1 comments about Passport to Europe with Samantha Brown - Episode 27: Brussels, Belgium.

1. This video gave us some good ideas about what to do in Brussels this spring.

1 comments about Pressure Cook.

1. Maybe it's because I am an Italian who's roots are from NY, but Ralph Pagano and his humor keep me(and my 12 year old son) coming back to watch all of the episodes. He gets dropped off in all sorts of remote lomocations around the world and has to earn money to get back home. If he doesn't earn enough money he has to eat some local "delicacy" as punishment(rodents, HOT peppers, ants, maggots, etc.).

1 comments about 2007 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally - America's Greatest Festivals.

1. Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3G45RPNTCRKX2 The Unofficial History of Harley Davidson Motorcycles]

No comments about Flight Attendant School - Episode: 13 & 14.

No comments about Eolomea.

No comments about A Musical Journey: Seville Granada.

No comments about Globe Trekker: Venice City Guide.

4 comments about Globe Trekker: Rome.

1. This is a sort of an Hip-Hop styled guide to Rome. The host Estelle Bingham is a nice young girl, she is flirting with the guys, showing off her nice body and dressing up in nun clothes. This is nice and cute. The problem is you don't see much Rome. The scenes are changing so fast, the comments are so brief and the camera is typically focused on the girl. It all looks like an MTV video clip, hyper energized but not very informative.



2. In my view is a quite typical travel guide for the eurotrash tourist, pulls all the stops for parties, multicutural experiences, BIASED view of the city and of the Italians (mafia...), politically correct blabber, and little or no geology, science, history of the city. EUROTRASH tourist guide for poor Europeans that think they are rich enough to pick others problems. Maybe the need to belong too???



3. In this DVD, the some major highlights of Rome are visited including the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps, St. Peter's, an art museum, a church, and the Pantheon and the Forum. I was surprised at the beauty of the interior of the Santa Maria church in Trastavere.
   
   The sites are broken down by "days" of a sample trip itinerary, e.g. Day 1: The Forum, Day 2: Piazza Campiodoglio, etc. Unfortunately, on one of the days, the host of the show goes to show us Tuscany, a few hours away from Rome by train. In a travel guide about Rome, I would have preferred they showed some other Roman site rather than something outside the city.
   
   Another irritating part of the DVD was the host, a cheeky young woman with a British accent which was annoying at times and I had difficulty understanding a few words she said. While I wouldn't go so far as to call her Eurotrash, she was pushing the limits of taste when she dressed up in a nun's habit, walked outside and asked a passerby "How do I look?". She also starts one morning by taste-testing a bunch of coffee and spikes one cup with some booze. Real nice.
   
   This DVD has some nice clips of what Roman tourist sites look like, but if you're over 35, you might not like the host that much.



4. In this episode from the Travel Channel's TV series, "Globe Trekker", our charming host Estelle Bingham guides us to all the top tourist attractions in Rome: the Vatican, the Colosseum, the Trastevere, the Piazza Campidoglio, etc. That's all well and good, but unlike Travel Channel's other longrunning series "Great Hotels" and "Passport with Samantha Brown", this show provides us with no information whatsoever on where to stay while we're in Rome. No recommendations on the best hotels, the best restaurants. Scarce travel information on getting around "town". We're not even told when Rome's peak and low tourist seasons are.
   
   That being said, this is a decent introduction to the historic sites of Rome, but if you're actually planning a trip to Rome someday, you'll need a lot more than this to go by.

No comments about Lonely Planet Six Degrees Series 1: Mumbai.

5 comments about First Spaceship on Venus.

1. There have been a few comments on whether or not this is the cut version. I'm not sure how Amazon associates reviews with titles but comments on the DEFA version shouldn't apply to this DVD which is a St Clair Vision release. The St Clair Vision release is the 80 minute version, not a 130 minute version, despite what the DVD box says and despite what Amazon says. Amazon should correct their information and give some grief to the distributor. I'm returning the DVD as I already have the shorter version in other collections. I'd give the film itself a higher rating - I appreciate it for where it was coming from at the time and, frankly, as camp fun - so this rating is based soley on the false advertising.



2. There are two different versions of this film available from Amazon: FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS from Image Entertainment/The Wade Williams Collection (letterboxed 2.35:1, 78 minutes) and SILENT STAR from First Run Features (non-letterboxed full-screen 1.33:1, 95 minutes.) Too bad there isn't a 95-minute letterboxed version!
   
   I own only the Image Entertainment disc. The image transfer is pretty good, though it's not a restored print. The package mentions that it was shot in Technicolor, which I imagine was the old, beautiful 3-strip process, as European filmmakers continued to use the format after Hollywood switched to single-negative film. The color on the DVD is faithful and well-saturated for the most part.
   
