southdavid
Joined May 2000
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Leaping from BBC to Sky, but otherwise remaining very much the same, "The Trip" returns for a third season, this time around the beautiful locations of Spain.
High off the successes of "Philomena", Steve Coogan is again encouraged to travel around a European Country, with old frenemy Rob Brydon, sampling the best restaurants of the Iberian Peninsula. Despite his successes, Steve discovers that his agent has moved on and he's not one of the clients he's taking with him and also that a studio has decided to bring in another writer on his next project.
I keep using the term "more of the same" when it comes to reviewing "The Trip" and that again is what we get. Lots of driving to restaurants, shots of cooking, food arriving and, of course, endless competing impressions. There is, perhaps, more of a backstory to this one than either of the previous seasons though, with Coogan aggravated that his success with "Philomena" doesn't seem to have translated into greater faith in him from either his agent, or the studio on his new project. He's also retaking a journey he took as a younger man, when he followed an older woman across the country. Brydon again has a child that he's happy to run away from, though he regularly checks in with his long-suffering wife.
So, you probably know if you like the show or not and nothing here will change your mind either way. It's extremely repetitive, even down to Coogan's' assistant Emma and photographer Yolanda joining them again for a photoshoot. There is another new character, with Kyle Soller appearing as Coogan's new agent, his former agent's assistant. I will say that one of my favourite bits of the series overall is when Coogan cracks and starts laughing and that happens more in this run, than in the earlier ones.
I really enjoy it and look forward to moving on to the fourth season, and to Greece soon.
High off the successes of "Philomena", Steve Coogan is again encouraged to travel around a European Country, with old frenemy Rob Brydon, sampling the best restaurants of the Iberian Peninsula. Despite his successes, Steve discovers that his agent has moved on and he's not one of the clients he's taking with him and also that a studio has decided to bring in another writer on his next project.
I keep using the term "more of the same" when it comes to reviewing "The Trip" and that again is what we get. Lots of driving to restaurants, shots of cooking, food arriving and, of course, endless competing impressions. There is, perhaps, more of a backstory to this one than either of the previous seasons though, with Coogan aggravated that his success with "Philomena" doesn't seem to have translated into greater faith in him from either his agent, or the studio on his new project. He's also retaking a journey he took as a younger man, when he followed an older woman across the country. Brydon again has a child that he's happy to run away from, though he regularly checks in with his long-suffering wife.
So, you probably know if you like the show or not and nothing here will change your mind either way. It's extremely repetitive, even down to Coogan's' assistant Emma and photographer Yolanda joining them again for a photoshoot. There is another new character, with Kyle Soller appearing as Coogan's new agent, his former agent's assistant. I will say that one of my favourite bits of the series overall is when Coogan cracks and starts laughing and that happens more in this run, than in the earlier ones.
I really enjoy it and look forward to moving on to the fourth season, and to Greece soon.
Have reviewed each episode of "Love, Death + Robots" and am a big video games guy, so thought I'd do the same process for Amazon's "Secret Level".
Crossfire is another game that I'm afraid has entirely passed me by, despite its global popularity. I have, however, played plenty of PvP shooters before and this felt very applicable to almost all of them.
A group of mercenaries prepare to defend a client awaiting extraction from a city largely evacuated dur to an incoming storm. A second group of armed soldiers prepare to try and engage the team, to secure a briefcase that the client is carrying, that contains a dangerous weapon. The morality of both sets of soldiers is questioned during an increasingly violent encounter.
Graphically this one was particularly impressive. Though I recognised the voices of Claudia Doumit and Matt Peters, when Ricky Whittle appeared he was recognisable as him even before he spoke. It's almost photo realistic with its human characters. Buildings, vehicles and explosions are good too, though they're easier to produce. The story though is a little underwhelming, just standard military stuff, though it does play with the idea that in most of these PvP games, you don't generally see yourself as the villain.
Fine, but standard stuff.
