another entertaing installment

again another entertaining installment in the entertaining harry potter series.the three leads are really starting to mature in to good young actors

the Emperor has no clothes

I'm sorry I do not understand what the big deal is with this silly franchise. Matt Damon's acting consists of one expression: the"quick! I need to find a toilet before I soil my pants!" look. It is a load of over-rated, cliched dross. It was funny reading Matt ridicule the Bond franchise, saying in a laughably snootily manner, that all the cliches you find in Bond you wouldn't find in the Bourne franchise. What a joke. The difference, dear Mr Damon, is that Bond never takes himself too seriously. The winks at the camera and cheeky one-liners give you a clue. However, I'm sure when Matt Damon goes home every evening, he really does think he's a spy.

16 episodes

season 3 only has 16 episodes due to the writers strike but you will be not disappointed in any way i have seen all of season 3 and omg what a season 3 it will leave you not been able to wait for seaon 4

Characters you care about, in a happy, sad, funny story.

Was a bit of a fool in missing this series when on TV....It is so heartwarming and just plain good. excellent writing, wonderful acting and for a change no sex drugs or rock and roll.... just a pantomime cow?!
Whatever you do ... if your renting this series don't do what I did and presume that the second dvd was just a special features disk. there's 3 episodes on the first and 2 on the second. Believe me you'll want to watch them all back to back without having to harass the postman every morning until the second one arrives. A lovely lovely series. BTW... there's a 2 episode christmas special been commisioned by the BBC according to their website :-)

Just lovely!

A great film with great actors - especially lovely McAvoy as scruffy gambler Max! This is fairy tale romance as good as it gets, and the connection between the two is very believable. You'll watch this film again and again!

Tennant is THE Doctor

For many years I`ve measured every successive Doctor against MY Doctor - Jon Pertwee - all after Tom Baker have paled in comparison until Christopher Eccleston and his"I`m The Doctor by the way ,now run for your life" in"Rose" the Series 1 opener.Throughout Series 2 I missed him but grew to appreciate the constant running ,even the whinyness of Chav-bird Rose became bearable (hated her btw) and of course the GREAT David Tennant who now owns the role thanks to this Great third series.
Highlights for me have been the fact that we escaped Catherine Tate for a year (yay!!) ,met The Judoon ,became reaquainted with Captain Jack and his possible"future self" The Face of Boe ,more Cat-people (Brannigan rocked man!) ,learnt just how the"last Dalek" originated (check series 1) and learnt just who Saxon was ,we got The Master back briefly and more of The Time War plus UNIT !.I loved the cliffhanger ending with"The Titanic" .
Low-lights - Catherine Tate as Donna (hated her shouting all the time - I kinda like Donna now a little in Series 4) , Martha (Freema Agyeman is just so wooden she`d have been better as a Tree in Series 1 LOL),the far too mannish and unconvincing Captain in"42" (Ripley did butch better in Aliens LOL),we lost The Face of Boe and still no Brigadier!
We`re still awaiting definitive info on The Time War though and was it Paul McGann that fought it ?It looked possible in the first few Christopher Ecceleston scenes in"Rose".

"This look like the dawn of a new day to you?"

After watching the frst two seasons of The Wire (which is essential to understanding the third) I was prepared for a further excellent season with the third, what I wasn't prepared for was that this season is not only the best of the three but that it's by far the greatest season of any cop show I've ever seen.
All the series' staple characters are here, with lots more screen time for Omar and Bubbles (both sadly absent for much of season 2) as well as a more McNulty-centred plotline which grounds the season well while still managing to keep track of an extraordinary number of characters all of whom are given a great deal of depth normally so missing in modern TV police drama.
Season three concerns itself primarily with two things; firstly with an exploration of the political structure which has previously been little more than a looming malevolent presence in the background as well as the upper ranks of the police force, secondly with trying to round off some of the series' long-standing conflicts. That second point makes this by far the most dramatic season of The Wire so far.
The new characters this season are absolutely brilliant, particularly Major Colvin and ex-con Dennis. They lend an enourmous amount to the show and are magnificently acted, written with a great deal more depth than was given to the dockyard workers in season two.
Season Three of The Wire is not just the best season of the show, but is the most incredibly dramatic and powerful cop show ever made. I've yet to see season four, but if it's even half as good as this one then it should be absolutely brilliant.

Very Different - Very Good

We watched this DVD without really knowing where it would end up. You cannot second guess the story. Where it does end up is a surprise, and made us think we should have given the story more attention and respect. So we watched it again. Its a beautiful Film.

Get Blu Ray

Borders in the US right now has the five-disc Blu-ray version on sale in its stores for $19.99!

