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Reviews by tartan_skirt
A good unfinished posthumous book
Posted : 2 years, 5 months ago on 13 June 2007 06:11
(A review of The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time)I really like this book. It is a collection of some of Douglas Adams' short articles, speaches and interviews and his unfinished novel The Salmon of Doubt, another Dirk Gently book. The short items of the book explore Adams' interests, plans for the future (which he sadly would never fulfill), funny real life stories and more. Of these watch out for: Maggie and Trudie Riding the Rays Tea For Children Only Cookies But those are only a few of the gems in this work and are among my favourites. It's a wonderful collection, showing his worries and loves in life. The whole thing is started with an editor's note, a prolouge, and a foreword by Stephen Fry. Out of these I love the foreword most because it chimes in with Adams' style of writing but is also a rather touching view from a friend of Douglas Adams (plus, Stephen Fry talking about running around the room giggling makes me smile). Firstly, you can tell that the unfinished The Salmon of Doubt wasn't completed by Adams and he hadn't had a chance to polish the existing work. The introduction to the book even explains how it was pieced together after his death. What is there is interesting and puzzling and it is frustrating to know that we'll never have an original Adams answer to it. After this the book is rounded off with a final interview and an epilogue for both Adams and the book. In the interview Adams talks about the future, and it hits you as kind of sad because we know that he would never get to any of it. I felt it was a rather touching close to a nice collection.  0 comments, Reply to this entry
Girl meets boy with a twist...
Posted : 2 years, 5 months ago on 12 June 2007 06:20
(A review of Prehistoric Women)**Contains extreme spoilers** This is bad. So bad that it's good? Definitely not. But so bad it makes it worth watching to see how bad it really is. Meet the savage women... with perfect hair, and a pet panther. And of course, these women are as frivolous and prone to jealousy as women in the 1950's were meant to be. These women are on a mission: To capture themselves some menfolk, not only that, but a "husband"! Carefully avoiding the subject of why they need these men, we follow the story of their surprisingly easy capture of three men, luring them back to their trees for goodness knows what! The sole man that escaped wants revenge on the women and decides to leave his own tribe and hunt them out, and on the way creates fire! Along the way we are also introduced to the terrifying Guadi, a giant that doesn't seem quite as tall as he is made out to be. Time for a summary: So basically its a story of girl (Tigri) meets boy (Engor), boy kills girl's panther, girl beats up his friends and takes them hostage, boy tracks down girl, makes fire, and gets beaten up and captured. Girls fight over boy while all he cares about is being reunited with his mates. Girl wants boy for herself and takes him up to her tree for a good whack with her stick and a nap. Girls fight over boy, first girl wins the right to feed him and lets him rub his face against hers. You know, the age-old story. All the while the girls are planning a marriage ceremony to trap the boys. Oh noes! This is a very bad thing because the girls are trying to assert their authority over the boys! How dare they! The boys aren't going to stand for this, they plan to escape. Boy, using his newly learned fire skills tries to use it for escape, but ends up saving girl, only to take her and her tribe hostage by holding her arm. Boys then make girls slave for them, but boy keeps girl for himself. Another boy is mean to girls, refusing to give them food and putting it in the fire. Guess what? He invented cooked meat! But oh noes! Boy is missing his mama, so they begin the journey back to the boys' home, encountering the giant on the way! Boys and girls hide in a small cave and giant laughs insanely at them. Boys use fire against giant, severely confusing him and saving the girls, returning to the girls tribe where they all do a lot of flirting and suddenly the uneven ratio of men and women doesn't seem to matter as much as before. Girls and boys get married and girls all dance (they do this quite a lot in this movie). Phew! Get all that? I swear, some of these characters were used as a visual base for some Monty Python sketches. With scenes stretching out much longer than they should, an extremely inaccurate portrayal of everything possible, surprisingly modern animals and a narrator who states the bloody obvious. It's a tale of romance (apparently) and fire. So bad it's past good and right back to bad again. Enjoy it, if you can. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
