Reviews Written By: A1NX2OBV6S4QUDprovided by Amazon.com |
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 | Takamine S35 Jasmine Acoustic Guitar | |
 | "It plays ...." | 2009-10-27 |
| When my beloved old guitar gave up the ghost (long story) I needed a guitar in a hurry, but had no money. This one had good reviews, so I gave it a try. I knew it wouldn't be anything amazing, but still expected, based on the reviews, something a bit better than I got.
It's very light, with a flimsy feel to it, enhanced by the matte finish ... it really DOES look like a balsa-wood airplane. The high action hurt my fingers, so I immediately swapped the fairly heavy strings it came with for a lighter set of Martin steel strings, and noticed a further deterioration in the already only so-so tone. It stays in tune quite well, but no matter what I do it just sounds ... cheap. If you're an absolute beginner (or are buying for a child who will probably get bored with the guitar in a few months) and don't want to spend much, this may be an ok 'first guitar', but a more experienced player will want something better. Something that I am now saving my pennies to get. | ||
 | Manitoba: A Colourguide | |
| "Not What I Expected" | 2009-01-21 |
| It's my fault. I should have read the product description more closely. Specifically the dimensions of the book. I was looking for and expecting (especially given the price) a nice sized 'coffee-table' type book with big, pretty pictures and interesting text. Instead, I got a small paperback, mostly illustrated with thumbnail sized photos and the occassional full page (but still small) picture.
As a practical-travel book it also fails in its mission. Minimal info on sites, hotels or restaurants. The free brochures I got from the Manitoba tourist board are both more useful and more attractive. | ||
 | New Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive Reference Guide to the Wines of the World (revised and updated) | |
 | "Great reference book, but not a practical book" | 2008-10-16 |
| I've learned a lot about wine from reading this massive tome. The different types of grapes, how to 'taste' wine like a pro, the dozens of different wine-growing areas in France and California (most other countries/states are dealt with in far less detail.) How to invest in wine and how to store it. As a practical guide to selecting/buying wine, this wasn't quite what I was looking for. Far too big to cart to the liquor store, it's of no help when standing in front of a shelf of wine, trying to decide which bottle to buy. All you can do is painstakingly copy down the names/vintages on the shelf, go home, consult the book, and try to determine which, if any, are recommended. (The reverse -- jotting down a list of a dozen recommended wines doesn't work, since the odds of ANY of them being on the shelf is pretty low. I'm sure that the vast majority of European/South American/Australian wines in the book aren't available at ANY liquor store in America.) Prices aren't even hinted at, except rarely when he mentions that a wine is 'affordable' or 'luxurious.' | ||
 | The Languages of the World | |
 | "Great Summary for the Non-Specialist" | 2008-07-28 |
| As a person who has long been fascinated by languages and the way they work, I ask myself why I waited so long to buy this book. (Maybe because it's fairly costly for the page count?) It's a very fun (if you like that sort of thing) summary of around 200 langauges from around the world, ranging from the well known [French, English, Spanish] to the obscure [Avar, Faroese]. I will admit that until I picked this up, I had NO idea how many languages were spoken in the former Soviet Union. While the book is generally VERY well done, I would have liked to see a few things handled differently. 1. Actual translations (rather than adapted translations) of the poetry, to give the reader a better sense of the structure and flow of the language and the sorts of words used. 2. Transliterations of non-Roman alphabet languages -- again, to give the reader a better sense of how the language actually sounds. 3. (Especially for the more obscure languages ...) some discussion of printing and publishing in these languages. How many books/newspapers are published each year in, say, Maltese or Nenets, as compared to English or French. Despite these minor flaws, highly recommended. | ||
 | The Languages of the World | |
| "Great Summary for the Non-Specialist" | 2008-07-28 |
| As a person who has long been fascinated by languages and the way they work, I ask myself why I waited so long to buy this book. (Maybe because it's fairly costly for the page count?)
