1 comments about Charles Dickens' London - Part 1 - Life.

1. Sorry folks, but I was bored to distraction. The narrator should have been OFF camera much, much, much more than he was. When on camera he swallowed about half of the picture. Several areas had VERY noisy, annoying backgrounds. Many places he took us to were only the site where a building USED to be. There's something else there now. Also very poorly done. One example: He said he would take us to the church where Dickens' parents were married, but we never see it. The docu starts out at the Dickens' Museum. We see the outside, but he never takes us inside. All in all, I paid too much for this DVD. If Amazon would take returns simply because of 'customer dislike', I'd send it back in a second.

1 comments about Lonely Planet Six Degrees Series 3: Taipei.

1. I enjoyed the relaxed style of the DVD a great deal. Taking vidio snapshots of various people's lives in Taipei appealed to me. The scenes and neighborhoods contributed to my excitement for my upcoming trip. This isn't a "museum" or "monument" guide but instead gives a bit of flavor for the culture and experience opportunities that can be had. I didn't feel that I couldn't recreate the experiences for myself and I am looking forward to the trip.

No comments about 7 Days VIET NAM.

No comments about Europe to the Max: Hidden Treasures - Great Cities of Europe.

1 comments about London - City of Majesty.

1. The footage on this DVD is very dated, at least 20 years. The quality of the photography and the audio is extremely poor. The narration seems adequate and accurate, but I was detracted by the poor overall quality. This was a waste of money.

No comments about Vista Point TAIPEI Taiwan.

1 comments about The California Zephyr Silver Thread Through The West.

1. The best thing about this film is that the California Zephyr is seen in the context of other trains that were part of a postwar bid by the railroads to attract new passengers. Right-of-way shots alternate with shots on board, and there are interviews with the president of Western Pacific and reminiscenes by the dining car steward, Zephyrettes (hostesses), and a curator from the Smithsonian. You don't get the impression that the train had to end as it did, but WP insisted on going it alone as a carrier and now they are part of the UP. The film ends with a folk song written specifically for the train. With two I have made myself, it brings to seven the number of films I know of on this subject.

No comments about Travel Medicine - What to Know.

2 comments about Historic Travel US New York A Century Ago.

1. The Ellis Island footage on this disk is simply phenomonal. I can't say enough about it. This is not the bad hollywood reproductions you see everywhere, this is real footage of our great grandparents arriving in America for the first time with their hopes and dreams. What makes it even better is knowing that it was filmed by Thomas Alva Edison. This is the real deal and real unvarnished history.



2. This DVD has some of the most interesting new york documentary footage I have ever seen. Most of it is old black adn white shots of immigrants arriving at Ellis Island and then trying to interegrate into New York life. What you get is a good contraste between the newcommers and the people who already lived in the city. T his allows you to see the differences in fashion and manners and culture and get a sense of just how much our anscestors had to go through to become part of the American dream. This is good stuff.

4 comments about Total Reality.

1. i enjoyed this sci-fi movie and thought that it was a change of pace for david bradley since most of his movies are martial arts action/adventure. worth watching again!



2. The first 30 minutes of Total Reality are great. Big spaceships thunder across the screen (and your speakers) whilst being attacked by lots of smaller ones. In the meantime an attack force boards one of the biggies and lots of shooting occurs whilst the battle rages outside. It's great stuff and gets your adrenalin going. But it's a real shame the film didn't hold my interest afterwards. The goodies are forced to go back in time to track down the baddies who also went back in time. Some quite exciting set pieces (with big explosions) keep the excitement going but then melodrama and some pretty poor acting start to take their toll. I know this isn't a mega-budget film but you don't need big bucks to keep the pace going. The film slowly starts to run out of steam. What a shame. But it's definitely worth seeing if you like space battles and there is another BIG spaceship at the end.



3. I think that most sci-fi fans would enjoy this film but in comparison to some of the TV shows we now have, the graphics really don't stand up. No, effects aren't everything but they help.
   
   The plot is really very interesting - a guy writes a book and everything gets totally out of hand. Thousands are corrupted by the book and live their lives through its teaching - but this brings about a war and chaos ensues. Our heros get sent back in time to stop some baddies who've also escaped back to 1998. That's the gist of it anyway.

   So, we've got a good overall plot, but there is a LOT of inconsistency - one woman's hair changes dramatically from scene to scene, so my family were all laughing at the supposedly touching parts of the flick. Watch out for some stupid lines, such as "Take us to your computer", which I don't think they even meant to be funny!

   Overall, I didn't mind the film. The best thing about it was probably that it made me laugh even though it really isn't a comedy. It was a good idea which fell flat on it's face but I could just about cope with it. There is also not any extra material with the DVD except a trailer, which was a little annoying - when you buy a DVD you expect something more than a video and I didn't think it offered much in that respect.

   The very worst thing about this film is all the swearing in it. At one point, a guy just swears a whole sentence out and you had to laugh because it was so ridiculous. That was the only time the swearing was remotely funny. It was uneccesary and didn't add anything to the film - it just got really annoying! Even if you don't mind swearing, I think it would begin to grate on your nerves eventually.

   So, the verdict: You decide, it's low budget but good for a laugh, especially if you're a sci-fi fan, however the bad effects, bad lines and constant swearing could put many people off.




4. This truly and utterly stinks. Awful acting (I thought Keanu Reeves was wooden, but this is a whole forest of Z-list actors), abysmal plot (not only could this atrocity be written on a beer-mat, but you'd have space to write two more of these stinkers in the space left over).

   Avoid!