Wildlife Special - Serpent DVD

Advantages: An exquisite documentary in every respect. Quality, ...
Disadvantages: ...not quantity. Special features would be welcomed. Specialist Audience.

..., but by the same token £6.99 is hardly a bargain either for a dvd of this length. When you are considering a dvd, the question of wheteher it will lend itself to repeated viewings comes to the fore. For a programme like this, the answer is individual and, from a personal point of view, unequivocably yes. Most of the Attenborough and BBC collaborations are expensive. For example, 'Planet Earth' and 'The Life of Mammals' both retail at £29.99 from Play.com. True, these dvds contain several hours of documentary, while you are paying £6.99 here for the equivalent of just one programme, but none of the series I have seen contains an episode to rival the overall quality of the wildlife special, 'Tiger'. Others titles in this series are : Leopard, Eagle and Serpent.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: well known actors from the early 80's, great scene setting, plot
Disadvantages: poor acting in places

...Any fan of the 'B' movies will appreciate 'Q' for what it is. Do not watch this movie thinking it is going to be a high budget hollywood blockbuster of a monster movie. The ancient Aztec god Quetzacoatl, a giant flying serpent-bird, is reincarnated by a Manhattan cult and decapitates New Yorkers from its nest atop the Chrysler Building. As detectives David Carradine and Richard Roundtree try to make sense of the myth, petty crook Michael Moriarty holds the Big Apple to ransom in exchange for Q's hiding place. Part wonderfully entertaining cop thriller, part old-fashioned monster movie, Much of the acting is hammy despite a pretty good cast including Richard Rowndtree, David Carradine and Michael Moriarty. The effects are obviously low budget and the script is in places diabolical yet somehow this film is a classic Monster pic... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Superbly made
Disadvantages: Not realistic

...The BBC really went to town (or rather the prehistoric forest) with this series, currently being repeated on Saturday evenings - and it has to be said that it's pretty impressive. With the emphasis on the pretty. Each half hour programme is done in the style of a wildlife documentary, following a distinct group of reptiles with a voice-over describing what we see. The special-effect dinosaurs, transplanted into backgrounds filmed today in various parts of the world, are extremely well done. My main gripe with this programme is that it presents everything as 'fact', whilst in fact it's a little fact combined with a lot of guesswork (in terms of colours and sounds especially). I have no problem with the BBC using artistic license, but some sort of disclaimer might be in order. But highly interesting viewing, nonetheless.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful