The Borgias – The Art of War Review

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‘The invaders capture a fleeing and pregnant Lucrezia as they march on Rome, but she charms King Charles and is allowed to persuade her brother Juan to withdraw his hopelessly outmatched defensive troops; Pope Alexander VI awaits to learn of his fate as Charles enters the city and makes his way to the Vatican.‘

King Charles & Lucrezia in front of the French Army

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While this episode was all leading up to a big conclusion, it thankfully didn’t suffer the problems of the previous episode. There was a lot of substance here, and it felt like the characters had all played their hands, and were just waiting to see what happened. The brutal battle scenes were all the more shocking for how brief and sudden they were, serving to highlight what’s at stake for everybody.

Rodrigo’s persistence in the face of certain defeat speaks very strongly Continue reading →

The Borgias – Death on a Pale Horse Review

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‘The invasion by King Charles of France and Della Rovere proceeds with victory seemingly inevitable as the French sack the city of Lucca and the Italian powers flee to their banner, with Lucrezia’s husband Giovanni Sforza poised to join them in the name of Milan.‘

Machiavelli invites King Charles to enter Florence

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Everything is going wrong for the Borgias, the French have invaded, and Lucrezia’s husband is almost ready to hop back into the marital bed.

This was an episode that at first seemed like it was going to have a lot more action in it, but it settled down again pretty quickly as we saw the fallout of the brutal sacking of Lucca. The explosive advance of the French war machine is a real contrast Continue reading →

The Borgias – The French King Review

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‘Della Rovere reaches France and strikes a bargain with its ruler to invade Italy and install him on the Papal throne in exchange for control of Naples; Rodrigo attempts to thwart the invasion through an alliance by marrying his youngest son Joffre to Princess Sancia of Naples (guest star Emmannuelle Chriqui), but Juan nearly sabotages the plan by seducing his prospective sister-in-law.‘

Cardinal Della Rovere and the French King

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Oh little Lucrezia, I can’t blame you for your indiscretions, but we both know that it’s not going to end well.  Holliday Grainger continues to shine in this role, playing up the innocence of Lucrezia while at the same kind showing small aspects of the manipulator that Lucrezia was often made out to be. Her little affair with the stable boy has a real tension to it as we wait Continue reading →

The Borgias – The Borgias in Love Review

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‘Alternately neglected and abused by her cruel husband, Lucrezia has an affair with Paolo, a handsome stable boy; Cesare strikes a bargain with Machiavelli: deny French troops passage across his masters’ lands in exchange for suppression of Savonarola, a fiery preacher of anti-Medici sermons; in love with baroness Ursula, Cesare takes drastic action to get rid of her husband.‘

Cesare and Ursula

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Already, the relationship between the Borgias and the Sforzas is starting to strain. Alliances were very fickle in this day and age, and the show is doing a great job of setting up the storm that is coming for these characters. The interplay of the various alliances and counter-alliances is one of the things that makes this show so interesting.

The episode really opened with a bang, with a beautiful but surreal Continue reading →

The Borgias – Lucrezia’s Wedding Review

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‘Lucrezia is deeply disappointed to discover her real mother has been banned from her wedding to Giovanni Sforza, whom she’s never met. Meanwhile, Della Rovere goes to Florence to broker a deal with the powerful Medici family and meets with their adviser Machiavelli. At the wedding reception, the bride’s brothers Juan and Cesare create serious breaches of etiquette, with the latter causing a scene by dancing and flirting with an influential baron’s wife.‘

Rodrigo and Lucrezia

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This episode follows on nicely from the tragic and violent climax to ‘The Moor‘ with Lucrezia (Holliday Grainger) sick and grieving over the death of her friend. And it doesn’t get much better from there for poor Lucrezia. This episode once again hammers home exactly how little power women had in those days; they were just cattle to be bought and sold to the highest bidder. This treatment is very much in evidence in this episode with the Borgia women being ordered around and married off to suit the political whims of the Pope.

Yet at the same time Jeremy Irons does a fantastic job of showing Continue reading →

Mythbusters – Dodge a Bullet Review

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‘Adam and Jamie test if you can jump out of the way of a bullet, while Kari, Grant and Tory find out if hitting the water is just like hitting pavement after a fall.’

Adam and Jamie in 'Dodge a Bullet'

Trailer

Dodge a Bullet

An interesting concept. We’ve all seen the Hollywood martial arts movie cliche of dodging a bullet, all the while knowing that it’s not going to happen at close range; but the idea that it might be possible at extreme ranges has enough plausability to warrant investigation. I was happy that they brought in professional snipers for this myth to add the extra layer of accuracy. I’ve actually seen Dave Liwanag (the sniper that they brought in) on other documentary shows performing some pretty amazing shots, and this episode was no different.

This episode was a great example of the methodical Continue reading →

Poker Night at the Inventory Review

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‘Prepare for a different kind of poker night in a very different kind of club.’

This was a game that really came out of left field. Who would think to put The Heavy from Team Fortress 2, Strongbad from Homestar Runner, Sam from Sam and Max, and Tycho from Penny Arcade together in a game, let alone a Poker game? Well whoever you are, I tip my hat to you. The result is a top notch game.

From the very beginning, Poker Night at the Inventory is dripping Continue reading →

Mythbusters – Spy Car Revenge Review

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‘Adam and Jamie hit up another Spy Car Myth and Kari, Tory and Grant check out another Snow related myth.’

Trailer

I’ve been looking forward to this episode since it was announced that they’d be revisiting the Spy Cars. The first Spy Car episode was a lot of fun, and I was really l excited to see what gadgets the guys could come up with this time.

Adam and Jamie didn’t disappoint. While the first Spy Car episode focused on gadgets Continue reading →

Highlander Endgame Review

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‘Immortals Connor and Duncan Macleod must join forces against Kell, an evil immortal who has become too strong for anyone to face alone.’

Being the fourth movie in a franchise, you would think that Highlander Endgame would have a lot to live up to. But given the disasters of the previous two movies, one could only hope that it came close to the fun of the original.

When it was released in 1986, the original Highlander Continue reading →

Pirates of the Carribean – On Stranger Tides Review

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“Jack Sparrow and Barbossa embark on a quest to find the elusive fountain of youth, only to discover that Blackbeard and his daughter are after it too.”


It was really odd walking out of this movie. When the friends that I’d seen the movie with asked me for my opinion, I wasn’t quite sure what to say.

‘It was missing something,’ was all that I could come up with at the time.

But that really sums up the whole movie. The elements were all there to make a fun adventure story like the first movie, but they didn’t end up coming together. After thinking about it for a while, I realised that one of the major problems was having Continue reading →