TV Review: Dr Who
With the next series of Doctor Who underway, TV critic Mark Hadley tackles the rumour that the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor may one day have a wife.
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TV Reviews
May 23, 2011
March 1, 2011
TV Review: The Biggest Loser - Families
The anti-fat franchise, The Biggest Loser, has turned its attention to families. Four collections of friends and relatives line up each week to see who has shifted the greatest number of kilos. But is this familiar format likely to produce happier households...
August 15, 2010
TV Review - Under the Hammer
"UNDER THE HAMMER" - Review by Mark Hadley RATING: PG DISTRIBUTOR: Seven Network RELEASE DATE: Mondays, 8:00 PM Viewers would be forgiven for thinking they are watching Hot Property. Not only does Seven's new real estate program seem to draw...
May 9, 2010
TV Review - The Pacific
With a budget of around $200 million, the new Channel 7 mini-series The Pacific is one of the most expensive ever made in Australia. It was filmed here, and has famous Aussies like Gary Sweet and Zoe Carrides working...
September 13, 2009
TV Review - World's Strictest Parents
Parenting programs are not new. Super Nanny, Brat Camp and others have offered television viewers tips and tricks for the family's resident bad boy, or girl. The thing I find most curious about this series is its shifting perspective in...
August 30, 2009
TV Review - Stephen Fry in America
Stephen Fry has used his enormous wit and literary skill to present some of the most accessible and revealing documentaries of recent times - The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive about bi-polar disorders and Last Chance to See on...
August 17, 2009
TV Review - United States of Tara
A review of "United States of Tara" - reviewed by Mark Hadley CHANNEL: ABC1TIME-SLOT: Wednesdays, 9.30 pmRATING: M Multiple personality disorder may be a controversial diagnosis for psychiatrists, but it's unlikely to raise objections with actors. What other condition will allow a...
August 2, 2009
TV Review - Whatever! The Science of Teens
"Whatever! The Science of Teens" TV Review by Mark Hadley of Anglican Media CHANNEL: ABC1TIME-SLOT: Thursdays, 8.00 pmRATING: PG Parents of teens have been concerned about the a riotous culture developing around adolescents for some time now ... much more time than...
July 5, 2009
TV Review - Talkin Bout Your Generation
Talkin' 'bout your generation - Review by Mark Hadley CHANNEL: Network TENTIME-SLOT: Tuesdays, 7.30 pmRATING: PG A charismatic host firing questions at sharp team captains and interesting guests, about a topic everyone can feel they know something about. The ABC's successful music...
June 21, 2009
TV Review - Random Acts of Kindness
Mark Hadley reviews "Random Acts of Kindness". CHANNEL: The Nine NetworkTIME-SLOT: 6.30 pm SundaysRATING: PG The Nine Network's latest attempt to make ground in the battle for 'feel good' television is part This is your life, part Australian Story. Sadly, the look...
May 24, 2009
TV Review - Merlin
A Review of Merlin - by reviewer Mark Hadley of Anglican Media CHANNEL: Network TENTIME-SLOT: Sundays, 6.30 pmRATING: PG Merlin is basically Harry Potter television. Aimed at the tweens and teens, it draws on a growing appetite for fantasy fiction to sustain...
May 10, 2009
TV Review - Mad Men
A Review of "Mad Men" - by Mark Hadley, from Anglican Media CHANNEL: SBSTIME-SLOT: Thursdays 8.30 pmRATING: PG Mad Men is earning the industry’s top accolades – five Golden Globes and 20 other awards – demonstrating that audiences still hunger for truth,...
March 1, 2009
TV Review - Chandon Pictures
A Review of ABC's "Chandon Pictures" by Mark Hadley. A friend once told me that he believed there were three types of businessmen. The first type is completely out for themselves, and leaves you in no doubt about it. The...
February 15, 2009
TV Review: "Aussie, Get Your Gun" - New programs in 2009
2009 TV: "Aussie get your gun" A sneak preview of television coming up in 2009 - by Mark Hadley of Anglican Media “Violence never solves anything – except conflict,” says art teacher Joffrey Jellineck in the irreverent comedy series, Strangers...
November 16, 2008
Film Review: Brideshead Revisited
"Waugh torn saga"... A review of the film Brideshead Revisited (PG) by reviewer Barry Gittins. This movie, based on Evelyn Waugh's 1945 novel, is a morality play based on the twin hungers of the narrator, Charlie Ryder (played by...
November 9, 2008
Film Review: Young@Heart
"Singing the Spirit home"... A review of the film Young At Heart, by reviewer Barry Gittins. YOUNG@HEART (PG) features a mob of strikingly alive senior cits doing what they love best - performing rock songs on stage. This British doco on a...
