Drama > Fox, Edward Drama

How many stars does it take to do Dickens?

Advantages: A beautifully fresh presentation
Disadvantages: Some poor "English" accents

...A brief plot outline Nicholas Nickleby is dead. (This seems to be a theme of how Dickens starts his novels!) But we are not concrned with that Nicholas Nickleby, it is his son ... young Nicholas Nickleby who is the hero of our tale. After his father's suden death leaving his family with little money the young Nicholas goes to his uncle in town for advice. As you can imagine the uncle is loaded but does not help the Nickelby's at all. He manages ...
...Hall. Now Nicholas is warned that this school is not pleasant by an old friend of his fathers but he goes none the less. When he arrives at Dotheboys he is greated by malnourished, down trodden young boys who seem closer to death than receiving a good education. In particular the young boy Smike is the Headmaster's servant boy and often beaten. As you can imagine Nicholas is there to become the boy's saviour and helps Smike to escape. He then beats ...

nkemp_99 03.02.2007 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Nicholas Nickleby (DVD)

This Zulu would kick Michael Caines arse

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 ...

ian4552 26.05.2005 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Shaka Zulu (Box Set) (DVD)

The Lull Before the Storm

Advantages: A perfectly observed and beautifully acted drama.
Disadvantages: Perhaps a little too sedate for some.

The trouble with being a cold-hearted cynic is that now and again I can't stand the pressure and have to release it by being warm and sentimental for a while. I try not to show this sinister side of myself any more than I have to and usually withdraw from polite society until the darkness returns to claim me. Anyway, it's during these crippling bouts of niceness that my secret craving for period drama comes to the fore. I love a bit of costume colour ...
...worth a look, as is the occasional Anthony Trollope, although my absolute favourite period piece is Stanley Kubrick's sumptuous, cinematic ode to Georgian England, Barry Lyndon (reckoned by some to be the most boring film ever made, but I would beg to differ). However, a lesser-known addition to the genre that also stuck with me after the first viewing, and which I watched again recently on DVD, was the 1985 big-screen adaptation of a novel by ...

Templar19 14.10.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of The Shooting Party (DVD)

I SHALL have her!

Advantages: A romping bodice-ripper
Disadvantages: Corny, Corny, Corny

A Hazard of Hearts is a film I always remember from my early teenage years, as my friends and I absolutely loved it! Based on the Barabara Cartland novel, this low-budget TV movie is a corny classic from start to finish. --------------------- SYNOPSIS --------------------- Beautiful Serena Staverley (Helena Bonham-Carter) is left homeless, penniless and betrothed to a right wrong 'un, Lord Harry Wrotham (Edward Fox) when her father, Sir Giles ...
...to marry her off, for a tidy cut of her dowry. One of the suitors is Lord Wrotham, who does not play by the rules and attempts to kidnap Serena and force her to marry him. As he has begun to fall in love with Serena himself, Justin feels duty bound to defend her honour and challenges Wrotham to a duel, in which Justin is injured. Serena is forced to face her feelings for Justin and makes a dash to reach his side. Will she be in time to tell him her ...

staceyvm 06.07.2005 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of A Hazard Of Hearts (DVD)

Gandhi

Advantages: read opp
Disadvantages: read opp

...the fight, dedication and determination Gandhi had to secure the countries independence. The film is both moving and very informative, its slow paced but that's the purpose of the film, its both dramatic and so powerfully moving. The film was a true appraisal of the life and legacy of Mahatma, it showed his beliefs, his coriage, power and determination to fight for a just cause. The film was brilliantly directed by Attenborugh, and is lead by a very ...
...known figure. We see how Gandhi gets assisnated during an evening walk in the garden, being shot by a young man and then shouting out "Oh God" before he dies. The film then rewinds back to the early moments of Gandhi's movement for freedom. We don't get to see his childhood or any aspect of his parental life etc, it moves straight into the pivotal moment were Gandhi is thrown off a train in South Africa, because he was travelling in first class. ...

jaygami1986 12.02.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Gandhi (DVD)