Reviews by tartan_skirt

What the hell?!? This is an educational short from the 1960's about bicycle safety and is actually quite weird and scary. 9 out of 10 of kids are scary monkey-children who meet their end in horrific traffic accidents made comical. Any of course the rest just continue on without them! I'm not quite sure whats going on with the kids names either.. Mossby Pomegranate? Tinkerbell? What exactly were the parents on at the time?

The name doesn't make sense until the very end. Not too good if you're wondering what the heck its about. Don't watch this. It'll confuse the hell out of you, and thats if you don't have nightmares about the monkey masks!

Another classic all-American educational short. What do you do when a giant human bar of soap appears in your bedroom late at night? Thats right, be his friend and let him educate you on personal hygiene!

Why is it that "Billy" is the most common name for the kids in these things? Was that part of the monotypical 1950's image of American kids? That and wanting to be a cowboy, of course.. I would live to know how many OCD kids this film caused.

This is worth watching for the sheer cheese value of it, but not much else. Except of course the non-sissy-cowboy hand washing...

I loved the title of the book when I first saw it and felt the need to buy it, once I had figured out the joke of course!

I wouldn't call this a great book about etymology or a great humour book for that matter. It is more funny in a witty way which makes you smile to yourself and the other people on the train edge away quietly. It only really offers snippets on topics, which may prevent the more casual reader from getting bored, but it left me wanting. It was a little too listy for me (shock horror) because even though I love lists, I doubt I need to know ever business in Vancouver that uses a "K" instead of a "C" in their name. I did however, enjoy the excerpts from various historial figures, the spelling tests (nerd!) and the tips on the correct spelling and how it relates to how you say it.

It's a nice little book, but it's not as good as it could have been.

I've been reading this for school to find extra information and I have to say, this is an alright source for facts (though not all the time), but it isn't that good overall.

The text itself is from the 1960's, so of course it is a bit out of date. A fact made very clear when it mentioned the possibility of a female Prime Minister in the future... Also, I would not recommend this to someone over the age of 14 because it can be very simple at times and VERY condescending.

The most useful part of it was the list of countries which had given women the vote. Underlined were the ones that did so before Britain, so at least that helped me.. Other than that, not so good.

This is the first Three Extremes collection and it comprises of Dumplings from Hong Kong director Fruit Chan, Cut from South Korean director Park Chan-wook, and Box from Japanese director Takashi Miike. The Dumplings segment was later extended and turned into a full film, so I'm going to keep an eye out for it (I missed it Film4 recently).

Dumplings - It has quite a grating score to begin, then the serene music counters the rather ghastly imagery of the later stages. Ling Bai's character is rather ecentric. I really liked the use of colour in this section, but maybe thats just me..

Box - Left me with a sense of confusion, and I'm still not sure what actually happens in it... Again, a really good selection of music in that it gives a slightly childish-creepy vibe to it.

Cut - I found this segment very clever. A bleak, dark comedy at times, contrasting with the twisted nature of the situation.

Overall I thought it was a rather good selection from Eastern Asia's most prominent directors. They weren't as close to the other Asian horror films I have watched in the past, more of a twisted drama a lot of the time. It's worth watching as it is certainly interesting, but it's not for the squeamish. Prepare to be confused.

I love watching this type of cheesy American shorts from around the 1950's. It's so hard to believe that anyone actually acted like that, and theyre always hilarious to watch.

The days when people had 3 digit-phone numbers that everyone seemed to know off by heart, people listened to every word their parent said, and carnivals seemed to consist of popping some balloons and laughing a lot...

They may be very poor... but you've gotta love them for their hilarity!

ITV brought out [Link removed - login to see] earlier this year, so what does Channel 4 do? Thats right, try to top it by making a more extreme version. They make it two people instead of one, both of whom start at size 12, not 8, and try to get down to a UK 2, not a 4. Thats 5 whole dress sizes in total, and 3 more than ITV. Then of course there is the obvious parody-title of a much more famous documentary. Leaching off other shows success when it really isn't in the same league at all.

The two "journalists" used weren't exactly good choices. One managed to do a good job of demonstrating the damage that could be done to general health and relationships by extreme dieting, but the other just seemed too involved in losing weight and looked a tad crazy at times, not exactly proffessional.

Though they started out by saying they did not want to give people ideas on losing weight, this really does seem like a how-to guide for crash dieters. It really isn't that worth watching if you've already seen the ITV show. Lets just hope the BBC and Five stay away from making something exactly the same..

**Contains spoilers**

For a work that was filmed in 8 days it isn't bad. I'm interested in seeing what the other film in the Duel Project is like (called [Link removed - login to see]). The concept of the project was to create a work which featured 2 actors/actresses in a battle scene in the one setting in the time scale of one week. Of course, this was a challenge apparently invented when the two directors were drunk.

The story: Two actresses are in opposition for the same film role and have to live together in the same 2LDK (2 bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen) appartment. Their hate for each other escalates with the pressure they are under and they each descend into madness, lashing out at the other.

The differences between the spurts of violent energy exerted by the two women and their seemingly calm, collected states is at times is a little weird and extreme. Neither tries very hard to defend themselves yet they're willing to expend plenty of energy on the offensive. I was also slightly confused at some of the stuff they had available to fight with in their appartment...

The ending was alright, apart from the horribly done blood effects. That just wasn't realistic at all. I quite liked the way it ended so bitterly though.

All-in-all: Not bad, not great. I found myself laughing at parts which just seemed ridiculous, yet others were very well done. It's probably more interesting when seen with it's partner..

**May contain spoilers**

I was afraid this was going to be exactly like Shaun of the Dead (I have nothing against it, I just hate tired repeats) but I was pleasantly surprised. Hot Fuzz is an action-packed comedy, set in a British village which has it's comparisons to Stepford (calling it Sanford would hint at this too). I was surprised at how graphic it was for comedy, the effects were fantastic and extremely well done, but it did seem a little odd (I'm not complaining though).

The cast is littered by British comedic jems who fill their roles well. (I must just say, I was amazed by the two Bill Baileys, that was just genius.) Fans of British comedy won't want to miss this.

After reading this I was left with an unfulfilled feeling. Especially since the ending was so weak after such a lead-up to a particular event.

When reading I felt that certain aspects of the book reminded me of others, but they were oh so pale in comparison. The book was about an author writing a book, which was apparently the one we were reading. This was similar to a feature of Alasdair Gray's Lanark in a way, but I didn't feel that it really worked in this case. The lead-in and foreshadowing of chapters with the use of quotes reminded me of Elizabeth Wurtzel's Prozac Nation, but lacked the charm with which Wurtzel worked.
It is decadent, but mainly in the way that brand names and amounts of money are constantly referenced. Wei Hui attempts erotica throughout the book, but it really just comes across as sleaze most of the time.

This book isn't much to brag about, especially since it is constantly promoted as an "international bestseller". I wasn't expecting much to begin with, but this was still a let down.