This series is of the highest quality with huge amounts spent on getting the costumes and settings just right. The acting is top quality and action gets pretty explicit at times both sex and violence (you have been warned).
Martin Scorcese is in charge of producing this so why wait, get it now!
Set right at the start of prohibition in the USA the series follows gangsters and other crooks circumventing the booze ban! Al Capone etc.
Since its release in 2003, 'Elf' has become a Christmas staple in my household. Along with the Home Alone films, it is a must-watch to get in the holiday mood. It's funny, I watch my favourite Christmas films every year, yet can't say I watch my favourite all-time films every year. So does that make 'Elf' one of my all-time favourites? Quite possibly.
Will Ferrell plays a very different kind of character than we would usually expect and this role will definitely help to win over some of his detractors. He is perfectly charming and his innocence in the fish-out-of-water story gets many laughs throughout without overdoing it. Similarly, the wonderful Zooey Deschanel plays a character far more cynical than more of the so-called 'adorkable' roles she usually receives. Watching these two actors playing off each other is both a joy and a rarity.
Despite the multitude of familiar elements, the film contains enough seasonal charm to override any minor qualms.'Elf' turns the Christmas to eleven and is all the better for it.
Cast your minds back to 1997, and the release of Joel Schumacher's "Batman and Robin". That ridiculously over-the-top camp take on Batman was something of a nail in the coffin for the series, effectively killing a franchise that had been rejuvenated by Tim Burton's gothic take on the caped crusader in the late eighties. It was a long time before Warner Bros. would even consider relaunching the Batman saga - but when they did, there was only one direction in which they could take it: dark, grim, and gritty.
Reimagining the Batman franchise as a serious superhero saga for adults (and drawing inspiration from the darker and more sophisticated Batman comics of the 1980s) was an inspired choice for Warner Bros., and marked a complete U-turn compared to the day-glo campness of Batman and Robin. But their real masterstroke came when they hired British director Christopher Nolan to direct "Batman Begins", which functioned as an origin story for Batman of the kind we'd never seen before. Eschewing the simplistic, condensed origin of previous movies (which jumped straight from Bruce Wayne's parents being killed to him dressing up as a Bat to fight crime), the first movie of Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy spends a significant portion of its long running time in telling the full story of Bruce's transformation from a bereaved young man into an adult crime-fighter. In doing so, it not only establishes Christian Bale's Batman as a plausible concept in a grounded and realistic world, but also introduces a complex and enigmatic bad-guy in the form of Ra's Al Ghul (Liam Neeson) - and embellishes things with a few secondary villains like Cillian Murphy's Scarecrow and Tom Wilkinson's gangster boss. The result is a movie that manages not only to salvage Batman's reputation from the campness of his previous screen incarnation, but also sets up a weighty, grown-up superhero franchise with the future potential to take the genre to adult places that had never been explored before.
And with "The Dark Knight", Nolan and his collaborators did just that. Taking the concept of 'escalation' as a theme - as teased at the end of Batman Begins - the movie explores the logical consequences of Batman's theatrical and elaborate approach to fighting crime. If Batman is the question, the answer is The Joker: the chaotic, anarchic yin to Batman's orderly, law-abiding yang, played to perfection by the late Heath Ledger in one of his last screen roles. Ledger's Joker doesn't so much steal the show from Bale's Batman as he steals it, drives it away, paints it in garish colours, and uses it to set all sorts of crazy (and lethal) plans in motion before blowing it up with childish glee and reveling in the chaos it produces. The character is a charismatic force of nature that makes the film gripping and impossible to turn away from - and his complete control of the movie is no mean feat, considering that Ledger is competing with supporting players like Maggie Gyllenhall (as love interest and crusading lawyer Rachel Dawes) and Aaron Eckhart (as the villain Two-Face, who plays a key role in terms of both the plot and the larger themes of the movie) - as well as returning actors like Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox (think James Bond's "Q"), and Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, all three of whom play their parts as though they were born to do it.
Finally, Nolan's concluding movie, "The Dark Knight Rises", takes all of the ideas of the previous two films and drives them to their logical conclusions, finding the time to follow-up on dangling plot threads from both of the earlier films whilst also introducing new characters of its own - as well as a plot that raises the stakes for Batman (and Gotham City) considerably. Tom Hardy's Bane is the oddly-voiced yet physically-imposing threat that an ageing Batman must eliminate, at the same time as Gotham begins to slide from prosperity into chaos as the villain seeks to redress the imbalance of wealth by turning the city into a chaotic, everyone-for-themselves no-mans-land through the threat of a nuclear weapon. And Anne Hathaway turns in one of the best performances of her career as Catwoman (sorry, Selina Kyle - her superhero name is never actually mentioned) a cat-burglar with ambiguous morality who will either help or hinder Batman in his quest. It might not be as perfect a movie as Batman Begins or The Dark Knight - as it lacks such a strong villain, is a little overlong, and loses focus by trying to juggle too many disparate elements as it approaches its finale - but it's still a fine end to the trilogy, and one that bravely dares to actually try and bring some closure and genuine character development to the world of Batman, rather than treating the hero's adventures as a continuous, open-ended saga.