It's a very fun (if you like that sort of thing) summary of around 200 langauges from around the world, ranging from the well known [French, English, Spanish] to the obscure [Avar, Faroese]. I will admit that until I picked this up, I had NO idea how many languages were spoken in the former Soviet Union. While the book is generally VERY well done, I would have liked to see a few things handled differently. 1. Actual translations (rather than adapted translations) of the poetry, to give the reader a better sense of the structure and flow of the language and the sorts of words used. 2. Transliterations of non-Roman alphabet languages -- again, to give the reader a better sense of how the language actually sounds. 3. (Especially for the more obscure languages ...) some discussion of printing and publishing in these languages. How many books/newspapers are published each year in, say, Maltese or Nenets, as compared to English or French. Despite these minor flaws, highly recommended. | ||
 | Doctor Zhivago (Two-Disc Special Edition) | |
| "A pretty film with an average plot about mostly unlikeable people" | 2008-05-01 |
| I am a woman of a certain age. I had never seen this film before, and sat down to view it with absolutely NO preceptions or knowlege beyond that it was a 'really famous movie about people living at the time of the Russian Revolution." 4 hours later (allowing for some locking up of the scratched library copy I viewed) ... I slapped myself awake and went off to get a snack. My reviews will pretty much echo most of the other 2-3 star ones. It's a very pretty film. The cast is attractive, the cinematography lush, the sets well done. (But the cast may be a bit TOO attractive. I found it very hard to swallow the image of Geraldine Chaplin looking like she's just stepped out of the local beauty parlor after spending 2 weeks in a cattle car with 49 other unwashed people!) But pretty will only take you so far. The script and direction waver between utterly confusing and utterly boring and utterly unbelievable. The minor characters are almost all two-dimensional ciphers. (The evil Bolsheviks ... very cold-war indeed.) And the major ones are mostly unlikeable and uninteresting. I couldn't really care about either Zhivago OR Lara. Why should I root for their star-crossed love affair? Why should I LIKE this man who is cheating on his pregnant wife for no apparent reason. If they were able to resist their attraction/temptation while working together for 6 months in an isolated army hospital, why couldn't they resist when they met again ... 5 miles away from Zhivago's pregnant wife and beloved son? The only really interesting characters were the few 3 dimensional ones -- Alec Guiness, Geraldine Chaplin and Rod Steiger's characters. (The last of whom is at least SUPPOSED to be unlikeable.) At 2 hours this might have been a tolerable chick-flick. But at 3 1/2 it's too long, and far too boring. | ||
 | Doctor Zhivago | |
| "A pretty film with an average plot about mostly unlikeable people" | 2008-05-01 |
| I am a woman of a certain age. I had never seen this film before, and sat down to view it with absolutely NO preceptions or knowlege beyond that it was a 'really famous movie about people living at the time of the Russian Revolution." 4 hours later (allowing for some locking up of the scratched library copy I viewed) ... I slapped myself awake and went off to get a snack. My reviews will pretty much echo most of the other 2-3 star ones. It's a very pretty film. The cast is attractive, the cinematography lush, the sets well done. (But the cast may be a bit TOO attractive. I found it very hard to swallow the image of Geraldine Chaplin looking like she's just stepped out of the local beauty parlor after spending 2 weeks in a cattle car with 49 other unwashed people!) But pretty will only take you so far. The script and direction waver between utterly confusing and utterly boring and utterly unbelievable. The minor characters are almost all two-dimensional ciphers. (The evil Bolsheviks ... very cold-war indeed.) And the major ones are mostly unlikeable and uninteresting. I couldn't really care about either Zhivago OR Lara. Why should I root for their star-crossed love affair? Why should I LIKE this man who is cheating on his pregnant wife for no apparent reason. If they were able to resist their attraction/temptation while working together for 6 months in an isolated army hospital, why couldn't they resist when they met again ... 5 miles away from Zhivago's pregnant wife and beloved son? The only really interesting characters were the few 3 dimensional ones -- Alec Guiness, Geraldine Chaplin and Rod Steiger's characters. (The last of whom is at least SUPPOSED to be unlikeable.) At 2 hours this might have been a tolerable chick-flick. But at 3 1/2 it's too long, and far too boring. | ||
 | Doctor Zhivago - 30th Anniversary Edition | |
| "A pretty film with an average plot about mostly unlikeable people" | 2008-05-01 |