Doesn't beat the first

I'd like to point out that I found this series better than any other show i've watched - except the first series. I still appreciated the plot and the new characters were equally if not more gritty than those in the first but I felt that it was trying to keep the first series personnel going when they really played a fairly minimal role in the series. Brilliant but a bit of an inbetween series.

"Sarah & the Space Prawn"

Invisible Enemy is no classic but many aspects have fared the last 3 decades quite well. Sentient viruses, mayfly clones and a Fantastic Voyage ripoff are all imaginative concepts even if they probably stand up to no scientific scrutiny.
There are some lapses in logic such as how the clones acquired their"parent's" memories (how they got their clothes cloned also is easy to explain-this is a family show!)but they tend not to get in the way of the fun.
Uncle Tom gets to vary his performance as he fights infection and does a very doolally turn when 1st infected and Leela gets to play the hunter/fighter in an environment very alien to her.
The guest cast offers 2 decent turns from Dr Who Repetory actors Michael Sheard and Frederick Jaeger. And of course it's K9's debut and a strong 1 where he's at his best-in a hi tech environment.
Sets and modelwork are on the whole very good and the effects were not so bad for their time. Of course you can upgrade these to some improved CGI. A very nice touch is signs in phonetic English (Isolayshun Ward) and the fibrous hairs etc. to show infection work okay.
Why is this story held in such low regard? it probably is due to the Nucleus of the swarm. Unsuccesfully building up to its 1st full appearance by being a tentacle in a box, it's soon seen in its full inglory as an undernourished prawn which needs to be pushed about and has such shaky tentacles it must have OD'd on caffeine!
1 of the worst monsters of the entire decade & it's a shame because otherwise it's a fun story.

K9 & Company was better than I remembered (except for the execrable Hart to Hart on a pocket stylophone theme tune), but will only ever be knockabout Xmas fare. This tale of black magic is done so gently it's like a pre-school edition of the Whicker Man. I kid you not, Mary Whitehouse would have approved!
Amongst the guest cast Colin Jeavons and Linda Polan (Mrs Ploppy from Blackadder 2) are the most memorable making a great deal out of thinly sketched characters.
Elisabeth Sladen shows that she could have carried a series even then, and makes the most of the scripts opportunities. An interesting moment is when she retorts to Brendan that she has no desire to become a"surrogate mum". Hard to imagine that in her current incarnation!
Brendan is Adric mark 2 as Ian Sears tackles a thankless role as another boy genius. he brays like a donkey at K9's name, no wonder Sarah snaps"Stop honking!"
K9 is in a setting where he doesn't belong and it's so obvious that once they find the coven he's going to be able to stun them all, the story's left resting on the hunt itself. Even with its red herrings it just isn't interesting enough.

There's a good documentary about the making of Invisible Enemy with several key players. 2 things jar. 1: If you're going to show the sory to today's audience then please give them a chance to tell us what they think instead of just showing them sitting there and 2: Why do we hear nothing on the rationale behind the prawn? the only mention is Louise Jamieson's witty observation that being menaced by a prawn is like doing a love scene with someone you don't fancy-very Swiss Toni!
The commentary is a chummy and matey one like for Invasion of Time but more entertaining. Louise, John Leeson, Mat Irvine and writer Bob Baker are all fun-Leeson noting that he based his virus voice on a Christmas pudding!
We see K9 on Blue Peter& larry Grayson's Generation Game (that's the easter egg)plus there;s a featurette on FX and some intriguing production studio footage. A good package.

The inadequate documentary on K9 and Company covers the story on 6 minutes plus a further 4-5 on the K9 books and proposed animated series (but without footage or photo of the new look K9)and it's all punctuated by the K9 & Company theme!
K9 telling his own story is another failed attempt at Earth humour and there's a contemporary appearance on Pebble Mill.
The saving grace is the commentary where Eric Saward, Linda Polan, John Leeson and of course Lis Sladen really tell us the story behind K9 & Company & offer their opinions on it.

A good story with good extras and a mediocre story with miserly extras. Big fans only

Lost returns for its best season yet

Barcode: 8717418129378

I have nothing but praise for this series of Lost. After Channel 4 lost the rights to Sky (which i don't have), I chose to wait till this box set came out rather than go on the internet for spoilers. In the time inbetween i forgot just how brilliant Lost could be at its best and when i sat down to watch this season - boy was i in for a treat!

Series 3 is Lost with all the fat trimmed away. Now 3 years down the line, anything less than essential has been largely left behind, ensuring a series that is slick, well-paced and delivers consistently episode after episode.

Whereas series 2 felt like a direct continuation from the first - series 3 has a very different feel. The addition of Ben and Juliet is great as their two characters are absolutely fantastic - quickly becoming central to the entire storyline. We also get to see a lot more of Desmond too, including his flashbacks which are some of the best out of all the characters'. Of course, we also get introduced to his power, which as it is revealed, we realise what a burden he has to carry.

