davebesag Reviews

Babaric Land (2013)

Could have been so much better

[6/10 · 23 March 2014]

I saw this documentary as part of the 2014 AV Festival in Tyneside and I was looking to forward to seeing it. Sadly, this is a really flawed film despite the interesting subject matter. Hopefully, a better film can be made which addresses these issues.

No-one can help that the quality of archive film used isn't great because that's all the filmmakers have got to use. However, the film had chunks of narration repeated immediately for no reason on a number of occasions. Equally, annoying was a singer who frankly cannot sing. A wasted opportunity although the question and answer the audience had afterwords with the filmmakers via Skype had some interest.

The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (1970)

A film 40 years ahead of its time

[9/10 · 26 October 2010]

I'm very surprised that this film has a relatively low rating. It is still relevant today and must rank as one of Peter Cook's better projects. An especially clever part is its use of the problems with direct democracy as opposed to participative democracy.

It's also interesting that Cook's character rose without trance which is a comment he made about David Frost (Cook admitted the character was partly based on Frost. The latter said in a recent interview with Mark Lawson that he remained on good terms with Cook and he and his wife were present at Cook's last dinner party.

All-in-all the film is a very well-crafted satire on the PR aspects of politics.

Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man (1994–1997)

Praised by UK newspaper

[26 February 2004]

I remember seeing a comment in TV section of one of the broadsheet UK newspapers (either the Guardian or Independent) about 8-10 years ago which said something like, 'What is UK TV coming to when the best show on is about an animated duck.' Obviously well received then!

I wasn't going to write anything else but apparently I need to write at least 10 lines! Pity the show isn't on DVD and I don't believe that there are any plans to do so. The show used to be on at about 11pm on BBC2. To be honest, I don't think that the whole run was shown because I don't remember as many shows being shown as actually exist.