Welcome to KIWIreviews - product reviews
•  click here to return to the homepage  •
Welcome visitor.Join us or log in

Product reviews on kiwireviews.nz : Friday 29th March 2024 - 23:31:13

QuickSearch for:    What is QuickSearch?
QuickJump to:    What is QuickJump?
logon name: p/w:  

I want to:

You Are Here...

Home > Categories > Entertainment > Television > Big Train - Series 2 review

« Top Trumps : Space reviewTop Trumps : SpaceHi-5 : Dance Hits reviewHi-5 : Dance Hits »

Score: 9.0/10  [2 reviews]
4 out of 5
ProdID: 929 - Big Train - Series 2
Type of Show: Comedy Series

Big Train - Series 2
Price:
$29.99
Sample/s Supplied by:
Click to search for all products supplied by Roadshow (NZ) Ltd

Disclosure StatementFULL DISCLOSURE: A number of units of this product have, at some time, been provided to KIWIreviews by Roadshow (NZ) Ltd or their agents for the sole purposes of unbiased, independent reviews. No fee was requested, offered nor accepted by KIWIreviews or the reviewers themselves - these are genuine, unpaid consumer reviews.
Available:
April 2006

Big Train - Series 2 product reviews

Big Train was the eagerly awaited follow-up to Father Ted from writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews, and is a sketch show in the tradition of Monty Python.

Big Train steams out of the comedy tunnel as realism meets utter stupidity in a cavalcade of daft sketches performed by high-quality actors in a series of stunning costumes and vast sets reminiscent of the worst excesses of DW Griffith.

Along the way we meet shy policemen, pop stars chasing jockeys, a duck in danger, hens in armed combat, a confused Transport Minister, highly charged sexual politics and casual, though necessary, violence. The show thrives on the subversion of everyday occurrences, mundane situations and famous faces.

Includes all six episodes from Series 2, and special features such as Cast & Crew Commentary, deleted scenes, biographies, photo gallery and 7 minutes of material from "Geht's Noch" , the German version of Big Train.

Check out Roadshow (NZ) Ltd onlineClick here to see all the listings for Roadshow (NZ) Ltd Visit their website They do not have a Twitter account Check them out on Facebook They do not have a YouTube Channel They do not have a Pinterest board They do not have an Instagram channel They do not have a TikTok channel



Tags:
arthur matthews   comedy   dvd   graham lineham   jonathan gershfield
Other listings you may be interested in:
The Fleetwood Mac ExperienceThe Fleetwood Mac Experience
Rating: 8.9
The Goodies - A Tasty Second HelpingThe Goodies - A Tasty Second Helping
Rating: 8.5
All Creatures Great and Small: Series FourAll Creatures Great and Small: Series Four
Rating: 9.5
Attenborough - The First EdenAttenborough - The First Eden
Rating: 10.0
Doctor Who - The MutantsDoctor Who - The Mutants
Rating: 8.8
James May's Man Lab - series 1James May's Man Lab - series 1
Rating: 9.0
NCIS LA - Season 1NCIS LA - Season 1
Rating: 10.0
Chuggington: Chug-A-SonicChuggington: Chug-A-Sonic
Rating: 10.0
An Idiot Abroad: Series TwoAn Idiot Abroad: Series Two
Rating: 10.0
Bates Motel: Season ThreeBates Motel: Season Three
Rating: 10.0
The X-Files: Season FourThe X-Files: Season Four
Rating: 9.3
The Vampire Diaries - The Complete Sixth SeasonThe Vampire Diaries - The Complete Sixth Season
Rating: 9.3
Top Gear: Ambitious but RubbishTop Gear: Ambitious but Rubbish
Rating: 9.5

Product reviews...

Everyone is welcome to post a review. You will need to Join up or log in to post yours.

Click here to read the profile of diogenes

Review by: diogenes (Rob)
Dated: 30th of April, 2006

Link to this review Report this review

 

This Review: 9.3/10
Storyline:
Score 10 out of 10
Actors / Animation:
Score 9 out of 10
Soundtrack:
Score 8 out of 10
Personal Choice:
Score 10 out of 10

There are many 'comedies' around - unfortunately most of them are American, and usually so dreadful that even my daughter asks 'Why do they think that is funny?' Clearly American humour is dumbed down so far that intelligent kids can see through it immediately. The canned laughter fools no-one with an ounce of noggin. Surely American comedy is just some form of mind control to keep the masses under control by turning their citizens into non-thinking entities.

English humour, on the other hand, does require a brain to see the humour in the irreverent juxtapositions of daily life with a healthy dose of the obscura. Plate spinning surgeons perhaps? French speaking tortoises? Flamenco-dancing bomb-disposal squads? Drown the Sumatran tiger campaign, and my favourite - the Cake Factory!

This is very much in the vein of Monty Python, who were clearly the grandfathers of all English comedy since, but this takes the surreal humour to the next level, well, more than the next level actually - an elevator is needed to get to that level. These people are clearly destined for greatness and to be talked about in 30 years' time with the same reverence that Monty Python receives now. These people are the trailblazers into the future of comedy.

