this perfectly. You can fault it as a film itself, of course, but you can't fault it as an adaption.

The production design is superb, with some superbly realized sets and costumes. Everything has been adapted to look more realistic on the big screen. The cast give uniformly decent performances. Nobody lets the side down - these are all 3D characters, not cartoons. Dolph Lungren proves he's one of the European bodybuilder brigade who can act. Frank Langella gives an outstanding performance as Skeletor, his powerful presence almost bursting out of the TV and into your living room. Langella gives a shining example to all actors portraying comicbook and cartoon characters in live action. There is a pervading sense of dread whenever he appears, especially during Castle Grayskull sequences, and the script gives him some awesome lines which he delivers with pure evil dripping from his voice.

The monsters are pretty bloody scary, especially for a family film, especially the Beastman (who's had a 'the' added to his name). The sequence where they invade a school gym and chase Julie around it is excellent, far more exciting and scary than similar chases in many horror films (including some of those Courtney Cox has been in). It's also, like the rest of the film, surprisingly violent, as the bad guys attack Julie with swords, claws, laser guns and high velocity darts. That she manages to escape is not unbelievable at all, because of the way the chase is staged - it's just a relief she gets out of there, the goal of any such chase scene. The sheer ammount of bad guys that the small band of heroes has to face adds greatly to the drama.

Setting half of the movie on Earth has it's advantages and disadvantages. It does give the film a human component, and two ordinary teenagers to be pulled into the adventure with. It also makes the monsters scarier - rather than being in a distant galaxy, they are in the neighbourhood, viciously attacking people and destroying whatever they come across. On the other hand, it would have been cool to see some more of the war torn Eternia and the planet's weird inhabitants and locations, but MotU had a relatively small budget, so that sort of stuff was off limit anyway. A little too much time is spent on the almost soap-opera angle of Julie and Kevin, but it helps flesh out their characters to make them believable.

MotU is also packed with action, and we do mean packed. There is an outbreak of violence every 15 minutes or so, usually even less, and there is variety and imagination among the content, unlike many action films, which consist of repetetive shoot outs and nothing more. It could possibly be said that it's quantity over quality, as some of it, particularly the shoot-outs, are badly filmed, and none of the action ever reaches adrenalin pumping. However, it's good enough, in-yer-face and quite exciting to watch, with He-Man taking out hordes of bad guys with his sword, laser beams everywhere, mass destruction and some good old rough and tumble. And all the action grows organically from the story - none of it seems put in simply because the movie needed an action scene at a certain point.

One of MotU's greatet assets is it's atmosphere. The sense of an intergalactic civil war is tangible, as is the sheer menace of the villains, the desperation of the good guys, the growing sense of doom as Skeletor captures the Cosmic Key. There is a cower-behind-the-sofa scariness similar to that of TV's Doctor Who.

If Masters of the Universe was re-released at cinemas this summer, people would realize how good it is compared to the blockbuster summer fare we get these days. And all for $17m, which was hardly anything, even in 1987.

You know this classic story by now of the boy who asked for more...Oliver Twist played touchingly in the best version on celluloid by Mark Lester...He is one of many workhouse orphans lead by the authoritarian Mr Bumble (Harry Secombe) who decides to sell Oliver to a local Funeral Director in the form of (Leonard Rossiter) of Rising Damp fame. Oliver escapes from here after a fight only to find himself making his way to 19th Century London where he befriends "The Artful Dodger" (Jack Wild) a steetwise pick pocket who takes Oliver for shelter to the affable professional pick pocket Fagin (Ron Moody) whose role probably will be remembered for a most fantastic performance. Here Oliver comes to know Fagin in an touching way.Oliver learns of his past with fate determining his destiny. The infamous Bill Sykes (Oliver Reed) is the only person that can hold Oliver from his childhood dream but Oliver is aided by Sykes girlfriend Nancy (Shani Wallis)...Therein lies the finale of one of the most perfect musical scores of all time ....From the tear jerking "Where is Love" performed by (Mark Lester) to the toe tapping "Be Back Soon" performed by Ron Moody there is much to recommend about this classy musical...backed up with hits galore you will also hear "Food Glorious Food","As Long as He needs me", "Consider Yourself", "Oom-pah-pah" and more..... you will be totally awestruck of the sheer brilliance of this Top rated Family Musical that has entertained millions since it's 1968 release and is likely to entertain millions of young and old in years to come....Superb Family entertainment

Great album with all my favourite tracks. How disappointed I was though with the revamped new vocal for Wuthering Heights. It was overproduced too much backing and Kate's voice dare I say did sound rather tinny and harsh.

The rest of the tracks are super Cloudbusting is great and all my old favourites.

I must track down the original wuthering Heights as I have them all on vinyl but not CD.

this is my fave movie ever amazingly acted by vivien leigh and gable-if you read the book first it can be kind of weres wade and ella? but i loved this film i have seen it 100000000000000000 times!i love it because it dosnt have a fairy tale ending but it does leave it open? imo they do get back togther in the end there made for each other even if thats not really what the films about! the film is sad funny well acted and the best film ever!

Buffy the vampire slayer is by far the best Sci-Fi show ever!!
It's been written amazingly, the acting is phenomenal. It has such an amazing array of genres, like comedy, drama, romance, musical, horror and sci-fi. This season is in my opinion the best yet. The musical was amazing, the cast are truly talented. If you haven't seen it yet, it's a must-see program!

I honestly wasn't expecting much out of this. So I was very suprised when I loved it from start to finish! It has everything we have come to expect of a classic Disney film.. a strong hero/heroine, a hilarious sidekick character, a great soundtrack and a beautiful display of animation. Yes, it really is a great film, with a powerful story and some great characters. Highly recommended.