The 39 Steps (2008)

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Wooden acting, massive plot holes, continuity blunders and more. When we got to the end credits I was astonished to see that this lemon was actually produced by The BBC!!The SE5a aircraft out of time in history was hilarious. That aircraft first flew three years after the year in which the film is set and was a military aircraft that would have been unavailable for private purchase, but the baddie has one casually parked outside his castle. The crack East Coast main line from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh is depicted as it enters Scotland in this film by a single track branch line railway with the train hauled by a light-duty steam engine that would be typically found pulling small local trains or freight in the provinces.The baddie cannot make his getaway on the submarine because it is only able to stay surfaced for 3 minutes and had to resubmerge before he could row out to it?? What on Earth is that about??? What stopped the sub from remaining surfaced?The veteran cars that sounded exactly like modern cars......etc etc.All these bloopers made the film actually quite entertaining to watch so I give it three stars for accidental entertainment value.

Absolute drivel. The only resemblance between this rubbish and the book or the early movie is the name. Rubbish.They have lost all the mystery of the "39 steps".Right from the beginning it is leaves the John Buchan story. There is no interplay between Scudder and Hannay over a number of days. Just murder within minutes.Where did the girl come from. Holllywoid claptrap.Where is all the drama of the different chases???It wasn't the Archduke Ferdinand hat was assassinated in the story. It was someone from Turkey who was murdered in London.!I cannot believe that they tried to call this 39 Steps!,,

It was known that Alfred Hitchcock would buy a book or a story and then use as little as a sentence of it and create a whole new scenario for his film. This version of "The 39 Steps" is based on the book, not the Hitchcock movie; therefore, it's different. The stars are Rupert Perry-Jones, Lydia Leonard, Patrick Malahide, and Eddie Marsan.Having seen the Hitchcock film and the play which uses the Hitchcock film, this 39 Steps is interesting but ultimately a downer. Hitchcock made this story his own, and anything else is going to be a disappointment.The acting is good. Rupert Perry-Jones is an attractive lead, but he's not called upon to do very much. He's not Robert Donat, after all. Lydia Leonard is the suffragette Victoria. She's fun but she's not Madeline Carroll. There's not much, if any, suspense to be had - no being handcuffed together, no music hall scene, just a lot of chases through nice scenery.It's worth watching to compare to Hitchcock and appreciate him all the more, but that's about it. I'd call this pleasant rather than exciting or suspenseful. There was one big surprise in a beginning apartment scene - if the film had continued like that, it would have had something.

"The 39 Steps" is about a man who is mistaken to be the killer of a British spy. He has to run for his life, and to protect the secret that the spy hands him.I am pleasantly surprised by the quality of "The 39 Steps". The plot is thrilling, delivered in the right pace and way. The leading guy is constantly on the run, there is not a minute of boredom in the film. The constant twists gets viewers thinking, and wanting more of the plot to unfold. Rupert Penry-Jones is convincing as a upper class gentleman with brain and courage. I enjoyed watching "The 39 Steps" a lot, and I look forward to more films starring Rupert Penry-Jones.