Saturday, April 30, 2011

News: South Park season 15 has started!


First episode of South Park season 15 has aired this week, and the last 13 episodes that will ever be aired of South Park will come the following weeks. This is TV-history. Stay tuned for more.

Review: National Geographic: The Ghost Ship

This documentary is about a group of scientist from Sweden that searched for wrecks of airplanes from world war 2. On one of their journeys, when they searched for a spyplane wreck, they discovered something weird on their radar; a ship.

It turns out its an very old sailship, loaded with goods and an story, forgotten by time, gets put together by the investigation team. Piece by piece – like a puzzle, they learn more and more about the ships whereabouts.

I thought the documentary was bit boring. I have no interest in the subject what so ever, and think they could have speeded up the story a little bit, because it was a little interesting to hear about the ship. It was only the procesess it took them to get the information that bored me.

Score: 3/6

Friday, April 29, 2011

Review: King James Bible: The Book that Changed the World


This is a review of the BBC produced documentary "King James Bible: The Book that Changed the World".

King James Bible is one of the most well-known bible editions in the world, and has in its 400 years of existence, spread to every corner of the earth. This documentary is the story about how it came to life. The story starts with a young king, king James of Scottland – and later; king James of England. The young king is teached by one of the most prominent scholars at the time, and learn his appreciation for language and litterature – and religion. When he later becomes king of England, and by that head of the Church of England, he gets good use of his expertise when the bishops and the external scholars is trying to persuade him to do as they want.

When king James takes over, he takes over a church that is falling apart. The people is tired of the greedy, and awfully rich and powerfull bishops mindcontroll. They are tired of unfaithfullness and double-standards. King James a long way agree with the people in that the bible edition they use, actually; the only edition that is allowed to be used, is a bad translation and not up to date. Therefore – in a compromise between the bishops and the representatives of the people – king James establishes a comittee that is going to write a new edition of the bible; more accuracy and as close up to the original text as possible.

Today, King James Bible, is the only legacy after king James that is still in use. Its a monument over a God-loving king. A true christian.

This is one of the best, if not the best historical documentary I've ever watched. It was detailed, and very accurate, and uses just the right amount of dramatisations and special effects to make the story come to life, but at the same time keeping the respect and dignity the story deserves.

I would recommend this movie to anyone – even if you're not familliar with the christian faith or english history at all! This a great documentary to see, if you want to learn more about both subjects. Therefore, I give it the highest score for the first time on this blog; 6 out of 6.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Review: History Channel: Weird Warfare


I have just finished seeing History Channels "Weird Warfare", which documents the weirdest inventions that is made with intention in using it for warfare. It is over one and a half hour long - a little too long, if you ask me, and I got bored after about 40 mintes, which in my opinion is ideal length for these documetaries.

That said, I laughed a lot. A great deal of the weapons can be classified as "animal cruelty", but they don't show clips with animals suffering. Most of these incidents are also ridicilouse and extremly funny. For instance special trained russian dogs, intended for running under german tanks during world war 2 with bombs. The problem was that the dogs was only trained to run under, and run back. So they did that. With the bombs - back to the trainer! Haha. Funny!

Because of the length, it became pretty boring, but the beging was really entertaining, so I will give this a 3 out of 6. See the begining, and turn it off. It is definetly worth it.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Review: Kidnap and Ransom


Yesterday I saw all three episodes of the TV-show "Kidnap and Ransom". It's a british crime serie, centered around a hostage negotiator named Dominic King, who is played by Trevor Eve. The plot takes Dominic to South-Africa to negotiate with two kidnappers who have kidnapped an english buisness woman. Everything does not go as planned though, and the release gets very messy. With the fresh memory of his last client getting killed, is Dominic very focused on getting the woman home safe - and alive.

The series is cut up in three episodes, but I will recommend to sit down and see all three in one session. The history is a little complicated, and it's a few internal logical flaws that can make it hard to understand if you're not giving it your full attention.

