Charlie the Champion

Advantages: Amusing, a slice of cinematic history
Disadvantages: (For some) black and white and silent

...There cannot be many people in the world, especially the Western one, who have not heard of Charlie Chaplin. His legacy to the film industry is astonishing and it is amazing to consider what he achieved at a time when technology was virtually non-existent. Born in London in 1889, he acted in, directed, produced and even scripted his own films, which brought humour to the world that was suffering during and after the First World War. This collection of DVDs bring together his work for a modern audience to watch. This particular volume contains four short films: The Champion (1915), In the Park (1915), A Jitney Elopement (1915) and Triple Trouble (1918) brought to us from Essanay Studios. The Champion This is probably the most famous film on this DVD. In it, Charlie plays a down and out walking along the street with his dog. Then...

sunmeilan 18.12.2009 · Read review
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Review of Charlie Chaplin - Vol. 6 (Silent) (DVD)

Charlie Brooker's War

Advantages: Funny, entertaining, well-written
Disadvantages: Repetitive, occasionally meandering

...In Dawn of the Dumb, Charlie Brooker makes it very clear that he is angry. About television, about celebrity culture, about politics, about your children and, frankly, about you. His anger is not remarkable in and of itself; every third blogger on the Internet is attempting to rail against the world for various reasons. Brooker's distinctive streak is that he is genuinely laugh out loud hilarious in the expression of his rage. Dawn of the Dumb, a collection of Brooker's vicious Guardian column, distils his rage and scorn at humanity into a single volume so trenchant that it must be kept open at all times. If its covers were to be closed too tightly, it could collapse under the weight of its own compressed wit and suck your bookshelves into a black hole of rude words and pithy observations about contestants on Big Brother...

Olly_Plimsoll 11.12.2009 · Read review
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Review of Dawn of the Dumb - Charlie Brooker

Champagne Charlie

Advantages: Committed performances and a couple of hours of enjoyable brain candy.
Disadvantages: Toothless satire and a lack of detail.

...Charlie Wilson is a womanising, alcoholic, coke-snorting congressman from Texas. But behind the decadent exterior lies an astute political mind, which he puts to helping the people of Afghanistan in the early 1980s when they have just been brutally invaded by the Soviet Union. With the help of angry and shambolic CIA agent Gust Avrakotos and socialite Joanne Herring, he sets about making unlikely alliances with Pakistan, Israel, Egypt, arms dealers and law makers. Their success is unparalleled and funding for covert operations against the Soviets rockets from five million to a billion dollars a year. "The Graduate" director Mike Nichols continues the trend for Middle Eastern conflict movies with his latest offering. It's a shiny political romp that has a top-drawer cast and a big budget, which is used to tell of how one man made...

afy9mab 14.01.2009 · Read review
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Review of Charlie Wilson's War (DVD)

Charlie Brooker's Newswipe

Advantages: Superb analytical and satirical programming
Disadvantages: Make more of them!

...Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the mind of Charlie Brooker, and welcome to his spin-off of his successful cult critique show "Screenwipe"; "Newswipe" - but instead solely focusing on the world of news and current affairs. Something the show's predecessor skimmed over but never tore into as deliciously as this. First aired in March this year on BBC Four, it's a fresh new programme that has been pleasantly received. Its six episodes have reached five so far (at the time of the original review), each one as superb as the last. It's main aim is to expose, satirise and emphasise the impact that rolling news channels have on our lives. From the obvious role of informing us of major news stories, to the apparent recruiting megalomaniacs that flounder on American news networks. Episode one took the ongoing saga that is the global...

carl.mcqueen 22.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Newswipe with Charlie Brooker

Charlie's Angels

Advantages: Great movie
Disadvantages: none

...The scenario doesn't change much compared to the original series, not only that but, thanks to the apport of Hollywood stars like Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore, Bill Murray and John Forsythe (as Charlie), the movie has become one of the best action movies made in 2000. Three women detectives, chosen for their looks, characters, toughness, are members of one of the best detective agencies, known as "Charlie's Angels". They solve the toughest cases, using all their talents and capacities to help their clients. Charlie's private investigation company is contacted by Eric Knox, a programmer, owner of Knox Technologies. He has created a unique and revolutionary voice-recognition software. Unfortunately the program is stolen and the Angels are sent to place a bug in the system of bitter rival Roger Corwin, who is under strong...

davidabraham 06.11.2008 · Read review
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Review of Charlie's Angels (DVD)

Getting passionate with Charlie!