The season itself is kinda divided into two sections - the first being Jack, Kate and Sawyer locked up in the Others camp, the second being in essence, things reaching boiling point as the two groups spark off against each-other, people double cross more times than you can count and startling revelations begin to emerge.

Flashbacks now take on less of a role of filling out the characters' pasts, instead being used more to emphasise a particular theme or idea for each episode and work all the better for it. This series has less of the patchwork quilt feel of the first two series where it felt like all the characters stories were intertwining but never quite meeting. Now they're all in it togetehr, because let's face it, if they tried to make it on their own they'd be dead before the day was out. This series is all about team-work and herois, self-sacrifice in the name of the greater good, for one character in particular.

The cliffhangers endings of each episode are done to perfection - i've lost count of the times i've sat down to watch one episode while eating my lunch only to end up watching about three - it is seriously addictive stuff. Things reach their climax in the final three episodes where it's pretty much edge-of-your-seat 100% tension for the whole duration as the season winds to an amazing finale.

I've said it time and time again but i don't get why people get so worked up about there supposedly 'never being any answers in Lost'. To tell you the truth, i don't really mind, to see these briliantly acted characters playing off against each other is just a joy to watch. Jack develops bucketloads in this series, becoming less clean-cut and decisive and all the more interesting because of this. Locke is as mysterious as ever, like Jack, becoming ever more darker - a theme, in fact which surrounds this series.

So, from the beautiful imagery and design of the island as a location to the masterful interaction of the various characters and the way they slot into the story - this is another resounding success. If you ever had any doubts about Lost, trust me, go into it with the right mindset, that of complete openess, and it well enchant you. Lost was always good but with series 3, it has truly excelled itself.

Breathtaking!

These 3 films are simply incredible! you'd be stupid not to see them!
Stunning special effects and scenes that just make your jaw drop and make you dribble for more...! Bourne makes bruce lee's moves look like pre-school playtime and the storyline is amazing! i recommend watching all 3 at once. I did, on the sofa with a box of pop corn...then i put the first one back in and watched the whole lot again :D!
put simply, one of the greatest triologies ever made....!
just when you thought it couldnt get better...oh yes... it just keeps getting better!
Don't miss out!

A superb and much needed"reboot" for the Bond franchise

For the first time in many years, we finally get a Bond film based on a novel by Ian Fleming. The silly stuff - invisible cars, the"comedy" section with Q, etc has all been cast aside, and what we are left with is, by and large, a serious Bond film that easily outclasses the recent Bourne films.

The plot sticks to Fleming's first Bond novel quite closely, bar the changes needed to bring it into present day. A lot of criticism has been levelled at the film for not being"a true Bond film", but it's worth remembering that the Bond films, really ever since From Russia With Love, have veered away from Fleming's Bond and transformed him into the humourous, gadget and girl equipped Bond that most people, having never read the books, now see as the"true Bond".

The film has also been criticised for lack of continuity, but what continuity should there be? Continuity between the previous Bond films was always patchy at best, but now, Bond is at the start of his career as a 00 agent, so there isn't going to be any continuity between the previous films and this one.

All in all - a much needed return to form. Can't wait for the next one.

Our Finest Moment fondly revisited

In a world of war and financial crises look back at a better time when America focussed on more noble goals and carried the hopes of the whole human race with them. This film is a nostalgic and at times emotional view of the Apollo missions as told by the astronauts themselves.

I remember being sent to my next door neighbour's to watch the landings live as we didn't have a TV, the whole street was deserted, you could here a pin drop as everybody waited and watched. Seeing the grainy shots of Armstrong walking down the ladder and uttering the single most important sentence of any human being in History brought all that back and now I'm old enough to understand its significance.

The photography is fantastic but the score of this film is what truly elevates it. There are many standout scenes, the launch sequence, the tension as the crowds of people watch, the global interviews after the landing and Walter Cronkite getting emotional to name a few. However I found listening to the Kennedy speech and watching the faces of the astronauts and understanding the allegiance that they have for their slain president very poignant.

There have been many space documentary films and indeed some of this photography can be seen in"For all Mankind" which is even more beautifully scored by Brian Eno. There is also"Apollo 13", however that film celebrates a triumph born of disaster, this Film celebrates the greatest of all triumphs and should in my opinion be the one you focus your efforts on, it's the real deal after all!

The DVD has a reasonable bunch of special features but if a little predictable. The Film itself is worth the money alone. Its nearly 40 years since it happened many of us who saw it live have forgotten, so many of you will not have been born, celebrate this moment, take the time to re-live all of it in its magnificence time and time again .....

Atlantis is here!

