Reviews

How can you understand where we are if you don't know where we came from? This series should be required viewing for all students who believe that everything manufactured comes from China to Wal-Mart. An astounding exposition of the sources of the modern industrial world and for examples of how the methods of construction and manufacture were once found by some brave individuals -- and by some unscrupulous ones -- in Britain. I cannot speak too highly of this series. To see the size of the machinery and constructions such as bridges, canals, railways, engines and factories which were built by extremely hard working men with often the simplest and crudest of tools should surely give pause to the most blasé of us. The sheer power of the steam engines built by the Victorians is stunning and their willingness to take physical and financial risks is an example of the best of the entrepreneurial spirit.

Donald O'Connor does an amazing job recreating Buster Keaton's style and routines in this otherwise dreadful script, credited to Sidney Sheldon and Robert Smith. Buster was arguably a finer comedian than Chaplin, but fell into alcoholism for a number of reasons. This script has so little to do with his life it should never have been titled as it was. Read a real biography, and watch some of Buster's many wonderful movies, including his last, "The Railrodder". I remember watching "Waterworld (1995)", and thinking how poorly it compared to "Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)", not least on value for the money expended on making it. And don't watch another movie until you have seen "The General (1927)". His movies are his biography, not this rotten script.

I'll watch almost anything with Loni Anderson (ALMOST anything). But so far this show with it's laugh track at maximum setting is only tolerable if I tape it and skip over the non-Loni bits - which is most of it. I assume that someone must desperately hope that lines such as, "You are", "No I'm not", "Yes you are", "No I'm not" might be thought of by someone as funny. I am not that person. Why do I suspect this will run 4 episodes max?

You've got to love the old black and white DC-3 airplane disaster movies - well, I like them. This one is OK if a little pedestrian. What is odd is the abrupt ending - it looked like a reel was missing. It'll fill in a couple of hours, but you won't rush out to buy a copy.

This movie is excellent. I knew the cast was good, and in fact all the performances are first class, but the story and the scenery are equally inviting. I caught this on a wet afternoon, and I was totally drawn in. Well worth watching, my only quibble is with the sound, which is too quiet during speech passages and too loud during the music and sound effects.

This might have been a good film, but it failed on more than one count. I have to compare it to the TV Series "Danger UXB", which, while it had much longer to develop its' story, was infinitely superior. The technical information in the TV series was much more interesting, and I kept wondering why the methods used in this film were so obviously poor, especially at the end of the war when all the methods, equipment and information should have been superior. In the finish, I came to the conclusion that this film, based on Lawrence P. Bachmann's novel "The Phoenix", used the bomb defusing merely as background, and that methods of bomb disposal were poorly understood by the writer, who probably didn't care anyway. In contrast, it is clear that someone who knew what he was talking about wrote the TV series. Although not credited in the listing here, I recall someone mentioned in the credits for the series (an Army officer) as a technical advisor, and it shows.

We are left, therefore, with viewing this film as an essay on personal conflicts and relationships, and it fails badly on that count as well. The motivations of the characters are confusing and hard to believe and ultimately uninteresting. The cast are wasted in this, which is only worth watching if you are sick in bed and have nothing better to do.

Just another ridiculous movie that is all style and no substance. Full of stunts, many of which show no sort of knowledge of reality, and totally ridiculous situations. This is the sort of movie that has a dozen people running around Sydney firing handguns while passers by eat ice cream and look bored. The motivations of the characters are not credible. Watch it on TV, don't pay for this.

You may think that the title for this is bad. Trust me, it's the best part of this vile waste of time. Clearly no-one connected with this has any clue about nuclear energy generating systems. In fact, if it was a choice between having everyone involved in this, including the writer, in charge of a real nuclear power plant, and having Homer Simpson in charge, I'd select Homer. This clichéd, manipulative piece of twaddle should have been burned before seeing the light of day. I don't know what Sharon Lawrence and Corbin Bernsen did to get involved in this, but they must have owed someone big time. Go rent "The China Syndrome" - don't waste time with this.