teamwak Reviews

Who Do You Think You Are? (2004– )

Phenomenal

[10/10 · 5 October 2007]

I cannot praise this show enough. It is a rare treat to see a celebrity do a piece without ego, but this show is heartfelt, funny, and moving in equal measures.

Some of the celebrity's are shocked by the revelations in their past. Stephen Fry finds himself in Aushwitz, Natasha Kaplinsky finds a Jewish massacre in Belarus, and Barbara Windsors family went through debtor jail.

Alistair Mcgowan finds himself in India, and John Hurt doesn't find himself in Ireland. And Nigella Lawson, Jeremy Clarkson, and Jane Horrocks find themselves related to Industrialists.

Fantastic and throughly engrossing series. 10/10.

A Christmas Carol (1999 TV Movie)

Fantastic remake. A strong performance by Patrick Stewart

[9/10 · 2 March 2007]

I love this film. There, its out of the way.

I love Patrick Stewarts take on the character. Scrooge has always been played as pathetic or comical. Stewart plays him as a mean, strong-willed, domineering man. Scrooge is unpleasant, not funny.

This is the movies key strength. It makes Scrooges redemption all the more powerful when we see where he was before.

This is also a traditional telling of the story, with the Fezziwigs scenes played in full. More time is taken showing Scrooges brother and his family. The scenes where Scrooge watches with the Ghost how his brother and wife still think of him is fabulous. As is the scene where Scrooge asks for their forgiveness on Christmas morning.

I know some feel this is a missed chance, but all I can say is, I think this is a brave and powerful and emotional re-telling of a very famous story, and I think it hits every mark perfect.

Watcvh this and your heart will sing like Scrooges on Christmas morning!

Battlestar Galactica: Downloaded (2006) Season 2, Episode 18

I think this is possibly the best episode of BSG

[10/10 · 30 September 2006]

It was so well written. I loved that Six was haunted by her own version of Giaus, just like he has visions of Six. I love that her vision of him is so much more composed and dangerous than the real Giaus, who is more pathetic. Excellent acting by James in this.

And the Galactica Sharon who has moved into her old apartment and still keeps photos of her made up parents in her home. Great take on the character.

Both Six and Sharon are damaged goods to the new Cylons. Celebritys in a world that doesn't recognise individuallity. There realisation of the flaws in the people is excellently shown her.

And the ending when Sharon and Six trapped in the rubble decide to work together and change the Cylons. All amazing stuff.

Best hour of TV since Buffy season 6. I dare you to argue :)

Skywhales (1983)

Beautiful and haunting.

[9/10 · 5 April 2006]

This review is from memory. I have never forgotten seeing this.

It is set on an a strange floating alien world. The people hunt these amazing flying whales in their own home made gas-filled airships . The hunt scenes with harpoons was very vivid as two or three airships hunt and harpoon this magnificent beast before it finally dies and its bloodstained carcass is hauled back to the ground by the hunters.

"SPOILER ALERT"

The story follows a hunter on his return. As he returns to his simple village with his family they come across another creature/person who is a different, ill colour. The family and others shield their eyes and move out of the way as the zombie stumbles past them. It stumbles to a giant hole/well in the village, then falls into the hole!! Later the hunter is at home. He feels ill, cant sleep. Suddenly he turns into one of the zombie things. He lurches out of his hut. His child tries to run to him but its mother holds it back. She reluctantly covers her eyes and lets him stumble off.

He stumbles to the well and throws himself in, and falls.into this bottomless shaft .....

and falls, and falls, and falls A fine web starts forming over the falling body. It eventually covers him like a cocoon.

After a time something is trying to burst out of the cocoon. Finally a baby sky whale emerges from the cocoon just as the shaft ends under the floating world. The new sky whale fly gracefully back up the world. We see the mother and child looking sad in the village when this beautiful whale flies past. The child looks up and points. They don't seem so sad anymore! I thoroughly recommended this if it is ever released on DVD.

Cruising (1980)

It reminded me why I love movies in the first place. It is not an easy movie to watch and its subject matter is made to make you squirm, but this movie really got to me!

