Beresford Adams, a good estate agent!

Advantages: good communication, regulated, friendly
Disadvantages: none!

...Looking to buy a property in this turbulent market, with 4 possibles after 60+ viewings, we have come across many different agents with many different working methods! So far, Beresford Adams have been the best. On seeing the property on RightMove, we emailed and received a reply answering all our questions within the hour. The questions had involved them contacting the vendor, which we thought was excellent, considering we had not done anything but email at this stage. We then set about making a viewing which was hassle free and sorted again very fast. After the viewing, we emailed them to ask further, and again efforts were made to reply back to us quickly. They assigned us one person to make sure the person we spoke to knew the case, so there was no confusion when contacting the office. Due to the property being old, it had...

macteykith 20.02.2007 · Read review
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Review of Beresford Adams

Arrogant managers, jumped-up staff

Advantages: Local, not part of a massive chain
Disadvantages: Rude, pushy staff

...Beresford Adams markets itself as being a local chain which knows its market well and can offer a good personalised service. That sounded good to us, so we made an appointment for someone to come and value our property. Then, on the day, we waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, half an hour after the appointed time, we phoned. No-one could understand why the agent hadn't called, and another appointment was made for the same agent for the following day. We explained that he'd have to be on time, since we had an appointment to view a property. The following day, at the appointed time, there was still no show. We called the office, and someone called the agent. He's on his way, we were told. Half an hour late, and twenty minutes before our appointment - which was ten minutes' drive away - the agent appeared on the doorstep. He didn...

quadruped 26.03.2001 (23.03.2001) · Read review
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Review of Beresford Adams

Tommy and Tuppence adventures

Advantages: Great Christie plots and suspense
Disadvantages: Slightly dated

...This novel features Agatha Christie's lesser known detective duo, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. A middle class, married couple in post war Britain, boredom drives them to accept a challenge from the home office to takeover a fake detective agency to assist them in trapping some Russian spies. Tuppence persuades Tommy to accept real cases so they look authentic and so she can have some excitement. The book then is made up of a series of cases they undertake to solve, some quite simple, some more complex, with the Russian spy line running in the background. For each case Tommy and Tuppence pretend to be a different fictional detective character, a neat twist except the characters are not well known nowadays apart from Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown. These characters have not aged as well as Poirot or Marple. References to division...

filmlover 08.12.2004 · Read review
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Review of Partners in Crime - Agatha Christie

A gentle comedy

Advantages: Great movie with some superb acting performances.
Disadvantages: Maybe a little slow for a younger audience

...Driving Miss Daisy, directed by Bruce Beresford, details the subtleties of southern life. Adapted from Alfred Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, the movie tells the story of Miss Daisy and her chauffer, Hoke. It is a sentimental journey through the years as we watch a reluctant friendship build between a wealthy lady and her chauffer. The Plot Miss Daisy is becoming a danger on the highways as she manages to write-off her car in her own driveway. Despite her stubbornness and typical wealthy Jewish woman’s willfulness she eventually allows Hoke to be her chauffer. As the movie progresses in its quiet and sometimes funny way we see a reluctant friendship develop as the two realize they have much in common. Hoke, with his gentleness and patience begins to win the war against the temperamental Miss Daisy. As Miss Daisy...

Simoncook1 26.03.2001 · Read review
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Review of Driving Miss Daisy (Special Edition) (DVD)

I'm a sucker for girl power

Advantages: Great film
Disadvantages: None

...Ok, so I know it's an old film, but it sure is a goodie. A 1999 film starring Ashley Judd, Tommy Lee Jones and Bruce Greenwood. It was produced by Leonard Goldberg, and directed by Bruce Beresford. STORYLINE: Libby Parsons (Ashley Judd) is married to Nicholas Parsons (Bruce Greenwood). Nick is having an affair with Angie, Libby's best friend. Nick "fakes" his own death one night when Libby and him are on a sailing boat out at sea. Libby gets convicted of murder and loses her son to Angie. Whilst in prison Libby learns that Nick is in fact alive and living with Angie and Mattie, her son. Distraught at the fact the husband she loved has betrayed her, she does her best to get someone to believe her. She learns a a very valuable lesson. Double Jeopardy = "No person can be tried of the same crime twice" - 5th...

yukkibear 23.01.2002 · Read review
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Review of Double Jeopardy (DVD)

I wouldn't have signed a contract for this..............

