Reviews

HBO and BBC's co produced Rome is an outstanding series. As an Ancient History graduate one would expect me to nitpick and well take it all way too seriously but thats simply not the case! As I have studies I really appreciate it more and love the way a favourite subject of mine has been brought to the screen.

Rome captures the essence of Rome so well, the colour, the smells (ok we can't smell it but you get the impression) and infuses famous Roman people like Caesar, Brutus, Marc-Anthony and Octavian with life, makes them flesh and blood. They look sweaty, they are not this pure white classical image most people have of Roman history, they loved colour, the more stronger colour a Roman house had, signified how wealthy they were.

I love in the series also how within Roman society there was another one of women, who could be just as ruthless as their male counterparts like Atia (Polly Walker), who is an equal to Livia from I, Claudius, she at first appears as a selfish pushy aristocrat but as you go through the series we see she only wants best for her children and she will kill to make it so.

James Purefoy should get a Emmy or something for his amazing portrayal of Marc-Anthony, its such a hypnotizing performance and he is incredibly sexy in the role.

All in all a beautifully made and powerful series about a world which is as foreign to us as ours would be to them. Their's was a world of no Judeao-Christian morality which has infused our own culture. They did not feel shame about their bodies and lived very much in the public eye and because of this they make perfect materials for films, plays, TV series because they do all these things modern society would find shocking, we can be appalled and equally seduced.

Oh I almost forgot, wonderful performance from Ray Stevenson's as Pullo and Kevin McKidd as Vorenus, who are not only ciphers for the major historical events of the dying days of the Republic, but are well rounded characters of their own. Vorenus starts off as a Catoinian, a staunch believer in Republican values and basically a hard man but as the series progresses he becomes corrupted, being drawn into Caesar's rise to power and being one of his to a better word lackeys, who then descends into a hellish underworld as a mob boss and eventually becoming Marc-Anthony'r right hand man. while Pullo who appears gruff is actually more honest, who lives for the moment, he doesn't hide what he is therefore much happuer. The interplay is just fantastic between the two.

I love the show so much, that I cannot sing its praise enough, watch it and become enraptured by the sheer brilliance.

I am a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan and I love its spin off just as much. It was such a inventive show with brilliant characters who actually developed as the seasons went by two examples are, Wesley who went from being a comedy persona to a dark tortured character (along the way taking over Angel Investigations, Kidnapping Angel's child and having a torrid affair with Lilah) and Cordelia who went from a actress wannabe who was only concerned about money to having depths (I did not like the way her character was mutilated in season 4 however). With his own show Angel the character was given room to develop and more of his back-story sketched out. My favourite seasons are Season 1 and Season 4, i liked S2,3 and 5 but not as much as 1 and 4 (season 4 was cool because they brought Angelus back, who despite being like totally evil is very sexy!). My room was a virtually a shrine to both shows, I had a huge poster of Angel on my wall and god knows I spent my pocket money on the Angel novels, yep thats me an Buffy and Angel geek. If you want to watch something different, if you want to enjoy great lines and characters you care about watch this show, you won't be disappointed.

I really enjoyed this movie and was surprised it got slated by the critics, perhaps they did not like the message or seeing Saladin being merciful, who knows. It had excellent action sequences and the photography was amazing, loved the costumes and scenery as well. I mean there was a Battle of Hattin (1187) where Saladin captured the cream of European nobility which included King Guy of Jerusalem, as well as the True Cross, after the Bishop of Acre was killed in the fighting. Prisoners included Guy, his brother Amalric II, Raynald, William V of Montferrat, Gerard de Ridefort, Humphrey IV of Toron, Hugh of Jabala, Plivain of Botron, Hugh of Gibelet, and many others, this was a major setback for the Crusader movement and of course following that was the Siege of Jerusalem (1187) which saw the near total collapse of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, and was the catalyst for the Third Crusade. So it was almost historically accurate (perhaps another reason the critics got all huffy). It was a great historical epic and I thought Orlando Bloom was not too bad as the leading character and Liam Neeson was very good despite his short time on the screen. So watch this movie, it will get you thinking of the past and the present and perhaps you will be more the wiser for it. Ridely Scott is in a different league to the directors of Alexander and Troy, which were both trying to be Gladiator but failed miserably. This film captures the essence of Gladiator.