October 19, 2008
TV Review: Packed to the Rafters
PACKED TO THE RAFTERS: TV Review by Mark Hadley The Seven Network has a heritage of marketing to the middle ground. It is the family station, full of household improvements, lifestyle features and feel-good drama. So it’s no surprise that...
Film Review - Journey to the Centre of the World
If you are going to see Journey to the Center of the Earth, see it while it's still showing (dur, Barry) and see it in 3-D. This is great fun for kids, and amusing for anyone prepared to switch their...
September 4, 2008
Film Review - The Forbidden Kingdom
You remember the 1980s, surely? It was largely the decade of 'chop sokky' - Hong Kong's finest martial artists, and the host of western wannabees who clung to the dragon's tale (think Chuck Norris, Dolph Lundgren, Jean Claude Van Damm,...
August 11, 2008
Film Review: Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?
Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? (M) Reviewer: Barry Gittins This quaint, often hilarious little travelogue reminds us that Morgan Spurlock is a very funny guy who is willing to do all sorts of things to himself...
July 10, 2008
Film Review: Sex and The City
After a long time no TV, the movie that the fans* demanded be made has finally besieged the big screens of the world. Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her gal pals - feisty redhead Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), sultry blonde...
July 3, 2008
Film Review: Get Smart
Dubbadeedubbadeedubbadeedubbadeedubbadeedubbadeedub... Du duddaaaaaaaah, da!Du duddaaaaaaaah, duh.Du du dadad dud du dadad dud du dadada dududududududuu. du du du duuuuuuuuu dop. Every time that theme music blurted out of my telly I was entranced. Would the Chief finally lose his patience and fire...
June 16, 2008
The Big Picture - Film: Prince Caspian
Stouthearted badgers, macho mice, dubious dwarves and a conquered kingdom. Welcome to ‘Narnia—the wounded years’. Those ever-lovin’ ‘sons of Adam and daughters of Eve’—Peter (William Moseley) Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and the very sweet Lucy Pevensie (Georgie Henley)—are...
May 29, 2008
The Big Picture: Film - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
A good head for Hollywood Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (M) The obligatory henchmen toss an embattled, bloodied figure to the ground. Gingerly (he is a senior citizen, after all), our hero girds his loins,...
The Big Picture: Film - Iron Man
A Win for Tin Sinner Iron Man (M) The noughties continues to reign as rthe dace for tinpot superhero movies and the geek nerdboy fans who buy tickets to see 'em. In the case of Iron Man, however, they have...
May 5, 2008
The Big Picture: Film - The Painted Veil
(Rated M for moderate themes and sexual references) It’s the early 20th century and a British MD turned bacteriologist named Walter Fane (played by Edward Norton) is on holidays back in England (he works for the Poms in China), when he’s...
April 21, 2008
The Big Picture: Film - Be Kind Rewind
(Rated PG for mild coarse language and sexual references) 'Sweden's not a verb, it's a country.' Welcome to the wonderful world of Gondry, the film's screenwriter and director. Michel Gondry, the Oscar-winning, different-minded rock video genie who gave us Eternal Sunshine...
March 30, 2008
The Big Picture: TV - ABC's 'Stuff'
Wendy Harmer’s new foray into the life-style focused documentary is a surprisingly considered approach to our obsession with ownership and the objects that give our lives meaning. But at what point do we stop possessing and start to become possessed?...
March 16, 2008
The Big Picture - TV: Cashmere Mafia | Dirty Sexy Money
I began this week with a conversation with Michael, a solid Christian tradesman and family man, who was concerned about how the media shaped the way we saw ourselves and each other by the way it portrayed sex on television....
March 2, 2008
The Big Picture - TV: Underbelly
If Underbelly is capable of breaking free from the legal quagmire that continues to dog its production, then it promises to be one of the most significant home-grown television releases of the year. The subject matter alone is compelling: the...
February 24, 2008
The Big Picture - Film: There Will Be Blood
Time to get the Big Picture on film, with a Citizen-Kane style flick about a preacher, an oil tycoon, and moral frailty. There Will Be Blood is loosely based on an 80-year-old novel by Upton Sinclair titled Oil! It’s a...
February 17, 2008
The Big Picture - TV: 2008 in Preview
They say you are what you eat. If this year’s television diet is anything to go by, we’re going to develop a taste for the overly buffed, salivate over muscle cars, digest the bitterness of organised crime and be too...
December 7, 2007
Responding to The Golden Compass
If you didn't catch our roundtable discussion on The Golden Compass - the new film based on the first book of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy - make sure you listen to the podcast! You can read Mark Hadley's...
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