Murphy's War against a disappointing film

Advantages: Stunning visuals
Disadvantages: Lacklustre throughout

...Filmed in and around the stunning setting of the Orinoco River in Venezuela, Murphy's War is a 1971 film starring Peter O'Toole as Irishman Murphy, the only survivor of a German U-Boat attack on a merchant ship. It is set towards the end of World War 2. Murphy is rescued by Louis Brezon (Philippe Noiret) and attended to by the lovely Dr Hayden (Sian Phillips), a Quaker who opposes the war and is working in a mission. Revenge is on Murphy's mind, and when he discovers an old abandoned seaplane, he sets about finding the whereabouts of the nearby U-Boat, and plans ways to destroy it, revenging the rest of his crew. I find that war films either hit or miss, and it generally depends on the plot and how it is attacked. A good war film will have a lot of tension, I find, and this film, for me, was too much like going through the motions...

pmcds 16.07.2009 · Read review
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Review of Murphy's War (DVD)

Peace at Last by Jill Murphy

Advantages: Superb story for children, Beautiful illustrations, great bedtime story
Disadvantages: None

...=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Peace at Last by Jill Murphy =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Peace at Last is a children's fiction book about a family of three bears, Mr Bear, Mrs Bear and Baby Bear. One evening they are all tired and so off they go to bed. Mrs Bear falls asleep quickly but Mr Bear cannot get to sleep, and just as Mr Bear is trying to sleep??.SNORE, said Mrs Bear, SNORE, SNORE, SNORE?..Oh no said Mr Bear I can't stand THIS, so he got up and went into Baby Bear's bed. But Baby Bear is not asleep either?.he is lying in bed pretending to be an aeroplane??NYAAOW!!! Went Baby Bear, NYAAOW, NYAAOW, NYAAOW?.Oh no said Mr Bear I can't stand THIS, so he got up and went to sleep in the living room. ??.TICK-TOCK went the living room clock, TICK-TOCK, TICK-TOCK, TICK-TOCK! And so the story goes until at last Mr Bear finally gets...

missy0303 04.02.2006 · Read review
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Review of Peace at Last - Jill Murphy

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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Dervla Murphy- what a lady!

Advantages: Interesting
Disadvantages: none

...Dervla Murphy grew up in Lismore, County Waterford which was in Ireland. Her parents who's to call her "Dublin bourgeoise. Dervlas's father was a librarian in the library near by and her mother suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and she had a passion of wanting to travel from an early age. On her tenth birthday she was given an atlas which she claims gave her the bug to travel. Also she was given a bicycle and so she travelled to different countries by bike when she was old enough. She began with shorter trips to Europe visiting France, Spain and Germany on month long trips by bike as she could not be away for longer as she had to look after her invalid mother. In 1962 when her mother died she then was able to embark on much longer trips abroad. So in 1963 Dervla Murphy set off on her first major trip by bike from Ireland to India...

ruth1957 17.09.2008 · Read review
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Review of Dervla Murphy

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

Jill Murphy , Come on Down ! (Updated).

Advantages: Short ,entertaining ,lovely pictures!
Disadvantages: None .

...What's this then? Could it be true? Surely not? Have we a moonlighter in our midst? The one and only "Jill Murphy "of Ciao fame writing childrens books? No, probably not, unless you want to come on down and claim your brilliance further! Jill Murphy has indeed, written many titles including The Last Noo Noo The Worst Witch Five Minutes Peace Whatever Next A Quiet Night In All in One Piece On the Way Home Peace At last. So here is a bit about Peace at Last. **************************************************** One day I was wandering around a boot sale, just a little while back looking for books for my new offspring " Jensen". When I stumbled upon this lovely gem. Peace At Last! By Jill Murphy. ******************************** At first glance, it has a chocolate brown border with a gorgeous illustration of two...

Harryslarry 26.10.2003 (19.01.2004) · Read review
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Review of Peace at Last - Jill Murphy

Michael Jackson is Invincible

Advantages: The King,, Slash, Great album
Disadvantages: None

...**Introduction** Michael Jackson has become a lot like Marmite with many people around the world over the last few years. Some either Hate him or Like me Love him. (Or rather his Musical legacy). With all the bad press I thought we should focus on something positive and With his huge upcoming stand at London's 02 Arena coming up I thought it was time to review the album that is freshest in the memory of Michael Jackson fans and that album is of course his 2001 album Invincible. **Invincible** It's been eight years since Michael Jackson released this album and that makes his previous gaps between albums seem like an artist who releases an album every year or year and a half where it has always been around four years apart from 1997's Blood on The Dancefloor after 1995's History. Invincible was released by Epic Records and features...

jcneil 21.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Invincible - Michael Jackson

Monty Python's Life of Michael

Advantages: Candid, revealing insight into the reality of 'the nice one'
Disadvantages: Sometimes hard to keep track of who's who; strangely short on humour

...And now for something completely different?Never meet your heroes,? goes the old adage. ?Never read their diaries? might be equally sage advice. That?s probably why I didn?t tackle Michael Palin?s collected daily journals until now. Along with the rest of the Monty Python team, he was without doubt a hero of my teenage years. Today, when so much television is disposable pap, such admissions stretch credulity. But I derived more enjoyment, education and social acceptance from Monty Python?s Flying Circus than any other influence on my nerdish adolescent self. Even now, 30 or more years later, I was wary of anything which might demolish the façade of those shows, which could reveal that my telly gods had feet of clay. So I opened this hefty, 600-page distillation of the Python years (1969-1979) with trepidation. I came here...

Silverback 21.11.2009 (25.11.2009) · Read review
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Review of Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years - Michael Palin

Michael Jackson's Thriller

Advantages: Great songs, talent, highly skilled voice, excellent sound quality
Disadvantages: You might not like Michael Jackson

...There is no other album like Michael Jackson's Thriller even after 25 years it still remains a class above the rest in my opinion. Michael Jackson's Thriller sold in excess of 27 million copies in the USA and Michael Jackson received a ground breaking eight Grammys and 12 nominations in 1984. The album is highly polished and has an excellent sound quality. The album produces a style that is unique to Michael Jackson which has a great dance atmosphere and has a good blend of percussion and keyboards. Tracks like "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" are part of this influential album. I love the way Michael Jackson's Thriller captures you into a world of make believe as the music slows down and picks up throughout the album. No two songs are the same. The beat in each song is fantastic giving a good blend of variation throughout the album...

Mickie26 29.07.2008 · Read review
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Review of Thriller - Michael Jackson

Prey by Michael Crichton

Advantages: Interesting and well written book
Disadvantages: Technically occasionally over my head!

...Background: Another book recommended to me, this time by my Dentist. He raves about this author and as I'm due for a check up next week I thought I better give it a go. About the author: Michael Crichton was born in Chicago in USA on 23rd October 1942. He was probably best known as the author of 'Jurassic Park' and the creator of 'ER'. His first best seller 'The Andromeda Strain' was published while he was still a Medical Student. He has written 20 Novels, two screenplays and has sold over 150 million books worldwide. About the book: Jack Forman is an out of work scientist; he looks after his three children while his wife Julia works. She by contrast has a very successful and high powered job, while Jack struggles to even get interview in Silicon Valley. Meanwhile in the Nevada Desert, the experiment his wife is in...

CPTDANIELS 17.02.2008 · Read review
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Review of Prey - Michael Crichton