Thomas Burns – Google

First series excellent but not without controversy, see below. Second series struggles to come up to the standard of the first. Enjoyable but as usual the drama has to have a white lesbian married couple with a dark skinned son and artificial insemination to have a new baby together. None of which adds a microscopic benefit to the storyline. It’s a drama not an advertisement for alternative lifestyles. Without the above the first series would have been 5stars

Firstly I am a biker. I bought the dvd because it’s about bikes. As a movie it is an interesting semi biographical movie taken from the recorded words of an “old lady”. It is actually about the Outlaws MC but the movie uses an invention club name and colours. I enjoyed it but it certainly does not have the appeal of the SOA TV series. Would I ever watch it again? Probably not. That is not to say I would not recommend it for real bikers to enjoy the authentic Harleys from the time periods covered.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

What a load of cack. I have been fascinated by the Lord of the Rings for well over 50 years. Apart from Bilbo’s character in the original trilogy which I thought was terrible, the movies were epic. The Hobbit movies were excellent too. But these Amazon series are pathetic, pc, inclusive nonsense. This second series is putting me to sleep. Disjointed storylines, boring extended dialogues that have no relevance and Hybrid Orcs that cannot breed as female and thus baby Orcs DO NOT exist. Characters who look the same and appear to be fillers. An insult to the genius of Tolkien.

Worth a watch. Episode one is a bit slow but it does get better. A few side stories eventually come together but the reason for some events will need clarification in a season 2 with the ending crying out for such. Most of the main characters are strong and recognisable which makes a change from other recent series that have had unremarkable characters that all looked the same. Not to much pointless character to character dialogue so the storyline runs pretty smoothly and at a reasonable pace. Sexually explicit and savage in parts.

Okay first things first. Not a patch on Band of Brothers. Too many non de script characters. Even the two main roles have no enduring appeal. Lots of names of pilots and crew who are MIA but they never left a big enough impression on the viewer to be mourned. Entertaining but I doubt I would ever watch the series again unlike BoB. The Red Tails seem thrown in to the last two episodes as an acknowledgement to the brave black pilots who flew for the USA. What MotA and Saving Private Ryan (an excellent but flawed movie) have in common is a warped importance of the American input to D-Day and the subsequent invasion of Europe. The British/Colonies provided the majority of the planes that kept the Luftwaffe from the skies and the Royal Navy/Colonies provided the majority of the ships for the Normandy invasion. The impression is always given quite erroneously that the Americans provided the majority of the invading planes, ships and men. No wonder Americans are still under the impression that they won WW2 both in Europe and the Pacific on their own. The stupid cameos of Brit airmen was not required. The British, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, volunteer Americans, colonial airmen, Free French and Polish (sorry if i left any out) who has been fighting the Germans on land, sea and air since 1939 should not have been dismissed as a joke. These very young men were fighting during the Battle of Britain with no down time. Their planes would land refuel and rearm then takeoff immediately until they died or ditched. With years of previous experience fighting the Germans the Brits advised that American day bombing was suicidal but their top brass ignored the warning sending hundreds of good men to their death. Likewise at Normandy the Americans were warned by the British Admiralty (with hundreds of years naval experience of the Channel) about the tides and weather. The American’s landing craft stopped in deep water too far from the beach and off loaded floating tanks that promptly sank drowning their crew. Troops flailing in the deep water with heavy equipment drowned or were cut to pieces by the German defenders. It’s about time the incompetence of the American Top Brass was brought to the attention of the American public in a historically correct movie. PS the Brits, the other Allies and the Axis forces ALL made stupid military decisions but in the 21st Century we don’t need John Wayne BS movies.