Customer Reviews

Swing [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A definite feel-good film, if ever there was. Chances are, you'll be rolling up the living room carpet to jive and jitterbug as the band swings its thing. Hugo Speer is banged up with...er Clarence Clemons...who teaches him the sax. On his release (Clarence remains inside, presumably for playing with Springsteen for so long), Hugo forms a swing band with a National Front drummer and the horn section from the local Orange Lodge (having made a Faustian pact with his uncle). You'd better work our the rest yourself. Lisa Stansfield is brilliant as the (now married) ex-girlfriend who becomes the band's singer. If you can imagine The Full Monty meeting The Committments with a dash of The Blues Brothers you're better than me, but you'll probably like Swing. We did - and the carpet's staying up.

Lisa Stansfield, besides having a great voice, does a nice job in this film, and Clarence Clemons, of Bruce Springsteen's band, also does a nice job. Romantic, charming, funny film!I highly recommend it!

This movie is not only great as a musical, but it has superb acting by Lisa Stansfield and an interesting story. No doubt that the music is the best thing about it. The British slang/lingo will keep you on your toes when it come to listening to the dialog.

It's got music, romance, good plot, credible acting, well-paced direction and an all around feelgood, overcoming obstacles vibe.

Considering that studios will release just about anything on DVD, I sure hope they will put this hidden gem on the little shiny video disk, and also include some extras.

If you buy this movie - you will enjoy it!

Even though Lisa Stansfield and Hugo Speer knocked my socks off, the price of 104.00 dollars is a bit much to ask for. I really hope this movie is put on DVD because I will be the first person in line to get it!

I have always been a Lisa Stansfield fan ever since she burst onto the American charts with "All Around the World". I have this movie on VHS but no VHS player. I was wondering if anyone knows who I could contact about them possibly releasing it on DVD. I have yet to see this movie and by judging by the reviews I'm sure I'll like it. I only bought it because I'm a fan and found a used copy for real cheap. Thank you! :)

The characters, the music, the comedy (though some of the references are British in nature) makes this one very entertaining film. Lisa Stansfield shines in her first movie feature, and Hugo Speer follows up his "Full Monty" role with one of heart and soul.

Rent this one. You will want to buy it.

My wife and I found this on the shelves of our local video rental store, and we decided to take a chance on it. This is certainly not one which will be studied in film schools for years into the future. While the acting is adequate, there is little in the way of a story and even less of plot. But it is the music which is the star of this show. Since swing music has found its revival in the past few years, there have been many British bands at the forefront of the movement. This movie is a fine demonstration of why this is so. Lisa Stansfield has made the transition into swing as if she were born to do so. (She does her own singing here, not like some other movies where someone else's voice is dubbed in.) The band really digs into the charts, although I suspect that the instrumentation actually used for recording the sound differed from that shown on film. Would I buy the tape? No, far better to await the DVD version, all the easier to skip the dull parts between those outstanding music numbers. In the meantime, there is a soundtrack album available (which I've got to include in my next Amazon.com order). One thing else I ought to mention. In a couple of scenes, Ms. Stansfield's character speaks to her mother in Italian, with English subtitles. It would be more appropriate in the NTSC edition, distributed mainly in America, for most of the English dialog also to be subtitled, so we could understand what the heck they're saying.

I thought this movie was great fun and also very humorous. The story is slight, but the pace and acting are good enough to keep you interested to the end. Hugo Speer and Lisa Stansfied are good together, and I loved hearing Lisa sing the great swinging oldies. She has such a terrific voice and does justice to the songs.

The rest of the cast is great too. It was suprising to see the Big Man Clarence Clemons in it! I'm not overly fond of the technique of talking to the camera, but I guess it worked well enough for the character.

Go out and rent this film, but buy the soundtrack.

An astonishingly wise/sweet funny movie to find among the endless variations on emptily cool/cruel/hip now dominantly littering both the commercial & critical marketplaces. Like tripping over a ripe melon while traversing a lunar (or polar) landscape? Vastly sager on mean cop mentality than the arrested punk norm. Reminds us that permitting character growth can succeed, that connecting with our own cultural history may yield more than trying too hard to invent something dazzlingly new, that love need not be misrepresented as an obvious death force, that blind stupid loyalty has its up/down aspects. Beyond that, Lisa Stansfield CAN sing, is an honest-to-goodness white soul/swing diva, even better than Dusty Springfield in Dusty's prime. She can also act, expresses exasperation/pleasure gracefully, appears to find/release her voice as she goes.

The sensibility behind the effort is NOT completely different from the sensibility driving the current international cinema vogue, but everything, instead of little or nothing, is ventured/risked/revealed. Street lingo is employed as liberally as in trendier Pretentious Young Brit films, but leads elsewhere. "Swing" is NOT another celebration of pathetic punkiness, is gently punk-tolerant but never argues for punk rights, punk beauty/dignity, punk irresponsibility, punk permanence. Stansfield plays a strictly decent, if shaggable (under the right circumstances, with maternal nudging?), wench/diva, torchily erotic with her shirt on. Spooky physical resemblence to Nicola Walker, Robson Green's mate/foil in the extraordinary BBC/PBS series "Touching Evil", but can Nicola sing? Not like Lisa. Hugo Speer does fine as an idly criminal youth who encounters a sax, a mentor, & a great notion while doing his [brother's] time. Alexie Sayle, as stern leader of an Irish Orange horn section, riffs very well on what is worth remembering from "The Blues Brothers". Rita Tushingham makes an excellent hardscrabble mother/doorwoman. Tom Bell is convincingly blocked/taciturn as a working class Dad. Clarence Clemons handles his rasta/shaman role nicely. All of the players had genuine fun playing? One feels so, smiles.

"Swing" owes something to "The Full Monty" (in which Speer appeared), "The Blues Brothers", classic American comedies of the 30s/40s/50s... Perfectly smartly/appropriately? But it's also plenty rude in its way. Innocently neglecting to pander to prevailing tastes raises the practical ante, insults the smartset heavily, doubles the force of a gently expressed point about finding a vocation, risking the kinds of peculiar efforts involved in exiting endless loops. Music is a complex discipline these players learn/love/respect, not a trumped up wisechild brattiness? When a movie this much better than the run of pop production can't find American distribution/production/audience, what? BUY the video, & BUY a Lisa Stansfield CD or three too. Earns its title. DOES mean something. Deeply generous/charming.

I read two previous reviews put in for this video and I have no idea what they were talking about. I thought that the plot was slow and weak. A few of the dance moves were entertaining but it was not worth the $3 I rented it for.