| I am a woman of a certain age. I had never seen this film before, and sat down to view it with absolutely NO preconceptions or knowlege beyond that it was a 'really famous movie about people living at the time of the Russian Revolution." 4 hours later (allowing for some locking up of the scratched library copy I viewed) ... I slapped myself awake and went off to get a snack. My reviews will pretty much echo most of the other 2-3 star ones. It's a very pretty film. The cast is attractive, the cinematography lush, the sets well done. (But the cast may be a bit TOO attractive. I found it very hard to swallow the image of Geraldine Chaplin looking like she's just stepped out of the local beauty parlor after spending 2 weeks in a cattle car with 49 other unwashed people!) But pretty will only take you so far. The script and direction waver between utterly confusing and utterly boring and utterly unbelievable. The minor characters are almost all two-dimensional ciphers. (The evil Bolsheviks ... very cold-war indeed.) And the major ones are mostly unlikeable and uninteresting. I couldn't really care about either Zhivago OR Lara. Why should I root for their star-crossed love affair? Why should I LIKE this man who is cheating on his pregnant wife for no apparent reason. If they were able to resist their attraction/temptation while working together for 6 months in an isolated army hospital, why couldn't they resist when they met again ... 5 miles away from Zhivago's pregnant wife and beloved son? The only really interesting characters were the few 3 dimensional ones -- Alec Guiness, Geraldine Chaplin and Rod Steiger's characters. (The last of whom is at least SUPPOSED to be unlikeable.) At 2 hours this might have been a tolerable chick-flick. But at 3 1/2 it's too long, and far too boring. | ||
 | Doctor Zhivago (Deluxe Series Box Set) | |
| "A pretty film with an average plot about mostly unlikeable people" | 2008-05-01 |
| I am a woman of a certain age. I had never seen this film before, and sat down to view it with absolutely NO preconceptions or knowlege beyond that it was a 'really famous movie about people living at the time of the Russian Revolution." 4 hours later (allowing for some locking up of the scratched library copy I viewed) ... I slapped myself awake and went off to get a snack. My reviews will pretty much echo most of the other 2-3 star ones. It's a very pretty film. The cast is attractive, the cinematography lush, the sets well done. (But the cast may be a bit TOO attractive. I found it very hard to swallow the image of Geraldine Chaplin looking like she's just stepped out of the local beauty parlor after spending 2 weeks in a cattle car with 49 other unwashed people!) But pretty will only take you so far. The script and direction waver between utterly confusing and utterly boring and utterly unbelievable. The minor characters are almost all two-dimensional ciphers. (The evil Bolsheviks ... very cold-war indeed.) And the major ones are mostly unlikeable and uninteresting. I couldn't really care about either Zhivago OR Lara. Why should I root for their star-crossed love affair? Why should I LIKE this man who is cheating on his pregnant wife for no apparent reason. If they were able to resist their attraction/temptation while working together for 6 months in an isolated army hospital, why couldn't they resist when they met again ... 5 miles away from Zhivago's pregnant wife and beloved son? The only really interesting characters were the few 3 dimensional ones -- Alec Guiness, Geraldine Chaplin and Rod Steiger's characters. (The last of whom is at least SUPPOSED to be unlikeable.) At 2 hours this might have been a tolerable chick-flick. But at 3 1/2 it's too long, and far too boring. | ||
 | Victoria & Albert | |
| "It had it's moments ... but" | 2008-04-25 |
| The real life of V and A was interesting and complex enough that there was NO need to pretty it up, or remove so much reality for the sake of the screen play. As many others have noted, the historical inaccuracies are glaring -- to add to those already mentioned -- Victoria was wearing mourning for her dead uncle (the late King) at her first meetings with her council and parliament. Neither her relationship nor Albert's relationship with their children was accurate, he was much more loving, she was much more remote. Alice was nearly 19 (and looked a bit older than that) when Albert died -- the actress playing her looked about 14. Victoria too could have stood a bit more 'padding' in her costumes by 1861. Having given birth to 9 children by then, she was far from svelte! Victoria blamed Bertie for his father's death. She could barely stand to be in the same room with him for many months afterwards. The touching scene with the two of them and Alice is balderdash. Recognizing the limited timeframe, they certainly could have deleted some of the more extraneous scenes and found room for anecdotes that DID enhance the actual story being told -- Vicky's marriage, and the time Albert spent with her preparing for it -- the actual death of her mother [we saw the last visit, but never her reaction] -- The Lady Flora scandal early in her reign. Historical issues aside ... it was ok. Reasonably well acted by most, attractive costumes, good production values. As someone who is very familiar with the era and the personalities being portrayed, I did find much of the heavy, plodding 'exposition-dialogue' to be pretty tedius. "As you know Victoria, when your cousin Charlotte, son of George IV died in childbirth and King William and Queen Adelaide also had no surviving children, there was no heir to the throne, so, having been widowed myself after the birth of your half sister Feodora and half-brother Carl, I married your father in order to produce an heir." [Ok... so that's an exageration, but some of it comes darn close...] Really disappointing ... | ||
 | Victoria & Albert | |
| "It had it's moments ... but" | 2008-04-25 |
