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Film & TV Reviews


Index of film and TV reviews:


The African Queen (1951)

Alien (1979)

All Creatures Great and Small (1978-1990) (TV series)

All Hands (1940)

Attack (1956)










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Alien (1979)

In its genre,  Alien  has rarely, if ever, been bettered. It's a very simple story of a terrifying monster let loose in a confined space, killing off the crew of a space ship one by one. Its greatness lies in its superb handling and in its extraordinary art direction. The film begins with the mining ship Nostromo  returning to Earth with a cargo of 20,000,000 tons of mineral ore. The ship is still a long way from home when its computer picks up a distress signal from a nearby planet. The ship's crew are automatically awakened from suspended animation and directed to the planet to investigate. The ship has a crew of seven. There is the businesslike captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt), curious and incautious Kane (John Hurt), nervy Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), suspicious science officer Ash (Ian Holm), tough but brittle Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and two grumbling mechanics from below decks, Parker (Yaphet Kotto) and Brett (Harry Dean Stanton). Dallas, Kane and Lambert investig
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The Best Film and TV Versions of A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol  tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a mean, cantankerous old miser who is visited on Christmas Eve by three ghosts. They present him with visions of Christmases past, present and future. These visions show him the error of his ways and Scrooge wakes up the next morning, Christmas Day, as a reformed character, full of generosity and the joys of life. Or alternatively,  A Christmas Carol  is the story of a staid Victorian businessman who has a bad dream one night and the next day goes totally crazy.
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Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)

Some time after the events of The Empire Strikes Back , Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), and the droids C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) assemble on Luke's home planet of Tatooine, where their old friend Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is being held captive. Solo is still encased in carbonite, and displayed in the palace of the massive slug-like crime boss Jabba the Hutt. Our heroes plan to infiltrate Jabba's palace in order to rescue him. But the rescue mission is just the prelude to a far greater challenge. The Empire is building a new Death Star, protected by a force field generated from the forest moon of Endor. To enable the Rebels to mount a successful attack on the Death Star, a small commando team, including Luke, Han and Leia, is sent to Endor to deactivate the force field generator. Meanwhile, Luke intends to confront Darth Vader (Dave Prowse) with the hope of turni
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