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Reviews
La marche de l'empereur (2005)
Competent but not outstanding wildlife documentary
Watched the Morgan Freeman voiced English Language Version. As it was American-written I was dreading that it would be an overly sentimental piece which owed more to Disney type anthropomorphism than the genuine insightful documentary you would hope for from a production bearing the imprint of National Geographic.
When one of the very first lines spoke about it being a story about love, my heart sank. I tried to put this dread feeling to one side as I watched the rest of the film.
Although there is no gushing blood , the reality of death is not avoided and on the whole it is an interesting and educational film. (Although, I am still left wondering what happens to the corpses of the penguins.) I am afraid that I do not understand the fuss made over what is a competent but not outstanding wildlife documentary - the like of which can be seen on the BBC and various satellite channels any day of the week.
I have read that this film as being seen as evidence of Intelligent design. Difficult to see where the intelligence comes in.
Van Helsing (2004)
Watch Dead and loving it instead
First a confession. I gave up watching this travesty after the first hour. As a human rather than an immortal vampire, I decided that I could not waste any more of my limited lifespan on this appalling film.
I watched the monochrome opening under the belief that this was a spoof shown before the main feature.
As it featured Dracula and Frankenstein I expected Abbott and Costello to appear in the manner of the recent deadstar-studded Virgin train commercial. Richard Roxborough's, camp as a field of tents, performance then lead me to believe that it was going to be a re-imagining of Carry on Screaming.
As for supporting performances, special mention must be made of Alun Armstrong's accent - scary although it has to be said that it was not as unconvincing as the CGI effects during the aerial attack by the brides of Dracula.
If you want to see Kate Beckinsale in a vampire flick watch Underworld. If you want to see a better vampire film watch "Dead and Loving It", If you want a reinterpretation of the Van Helsing character, may I suggest Von Goosewing in "Duckula"
The Quatermass Experiment (2005)
Oh luvvies
I watched this experiment shortly after watching the second episode of Doctor Who. That particular endeavour has successfully updated a previous science fiction programme and brought it kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Witty, intelligent scripts;good cast giving top notch performances;state of the art special effects. This on the other hand was a waste of the viewer's time. At least it was restricted to a digital channel so the majority of people would have avoided watching it. I only hope the luvvies taken part in the exercise enjoyed the "danger" of a live performance. I found the acting flat, the special effects non-existent (if you want to leave it to the imagination of the viewer-do radio) and the script ludicrous (example reaction to man in lab when apparent tramp wanders in)