Charlie Chaplin: How an autobiography SHOULD be done!

Advantages: Brilliantly written, overflowing with information and anecdotes, moving and funny
Disadvantages: Some anecdotes fall a bit flat, lots of friends and movie stars to keep up with

...What a fantastic book! All you 20-something wannabes (Kerry, Chantelle, I mean you) take note ? this is how an autobiography SHOULD be written: at the end of a long, fulfilling and fascinating life, not after a normal childhood and ten minutes on a reality TV show. This is a sweeping and beautifully written story covering the entire span of Chaplin?s life at the time of writing, from his poverty-stricken London childhood and his early theatrical career, through the evolution of Hollywood and the development of his most famous and well-loved character, the ?Little Tramp?, to his dazzling rise to fame and fortune, his brushes with the harsh face of American politics, and his final escape to Switzerland with his wife Oona and their large family, where he remained until his death in 1977. Not only is this a wonderful journey through...

elliepotten 27.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of My Autobiography - Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin Volume 1 DVD

Advantages: Great Chaplin films
Disadvantages: Could have used more extras

...My interest in vintage films started when I was a young child in the 1960s. There was a programme on every Sunday afternoon (if my memory serves me well) it was hosted by the late Bob Monkhouse and featured old vintage films that were form his own, personal collection. Charli Chaplin Volume 1 is a two CD collection released through the wonderful British Film Institute. It features a number of films fromm the very early days of Charlie Chaplin's Hollywood film career. From the days of Essanay Films and beyond. The first film is His New Job. His character (down on his luck, though not, exactly, a tramp) is trying his luck with open auditions at Lodestone Studios. There's a little bit of business in the waiting room when he shamelessly makes up to a pretty and simpering girl also waiting for an audition. He enrages the manager...

Martinscholes 06.11.2005 · Read review
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Review of Charlie Chaplin - Vol. 1 (DVD)

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)

The Gold Rush, Chaplins 1925 classic

Advantages: Great special effects, hilarious
Disadvantages: Nothing that comes to mind.

...Director: Charles Chaplin Cast: Charles Chaplin, Mack Swain, Georgina Hale, Henry Bergman, Tom Murrary The Tramp goes of in search of gold and fortune and finds it and a lot of mishaps along the way. This great value dvd features, the original 1925 classic, and a 1942 remake with spoken dialogue and a new score. The story starts with the Lone Prospector (Chaplin), Who is travelling to Alaska, a snow storm eventually drives him in to the cabin of Black Lawson (Murray), a fellow prospector " Big Jim Mackay" is also forced into the cabin, after momentary scuffles, Black Lawson eventually has to accept that the two men are going nowhere, Black Lawson goes of in search of food, and has a run in with cops on the way, This sets in motion one of the films famous scenes where Jim Mackay, delerious from starvation imagines Charlie is...

paulb22 26.02.2006 · Read review
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Review of Charlie Chaplin - Gold Rush (DVD)

Heil Hynkel !

Advantages: a masterpiece
Disadvantages: none

...Everybody knows Charlie Chaplin, his Tramp with the oversized trousers, the tight jacket, black bowler hat and bamboo walking cane is one of the icons of the cinema of the 20th century, but how many people, especially the young ones, have actually seen one of his films? Chaplin?s filmography lists 80 films, The Great Dictator (1940) was his first all-talking, all-sound film, his most highly praised and commercially his most successful. Here Chaplin plays a double role, an unnamed Jewish barber and Adenoid Hynkel, the fascist dictator of Tomania, who are the spitting images of each other; because of misunderstandings they are taken for each other and the Jewish barber has to deliver a political speech in Hynkel?s place. This is the plot in a nutshell but what do we understand from these few lines? Nothing, I?m afraid. The film...

MALU 26.07.2007 · Read review
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Review of Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator (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

FREE DVDs

Advantages: Free trial, large choice, post included,new realeases
Disadvantages: see review

...I like movies and I like freebies, so when you get offered both in one swoop you?re bound to accept! I used my two week free trial with this company and remained with them for a couple of monthsbefore moving on to try many other companies free trials (and winning a new DVD player on Tesco DVD rental site on their free trial offer). I then had an email from DVDs 365 asking me to go back, and offering me a free DVD if I did so. I had just left Tesco (with my new DVD player) so I chose to go back with them. ∆◊◊ THE SERVICE THEY OFFER ∆◊◊ Basically it?s like going to a video shop and hiring films on DVD, except you don?t pay for each film you chose ? rather a monthly fee for which you can watch as many movies as you can fit in, for us this is usually around 8 a month (2 a week usually weekends...

dabmim 15.11.2004 · Read review
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Review of dvds365.com

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)

Surprising Picture Quality - Panasonic DVD-S54

Advantages: Incredible picture quality when compared to my old non-upscaling player with a scart lead
Disadvantages: Sometimes disc drive can be really noisy when DVD's initially load.

...At first I wasn't convinced by up-scaling DVD player technology but was persuaded after reading an article in "What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision" magazine. Unable to afford a Blu-Ray player my sister and I bought the Panasonic DVD-S54 to match our parents brand new Panasonic TX-32LZD80 LCD television as their Christmas 2008 present. Admittedly it was a slightly selfish purchase as we both live at home and wanted to watch DVDs on the big new TV ourselves! We bought the player from the electrical retailer Comet for about £100 just before Christmas so there were no discounts applied. On Christmas day when opened we found a relatively small box tightly packed with the player in polystyrene packaging. All the components such as cables, remote and manuals were well presented in their own protective plastic bags, to keep them protected. The player...

bobbacon985 12.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of Panasonic DVD-S54

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