First Australia give us Neighbors and now this!

Posted : 1 month ago on 20 June 2008 06:25 (A review of "Summer Heights High")

Summer Heights High is an 8 episode mockumentary about a public school (Which the show is named after). It focus' on the lives of Jonah, a miscreant year 8 boy who just cant seem to follow the rules and faces expulsion if he doesn't improve his ways. Mr G a flamboyant performing arts teacher who feels he could have become a famous actor but decided his talents were better suited to teaching children to be as great as he is, and thirdly Ja' Mie a private school girl who is sent to Summer Heights High on an exchange deal to prove that Public and Private schools offer exactly the same level of education.

I've just spent the past four hours watching SHH from start to finish, the episodes are only half an hour long and its a very short series from start to finish. I have to say i thoroughly enjoyed it, the 3 main characters are played by the same actor Chris Lilley who also Created, and Directed the entire thing. This man is extremely talented and he adapts to each roll perfectly, stereotyping your average year 11 girl, and your regular year 8 rebel perfectly. The character of Mr G reminded me at first of David Brent from the UK's Office. He loves himself, but he is disregarded by the rest of the world. I would say it is likely that the character is inspired by Brent in some ways, but it did not leave me feeling like i was just watching a Clone, Mr G is suffers far more from illusions of grandeur to be considered a copy. The characters are brilliant, i am extremely impressed with Chris Lilleys talents.

Something i particularly loved about the show was its catchphrases. Being English i have no idea wether these were common place in Australia before Summer Heights High, but if it gains popularity over here i imagine Ginger people will forever be known as "Rangas" for their Orangutan hair colors. Part of me wishes i was still at school so i could use phrases such as "Are you on your period or what Miss?" and the brilliant [picture of a penis] tation (dictation) Tag which Jonah plasters over everything.
The show seemed to have its targets set from the start, with frequent jokes about Asians, Fat people, Ginger folks, Lesbians, Poor people to name but a few. It wasn't performed in an outrageous South park style, but more of a "Laugh at the ignorant, narrow minded, private school girl" kind of way.

I rated this 8/10 as i felt that it was very well performed. It is shot on site in a real Australian school and has many young actors and actresses in it who all act perfectly for their ages. Included in the cast are several disabled children who also perform to a high standard.

The most impressive aspect of the show is the fact that 1 man has done so much towards it, there are not many things we watch now days which have had such input from only one person. Of course there are supporting actors, and supporting workers behind the scenes, but it must have taken such a long time to perform in every single scene of the show, and to do it at the standard set. I am surprised this has only aired on BBC 3 in England as usually that channel is reserved for shows such as "Titty titty bang bang" If they keep airing shows like this then they will be on to a winner as they already house 2 other comedies i enjoy, "The mighty Boosh" and to a lesser extent (Lesser than the Boosh and SHH) "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps"

Good work Australia!

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Don't understand these people

Posted : 1 month, 1 week ago on 17 June 2008 01:00 (A review of "Big Love")

I liked the first season of the show a lot. It was an interesting idea, the characters were complex and the writing was good. After watching the second season, most of the main characters have started to grate on me, starting with Bill himself. They are petty, short sighted and frankly, plain stupid pretty often. The other half are assholes. Are people really like this? Maybe all the lies, cover-ups and suppressed jealousy do take their toll on good people, despite every attempt to feel normal and happy.

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Ballet Shoes review

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 9 June 2008 04:05 (A review of Ballet Shoes)

Entertaining and decent, but not at all memorable. All the little girls are rather spoiled and selfish so it's really hard to like any of them. And of course it ends on a rather clichéd everybody lives happily ever after.

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The Andromeda Strain review

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 8 June 2008 04:16 (A review of The Andromeda Strain)

What a hot, yet entertaining, mess. Truly right in line with most TV movies in the complete lack of common sense. There are far too many scenes where you'll find yourself going WTF?! (An army vehicle rolling over tire spikes but experiencing no damage; someone on the telephone with no mask, while five feet away are people in full biohazard suits; a car that breaks down and then works just find a few seconds later.) Ignoring all that, the movie's actually kind of entertaining. You find yourself interested in this crazy bug, and trying to guess its origins or how they're going to kill it.

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not the great show i remembered it to be

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 7 June 2008 04:32 (A review of Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

buffy used to be one of my favorite shows ever and i rated it 10/10 but now that i'm watching at once more after a couple of years, i can't help but realize that i probably got way too sucked into it back then.

the stories are mostly really great but buffy is pretty annoying, dawn is probably the most annoying character i've ever seen in any tv or movie production and the "big bads" of season at least season 4 and 5 seem ridiculous (i haven't watched 6 and 7 yet, can't remember the finale of season 7 any more).

i don't know why they added that stupid "hyper-girly" character or why they couldn't see that neither adam nor gloria were interesting, it's really a pity because that show had such huge potential. but at least angel mostly succeeded where buffy failed.

