Exploring Austria and Germany

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Had this not been subtitled "A Winter Wonderland" it would have rated three stars from me. While the production values are iffy (The sound levels are all over the place so that you'll have to ride your remote control constantly to be able to hear the narrator but not be blasted out of your seat by the music track. In some places, the narration was actually drowned out by the music!) there's a lot of material in this rather short travelog.

However, when something bills itself as a travelog about winter in Germany and Austria, I really expect more than a shot of the Christkindlmarket in each town visited, and some gratuitous snow shots right at the end. Instead of a film about the beauties and pleasures of winter in Germany/Austria, this is a pretty standard, and not particularly well-done travelog about some of the nicer spots in those two countries.

Given the amount of territory they try to cover, it should have been about three times as long, and the narration should have been a bit more exciting. Everyone watching this at my house fell asleep! Cuts are abrupt and disconcerting. We go from a somber segment on Dachau to a startlingly cheerful bit about Munich. Frankly, there are far better travel films on this subject.

Rating:
Summary: One-Star Travelouge!
Review: I was disapointed with this travelogue! Specifically: 1) The sound level varied significantly - especially in the beginning; 2) The music track was mainly a loop of some flute music that started to get on my nerves; 3) too many locations were attempted in a short 38 minute program which resulted in seeing little of any one location; 4) Too many closeups without allowing enough establishing/wide shots to give the viewer an idea of what the general areas/cities looked like; 5) Live shots were somewhat shakey and at least one shot, the view of Neuschwanstein Castle, which was depicted on the cover of the DVD and one of the places I looked forward to seeing, was only a single photo of what appeared to be a postcard.

I was hoping for some local culture in the way of people, dress, food, drink, customs, festivals, and tourist attractions, including some of the beautiful churches that were shown, but not that many. All in all - disappointing, for the most part.