Documentaries & Biographies > 1988 Documentaries & Biographies

Low-budget genius

Advantages: A marvellous visual poem
Disadvantages: A bit dated, a bit self-indulgent?

...beloved Super-8 home movies, and the aim is not to tell a conventional story. The film is an attempt to put Jarman's life and works in the context of contemporary (ie Thatcher's) Britain, which means firstly that the film has dated slightly and secondly that it makes most sense to people who already have an interest in Jarman's films. There are plenty of social realist films from the eighties that provide equally incisive and perceptive satires ...
...music brings some order to the chaos (although composer and cellist Jocelyn Pook can't have been pleased to have her name mis-spelled in the credits). Jarman's outlook is perhaps a depressing one, as the film concentrates on inner-city decay, totalitarian state and nuclear conflict, but I believe that Jarman was a film genius with a unique vision. The low budgets he had to work with only brought out the best in his imagination. ...

NeilHudson 20.09.2001 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of The Last Of England (DVD)

REAL cloak and dagger stuff

Advantages: You'll love it if you're a real ripperologist
Disadvantages: A lot more evidence and suspects have surfaced since this was made

Filmed in 1988 to mark the centenary of the Ripper murders this DVD was originally a live TV event where viewers voted by phone as to the identity of the killer. Peter Ustinov (British born actor sadly no longer with us) hosts the event in a court room setting with various experts as FBI agents, a Forensic Pathologist and a high court Judge as they try to determine the 'Secret Identity of Jack the Ripper'. Ustinov opens the programme and appears ...
...in the 1880's with dimly lit streets and a thick layer of 'pea soup' fog. While walking he tells you that a murderer held the Whitechapel area of London in fear as the police seemed powerless to stop these ghastly crimes. He tells us that over the next two hours we will discover who was the infamous killer but it was a TV event cut down as the time it lasts is more like an hour and a half than two. Entering the mock court room Peter introduces ...

Paid.Ark.Man 28.07.2005 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of The Secret Identity Of Jack The Ripper (DVD)

Elite Documentary about an Elite unit.

Advantages: makes you think, can be motivating
Disadvantages: none

...faced bunch of Royal Marine Commando recruits all the way through 32 weeks of basic training. With complete access to every part of the training process he follows the good times and the bad of each of the recruits and something that I felt made the documentary that little more exciting was that he also took part in the training himself, Chris Terrill was 55 years old. The Program was originally aired in 2007 for ITV; at the beginning you see the ...
...of becoming a Royal Marine Commando and receiving the coveted Green Beret so that they can become elite soldiers that look a million miles away from the guys that they were 32 weeks earlier. After the 32 weeks training Chris follows a few of the successful soldiers when they are posted to Afghanistan for a tour of duty, as well as a new officer who takes up his post in Afghanistan for his first tour with a mainly rookie company of men. I managed ...

sjp1966 17.12.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Commando - On The Front Line - Series 1 - Complete (DVD)

Eye level is buy level!!

Advantages: Cheap prices
Disadvantages: Cheap labour

With the slave trade debate raging last year during the 200 commerations its always important to note that not only is that particular trade is still alive and well in the third world but its as good as here in its modern form in companies like Wal-Mart. Well meaning and angry people may well protest alongside some vegetarians banging a drum in London about what happened 200 years ago but most of the labeled clothing we are wearing will have been ...
...the products piled high in the huge shopping arenas of Wal-Mart and the like are the products of cheap and exploited labor somewhere around the world and when the documentary explores those sweat shops in South East Asia our arguments of reparation begin to fragment. In one segment you see young Chinese girls living in cramped dorms in a grubby factory, the gates locked at night, weekly rent and utilities deducted from their meager pay packets, whether ...

thedevilinme 16.12.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Wal-Mart: The High Cost Of Low Price (DVD)

In Sickness and in Health

Advantages: Interesting and entertaining, Great interview with Tony Benn
Disadvantages: Some subjects are arguably exploited, Does not consider disadvantages of socialised healthcare

"Sicko" (2007) - FILM ONLY REVIEW Writer: Michael Moore Director: Michael Moore Running Time: 123 minutes Certificate: 12A (UK) / PG (Ireland) / PG13 (USA) It has become something of a cliché to describe Michael Moore as a controversial, polarising character. To some, he is the White Knight of the left whose regular-guy approach to discussing uncomfortable subjects should be applauded, while to others he is a man who has exploited vulnerable interview ...
...picture he wants to make his attention-grabbing documentaries a success. An entire industry has grown up attempting to discredit Moore's work and has given his reputation something of a battering over recent years, but while some of the criticism he has received has I think been justified, this has not prevented him producing his highly entertaining 2007 documentary "Sicko" about the American medical industry. In many ways, this has proved to be ...

Collingwood21 13.12.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Sicko (DVD)