Hal Play The Hits!

Advantages: Great songs, some of the best you will have heard in a long time.
Disadvantages: Could be a little bit too different and too soft for some people.

...Hal released this debut album in Spring 2005, rather quietly, there was none of the major promotion of other rock/pop bands out at the moment. But the critics loved it and now are proclaiming it to be one of the best albums of 2005.... Hal started off when Dave Allen and Stephen O'Brien both from Dublin met through a friend. Both had been bands since they were teenagers but those bands were going no where. So they decided to start writing songs together, so for the next two years they worked constantly compiling a stack of songs. All the work was done at night with both having to hold down their day jobs. David's younger brother Paul would hang about during these song writing sessions offering his input and so it was a natural progression for him to join the band. They settled on the name Hal because of their admiration of Hal David...

x_helix_x 03.06.2005 · Read review
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Review of HAL - HAL

Hal of a Laugh

Advantages: some laughs
Disadvantages: lots

...I heard on the TV that Shallow Hal was being denoted as an insult against fat people! Apparently a lot of people (fat and otherwise) in the USA had claimed it was insulting! Having an extra stone or two myself, I felt the need to investigate (ok-so I wanted to watch the film too). Gweneth Paltrow plays the leading lady 'Rosemary'. Rosemary’s father (Joe Viterilli) is the owner of a big co-operation in the USA and is Irish. Rosemary’s mother (Jill Fitzgerald) is a typical American mum – albeit an overweight one. Hal the lead character (Jack Black) has the perfect woman in his mind, and will settle for nothing less. But far from being an oil painting himself, he’s dream woman is something of exactly that – a dream! A chance meeting with a man in a lift (Anthony Robbins playing himself) changes Hal...

dabmim 04.02.2002 · Read review
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Review of Shallow Hal (DVD)

Shallow Hal - surprisingly deep

Advantages: Nice film, not too demanding, seeing Gwynnie in a fat suit ;o)
Disadvantages: Slightly too long, unmemorable soundtrack

...I watched this rom-com film recently on Channel 4, having seen it once before too. While watching it for the second time it struck me how, well, NICE the whole thing is. And funny - the tag lines of "The Biggest Love Story Ever Told" and "True Love Is Worth The Weight" might make you smirk, but the film will make you smile with a fuzzy warm glow. Almost as much as the thought of seeing Gwyneth Paltrow in a fat suit will ;o) ~~~ Plot ~~~ Hal basically only dates beautiful women, he's very shallow (as you might expect from the film's title), and judges entirely by appearances. But, in a slight twist, this is entirely because he is following his dying father's last wish, that he should only date beautiful women. I'm not sure what the knowledge of this twist is meant to bring to the film, unless it's to raise the question in...

xalala 11.02.2005 (22.03.2005) · Read review
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Review of Shallow Hal (DVD)

Shallow, Thy Name is Hal

Advantages: funny, good idea for a story
Disadvantages: at times slightly offensive

...I'm sure most people have seen this film by now, as it has been out for quite a while. But I thought I would review it anyway! Shallow Hall is a Farrelly Brothers film. For Farrelly Brothers, you tend to read "Comedy in a Gross or Politically Incorrect Sort of Way". This film is no exception as it makes fun of fat people. But it also makes fun of the superficiality of the world, so its not all incorrect. Hal (Jack Black) was only a kid when his dad died, but the last thing his father said to him was that he had to set his standards high when it comes to woman and look for someone beautiful. As a result, the Hal of the present has unrealistic expectations of what his future woman will look like. It's obvious it is going to be fairly hard for him to ensnare one of his dream women because HE is not the cutest of blokes himself. Also...

Pmshack99 06.01.2005 · Read review
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Review of Shallow Hal (DVD)

Shallow Hal

Advantages: light entertainment
Disadvantages: nothing too substantial

...When we first sat down for the evening to watch a film, we chose something fairly serious. Then after about twenty minutes, decided to watch something a bit light. Shallow Hal is what we chose. Shallow Hal is the tale of a man who, as a boy, was told by his morphine-delirious father to never settle for average-looking women. He forgot most things about his father due to trauma, but this advice was forever engraved about his subconscious. This means for his whole life, he has been judging women solely on their appearance, never seeing beyond it. However, one day he gets trapped in a lift with a life trainer, who teaches him to see the beauty inside people. For cinematic effect, this means that all the beautiful actresses are meant to be ugly characters with beautiful minds. Hal falls in love with one such girl, seen through his...

Pyrokeet 21.01.2006 · Read review
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Review of Shallow Hal (DVD)

Shallow Hal - The Movie

Advantages: Really Funny romantic comedy
Disadvantages: Bit long

...What the film is about? The film is about a man who pursues young ladies of physical perfection - any girls he goes after must have stunning looks and fit bodies - he is taking his fathers advice. His father told him on this deathbed, when he was only a child and since then Hal has been like this. However one day Hal meets a hypnotist who hypnotizes him to make him see the inner beauty of women. And from then on - his luck with the ladies change dramatically - beautiful women surround him, and then he meets a woman (Rosemary) in a department store and falls for her there and then!! He believes she is the most beautiful woman he ever met - he has met his dream girl - Or Has he???? His friends think he is mad, as the women he is with are far from beautiful but cant really say to him, as it would hurt his feelings. But his...

lesleyanne18 26.02.2006 · Read review
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Review of Shallow Hal (DVD)

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

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

Not Quite As Shallow As It May First Appear!

Advantages: Funny
Disadvantages: Slightly Politically Incorrect

...Shallow Hal is a Farrelly Brothers Film that was first released back in 2001. Farrelly Bothers are synonymous with making Comedy Films that are shall we say, slightly Politically incorrect. This Film is no exception since the majority of its laughs seem to come from making fun of people that are overweight. However if you analyse this Film more closely you actually realise that it is also poking fun at people that are shallow enough to judge a person simply by the size of them. Hal Larsen is just about the most shallow person that you are ever likely to meet. He is only attracted to slim, beautiful looking women and every woman that he takes a fancy too he tries to chat up in a rather gross, vulgar kind of way. In his defence this is not entirely Hal's fault as he is simply carrying out his Father's last wishes, who told him when he...

micksheff 18.02.2007 (21.02.2007) · Read review
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Review of Shallow Hal (DVD)

Shallow Indeed

Advantages: good performances, occasionally funny
Disadvantages: mixed messages

...Hal (Jack Black) likes good looking girls. Very good looking girls. Nothing less will do, despite the fact that he's no oil painting himself. He regularly takes himself and his not inconsiderable girth down to the local club where he tries - sometimes successfully, often in vain - to get into the pants of every supermodel type on the dancefloor. His best mate, Mauricio, short on stature and shorter on hair, is equally shallow, even being put of one absolute stunner because she has one toe longer than the others. The pair are as shallow as shallow can be. One day Hal gets trapped in a lift with a famous psycho-guru who hypnotises him into seeing people not as they physically are, but as a physical representation of their inner beauty. Thus pretty girls with horrible personalities become physically ugly in Hal's eyes, and vice...

sandrabarber 02.12.2002 · Read review
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Review of Shallow Hal (DVD)