Your Fortune As Told By The Stars - Echo Heights (The)

As told by Charles Dickens/The Great Gonzo!

Advantages: Funny and sweet
Disadvantages: Michael Caine's singing!

-tell a sacred (to me) story by serious author Charles Dickens just seemed rather sacrilegious. Yet somehow, it works, and becomes a rather sweet, gently entertaining version of a much-loved classic, and one that can be enjoyed on many levels by both children and adults. The star of the show has to be Michael Caine as Scrooge - although Kermit the frog and Miss Piggy as Mr and Mrs Cratchit come a close second. Caine is everything that he needs to be to portray Scrooge - miserly, snappish and stubborn. Michael Caine, the actor, does come through every now and again - I have yet to see him in a performance where it doesn't - but because the show is so light-hearted, it really doesn't matter. Unfortunately, he does have to break into song every now and again. Singing most definitely isn't his strongpoint - he tends to talk through the words rather ...

sunmeilan 21.11.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of The Muppet Christmas Carol (DVD)

As time goes by...

Advantages: See text.
Disadvantages: See text.

I would just like to write a review of As Time Goes By, a comedy series shown originally on the BBC but in more recent times shown on G.O.L.D. The series starts when Lionel (Geoffrey Palmer) is looking for a secretary to help him with his book, on life In Kenya when he was based there during the war. He comes across a temping agency run by Jean (Judi Dench), but unbeknown to both of them they both knew each other before the war and before Lionel goes off to war. He ends up marrying (or so we are lead to believe although it is not actually too clear as to what happened to his wife), and Jean is a widower with a grown up daughter (who also works for her mum in the family business). Their friendship starts to blossom again, to the point where they decide to 'make a go' of things again - to the delight of Jean's daughter, who never ...

dynamicnurse 19.05.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of BBC1 - As Time Goes By

Echo Burning by Lee Child

Advantages: Fast paced ending.
Disadvantages: Undeveloped characters and slow start.

he is a hard character to like or empathise with so for me this gave little motivation to pick it up and read as I didn't care what happened to him. You also don't get to know Carmen that well and none of the story is told from her perspective you just hear what she tells Reacher and after she is arrested she isn't in the book at all. All that kept me reading was that I wanted to find out what happened and the plot was faster in the second half. I wonder if maybe I had started with the first book in the series I might know a bit more about Jack Reacher and it may have been more enjoyable and I might get the first one out of the library one day to give it a go but I won't be rushing out to buy any of the rest of the series. If you enjoy to really get to know the characters in your books then I don't think this is one for you but if ...

starjen 21.03.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Echo Burning - Lee Child