source: Clockwise

Murphy, whoever he was, said in his eponymous law that whatever can go wrong will go wrong. "Clockwise" proves that to be true. Brian Stimpson (John Cleese) is a headmaster on his way to a meeting, but one thing goes wrong after another. Quite literally any bad thing that you can come up with, that is happening to him. I wanted to pity him, but I preferred to laugh. You can't not laugh while watching "Clockwise". It's not exactly Monty Python-style humor, but it's still a hoot. It's the sort of situation where you think "Oh no...oh yes." I think that it's safe to say that John Cleese will never get stale. As long as you're not religious, you'll really like the scene at the church.

Clockwise is no classic comedy; make no mistake there. But it is a very watchable one, largely thanks to a fair plot and script often greatly elevated by the marvellous John Cleese. It never really loses as much steam as I thought it might, and contains a fine scene where Cleese attempts to deliver his speech - "Expatiate over weighty balls of matter!" Apart from that speech, nothing raised a huge guffaw; but much was gently amusing. Certainly worth watching, if lacking in real wit. There are just too many hapless onlookers' reactions shown to generate laughs, that is a mark of a less-than-inspired comedy, but Cleese gives a fine, Fawlty-esque performance, that will impress all. Rating:- *** 1/2 (out of *****)

I guess the reason I thought it was rubbish the first time I saw it was because I didn't find it as funny, and too similar, to an episode of Fawlty Towers, but I gave it a second chance. Basically uptight school headmaster of Thomas Tompion Comprehensive School, Brian Stimpson (John Cleese), seems to follow a very strict schedule and always checks everything is running like clockwork. He is ready to set off to a Headmasters' Conference where he has been chosen to be speaker, but he misses both his train and his wife Gwenda (Alison Steadman) taking him all the way to Norwich. So he has to improvise a way to get there, with student Laura Wisely (Sharon Maiden) and old friend Pat (Penelope Wilton) joining him. Along the way he is almost arrested, stuck in the mud, goes into a monastery of monks, steals a man's clothes, until he eventually reaches the meeting. Of course when trying to give his speech, he goes back into his old headmaster guise when people are not staying in their seats and entering the room late, so it is obvious he was going to be driven away by the police. Also starring Stephen Moore as Mr. Jolly, Constance Chapman as Mrs. Wheel, Joan Hickson as Mrs. Trellis, Ann Way as Mrs. Way, Pat Keen as Mrs. Wisely, Geoffrey Hutchings as Mr. Wisely, Tony Haygarth as Ivan with the Tractor and Michael Aldridge as Prior. Cleese manages to capture nearly the same incompetence as Basil Fawlty for his character, it is not your typical road movie comedy, it might not hilarious, but it is pretty funny stuff, so it's worth trying, at least once. Okay!

I know some people in the US that say to me "You must not really appreciate British Comedy if you don't like this movie". Considering I have over 100 tapes of British Comedy that you can't get in the US, I think I know more about British Comedy than average in the US. That said, I found this movie, slow, boring, uninspired, and rather predictable. I would rather watch John Cleese as Basil Fawlty or in A Fish Called Wanda. There is nothing new or unique about this movie. It falls far short of what I would call good comedy, let alone good British comedy. It was a huge disappointment for me. Still, it left an impression on me (It's been 10 years since I saw it). Sadly, it was that of being bad. Maybe if I watch it again today I would change my mind, but I want to be clockwise and not risk wasting the time again. Once was enough.

