Documentaries & Biographies > General Documentaries & Biographies

An amazing truth filled story of a doomed journey.

Advantages: Truthful. Excellent acting. Empathetic.
Disadvantages: You have to be old enough to appreciate it. Over 12's I would say.

...spacecraft to the moons' surface; Apollo 13. It shows the trials of both those on board Apollo 13 and mission control during the routine flight - turned disaster. The fight is then on by both parties to save those on board and return them safely to earth. Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Greg Sinise, Kevin Bacon and Ed Harris all play central roles. Tom Hanks being the main character, as Jim Lovell. The characters were played with such respect to the truth ...
...went through this. There are few changes to the actual truth, very small of course; for instance the launchpad was incorrectly positioned, the phases of earth from windows on the spacecraft, car colours, hair styles etc. Dramatic license was not taken so blatently as it is in many other factual movies. Ron Howard has been known to state that this is his favourite film that he has directed. We can see that this can be true as the direction is impeccable ...

jenniewren26 29.07.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Apollo 13 (DVD)

The Fatal Grandeur Of The Golden Gate Bridge

Advantages: Deeply moving, Fascinating, Gripping, Shocking, Compelling, Brutally Honest...
Disadvantages: Not For Everyone...

♥ The Bridge ♥ ''In the USA today, suicide is far more common than homicide, with someone taking their own life every eighteen minutes.'' Inspired by an article in The New Yorker about the Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco) being the most popular suicide magnet in the world comes 'The Bridge'. The article was read by the Director himself, Eric Steel, one morning and he was unable to stop thinking about it; thinking about what must ...
...lot to some spot in the middle and jumped off in broad daylight. He quickly became fascinated with the whole thing and flew out to San Francisco where he tried to find locations from which to film the bridge, learned how to use cameras, obtained crew and permits and then began filming. The crew filmed for a whole year and caught on film a total of 23 of the 24 people who jumped to their deaths in 2004. ♥ The Documentary ♥ Okay, well ...

iGayParis 10.09.2008 · Read full review
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Review of The Bridge (DVD)

The Warlords, bravery and corruption in ancient China

Advantages: An insight into a part of Chinese history, that many will not know about.
Disadvantages: Subtitles will put off some people.

The Warlords is a true story of war, loyalty and betrayal, taken from one of the most turbulant times in Chinese history. It is set during the Qing dynasty and shows the country embroiled in a civil war that lasted over a decade. The Taiping Rebellion rose up against the corrupt feudal system that ruled China, in the 1800's, with a war that claimed over 20 million lives, and held much of the country in the grip of famine. The film revolves around ...
...its development. The Warlords was released across China in 2007 and won 8 of its 12 nominated catergories at the 27th Hong Kong film awards. They included Best actor (Jet Li), Best film and Best director (Peter Ho-Sun Chan). It had a limited cinema release in the UK and consequently did not do very well. The release of the DVD should increase the films popularity, and the two disc edition features over 100 minutes of extras. If you are normally ...

MacTaylor 29.04.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Warlords (DVD)

Truth can be stranger than fiction.....

Advantages: Cool, Funny, Interesting, Worth Watching
Disadvantages: None

the whole setting for this dvd is excellent, from the cartoon-style graphics on the menu, to the high quailty video content of the film. This film traces the history of the American government's legislation on Marijuana. It is funny, but also informative, and definatley comes from a pro-cannabis viewpoint. The film documents the history of the drug, from how it first became introduced to america, to how it became outlawed with more and more outrageous ...
...shows how much money the government spent on fighting the plant, and the longer it goes on, the more the government spends, it's really interesting. One, of the high (no pun intended) points of the film are the clips of real american anti-marijuana propaganda videos. It is almost impossible to describe how funny they are, promoting the ideas like "If you smoke it, you will kill people" to "If you smoke it, you will become a heroin addict" The combination ...

SuperJuan 15.05.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Grass (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
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Review of Commando - On The Front Line - Series 1 - Complete (DVD)