| The real life of V and A was interesting and complex enough that there was NO need to pretty it up, or remove so much reality for the sake of the screen play. As many others have noted, the historical inaccuracies are glaring -- to add to those already mentioned -- Victoria was wearing mourning for her dead uncle (the late King) at her first meetings with her council and parliament. Neither her relationship nor Albert's relationship with their children was accurate, he was much more loving, she was much more remote. Alice was nearly 19 (and looked a bit older than that) when Albert died -- the actress playing her looked about 14. Victoria too could have stood a bit more 'padding' in her costumes by 1861. Having given birth to 9 children by then, she was far from svelte! Victoria blamed Bertie for his father's death. She could barely stand to be in the same room with him for many months afterwards. The touching scene with the two of them and Alice is balderdash. Recognizing the limited timeframe, they certainly could have deleted some of the more extraneous scenes and found room for anecdotes that DID enhance the actual story being told -- Vicky's marriage, and the time Albert spent with her preparing for it -- the actual death of her mother [we saw the last visit, but never her reaction] -- The Lady Flora scandal early in her reign. Historical issues aside ... it was ok. Reasonably well acted by most, attractive costumes, good production values. As someone who is very familiar with the era and the personalities being portrayed, I did find much of the heavy, plodding 'exposition-dialogue' to be pretty tedius. "As you know Victoria, when your cousin Charlotte, son of George IV died in childbirth and King William and Queen Adelaide also had no surviving children, there was no heir to the throne, so, having been widowed myself after the birth of your half sister Feodora and half-brother Carl, I married your father in order to produce an heir." [Ok... so that's an exageration, but some of it comes darn close...] Really disappointing ... | ||
 | A Man for All Seasons | |
 | "Magnificent Film, Great DVD" | 2008-04-24 |
| This is one of my all time favorite movies. Admittedly it is not very historically accurate (it glosses over some of the more unlikeable aspects of More's character, and leaves out some major things [like his other dozen or so children]), but as a film -- screenplay -- piece of entertainment, it is utterly magnificent. The acting is flawless. The script is amazing, with many wonderful bits. (I could listen to the "This country is planted thick with laws -- man's laws, not God's laws" speech a thousand times and never get tired of it.) The cinematography, costuming and direction are gorgeous. The DVD transfer is fine. While the extras are lighter than in many films, the documenary on More is very interesting, and there are 3 subtitle options (English, French and Portuguese), and 3 audio options (2 English, one very well done French track.) A commentary track might have been nice, but its omission isn't enough to influence firm my 5 star rating. If you've never seen this movie, do so. If you've seen it before and love it, buy it at a VERY reasonable price.. (And, if you've seen it before and hate it ... well ... don't.) | ||
 | Doctor Who - Horror of Fang Rock (Episode 92) | |
| "The Beast of Fang Rock" | 2007-12-10 |
| This is one of my all time favorite Tom Baker episodes. (I was surprised to learn in the commentary that Baker himself hated the script!) Lots of atmosphere, well written, generally well acted. (Reuben's creepy 'smile' is one of the best moments of ANY Dr.Who episode.)
The extras were mostly good too, though the most interesting to me (the piece on Dr. Who collectables) was disappointinly brief. The DVD loses a star for one reason. The commentary track. I usually enjoy the commentary tracks, but this one annoyed me to no end due to Terrance Dicks. THere were THREE people doing commentary, but to listen to it, you would have guessed that Terrance was alone in the studio. He rarely let the other two get word in edgewise (sometimes even interrupting them in mid-sentence). Lovely Louise is quite soft spoken, so her comments, when she did manage to squeeze one in, were sometimes hard to hear. And much of what he had to say was virtually irrelevent to the story at hand. A good DVD of a great episode, but I'll skip the commentary next time. | ||
 | Teach Yourself Bengali, Complete Course(book and CD pack) (Teach Yourself Language Complete Courses) | |
| "Strangely organized and frustrating" | 2007-11-12 |
| I would disagree with the reviewer who complained that the book focuses on reading and writing, rather than speaking/listening. I found it to be the reverse.
At first glance, the book seemed to be very well organized. The first dozen or so chapters introduce you to the letters and sounds of Bengali, a few at a time, and let you practice reading/speaking single words and brief phrases. Then you move onto the typical "Teach Yourself" format of dialogues, grammar lessons and practice exercises. The final section offers brief literary excerpts. The problem is with that first section. The author provides almost excruciatingly detailed explanations of how to pronounce each letter, and shows how the letter is written. But the 'single words and brief phrases' are NOT written in Bengali script, but are transliterated, with some odd symbols intended to stand for sounds that are not easily transliterated into English. Result being, that when you finally make it to the dialogues, (written in Bengali and translated, but NOT transliterated) you are suddenly plunged into reading Bengali ... having had NO practice. Wouldn't it have made more sense to put the 'single words and phrases' in Pt.1 IN Bengali, so the learner can get some practice in reading the script and become familiar with the letters? | ||
 | Breadman TR875 2lb Bread Machine | |
| "So Far So Great" | 2007-04-29 |
| Maybe I should make a few more loaves before reviewing, but so far I have no complaints whatsoever. The breadmaker arrived breathtakingly quickly (ordered it Saturday, it was on my doorstep on Tuesday -- with supersaver shipping!). I've made two loaves of bread, and both turned out great. (Jalepeno corn bread from the enclosed recipe book [good, though not very 'corny' tasting) and regular white bread from my cookbook.
