Film Club's Duel Experience

This is probably going to be a short review; I never can tell how long any given posting will be 'coz I do this as stream of consciousness stuff, but I don't reckon this'll take long.

Frankenkeith couldn't make it this week, but we had The Wizzers of Soz to make up the numbers alongside Slocombe (nice to have you back, mate), Dong and Shazzerooneypoos; Dong had already seen Spielberg's 1972 directorial debut Duel. Dong said he'd always rather liked it. Dong was on his own in this opinion.

With about as much dramatic tension as a damp flannel and a pointless, unbelievable, inexplicable plot sporting more holes than a colander this one left me wondering why we'd bought the damned thing in the first place. The answer to that is that it was part of one of those buy-four-DVDs-for-a-couple-of-chocolate-buttons-and-a-smile-at-the-minimum-wage-slave in Virgin Megastores many moons ago. We gratefully made a present of it to Dong at the end of proceedings, who whisked it away to join his collection.

Need I go into any more detail? Endless, tedious shots of implausible driving; a half hearted attempt at acting from Dennis Weaver (I reckon he'd worked out no more than a few days into filming that he was contractually caught up in a pile of old tosh). Nonsense, and not enjoyable nonsense.

The film club scale: Dong took one fag break in the 93 minute running time (he already knew the film anyway); Shazzerooneypoos made no wuffling noises, but thought the film a waste of time; Slocombe provided a succinct quote when asked his opinion - "It was bollocks wasn't it?". Mrs The Millbrooker was delighted that I'd given the DVD to Dong. The Wizzers of Soz was able to say "I told you so" having watched a theatrical trailer on the interweb beforehand and pronounced her doubts on that basis before the film began.

I've never been a particular fan of Spielberg's and this tedious, silly film did nothing to change my mind. That'll be a thumbs down, then.