[17 November 2004]

Spoiler Alert I write this because this film was one of the most engrossing and powerful films I have seen in recent memory. I also write about this film as its pedigree is amazing. And finally I can't believe I've not heard of it, even in a Heavens Gate, this must have been professional suicide sort of capacity.

The film is from 1980 and it is directed by William Friedkin (Exorcist & The French Connection). It stars one Al Pacino (no C.V. required). It is called Cruising. Basically it is the story of a gay serial killer and Al Pacino is the cop who must go undercover to try and find him.

I was a bit drunk, a bit stoned and a bit bored when I was channel flicking one night in UK. I came across the start of this movie. The story starts in a club in New York that is very much like the Blue Parrot in the Police Academy movies, except there is nothing funny about this place. It is a proper underground S & M gay club where anything goes. A young Italian Stallion picks up a guy who is in the full leather get up. Cap and glasses obscuring his face and chains that clink whenever he walks. They go back to the stallions flat. Off screen sex occurs. The next shot is the young guy, naked, having his hands tied behind his back. He doesn't like this but is being talked into it by Chains. Next Chains draws a thin knife from his boots and starts playing with it. Young guy is frantic now and begs to be let out but Chains is now teasing him. Chains then stabs the young guy repeatedly in the back. This is graphically shot and you see the knife going in and the young guy screaming. This was a really, really intense scene. I was now hooked on the story and had to know where it ended.

I am not gay and I am liberally minded. Having been to Thailand, Ibiza and Amsterdam I have had my arse felt a few times in dance clubs. I am not bothered by this as long as it stays each to their own, but I have no knowledge of the proper underground gay scene. The closest I get is working with a gay man at work, and enjoying watching Will & Grace. Like the brilliant 8 Mile this film was an introduction to a world I knew nothing about. The depiction of the activities in the Gay Club left nothing to the imagination. Never shown but implied were scenes of fisting and watersports. This, as well the very graphic violence meant this film was still quite close to the bone (no pun intended!) in 2003 so I could barely imagine what an impact this had in 1980's America.

The police are now on the case, but more gay men start turning up brutally stabbed. A Harvard professor has already been murdered and a Hollywood stylist gets brutally stabbed in a cheap peep joint when he had been picking up a stars dress for an awards ceremony. These are respectable people who were not known to be involved in this extreme scene, so the political pressure gets turned up.

In comes Al to the proceedings. He wants to be a detective but hasn't been given his chance yet. He is offered accelerated promotion to Detective branch if he agrees to go undercover as he is the same type of Italian Stallion that the perp seems to target. What comes next is a wonderful example of both acting and directing as young, naive, straight Al Pacino starts his undercover role. Reporting only to his chief (Paul Sorvino) and getting set up in a flat in a gay area of New York, it is riveting stuff to see Al Pacino learn from his mistakes when he visits the gay club. He learns that different coloured neckscarfes worn in either the left back pocket, or the right back pocket mean a different sexual taste! It is funny in a black comedy way watching him try to pick some one up to see if they are the killer, when it is quite clear he doesn't want to pick them up because he is not gay.

Al has a girlfriend played by Karen Allen who only knows he is undercover but she doesn't know where or what he is doing. Al's character starts to go deepcover and begins to lose himself in the culture. He starts to empathise with the gay community and even gets hassled by prejudice cops. This is brilliantly handled by the director and the actor. A sympathetic approach to hardcore homosexuality in 1980? No wonder it disappeared.

Meanwhile the killer is still on the loose. You see Chains picking people up in parks and by toilets or you see him visiting the bar. You can never see him properly. You can only hear the distinctive clink of his chains. This started to make me apprehensive whenever I heard the rattle of his chains. Now that's good direction!

Al Pacino starts to lose himself as he goes deepcover but starts making progress on the case. I wont give away anymore in case someone watches it.

I found this movie to be a really rewarding experience. It reminded me why I love movies in the first place. It is not an easy movie to watch and its subject matter is made to make you squirm, but this movie really got to me! To watch all the way through when all I was doing was channel flicking is a real test of a movies quality in my humble opinion.