   The production values are first-rate; this was no low-budget quickie. The very realistic scenes of the actors with the futuristic rocket on the launch pad are some of the best examples of large-scale miniatures and forced-perspective sets that I've ever seen in a film. A great deal of attention was paid to scientific detail as well. There's even a Rover-like robotic explorer that aids the astronauts--quite prescient for 1962. It even plays chess (an interesting prelude to HAL-9000 in Kubrick's 2001.)
   
   Once the heroes land on Venus, we're treated to a totally surrealistic, downright bizarre world, with images that almost defy an ability to even understand what they represent. What makes it all the more creepy is that the film doesn't try to explain this odd world; the imagery just sort of washes over you--and the characters in the film!--like a bad dream. Very reminiscent of abstract sci-fi book cover illustrations of the time. That's one of the definite high-notes of this film...an alien planet that actually LOOKS and FEELS alien.
   
   As mentioned by others, the acting is rather wooden, not helped by the very matter-of-fact script; the film almost comes across as a sort of propaganda-like documentary. But strangely, that doesn't detract from the film as a whole. Yes, the pace is rather plodding; but there's no "filler" here, no unnecessary scenes. The slow pace actually helps make the film the "serious" piece it was meant to be.
   
   Buy it not for the acting, or even the script, but for the amazing imagery. This is one of those films that I saw as a youngster that burned some indelible images into my brain. Glad to have a letterboxed version, even if it IS trimmed down in length.



3. i hope i got this movie right i liked it alot at first it seems to be made by foreign type and has some asian person, black person and whites in it, it like star trek thing which i like. it has touch of what venus must of or could of been like and it could be what another palnet is like somewere in our galaxy. if like older stuff this is another winner, the polish guy smart to who did this movie. i think there a robot whois real short. if your IQ is above 150 you will understand some of it better and if not its still got some great scenes. it may seem funny for venus butt not for if it was another planet thousand of light years away from earth.



4. The movie was a good entertaining movie when I was a kid. This dvd product looks like a 1985 vhs quality tape. It is of extremely poor quality. The movie is a decent and intelligent movie. I am sending the dvd? Back.



5. First Spaceship on Venus There's something enjoyably unique about Japanese Sci Fi that's hard to identify. It shows in the early Godzilla and Mothra films, then there's Gamera that hot blooded turtle. Then there's the brilliant Mysterions and Battle in Outer Space. More recently it shows in their best Anime films like the quite intelligent android naval gazing in the Ghost in the Shell series (Star Trek's Data with soul).
   
   The Brits? Well they make intelligent, clever if talky Sci Fis ( the wonderfully fun Dr Who an exception). The Americans like their Sci Fi brimming with special effects with little significant interaction between characters, unless they are the focus of the film and then they're superheroes (though their earlier Sci Fis like Forbidden Planet, War of the Worlds (orig), Them and Day the Earth Stood Still were amongst the best ever made).
   
   But the Japanese Sci Fis seem very much into imaginative action, hokey and at times cluttered, but there's a feeling something is always happening. There's little time for deep and meaningful contemplation like the Brits films and the special effects would be comfortable in the early Dr Who series ( though recent efforts are vastly improved).
   
   But the Japanese like to experiment with ideas, some weird, some down right absurd but always fun. And they use what they have in effects to the best advantage. And they also almost always play the old Western formula of good guys and bad guys, and the bad guys are always the aliens (bad ET with attitude). Its probably got something to do with Japan leaving behind its militaristic past and seeking to become the recognised committed pacifists opposed to the expansionism of predatory thinking. Then again it may be that they only had a selection of white and black hats and what good guy wants to wear the black hat.
   
   First Spaceship on Venus follows their usual formula. The humans are working together in international harmony and they have a nasty alien enemy on another planet (or do they?). There's lots of strange and clever happenings when they reach Venus. The general atmosphere is threatening (its always dark whenits threatening), there are the usual plethora of mysteries to investigate often with that sense of boreboding that something nasty is creeping up on you - and creep or should I say ooze, it does. The characters, the usual gaggle of scientists there to explain to us the tricky bits, are mere pawns for the many bizarre happenings and if you're old enough, it almost reminds you of the serial matinees before the main show at 50's film theatres, with continuous episodic cliffhangers and a 'what will happen to our intrepid heroes next week' feel. But you know the good guys will win out in the end 'cause they're on the side of right and virtue. The love elements in Japanese Sci Fis are always corny, so much so that it makes for comedic relief (perhaps we miss something in the translation or certain specific cultural ideosyncracies). But I always feel that I've had a good time watching a Japanese Sci Fi and this one is no different.
   
   To be sure this is mental chewing gum entertainment, but its fun, its entertaining and you'll feel amused and good at the end. Then again I was an addict for Rocky Jones and Commando Cody from the 50's, and I tend to love these older rather simple fares.