I was a bit concerned when I opened it and saw how small the pan was. I couldn't believe it would make a 1 1/2 pound loaf (my usual size) without running over. The loaf IS small, but rises nice and high. If I have one complaint it's that the shipping packaging was very wasteful. I arrived home from work to find a HUGE box on my porch. Having picked the breadmaker because, among other things, it has a small 'footprint', I was a bit worried. I opened the box to find another box. I opened THAT box to find .... another box. And sure enough, inside the third box was the breadmaker, nestled in a thick shell of styrofoam, and just about the size I'd expected. But really ... three boxes? | ||
 | Field Guide to Produce | |
| "Has its moments, but ..." | 2007-04-29 |
| So much of the advice in here is purely common sense ... and some of it is rather weird. Are there really readers out there who need to be told, when selecting fruits/veggies, to not buy things that are moldy or bruised or rotten? I was hoping for something a bit more profound. And I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that apples should be kept in the fridge, because they'll go 'mealy' within 48 hours on the counter! Am I the only person in America who keeps apples on the counter for weeks without difficulty? (Well, assuming they don't get eaten up first.) There is some interesting info on different varieties and cultivars, but even that is available elsewhere, and most of the content is a waste of time/money for anyone who already knows more than the basics. | ||
 | Broadway's Lost Treasures | |
| "Almost Perfect" | 2007-02-27 |
| I saw this on PBS and immediately decided to buy myself a copy! While these excerpts are not from the broadway shows themselves, they are from the Tony Awards and are therefore, 'live.' And it's just wonderful to experience the level of 'energy' that great actors project when performing live on a stage. There are a couple of songs that I don't particularly care for myself (Worst Pies in London), but most are wonderful, and the performances, while not 100% flawless (this WAS filmed live) are almost all engaging. A few comments: Yul Brenner manages to project more energy just standing there in the background than his co-star singing her heart out in "Shall We Dance." She is, alas, a fairly indifferent actress, and is overwhelmed by her enormous dress! Lip-synced or no, Robert Preston in "Music Man" is wonderful. As is Joel Grey's fabulous MC in "Caberet." Again, it's all about energy. I'd honestly never even heard of Patti Lapone before I saw this show, but she blew me away with her powerful voice. (Evita.) "All that Jazz" and "Nowadays" from "Chicago" is, alas, much too short,but delightful. The most unintentionally funny bit -- Twiggy looking either utterly bored or utterly terrified (but completely out of character, regardless) as she struggles with a simple dance routine in "Kicking the Clouds Away," (From "My One and Only.") She must have not realized that the camera had her in close up ... Recommend this 100% | ||
 | Biograph Shorts - Special Edition | |
| "Good Films, Bare-bones DVDs" | 2007-01-28 |
| I've only had a chance to watch of few of the shorts in this set. What I've watched has been enjoyable (though, contrary to what another reviewer wrote, picture quality isn't always pristine. The main reason for the 3 star rating is that, while the films are great, there isn't anything else. The 'extras' on the discs are simply some additional shorts. There is no background information; no enclosed pamphlets, no introductions or special features on the discs themselves. I might have liked to have learned more about Griffith, about Biograph, and about the shorts. | ||
 | Introduction to the Croatian and Serbian Language | |
| "Some good stuff, some bad" | 2006-09-12 |
| As a sole text for either 'teach yourself' or classroom use, this book is not a good choice. It has far too many flaws. However, as an additional reference, it has some excellent points. Bad stuff: The dialogues are utterly ludicrous. People just don't talk like that! While the first few lessons provide a glossary of new words right in the lesson, after about lesson 5 you have to go to the back of the book and look up every new word in the dictionary. Little grammar is explained in the lessons themselves; you have to, again, go to the back of the book and read the separate grammar section. Despite the 1995 publication date, the book hasn't actually been updated in decades. Many of the words are out of date, and the country is still referred to as "Yugoslavia." Good Stuff: An extremely complete dictionary in the back. Separate columns in each chapter give the Serbian and Croatian varients of each dialogue. (In the first few lessons the Serbian is in latin lettering, for the rest it's in cyrillic.) The exercises are decent. The jokes and songs in each lesson are cute, and following the final lesson there is a section with excerpts from real (if rather dated) Croatian and Serbian books and articles. The grammar summary at the back of the book is EXCELLENT. (The book is worth it for this alone.) While it would probably be confusing for a beginner, if the reader has some basic grasp of grammar, the book provides clear but detailed explanations of all the major aspects of Croatian/Serbian grammar. Noun declensions, verbal aspects, prepositions, verb conjugation in all the tenses, and more are covered very clearly, with numerous examples and tables. In summary, excellent as a grammar reference and dictionary. Less than satisfactory as a textbook. | ||