In (briefly) reviewing all three films, I haven't even had time to mention the wonderful production design of the movies, which furnishes Batman with a host of vehicles that straddle a fine line between realistic military technology and outlandish gadgetry (such as the tank-like Batmobile, rechristened the "tumbler"), as well as a cool base of operations in the form of minimalist Batcave (or, in the second movie, bat-bunker). I've also been lax to not mention the superb photography by cinematographer Wally Pfister, which produces some jaw-dropping establishing shots of cityscapes, as well as some crystal-clear action sequences that benefit from the director's focus on clarity and comprehensibility, and which laudably resist the temptation to obscure the movies' action in a blur of fast-cutting and ultra-close-ups (as seems to be the trend with a lot of big action movies nowadays). Many of the sequences for The Dark Knight and the Dark Knight Rises were shot for exhibition in the large-scale IMAX format, and the detail and clarity shines through even on the reduced screen-size of home media.
Talking of which, on Blu-Ray the films look fantastic, with pin-sharp visuals that are reference-quality for those looking to show off their home cinema system. The only slight distraction is that the IMAX sequences are shot in a slightly different aspect ratio to the rest of the movies (meaning they fill a widescreen TV, whereas the rest of the film's scenes look 'letterboxed'). You get used to it eventually, and you hardly notice it by the end, but it's a bit weird to have the dimensions of the picture keep changing between shots.
The extras contained within this definitive boxset replicate those of the original Blu-Ray releases for Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, including a host of documentaries, trailers and interviews that take you behind-the-scenes of these genre-defining superhero movies. And The Dark Knight Rises is accompanied by a similarly rich array of extras, my favourite of which has to be the in-depth look at the history of the Batmobile - going all the way back to the early Batman movie serials, through the '60s TV show concept car, the Burton and Schumacher versions, and even taking in batmobiles from the Batman comics and animations. It's a real treat for car nuts and Batman fans, and it's nice to see such a comprehensive and well-informed documentary covering one of the most famous attributes of the character.
All in all, this is a fantastic boxset of three of my favourite superhero films of all time, and in other circumstances I'd happily give it a perfect review. Unfortunately, however, the actual packaging itself is a little bit flawed, and I've knocked a star off for that reason. Whilst the five Blu-Ray discs come in a lovely fold-out slipcase inside a smart-looking matte black box, the producers of the set have unfortunately seen fit to clumsily glue a product information leaflet to the back of it, meaning that you have to either have to leave this cheap bit of paper stuck to the back of an otherwise very pretty and sleek blu-ray case, or you have to hope that you can pick off the glue without ripping chunks off the box itself. Also, the free art book on the Batman trilogy that comes with the set seems to have been altered from the version that was originally advertised: rather than a nice little hardback volume, it's a cheap-feeling floppy paperback - which is a couple of centimetres too short to sit comfortably in the box with the blu-ray case, meaning the producers have had to stick a loose strip of polystyrene packing foam into the back of the box so that the book's spine sits flush with the section that houses the discs.
These might sound like petty concerns, and they obviously don't affect the quality of the films themselves - so it's hardly a serious argument against buying this set. But when you're shelling out a substantial amount of money for a definitive trilogy boxset, I don't think it's too much to ask that all the pieces fit together properly, and that you can take off the packaging without damaging the set itself. Then again, having seen that Warner Bros. have already solicited an "Ultimate Dark Knight Trilogy Boxset" for release next year, maybe they've been happy to cut corners on this initial release.
Still, despite these small production errors in the set itself, there's really no reason not to check out these fantastic and peerless superhero films - especially in the beautiful, deluxe Blu-ray format.
A high impacted, fun, intense boxset that you cannot keep your eyes off. Whether you are young, old, male or female Dragon Ball Z is a gurantee pure excitement. A mature animation with spectacular active fighting scenes with a interesting plot each episode.
This wasnt quite what I expected. Stewart is pretty good as SW- the accent was quite impressive. Not quite so covinced with Chris Hemsworths attempt at Scottish (via South Africa!) why did he have to be scottish? Any way bit a of a motly bunch the dwarves- REALLY weird seeing the likes of McShane & Winstone et al playing dwarves. I can begin to understand why Warwick Davis and others were upset.