Slight variation on the old talent show
Posted : 2 years, 5 months ago on 12 June 2007 03:31
(A review of Britain's Got Talent)Doesn't this look a bit familiar? Yes, of course. It is X-Factor but with an audience in on the auditions and a bigger range of people to humiliate, and of course it's to find someone to perform at the Royal Variety Performance. Other than that it is exactly the same down to the backstage sob stories and camera style. That said, it is a bit better than the aforementioned television nightmare. It is still only TV filler to me, but at least it has a bit more entertainment value. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
Ok show, not great
Posted : 2 years, 5 months ago on 12 June 2007 01:23
(A review of "Embarrassing Illnesses")Being British, we tend to try and ignore things until they go away, and this show points out why medical problems should not be ignored in this way. It is an interesting enough show, but a tad too graphic for the 8.30pm slot on Channel 4 perhaps. One the first show alone there were close-ups of hemroids and a room full of rugby players giving their balls (testicles) a good fondle. Not exactly two things that are usually on the telly at that kind of time, so I wasn't exactly prepared. Not too bad a medical show, though I've seen better. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
Nice sequel, not quite as good
Posted : 2 years, 5 months ago on 12 June 2007 01:00
(A review of Sailor Moon R)**Contains spoilers** 2 months after the first series (Sailor Moon Classic), the Sailor Soldiers are back when aliens appear unexpectedly. Again the aim of the bad guy is to claim energy from innocent humans, and of course there are new silly monsters (this time called Cardians). But this isn't the same as the first series by a long shot. This is only the start though, as the R series begins with a 13 episode mini-plot (read the Wikipedia article for information on this). I found the end of this subplot very sweet, though I'm glad we got rid of the Moonlight Knight and Mamoru's memories of Usagi were finally returned. The Moonlight Knight is just a bit weird and confusing. Although it was good to keep the audience wondering about his identity and how it was a possibility right up to the end of the mini-plot. I've seen a lot of fans conplain about him, because really, he doesn't make sense and is out of place as a character. Thankfully he is only around for the 13 episode run though, and Tuxedo Mask makes a come back for the rest. And... Sailor Moon finally gets a new transformation scene and a new weapon! This is definitely a nice change as any watcher of the series will know their attacks get a little old after 50-odd episodes. The other warriors get their own slight new additions through the series with their old attacks making appearances every now and then. In the second half of the series we are finally introduced to Chibi-Usa and some new enemies (and some of these enemies even have a vocabulary further than their own name for once)! As with Sailor Moon Classic the story can be a little obvious to the viewer (while the characters resume their oblivious attitudes to the most obvious details), but I still love it. One thing that bugged me about the series though was the Usagi-Mamoru relationship. It just became a little too on/off with them for me, plus when you think about it it is a little wrong (thats the 14 year old and 20-odd year old detail again). The very last episode (89 in the whole Sailor Moon chronology) is a bit pointless really. All it does is round up what has happened in the R series and shows a few spoilery clips of the next series (Sailor Moon S). It doesn't add anything to the show at all, but I watched it anyway. A good series, but not quite as good as the first. :) I'm eager to start watching the third series out of the five! 0 comments, Reply to this entry
Suzuka review
Posted : 2 years, 5 months ago on 11 June 2007 06:47
(A review of Suzuka)Gaia Online has the first two episodes of this series (American dub) legally online right now, so I decided to watch it. And well, it's not very good. The dubbing is crap. The voices chosen are unbelievably rubbish, it has terrible music and shoddy animation at times, and it really is just a bad version of Love Hina (which I love) at times. Who knows, maybe the original Japanese series is better, but I doubt I'll be watching any more of this. Two episodes are enough. Plus I know now that I'm not a big fan of sports-orientated anime. (May I just add, What The Feck!? In episode two, why did Rei from Sailor Moon appear? She looked exactly the same and was a shrine maiden! ARGH!) 0 comments, Reply to this entry
