Advantages: Interesting, engaging, generally good analysis
Disadvantages: A little more detail in some places would be welcome

...---------------------------------------------------------------- In the course of the twentieth century, no war looms as profoundly transformative or as destructive as World War II. Its global scope and human toll reveal the true face of modern, industrialized warfare. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Thus begins the volume 'A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War' by Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett. Murray, a fellow at the Institute for Defense Analysis, and Millett, professor of Military History at Ohio State University, has collaborated to produce a volume that looks at the World War II in almost exclusively military terms, with detailed (if not always precisely accurate) analysis of battlefield plans and progresses, logistical situations and problems, and (to a lesser extent... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Genuine footage
Disadvantages: How the Amercians won the war

...Of all the branches of the armed services of probably pretty much any country the air force is probably seen as one of the most glamorous, or perhaps even the most glamorous. World War 2 In Colour, Air War, tells the true story (shown with actual live colour footage, filmed by combat cameramen) of the real story of the fighting aircraft of World War 2 and of their brave and dedicated aircrew and equally brave and dedicated ground support staff who, at great risk to themselves, kept the aircraft serviceable and fighting against the enemy Axis forces. The image of the airman, smartly dressed in his flying suit, and flying free above the earth was only a small part of it. A very small part of it. For being an air combatant during World War 2 was often not much fun. The programme shows how dangerous and how short the life of an air... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: John Williams' score, great performance by the LSO
Disadvantages: Tracks don't follow the film's action

...Over the past 28 years, composer/conductor John Williams has collaborated with Star Wars' creator, writer/director/executive producer George Lucas, providing the six Episode saga about the Skywalker family and its pivotal role in the history of "a galaxy far, far away" with a symphonic score that not only provides the films' characters, settings and situations with much needed emotional depth and weight, but also stands alone as beautiful orchestral music. Starting with the phenomenal best-selling two-record album of music from 1977's Star Wars (a.k.a. Episode IV: A New Hope), Williams' then-daring use of 19th Century Romantic era symphonic styles not only introduced a generation to instrumental music that wasn't rock or disco, but also reinvigorated the moribund art of film scoring and inspired many new composers -- Michael Kamen, Joel... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Great character design. Interesting Stories
Disadvantages: A bit short.

...This is the first series of the Clone Wars cartoon series which fills in some of the gap between the second and thirds episodes of the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. There is a lot to enjoy here. I love the animation style used here which is very stylised and full of energy. The series is produced by Genndy Tartakovsky, the creator of Samurai Jack, and the look and design of Clone Wars owes a lot to that series. All the main characters from the Prequels return in animated form along with a few new characters such as the evil Sith Apprentice Asij Vantress. With the exception of C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) the voices are done by a cast of experienced voice actors and they do a great job, although there is noticably little dialogue in this first series. The series itself was originally broadcast... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Excellent for War Fans!
Disadvantages: None

...Over six hours of movie and movie features! Tom Berenger, William Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, Kevin Dillon, Johnny Depp, Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, Nicholas Cage and Christian Slater! Vietnam, POW's camps and Codeworkers! That is who and what you'll be watching if you purchase Metro Goldwyn Mayers Triple DVD Essential War Collection! What's more if you are as fortunate as I was you'll pick it up for the low price of £12.99 [Blockbuster]! The collection contains three war films, Platoon, Hart's War and Windtalkers. It comes neatly packaged in it's own cover box with the discs protected inside in a flip case that is easily removed out of the side of the box. As you can see from the product picture the front cover is visually appealing, giving the names of the movies and, alongside, three picture scenes of main characters... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: All three Special Edition films are here, nice sound, crisp picture
Disadvantages: None

...At last! Where have you been?-- C-3PO to R2-D2, A New Hope Part One: A Fan's Dream Comes True at Last. On Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2004, Lucasfilm Ltd. and 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment released -- some might say unleashed -- the DVD edition of one of the most anticipated movie collections since the invention of this increasingly popular format: The Star Wars Trilogy And despite some opposition from fans who (a) wanted the DVD set to include both the 1977-83 versions and the 1997 Special Editions and (b) are unhappy with further alterations made to the "Classic" trilogy especially for the 2004 DVD editions, The Star Wars Trilogy four-disc set has been selling briskly. (It's No. 1 in DVD sales at Amazon.com.) I've been a Star Wars fan since 1977, so not only have I seen the existing five Episodes of George Lucas' space fantasy... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Good animation and action sequences, terrific music
Disadvantages: So-so extras, lack of plot coherency

...Star Wars: Clone Wars is an animated feature designed to bridge the gap between the films Episode II (Attack of the Clones) and Episode III (Revenge of the Sith). It comes in 2 volumes, this obviously being the first. The first volume was originally designed to be a series of 3 minute commercials but ended up being combined to an approximately 1 hour long feature. The animation style is something approaching anime (I know nothing about anime but the director says in one the "Making Of" featurette that they aimed for a similar but not identical style.) Traditional 2D animation is used except for the ships themselves, which are computer animated. The action comes in thick and fast, with the eye candy factor quite dazzling at times. This doesn't make up entirely for a lack of coherent plot, though this is not the developers fault... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: A very important programme
Disadvantages: None

...The Price of War is part of the World War II in colour programme series from the History Channel. The front cover of the DVD has what I presume, or rather what I HOPE, is an unfortunate a totally accidental juxtaposition of images and words. There is a picture of a typically sad War Cemetery, with row upon row of simple white stone headstones, vanishing into the distance. Beneath these grave stones we find written: "A grave testimony to the bravery of the soldiers and medics who fought against death." I mean… doesn't anyone at the History Channel undertake even the most rudimentary proofreading? I mean, come on, guys. It only takes a couple of minutes to spot an embarrassing blunder like that! The fact that the programme refers to the images as being in "color" (sic) does, of course, mean that there is a preponderance of American... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Everything that was good about Volume_1 + more coherent storyline, more humour, and better extras
Disadvantages: Too short at only an hour

...In The Clone Wars Volume 1, we saw the Republic under attack from the Separatist droid army led by General Grievous, with the cloned warriors and Jedi Knights struggling to withstand the onslaught. In Volume 2 we see how the Clone Wars progress to the point of the story blending in with the beginning of Revenge of the Sith. The anime-influenced animation continues to impress visually, and the "Connecting the Dots" featurette reveals how unashamedly nerdy some of the animators working on the project are. Among several amusing moments in the interviews with Director Genndy Tartakovsky and his team is the excitement caused by them being allowed to include Wookies in the story - it was a dream come true for some of them! The featurette also explains how, following the success of volume 1, they were given more leeway with the storyline... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Countless hours of variable online gameplay - Can't get board
Disadvantages: Too many people who quit online!!!

...This is in my opinion, along with many others, the best game in the Xbox 360. It's........... Gears of War Background of Gears of War If anyone here is a gamer then you have probably heard of Gears of War, if you haven't then I hope you enjoy what I'm going to say. Gears of War was released on the 17th of November 2006 in the UK but as usual it was released 10 days earlier in the US, typical. Prior to its release it was the most hotly anticipated game on the Xbox 360 as most of the other games before it hadn't really succeeded. It sold over 3 million copies in its first 10 weeks, and that figure as now reached 4.5 million total copies as of January 2008. I was surprised to one day see on Xbox.com that Halo 3 had overtaken Gears of War and has now sold over 8 million copies, this is something I just do not get... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful