Stephen Herek

In lieu of recent years' onslaught of Disney live action remakes, this mid-nineties early attempt is quite interesting in how it stays close to the original, but feels free to expand, update and alter where it suits it to. And the first half of the film is really quite good, if you can get on board for the over-the-top/arch silliness. It loses all its steam, though, when the middle of the film spends 15 minutes on no-dialogue scenes of exposition hijinks of dogs and various other trained show more animals running around on the screen. While (like the rest of the film) technically impressive animal acting, that would not have entertained me, even as a child. After this, the climax of the movie is unfortunately a weak Home Alone-impression of endless slapstick on ice, which is admittedly probably quite entertaining to children, but unlike the first half of the movie holds little merit for older co-viewers. All in all an uneven film, but considering the animated original is one of Disney's weaker classics, it is still a surprisingly solid remake, with an impressive cast list. Unfortunately, excepting perhaps Tim McInnerny and the extreme performance (at least if you're the sort who don't cringe too easily) of Glenn Close, the cast doesn't get too much of interest to do, but they certainly do what they can to keep you interested, even through the weakest of the slapstick gags. I have a soft spot for the quality animation work in the old one, but that concern aside, I'd probably say they are about as good, and can be watched fairly interchangeably. In short -- the film is entertaining enough for younger children, but in the back half falls a rather short of the entertaining-for-the-whole-family ideal that the beginning of the film made a fair attempt at. show less

This has been my all-time favourite film for at least a decade.

Mr Holland’s Opus is a wonderful, ‘feel-good’ story about a young man who wants to compose music… but takes a job teaching music in a school to provide a reliable income. It’s only ever going to be temporary, or so he thinks at first. But the years roll by, and he finds himself more and more drawn into the life of the school, making an incredible difference to many of the students.

There’s a whole other storyline show more involving Mr Holland’s wife and son, which is incredibly moving, and brings tears to the eyes at times even seeing it for the second or third time.

If you like films with fast car chases, great excitement, sex and violence, then don’t bother. But for those who like a slower pace of life, who are interested in schools, or music, or great characterisation, I would highly recommend this. Mr Holland is played brilliantly by Richard Dreyfuss, as realistic at sixty as he is at the start of the film.

Most recent longer review here: https://suesdvdreviews.blogspot.com/2019/11/mr-hollands-opus-richard-dreyfuss.ht... show less

A really fun movie, I watched this recently. It might be from the 1990s, but it was hella fun to watch with a decent story, and I'm not someone who really cares for sports, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

the 1990s live action version of the 101 dalmatians isn't a great film, but it's decent enough for a 1990s film and gives the story depth in some parts that you don't see in the original cartoon version.