Roverthemoon25 Reviews

Airwolf (1984–1986)

Another great 80's show

[28 January 2008]

Why isn't this kind of show made anymore, in the 80's two producers ruled the roost of TV action series, Stephen J Cannell and Donald Belasarius, Cannell was the more the family kind of show, The A Team, Hunter, Simon And Simon etc. Belasarius produced a little darker drama such as Magnum and Airwolf and has carried it on lately with the brilliant NCIS.

Airwolf was the story of a super powered battle helicopter that had been stolen by it's creator Moffit and taken to Libya, Micheal Archangel who was nearly killed in Moffits stealing of Airwolf tried to recruit Stringfellow Hawke to retrieve Airwolf.

Hawke at first rejects the offer and pressure is put on him by his art collection being taken from his home, Hawke wants Archangel to trace his brother St John who is MIA in Vietnam. Hawke agree's to get Airwolf back and with the help of his friend Santini, they both get Airwolf back and kill Moffit in the process and blow any planes out of the sky that get in their way.

Hawke decides to keep Airwolf and will fly missions for Archangel on the understanding that Archangel continues looking for Hawke's brother.

Overall a great action drama series, the music was fantastic, Sylvester Levy's theme tune fitted the show so well not just at the beginning and end, but when Airwolf was starting up, you would see Hawke pushing the button's to start Airwolf, the blades would slowly turn as the music started to build up, the music got faster and the blades on Airwolf got faster, you would see the instrument panels light up ready for action.

Thye air battles were great although some scenes were reused quite a lot especially in the disaster of a 4th series. A movie would be a fitting tribute to the series and the unfortunate Jan Micheal Vincent who has suffered over the years through various abuses of substances, but knowing Hollywood it wouldn't be right unless Belasarius was involved as producer.

Love Thy Neighbour (1972–1976)

A funny show in it's time

[7/10 · 11 December 2006]

I remember watching this and enjoying it as a funny comedy show, when it was first aired there was no such thing as the PC brigade, there are comments from both male characters in this show and at the end of every show it is Randolph Walkers character who gets the better of Jack Smethurst character.

They were racist against each other so it wasn't a one sided racial name calling, but there were plenty of shows around which were racist in the same way, Curry and Chips and Alf Garnett being two prime examples, also Fawlty Towers, while it wasn't racist, it was certainly anti German with the episode called the Germans in which Basil does his funny walk and keeps mentioning the war, if LTN is going to be criticised for being non PC then Fawlty Towers also has to fall into that category.

The Two Ronnies (1971–1987)

Up there with the best comedy duo's

[9/10 · 20 September 2006]

I was only young when the Two Ronnies was first shown and I think it gets funnier with age.

My favourite sketch has to be the Four Candles or Folk Handles sketch the word play and misunderstanding is great, another great sketch was the swear box sketch which was funny for the fact they used different sounds to cover up the swear words and left you guessing which swear words they were saying.

Ronnie Barker was a great writer and of course used his alias Gerald Wiley to send in the sketches, Barkers ability to play on words for some of his sketches were great and very funny.

The show had some great writers such as members of the Python team, Barry Cryer, and John Sullivan who went on to create Only Fools and Horses.

It wasn't just about Ronie Barker though, the other Ronnie which was Corbett brought his humour to the show especially his monologues which were very funny, maybe old jokes but the way he told them and went off on a tangent as he attempted to tell the joke. One of my favourite lines from Corbett was: " I have no faith in my doctor, my wife went to him and asked if he had anything for a creaky hip joint, and he gave her two tickets to Ronnie Scotts."

The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

Opinion of a non horror fan

[8/10 · 16 March 2006]

I was in Glasgow for about 4 hours and went to the cinema to see what films were showing and there wasn't much choice of films that were starting shortly. I decided that I would go and see The Hills Have Eyes as it seemed the best option to kill a couple of hours (no pun intended). Now as my summery says I'm not a real big horror fan and I didn't even know that this was a remake until I read the reviews on here, I have only watched a handful of horror movies like Nightmare on Elm St and People Under The Stairs, the latter of which I really enjoyed.

This movie is about a family who are told of a short cut through a desert road by a garage attendant, the family are headed by a former cop Bob Carter, his wife is Ethel and they have 3 children Bobby ,Brenda and their oldest daughter Lynne who is married to mobile phone salesman Doug who have a baby called Catherine.

Their journey on the short cut road id sabotaged and they find themselves stranded, but they are not alone in the desert as there is a family of deformed mutants who live in a area which had been used in the 60's for testing nuclear bombs. As night falls the mutants attack the family and in a quick succession of events which include burning, rape ,murder and the abduction of baby Catherine the family finds themselves down to just 3 members ( 4 if you include the dog).

We then get to the point where if it were a Seagal or Arnie movie that it's time to kick some ass and mild mannered Doug who is assisted with the dog goes in search of the mutants and his baby. He finds the mutants small town and goes in search of his baby, what follows is a bloodbath as Doug gets revenge and with the help of a mutant girl gets his baby back. Doug meets back up with Bobby and Brenda and the closing shot is that somebody is watching them, so the hills maybe still have eyes and the possibility for a sequel.

My opinion is that is a good horror movie once it gets going, and maybe I should take a look at the original to see how the 2 compare.

The A-Team (1983–1987)

Best 80's Show ever

[4 October 2005]

I remember watching this when it first was aired in the UK, it was on a Friday night and I was about 12 years old.

