Advantages: Takes regular sized audio cassettes, double-time recording, inexpensive model
Disadvantages: Needs to be used close to sound-source, a bit bulky for some tastes

...I always wanted a dictaphone as a child. Largely, I admit, for slightly dubious reasons (i.e. I wanted to plant it in my big sister's bedroom and find out if she was talking about me.) Many years on, as a student, I finally received one as a birthday gift so that I could record important lectures. This certainly did come in handy during those classes that, however hard I tried to stay alert, had me head down and drooling on the desk within minutes. The Sony TCM-200DV Cassette-Corder (or 'dictaphone' to you and me) is a fairly basic model compared to some products on the market - but it does what it says on the tin and it does it to a perfectly acceptable standard. The machine is silver (with a charcoal grey back panel and battery compartment) and weighs in at 171g - it's roughly the same size as a cassette-playing personal stereo... Read review

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Advantages: Gory, gutsy, nasty film
Disadvantages: Chainsaws are so eighties

...a farmhouse, and try to make contact with the inhabitants to see if they have a telephone. There’s an old adage that says air that smells bad tastes bad - and this place stinks in a way that they could never have imagined in their worst nightmares. Ever get the feeling that somebody is watching you? I liked this movie. I liked this movie a lot. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (hereto known as TCM) heralds a return to old school horror movie making. Let’s be clear about this, TCM is so not a nice film to go and watch. This picture crawls all over your skin. It invades the privacy of your eardrums and it fills every pore with dirty, sweaty dread. TCM 2003 takes the premise of the original movie and that mixes it up big time. There are as many similarities as there are differences, but the most important thing is that it feels like a whole... Read review

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Advantages: Improved acting (slightly), realistic-looking gore
Disadvantages: There is nothing related to the original cannibal "family"

...This is my review of the 3rd installment in the ever increasing Texas Chainsaw Massacre saga: 'Leatherface'. If you've read my reviews on the previous TCM movies, then you'll understand my position on these sequels... they aren't ANYTHING like the original. As with TCM 2, the original actor of Leatherface (the chainsaw weilding man who carves people up for dinner) who was in the first film, isn't in this one. 'Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III' begins with the now common voice-over introduction. From this we learn of how only one of the murderous "family" lived to stand trial (dying in 1981) and that authorities concluded that the so-called Leatherface person was just a multiple personality of the dead family member, springing to life when he dawned the mask. So, I guess it's now safe to travel into Texas again? No chance... Read review

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Advantages: R. Lee Ermey, very watchable
Disadvantages: Pretty much everything else!

...How do remake a film that has possibly the biggest cult following of any horror film? How do you make a film that can beat, or even live up to, the realism, the darkness, the down and dirt style of the original? I'm not a great horror film fan, I find most of them just ply the same old plot structure and just don't even bother to try and do anything original. They invariably end up falling flat on their face most of the time, trying too hard to scare by shocking you, which can work with a good story behind it, but is generally nowhere near as good as a film that tries to scare the viewer by building tension and shocking you with surprise rather than just gore and blood. TCM is pretty much everything I dislike in a horror film, nothing more than hack and slash and teenagers in trouble getting hunted down by a maniac. So while I... Read review

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Advantages: Classic, influential, unbearably scary
Disadvantages: Not exactly for people who get too scared

.... Eventually, the US loosened up and showed it on Television in 1999, which was the same year where the UK took the film of its “banned” list. The film was banned not once, but three times by the British film sensors, in 1975, 1977, and 1983, the latter of which was the heyday of the aptly named “Video Nasties.” Hey, TCM may be unpleasant though it isn’t nasty, lol!!! This goes back to what I was saying earlier that this film has been harshly lambasted. I feel even more strongly to I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, a 1978 film about a brutal rape of a girl and the revenge she takes on her attackers. Ironically, GRAVE suffered the same fate as TCM in the UK, being released as a “Video Nasty,” and was even attempted to be banned by the US, though the film’s supporters waived that. Still, where the British Film Censors got the idea that TCM should... Read review

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Advantages: see text
Disadvantages: see text

...... Read review

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