after watching this dvd i can only say it is time to hang up your sword sean bean and finish the series on a high, i have never watched so much dribble.
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Allot of people look at this and go on about Sean Bean being much older, the story lines being weaker, and the acting wooden. Well, the new series will never live up to the 'glory' of the old, but lets not be too cruel. These are fun, easy to watch and quite enjoyable films making the best of a hard situation, how to carry on a highly successful series long after the original run of books had ended.
The new stories are effecivly re-writings of the 'new' Sharpe books, which follow the life of Richard Sharpe through India in the time before the Nepolionic wars. Obviously they couldnt follow that line exactly as Sean Bean is older now, so they have placed the stories in a post Nepolionic war India. Like all TV dramas, the stories have ... Read More:
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As has already been pointed out this series DOES NOT contain Sharpe's Peril and Sharpe's Challenge which is a shame as all the DVD company appear to have done is re-release the previous boxset
Cornwell has written a series of fantastic books involving Sharpe and they are always well researched include accurate Historical Notes, sadly Sharpe the TV series does not always stay as historically accurate as people who are looking for that type of thing may like.
On the other hand Sharpe is a rip roaring ride, Sean Bean is superb playing the Diamond in the Rough and is well supported by his co-stars. The only disappointing episode out of all of them is Sharpe's Waterloo which ... Read More:
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Being a huge fan of the books, I was sceptical about the films. Sharpe in the books is massive, scar on the face and black hair, with Harper even bigger. However after half the first movie, these issues were soon forgotten. The first movies you can tell were lower budget and not quite up to the standard of the others, but with good acting they got away with it. After the first 2, you see the budget increasing, and with this and a marvellous Hakeswill I really felt a whole new dimension to the novels. Especially at the new price, I highly recommend this series!
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This is not a great story for Doctor Who as the good Doctor and his companions seem to have been crow-barred into a period murder mystery with little or no sci-fi relevance.
However, that has been done before in other stories and I suppose this outing would stand up to criticism better if the other difficulties of the early Davison era were not so apparent - the overcrowded TARDIS with too many companions having not enough to do - Adric appears to spend most of this story stuffing his face!
This is only a two parter and it even feels overly long at that. It is a story which relies too much on quaintness and incidental acction to fill the time - such as the Charleston routine - much as I enjoyed watching Janet Fielding doing it. ... Read More:
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Michael Keaton is the real star of this. His performance as James Jesus Angleton is nearly as good as that of Alec Guinness playing George Smiley. Not so sure about Chris O'Connell. He does not age well as has been already noted in another review. I can understand though why he was chosen to play the part. He has always played squeaky clean characters as in 'Scent of a woman', and 'Dead Poets Society'. There are some differences to the book and I'm sure at least one major character does not appear. Possibly reading the book first would help understand the plot but then you would know who the mole is so I would recommend watching this first. A useful book to read before this would be 'The very best men' by Evan Thomas, as it would provide good background information ... Read More:
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Stella Rode, the wife of the new junior master at Carne School, just doesn't fit in. Carne is a British prep school with a history of preparing the sons of the upper class for lives of service and privilege. The teachers at Carne are part of this upper-class world, smug in their superiority and condescending toward those who don't fit in. Stella Rode wears her Christian beliefs on her sleeve. She does good works, collects clothes for the needy, often has a superior air about her. She also searches out secrets, uses gossip and anonymous letters to bring retribution, and doesn't hesitate to destroy a career. One night, she is beaten to death.
Days before, she wrote to Ailsa Brimley (Glenda Jackson), a relative who had experience in the war, that she feared ... Read More:
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Stella Rode, the wife of the new junior master at Carne School, just doesn't fit in. Carne is a British prep school with a history of preparing the sons of the upper class for lives of service and privilege. The teachers at Carne are part of this upper-class world, smug in their superiority and condescending toward those who don't fit in. Stella Rode wears her Christian beliefs on her sleeve. She does good works, collects clothes for the needy, often has a superior air about her. She also searches out secrets, uses gossip and anonymous letters to bring retribution, and doesn't hesitate to destroy a career. One night, she is beaten to death.
Days before, she wrote to Ailsa Brimley (Glenda Jackson), a relative who had experience in the war, that she feared ... Read More:
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One of my faourite Sharpe episodes, when i bought the box set i was impressed by not only Sean Bean, but by all his co-stars, most impressive for me was Daragh O'Malley, Sharpes sergent, Harper.In both Sharpes Battle an Sharpes Sword, O'Malley shows his ability to play alongside Bean and as Harper shows a level of comradery, of which you would expect of a close nit group of soldiers like the choosen men. Without giving too much away the relationship between the two in Sharpes Sword almost brought me to tears very movin.
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One of my faourite Sharpe episodes, when i bought the box set i was impressed by not only Sean Bean, but by all his co-stars, most impressive for me was Daragh O'Malley, Sharpes sergent, Harper.In both Sharpes Battle an Sharpes Sword, O'Malley shows his ability to play alongside Bean and as Harper shows a level of comradery, of which you would expect of a close nit group of soldiers like the choosen men. Without giving too much away the relationship between the two in Sharpes Sword almost brought me to tears very movin.
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