Written by Levte Lyton
Published on 23 Feb 2010
Diarmaid MacCulloch’s series on “how a small Jewish sect became a global religion” is the BBC at its best.
It takes a brave man to condense 2000 years of history into six hour-long programmes, but Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch somehow manages it.
Each episode tackles a different section of Christian history, and varies from American evangelism to Russian orthodoxy, but regardless of which aspect he focuses on, each is as interesting as the last.
The Professor of the History of the Church at St Cross College, Oxford, MacCulloch comes from a clergy family and his deep, personal love of his specialist subject is tangible throughout. In places, his enthusiasm helps bring to life some of the drier details he has to touch upon by necessity.
Continue reading “DVD: A History of Christianity” »
Written by Mark Cappuccio
Published on 21 Feb 2010
Pixar have managed to corner the market in astounding computer-generated family entertainment with their varied output under the Disney banner.
So, it was only a matter of time until head honcho John Lasseter, who has taken over as head of Disney’s animation department, wanted a return to the traditional cell animation that made Disney’s name.
Continue reading “CINEMA: The Princess and The Frog” »
Written by Mike Shaw
Published on 21 Feb 2010
Hands down, this is the best WWE DVD release of the last year.
The basis of this set is a brand new documentary about the Extreme Enigma, with never-before-seen contributions from Hardy himself.
Rather than a straight narrative, the doc begins its story during preparations for Jeff’s last match, and then bounces back and forth between that match and interviews, clips and reactions from Jeff on certain moments in his career.
Unlike other WWE releases, My Life, My Rules doesn’t shy away from the meatier elements of its star’s life, so tackles head-on his drug suspensions, house fire and the death of his dog. Refreshingly, some of Jeff’s comments almost seem like they came from a shoot interview. Indeed, it’s surprising that Vince McMahon has allowed him to talk about the WWE wellness policy and how he disagrees with elements of it.
Continue reading “WWE: Jeff Hardy – My Life, My Rules” »
Written by Mike Shaw
Published on 21 Feb 2010
Like him or not, there’s no denying Hulk Hogan changed the landscape of professional wrestling forever.
Although he hasn’t appeared in the WWE for some time, his name still sells product, and so with this release we have another example of WWE milking the now fully-grown Hulkamaniacs for all their worth.
That’s not to say that this is a bad release. What it suffers from though is a huge variation in quality. As interesting as it is to see Hulk in the early days when he was an arrogant heel, sitting through a slooooow match against Harry Valdez simply doesn’t push the right buttons. Nor does throwaway rubbish like Hogan’s workmanlike performances against the likes of Kamala. If these matches have remained unreleased for this long, there’s probably a good reason for it.
Continue reading “WWE: Hulk Hogan’s Unreleased Collector’s Series” »
Written by Mark Cappuccio
Published on 21 Feb 2010
Hollywood is not well known for original ideas and has never been nervous about stealing them or regurgitating old ones.
Here they have taken a classic British BBC mini-series from the 1980s that was a dark, political and thoroughly scary piece of historic television and turned it into a non-scary modern action thriller that is not bad but not great.
Continue reading “CINEMA: Edge of Darkness, part 2” »
It takes a brave man to condense 2000 years of history into six hour-long programmes, but Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch somehow manages it.
Loading ...