Charlize Theron was spot on as the queen and gave a great performance. Recommended viewing
A different take on a classic
Watchable 'End Of The World' film with an excellent, darkly comedic first half hour that soon gives way to a lacklustre, formulaic rom-com. First time writer / director Lorene Scafaria sets up an interesting scenario where everyone in the world is well aware of the fact that the end is nigh (courtesy of an incoming asteroid) and there's nothing they can do about it. This leads to mild mannered, sensible people going off the rails in a hedonistic haze whilst others try to do what they can to cope; Steve Carell plays a dispirited insurance salesman whose wife promptly leaves him upon hearing news of the Earth's imminent destruction. He ends up going on a road trip with his cool, quirky neighbour Kiera Knightley: she's off to join her family, he to find an old flame, obviously, this odd couple eventually fall for each other as Carell regains his mojo whilst down-in the-dumps stoner Knightley opens up about her feelings and so on.
'Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World' plays out like its been work-shopped to within an inch of its life at some Hollywood screenplay class; everything follows through as you'd expect, we move from one point to another to another to the inevitable, and frankly welcome, conclusion. Steve Carell holds it all together with strong support from Martin Sheen as his absentee father, an all too brief but hilarious appearance by Rob Corddry and a brilliant cameo by William Peterson. Keira Knightley is better here than she's been in a while and rocks the dizzy, pot smoking boho style like its 2003, she's quite annoying at times, but it could've been worse: they could've cast Zooey Deschanel, in which case you'd be rooting for the asteroid. Carell and Knightley strike up a good on-screen rapport and though some of their dialogue sounds like wannabe Nick Hornby meets Richard Curtis, we just about get a sense of who these characters are and you do sort of care about how their relationship will play out given the apocalyptic circumstances under which it blossomed.
As it stands, 'Seeking A Friend For The End of the World' is a forgettable, reasonably well-acted variation on a tried, tested and rather tired genre, not awful but nothing to write home about either. Hit and miss.
down to earth couple of girls who are simply broke like the rest of us and are trying their absolute best to get where they want in life with plenty of laughs along the way!
absolutely brilliant
Prometheus is the much-anticipated 'prequel' to 1979's Alien, directed by the original film's maestro Ridley Scott. The franchise will be well known to many moviegoers, spawning 1986's bug blast classic Aliens and the more arty but equally claustrophobic Alien 3. Then came Alien Resurrection which, though not as widely acknowledged as its precedessors, nonetheless contained some memorable sequences and a tough-as-nails Sigourney Weaver on as good form as ever. That was in 1997. Spin-offs followed in the form of Alien v. Predator but it was clear that any serious reboot was going to have to realign the series back to the pure Alien concept and involve a massive creative and financial effort. Thankfully, Ridley Scott felt he had unfinished business after Alien, with many questions left tantalisingly unanswered following that first effort. Over three decades later and the time had come for the English director to address this itch.
The result is an absolute tour de force in every sense and should delight old Aliens fans and newcomers alike. There is no doubt that Scott and the two young scriptwriters hired for the project have not wanted for ambition. Existential questions about the origins of man are interwoven into an imaginative plot involving the human exploration of an alien planet which reveals more than was bargained for in a multitude of senses. Noomey Rapace stars as archaeologist Elizabeth Shaw hired by a dying corporate chief (Guy Pearce) to follow the tantalising astrological maps left on earth by an unknown species. The belief is that they may hold the key to the origins of man. The twists and turns of the plot reveal multiple agendas on the part of the explorers, their financial backers, the on-board synthetic David and the crew of the ship. Any more detail would require a spoiler alert but it goes without saying that breathtaking revelations are complemented by wondrous technological concepts along the way.
This combination is the essence of cinematic science fiction at its very best. From the automated surgical operating theatre to the holographic replays and the remote mapping robots, the viewer is left in awe at Scott's rich vision of how the future might look. But for all the technology, alien species and circumstances conspire to reveal a fragility that makes this a very human film. The characters are victims of their own greed, ambition and naivety and this plays out to devastating effect. It is as if Scott is warning future generations against trying to play god regardless of the resources and technology at their disposal.
Morality play aside, the acting deserves special mention here. Charlize Theron plays the cold-hearted corporate operator well but Michael Fassbender as synthetic David steals the show. A sort of cold-hearted Jeeves of the future, he allows us to look down on the humans and their existential angst but in the process ironically reveals himself to be almost childlike and jealous in his search for validation as their peer. Interestingly, he brings a character-actor's approach to the film by shunning the precedent set by Lance Henriksen's Bishop from Aliens and instead opting for a far creepier alternative inspired by various sources including an Olympic diver whose physical movements were just right for the role. Noomi Rapace's Shaw is more obviously identifiable with an equivalent from the rest of the franchise, playing a tough woman who has to step up and deliver the truly extraordinary to save the day. The main difference between her and Sigourney Weaver's Ripley is that the latter is more pragmatic and dismissive about the aliens while Rapace's character manages to bring the audience along in terms of her curiosity and desire to interact.
