The All New Book & DVD Review Thread (And Gift Hints)

[Nick]

In the cinema? Did you stretch your legs?

[Miss Demeanour]

The Reader

Watched this last night 

Set in postwar Germany and tells the story of a man whose life has been shaped by an illicit affair when he was 15 !!!!!  -  with a passionate, elusive older woman    . She however turns out to some dark secrets . I won't give too much away.

Lots of nakedness and shagging in first half of film - all essential to the plot of course 

[Barman]

In the cinema? Did you stretch your legs?

Yes... 

[Nick]

That short, eh?

[Barman]

Frost Nixon

Just watched it (on Blu-Ray) in the minima...

Awesome!

If you haven't seen it, buy it or rent it. The best film I have seen in ages...

It’s not always that a stage play translates particularly well to the medium of movies. But for anyone considering such a challenge in the future, Frost/Nixon is surely a fine template to follow. In the capable hands of director Ron Howard, the extraordinary story of how a then-fairly low profile television interviewer managed to bring the disgraced former President of the United States to account is, at best, absolutely riveting.

Much of the reason for this is the two leading performances, which are both absolutely exception. The awards attention for Frost/Nixon has been directed towards Frank Langella, and truly he’s an actor long overdue some recognition. Here, as ex-President Nixon, he’s flat-out brilliant: a complex, intriguing character portrayed with real measure and expertise. It’s unfair, though, that Michael Sheen has been overlooked by some. Fresh from portraying Tony Blair in The Queen, Sheen is once more brilliant here, injecting Frost with an erratic, on-the-edge fallibility that sets up the film’s final act extremely well.

Now you can argue, with some right, that Frost/Nixon flattens out some of the facts to its own liking, and certainly the portrayal of David Frost doesn’t seem to do the man too many favours. But when it gets to the interviews themselves, it’s electric, and proof that you don’t need a bunch of effects and flashy gimmicks to keep you on the edge of your seat. Ron Howard has done this to us before with a true story, in the shape of Apollo 13, and here again, even though we know the ending, the journey there is quite brilliant. You really can make compelling drama with just two people sat in a chair… --Simon Brew

No shagging but still highly recommended!

[Snoopy]

I expect you are too young to remember the original then. 

[Barman]

I expect you are too young to remember the original then. 

Indeed... Well, not too young but I don't remember it at all.... 

I've just ordered it from Amazon tho... 

[Snoopy]

I probably will too, eventually but I have used up my Amazon allowance for the month already. If I am not strict with myself I spend too much there. Perhaps I'll put it on my wish list ~ birthday coming up like 

Meanwhile I do remember sitting through the several programmes that it took to broadcast the interviews and leaping up shouting "Gotcha ya bastard!" when Frost finally got Nixon to admit he was wrong.

I also remember his forensic slicing up on TV of Dr Emil Savundra the motor insurance crook in 1967.

[Barman]

I probably will too, eventually but I have used up my Amazon allowance for the month already. If I am not strict with myself I spend too much there. Perhaps I'll put it on my wish list ~ birthday coming up like 

Meanwhile I do remember sitting through the several programmes that it took to broadcast the interviews and leaping up shouting "Gotcha ya bastard!" when Frost finally got Nixon to admit he was wrong.

I also remember his forensic slicing up on TV of Dr Emil Savundra the motor insurance crook in 1967.

I remember Savundra but I must have seen that later... I was after all just seven... 

[Snoopy]

I probably will too, eventually but I have used up my Amazon allowance for the month already. If I am not strict with myself I spend too much there. Perhaps I'll put it on my wish list ~ birthday coming up like 

Meanwhile I do remember sitting through the several programmes that it took to broadcast the interviews and leaping up shouting "Gotcha ya bastard!" when Frost finally got Nixon to admit he was wrong.

I also remember his forensic slicing up on TV of Dr Emil Savundra the motor insurance crook in 1967.

I remember Savundra but I must have seen that later... I was after all just seven... 

Bloody kids 

[Barman]

I probably will too, eventually but I have used up my Amazon allowance for the month already. If I am not strict with myself I spend too much there. Perhaps I'll put it on my wish list ~ birthday coming up like 

Meanwhile I do remember sitting through the several programmes that it took to broadcast the interviews and leaping up shouting "Gotcha ya bastard!" when Frost finally got Nixon to admit he was wrong.

I also remember his forensic slicing up on TV of Dr Emil Savundra the motor insurance crook in 1967.

I remember Savundra but I must have seen that later... I was after all just seven... 

Bloody kids 

[Pastis]

I was in the US the summer the Watergate scandal broke leading to Nixon's impeachment. Every day on the radio and TV a little more came out... uncannily reminiscent of these last few weeks here 

[Nick]

Postie left a card sayimg my D Day book was too big for the letter box and was back at the Sorting Office.

I can call them, go there, or place an online request for a new delivery. I chose the third option. I await developments. I am not even sure my local Sorting Office has a compooter. Nor am I sure that the staff can read.

[TG]

Oi Unc!

Try this : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cowboy-Angels-Gollancz-S-F-McAuley/dp/0575082232/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244298854&sr=8-4

A cracker of a SciFi novel. Gung-ho thriller crossed with BIG concepts as America fights for freedom, truth and the American way across multiple Americas in parrallel universes.

 

[Nick]

Postie left a card sayimg my D Day book was too big for the letter box and was back at the Sorting Office.

I can call them, go there, or place an online request for a new delivery. I chose the third option. I await developments. I am not even sure my local Sorting Office has a compooter. Nor am I sure that the staff can read.

Blimey, it werked