Drama > 1978 Drama

Hazell Hits the Small Screen

Advantages: An interesting and unusual detective series
Disadvantages: Some minor storyline elements are not explained clearly

...first meet the amiable James Hazell as he embarks on his first case, for hard-nosed solicitor Gordon Gregory. Life is looking up for the smooth-talking cockney, with a smart Triumph Stag and a plush rent-free apartment (looking after it for a friend of a friend, currently serving 7 years at Her Majesty's pleasure). Every silver lining has a cloud of course, and the rookie investigator often meets trouble, usually of the violent kind, although his ...
...is an area the streetwise Hazell knows well. There are authentically shabby locations inhabited by equally shabby characters - a motley crew of small-time gangsters, cheats and drunks for the most part. The people supposedly on his side aren't much better. There's cousin Tel, the wheeler dealer of the family, and 'Choc' Minty, a dour dry-humoured Scotsman and former colleague, still a Detective Inspector, who has a habit of appearing just at the ...

raymortim 14.12.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Hazell - The Complete First Series (DVD)

The Deer Hunter DVD Review

Advantages: Performances.
Disadvantages: Requires your undivided attention.

Perhaps the main reason The Deer Hunter connects with me so much, emotionally, each time I watch it is because it's not really what I would call a "War Film". Opening in the late 1960s, in a small working-class town of Pennsylvania, it tracks three Russian-American steel workers, Michael (Robert De Niro), Steven (John Savage), and Nick (Christopher Walken). The lives of these characters occupy the screen for a large majority of the movie: we see ...
...going on hunting trips into the mountains. The reason the film chooses to focus upon these hard-working people is to show the importance of human bonding; how one chooses to celebrate his life by surrounding himself with friends and family. The Deer Hunter never attempts to make its characters seem flawless; instead, they each are out just to have a good time before they depart to Vietnam with the army. When they meet a soldier at the bar of the ...

andycarrington 06.04.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Deer Hunter (DVD)

Click, click you're dead

Advantages: Good story and acting
Disadvantages: Visually dated, but I'm being picky

An interesting film. I'll be brief on the outline of the plot because the juicy bits to ponder derive from the issue it tackles. Laura Marrs is a photographer, arty and controversial. Not for her the bog standard nice piccies of top models, she opts for violence, destruction and anger to portay her shots, and as a result she has become famous and much debated. During a photoshoot she becomes alarmed by a vision that overtakes her. She can see someone ...
...she sees them as though she herself is carrying out the murder. And it gets worse. She knows the victim. Upon finding out that it has taken place, exactly as she had foreseen it, Laura is shaken to her core. But it won't be the first time. Little does Laura know, but she's going to have to get used to witnessing the horrific acts. There will be a few. And they will all have connections with her. A rather handsome detective is assigned to the murder ...

Salgirl 19.06.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Eyes Of Laura Mars (DVD)

Dennis Potter at his ABSOLUTE BEST!

Advantages: Funny, touching, fantastic music, unusual, brilliant cast
Disadvantages: Not for those who dislike 30s music or surrealism

Pennies from Heaven- Review -Introduction- There have only been two drama series shown on the BBC (or in fact on TV at all) in my lifetime which have given me total and utter enjoyment, and this is one of them. (The other, for those wondering, is Stephen Poliakoff's "Shooting the Past"). Pennies from Heaven was first shown on TV in 1978 and being only 2 at the time I naturally did not see it. However, it was repeated when I was about 14 and ever ...
...which is very evident in Pennies from Heaven, is the propensity for characters to spontaneously break into song at odd moments in the story, and in the case of Pennies from Heaven it means the actors lip-synching to popular songs from the 1930s and 40s, when the story is set. This gives the play a slightly "stage musical" feel as the songs do help the story line along slightly. It gives a slightly bizarre feel to proceedings, but as a huge fan of ...

cladach29 31.08.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Pennies From Heaven (DVD)

Saturday night Terror not Fever..

Advantages: Surprising storyline, great dancing
Disadvantages: Terrible acting, Bad language

Saturday Night Fever. (Film Review Only) ------------------------------------------------------------------ Plot. ------------ Tony Manero lives for his Saturday nights at his local disco where he is King of the dance floor. One Saturday night Stephanie Mangano catches his attention because of her great dancing and he eventually persuades her to be his partner at the clubs dance competition. ~•◦º˚º◦•~~•◦º˚º◦•~~•◦º˚º◦•~~•◦º˚º◦•~~•◦º˚º◦•~~•◦º˚º◦•~~•◦º˚º◦•~~•◦º˚º◦•~~•◦º˚º◦•~~•◦º˚º◦•~ ...
...his talent. Tony loves his Saturday nights, which he spends down his local Disco with his close friends Bobby C (Barry Miller), Joey (Joseph Cali) and Double J. (Paul Pape). Tony is extremely well known at the disco as he is King of the dance floor due to his great talent for dancing, but life outside the dancing for Tony is not that good. He has a turbulent relationship with his aggressive Father Frank Manero Snr. (Val Bisoglio) and his Mother ...

welshwickedone 19.10.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Saturday Night Fever (DVD)