After watching it I knew it was a show that I would watch every week, this was certainly different from any other action show I had seen before.

Here were 4 guys who were on the run from the government but helped people out with problems they had, they were different types of guys but put them together and they made The A Team.

Hannibal who always had a plan, they didn't always come out the way he planned but they worked.

Face was the guy who could get anything from anywhere and always scammed hotels, planes etc for the team.

B.A was the muscle and the mechanic in the team who could build and fix anything, Murdock was the insane pilot who was always broken out of the V A hospital when the team needed him.

There was also Amy and Tania who were reporters who separately attached themselves to the team for a while, although rumours were that George Peppard who played Hannibal was not happy with the female involvement in the show.

Also there was the MP Colonel's who tried to catch the A team , first there was Lynch and then Decker who was played by Lancs Le Gault and the character of Decker was the one who pursued the team the most.

People do pick holes in the show like why did the team never shoot anyone and they always got locked up in a garage or warehouse where they would be able to build something to make their escape.

But you can pick holes in any fictional show, this was action packed family entertainment.

NCIS (2003– )

A crime show with humour that just gets better

[10/10 · 18 August 2005]

I had just started to watch CSI and was flicking through the the Sky channels and found Navy NCIS on the FX channel. It only took one episode to get me hooked on to it, I like the characters seen to interact and gel with each other. First there's Gibbs the boss played by Mark Harmon, Gibbs is a great character he is serious when it comes to the job but he also has a humour side to him that works well with other characters.

Di Nozzo is funny and again works well with his humour especially with Gibbs.

Caitlin started as the new girl and it has been interesting to her build with her fellow NCIS agents through out the series, It's a shame that actress Sacha Alexander wanted to leave and the producers decided to kill her off, maybe would of been better for her to transfer and leave the door open for future guest appearances.

Abby is the scientist, maybe a female goth version of Gil Grissom and actress Pauley Perrette portrays brilliantly.

David McCallum plays Donald Ducky Mallard the coroner who is often found going off on a tangent and what were the creators drinking the night they come up with that name.

Agent Timothy Mcgee is the latest addition to the show, he started as computer whizz and now has been promoted to a field agent and his scenes with Abby are great.

Long live the NCIS team and I look forward to future series.

Also worth mentioning that Alan Dale stars as Tom Morrow the head of NCIS, most of the soap watching community will remember him in Australian soap opera Neighbours.

Well the above was written after watching the first 2 series of NCIS, so now I thought I would comment on what I think of the show in series 3 and 4.

Got to say it has got even better, not just the stories but the development on the characters. First there is the introduction of Ziva David the Mossad agent who is now working with NCIS. Her character has fitted in well with the rest of the team and her interaction with Tony is good and at times very funny.

Next there is the new director of NCIS who is Jenny Shepherd who is played by Laren Holly, her and Gibbs have a past and it is interesting to see them be reunited and of course Gibbs getting use to her being the boss. Gibbs left then came back (as we knew he would), Agent Lee also joined the team very briefly and does make occasional appearances due to her romance (if you wanna call it that) with Jimmy Palmer.

Also the story of Tony falling in love, Jenny Shepherds obsession of capturing an arms dealer and Magee's bestselling book have kept the series fresh and interesting, and have shown that it is not just one show one story.

Keep up the good work.

Time for another update as season 5 comes to a close in the UK although we are getting to see the first episode of season 6 a few days after it airs in the US.

Another great season from beginning to end, which seen the end of the Frog and also the end Tony's romance with Jeann. Some good stories throughout the series and what a great ending, Jenny Shepheard killed off not sure if she wanted to go or the producers decided to get rid of the character, the ending also see's the disbanding of the team Ziva goes home, Mcgee goes to the cyber crime unit, Tony goes on board a ship and Gibbs gets a new team.

Part of the new team is agent Lee who we have see before, I have read on some websites that fans wont be watching if Gibbs has a new team, the team will be back together,the producers are just making it more unmissable they know that it would kill the show if Tony, Ziva and Mcgee were written out.

Looking forward to season 6

Hardcastle and McCormick (1983–1986)

A Great Action Show

[20 December 2004]

Hardcastle And Mcormick is of the forgotten shows of the 80's, and while The A Team, Knight Rider and Airwolf are more remembered Hardcastle and Mcormick had it all great story lines, two great leading characters, a awesome car and a catchy theme tune. I'ts the story of a retired judge who teams up with ex con to go after the criminals who got away when he was a judge, its a typical 80's style action series that I enjoyed and grew up with. Along with the actors though the car was definitely the star of the show, OK maybe it didn't talk like kitt but the red coyote was one hot car. I would really like to see one of the TV channels repeat this great show as most other 80's shows have been constantly repeated.

The Boys in Blue (1983)

A classic comedy film

[15 December 2004]

I recently bought this film on DVD and it is still as funny as watching the first time in the cinema. A mixture of slapstick and funny lines make this a film that only C&B fans will really appreciate and enjoy, you also get some great brit actors as well such as Roy Kinnear, Eric Sykes, Jack Douglas, Jon Pertwee and Arthur English. It is a remake of the Will Hay movie Ask A Policeman, although I can only vaguely remember the Will Hay version, it is a pretty simple plot to follow. C&B play two hapless policemen in the village of Little Bottom and they are called into some police work when art thieves try to smuggle out some stolen paintings. This will appeal to anyone who grew up in the 80's and enjoyed watching C&B