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Dexter : Complete Season 1

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > DVD
starring: Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Jennifer Carpenter, Erik King, Lauren Velez

May 19, 2008
Just so you know where I'm coming from, I'm not a TV drama box-set type of person (though Patrick Bateman probably owns quite a few, all of them on Blu Ray, no doubt) but I was given this one as a present - so I trust the reader will view this in context. Also, I very rarely watch broadcast TV so the DVD was my first acquaintance with this programme.

"Dexter" is kind of "American Psycho" (the novel, not the film - which is unspeakably bad) meets "Manhunter" (as in, takes one to know one). The plot is linear and the format is, violence aside, not unlike soap opera (so no need to waste valuable brainpower reading the fan sites speculating on whether it was all a dream/happened after a nuclear war/etc...yawn).

It even ... Read More:

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Heroes - Season 2 - Complete [2007]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > DVD
starring: Hayden Panettiere, Leonard Roberts, Greg Grunberg, Masi Oka, Ali Larter
directed by: Adam Kane, Greg Beeman, Donna Deitch, Allan Arkush

July 28, 2008
I understand that people are annoyed by the Writer's Strike ripping our favourite show from 24 episodes to a mere 11. But what I don't understand is why this series has been slammed by critics.
This series has a DIFFERENT feel to it than the first series - and I think that's good! It's great we can get such a variety through Tim Kring's use of volumes within seasons. All of these critics seem to be frightened of change. And if they are all so annoyed about the shortened series being "rubbish", then maybe they should direct their anger to the real source of this shortened series. The Writer's Strike.
Anyway, I think the volume provides an interesting insight into the last generation of Heroes, the Company and the Shanti virus. ... Read More:

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The Bank Job [2008]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > DVD
starring: Jason Statham, David Suchet, Stephen Campbell Moore, Keeley Hawes, Saffron Burrows
directed by: Roger Donaldson

June 30, 2008
The story has been outlined here several times so I go straight on to my opinion...
I watched this film last night and must say I haven't been that entertained like this in a long time. There are tense moments, it's funny, in one part a little gruesome (whatever your imagination is) and you will not know how it ends until it ends. The actors are great, the dialogue is intelligent and brilliantly British. The film left nothing to wish for - I had sweaty hands.

Definitely 5 stars from me and I just bought the DVD for my picky dad's birthday. I know he'll love it, too.

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Penelope [2007]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > DVD
starring: Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, Catherine O'Hara, Reese Witherspoon, Peter Dinklage
directed by: Mark Palansky

June 23, 2008
what a nice, adorable film, i certainly enjoyed this very much. I thought the cast was great, the story was great and the motto was great!!brill film which can be enjoyed again and again!!

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Davina - The Box Set : The Power Of 3 / My Three 30 Minute Workouts [2005]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > DVD
by: Davina McCall

December 26, 2006
This was my first ever fitness DVD purchase & I'm impressed. The box set is good value as it gives you lots of options.
One dvd is a program that takes an hour, ideal for weekends. The 2nd DVD has 3 different 30 min workouts, ideal for during the week [before work in my case]. I alternate between the 30 min Pump & 30 min Box exercise.
The Core Stability program doesn't do anything for me. Maybe I need to give it another go.
The moves are easy to follow & you really feel that you have had a workout.
Note: You need a mat & free weights to get the best out of the workouts.

I was so impressed that I have since purchased Davina High Energy Five. hopefully it will be just as good.

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Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End [2007]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > DVD
starring: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Chow Yun-Fat, Geoffry Rush
directed by: Gore Verbinski

November 19, 2007
I'm glad that I only wasted 30 minutes of my life on this film.
It made no sense.
I have no idea what was going on.
My wife had no idea what was going on.
She loves the other Pirates movies and asked me to switch this one off. Which we did.
It's hard to believe that someone thought this was good enough to release.
Please don't reward these people by renting or buying this rubbish, it will only encourage them to make more.

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The Wire : Complete HBO Season 1

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > DVD
starring: Dominic West, Sonja Sohn

April 18, 2005
For those wondering if they should start watching the wire and dont want to read the long (but praise worthy) reviews that have been written here, briefly:

Season 1 - 5* very good, great characters, great stories, exciting, funny all those things. It really is fantastic!

Season 2 - 2* I found the story a bit boring, not half as exciting plotwise or character wise as season 1. The strength of the wire is that the characters are so believable you end up loving all of them good or bad. There's little of that in this series

Season 3 - 3* Improvement on Season 2 but again not as entertaining as season 1. The best parts are where the story refers to characters from season 1 which is all too rare in my opinion

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Genesis - When in Rome - Live 2007 (3 DVDs)

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > DVD
by: Genesis

May 26, 2008
Albeit the release was delayed it was well worth the wait.Picture,sound,lighting & the overall show were second to none.These guy's have to go down as one of the best live acts & musicians of all time.As for the idiot who thought this was dull he/she obviously has no appreciation of good music & spectacular shows.I was at the gig in Paris and was gutted I couldn't get to Rome for the last European show but the DVD will certainly do the job.Only downer for me was that Abacab wasn't part of the live set but that aside watching the DVD was like being back in Paris last June again and one of the highlights I'm sure a lot would agree was Chester & Phil on teh stools.The guy's can make music from anything.Long live the men in black!!!!!!!!!!

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Curb Your Enthusiasm: Complete HBO Season 6 [2007]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > DVD
starring: Richard Lewis, Cheryl Hines, Ted Danson, Wanda Sykes, Jeff Garlin

June 09, 2008
LD is my comedy hero but I have to admit although Curb is extremely watchable,I found some of season 6 a bit of a struggle.Sometimes a bit too crude in places for my taste and I almost got to the stage where I began to think that this was a season too far.It does pick up towards the end and I very much enjoyed the series final episode. LD has set some very high standards but this was a bit below par for me.Slightly pricey for such a short season as well.I do hope LD does some more Curb.

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The Lives Of Others [2007]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > DVD
starring: Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur, Hans Bauer, Ulrich Muehe
directed by: Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck

September 17, 2007
This film deals with East Germany big brother state from an emotional and humanity (or lack of it) point of view. The writer carefully exposes human generosity and courage in face of a perverted state police system.

The film is an obvious analogue to 1984 but this is real.

Credit to the Germans: they show us again how honest and self-critical they can be and still manage to produce a breathless work of art.