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"Pride and Prejudice" review

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 7 June 2008 08:32 (A review of "Pride and Prejudice")

I don't see what everyones getting on about. This mini-series was okay, but nothing more. Sure, it followed the book remarkably well, I'll give you that, but it's nothing to get excited over. The direction and costumes were fine, but all the actors were ugly with the exception of Colin Firth, who was 'okay' as Mr. Darcy, but nothing more.
Jennifer Ehle as Lizzy Bennet was surprisingly good and played her role excellently.
Everyone else in their reviews were getting all worked up about Firth in his damp white shirt, not much, I must say though, since he's not much to look at.
All in all it was an okay movie, as I said before. With a little more work it might have been a great mini-series.

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Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles review

Posted : 1 month, 3 weeks ago on 2 June 2008 07:09 (A review of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)

Summer Glau makes this television show worth watching. She's phenomenal in it - especially the fighting scenes. The choreography is gorgeous.

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Its not a Saturday without it!

Posted : 1 month, 4 weeks ago on 26 May 2008 06:13 (A review of "Gillette Soccer Saturday")

Gillette Soccer Saturday is pretty much the highlight of my week, every Saturday morning i wake up, put on the tele and Sky Sports News is already there waiting for me from the night before. Its usually great Sun-Fri, but on Saturdays it becomes even better, with every single football score in the country being fed to you from one place, all the highs and lows of the football league and every bit of information or footballing history you need to know is right there for absorption. Its about the only time Sky Sports News can be relied upon to have good commentators, and a decent standard of presenter. They get on well and have an obvious rapport with one another which cant be forged. The banter and jokes with each other are actually fun to watch, and some of the reactions to goals/misses/decisions about fouls etc are brilliant to watch. Its such easy viewing too as you do not need to pay 100% attention to it, you can leave this on whilst you go about your day, but it is always there keeping you posted on how your team is doing, and giving you up to the minute information on where things stand for everybody at that current moment in time.
The best times of years to watch this are Christmas, and the final day of the season. On the last day it is usually found that at least 4 teams from each league are in the running for being relegated, quite often there are at least 2 teams battling for top spot/promotion/play offs too and so when each goal is scored, you get an update of where things stand and who is going where, many an exciting climax to the football season has been spent watching this show, it is irreplaceable and can not be equaled. Setanta tried, and failed!

If you have a television, like football, and have any form of free view/cable then you should already be watching this, it doesn't cost you to have it! But it is definitely the most watched channel in my house.

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an entertaining remake

Posted : 1 month, 4 weeks ago on 25 May 2008 06:46 (A review of "Bionic Woman")

Following a car accident, Will Anthros (Bowers) thanks to his surgeon capabilities and technological knowledge, does not lose his girlfriend, Jaime Sommers: instead, she wakes up to find herself with bionics in her body: her right ear, right eye, right arm, and both legs. Will she help the good guys with her fifty million dollars technology?

This is quite obviously a remake of the tv series "Bionic Woman" with Lindsay Wagner, and is in no way any better or worse than the original tv series.

The actors' performances isn't top notch quality. Michelle Ryan is not a bad actress, Lucy Bale's acting got on my nerves (she plays the 15-year-old sister who just doesn't look 15 at all), and Miguel Ferrer is basically the only reason I was interested in watching the show: he is quite good here. As was Chris Bowers, who unfortunately only had a short role that lasted 2 episodes.

It's too bad the series is an Alias wannabe. The team has Sommers and her partners travel from 1 country to the next, and it just feels like a lower quality than Alias.

Still, it's an enjoyable, entertaining series with a predictable ending for each episode. No thrills or surprises.


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too long

Posted : 1 month, 4 weeks ago on 25 May 2008 06:30 (A review of "Tin Man")

Loosely based on the Wizard of Oz, Tin Man has a good cast and everything to be enjoyed by the family: a fantastic magical world in which the good sister, DG, has to overpower an evil witch that took possession of her sister Azkadellia; friends (Cain aka Tin Man, Raw, Glitch, Tutor); mad men (The Mystic Man); and the bad guys of course (Zero).

However, this television mini-series in 3 parts is simply too long, 2 parts would have been just fine. It just keeps dragging on and on. The good thing is that there are no useless repetitive scenes; from 1 part to another, the writers didn't feel the need to summarize what happened previously. (Thank you!)

The acting isn't that great, but it works for most of the actors' performances.
The special effects aren't very special either; nothing worth mentioning.

Tin Man is enjoyable, but just drags on too long, which made me long forward to the ending - which was predictable of course.


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