Bad News From The Desert [Digipak] - Norwegian Army Band

Advantages: better than his second book
Disadvantages: could be confusing

...After being thoroughly unimpressed by David Wolstencrofts second novel I had no intentions of looking for this one but when I spotted it lurking on pile at a recent carboot sale for mere pennies (and I had just found a fiver in the ashtray of my car) I decided to give it a try. Wolstencroft was one of the team behind the tv show Spooks so it will be no surprise to learn that his books follow the other people in the same line of work. Good News Bad News, opens with two men tossing a coin to make a phone call, as one of the men goes to the phonebox to make the call a motorcycle appears on the street and blows the whole thing up. From this point we are taken back two days to find out exactly why these two men are tossing coins before making calls and why it is that someone wants to kill them. Charlie and George are forced to... Read review

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Advantages: A good performance from Billy Bob Thornton
Disadvantages: Wooden child performances, lack if depth and a misjudged script

...and plot devices as a result. Overall it's an uneven film that relies heavily on Thornton's performance, leaving it feeling like a star vehicle instead of a real attempt at movie-making. Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's retooling of Bill Lancaster's original screenplay brings it up to date while retaining the anti-competitive message of the original. It's a lot closer to the knuckle than the first outing for the bears, with a 'shit' count that must go into the hundreds. It keeps the band of misfit underdogs from the original and in the spirit of the post-gross-out film industry adds some seriously politically incorrect aspects to the film. So there's a paraplegic team member, who is mocked but never babied and the coach that sleeps with one of the kids' mothers. The film trades on the age-old desire to overcome motif, but is surprisingly... Read review

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Advantages: Comis Strip Presents, Comedy, Music, Value
Disadvantages: Heavy Metal, Explicit Language, Dated

...there legs for an appearance on Top of the Pops (and if that doesn't conjure up some scary images, then the booklet cover spells it out for you). I found Bad News funnier than Spinal Tap, but again I think it comes down to personal preference. Is there anything extra to be had from buying CD, if you already own previous albums? Well, no. If you've followed the band, from the eighties, then you'll no doubt have everything already. The album is effectively a re-release of Bad News' Bootleg album with some B-sides from the singles thrown in. Around the mid nineties, two compilation CDs were released and one even featured the same cover artwork as this album (albeit being rotated through 90 degrees). This release adds several more tracks to that album. As for value, that really depends on how much you pay. I spotted it on sale in HMV for £5... Read review

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