Advantages: Not a lot really
Disadvantages: Drags, below par acting, unbelievable bits

..., and there is no shortage of violence throughout the film, with some swearing thrown in for good measure, hence its 15 certificate. The DVD is currently available from amazon.co.uk for £4.98. I saw this on TV, and so am unaware of any extras, but I wouldn't bother with them even if I had the DVD. I'm not really interested in finding out exactly how they managed to make this film so disappointing. Director Bruce Beresford must take a lot of the criticism for this disappointment. The camera work is decent, but the acting is substandard for who we have here, and the ebb and flow and reality of the minor elements are just not believable enough to enjoy....

pmcds 02.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Contract (DVD)

Being operated on while still awake? No ta!

Advantages: Great film
Disadvantages: First half an hour drags a bit

...Every year, there are millions of people who go under general anaesthetic for an operation of some sort. Statistics show that 1 in 700 experience what is known as 'anaesthetic awareness'. It entails them being in a physical state of complete unconsciousness, but mentally they are completely awake, and can experience everything in terms of feeling and sound, etc. Debut director Joby Harold's first film deals with just such a theme, giving us a stunning thriller with aneasthetic awareness at its core. Billionaire capital-investor Clay Beresford (Hayden Christensen) is a famous man with a medical condition meaning he will need a heart transplant. His rare blood type means that the wait for a compatible heart is potentially a long one. When one comes available, he is rushed in for transplant surgery, but experiences anaesthetic awareness...

pmcds 26.10.2008 · Read review
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Review of Awake (DVD)

Not my idea of Paradise

Advantages: Extremely well acted, beautiful soundtrack, everything spot on
Disadvantages: Some people will never see this because of preconceived notions

..." Paradise Road" (1997) stars Glenn Close, Frances McDormand, Pauline Collins and Julianna Margulies in a brutal portrayal of the survival of a group of women, taken prisoner by the Japanese in Sumatra in WWII. They were beaten, starved, abused by their captors, filthy and riddled with disease and yet managed to rise above it all with an almost etheral quality which in itself was an act of defiance. There are some, like me, that may remember the "Tenko" miniseries on tv in the seventies or eighties, and I'm thinking didn't Pauline Collins also play a part in that one too? Director Bruce Beresford's powerful saga is based on the true story of how women of different nationalities - English, American, Dutch, Australians - overcame terrible suffering in appalling conditions and lived to tell the tale. That and overcoming...

poet831 24.02.2003 · Read review
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Review of Paradise Road DVD

It would be a crime to watch this twice...

Advantages: Mildly diverting nonsense
Disadvantages: The bad guy is called Nicholas Parsons!

...perhaps comes out of this best as the material is pitched more at his level. He’s a competent actor, very good at being smarmy, but rather limited. The remainder of the cast get so little to do it’s not even worth mentioning them. Presumably, the reason that Judd and Jones agreed to do this in the first place was down to director, Bruce Beresford. He was the director of the 1989 Oscar-winning film, Driving Miss Daisy, although he was controversially overlooked at the time for even a nomination for Best Director. Watching this, perhaps the Academy was right after all! Okay, the story may be fairly limited but that’s no excuse for the movie being flat from beginning to end. Where’s the passion, the exhilarating set pieces, and the clever dialogue? Didn’t they even watch The Fugitive? (I’m sure Tommy has...

Crazy-Christian 16.10.2001 · Read review
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Review of Double Jeopardy (DVD)

I'd Rather Be Asleep

Advantages: Some decent effects.
Disadvantages: Amateurish direction and writing, a wooden leading man and a lack of story.

...Clayton Beresford is a billionaire playboy who owns half a city. He's blissfully in love with Sam but his life is far from perfect because he suffers from a genetic heart defect that could kill him at any moment. One night he gets the call that will change and possibly save his life as a donor heart becomes available. He goes into the operating room and is put under anaesthetic. But instead of going peacefully to sleep he remains aware of everything going on around him but is completely paralysed. And as if that wasn't bad enough he can hear the doctors planning to kill him? Director-writer Joby Harold's debut has low budget stamped all over it; from the set-up to the execution. It looks cheap because of the low-grade film stock employed, which has a grainy quality and the wobbly camerawork that makes it appear as though the operator...

afy9mab 22.04.2008 · Read review
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Review of Awake (DVD)