What has been harder to understand is the mixed critical reception of Prometheus. Apparent holes in the plot have been highlighted in some quarters along with alleged predictability along the way. While it is true that disbelief has to be suspended in a couple of minor areas, this is not a big ask nor is there anything more obviously unbelievable than in other science fiction film. After all, if you can't get past spaceships as a concept then this genre might not be for you in the first place. However, I would advise to stay the course; stunning visuals, a credible story, spellbinding technological concepts and an almost Shakespearean sense of foreboding simply won't give you the time or the inclination to begin questioning any discrepancies, perceived or otherwise. In fact, the reward for a second or third viewing is likely to be an even fuller and ultimately more satisfying understanding of the ambitious themes behind this work. Surely a contender for film of the year, Prometheus can rank proudly among acknowledged classics such as Alien, Aliens and yes, even 2001: A Space Odyssey. The even better news is that 74 year-old Ridley Scott is not done yet; a sequel which will make the final connection with Alien is now on its way.
Alien prequel re-ignites moviegoers' fascination with long-running sci-fi horror franchise
A really good series with a nice soundtrack and animation
This is an incredible series that you would want to pick up and watch
This is a very good series with a unique art style and is definitely worth picking up
This is a really good show, however would buy the series separately, this boxset is really bad
Good show, bad product
The Office is one of the most popular comedy shows as each individual character is so funny. To understand what is going on in most episodes, you will probably need to watch the first four seasons first. Every thing that happens is funny, every consequence and every awkward situation has me in stitches.
Some of the best characters are Dwight, who owns a bed & breakfast at his beet farm and is frequently annoyed by co-worker Jim, and Michael, the regional manager who likes to invent his own characters.
Every episode in this season just get better and better. This season is by far the best out of the first five. The best episode has to be episode 13, Stress Relief. In this episode, because nobody listened to Dwight's fire safety talk, he decides to simulate a fire in the office and during the first two minutes of the episode, you are guaranteed to be laughing. The episode carries on and Dwight has so many funny lines and moments, like in every episode.
Even though Stress Relief is the best episode, the rest are almost equally as funny and have so many ways to make you laugh. There's the lines they say, the things that happen, the awkwardness of the atmosphere and the characters. This show and season is highly recommended for anyone who wants to laugh, although you would need to watch the early episodes first. :)
The Office is a television show set in Scranton, Pennsylvania, set as a mockumentary. It involves many typical office workers getting into funny situations and annoying each other. During this season, there are weight loss competitions, baby showers, heart attacks and Cafe Discos.
Well, he did say he'd be back.
I've lost count of the number of home video releases we've seen over the years for James Cameron's classic, 'The Terminator'. Lovers of the movie - like me - have faithfully bought and rebought the movie in now-defunct formats like VHS and Laserdisc, before upgrading to more recent reissues like MGM's excellent 2-disc DVD release and the first Blu-Ray version a couple of years ago. So when I heard about the release of this latest edition, I couldn't help but wonder: what can yet another reissue really offer, even for the most die-hard Terminator fan?
A lot, as it turns out.
You see, for this latest Blu-ray release, the producers have gone back to the original source and come up with a brand new, high-definition remaster of the movie that blows previous releases out of the water (even the earlier Blu-ray transfer - which wasn't great, but was until now the best the movie had ever looked). It's a cliché, but this new version really does make the film look as if it was made yesterday - if you ignore the bouffant haircuts, wince-inducingly-'80s clothes and contemporary industrial-electronica soundtrack, that is.
Put simply, the Terminator has never looked better: and the reason I've written this review is as much to draw attention to this specific rerelease as to sing the praises of the film itself. Having said that, before I get stuck in to discussing the new transfer, it's worth mentioning just how good the film is in its own right - especially after the last couple of entries in the franchise turned out to be such disappointments that they've tarnished the Terminator brand to an extent.
The first (and arguably best) movie of the Terminator series provides the template for everything that followed it. Fittingly, for a movie inspired by the crazed dreams suffered by Cameron during a particularly nasty bout of food poisoning, the whole thing plays out like a dark futuristic nightmare, with a paradoxical time-travel storyline providing a mere backdrop against which the real meat of the movie can play out. Because for all its mind-bending sci-fi trappings and outlandish cyborg concepts, Terminator is just about the simplest story that it's possible to tell: a chase.
And what a chase it is. Starting off as a contest between Michael Biehn's Kyle Reese and Arnie's Terminator to be the first to lay their hands on Linda Hamilton's iconic heroine, Sarah Connor - who just happens to be the mother-to-be of the as-yet-unborn boy who's destined to become humanity's saviour in a future war with an army of sentient machines - the film quickly escalates into a straightforward game of cat-and-mouse, and one that rarely lets up. Even during the (rare) quiet moments of the movie - such as the scenes in which Connor seeks refuge in a police station, or later in which she and Reese shack up in a secluded motel - there's a constant sense of tension that's driven by our regular glimpses of the monosyllabic, ultra-focused killer-robot that's pursuing them, and getting closer to them with each step.
