Clockwise Poster

Clockwise (1986)

Comedy  
Rayting:   6.6/10 11.5K votes
Country: UK
Language: English
Release date: 29 January 1987

An obsessively punctual comprehensive school headmaster sets out to give an important speech at the annual Headmasters' Conference.

Movie Trailer

Where to Watch

  • Buy
  • Buy
  • Buy

User Reviews

jbateman 1 December 1999

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.

lee_eisenberg 7 August 2005

Fmovies: 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.

Mallocky 18 February 2006

Glad to see this film is building up a fan-base. Any references I've come across in film guides have been pretty dismissive, and it seems to have been rubbished on its release. I think "minor classic" is the perfect description for it: it's so pleasantly low-key, restrained and, well, English. It respects the tradition of farce and, despite the frenetic pace and the subject matter, retains a kind of gentle, even staid appeal. The race to get to the conference might be nail-biting but the sleepy English countryside, the apple-eating farmer, the scene of John Cleese soaking in a bath-tub, evoke a world of endearing laziness. A film for bank holidays, and perhaps more suited to TV than the cinema. A Fish Called Wanda has funnier moments but, on the whole, I think I prefer this.

Interesting that so many people have said they can watch it again and again. I've seen it four or five times and I'm planning on buying it on my way home from work today, then watching it over dinner. Don't know what made me think of it and look it up. Actually I saw it being given away free with a newspaper last week, that must be it. I wasn't going to add to a tabloid's circulation, though.

jéwé 12 April 2001

Clockwise fmovies. A very funny film, in my opinion the best Cleese available. Cleese himself always ignores this film when talking about his cinema-work and the title is never mentioned when Cleese's films are named by the critics. It seems, for some vague reason, that there is nothing between Monty Python and 'A Fish called Wanda'. Rubbish, see this one. I also liked 'Fish' the first time around but got bored very soon by repeats. Not this one. Like 'Mr Hulot's Holiday' and 'Gregory's Girl' and film to watch many times. Script scores high in the family's 'citation index'. Nine-twenty Linda...

HenryHextonEsq 24 March 2001

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 *****)

Champion-3 3 April 2002

There are a great many films which are painful in their bland mainstreaminess.

And a very few which manage to pull it off, and remain funny to virtually everyone, over a period of several years.

This John Cleese vehicle from the mid 1980s manages to fit into the latter category - it is simply such a very well crafted traditional comedy, that it is impossible not to be touched.

Here we see Cleese very much in Basil Fawlty mode, as an aspiring head-teacher for whom things just don't run smooth when it really matters.

The other classic elements of British Farce are there - major misunderstandings, people getting undresses, well-intentioned old ladies who say the wrong things at the wrong times, and of course Geoffrey Palmer as a straight man.

And just a touch of poignant surrealism in the way the final minute leading into the credits is played out, to offset the traditional production values.

It's straightforward, and unchallenging, and probably the best film about lateness ever made. High praise indeed, for something so mainstream.

Similar Movies

5.3
Bachchhan Paandey

Bachchhan Paandey 2022

6.2
Jug Jugg Jeeyo

Jug Jugg Jeeyo 2022

5.5
Senior Year

Senior Year 2022

7.0
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers 2022

5.8
The Man from Toronto

The Man from Toronto 2022

6.0
Jayeshbhai Jordaar

Jayeshbhai Jordaar 2022

6.7
Minions: The Rise of Gru

Minions: The Rise of Gru 2022

6.7
Fresh

Fresh 2022


Share Post

Direct Link

Markdown Link (reddit comments)

HTML (website / blogs)

BBCode (message boards & forums)

Watch Movies Online | Privacy Policy
Fmovies.guru provides links to other sites on the internet and doesn't host any files itself.