Advantages: smells lovely, cheap
Disadvantages: no protection against sweating

...Although I often tend to carry body spray around with me, I mainly use just deodorant and perfume. After a particularly energetic game of volleyball, I used all my body spray up, so headed to Boots to replace it. Charlie is one of those brands that I used to use as a teenager, in fact, I think most girls will have had a bottle of Charlie perfume at some point, and apart from Impulse and Boots own brand, it was the only thing really on offer. Charlie Passion stood out to me straight away, as the vibrant gold and orange can wasn't a Charlie scent that I recognised. I sprayed the tester and instantly liked the fragrance - it's very fruity and sweet, and reminded me of summer. The bottle describes it as an exotic blend of Grapefruit, Papaya and (rather surprisingly, I thought) Rose. It may seem a strange combination when you see...

pink_champagne 17.07.2006 · Read review
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Review of Charlie Passion Body Spray

I love a nice bit of Charlie.

Advantages: Charlie Parker of course.
Disadvantages: None.

...Crazeology - Charlie Parker Jazz time again folks, well bebop to be precise (mostly). I make no secret of being a huge Charlie Parker fan. Not just because he was arguably the greatest alto saxophone player ever, but because he was a pioneer. At a time when black music was seen as something that was somehow less accomplished, and the musicians somewhat less worthy than their white counterparts (in fact it was thought that hardly any black musicians could read music, a common myth), Parker broke the mould. He wrote, he practically invented a new genre (be bop), well maybe I exaggerate, he was certainly one of the leading lights. He also played with chord structure and melodies and harmonies, tearing up the rule book and inventing his own style. His sound is incredibly distinctive, despite the fact that he played...

paulhanton 15.07.2008 · Read review
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Review of Crazeology - Charlie Parker

A Very Nice Set Of Charlie's

Advantages: Superb, brain-in-netral campy fun with non-stop flashy action sequences
Disadvantages: Very 'music video' in style, Tom Green sucks, not for the curmudgeonly...and don't expect to expand your mind here!

...Sometimes you see a movie released and form a negative impression of it based upon the performance of its peers rather than upon any real evidence about the movie itself to support your distrust. Despite getting some rather decent reviews at the time, Charlie's Angels was a movie I personally had vowed to avoid as being just another lame Hollywood attempt to cash in on the successes of retro TV shows. Having already suffered the atrocious mess they made of The Avengers that year as well as having sat through the likes of The Partridge Family, The Beverly Hillbillies, Mission Impossible, Wild, Wild West(yes, that was based on a 60s TV show no one remembers) and countless other dire pieces of TV tie-in tripe I wasn't about to even consider shelling out for more of the same! I'm pleased to say I was wrong though because this is one...

wampyrii 14.12.2002 (16.12.2002) · Read review
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Review of Charlie's Angels (DVD)

Charlie Wilson's Fight for Afghanistan

Advantages: Great Acting, excellent story
Disadvantages: Some sad scenes of the Afghan suffering

...Charlie Wilson's War is a film which I had been undecided about for a few weeks so I finally took the plunge and bought it. I think the deciding factor was that it stared Tom Hanks and Julie Roberts, both of which I like. The film features Charlie Wilson, played by Tom Hanks who is a party loving Congress man. He is good friends with Joanne who is a rich Socialite, played by Julia Roberts. Joanne manages to talk Charlie into looking at the troubles in Afghanistan where they are being invaded by the Russians. Charlie goes and sees the troubles first hand and is shocked at what he finds. He does agree to help Joanne by getting the weapons and ammunition which they need to defend their country. To do this Charlie is helped by a CIA agent, Gust Avrakotos and soon finds he needs to persuade the Congress to give them large amounts of money...

sewbizzie 02.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of Charlie Wilson's War (DVD)

Charlie Brooker takes a swipe at the news

Advantages: A good summary of the news, very funny and smart
Disadvantages: Not a long enough series!

...Charlie Brooker is a British comedian, columnist and writer known for his, often surreal and rather sweary, satirical take on modern media. Aside from his own programmes such as Screenwipe and his regular contributions to The Guardian, Brooker has also been involved in the writing of some excellent comedy shows such as Nathan Barley, The Eleven O Clock Show and the very controversial Brass Eye Paedophile Special. Newswipe sees Charlie (short for Charlton) turn his sharp wit on the news 'circus'. As a fan of Screenwipe and as someone who is often left feeling confused by TV news broadcasts, I was really looking forward to seeing Brooker's take on it; I was not disappointed. He seems to share my confusion at the myriad tortured metaphors and pointless graphical representations that seem to make up bulletins. His look at the treatment...

jesperado77 30.04.2009 · Read review
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Review of Newswipe with Charlie Brooker