As Reese famously states in his explanation of what the Terminator is to Sarah: "It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead." And somehow, amazingly, the filmmakers manage to live up to this extreme description by bringing us an absolutely convincing depiction of a relentless, stone-cold killing machine that never lets up in its quest to terminate Connor for good. In doing so, Cameron and his cohorts - most notably Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the role he was born to play - create not only one of the most memorable villains in all of cinema, but also one of the most gripping and compelling action-movie thrillers, too.
But if you're thinking of buying this particular blu-ray edition, then I'm presuming you're already familiar with the film, and you're really interested in what this version can offer in terms of improvements over the previous releases.
The first thing that hits you is the sheer level of detail that's apparent in the new transfer of the movie, finally dispelling the memories of all those years of fuzzy, orange-and-blue-haze-y video transfers for good. Whilst the improvement is apparent throughout the film, there are certain points at which it really stands out - such as the shiny chrome of the Terminator's robotic endoskeleton, upon which you can now see all sorts of tiny details like little scuffs and scratches that help to enhance the real, tangible feeling of what you're seeing (and show just how much more convincing it can be to use A-list, Stan-Winston-masterminded models and practical effects, rather than the overly-smooth CGI of today's blockbusters).
With your permission to invoke another well-worn cliché, it really is like seeing the movie for the first time: iconic images - like the hunter-killer robots crushing a field of human skulls under their caterpillar tracks in the opening scene of the movie, or the terminator rising from the flames towards the end - suddenly feel like they've been liberated from a smudgy filter that had previously obscured their finer detail, allowing them to live and breathe here in a way that makes previous transfers look flat and lifeless in comparison.
And it's not just the picture quality that makes this new release worth upgrading to, either. The sound is also incredibly clear, remixed to optimise modern sound systems without ever feeling like it betrays the film's cheap-and-nasty (in a good way) 1980s action-movie roots. Brad Fiedel's iconic score, in particular, sounds amazing as it booms out of your speakers in all its muscular, orchestral glory.
That said, the soundtrack is also the source of one of the few niggles that some fans will have with this edition of the movie, as it isn't 100% faithful to The Terminator as it was originally released (for instance, some of the slightly limp and weedy gunshot sounds used in this version were later additions to the film that replaced the meatier effects that were used originally). But unless you really know what to listen for, you probably won't notice it.
The only other real complaint I have about this blu-ray version is the lack of a comprehensive selection of supplemental material. Whilst there are a few extras here, there's certainly nothing as extensive as the documentary-laden 2-disc DVD set that we got back in 2001, which also featured tons of deleted scenes and other bonuses (some of which are included here in full, whilst other bits appear in edited-down versions). So if - like me - you've still got that old DVD set, it may be worth hanging onto it for the complete package of extras that are inexplicably lacking here.
Having said that, I'm increasingly finding that these sorts of bonus extras matter less to me than the presentation of the film - and given that anyone considering shelling out for a blu-ray is presumably interested in picture and sound quality first and foremost, I can definitely recommend this Terminator rerelease as a worthwhile purchase.
Until the next update comes along, at least.
In a world of television culture where so many shows get cancelled after a series or even a few episodes, it's a rarity to see a new series of a show in 2012 that first aired in 1988. Red Dwarf, almost fittingly, is an anomaly - a BBC Two show for over a decade, then resurrected 10 years later on a cable/satellite channel Dave (not named after Lister!). The story apparently goes that the Beeb lost interest in the show, yet strong DVD sales and a fiercely loyal fanbase along with Dave's desire for original programming meant the stars alligned and we ended up with Back To Earth, a new special to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Dwarf gang. To cut a long story short - it was a huge success, and a new series was commissioned.
As Doug Naylor (co-creator) stated, Back To Earth was to be considered the ninth series of Dwarf, and so moved on to produce Red Dwarf X in front of a live studio audience in December 2011-January 2012. Fast forward to October, and the long awaited new full
series of Red Dwarf finally aired on Dave to a far greater number of positive reviews than its predecessor. Gone were the cheesy links to Coronation Street and the lack of a laughter track. Red Dwarf was back to basics, and even though Holly and others may have
been missing, the boys from the Dwarf were out in full force and ready to serve up comedy as only they can.
Consisting of six episodes, Series 10 features Dave Lister (Craig Charles), Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie), The Cat (Danny John-Jules) and Kryten (Robert Llewellyn) in their first full HD series. While continuity is maintained as much as possible, there's no doubt that the show looks better than ever and that Red Dwarf has a fresh lick of paint here and there. Every wrinkle is visible on the somewhat aged cast, every vending machine looks and sounds like a classic piece of technology, and yet you feel like you're on exactly the same ship you have been for the past few decades. It's a credit to the crew that they have moved the show forward without compromising the integrity of the show itself. No doubt some eagle-eyed viewers will have picked apart certain aspects - such as Kryten's nose! - but on the whole, it's a wonderful continuation of a well loved sci-fi piece. Budget constraints may have forced the majority of studio-based filming, but Red Dwarf is at its best when it's four guys in a small space. The show is about isolation and being trapped in space, compared to the wider nature of something like Doctor Who which needs the vast nature to drive its episodes. Red Dwarf has always been about the core group primarily.