Grease review
Posted : 2 years, 5 months ago on 9 June 2007 01:54
(A review of Grease)I just watched Grease for the first time. It may seem a bit odd that I hadn't seen it before now, but I have never really sought it out and it was just there on TV today. I've come across the songs in many, many places before and frankly I thought they were too annoying. Now, onto the actual review.. What the heck?! I really wonder why this is such a popular film. Bad music, bad dancing, "teenagers" played by people close to thirty, a crap storyline, and filled with really cheesily classic American "culture". It seems to have a message of "change the way you are to get people to love you" which frankly comes across quite silly. It's at the top of plenty of "best musical" lists and I have to say that there are plenty of better ones. I'm glad I got watching that out of the way. Never again... 1 comments, Reply to this entry
Nice collection
Posted : 2 years, 6 months ago on 28 May 2007 06:08
(A review of The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga (Mammoth))I can't believe I let this sit untouched on my shelf for 5 months! It is a wonderful collection of unknown manga talent from Britain and a few other places and is definitely worth a read for the teenage or adult manga/comics fan. As with many collections, some of the stories weren't quite to my taste, but I can still apprieciate them. The book features a wide variety of styles and genres and it is highly likely you'll find something you like in here. Among my favourites were the mini Carlos and Sakura strips by Joanna Zhou, Jinn Narration by Asia Alfasi, and Fat Panda by Craig Conlan. Some of the artwork was a lot more comic-orientated than manga, so readers shouldn't expect direct manga-copies but this is explained in the introduction. The introduction itself was good, but I felt it was also a little lacking. I was surprised that it didn't mention anything about Korean manwha along with American comics and Japanese manga. Oh well. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
Actually a decent show
Posted : 2 years, 6 months ago on 28 May 2007 04:13
(A review of Ugly Betty)**Warning! Contains spoilers** So, series 1 is over. I have to say that I didn't expect much from this series when I saw the adverts, but it has really grown on me. And though parts of it have been a little too predictable (the plot with Daniel and Sofia was just a little too much like Down With Love), but there have also been some great surprises. I think one of the best features (if not the best) of Ugly Betty has to be the characters. I think that the majority of them are just perfectly casted and I especially love Christina (Ashley Jensen) not only because she was born in my part of Scotland, but because she's a great Scottish character and I love her interactions with those around her (especially the interplay between her and Mark). And you've got to love Justin. Who wouldn't love a pre-teen queen? :P The last episode: The Betty-Henry story is heartbreaking, the Mark-Wilhelmina reminiscing hilarous, but the Daniel-Alexis accident was a little too obvious (hey, I even typed this sentence before it actually happened).. But the very end! I just don't want to risk spoiling that. Plus I loved the crazy movie-obsessed dental woman. Perfect cliffhanger if i do say so myself. So much to wait for! It's not a favourite, but it certainly is good watching. I'm looking forward to series 2! 0 comments, Reply to this entry
The Kitchen God's Wife
Posted : 2 years, 6 months ago on 27 May 2007 04:02
(A review of Kitchen God's Wife, the (Flamingo))**May contain spoilers** I really liked this book, especially how the mother's story was enclosed by two sections from the daughter's point of view. It was a good fictional account of China during the 1920-40s which I enjoyed thoughroughly even though my knowledge of the actual events is still sparse. The introductory chapters reveal the "present" as it is to Pearl, but the main story of the book is the story of her mother's secret history: her hard childhood; her life with her abusive husband, Wen Fu, a pilot for the Chinese army; her friendship with Helen; and her eventual escape to America. The narrative takes the form of a story being spoken out loud to the daughter and soon we learn the truths which have been hidden from her. It is a good book and easy to get into as the story develops. A book about both mother-daughter bonds and a tragic past that is well written and not too heavy on the historical details for the casual reader. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
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