Crossfire is another game that I'm afraid has entirely passed me by, despite its global popularity. I have, however, played plenty of PvP shooters before and this felt very applicable to almost all of them.
A group of mercenaries prepare to defend a client awaiting extraction from a city largely evacuated dur to an incoming storm. A second group of armed soldiers prepare to try and engage the team, to secure a briefcase that the client is carrying, that contains a dangerous weapon. The morality of both sets of soldiers is questioned during an increasingly violent encounter.
Graphically this one was particularly impressive. Though I recognised the voices of Claudia Doumit and Matt Peters, when Ricky Whittle appeared he was recognisable as him even before he spoke. It's almost photo realistic with its human characters. Buildings, vehicles and explosions are good too, though they're easier to produce. The story though is a little underwhelming, just standard military stuff, though it does play with the idea that in most of these PvP games, you don't generally see yourself as the villain.
Fine, but standard stuff.
2025 has been the year of musical biopics so far, though this film about the early years of Led Zeppelin is a documentary / concert film, unlike any of those.
Looking to break away from his comfortable life as a session guitarist, Jimmy Page established his own band, bringing in fellow session player John Paul Jones as well as two prodigious talents from the West Midlands in Robert Plant and John Bonham. Their chemistry is immediate and they head to American to tour on preexisting contracts for Page's former band The Yardbirds. Their first album is a commercial success, though not well reviewed. They resolve to come again with everything they have for their second album.
The documentary has the full co-operation from the three surviving members of the band who all appear in talking head style interviews, explaining their story themselves. This is intercut with footage from various different sources showing the band performing, or home videos. There is also inserts from an Interview with John Bonham, that never aired anywhere previously, but cover his early life, and time spent with Plant before the band came together. It's quite emotional when they play the interview to the rest of the band, particularly a section when he talks about how he feels about his bandmates. It's a very well researched documentary, though does only get the bands opinions on what's going on, with none of the supporting characters offering any thoughts.
It's a criticism that you see in all the reviews, but it is valid. Ending where they do, with the release of Zeppelin 2, does mean that they can avoid all of the contentious topics that a full documentary would cover. So, there's no spiralling into heroin use, no talk of what they may have gotten up to with groupies and there's no actual discussion of Bonham's death, even how they feel about it. Maybe with the trust that Bernard MacMahon has established with them, they could come back and do a follow up "The End of Led Zeppelin".
If you don't have any interest in the band it's perhaps unlikely to change your opinion, but I enjoyed it.
Looking to break away from his comfortable life as a session guitarist, Jimmy Page established his own band, bringing in fellow session player John Paul Jones as well as two prodigious talents from the West Midlands in Robert Plant and John Bonham. Their chemistry is immediate and they head to American to tour on preexisting contracts for Page's former band The Yardbirds. Their first album is a commercial success, though not well reviewed. They resolve to come again with everything they have for their second album.
The documentary has the full co-operation from the three surviving members of the band who all appear in talking head style interviews, explaining their story themselves. This is intercut with footage from various different sources showing the band performing, or home videos. There is also inserts from an Interview with John Bonham, that never aired anywhere previously, but cover his early life, and time spent with Plant before the band came together. It's quite emotional when they play the interview to the rest of the band, particularly a section when he talks about how he feels about his bandmates. It's a very well researched documentary, though does only get the bands opinions on what's going on, with none of the supporting characters offering any thoughts.
It's a criticism that you see in all the reviews, but it is valid. Ending where they do, with the release of Zeppelin 2, does mean that they can avoid all of the contentious topics that a full documentary would cover. So, there's no spiralling into heroin use, no talk of what they may have gotten up to with groupies and there's no actual discussion of Bonham's death, even how they feel about it. Maybe with the trust that Bernard MacMahon has established with them, they could come back and do a follow up "The End of Led Zeppelin".
If you don't have any interest in the band it's perhaps unlikely to change your opinion, but I enjoyed it.