The six episodes presented in Series 10 are:
1. TROJAN - Rimmer accidentally contacts his holographic brother Howard (Mark Dexter). A real character piece, with Barrie getting to stretch his comedic chops as well as tackling some real family issues and heartfelt moments. Some great attention to detail for long-term Dwarfers, but an easy to follow story for any newbies diving in to the tales of the Dwarf. A great series opener to hook everyone in.
2. FATHERS AND SUNS - Lister deals with Father's Day and the emotions of being his own father. A generally good episode, especially dealing with a classic situations such as Rimmer and Kryten installing a new computer - messing around with technology NEVER goes well! Once again, an episode that deals with a specific character's thoughts and feelings, and this is Charles' time to shine.
3. LEMONS - An utterly ridiculous episode about travelling back in time and meeting Jesus. There are very few people that could carry off such a script, but Barrie et al are on top form here and make this one of the best episodes of the series. Sometimes the most ludicrous stories can be the best when working with such talent.
4. ENTANGLED - Kryten and Rimmer end up prone to coincedental same-time speech and similar, while the GELFs make a welcome return as Rimmer gets lost in a poker game along with Starbug. Probably the most gag-heavy episode of the series, with an enjoyable central plot and a chance for the gang to really bounce off each other - Llewellyn and John-Jules especially.
5. DEAR DAVE - Lister finds out he could be a father. Again we return to a very one-character heavy episode with Lister's potential fatherhood and his love triangle with vending machines (yes it is as crazy as it sounds!). But this story has one or two of the funniest moments in the whole series, and any time Rimmer gets a chance to be smug and mock Dave is more than welcome.
6. THE BEGINNING - An ending fitting of a superb series, dealing with the existence of Red Dwarf being threatened by a Simulant Death Ship. Echoes of "Only the Good..." from Series 8 as we see Rimmer at the forefront of saving the gang. An episode that will leave you hoping for a Series 11, and certainly not such a long time to wait!
As wonderful as the individual episodes are, I have to say that the real selling point of Series X on DVD and Blu-ray is the lengthy documentary "We're Smegged" - a wonderful in-depth warts n all look at the process of getting Series X made. This is an incredible piece for long-term fans, learning about the struggles that everyone went through to bring this series to air. Even for new fans, this will give them some idea of how much it means to everyone to finally have a new series, and encourage them to go back and watch the older DVDs. This release is certainly up to standard with the previous BBC releases which were amongst the best TV releases of any show. We have deleted scenes, outtakes and interviews, and you will certainly feel you get your money's worth. It's informative but not to the point of overkill. You'll get everything you want and more here, but you won't get bored.
After watching Series X, you have to wonder why it was ever in question. Naylor and the gang clearly have so much more to give, as does that huge red mining ship. There's a whole world of space and time out there, and as long as they want to keep making Red Dwarf, we'd all love to see it. This release is a must-buy for any comedy and/or sci-fi fans - if this sells well then, along with the solid tv ratings, we'll no doubt have a few travels with the boys yet to come.
A real return to form. Welcome back!
This film is a classic, great for a family and can really get you to feel. You feel happiness at certain points, and you also feel fear and thrill for most of the film. I found myself getting worried for the characters, as if I was there myself. The film is great for anyone of any age (maybe not young children) because it is an overall enjoyable film and has no flaws. I am only twelve and I loved it, but anyone younger than ten may find it frightening at times. It is so exciting that it keeps you on the edge of your seat and you never want to look away from the screen. All of the characters are great and it's like you get to know them. It's one of my favourite films and I would recommend it to anyone who fancies watching a good, exciting movie.
This movie is about a tour of a brand new theme park, in which there are cloned dinosaurs, including some very dangerous tyrannosauruses and raptors.
As a huge fan of the show, sitting down to watch the first episode of Red Dwarf X was rather exciting. This particular episode ('Trojan') holds an added significance for me as two friends and I were lucky enough to score tickets for the recording in December 2011. Though it was a bit out of our way, we could not pass up the chance to be part of Dwarf history. It was a wonderful experience and it definitely made watching the episode, almost a year later, just that bit more unique. 'Trojan' is, unsurprisingly, my favourite episode of the series.
For me, Red Dwarf is the perfect combination of a show I genuinely think is great and a warm nostalgia trip rolled into one. Having grown up with these characters I was, like many fans, hopeful yet anxious for the boys to return. Even having seen with my own eyes the evidence of its return to form, as the series approached I began to worry that I had built up the recording too much in my mind. However, as the weeks passed and the episodes went by my fears subsided to relief.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the series. I'm not going to argue it was perfect or as good as the best Red Dwarf but it painted a big smile on my face for 30 mins each week and had me laughing plenty. I actually found myself enjoying each episode more on the second viewing, without the 'I really hope this isn't bad' nerves (even though I had seen it and knew it was good. The things our favourite shows do to us!).