I will give this TV-series a 3 out of 6. It was slightly entertaining, but I would rather recommend seeing a few episodes of CSI rather than spending your time on this.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Review: William and Catherine: A Modern Fairytale

I mentioned in a previouse post that I wanted to see more about the upcomming wedding between prince William and Kate Middelton, and thats exactly what I did! Today I saw a second documentary about the couple. This time, it was ABC's «William and Catherine: A Modern Fairytale».

So was it boring to see another documentary about the same subject? No! Not at all! While the other documentary talked more about how they met, and pointed out some possible problems, this one focused more on tradtions and put the wedding into a historical perspective. I thought it was very interesting, especially since I already had seen one about how they met and everything.

On the negative side, I would like to mention that I did not like how they talked about Kate in this documentary. She was to some extent portrayed as a «gold digger», and thats not the impression I have gotten from other news soruces, and it hit me as completley unjustified!

In spite of this; if you're only going to see one of these documentaries; «Kate and William: A Modern Romance» or «William and Catherine: A Modern Fairytale» - I think I would have to recommend this one. The only reason is that I like royal british history, and this had a great portion of it.

The documentary qualifies for a 5 out of 6 – just as the previouse, and for the same reasons; well made, and interesting – just a different angel and perspective wich was quite refreshing.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Review: Kate and William: A Modern Romance


It's been made several of documentaries about Kate Middelton and prince William of Wales since the news about their engament was made public last year - and hopefully it's more to be made, because this documentary gave me the lust for more about these two!

The documentary tells the beautiful story of how they met at the university and started dating, ending up with how Kate Middelton grew into the position she has now - the future queen of the United Kingdom, before in it's final part talks about the life after marriage. It interviews a lot of different people that has different views and perspectives on the upcomming marriage, making it interesting and informative. Of course, as always, a great deal of the interview objects is from the tabloid media, but in this setting - it did not feel wrong. All of them was respectfull, and seemed to be happy for the upcomming marriage.

So is this documentary another propaganda movie, looking out to earn som easy bucks on the hordes of fans? No, not at all. It was actually quite the opposite. I was actually very puzzled by how honest it was and how risky this marriage may seem, and the many challenges the couple will meet. For instance; they are going to live up in nowhere in Wales where Kate will be homestaying - is Kate ready to say good bye to her life? Is her love for William strong enough to keep up with such a resposibility? And do prince William really love her? Lets hope the answere on these questions is yes. If not, we may have a Diania 2.0.

I will rate this documentary to a 5 out of 6. Not because it was mindblowing, but because it was entertaining, but at the same time informative - and very well made. I was not bored a single second.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Review: National Geographics Inside the Muslim Brotherhood



I recently watched National Geographics documentary "Inside the Muslim Brotherhood". Was a little tired at the moment, so to be honest, I didnt give it my fully attention. This is also partly caused by previouse experience with National Geographics documentaries; they tend to repeat stuff a few times. A little boring when its a subject you are very interested in, and feel a hunger for the most information about the subject as possible to deliever in a 50 minutes documentary, but practical when youre tired and just want some easy, but educational, entertaiment.

Over all, the documentary was as always with National Geographic, well made. The production and their interviews is always top tier. But as always, you can question their interview objects. I am not going to do that now, but Im sure if I did some close research on them, I would find that several of them has what you would call "colored opinons" and possibly motives for taking a stand in either direction. I got early a feeling that National Geograpic had a hidden agenda with this documentary regarding bashing islam. But after thinking about it a little bit, I think its rather caused by commercial interests. The anti-islam movement is like a wave over Europe these days, so why not making some money on it?

Anyways, the "Muslim brotherhood" is not something to joke around with, but I dont think they are as big of a threat as they would like to be, and National Geographic is portraying them as, but its a subject I dont now much about, and will investigate further on my own. As an introduction, I thought this documentary was a great start, and I will therefor rate it as a good 4 of 6.