 | Doctor Who - The Tomb of the Cybermen | |
| "Poorly written, but surprisingly entertaining." | 2006-09-02 |
| During all the years that "Tomb" was missing, it developed a reputation as one of the best episodes... or at least one of the best Troughton episodes. And, since we don't have most of the Troughton episodes, it way well BE one of the best, for all we know! However, it isn't one of the best Who's, and isn't nearly as good as it's reputation. On the positive side, the remastering of the DVD is excellent, and, as with all the Who DVD's, there are lots of interesting extras. The acting from the regulars is great, I especially enjoyed Victoria in this one. There is some good dialogue. The Cybermen themselves, while obviously men in silver suits, are suitably eerie. The special effects, by and large, are fine for the era and the budget. Oh, and the Cybemats are SOOO cute! On the negative side, however, there are a LOT of problems. The acting from the guests is, almost without exception, awful. Everyone hams and mugs for the camera, rather than getting into their roles. Or maybe it's just that the characters, as written, are so shallow and two dimensional that the actors couldn't do anything with them. And the plot and writing is, frankly ... nonsensical, with the characters running around doing things that make NO sense whatsoever. I mean ... did they really travel several thousand lightyears, planning to spend only a few hours on the planet before turning around and going home again? These archeologists have, apparently, no supplies or equipment. How do they plan on actually doing any sort of archeological work? Locking the prisoners in the weapon's testing room? Come on. And, did the villian (who's name escapes me at the moment) REALLY believe that the Cybermen would instantly agree to work with him? Or rather, work for him? And then, the moment they refuse and hurt him a bit, he's suddenly babbling about how he had no idea how powerful they would be and that he had 'completly underestimated them!!!' Hardly a logical sequence of actions for a man who claims to be well versed in Logic! Why did Victoria leave the gun behind when she went to fetch the captain? And so much more ... Despite all the problems, the story really is quite entertaining. I just wish that the writers of the time would have put a little more thought and effort into their scripts. | ||
 | Doctor Who - The Tomb of the Cybermen | |
| "Poorly written, but surprisingly entertaining." | 2006-09-02 |
| During all the years that "Tomb" was missing, it developed a reputation as one of the best episodes... or at least one of the best Troughton episodes. And, since we don't have most of the Troughton episodes, it way well BE one of the best, for all we know! However, it isn't one of the best Who's, and isn't nearly as good as it's reputation. On the positive side, the remastering of the DVD is excellent, and, as with all the Who DVD's, there are lots of interesting extras. The acting from the regulars is great, I especially enjoyed Victoria in this one. There is some good dialogue. The Cybermen themselves, while obviously men in silver suits, are suitably eerie. The special effects, by and large, are fine for the era and the budget. Oh, and the Cybemats are SOOO cute! On the negative side, however, there are a LOT of problems. The acting from the guests is, almost without exception, awful. Everyone hams and mugs for the camera, rather than getting into their roles. Or maybe it's just that the characters, as written, are so shallow and two dimensional that the actors couldn't do anything with them. And the plot and writing is, frankly ... nonsensical, with the characters running around doing things that make NO sense whatsoever. I mean ... did they really travel several thousand lightyears, planning to spend only a few hours on the planet before turning around and going home again? These archeologists have, apparently, no supplies or equipment. How do they plan on actually doing any sort of archeological work? Locking the prisoners in the weapon's testing room? Come on. And, did the villian (who's name escapes me at the moment) REALLY believe that the Cybermen would instantly agree to work with him? Or rather, work for him? And then, the moment they refuse and hurt him a bit, he's suddenly babbling about how he had no idea how powerful they would be and that he had 'completly underestimated them!!!' Hardly a logical sequence of actions for a man who claims to be well versed in Logic! Why did Victoria leave the gun behind when she went to fetch the captain? And so much more ... Despite all the problems, the story really is quite entertaining. I just wish that the writers of the time would have put a little more thought and effort into their scripts. | ||
 | Gypsy | |
| "Great score, great production, unbalanced cast" | 2006-07-07 |
