Average Rating:

.

The Wire : Complete HBO Season 1

starring: Dominic West, Sonja Sohn

April 18, 2005
The Wire, simply, is about Baltimore's drug trade told from the the point of view of the police, the dealers, the bosses and the users. It's a complicated issue with heros and villains on each side with those divisions sometimes blurring.

This is all told in an uncompromising way - with slang laden dialogue, violence and moral turpitude. The viewer in firstly considered to be smart and full of attention because things happen so fast that you sometimes miss things. The characters are complex and develop over SEASONS rather than episodes and one finds oneself warming to not just the police but the protagonists.

I think that this is one of the best series that I have seen - it's up there with The West Wing, 24, Six Feet ... Read More:

Average Rating:

.

The Wire: Complete HBO Season 5

starring: Dominic West

September 22, 2008
A magnificent and very appropriate finale to what has been the best TV series I have ever watched. The best by a very, very long way.

Beautifully concluded, without ever trying to have all the answers, the final scenes in particular are deeply affecting.

For some favourite characters, the end is inevitable, and it is an incredibly poignant, human drama, in spite of the makers' ongoing insistence that the story is plot driven.

As in real life though, throughout the gloom, there are a few chinks of light, and even the darkest moments are under-scored by very dark humour.

As a story of real people and the work they do (whether legal or not), it's been an unmatchable portrayal. As a critique of the ... Read More:

Average Rating:

.

The Wire: Complete HBO Season 2

starring: Dominic West, Wendell Pierce, Lance Reddick, Idris Elba, Amy Ryder

October 10, 2005
Having been unimpressed with first series of The Wire, I only started watching this, the second series, due to the endless critical praise that I kept seeing every time I picked up a newspaper. And I'm glad I did. The second series of The Wire is a huge improvement on the first. The story is deliberately slow to get into its stride but nevertheless is compelling from the opening credits to the final fade. This is a high quality Police drama which shows the good and the bad in everyone; the criminals, the stevedores and the Police all have very human qualities, both strengths and weaknesses, and the divide between crime and order is a realistically hazy one. A highly realistic drama showing the pitfalls of Police investigative techniques, the hard graft ... Read More:

Average Rating:

.

The Wire: Complete HBO Season 3

starring: Dominic West, Idris Elba, Michael K. Williams, Sonja Sohn

February 05, 2007
Take a close look at the cover of the season three dvd and you will notice something: Avon and Stringer, together in the same car, but looking in different directions. That tells you all you need to know about these two 'brothers' in season three of The Wire. Whilst Stringer is greasing palms to make the most of the properties they control Avon is glad to be back in the game, keeping control of the corners, and regaining his place on the street. Season three brings us back to the problem of drugs in Baltimore and one man's plan to combat the problem. Major Colvin jokes at one stage that to meet the crime reduction targets he has been set he is going to legalise drugs. But his throwaway comment isn't too far from the truth. By creating zones where a blind ... Read More:

Average Rating:

.

The Wire: Complete HBO Season 4

starring: Dominic West, Michael K. Williams, Sonja Sohn

March 10, 2008
I never thought a series about drug dealers could have me hooked, but laced with politics, the police system and characters like Freeman, Bunk, Marlo, damn every character is addictive. I sat in a cinema watching Batman but longed to get home to watch The Wire. In fact, The Wire is the only filmatic experience worthy of a new six-star rating. I won't spoil it for others but there are characters I came to love in series 1-3, but the beauty of The Wire is that any character can take the limelight. Having invested over 40 hours to the series, the in jokes were appreciated, every Omar scene is a classic and there is one involving a satin dressing gown which was a satifying fix. But the four young actors who are introduced in series four were strong, sensitive, and ... Read More:

Average Rating:

.

300 [2007]

starring: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West, David Wenham, Vincent Regan
directed by: Zack Snyder

November 26, 2007
Forget history, forget politics, forget morality - just take this film for what it is - a cracking bit of fun!

Average Rating:

.

William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream [1999]

starring: Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Stanley Tucci, Rupert Everett, Calista Flockhart
directed by: Michael Hoffman

September 09, 2002
How can I communicate the aberration that this represents?
I hope that a number of you will be repelled simply to hear that the roles of Hermia and Helena are taken (and then forgotten about) by those mascots of "Pretty but Pointless", Calista Flockhart and Anna Friel. Calista Flockhart rides a Penny Farthing bicycle and blows the tumbling tendrils of hair off her forehead regularly - but it gets worse, even when the talent gets more accomplished.
Stanley Tucci would get laughed off a senior school stage for the way that he tries to invest Puck with thoughtfulness and fun: Jimmie Krankee would have done a better job. Rupert Everett's Oberon is reminescent of a Studio 54 Go-Go dancer murmuring something he has a distant memory of, and Kevin Kline's gurning Bottom made me feel ... Read More:

Average Rating:

.

The Wire: Complete HBO Season 1-5

starring: Dominic West

December 08, 2008
Don't even think about it - find the best deal and buy all 5 series. Then sit and savour each one. And then watch again - and again.

I promise you, this is the highest quality visual drama you will ever see - it's so good it deserves to be a genre in it's own right.

True, geniune stories, excellent writing, perfect casting, acting of the very highest order - and with so much integrity that you will have to learn the Baltimore dialect to understand many of the characters - and a once great city in support.

I genuinely envy anyone who has not yet watch this.

True that.

Average Rating:

.

Chicago [2002]

starring: Catherine Zeta Jones, Dominic West, Chita Rivera, Renee Zellweger, Richard Gere
directed by: Rob Marshall

March 03, 2008
Don't even think about it - find the best deal and buy all 5 series. Then sit and savour each one. And then watch again - and again.

I promise you, this is the highest quality visual drama you will ever see - it's so good it deserves to be a genre in it's own right.

True, geniune stories, excellent writing, perfect casting, acting of the very highest order - and with so much integrity that you will have to learn the Baltimore dialect to understand many of the characters - and a once great city in support.

I genuinely envy anyone who has not yet watch this.

True that.

Average Rating:

.

Chicago [2003]

starring: Taye Diggs, Cliff Saunders (II), Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renée Zellweger, Dominic West
directed by: Rob Marshall

August 04, 2003
Renee Zellweger (Cold Mountain) stars as Roxie Hart, a woman who has always dreamed of being in the spotlight and when she murders a man; she is sent to Death Row and seeks the help of lawyer Billy Flynn to get her out of trouble and into the spotlight.

Winner of 6 Oscars including Best Picture, Chicago is one of the noughties most recognized musicals, filled with plenty of entertainment, catchy songs and strong performances, if not the best written plot.

Zellweger gives a good performance as attention seeking Hart, filled with exquisite dancing and acting. Her character is exceptionally annoying all the way through, so unbelievably stubborn and self-centred, and can be frustrating to watch.

It is the support cast who the plaudits most go to. Zeta Jones (The Mask ... Read More: