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leevclarke
Reviews
Gadgets, Gadgets, Gadgets (2005)
The Gadget Show it ain't
For a show about gadgets, there aren't that many of them! Some items featured left me wondering how they could possibly be considered gadgets - for example, the clothed mannequins that Mexicans are keeping in the passenger seats of their cars, so they won't be seen as easy victims for car-jackers. The gadgets that are shown in each 25-minute episode are too old to be of interest now (the show is already four years old), but in a decade or two this will likely be much more entertaining in a retro kind of way.
The Gadget Show it ain't, but if you like this kind of thing, you might want to check this out (along with BBC Click). Repeats are being shown on Virgin 1 in the early hours.
Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000)
Totally different to Seinfeld
Well I have never seen an episode of Seinfeld in my life, because I am not much of a fan of American sitcoms (with the exceptions of Home Improvement, Friends and Scrubs). However, Curb Your Enthusiasm is totally different - it's like watching The Office when all you've ever seen is Only Fools and Horses (UK sitcoms references).
To begin with, you may find this show really annoying, because some of the characters react in a totally unreasonable way to Larry. Correspondingly, Larry himself is quite unreasonable in his situations, although we as viewers empathise with him quite easily (since he is the obvious protagonist). Furthermore, there is no canned laughter like there is in more "traditional" sitcoms, and the whole thing feels much more real.
This is worth a look for at least a good episode or two. There will definitely be faces that you will recognise from other shows (the janitor from Friends, Dr. Cox's sister from Scrubs, etc.), and each episode is a cringe-inducingly funny story that unfolds over thirty minutes.
In short, great stuff! If you like Seinfeld then you might not like this, but if you are like me then you will be the other way around. One or the other will tempt you, so give it a go!
First Born (1988)
I remember this was very good
I saw this when it was shown on TV, and I was eight years old in 1998 (though of course I may have been a couple of years older when I saw it). Even then, I can remember it being absolutely captivating.
The female gorilla (Gor's mother) was called Mary. Probably the part I remember most was when Dr. Forester's colleague said there must have been a mix-up, because Gor could not have been born from a gorilla. Dr. Forester said: "It IS Mary's baby, but the sperm was human." This was even before I knew what "sperm" meant, but I guessed from the context that it meant the father. I must have been too young (not prejudiced enough, perhaps) to be shocked by the suggestion that a man had had sex with a gorilla.
It was a striking moment when a young Gor finally found himself able to articulate speech, having been bullied at school for perpetually making a "snah" kind of sound. He stood in the branches of a tree and shouted with pride: "I'm Gor!" The story also covered Gor as an adult, when he voluntarily chose to meet his own mother. Would she recognise him?
So if this could happen in real life, would we really send the human-gorilla hybrid to a school like any other child? This is just one question raised in an amazing insight into ethics in 1988, nearly 20 years before permission to use hybrid human-animal stem cells in experimentation was granted, and just one question that we now need to ask ourselves. Surely we have the answer after twenty years of thought, right?
Ahead of its time of course (as other people have already said), this is an important piece of film that should not be forgotten. See this if you get the chance, and marvel that it really was made in the 1980s. It was my first experience of an awesome performance by Charles Dance, but it certainly was not the last.
Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (2001)
The British "Friends"
The best way I can summarise this show is that it is the British version of "Friends", documenting the interweaving lives of five young adults. It is consistently sharp and witty, with a good twist of eccentric for good measure.
It takes scathing digs at celebrities, is unashamedly sexist, and is not afraid to use swear-words in the right places. It includes references to cult figures of yesteryear, which people in the characters' age group will appreciate. All of this is done to humorous effect very well.
The characters are fresh and modern, yet somehow feel very real and familiar. It also features some nice totty of both genders. ;-) Although it may be true that not everyone will like this show, I would recommend that you give it a try - repeats are still being shown regularly on BBC Three.
The Stone Tape (1972)
surprisingly good
I bought this on DVD (not too cheap), purely on the basis of a personal recommendation I read on the Web. Being a fairly old-school sci-fi movie from the early 1970s, I didn't have any particular expectations of how good it would actually be. Some of the effects and technology ARE a bit funny (check out the old computer systems), but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was very watchable, and pretty creepy. I would recommend that you see this - just be sure to look past the dated effects, and see the story. Very intriguing. It does also include Jane Asher and the guy who played Terry's boss in the UK sitcom "Terry & June".