| I have always loved this show, ever since my high school put it on decades ago. Viewing this DVD, something about the production didn't quite work for me, but it took me a long time to figure out what the problem was. And I finally decided that the problem was Bette Midler. She is a good actress, with a lovely voice, but I think she took the role of Rose a bit too seriously. She does a great job as the overbearing stage mother who 'just wanted to be noticed', but while her depiction may be accurate, it tends to trample over everyone else in the cast. The scenes without Bette (Tulsa and Louise dancing to "All I Need is the Girl", Louise and June singing "If Mama Was Married", the strippers demonstrating the secrets of their success for Louise ... even Louise singing "Little Lamb" (probably the weakest song in the score) are all lovely and enjoyable. But then Rose comes back and starts chewing up the scenery, and all is lost again. Really disapointing, because if Bette could have just turned it down a couple of notches, the production would have been almost flawless. | ||
 | Gypsy | |
| "Great score, great production, unbalanced cast" | 2006-07-07 |
| I have always loved this show, ever since my high school put it on decades ago. Viewing this DVD, something about the production didn't quite work for me, but it took me a long time to figure out what the problem was. And I finally decided that the problem was Bette Midler. She is a good actress, with a lovely voice, but I think she took the role of Rose a bit too seriously. She does a great job as the overbearing stage mother who 'just wanted to be noticed', but while her depiction may be accurate, it tends to trample over everyone else in the cast. The scenes without Bette (Tulsa and Louise dancing to "All I Need is the Girl", Louise and June singing "If Mama Was Married", the strippers demonstrating the secrets of their success for Louise ... even Louise singing "Little Lamb" (probably the weakest song in the score) are all lovely and enjoyable. But then Rose comes back and starts chewing up the scenery, and all is lost again. Really disapointing, because if Bette could have just turned it down a couple of notches, the production would have been almost flawless. | ||
 | Teach Yourself Croatian Complete Course Audiopack | |
| "Good, basic book" | 2005-11-06 |
| Why do I get the feeling that Mr. Eyster is reviewing a totally different book? He claims that lesson 2 (out of 40) is impossibly difficult for a beginner. Well, MY copy of the book has only 18 lessons, not 40, and lesson two has a simple dialogue about where people live and what they like to drink, and some fairly basic grammar. Croatian is a difficult language, no doubt about it. Stuff like noun cases and verbal aspect is difficult for an English speaker to understand. But of all the books I've looked at, this one treats the grammar with about the most clarity, and takes things as slowly as possible. | ||
 | The Three Musketeers | |
 | "Awful. Awful. Awful." | 2005-08-10 |
| I was shocked to read the many wonderful reviews here. Being a fan of most things Disney, I picked this one up locally a few months ago. Me and my preteen daughter sat down to watch it, and gave up before ever finishing viewing it. The script is dull. The songs, while based on 'classic' melodies, are amateurish. (What happened to all the wonderful songs that graced the 1990's Disney films?) Even the characters voices bear no resemblence to the ones we are familiar with. (Yes, I'm aware that the actors doing the voices during the 30's through 50's have long since died. But surely a company with the funds Disney has could find voice talent that could do at least a passable facsimile. Disney should be ashamed of putting their name on this yawner. | ||
 | Hippocrene Children's Illustrated Croation Dictionary | |
| "Some odd choices, but very good" | 2005-05-01 |
| I'm quite a bit older than the '4-8 years' age group this book is aimed at, but it's very helpful for ANYONE trying to learn a little Croatian. It's arranged alphabetically in English, but in the back is an alphabetic list (without illustrations) in Croatian.
The pictures are quite charming, they appear to have been selected from a wide range of sources, and most of them look like the kinds of pictures found in 1960's era school readers. My only real complaint is that some of the words they choose to include are rather odd, with the partial result being that some very common words are left out. Do we really need to know how to say both 'field mouse' and 'mouse'? 'Bumble bee' and 'bee'? Both 'horn' and 'antler' are included, even though the Croatian word is the same for both. And we learn such relatively obscure words as platypus, badger, fir tree, and lighthouse. Which would be fine except that, while we learn many color names, we DON'T learn orange or purple. Quite a few other common nouns and adjectives are also omitted. (There are comparatively few verbs, but that makes sense since learning the infinitive of a verb isn't much use without learning the tenses, and this book doesn't even begin to touch on the extremely complex topic of Croatian grammar.) A few minor errors in pronunciation as well, but for the most part the pronunciation table seems accurate. A worthwhile purchase for any beginning Croatian student, regardless of age. | ||
 | Walt Disney Treasures - Mickey Mouse in Black and White Volume 2 | |
| "Not quite the best, but the rest." | 2004-12-22 |
| The best of the black and white Mickeys, and the best known all went on the first set. Leaving, obviously, the lesser cartoons for this follow-up collection. But second rate Mickey is still first class entertainment, and most of these cartoons are entertaining indeed.