Due to Doug Naylor's insistence on having a studio audience, the budget for the series was stretched and therefore only one location shoot was possible. This results in a very contained, cramped feel for the shows, as the majority of scenes are on board ship. This is not a bad thing, however, and gives the show the old-school feel the fans were calling for. Take episode five, 'Dear Dave', for instance: the entire show is just the four main characters (well, not JUST them, but that would be spoiling) interacting with each other on a spaceship, yet it's entirely entertaining.
Though the fan reactions have been mainly positive, there are, as always, detractors. A common criticism, even amongst those that enjoyed series, is that the actors are hamming it up and going a bit too broad. I can't really see it, myself. I believe that you could transplant any scene from X into a series III-VI episode and the actors would play it the exact same way. My personal theory is that the performances are more noticeable now due to the cast's age. Fans are used to seeing these performances from the young Chris Barrie, the young Craig Charles. Seeing the actors age but their acting stay the same, especially after such a long time away, emphasises the silliness of the show. People are used to four young guys in space, not four...distinguished ones. We should be thankful that four funny old blokes still get to do this.
The look of X is definitely different from any RD before it. The picture, being HD, looks so clean compared to old eps, though the new part of the ship the characters have found is darker and grimier than any sleeping quarters previously. If definitely is an interesting visual contrast. In addition, the model shots are gorgeous and I'll admit I quite like the new shape of the small rouge one. It's clear that X is its own thing and should be treated as such. The Blu-ray is definitely worth the extra few pounds to see the glorious results of filming with the RED Epic cameras.
In terms of extras, sadly we do not get the plethora that RD discs usually provide. However, the set is worth picking up, even for those who have seen the series already, solely for the brilliant, two-hour documentary 'We're Smegged: The Making Of'. The amount of calamaties and setbacks the production went through is almost unbelievable. The honesty in the doc is refreshing and certainly raised my opinion of the series, which was close to falling apart at every turn. It's not all doom and gloom though, there's plenty of great behind-the-scenes details and banter between the cast. The next time I'm stressed, I shall think about what Doug Naylor went through in the making of RDX and realise that I don't know the meaning of the word. Additionally, there is a fairly long selection of laugh-out-loud Smeg Ups and a decent collection of Deleted Scenes.
The ratings for the series were, as expected, terrific and if DVD/Blu-ray sales maintain this trend we should be seeing Red Dwarf XI in the not-too-distant future. Hopefully the production problems of X can be learned from to produce an even better set of episodes. Or, if this is the last we see of the Dwarfers, Doug and the boys have given the fans a very funny, very respectable send off. Let us hope that episode six's title 'The Beginning' lives up to its name.
Although it would go on to pick up a Golden Globe and an Academy Award amidst a host of other nominations, Alexander Payne's 2011 The Descendants is often conspicuously absent in discussions of the year's best films, largely thanks to the arrival of a certain black-and-white affair that, along with Martin Scorsese's Hugo, would proceed to dominate awards season and push Payne's Hawaiian comedy-drama out of the spotlight entirely.
This is a great shame as Payne's follow-up to 2004's marvellous Sideways is equally brilliant.
It tells the story of a middle aged man named Matt King (George Clooney) whose seemingly paradisiacal life upon the island of Hawaii has just fallen to pieces.
The opening scene depicts the accident that will leave his wife in a coma, forcing Matt to play the parenting role that his busy work life has enabled him to avoid for the past 20 years. He has no idea what to do with his rambunctious younger daughter and, after retrieving her older sister Alex from college in an attempt to regain control over his quickly disintegrating family life, she informs him that his wife had been having an affair. As he tries to come to terms with his wife's infidelity, his younger daughter's misbehaviour and his older daughter's idiotic boyfriend, Matt is also supposed to be making a crucial decision on behalf of his extended family regarding the potential sale of the final piece of their ancestors' land, leaving him squarely in the middle of a fierce battle of wills between the eco-friendly half of his family who are determined to see its natural beauty protected and his more economic-minded cousins who would rather cash it in for all its worth.
It's a complex story built from the tangled threads that make up everyday life as the difficulties of raising a family, sustaining a marriage and running a business become messily entwined. His wife's accident sets the plot in motion by forcing Matt to either attempt to deal with all of them simultaneously or to untangle them by deciding which ones are truly important.
As the various plots are interwoven, a myriad of complex moral dilemmas are created: Matt is filled with rage by the knowledge of his wife's betrayal but unable to confront her. Is it fair for him to hate her whilst she lies in a coma? Will confronting her lover solve anything or just run the risk destroying another family?
When a revelation at the end unearths a connection between his family and business troubles, the film's morality shifts to an even deeper shade of grey.
There are few filmmakers that could comfortably handle a story of such moral and structural complexities but Payne takes to the task with aplomb, crafting a film that is both gently moving and intellectually engaging as we're left wondering how we would respond in Matt's place.
