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Rebels and Redcoats: How Britain Lost America, a review by Antares

Rebels and Redcoats: How Britain Lost America (2003) 50/100 - When I first endeavored to undertake this mini marathon, this was the documentary that intrigued me the most. Liberty! The American Revolution, The Revolutionary War and The American Revolution all shared one thing in common, they were mostly told from the American perspective, with the latter being the most egregious in its chest thumping. But this documentary was made by the BBC and promised to give the British point of view on it's involvement and loss in the war. Unfortunately, the man who made the documentary, Richard Holmes, a military historian at Cranfield University in England, had some sort of agenda when he undertook this production. From what I understand, he was so incensed at Mel Gibson's film The Patriot, that he felt the need to set the record straight. But instead of making a thought provoking assessment of what it was really like for the British during the struggle, he does exactly the same thing that Gibson did, he bashes his opponent with an almost gleeful passion. He constantly emphasizes the atrocities that the rebels inflicted on what he deems were honorable loyalists, while conveniently glossing over the same kind of acts perpetrated by the British regulars. George Washington is a greedy, slave owning, aristocratic hypocrite whose sole mission was to insure his wealth and status in the colonies. He also spends an inordinate amount of time on the slavery issue, conveniently forgetting or omitting the fact that England accrued most of its wealth through commerce in the slave, rum and molasses triangular trade route in the 17th and early 18th century. The Dutch may have started the slave trade, but England fine tuned it to a money making monster for almost a century. About the only thing he gets right is the omission by most American history books and curriculum's on the crucial involvement and success of the French during the war, whom with out their help, the rebels wouldn't have stood a chance of winning. If you're looking for a jaded, biased, and poorly made documentary on the Revolutionary War, then look no further than this waste of time and film.

What the color coding means...

Teal = Masterpiece
Dark Green = Classic or someday will be
Lime Green = A good, entertaining film
Orange = Average
Red = Cinemuck
Brown = The color of crap, which this film is

(From Antares' Short Summations on December 12th, 2013)

Rope, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Rope: The Masterpiece Collection
Year: 1948
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: PG
Length: 81 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Mono, Spanish: Dolby Digital: Mono, French: Dolby Digital: Mono
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Dick Hogan
His friendsJohn Dall
Farley Granger
Their housekeeperEdith Evanson

Plot:Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Featurettes
Gallery
Production Notes

My Thoughts:
This is another one I never seen before... but it is one I have heard of and been excited about checking out. This one has James Stewart in it... and I am becoming a fan of his work. And this one is no different! Such a great piece of work here! From the opening scene I could see this one would be a bit different... as it isn't actually about a mystery. Well maybe a bit of a mystery to the characters... but we, the viewers are let in on the answers from the very beginning. I thought for the most part everyone did a fantastic job. If there is anything at all that I didn't care for... it had to be the character of the housekeeper. I can't put my finger on it... but there was just something about her that bugged me. The storytelling was fantastic... and you can see a real difference in the way the movie was shot... but in a good way... I definitely enjoyed it. This one will rank up there with my favorite Hitchcock films.



(From Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection Reviews on December 27th, 2010)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

The King of Queens: Season One (1998/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (United States) Length: 562 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Subtitles:

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Plot:
The man. The myth. The driver. Doug Heffernan (Kevin James) is THE KING OF QUEENS, but his wife Carrie (Leah Remini) really rules the roost. Doug is the ultimate guy's guy, but he loves Carrie so much he's willing to sacrifice his tricked-out rec room (plus his 70-inch TV) so that her father Arthur (Jerry Stiller) can move in, a decision he's regretted ever since. Doug's free time is split between quality time with his wife and play time with his buds. A parade of crazy neighbors and oddball citizens of New York's middle-class borough help make this show the reigning comedy champ. THE KING OF QUEENS proves you don't have to have a huge castle to live like royalty.


The King of Queens
1.01 Pilot
Writer: Michael J. Weithorn (Writer), David Litt (Writer)
Director: Pamela Fryman
Cast: Kevin James (Doug), Leah Remini (Carrie), Lisa Rieffel (Sara), Patton Oswalt (Spence), Larry Romano (Richie), Victor Williams (Deacon), Jerry Stiller (Arthur)

This series is often fun to watch. The pilot though is nothing special. It sets up the premise, but wasn't really funny.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on June 4th, 2012)