henry-girling

We've seen all this before! This is just the 'Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet'(1952) with added cussing and bodily functions. Man of the house who used to be in a successful band and has a laid back approach to life - Ozzy/Ozzie. Woman of the house being more savvy and liking lots of shopping - Sharon/Harriet. Even offspring who go in for a music career - Kelly/Ricky.

Both are ostensibly about the everyday lives of the Nelsons and the Osbournes, saying this is what we are really like but of course that isn't true at all. In the presence of a camera everyone performs, are not themselves, which is why the phrase 'reality TV' is such a misnomer.

'The Osbournes' does have some bright moments but you have to wade through a lot of wadding to get there.

This is a patriotic flag-waver of a film that could never be made anymore. The emphasis is on pulling together and supporting the armed forces, all in gleaming colour. It is a wartime film that says although the world is in a spin if we work together to beat the foe, things will work out fine in the end. It is sweet as a sugar coated pill, made to cheer the people up in World War 2. And who better to do that than blonde Betty Grable, lively and bright and charming. There are flashes in the film of the classic pin-up picture of her looking saucily over her shoulder.

A formula film then but it does have some bright spots. Joe E Brown and Martha Raye being loud and cantankerous. The dancing Condos Brothers who tap dance like furies. The gorgeous technicolour. Charlie Spivack's band. The musical numbers are OK though the roller skating number and the marching sequence hilarious in the wrong sort of way.

There is a real gem in the film, a number called 'Once Too Often', which is a sour song of love and betrayal, at odds with the rest of the saccharine mood of the film. Grable sings it well then dances it with the great Hermes Pan. In her split skirt showing those million dollar legs, she and Pan do a sexy routine together. It's the best thing in the whole movie.

This is not at all a bad film and it is a pity that Jet Li has not directed more because even though the plot is simple and unsurprising the film rattles along in an entertaining way. It looks good, colourful but gritty with the white of the U.S sailor's uniforms intruding everywhere as they do in the film, into Chinese society and into the Jet Li's character's life. Jet stands up to them.

This leads to some great fight scenes including a humungous one in a bar (with the rain pouring in through holes in the roof) that ends up with Jet being thrown out of a window. But does it end there? Nope. Jet is great as usual and acts in his intense mode, full of energy and charisma. The rest of the cast are ordinary.

The film score is particularly good and, as all scores should, enhances the action as well as the dramatic scenes. It is not one of Jet Li's celebrated films but definitely worth seeing, to see a real star in the making.