Drama > J Drama > 5 GBP to 10 GBP

Advantages: A masterpiece of a Mini-Series
Disadvantages: Nearly 10 hours long and thats without the DVD extras

Shaka Zulu is an epic tale of an unwanted son. Who took a minor South African tribe and forged them into a vast empire, through military conquest and fear. Filmed on location in South Africa, in 1986, when apartide was still very much in force. The government attempted to stop its production. Fearing that the Zulu nation would feel justifiable pride in Shaka's exploits. However Harmony Gold pushed and pushed. Till it was made. There were terrible ...
...Lord Bathurst = Christopher Lee Shaka = Henry Cele Nandi = Dudu Mkhize The series is spread over 4 discs, 3 episodes per disc with the 4th disc given over to the 10th part and the DVD extras. Episode 1 The series begins at the end of the Anglo-Zulu wars. With the defeated king of the Zulus, Cetshwayo, meeting Queen Victoria to ask for his Kingdom to be returned to him. The Queen asks him to tell her about Shaka. So we go back in time to the 1820's ... Read review

Advantages: Unique and imaginative
Disadvantages: DVD presentation not of reference quality

...convincingly presents a world where strings mean life. The story is strong enough to keep you going and make this a fully-featured film, not just an impressive technical exercise. This is a must-see movie and one you want to tell your friends about. >>> Plot teaser In a marionette world, a despot ruler is about to try and rectify his own misdeeds by committing suicide and letting his son make a new start and move towards peace. An evil uncle, however, ...
...world of marionettes where all strings stretch up into heaven and so houses don't have roofs and you die when your headstring is cut. The genius here is in presenting this using marionettes. While that seems an unnecessary observation, you just know that if this was Hollywood produced, it would have been a CG movie. There are a number of wonderful highlights in the movie regarding this world of marionettes. The One Stringed, the birth (very cool), ... Read review

Advantages: Amazing acting, strong story
Disadvantages: None to speak of

The Gathering Storm charts the course of events from Winston Churchill's Wilderness Years during Baldwin's National Government in the mid-to-late 1930s, until his return to office as First Lord of the Admiralty at the outbreak of the Second World War. = PLOT SUMMARY = Winston Churchill has become a backbencher, increasingly ridiculed as yesterday's man, a man of no-judgement and a war-monger. It is the mid-1930s, and no-one seems to have ...
...Churchill desperately seeks solace during his Black Dog moods at Chartwell, writing prolifically to pay the bills, while casting around for ways to draw the public's attention to the very real danger he senses. This film charts Churchill's struggles through these dark times, where he gets assistance from well-placed people inside the civil service in Whitehall. It shows how Ralph Wigram (a foreign office official) struggles with his conscience and ... Read review

Advantages: Offbeat, humorous and thought-provoking
Disadvantages: A little too offbeat for some

...The Basic Plot Ghost Dog (Forest Whitaker) is an assassin living in Jersey City (although, we're never told that) who holds true to Bushido, the ancient Japanese chivalric code of the Samurai, and is guided in particular by the tenets of Hagakure, a series of commentaries and guidelines that were outlined in the early 18th century. The Samurai is a servant or retainer who pledges his life and sword to a master, and in Ghost Dog's case his ...
...several years before (or so Ghost Dog thinks) and by so doing unwittingly earned the future assassin's loyalty. Between jobs Ghost Dog lives in a shack on the roof of a building with only some carrier pigeons and some books to keep him company. His only human friends are a Haitian ice-cream vendor and chatterbox, Raymond (Isaach de Bankolé), who can only speak French, and a precocious-but-sweet little girl, Pearline (Camille Winbush), with whom Ghost ... Read review

Advantages: great story
Disadvantages: n/a

I watched this film last night on sky and I cannot believe that I have not seen it sooner especially as I have always been a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio and I was not disappointed by this film in the slightest. This film does require some concentration and at just over two hours it is a long film, but it well worth the watch with a great plot with enormous detail in the film as it based on a real event of Sierra Leone on the 1990's. Solomon Vandy ...
...family, his son goes to school and loves it, one day on the way home from school the village comes under fire and Solomon hides his son and tries to save the rest of the family, unfortunately he manages to saves his family but he is captured and is a slave for a rebel gang and is forced to mine diamonds. One day he finds a rare giant pink diamond which he manages to hide. Solomon then meets Danny Archer played by Leonardo DiCaprio who is a South ... Read review