Reviews

I have only just heard of this series, recently its been offered free by a UK newspaper. It consists of 6 DVD's with 2 (or 3) episodes on each disk. I have only watched a couple of episodes but I enjoyed them immensely. I would say it is very much like the US production 'Victory at Sea' and in fact they compliment each other both in style and feel. 'Victory at Sea' was for sale in the UK for around a £1 for each DVD a few years ago! So, one series for free and the other for a £1 a DVD! You can certainly build up a large library with out going crazy! Back to 'War in the Air'. It been the early days of television, its in black and white (monotone), has loud music and the commentary is still like the newsreels from the war years. Its not all aeroplanes, there's some good footage of warships and tanks and in the episodes I watched some rare footage of German V-2 rockets I have never seen. I am mainly interested in spaceflight and rocketry and found 'Facing New Weapons' on disk 4 fascinating. On disk 6 'The Past and Future' there's some footage of a unmanned B-17 been destroyed by a early surface-to-air missile. It was filmed by Clyde Tombough discoverer of the planet Pluto, he used a telescope and camera of his own design and filmed the interception some 20 miles away! Yes, well worth watching and adding to any film library.

Am not a gardener but this series is mesmerising. I won't give to much away but it charts the restoration of a large garden by a gentlemen who served his apprenticeship when young. I too served an apprenticeship and wish such a programme had been created for my old company. The parallels between this trade and mine are many although different disciplines (I was a Lens and Prism Maker) I guess a lot of trades have vanished. The narrator is a lecturer in horticulture and explains the use of old tools and equipment as well as the lay out of the garden while the gardener puts in to practise the actual skills. The two disk DVD explains more. I like the way they explain and build glass cloches and restore the green houses but wait till you see the buzy bees and there new home! Its priceless!! Well worth a look for both the expert gardener and complete ignoramus like me!

I guess I may be speaking for a lot of people, but I never heard of 'Operation Good Guys', I only heard of it in the summer of 2008! One of the lads at work brought the DVD set in and each tea break and dinner time see's us watching a episode. We just howl and hoot! It is the funniest thing I have seen in ages. The only thing I don't like is the canned laughter, it may be a cue for American's to laugh but not on something like this. Personally any so called comedy programmes that needs CL is a big turn off, did not MASH get ruined with it? I also miss Boo-Boo in the second series but hey I'll get over it... I like the idea of having a famous person/actor in each episode. Up to now we are half way through the second series and each day brings another couple of episodes and shrieks and gales of laughter coming from our tea room. There's not much swearing, some sexual references, just good funny and hilarious events. And I was amazed how it pre-dated my other favorite, 'The Office' just where has OGG been??? Guess what I want for Christmas...

I had never heard of these two until one day while having a stroll and a look through some 'everything-must-go/cheapo-shops'. There's a particular favourite shop of mine in Scarborough, (Yorkshire, England not Canada...) that sells DVD's for... ...wait for it... ...a pound! Yes one UK pound!!! (How these companies that produce this stuff make a profit I don't know!) Any way, that evening I put 'Wayne and Shuster present An Affectionate Look At The Monsters' on. I love all that black and white 1930's stuff with Bela, Boris and Lon and having got those on DVD's this DVD compliments them perfectly. I am surprised the W&S programme has not been added as an extra to an original film DVD, but perhaps it has? It has clips from all the big films 'Dracula', 'The Wolfman', 'Frankenstein' and 'Bride of...' the bit where Colin Clive's Dr Frankenstein declares that he now feels how it is 'to be god' has be masked out! But we do get close to it... Also included are the Munsters (Sorry, never liked them, I think the canned laughter put me off) and Abbot and Costello (Have never seen but heard good reports of). It lasts some 54 minutes and W&S come over as likable chaps, I can see where other double acts got there ideas from. I would like to see there other work now, especially after reading other peoples comments on this site. As another commentator said perhaps the comedy channel could run there work? So, look out for 'Wayne and Shuster present An Affectionate Look At The Monsters' its on AG Plate DVD no. EL6084 and well worth adding to any collection of monster video's!!!

