Reviews by RB6K

All reviews - Movies (27) - TV Shows (40) - DVDs (1) - Books (3) - Music (14) - Games (7)

Finders Keepers, FINDERS KEEPERS!

Posted : 8 months, 4 weeks ago on 8 March 2008 06:33 (A review of Finders Keepers)

God, i spent half of my childhood wishing i could be a contestant on Finders Keepers, and the other half wishing i could go on Fun House instead!

This show was every kids half dream, (the other half being fun house as i said) the goal of this was to basically run around a big old house, going from room to room causing carnage, trying to find cards and items which would gain you points or prizes. You would compete against another team at first for points, and then the winning team would get to raid the whole house in one go to find as many prizes as they could within 4 minutes. The prizes were usually fantastic, like a holiday or something insane, the children would always be a bit slow in the head, so often would not find many prizes, much to my frustration as a kid! (Always felt i could of done better)
They dont make game shows like this anymore!

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Why do shows like this exist?

Posted : 8 months, 4 weeks ago on 8 March 2008 06:25 (A review of You've Been Framed)

Jeremy Beadle was the man responsible for bringing this filth to our televisions in England for the first time, but im sure it originated in the US of A first of all, and for years since all countries world wide have had to suffer it.
As a child i barely found much to laugh at in "you've been framed" but there was some comedy to it, my parents tended to have it on each weekend as it was the only real family stuff on around "Noels House Party" and what not. As the years go by this show manages to get worse and worse, replacing one poor presenter with another, until all you are left with is Lisa Riley stuffing her face with pies, or Harry Hill proving there is no God by existing.
As anyone can guess there is a certain IQ attributed to the viewer of a show about sending in home videos, it is not a particularly high IQ either!
One day they might stop wasting time with these episodes and just fill the slot with a dull glowing light that hums. I for one, cant wait!!

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Veronica Mars review

Posted : 8 months, 4 weeks ago on 7 March 2008 02:05 (A review of Veronica Mars)

Veronica Mars was a witty, and original program that completely missed out on the attention and praise it deserved for its great story lines.

Primarily about a Private Investigators intelligent daughters life as she grows up in a rich town as a not so rich teen, the stories usually focus on Veronica taking on "Cases" each episode.

Someone at her high school/College usually has some kind of dilemma and turns to Veronica to look into it. She of course works her magic and solves each case, but the major Arc of the series is the murder of her best friend. Solving this crime takes her main focus, and so she has to work out ways to snoop around investigating her towns people, the local police department, and also navigating all the politics at her school, to try and find out exactly what happened and why. There are a lot of different stories and plots in this show, a lot of thought provoking episodes and many clever twists and turns. This is a brilliant "who done it?" tv show and well worth watching.

It does end rather abruptly in Season 3, but thats American networks for you, they never let something run its course and often when a perfectly good course has been run they try to bleed the show as much as possible, the second fans start to tune out, they cancel it, never giving the show a chance at winning them over again. This show could have ended after 1 or 2 seasons and been a great, the 3rd season was good, but it was the last. Had it had a 4th season we would of seen Veronica move into the FBI and the show would have taken on a whole new level of stories.

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Its like an episode of Torchwood in 'ere

Posted : 8 months, 4 weeks ago on 7 March 2008 01:27 (A review of Torchwood)

I enjoy watching this show, but i feel it is becoming a bit of a victim to the "new look" BBC tv style.
In the past few years we have been bought such wonderful shows as "Titty Titty Bang Bang" and soon to be released "Lilley Allen and Friends" showing the level of thought out, clever television the BBC are concentrating on giving us. Most programs on their BBC3 channel revolve around laughing at the word sex, and being as metro sexual as possible to show that England is firmly in touch with todays modern values.
Torchwood is no different, with its extremely high sex drive and homo erotic characters it is definitely not the most subtle of tv shows. Not an episode goes by without 2 men snogging pro furiously, every 10 words the word Sex is mentioned and the characters have no sexual boundaries, not caring which sex, race or species their next lover belongs to.
This is of course not a bad thing, if it spreads open mindedness to the world then excellent, but i dont know why it has to be done in such a full on way? I am no prude, but i dont WANT to watch men kiss once a week for 40 minutes really, im ok with the occasional bit, in fact in the first episode of the second season i found it hilarious when the main character, after a 2 minute fight scene, began to kiss the face off of his opponent in a fit of passion. It fit perfectly in and had me laughing for ages, but other times it just seems done for the sake of it, in a kind of "OOOH CONTROVERSY ON THE BBC!!!!" kind of way as if they are trying their absolute hardest to prove some point to some body who probably switched off the first time a male character winked at another man!
Sexuality aside, the stories are reasonably good for a BBC sci fi, it has yet to live up to DR Who's standards, but then who expects it to? The characters are lovable enough, the stories are interesting, and often quite cool, it is very Welsh, which has done wonders for that race's image, (they almost seem human!!!) I know it will be on for a long time to come as it is a well written show, they just need to stop letting 13 year olds proof read the scripts adding in naughty words here and there, and the show can be taken a little bit more seriously.

