DVDs from Amazon.co.uk:

• ASIN: B0002LXU6I
• Catalogue Number: VCD0431

Spaced : Definitive Collector’s Edition

Amazon.co.uk Review
Spaced is a sitcom like no other. The premise is simple enough: Daisy (Jessica Stevenson) and Tim (Simon Pegg) are out of luck and love, so pretend to be a couple in order to rent a flat together. Downstairs neighbour and eccentric painter Brian suspects someone’s fibbing, and almost blows their cover with their lecherous lush of a landlady, Marsha. Fortunately he soon falls for Daisy’s health-freak friend Twist, while Daisy herself goes ga-ga for pet dog Colin. Tim remains happily platonic with lifemate Mike; a sweet-at-heart guns ‘n’ ammo obsessive. The series is chock-full of pop culture references. In fact, each episode is themed after at least one movie, with nods to The Shining and Close Encounters of the Third Kind proving especially hilarious. Hardly five minutes goes by without a Star Wars reference, and every second of screen time from Bill Bailey as owner of the comic shop where Tim works is comedic gold. The look of the series is its other outstanding element, with slam-zooms, dizzying montages, and inspired lighting effects (often paying homage to the Evil Dead movies). It’s an affectionate fantasy on the life of the twenty-something that’s uncomfortably close to the truth.

The second series finds the gang at 23 Meteor Street a little older, but definitely none the wiser. Tim’s career is hampered by severe hang-ups over The Phantom Menace. Daisy’s career is just plain non-existent. There is still a spark of sexual tension between them, but it’s overshadowed by Brian and Twist getting it on. Propelling the seven-episode series arc is the threat of Marsha discovering that none of the relationships are what they seem, Mike’s increasing jealousy and a new love interest for Tim. That’s the basis for a never-ending stream of in-jokes and references that easily match the quality of the first series. Tim has a Return of the Jedi flashback, then déjà vu in reliving the end of The Empire Strikes Back. There are spoofs of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Robocop, The Sixth Sense and comedy rival The Royle Family. There are guest spots from Bill Bailey, Peter (voice of Darth Maul) Serafinowicz and The League of Gentlemen’s Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith. Every episode is packed with highlights, but this series’ guaranteed geek pant-wetting moments have to be the mock gun battles, slagging off Babylon 5 and learning that “The second rule of Robot Club is: no smoking.” Jessica Stevenson won a British Comedy Award for this year. It deserved a whole lot more.

—Paul Tonks

This was the reason Episodes I & II exist. The first half of the movie had me revelling in the presence of real acting – Ewan Macgregor makes up for the stiltedness of Episode II, and I understand now what Obi Wan means in Episode V when he describes Anakin as his best friend. For me, though, it all started to fall apart after Anakin turns to the dark side. The fear and paranoia that would have been required to tip him over the edge were just not adequately portrayed for me to truly believe in. The number of cliches that are thrown around in this movie is ludicrous (remember when Anakin finds out Padme is dead? “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”!). But, I plan to watch this again, and attempt to understand what Lucas meant, even though I do not believe he achieved it. This was a master of a story, after all.

Things happen in this movie, and there is actual acting to be glimpsed. The chase scene near the beginning is one heck of a fun ride, and I love the stormy planet and the clone army (‘that’s why stormtroopers are so stupid!’). But it’s still just a stepping-stone to Episode III.

I’ve had this on my shelf for more than a year. After I read ‘An Equal Music’ by Vikram Seth (the written version of a soapie) I kept hearing about this book of his that was supposedly brilliant. I kept seeing it in shops, and my housemate had a copy on her shelf, so in the end I saw it cheap and bought it, thinking it sounded like something I should own and read at some point. (Sometime before this I also had a chance to obtain an audio CD of his first novel, a poem called ‘The Golden Gate’, which I really enjoyed as a very fresh piece of writing.) I guess the vast size of the book stopped me from reading it sooner, as well as being uninspired by the back cover. But I was in a friend’s house on a recent weekend, saw the book on her shelf, and was told that it was a book that changed the way she thought about a lot of things. The week after I started reading it.

Two weeks and many many hours of reading later, and I am still not halfway through. I’m getting the feeling this is the kind of book that stays with you, not just because of the skilled portraits that Seth paints, but also because the reader spends so much time with them, just reading the book. He’s not just painting portraits of people, though – the places and nations and races and castes of India also get detailed and lively description. Even though I know that reading about something in no way prepares me for the reality, I can’t help feeling like I am being educated. At the very least, my mind is being opened to the possibilities of new horizons.

[This book confirms Seth as one of the more eclectic writers I have read, given that his first book was poetry about American city life and included a man’s emerging gay identity, ‘An Equal Music’ was – in my vague memory – an angst-filled European love saga, and A Suitable Boy is a sweeping portrait of India.]

Excellent, excellent, as always. The visual updates done by Lucas merge seamlessly. The substitution of Hayden Christensen’s Anakin-ghost at the very end of Return of the Jedi was startling, but pleasing. It is disappointing to think that Lucas is unwilling to allow the original movies, without his additions, to be released on DVD, or re-released at all. I understand that they didn’t match his vision, but I want to both recapture the novelty of the film and the special effects in the context of their time without future CGI enhancements, and also inspect the different that the new images make to the movie experience. I’d love to look specifically at these original movies to get a feel for how the imagination can take over from the eyes when watching a movie that captures you. Sometimes nowadays I feel like my eyes are spoon-fed. (Dogville was a good antidote for that, recommended if you want to go to a different extreme – very sparse, with props and costume but no scenery.)

Little Anakin is by far the best acted character in this movie. I had no compunction in getting up the middle of it and going to bed. Liam Neeson slips effortlessly into the wise jedi role, but everyone else flounders in slow-spoken dialogue and ponderous scenes. Lucas lost perspective when he made the decision to direct this movie, and spent far too much time fiddling with the CGI (which admittedly creates some stunning, if unbelievably perfect, landscapes). A good director could at least have injected some life into dialogue that is obviously serving some ultimate end that precludes character development and, well, anything interesting. The jokes are in the slapstick fashion and are juvenile and unamusing. I loved this movie the first time I saw it in the cinema, and was dissapointed to realise how bad it really is when watching the DVD.

I have this on audiobook. This is my third time listening to it (need something to soothe me to sleep at the moment). It is entirely in rhyme. I hadn’t realised until reading another user’s comment that it is based on Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin. It is a well-crafted novel (a testament to Pushkin I now suppose), dealing with twenty-somethings in an urban landscape, and exploring relationships between friends, family, and lovers. The audio version has some very well-written and evocative music to enhance the book.

This is a book that was given to a friend of mine some time ago, by one of her gay friends. She never did read it, saying she didn’t have to understand him to be friends with him. (Is it any wonder she no longer knows him and can’t even remember his name?)

This is a valuable book, far better written than many memoirs of its type. If you are straight and want to understand what adolescence can be like for a person ‘born gay’, would like to understand that troublesome matter of gay sex, and would like to have your mind opened, give it a read. If you are gay, read it and weep for the all-too-familiar story of scorn and death, and appreciate it for the number of good and loving people who populate its pages.