Advantages: HISTORY
Disadvantages: Are there any ?

...***INTRO*** The story of the final Emperor of China from a biography by Aisin - Giori. My DVD came free with the Times, I watched before doing a little research and was later surprised at the significance of its content. Filming on location in China, Bertolucci and producer Jeremy Thomas were the first western film - makers to be allowed access to hitherto forbidden locations. The cast includes Peter O'Toole (Reginald Johnston) amongst others (see below).The film is deemed suitable for persons of 15 years or over by the censors, although in other countries this maybe lower. Genre : biography/drama/history. ***THE STORY*** He was the Lord of Ten Thousand Years, the absolute monarch of China. He was born to rule a world of ancient tradition. Nothing prepared him for our world of change. A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Fabulous characters and soundtrack
Disadvantages: A fairly weak storyline by Disney standards

...I went to see 'The Emperor's New Groove,' at the cinema when it first came out. Although I was not blown away in the same way I was with 'The Lion King,' or 'Lilo and Stitch,' I did leave the cinema feeling as though I had enjoyed myself. Not enough, however, to purchase the original DVD release. When the collector's edition came how, though, I just had to have it. As I die-hard Disney fanatic I would have been a cardinal sin not to. I purchased my copy for £17.99 from Music Zone, which was the cheapest I could find it around. It did go right up to £23.99. As is has been a while since its release, you can get it much cheaper now. The story itself was not excellent, but the characters were fabulous. Disney never fail to deliver in this aspect of their animated film production. Emperor Kuzco, voiced by David Spades is a spoilt... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: An amazing opportunity to view artefacts from the tomb of China's First Emperor.
Disadvantages: Limited amount of artefacts. The crowds!!!!

...The arrival of a small delegetion from the First Chinese Emperor's terracotta army to the British Museum in London generated great interest. Over the past six months, thousands of tourists have invaded the samll space of the museum's reading room to get a glimpse of elaborate warriors standing on guard. The exhibition, simply entitled The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army, has been in London since 13th September 2007 and runs until 6th April 2008. Over 100,000 pre-booked date / time tickets have already been sold for the exhibition and approximately 1,000 bought each day at the door. Most if not all of the visitors to the exhibition have heard of and are eager to see something of the vast and magnificent terracotta army. Most though (including myself) were not fully aware of their history or that of the First Emperor, Qin... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Close-up view of a few of the figures
Disadvantages: Missing the 'wow'

...The eponymous 'first emperor' is Ying Zheng, - first in the sense that he was the first to unify the vast area that came to form the basis of modern China (whose very name derives from his original kingdom at the centre of it Qin - pronounced 'chin') - first also in the sense of foremost, first and uppermost, which was how he saw himself: as illustrated in his adoption of the religious title Qin Shighuangdi (First August Thearch of Qin) - to be echoed perhaps unwittingly a thousand or so years later in the title of the Holy Roman Emperor one wonders? Ask anyone at random on the street about Ying Zheng or Qin Shighuangdi and as amusing as the responses are likely to be, you will almost certainly not get a very high hit rate in terms of accuracy (unless of course you are in Great Russell Street in London, home of the British Museum... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Superb sense of history, close up view
Disadvantages: crowds

...) are available on the day from the Museum. At the time we went there were few people in the queue for on the day tickets so try and get there as early as possible. ***History*** The First Emperor, Ying Zheng, was born 259 BC and was one of the world's great rulers. At the age of 13 he became King of Qin (pronounced Chin) one of seven states at war with each other and competing for power. He conquered the other states using highly developed weapons technology and military strategy and upon completion of his campaign declared himself Qin Shihuangdi: First August Divine Emperor of the Qin. He introduced strict laws and reforms bringing in a common language, standard weights & measures, a single currency and built 270 palaces in his capital city Xianyang, as a display of power and to house the rulers of the states he had conquered. A truly... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: it's Walt Disney
Disadvantages: not funny enough, poor script, no cute characters

...Well, if this is the 'Emperors New Groove', then he is most definitely 'off the rails'. This movie is just plain awful. I can't believe that Disney can have even considered it for general release. There is little other than a basic storyline to speak and what there is pretty boringly predictable. The movie opens with an overlong song (sung by Tom Jones, at that!) which drags on and on interminably - about how great the Emperor is and how everything is about him. QUESTION - Where oh where are all those cute essentially Disney characters we all love so much ? Not a one to be found. What we do get is a character -Emperor Kuzco -that is essentially a vehicle for comedian David Spade's jokes. Unfortunately and as much as he is good in Just Shoot Me and Saturday Night Live, Spade has no one to bounce the jokes off. They continually... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Experimental, groundbreaking, indie-orchestral fusion
Disadvantages: Very unusual.

...Godspeed You Black Emperor are a musical ensemble/group from Canada, and as Radarmaker writes in a previous opinion, they have unusual social habits and a preference for communication by email. This two track EP is a real gem, developing their groundbreaking use of traditional orchestral instruments and some of the more emotive themes in recent indie music. I can think of no real comparison for this band. Perhaps if you were to take the darkness and emotion of some of the more way out Radiohead tracks, or maybe a band like Sigur Ros, you may be a little way to a comparison. Maybe depressed indie trip-hop would be a better description. Yet their experimental use of instruments smacks of the innovation of Hendix and co, or even a more tuneful version of Provokiev's unique 'Symphony for the victims of Hiroshima'. Both tracks start... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Comprehensive and thought-provoking
Disadvantages: Sometimes a bit dull.

...Hadrian can be said to have been one of the greatest Emperors Rome ever had - a lover of art and Greek culture, an architect, and a well travelled man who enjoyed speaking to even the lowliest of his citizens. This book explores his life, from birth until death. What it reveals is a man that is cultured, intelligent, fair and kind, but also a man that is capable of great harshness and cruelty. Little is known of Hadrian's early years, and so understandably that part of the book is rather short. However, much is brought out through a fascinating use of archaeology - some of it fairly obscure, which helps us to shed light on Hadrian's life. The author makes frequent use of speculation when it comes to precice dates and places, but never uses his speculation as solid fact. However, his educated guesses are precicely that - educated... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: supremely, majestic, bewildered/chaotic, absolute band-highlight
Disadvantages: Not everybody's cup of tea...

...Emperor exist since 1989, at the very beginning the 17 years old guys played “True Norwegian Black Metal” at truest character, body-painted themselves with white theatre make-up enough to colour the whole Oslo downtown like cute houses in Crete... How lovely... But to keep an unfriendly image they used to – like all unfriendly black metallers do – stop looking grimly only at nights, ‘cause mama says that a face would look this way forever if you do that stuff everytime. That’s a good reason for Ihsahn, Samoth and Mortiis to transform their frustration into music, due to the fact that they don’t want their black-white panda faces to look that way forever. So they could go on eating raw meat as they did before *burp* That’s enough for now concerning a true Black Metal Norwegian. The result can be astonished in form of the first releases... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Good family fun
Disadvantages: Not as good as "Tarzan"

...First things first – what about that title? Isn’t it awful? It conjures up images of the classic story of the Emperor’s New Clothes but the film bears no relation in terms of story or even theme. Presumably, the Mighty Mouse’s marketing machine thought it was “funky” and chose it as being representative of the style of the film. Originally, it appears, this was supposed to be more of a traditional film complete with songs by Sting, but the final version has dispensed with all these, barring the opening and closing credits. This has resulted in a very fast paced movie that gets from beginning to end with a minimum of fuss. It doesn’t give you much of a chance to get fidgety, which is certainly a good thing. I certainly didn’t miss the songs, which I usually find the most tedious part... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful