Billy The Kid And The Green Baize Vampire

Billy The Kid And The Green Baize Vampire
Average customer rating:

Hallelujah !!

The only snooker video worth buying

billy comes down under

Quite immovable, like the man on the titanic

"Triffids tripped on hyper-space"

Billy The Kid And The Green Baize Vampire
Starring: Alun Armstrong , Phil Daniels , Bruce Payne , Julian Sands , and Craig T. Nelson
Director: Alan Clarke
Manufacturer: Network
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Musicals | Classics | Categories | DVD | Video
Classic | Musicals & Stage Performances | Musicals & Classical | Categories | DVD | Video
Film Musicals | Musicals & Stage Performances | Musicals & Classical | Categories | DVD | Video
DVD | Format (binding_browse-bin) | Refinements | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000GI36A2
Release Date: 2006-08-07
Billy The Kid And The Green Baize Vampire

Customer Reviews:

Hallelujah !!.......2007-02-21

FINALLY it's here, after many years of watching an ancient (taped off Channel 4 circa mid 80'S) copy on video, I can get my Billy fix on dvd. It's a musical about snooker so expect just that, fantastically bad and original, it's there to enjoy from Alun Armstrong as a singing vampire to Phil Daniels as Billy, the cockney cowboy. Perfect !

The only snooker video worth buying.......2007-02-20

The story is based upon the old school of snooker versus the new school. One character {Maxi} closely resembles Ray Rearden {complete with squeaking shoes} and the other {Billy} Jimmy White. Excellent little musical with top notch songs lampooning the types of fans {Middle class snobs and cheeky yobs} and the behind the scenes corruption of the promoters. Amazingly the casting and direction manages to make this a hilarious yet slightly sinister mock horror with superb low budget backdrops. I nearly fainted when I saw it on DVD. Buy it or rent it.

billy comes down under.......2007-01-19

still cant believe ive got this on dvd! the film was shown about 5 years ago on channel 10 (australia) so i managed to tape it again, my original channel 4 taped copy was almost worn out. maxy maxy kid kid kid!!

Quite immovable, like the man on the titanic.......2006-09-16

I didn't think I would ever see this released on dvd. It doesn't matter that there's little in the way of extras, no subtitles, documentaries, trailers etc. Nor does it matter that the print hasn't been cleaned up and the soundtack is claimed to be in mono (I suspect this might be wrong, it sounds in stereo to me!). At least the printed programme notes are good!

This film remains the ideal brooding, claustrophobic, wise-cracking snooker/gangster musical. Although low budget, the concrete setting ideally suits the mood of the film and offsets the well staged set pieces. The snooker match at the end is a particularly well paced, over the top, nail biting finale.

The film doesn't have any real message or purpose - just grand pantomine characters singing stagey, enjoyable songs which tell a simple tale.

A brilliant,late night musical - which leaves you feeling happy to have watched it . . . . recommended.

"Triffids tripped on hyper-space".......2006-08-23

"If you was an undertaker, people'd stop dying". Just one of the many witty one-liners in this lost gem of a film. It's so obscure and so completely out there that I honestly never thought "Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire" would ever be released on DVD so this is one helluva treat. I won't go into detail about the plot as I'd just be repeating previous reviewers so I'm gonna get all pretentious instead and tell you that if you like Brecht, and in particular his musical work with Kurt Weil, then this film may well be right up your particular alley. As the accompanying booklet points out, the stark sets, subdued and sometimes other-worldly lighting, stylised acting and somewhat music-hall flavour of many of the songs give a real sense of the alienation effect that director Alan Clarke managed so incredibly well in his BBC production of Brecht's "Baal" in the early 80s. Trevor Preston's scripts, with its often dark and always sharp humour, is delivered deadpan by a cast of excellent actors who've never failed to impress in both their stage and screen performances and, in classic Brechtian style, it's a film that manages to draw you completely into the action (the grudge match itself it genuinely edge-of-the-seat stuff) while never quite letting you forget that you're the audience watching a show; so none of this sappy "getting emotionally invested in the characters and plot" that's been in vogue for so long now. BTK and the GBV doesn't give any pretence of "real life", never patronises the viewer and gives the impression that if you enjoy it then great and if you don't - well who gives a toss what you think anyway. It's really quite punk rock in that respect.

Back in Nineteen Fish'n'Chips I bumped into Alun Armstrong (the Green Baize Vampire) and on telling him that this was my all-time favourite film he looked concerned and said "Have you seen anyone about this?". I glibly replied "Well, I did go to a psychiatrist but he said there was nothing he could do about it" which, I'm pleased to say, made Mr Armstrong smile. Y'see, even the cast don't seem to be so sure about this film's appeal but anyway, I was very generously given the vampire's own original script so if you're reading this, thanks Alun; it's still my most treasured possession (with the possible exception of my 1979 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe).

Customer Reviews:

Great Scottish Fiddle Music.......2004-09-19

I thoroughly enjoyed viewing "The Best of the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra" - with excerpts from concerts from around the UK and Canada. You get the sense that the audiences had a good time - A variety of music which would satisfy any lover of Scottish music. It would have been good if there had been interviews with some of the performers and John Mason, the conductor (as opposed to a "text" history of the SFO which is on the DVD. I would thoroughly recommend this DVD purchase to anyone.

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