Reviews

The more you love music, the more you'll love this series. It not only presents the music, it presents the context for each musical movement. Unfortunately, it is regularly compared to "The History of Rock 'N' Roll" and this review is no exception. The comparison is necessary for you to fully appreciate it.

Many people take issue with how this series presents the bigotry and social upheaval these songs formed the soundtrack for. The assumption is that bigotry inspired all of these movements. I think they are looking at it from the wrong perspective.

This series was not just meant to document the history of rock. It was meant to deify rock in all of its' forms. It has been said that rock did more to help end racial tension than all politicians combined. The best way to deify rock is to present the social upheaval it affected. This series does this and more.

To fully appreciate this series, it's important to understand that it approaches the history of Rock & Roll from a British perspective. That means, for Americans, there will be a disconnect in which bands were more central to rock's future. The other thing to keep in mind is that British documentaries tend to expect you to have a passing knowledge of the subject. This is where I say, if you can get this series, I recommend that you get "The History of Rock 'N' Roll" at some point as well. They compliment each other quite well giving you a fuller picture of the times in which these styles evolved.

It's also important to understand when both series were made. In the early 90's grunge revolted against the glam & metal sounds, and by the time of this production, metal was seen as passe and almost an embarrassment. A similar attitude seemed to apply to the disco movement. Both series overlook the contributions of both.

Even if you prefer the other series, I highly recommend picking this up if you find it. It's very rare. My copies are actually the VHS copies I taped off of the PBS broadcast.

This miniseries was much disliked by its' viewers.

That said, yes it had fairly jerky animation, and yes, it had many silly and/or gory moments.

So if the above makes you feel this production is not worth your time, I've already gotten the critique out of the way. However, if you, like me, have more than just a passing interest in dinosaurs, you are in for a real treat.

For all of its' quirkiness, this series is the first of its' kind to set up its' species as characters that the viewer can be invested in. If I were you, I'd be protesting that "Walking With Dinosaurs" already accomplished that, but you'd be wrong.

Anyone who's ever dealt with snakes or alligators will tell you that even they have their "adorable" moments. This series takes that angle as well. We see these animals as clumsy and imperfect, with personality and quirks. Another twist is the illustration of some species fighting to survive AFTER the well-known asteroid impact.

Dinosaur Revolution takes a sympathetic view of its' subjects, even T-Rex. It is obvious that this series was not meant to have narration or "talking head" interviews as each subject has more than enough personality to carry each story. The problem was the late revision to present this as a documentary, rather than a docudrama.

The article here says that the producers are re-editing this series to reflect the original vision. If so, I'd be happy to see it, but I'd be surprised if anyone would change their opinions on it. The criticisms about the animation are justified. The silliness, however, I found endearing.

I'd say this video would do well as a foil between viewings of other CGI dinosaur documentaries. It fleshes these species out in a way that has never been, and likely will never be, done by anyone else.

If nothing else, consider this the, intentionally, campy dinosaur documentary.

ATLAS SHRUGGED is a movie that should have been made decades ago simply for the fact that Ayn Rands book is essentially responsible for defining modern conservative thought.

On the good side, the filmmakers were able to create a scenario whereby the railway industry could actually be the lucrative industry required for the protagonists to be relevant in modern times. Although it had no starpower, it did feature some excellent actors who would normally be cast in supporting roles doing a damned fine job owning their roles. I don't think any "A-list" actors could carry this film. Taylor Schilling and Grant Bowling have an interesting chemistry. This is one of the first times I have seen a middle-aged couple on screen and thought, these two need to hurry up and shag. The characters are perfect for each other. Their chemistry is undeniable.

On the bad side, its' attempts to remain true to the book make it completely anachronistic. Regardless of what Glenn Beck says, communism is not the clear and present danger it once was so, instead, the enemy is caricatured liberalism. Rands book at least attempted to make the case that the most successful people acquire their wealth via hard work, but here, their greatest achievement was being ripped from the right crotch at birth. We are told that they work hard, but the examples we see are simply posh dinner and luncheon engagements. Somehow, the characters have time in their busy schedules for long trips across the country acting like second-rate private investigators. Ultimately, the movie ends up being little more than two hours of attractive, over-privileged people flying in their private jets eating filet mignon and lamenting about how bad they have it.

That is not to say I didn't enjoy it, but you have to enjoy it for what it is: political and economic rhetoric. all-in-all, the filmmakers pulled off a palatable film based on a book which I had always presumed to be incapable of being the subject for a movie. That said, the time passed very quickly for me and I am looking forward to seeing the next two installments if they are ever made.

I was one of the very small cast that was in this game. I played seven characters: The Short Drug Dealer, The Second Zombie, The Second Lunatic, The Lightning Zombie, The Squire, The 98 Lb. Weakling, and The Blue Karateka.

It was an exhausting shoot involving full days of stunt work and action sequences. I was lucky enough to have had a speaking part, but it was badly dubbed over later due to sound recording problems during the initial shoot.

The real fun of this shoot was talking to the creator, Rick Dyer. He was the kind of guy who dreams and then makes it reality. I never heard him say a negative word about anybody, even when his old company took his original idea for Dragons Lair and released a sequel at the same time to capitalize on and compete with Dyers project.

I don't know what he's up to now, but I'm sure he's thinking up something completely outrageous.