Each episode was filled with short skits from the irreverent, the surreal and just the plain quirky 'WTF???' It never failed to amuse me - I say 'amuse' with my typical English understatement, when what I really meant to say was 'I was laughing so hard that my belly burst and I needed to call a surgeon to reunite me with my spilled entrails, then laughed so much more that I split my stitches as well as my sides' - Yes, it was quite droll.

It is a damned shame I missed the first series, and I can see I will have to scour shops throughout the country to aquire by fair means or foul, that mythical 'series one'. I can see this DVD will be brought out on regular occasions, and not just on drunken evenings.

Click here to read the profile of tucker

Review by: tucker (Karl)
Dated: 21st of April, 2006

Link to this review Report this review

 

This Review: 8.8/10
Storyline:
Score 8 out of 10
Actors / Animation:
Score 9 out of 10
Soundtrack:
Score 9 out of 10
Personal Choice:
Score 9 out of 10

Back in their day, Monty Python were the trendsetters in alternative British comedy, with such classics as The Parrot Sketch, The Ministry of Silly Walks, and of course who could forget The Bruces, with their wonderful The Philosophers Song... with the highly popular spin-off movies they did as a team, and their distinctive flavours showing up in their non-Python movies, such as Terry Gilliam's Brazil, and of course Erik the Viking... they were the undisputed leaders of their genre, even today.

Today, we are mired down in short-attention-span, too-obvious-punchlined American wit, and let's face it... you don't need to have an IQ higher than your shoe size to get the joke of such attempts at humour. We British colonial decendants appreciate a higher form of wit, where a single skit may in fact be funny on a number of different levels, and for a number of different reasons. In fact, the more jokes layered upon each other, the better the laugh!

So today, we look towards the modern generation of humourists and satirists to entertain us, and that's where Big Train comes in. Blazing a new trail through the dross of so-called comedy, where an overweight, aggressive woman yelling at her family is called humour, where a sad-sack of an African-American man droning on about his deprived childhood is thought of as hilarious... Big Train light up the sky with skits and scenes of humour that derive their roots from the Python era, with a hint of Kenny Everett, Benny Hill... and dare I say it, even a dash of "Not the Nine O'clock News."

Some of the skits are just a tad TOO outside the bounds though, so don't be surprised if your main source of laughter is watching the blank looks of utter confusion slowly creeping over the faces of those around you, as they try to figure out the punchline... and just don't. The majority of the skits can be reduced down to a simple formula... take something totally predictable, and put such a mighty twist in it's tail that that the juxaposition is just outrageous, and that irony makes it funny. And since the ingredients differ, they don't come across as 'variations on a theme', but rather as a selection of variety, all as easy to laugh at as each other.

6 episodes, each with around 20 scenes, running to about 30 minutes per episode... there's over 3 hours of hilarity, head scratching, laughing until your lungs hurt, and maybe the odd emergency dash to the loo to avoid wet trousers... they all add up to great comedy that is sure to become a British Classic in the years to come, and thus join the hallowed ranks of the Mighty Bellyshakers such as those I have mentioned earlier.

Overall, hilarious. I was laughing from the opening credits (which are a very good graphic representation of their style of humour... You'll understand when you see them.) through to the end. So much so in fact, that I plan to share this with all my friends and family, and encourage them to go out and buy a copy for themselves. As well as that, I hope to find Series 1 on DVD somewhere and snaffle it up, to sit alongside this DVD on my "Has Serious Merit" shelf. Well done, to our new generation of joviality-bearers.


Random listing from 'Entertainment'...

Score: 9.5
Product reviews for listing 3986: Richard Hammond's Journey to the Centre of the Planet -  Type of Show: Educational Nature and Science

Product image for Richard Hammond's Journey to the Centre of the PlanetUsing state of the art technology, Richard Hammond's Journey to the Centre of the Planet lifts the lid on planet Earth, peeling back its layers to reveal a hugely complex machine unique in our solar system.

At first glance, the surface of our planet appears solid and unchanging - but every day there are at least fifty big earthquakes and twelve powerful volcanic eruptions. Using the latest scientific information, we see ... more...

Go to the listing

General Disclaimer...

Protected by Copyscape Plagiarism Checker - Do not copy content from this page. Creative Commons Licence All trademarks, images and copyrights on this site are owned by their respective companies.
KIWIreviews is an independent entity, part of the Knock Out News Group. This is a free public forum presenting user opinions on selected products, and as such the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinion of kiwireviews.nz and are protected under New Zealand law by the "Honest Opinion" clause of the Defamation Act of 1992. KIWIreviews accepts no liability for statements made on this site, on the premise that they have been submitted as the true and honest opinions of the individual posters. In most cases, prices and dates stated are approximate and should be considered as only guidelines.

"If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, then what is baby oil made from?"
unattributed