bodiebob-632-909960

Rarely has there been such a highly rated show which I have taken so long to view, and so during a week off of work with an injury I took in every season consecutively.

It was pretty good and I was entertained. It also struck me as having a gritty realism absent from a lot of shows but it is certainly, in my opinion, overrated.

This show is heralded by some as the best of all time, yet it is not remotely in the same league as The Sopranos. Other American crime shows like The Shield and Breaking Bad are I believe more entertaining and gripping than The Wire; as well as British shows like Sherlock, Cracker and Luther.

This show had a more authentic feel than most, and had the unique angle of telling the story from both sides of the law equally. That said, the biggest indictment I can level at it is that if I had to stop watching half way through a series and never go back to it then (possibly excluding the fourth season) it would not have bothered me much. I could not say that of any of the other shows I have listed.

What an awful film, the whole concept was absurd. It's one of the dumbest movies I've seen and the way they tried to dress it up as some 'Usual Suspects' style work of genius was laughable. Everything to do with the four morons in the truck (especially the clowns) would ruin any film and the plot was full of holes. Wilful suspension of disbelief is one thing but this required suspension of all intelligence.

There are none of the big stars of the first movie. Vinnie Jones, who's improving as an actor and I want to like, still cannot deliver a line without sounding like he's reading it from a script for the first time and Tom Berenger is clearly desperate to be accepted by Hollywood again if he is taking parts like this. I bet he was very well behaved on set this time.

Bizarrely though, this had one of the best last ten seconds of a movie I've ever seen, which is all that stopped me giving it a rating of one but by then the film was beyond redemption and it was wasted. If it had been put on the end of a decent film it would have gone down as one of the all time classic endings, it was that good an idea. Now it will just be forgotten on the end of a bit of straight to DVD garbage, which is nothing short of tragic.

This Oscar winning mini masterpiece is a cherished memory of many I'm sure. The dulcet tones of Richard Briars guide us through the incredible life of possibly the greatest ever Englishman, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The animation is very much reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's 'Monty Python' work and is accompanied by some really quite impossibly catchy songs along the way. The comedy has a very British feel to it, in fact it could easily have been titled 'Carry On Brunel', but is also at times serious and even poignant. This is an ideal way of tricking a young, awkward child into learning some important British history as it is simply a joy to watch time and again. It is actually available on YouTube but there is something like thirty seconds missing from the beginning..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHg1W9kArwQ