Reviews

Like other reviewers, I really wanted to like this film.. and, billed as the British "Bound" - or as in the same vein as, I gave it a try... I'm sorry, really, but this poor effort comes nowhere remotely near such a high-class and polished production as Bound..! Poor Alan Ford struggles bravely with a stodgy, pedestrian and often fatuous script, dire direction, laughable lighting and sound sets and some seriously wooden performances from his fellow actors... To be honest, this is something born out of a drunken, adolescent 1st year art/film school project... It is painful to watch, not merely because of the highly stereotyped characters and the lazy dialogue, but also because of some of the worst Dogma 95 post production (attempts) I have ever seen, the terrible low-budget cinematography (the POV camera shots are seriously amateurish) and the seriously lack-lustre direction. This feeble dog's dinner should be avoided at all costs... Sorry, but it is not often I say this: a complete waste of time and effort.

Okay - okay, everybody seems to be split 50-50 over this series - they either love it or hate it. Well, I for the most part, loved it. It has some annoying plot and character inconsistencies; so what? The whole feel of the thing is edgy, raw, emotive and a vast improvement on the original Battlestar series (which, to be honest, was an embarrassment). The gritty - almost documentary style - drama works very well; and is a refreshing change to the usual fare served up in the sci-fi genre. It is no soap opera - especially when compared to the Star Trek franchise -or even, to B5; which showed great promise, initially, but soon faded into the land of wishy-washy studio bosses' focus group paranoia and ended up just like Star Trek DS9 and all. As to the character gender changes, well, I think they work to the advantage of the storyline. Most of the characters are conflicted - just like in real life - and this to my mind, makes them more believable. Given the situation that they (the characters) find themselves in, identity and emotional conflict are the least of their problems! The character development is good, and yes - some of them are stereotypes - but that is necessary in any good story where there are a large number of support characters. Let's be honest here - if one were to develop every minor or support character fully we would end up with a series a decade long filled with mind-numbingly boring filler episodes - like those in Star Trek, B5, etc. As to the criticism that the Cylon warriors are somehow uncool or unimaginative and that they suffer from poor CGI - well, what can I say - that is, ultimately, really a matter of taste - what is cool to one is horrific and uncool to another; and further more, if one truly ponders on the nature of the evolution of the beast, the human form would be the ultimate goal of a sentient creation of man - imitation being the greatest form of flattery and so on - or so someone once said... and, as to the criticism of the props, surely this is an irrelevancy? - considering the strength of the drama and script. At the time of writing, I have just finished watching season 4 on DVD and I find myself restless, itching to see the finale! Sooo, in the end, if you like gritty political action drama set in a sci-fi format - with supernatural and spiritual overtones - where the fate of the race is in the balance, where the lost find out who they are and see the lies that have been told to them since birth dispelled by unpleasant and inconvenient truth - then this is for you. Good stuff.

A touching and moving film in the style of Ingmar Bergman. I had a copy on Betamax years ago but that's gone bye the bye! Why won't whoever owns the rights to it put it on to DVD????? There's a market for this kind of drama and it's a must for anyone interested in this genre. Maybe it exposes the cracks in traditional society and the fecklessness of same sex relationships, but it also portrays a beautiful love story that might appear, at first sight, to be ill-fated with the appearance of the husband - I say no more. It is a beautiful emotional drama and deserves to be on DVD!!!! Many of my female friends are gay - and most of them hold a similar opinion concerning this film.