No doubt most of us would also find ourselves trying just to keep our head above water.
The ease with which Matt gains the audience's sympathy is largely the result of an astonishing performance from megastar George Clooney. Despite having been perhaps the biggest name in Hollywood for over a decade, Clooney has managed to break entirely new ground in this role as an ageing everyman simply trying to cope with the demands of family life. His irrepressible likeability is, of course, still present and correct but he sheds the suave composure of his previous roles, adorning instead the wearied air of a man worn out by the demands of everyday life, struggling clumsily to hold his family together.
Clooney's supporting cast is made up of an intriguing mix of fresh faces and old hands: Matt's daughters are played by newcomers Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller, both of whom are exceptional in difficult roles, hitting both the lighter comedic notes and darker dramatic ones with apparent ease.
Veterans Beau Bridges and Robert Forster round out the cast as Matt's down-on-his luck cousin, Hugh and cantankerous father-in-law, Scott. The former is intent upon seeing Matt cash in the family land for all its worth, having frittered away the rest of his own inheritance years before whilst the latter is distraught at his beloved daughter's accident, insisting that Matt was to blame.
Together, they add two equally sympathisable if entirely less likeable characters to the mix and further complicate Matt's moral dilemmas.
The unsung star of the film, though, is wonderfully named cinematographer Phedon Papamichael who captures perfectly the sumptuous beauty of Hawaii. Although Matt spends much of the film denying Hawaii's reputation as an idyllic island getaway, Papamichael's shots of glittering oceans, golden beaches and pristine hillsides make it almost impossible to believe him and will surely have every viewer rooting for the tree-hugging Kings' push to protect such a gorgeous landscape.
In a film filled with melancholy, the notion of it being transformed into hotels and golf courses is perhaps the darkest note.
Overall, The Descendants is a delightful film from an exceptionally talented Director at the height of his powers. As a vehicle for Clooney, it gives one of the most famous men on the planet a chance to totally re-invent himself: the result is one of the defining performances of his career.
It's a funny, clever and gently moving comedy-drama with one of the single most beautiful backdrops in recent cinematic history.
Great film based on a true story of Red Dog (or the Pilbara Wanderer) and his relationship with a group of miners in Western Australia. Full of Aussie humour, sad at times, and all set against the wonderful Western Australia scenery.
In suburban Texas, blundering drug dealer Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch) - in serious debt to a local kingpin - stumbles upon information of his evil alcoholic mother's $50,000 life insurance policy, apparently benefiting his younger sister Dottie (Juno Temple). Chris enlists the services of Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a Dallas detective moonlighting as a hitman. The rest of his redneck family - gormless, deadbeat father Ansel (Thomas Hayden Church) and his underhanded, vampish second wife Sharla (Gina Gershon) - take little convincing to go along with the plan.
When his request for a deposit catches the penniless Smith family off-guard, Joe proposes that the virginal Dottie - a modern day, trailer trash version of Blanche DuBois - be offered to him as a "retainer" until receipt of his half of the money. With Ansel seemingly content to see his daughter finally have a man in her life and Dottie at peace with exploring a carnal relationship with a man whose "eyes hurt", Chris becomes increasingly disturbed by Joe's fixation with his sister and intends to flee the country with her. The Smiths soon learn that the money is not as easy to obtain as first thought and events descend into a disturbingly bloody climax as Joe uncovers the truth and seeks his revenge.
Adapted from a play by Tracy Letts, KILLER JOE is what you'd come to expect from a William Friedkin film - compelling storytelling packed with outstanding cast performances. However, unlike the classic 70's works that bore his initial fame, he constructs an engrossing film without the use of grandiose elaborate car chases or supernatural set-pieces. Much of the film takes place in the interior setting of the Smith family trailer with a plot driven more so by dialogue than action, thus emphasising its origins as a play.
Matthew McConaughey is cast completely against type, more familiar to audiences as a shirtless romantic lead rather than a sadistic psychopathic antagonist, but it works. McConaughey's 'Joe' is cold, intense and methodical; drawing parallels to Javier Bardem's Anton Chigurh. As Juno Temple's stock continues to rise across the Atlantic, her performance as this Southern Lolita serves only to solidify her reputation. Hayden Church and Gershon are painfully caricatured yet serve a delightfully dark-humoured relief from the horror that befalls the family. Unfortunately, Emile Hirsch lets the ensemble down with yet another disappointingly wooden performance that further belies his status as a credible actor.
While KILLER JOE may not break new ground in a muddled crime/thriller/black comedy genre, offering little more than a tired premise of a family torn by greed and deception, it may very well be the pioneer of a new sub category - fried chicken fellatio. The way in which Friedkin provocatively depicts violence and sex (and violent sex) may be off putting to a vast majority of movie-goers that take a leap of faith on this picture, but for all of it flaws it still proves a satisfactory leap worth taking.
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