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jaggyaxe
Reviews
The Tales of Para Handy (1994)
Every moment is magical!
I have to first say I have absolutely no idea why this series never continued on for at least another 5 seasons.
The Tales Of Para Handy is an absolutely beautifully made gentle Scottish comedy centring around Neil Munros famous character Peter "Para handy" McFarland, captain of the puffer boat "The Vital Spark" and it's crew.
Those a little older (I myself am 30!) May recall the 1970's version of the stories simply titled "The Vital Spark" with the magnificent Roddy McMillan in the title role. While the old series was wonderful, it was low budget and it showed sometimes with the 70's cars and buildings.
This new series is expertly crafted into a beautiful period piece. All the clothes, streets, and cars are circa 1930's (which the stories are set!) the music is fantastically folky and the tales are just engaging entertainment. The scripts are wonderful and the stories range from heartfelt to side splitting!
Every moment is magical!
The only downside I can think of is that the main cast do not quite live up to their 1970's counterparts who are considered the definitive representations of the characters, but do NOT let that fool you! Gregor Fisher, Rikki Fulton and co. all do an absolutely amazing job of bringing life to the characters in their own way and having a rich script and wonderful stories, it is perfect Sunday night (Or any night!) family entertainment.
It is a crime that production stopped as soon as it did!
Buy it and enjoy!
Little Monsters (1989)
Horrible fun!!!!!!!!
I used to kill myself laughing at this film when I was young. Fred Savage seemed to get all the good roles in these kind of films in the late 80's and this one is great gross fun.
The film is just a smashing manic ride, racing along like a miniature Beetlejuce and has all the mischievous, sticky horrible nonsense that's usually found in the mind of kids! Ignore all the rubbish about sexual and paedophile undertones, It's simply folk reading WAY too much into things that could mean anything. Maybe some folk have some secrets of their own if they keep noticing things like that Hmmmm? I'm pretty sure the filmmakers didn't set out to do something like that deliberately! Great film! Thoroughly enjoyed it when I was 12, and still enjoy it now that I'm 30! Check out The Wizard as well! Another great (And misunderstood) Fred Savage Film
Doctor Who (2005)
Give it a chance and a world of excitement is at your fingertips!
I must admit when this series came out I never really bothered with it, in Fact I got it confused with the 1996 film/pilot. Shows how much attention I paid eh? I'm not saying I wasn't a Doctor Who fan, I was hooked on Doctor Who during the Sylvester McCoy years (he's my doctor) but I just thought it was going to be bastardised by crap CGI and rubbish stories! I caught part of an episode back in late '05 (I'm suer it was End Of The World) while I was waiting for a taxi I think and it was pretty good.
It wasn't until only a few weeks ago I caught the 2007 Christmas special and I didn't even watch much of that, but it got me in the mood so I took a plunge and started watching an Episode of the second season and I was hooked.
The CGI is actually really, really good (For a British production that is) and some of the stories are fantastic. The two new doctors bring new edges to the character but it's nice to see a lot of respect being paid to the heritage of the Who series.
Highly recommended not just for old Who fans and Sci-Fi buffs like me but just anyone who wants some good Saturday night entertainment because this is well above the par of todays trashy standards.