Recursive

Tag: Reviews

  • 3 / Skype Marketing Technique

    I was recently contacted by Matt of 3mobilebuzz.com and offered the chance to trial a pair of 3 (the network) Skype
    (the VoIP company) mobile phones (3skypephone.com) for a month. (No obligation to do anything, other than the mention of returning them after a month.)

    I thought it was an interesting marketing ploy – it seems very generous, but is probably not actually particularly expensive to such large companies.
    I also thought it seemed a little risky – how many people will return the phones? How many people will actually generate any hype, and will it be positive?

    The first link above will show that the scheme has been going for some time already and world-wide – highlighting one of the benefits of calls made using VoIP (i.e. via the internet).
    You can also see that they’re being fair with the selection of linked blog articles – some have negative points about the phone.

    I’m not going to review the phone itself since many others have done that already, unless enough people leave comments here.

  • Conning The Conmen

    BBC Three‘s Conning the Conmen was on late on Thursday night, and a pre-watershed version will be shown on Wednesday at 2030.

    Strengths

    • General Concept – revenge, even if only on a representative of the people we dislike, is bound to appeal to many.
    • Becca – Her first work in front of the camera is impressive – real acting talent to stay in character, and a natural presenting style too.

    Weaknesses

    • The white guy presenter (Dan) simply has an irritating voice, and a strange personality tbh – seemed like he was straining to be more interesting (TeleVisually) than he really is…

    Opportunities

    • Restrain the energy a little, make the programme a touch more serious, and I think the show could do well.

    Threats

    • It can’t be ignored that there are some similar programmes out there. First to mind is Rogue Traders though perhaps they have a more limited ‘victim’ list due to their choice of title.

    [tags]BBC, BBC Three, TV, Television, Review, Opinion[/tags]

  • Cars Review

    Cars was a real visual treat.

    If you can look past the cartoony style of the characters in the film (all vehicles of some kind, even the wildlife) you’ll see that an enormous amount of effort has been put into the look of the film.
    Genuinely photo-realistic, make that ‘actually-in-front-of-you-realistic’, backdrops and scenery, complemented by great little visual details make this real eye candy.
    There are many who, I’m sure, won’t fully appreciate the graphics – not because they’re not impressive, but because there’s much more to the film.

    Yes, the jokes are mostly for the younger ones, with occasional slap-stick, but there are a couple of great lines for the adults which I won’t spoil here.

    Great casting too: Owen Wilson as the lead, ‘guest’ spots from Michael Keaton, Jeremy Clarkson, Michael Schumacher, and a Pixar perennial John Ratzenberger supply very fitting voices.

    My criticisms lie mostly with the script – at 2 hours and 1 minute (5 more minutes than in the US), it’s a long film – especially given that it’s a PG rated film. There were a couple of flat spots, too deep for a ‘cartoon’ and boring for the youngsters.

    I was happily surprised and I’ll definitely recommend this film to those who aren’t sure.
    [tags]Cars,Film,Movie,Review,Opinion[/tags]