Finally, season 4 is on DVD :) I agree that this season wasn't as good as the first three, but when does any TV show meet the standard of the first series a bit later on? On I can say is that I love Atlantis, and my opinion will not change for season 4. LOVED IT!!!

Utterly outstanding- an instant classic

Cloverfield is quite terrifying. I've never seen so many people run screaming out of the cinema before.

There's been The Last Broadcast, The Blair Witch Project, The Zombie Diaries, Welcome To The Jungle, Rec, and Diary Of The Dead. Therefore, you'd expect the 'supposedly real, found video camera footage' genre to be a bit worn out by now; but then along comes Cloverfield- the best of them all.

Many have criticized it for having no proper plot (enormous monster attacks New York- hmm, sounds complicated) and having bad characterization and whatever else- but those people have probably totally missed the point. Cloverfield wants you to feel like you're actually experiencing what you see on the screen, to have those feelings of immense confusion, fright and disorientation... and that's exactly what it does.

The Blair Witch Project finally has competition in its genre. Endless other additions have attempted to surpass it through use of zombies, cannibals, ghosts, you name it- but the reason why they've all failed is because the acting was not convincing enough (especially throughout the excruciatingly bad The Zombie Diaries), and acting is basically the key to make these films work. This is where Cloverfield excels; forget the stunning special effects, the cast are who I praise for most of Cloverfield's incredible success.

(Just a quick word of warning: don't -as I did- get the 2 disc edition hoping that the alternate endings will be totally alternate! That's all I'm saying.)

At the end of the day, be assured that if you look up the word 'amazing' in the dictionary, you'll find the word 'cloverfield'. It's head and shoulders above 99% of other recent horror movies, covering up its massive flaws with (as another reviewer has described as...)"plain spectacular awesomeness".

This really is just what cinema is all about. So believe the hype: Cloverfield rules.

More surreal

Unlike most other reviewers, I found this series less good than series 1, probably because everything pointed towards it ending. I found that this made the 1973 events less exhilarating than the first series. However, I still give it five stars for the brilliant acting, good script, political incorrectness and pace. However, I think I will be re-watching series 1 more than this series.

A must see film - a total gem

Can I just start by saying: this film is outstanding. It clearly benefits from the remarkableness of Jean-Dominique Bauby's book - the notion of a man with 'locked-in' syndrome being able to write such a poetic story about his experiences using only the blinking of his left-eye to signal the letters of the words is, in itself, awe-inspring. It would seem an almost impossible task to turn such a book into a film, but it has been done here with considerable skill.

The film adopts a highly phenomenological approach, using blurred shots, muffled sounds, metaphor clips, flashbacks, to tell the story in a perfectly-timed and engaging fashion. Some of the frames, to my mind are incredibly powerful in evoking all the senses - one that particularly sticks in my mind is the 15 second shot of his girlfriend's hair, shot from behind, flowing in the wind, full-frame, on the way down to Lourdes. Images like this keep reminding us of how little we appreciate until its lost.

This is an emotional film, it made me laugh and cry. The ensemble cast is outstanding, I don't think there was a dud line, a dud shot or a beat-missed in the whole film. I can't wait for this to come out on DVD and I shall now be rushing off to read the original text. When I finished watching"The Diving Bell and the Buttefly" I thought that it was the best film I'd seen since"The Lives of Others". The more I reflect on it, I think its actually better. Don't miss this gem!

Well Let's be honest here...

One can say almost without a doubt that yes, Life on Mars was a better show.
But Ashes to Ashes is entertainment at quite a high. The premise isn't exactly fresh anymore, but they don't treat it like it should be in the show either. You have a main character who knows the premise themselves, which gives it a different air entirely.
Keeley Hawes takes a few episodes to get used to this, but she does even out after the first couple. And her chemistry on screen with Philip Glenister's Gene Hunt is fantastic, every bit as good as John Simm, although for entirely different reasons.
We all know how Life on Mars ended, so there seemed to be no surprise waiting for us at the end of this show. We still watched though because it was a welcome break from other shows that seemed to take themselves too seriously. It was also a welcome return of characters we grew to love. And a great soundtrack didn't hurt either (whether or not some of the songs were earlier than 1981... oh dear..). But the suprise was that after 8 episodes what we thought were foregone conclusions, weren't.

So sure it isn't as great as Life on Mars. But then that was the first and those tend to always win out don't they? But this is a bright, flashy, entertaining show, with great acting, a fine on screen chemistry between the leads, one of the best soundtracks ever for a TV show, and some of the greatest dialogue you'll hear since well... Life on Mars. If you liked Life on Mars for the gritty, hard nosed approach, you might not like this latest incarnation... but otherwise most should be pleased enough. And it likely will attract a larger audience.