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Greatest Super Mario Game Ever.

Posted : 9 months ago on 6 March 2008 06:04 (A review of Super Mario World)

Mario world, oh how this takes me back to my youth! I spent countless hours playing this game in pure liquid heaven. Could never make it past castle 8, Wendy's Castle, so i would have to cut through Star Land to get to Bowsers Castle, i love that i remember this! This game had absolutely everything which makes Mario wonderful, Yoshi is there in all his Glory, Luigi is involved, the Princess is kidnapped as usual. Theres not much mention of Toad which is a bonus, and the entire Bowser clan is there to be defeated!! The worlds in this game were immensely fun, for its era it was quite a large game i believe, i mean it was certainly the longest scale game i played before the age of 10 (This is before the time of CD based games...although the Mega CD wasnt far behind!! FF and other RPG's existed though which would have been longer of course) I would play this game forever if there was a format i could access it on now, if you grew up without this game, or Super Mario 3, then you have had no childhood im afraid.

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A Very Underrated FF Game.

Posted : 9 months ago on 6 March 2008 05:57 (A review of Final Fantasy X-2)

A lot of people judge FFX-2 on appearances, but after playing it through almost twice (during my first play i had to restart 3/4 through due to PS2 malfunction!) i really found a lot to like about this game. It has a bit of a girlish element to it at first, considering the only 3 characters you get are Women, and at the very start they seem to be singing for a living which i thought was lame. But After you get about 20 minutes in it is just like FFX but it expands upon things and finishes the story. There are some brilliant elements to it such as the spheres you can find throughout the game, these add depth to this story and also to FFX's story, there are parts of the world that you were unable to explore in the first that are open in the second. It wraps things up for the story, explains a lot of odds and ends, and it is a challenging game.
It is the first FF to show you a percentage of how much of the game you have managed to achieve also, certain parts can only fully be done by playing the game under New Game+ But the bulk of it can be done in one play through, you get rewarded with extra scenes, and a better ending the more effort you put into playing it and eventually get to find out what happens between Yuna and Tidus. You also get to play the game in the particular order you chose in some cases, as more often than not you are faced with a list of 10-20 different places you can go, and each one will add a little more to the story, give you a little more work to do, and add more to your % of filled games. There is a hell of a lot to this game, and you can play it as quick or as in depth as you like. Perhaps some of the concepts used in this could have been better used in other final fantasies, as its usually the style to never revisit the same ideas often, so in that case it is a shame that this game gets the small respect it does, as i think they had something with it, its equally as special as all final fantasy games are, just not epic or stand alone.

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Real Irish Comedy.

Posted : 9 months ago on 6 March 2008 05:45 (A review of Father Ted)

A show about 3 priests and their house keeper who live on an Island off the coast of Ireland.
This show is pure brilliance! It ran for 3 seasons between 1995 and 1998 (until the untimely death of the shows star Dermot Morgan)

It is essentially comedy based around the catholic church, and likes to poke fun at general Irish ideals and beliefs. All 3 priests should never have gotten into the priesthood but find themselves there none the less, you have Father Ted, a cunning man with ideas and dreams of making it rich, who is the straight man of the trio, and who is cursed with terrible misfortune. Father Dougal, an extremely simple man who delivers the most hilarious one liners and provides the most comedy. And Father Hackett, a raging alcoholic who most of the series only says the words DRINK, GIRLS, FECK and ARSE. The 3 of these personalities do not blend together at all, but Dougal and Ted form a wonderful partnership as the straight guy and the silly guy, there is so much to love about them in this series and it is a terrible shame that no more episodes could be made of it.
I highly recommend watching this series if you can, some people might not get it, but it is great if you do. I think you have to of been raised in a catholic family or love the Irish to truely love the show but as i always say in my reviews it seems, this is a definite must watch!