I loved this film as a sprog and still do. Forget the bad acting, the bad directing and the docu-drama approach. Look for the footage of the aeroplanes, ships, rockets and cars

The beginning has a lovely shot of a Republic F-84C Thunderjet, but we soon see that 'Project Skyhook' is a plan to launch 12 mini-satellites. Skyhook was a real secret project, a US Navy program of the late 1940s to develop giant balloons for carrying out photo-reconnaissance over the Soviet Union. Launched partially inflated, Skyhooks expanded as they rose until they reached their maximum size of up to 600 ft. tall and 100 ft. in diameter at an altitude of 60,000 ft. Almost certainly, they were behind many UFO sightings in post-War years. (www.daviddarling.info)

The battle-ship that exploded was the SMS Blücher. On 24 January 1915 Blücher was part of the German squadron commanded by Vice Admiral Franz Hipper that was surprised by a superior British force of five battlecruisers, under Vice Admiral David Beatty on HMS Lion, at the Battle of Dogger Bank. Due to a misunderstanding of Beatty's orders, the British ships concentrated their fire on Blücher, the slowest and rearmost ship of the retreating German line of battle. At 11:30 a.m. Blücher suffered a major hit which caused her speed to drop to 17 knots. To save the rest of his squadron in the face of superior force, Hipper had no choice but to abandon Blücher. She was bombarded by heavy fire from four of the five battlecruisers and finally sunk at 13:13 p.m. by torpedoes. 792 of her crew went down with her. 260 were rescued by Beatty's ships. (www.answers.com - SMS Blücher)

The big steam engine is either a Challenger Class 4-6-6-4 of the Northern Pacfic Railroad of 1936 or a Big Boy 4-8-8-4 of the Union Pacific Railroad of 1941. What ever, impressive nonetheless

There's some nice shots of Nike-Ajax, Talos(?) and Aerobee-Hi rockets launching.

Look out for the Austin-Healy sports car in the car park (parking lot)

Then there's the lovely American 1950's cars and lorries...

Look, I could go on, so just watch the film and look for all that classic metal!!

Spoiler alert, spoiler alert, spoiler alert

This must have been the worst sci-fi film of all time, no wonder NASA was not mentioned in it, I bet they refused to have there meatball or even the correct markings on the shuttle... Suggestion, Don't, just don't bother with it.... I have followed the US (and Soviet) space programmes for years, collected books, memorabilia and watched the events on television since around 1966, this film is awful, I know, in fact I KNOW it would not happen like this, come on film producers at least make the comms realistic (like 'Apollo 13') and get the science right. I guess Canada and the banks lost some money (read the credits at the end). Some one wants shooting for this rubbish...

This film is brilliant!!! Our Lass and I have just watched it on Turner Classic Movies, we discovered it by accident and what a film, all I can say is watch it.... Look out for the old boy 'I like trains, can I climb on?' he's the real hero!!! Would like to have seen the rugby tackle, I guess they knocked each other out!!! The locomotive is 48600, a Stanier 2-8-0 of the Midland Region of British Railways, its an ex-LMS locomotive, only three were preserved and this one was not.... although some 150 odd survived to the end of steam on BR in 1968 also look for the beautiful MG sports car, yummy.... To sum up, a fantastic period piece from the early 1950's.

Come on you lot, lighten up, its not that bad, reminds me of lots of old British Science Fiction, 'Dr. Who', 'Blakes Seven', 'UFO', etc... May be it should have had Jean Claude Van Damme as the hero? Perhaps 'Clarance Starling' or 'what's her face' from 'Mouldy and Scullery' should have been in it, I was disappointed when the 'baldy baddie' did not fall in to a 'vat of bubbling goo' (he reminded me of a football referee from the World Cup a few years ago...) May be that Hollywood star 'Bert Douglas' from 'Hero's of Telemark' should have been in it... But you have an obligatory abandoned factory/oil refinery making an appearance... Tell you what, look at this film in 20-30 years time and look at the cars and vans and come back here and tell me what you think, I like watch old 'Tee-Vee' programs (and programmes) and old films for the old motors... Go on watch it and enjoy it, Martin PS perhaps Gen. Hammond form 'Stargate' should have popped up....