So there you go. Not a new movie but a bloody good one that most people may have missed. IMDb has not been too kind to it but hey, what do I know?

Battlestar Galactica (2003)

An excellent re-imagining

[9/10 · 25 October 2004]

I really enjoyed this.

I didn't hold out too much hope when I heard they were going to remake BSG. But the proof is in the pudding. I really enjoyed this.

It has a much darker tone (perhaps reflecting the world we live in). This is a movie about Genocide. Mankind is being systematically wiped-out. The SFX are tight and crisp. The trashing of the planet is NICE. Big nukes going off, mushroom clouds, and other such effects. I really enjoyed the camera work on the space battles. Normally I don't hold with shaky-cam, but I feel they really make the space battles <REALISTIC>. Yes, I know that's a contradiction, but there is something really effective about the camera having to zoom in to see a dog fight, or the camera trying to keep up with fighters engaging the Cylons. It really feels like your watching the action in real-time. It really shows a feeling of the immensity of space. I love the nukes streaming through space, chasing the fleet.

The acting is top-notch. Again worried when I heard that it was all girls and Englishmen, but it works fine. James Edward Olmas and Mary Mcdonald add a gravitas and serious that really adds to the feeling of Genocide in action, of Mans last stand.

And I did say it was dark. Leaving people behind, just in case. Blowing their own ships up, just in case there is a spy on board. When there are less than 50,000 humans altogether, you really feel the darkness and desperation when they have to blow one of their own ships up with 1300 people on board, just in case...

I really rate this show. It is a credit to the producers that they stuck to such a dark vision. I for one will continue watching.

Oh, and they have one of the sexiest baddies ever. Can't be bad.

Relative Values (2000)

Fantastic little gem of a movie

[9/10 · 18 October 2004]

What can I say?

I loved this movie. It is a classic comedy of manners. Written by bitch extrodinaire Noel Coward, the movie sparkles with wit and one-liners. Colin Firth plays the resident bitch (very much a Noel Coward type characture). Julie Andrews is in fine form as the matriarch fearing her son is going to marry beneath the family by marrying Hollywood starlet Jeeane Tripplehorn, who looks gorgeous in this film.

Mad servants and stuck-up butlers abound, this movie is a real find.

And final praise must go to the person who steals this movie from under the very esteemed company, and that is Sophie Thompson as ladies maid Moxie. The dinner scenes where she is getting drunker, and drunker is the funniest parts of a very funny movie.

To be recommended.

Grease Monkeys (2003– )

Funny, Quirky, Touching, Rude, oh and did I say funny?

[22 September 2004]

Boy did I laugh.

What a little gem of a series. Going out on BBC 3 (cable only), this sitcom is about an Asian man running an old car dealership. Only fools and Horses on Acid, someone described it.

It's about Mo, his son Dave and daughter Rita. Daves friend Trevor, recently released from Prison, comes to work at the car yard. Trevors ultra-Christian mother refuses to have him back in the house. Trevors father is worries that his son will have become a "batty-boy" after his stay in prison. Watch for the vicars visit!

Mo is still visited by the ghost of his ex-wife (complete with rolling pin). Also introduced is Pinky, an old flame of Mo, who is told by the ghost to make a move on Mo, as he hasn't had it in 12 years.

The scene when Pinky climbs into Daves bed by mistake was hilarious

Forgive the poor quality review, but I really enjoyed this show and look forward to catching the rest.

And like all good series this has plenty of soul. When you don't expect it, a line or an action add an all new level to this show (mothers ghost watching her daughter and Pinky cooking together, or Dave and Trevor in the bathroom)

To be recommended.

The January Man (1989)

I really enjoyed this movie

[16 January 2004]

It definately has a lot of slapstick in it, but it turns very dark when it needs to.

If you liked the tone of Stakeout with Richard Dreyfuss in it you will enjoy this.

7/10

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)

Over rated

[3/10 · 6 January 2004]

Ewoks!!!

Pants. Over rated drivel. A re-hash of the first two. With Ewoks. Furry little rodents! Thank God Lord of the Rings has finally displaced this mediocre trilogy.

Nuff said