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Classic British Comedy

Posted : 9 months ago on 6 March 2008 05:37 (A review of The Black Adder)

Black Adder is Rowan Atkinsons crowning achievement, he should never do another Mr Bean show in his life, and concentrate on further mastering the character of Black Adder.
Each series is set in a different time period with only a few similarities. There is always a Lord Black Adder, and he always has a loyal servant named Baldrick, and also a fumbling idiot of a friend named Percival. He is usually connected to some form of royalty (although not in the 4th installment)
and he is usually trying to fulfill a cunning plan of some sort.
These shows are timeless classics which will continue to make people laugh for decades to come, they are already standing the test of time, having been made for people of my parents generation, i am quite positive my grandchildren will find this show funny.
If you want to improve your knowledge of comedy, or merely want to laugh at real humor that is not manufactured by Americans, you can not go far wrong with this!

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Hugh Laurie is...ENGLISH?!

Posted : 9 months ago on 6 March 2008 05:30 (A review of House M.D.)

Oh how millions of Americans choked on their fries and donuts when they realised that the amazing Dr House was in fact played by one of the most British people on the face of the planet. I found myself checking his past just to make sure i wasn't deluding myself, is this REALLY the same man who played a buffoon prince in Black Adder?! Surely Not?
House is a fantastic show about a Dr with amazing diagnostic abilities, but quite possibly the worst (or maybe best?) people skills on the planet. His brilliance allows him to be pure arrogance, a character trait few people can actually pull off in real life. Each episode starts with a random member of the public falling down with a random illness, its usually not the person you expect to get ill but some bystander. Of course its never something easy to figure out, and thus House is called in to solve the case. This usually involves an abundance of tests, very cool computer graphics of peoples insides in motion, a lot of hilarity, and eventually a brilliant conclusion. House is thought provoking, funny, intriguing and thrilling to watch. Its like a "who done it" in medical terms, and House is your Colombo.
Iv yet to meet a person alive who does not enjoy House!

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Dont be put off by Joss Whedon.

Posted : 9 months ago on 6 March 2008 05:10 (A review of Firefly)

Anyone who hasn't seen this show either needs to, or will never try because they cant stand the thought of watching something Joss Whedon produced. Yep, its the dude who brought us Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Angel, but Firefly is nothing like these, its actually quite an intelligent show! (Heck thats coming from a Buffy/Angel fan!)
Firefly is set 500 years in the future, it is not your typical sci fi, lasers and star ship's, it paints a more realistic view of how the galaxy will be, people will have branched out colonizing land as far as the edge of space, much like the original settlers in America, fulfilling manifest destiny on a grande scale. Obviously certain planets will not be as hospitable as others, and once the basics such as water, air and land are acquired, pretty much everything else is left to the settlers themselves. This means there is a lot of inter planetary trade, pirates, bandits and handymen, all done via vessels capable of flying through space, and not much else.
Serenity is a Firefly vessel, barely kept together by its captain Malcolm Reynolds, he makes a living traveling as an outlaw working for money and basically doing whatever it takes to get paid, he picks up crew and hitchhikers along the way to make some extra money, and winds up caught up in a whole lot of mess as a result.
The episodes of the program usually centralize around heists, or jobs that need to be done, people double crossing each other and dealing with the morality of certain "necessary" things that need to be done. The show combines several different genres but mainly Western and Sci Fi, which go together surprisingly well the way it is delivered in this show.
It is a must watch, its only 15 episodes long i believe? Fox in their infinite wisdom cancelled it like the clowns they are, and were then forced into a corner by outraged fans which then got the film Serenity made to conclude things.

Dont let the people who have rated it lowly put you off either, in fact i know most of them and i can safely say that they have never, and will never watch Firefly, they just like to presume the worst in it because of its creator and following. If you watch this be ready to feel upset that it was cancelled! Not one person i know who has seen all the episodes can see why it was taken off the air, its a fantastic show.

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