"Clockwise" is a very forgettable movie with only one plus and that one plus is comical genius John Cleese. Even though Cleese makes this movie definitely a watchable one, he can't help to make this movie to be a memorable one. This is not Cleese's fault but the fault of director Christopher Morahan, who obviously isn't the director with the most talent in the business. The movie is very simply made and relies too much on the presence of Cleese. The rest of the characters, who definitely had some comical potential are ignored at too many points in the movie and therefore become completely unnecessary, distracting and perhaps even annoying, especially the three old ladies. Also the technical aspects of the movie are disappointing. The camera work is awfully simple and the camera positions are just plain bad at times. The story really isn't that bad and had quite some potential, however director Christopher Morahan didn't used the nice comical script to the maximum. The end result is a still watchable but certainly not memorable or recommendable comedy-movie. The movie has some laughs and it does has it moments but still it is a somewhat disappointing movie. Perhaps only true Cleese fans will find some joy in watching this movie but I'm sure that even they will be disappointed with this movie. As a Cleese fan you are of course way better of watching "Fawlty Towers" or the movie "A Fish Called Wanda". You are better of watching another comical movie, still the movie is a watchable one for on a rainy afternoon. 5/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I first saw this film on its cinema release and thought it a gentle, slightly dated but amusing English comedy. Watching it again last night (it was given out free on DVD with a Sunday newspaper) I realised what a greatly underrated, highly intelligent film it is. In fact I suspect it is a little TOO intelligent for mainstream audiences, which perhaps is why it has never been a blockbuster. What impressed me was the highly philosophical nature of the plot which deals with the artificial nature of timekeeping in modern society. Stimpson suffers from the modern disease of believing that all the problems of life can be solved by the imposition of obsessive man made order and regulation (something our present Government appears to suffer from also) in particular with regards to timekeeping. His whole identity is based on timekeeping and he is unable to relate to anything outside his own worldview. Stimpson is the classic tragic overreacher who doesn't realise that his attempts at control are actually having the opposite effect. The sense of dislocated identity is a recurrent motif in the film. The senile old ladies are not merely there for comic relief - they act as a mirror to Stimpson's own disintegrating sense of self. One of the ladies (the late great Joan Hickson) is stuck in a 'loop' of consciousness relating to sherry glasses, and the other is convinced that she is in the place she has already left, but the third lady, 'aren't we lucky people!' represents the childlike happiness of those who are literally outside time - her polite bewilderment and contented singing at the end of the film as Stimpson is led away underscore this neatly. Other motifs of dislocated identity and location abound. Stimpson drives a car which does not belong to him, and which does not belong to the girl he takes it from, who is also not licensed to use it. It is then driven in a completely random, directionless way across fields ('we don't need the track!')until it has to be rescued by a tractor which Stimpson refuses to see even though he's standing right next to it. (This particular sequence, with the Morris 1100 driving over the fields, has an almost lyrical quality to it, especially to someone who spent most of his childhood holidays in a similar car). Stimpson then spends some time in a monastery, where the characters, like the senile ladies, are outside of time in the conventional sense - almost stuck in the middle ages - again the innocent happiness of those outside time is shown by the monk cheering on Cleese in his chase after the car. Finally Stimpson makes his last ditch attempt to reach the conference in a car stolen from someone who again, does not own it himself, and in a stolen suit which does not fit him which, in a hilarious counterpoint to his own crumbling identity, falls to pieces while he is wearing it. The only thing the film lacks is perhaps a little more background on what changed Stimpson from being a hopeless timekeeper to an obsessive one, and what happened to him after he was caught.

"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

A much underrated comedy detailing the collapse of a stern, disciplinarian headmaster during a chaotic journey to deliver a speech at a convention of snobbish educationists. Cleese begins in a very restrained way and is watchable and funny as he gradually descends into anarchic despondency. The pathos as he finally delivers his speech, in an ill-fitting (stolen) tasteless outfit, surrounded by the detritus of his dreadful day, is genuinely moving as well as funny. Best line, from Cleese, as yet another possible means of reaching his goal emerges: 'It's not the despair: I can cope with the despair. It's the HOPE - that's what's killing me.' Almost the perfect motto for Scotland football supporters, you might say. Probably alone in the world, I rate this movie superior to the overly foul-mouthed and Americanised Fish Called Wanda. A host of grizzled British character actors, including the magnificent Alison Steadman, keep things going. I wonder what happened to the sherry glasses?

The secret of this comedy is its pacing. It shows the events of one working day in the lives of a range of people from schoolchildren to pensioners, whose course is hilariously skewed for them all by the obsession of the film's central character. It uses a traditional "obsessive tunnel vision" strategy of comedy - a character's failure to see the chaos he is causing in the lives of those who are unlucky enough to lie in the path between him and his goal. Alison Steadman plays the sassy schoolgirl who does everything she can to help her headteacher achieve this obsession, tearing him between his drive for the peak of respectability orthodoxy and her less than respectable means to achieve this goal. The comic tension between the unlikely pair seems a hilarious pastiche of the sexual tension in most hero + heroine situations. Americans may not immediately recognise the small-town England setting, which gives it a tone of Ealing comedy, but the film should greatly amuse viewers from any background.