As with the previous set, the worst aspect of the collection is Leonard Maltin. WHY can't he trust his viewers to have a little intelligence? In vol. I, any cartoon that contained humor that was less than PC by contemporary standards was burdened with a brief introduction warning us about what we were about to see. In this volume, all those 'offensive' cartoons are clustered together in a separate section of the second disk, labeled "From the Vault." Apparently these cartoons are so offensive that they have to be locked away in a vault, and only viewed after Maltin has given us a detailed apology about how people were so unenlightened in the 1930's and '40's that they put such horrific content in their cartoons. And that, while SOME people might want to lock these films away for all eternity, HE believes that it's ok to watch them, if only to help us understand how much times have changed. Sigh... To make it worse, every time you want to view ANY cartoon from 'the vault' you have to first sit through the commentary. The disk won't allow you to fast forward through it. And, to be honest, I couldn't even figure out what was supposed to be so 'offensive' about several of the shorts in 'the vault.' Still, if you can put up with Maltin, this is a wonderful set, and well worth owning for any fan of Disney or early animation. (BTW, if there are any easter eggs on the disks, I haven't been able to find them.) | ||
 | Conversational Modern Greek in 20 Lessons | |
| "Very difficult to use" | 2004-11-20 |
| I have to disagree with the other review. I found this book very unhelpful. The main problem is that there is no way to use what you have learned, or be sure what you are learning. The book consists almost solely of dialogues (each one written in greek lettering, transliterated into english lettering, and translated, all on the same page). There is also information on sentence structure and grammar, and each dialogue chapter includes a vocabulary list.
What the book lacks is any sort of interactive component. There are no exercises. No passages to translate or questions to answer to demonstrate your understanding. The book basically expects the learner to memorize the stuff by rote, a VERY outdated method of learning languages. While very basic, "Teach Yourself Beginner's Greek Script" is much more useful, providing plenty of exercises (most of them fun and imaginative) to support the information in each lesson. Off to find another more advanced 'teach yourself greek' book, I guess. | ||
 | Walt Disney Treasures - Mickey Mouse in Living Color, Volume Two | |
| "Maltin has to go!" | 2004-05-24 |
| Once again, Disney has put together an impressive collection of cartoons; in this case, a wonderful assortment of Mickey Mouse cartoons. (Plus a lot of behind the scenes stuff, and a few easter eggs.) But Leonard Maltin's commentary hits an all time low on this DVD set. To begin with, he explains to us how these shorts aren't really as good as Mickey's earlier work,(leaving us to wonder why we've just invested our money in them!), but, some of them are kind of cute, so we may actually enjoy them. Then, he jumps back on the old political correctness bandwagon and feels obligated to explain to us (very often!) how these cartoons are not PC by modern standards, but that, rather than 'putting them on the shelf' (lest someone be ... gasp! ... offended) we should watch them and appreciate how times have changed, and how much more sensitive and understanding we are today. (Yeah ... like contemporary movies NEVER contain stereogypes ...) The commentary before "Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip" (in which he explains that Disney didn't MEAN to be bigoted and prejudiced when he had Mickey disguise himself as an Indian and say "How!") is bad enough -- but when he came on before "The Nifty Nineties" to tell us all that the scene where Minnie and Mickey attend a vaudville show is not PC by modern standards (because it contains comic references to drinking -- and we all know that drunkeness is not funny), but we should just try and accept it in the spirit in which it was intended --I was ready to throw something at the screen. Buy the set, but when Maltin comes on the screen, take a bathroom break. | ||
 | Roller Coaster Tycoon Expansion Pack: Loopy Landscapes | |
| "Fun, Addictive... a few flaws." | 2003-03-10 |
| This review is for the whole RCT set, including the original game. My family loves this game, it is truly deserving of its "E" rating, since my school-age daughter, and both adults in the family have a ball with it. Scenarios range from easy through impossible (and the expansion pack scenarios are not necessarily harder than those in the original set.) While only the first person to win a scenario gets his name 'on the board', scenarios can be played, and won or lost, over and over again. However, the game does have a few flaws. 1. Sometimes, no matter how many times you turn the screen, you can't get a good angle to see what you are building. (Especially a problem as the park gets more crowded with rides and pathways.) 2. We joke in our family that the people in this world are wimps. The game allows you to build elaborate coasters with steep drops, tight turns, loops, twists and more. But, in our experience, any coaster much more complex than a simple circle with a few gentle drops gets rated 'ultra-extreme' with a 'ultra'high' nausea rating -- and nobody will ride it. 3. As a related issue, you can't stop the clock while designing and testing coasters. If you are building a complex coaster, months can tick by as you design your coaster, try to make the coaster fit the landscape (or alter the landscape to fit the coaster), test it, then make any necessary changes. In real life, of course, the planning would happen in the designer's office, and the actual construction would happen fairly quickly. Still a favorite game in our house. | ||
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