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Black Adder V - Back and Forth

Black Adder V - Back and Forth

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $17.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: One of the weaker entries in the Black Adder Saga
Review: As one who has seen every episode of Black Adder (including "The Cavalier Years" and "Christmas Carol"), many of them more than once, I was really psyched up about seeing this ... and somewhat let down by the actual experience. First, given that they allegedly spent nearly $5 million on this, I was hoping for at least an hour. Instead you get a half hour, plus another half hour of outtakes and background. And while the actual episode has its moments, it isn't all that funny. In fact if you aren't already familiar with the cast of characters, you won't "get" quite a bit of it. As others have noted, there's a bit of Dr. Who mixed in here, along with an opening scene that parallels/parodies the opening moments of the 1960 version of "The Time Machine" ... and even a visual sequence straight out of The Wizard of Oz. All well and good, but it's not enough to carry the story. As the plot unfolds, we see BA and Baldrick muck up history, and then try to correct their errors, but this is hardly a new idea -- "Back to the Future," anyone? -- and not handled very imaginatively here. The best part is the ending, but even that isn't up to the standards set by the better episodes of the series. This is worth watching once, if you're a BA fan, but not worth buying, IMHO. See if you can rent it, or wait for it to show up on PBS, which it does periodically.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantastic
Review: Back and Forth isn't nearly as acerbic as the earlier installments (with the possible exception of BAI), and some of the lines suffer from poor timing. Additionally, I got the impression that in some places, the writers were trying to spell out the implied jokes in order to appeal to stupid people. If you've never seen Black-Adder before, do not buy this--buy Black Adder III, or if you have surplus funds (send them to me or), buy the complete series. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it, and I think it would be worthwhile for other diehard Black-Adder fans.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not the best, but still worthwhile
Review: Back and Forth isn't nearly as acerbic as the earlier installments (with the possible exception of BAI), and some of the lines suffer from poor timing. Additionally, I got the impression that in some places, the writers were trying to spell out the implied jokes in order to appeal to stupid people. If you've never seen Black-Adder before, do not buy this--buy Black Adder III, or if you have surplus funds (send them to me or), buy the complete series. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it, and I think it would be worthwhile for other diehard Black-Adder fans.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Cute, But Is It Worth the Price....?
Review: Being a longtime fan of Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder, I snapped up this DVD as soon as it was released. Considering the vast amounts of extras most DVD's have, I generally avoid buying ones that aren't loaded with hours of viewing material. However, seeing that the box said the program was 55 minutes long, and knowing it would NEVER show up on TV, I figured what the hell.....

The actual content itself is about 31 minutes long, with an 18 minute long "Baldrick's Diary" (Which is really a making-of featurette), some witty "Who's who in Blackadder" Bios narrated by Actor Tony Robinson, and 5 minutes of Historical tidbits touching on spots visited by Blackadder & Baldrick during the "Film", also narrated by Robinson. There's also some trailers for other BBC DVD's.

The Film itself is more like an episode of the series writ somewhat larger; A modern-day Blackadder and his manservent Baldrick use a home-made time machine to visit various spots in history. The usual suspects return, including Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, and Miranda Richardson. There were a few chuckles, but no real laughs until the end-credits song. Hardly worth the price, especially since the description on the box seems to imply that the actual movie is an hour long, not that EVERTHING on the disc equals an hour. Blackadder completists will certainly buy it, and enjoy it, but it should have had either more content or a lower price point....

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Learn English from Blackadder
Review: Blackadder Back And Forth speaks about a person called Edmund Blackadder and his servant Baldric. He wanted to gain some money by betting his friends that he could travel in time using the "Time Machine" he had "constructed". His bet was that he could travel in time and bring back "any items of historical importance that you choose to nominate". The "Time Machine" was actually meant to be a fake and was built by Baldric using the instructions written by Leonardo da Vinci. Little did Blackadder know that he would have to embark on an adventure "in a small wooden box with two toilets, and the stupidest man that has ever lived".
Blackadder Back And Forth was very amusing to me because it presents Blackadder's cunning and ignorance of all that does not effect him in a very funny way. I enjoy it also because Edmund uses a rather expanded vocabulary of rude words and he has a lot of motives and targets to use them on. In fact, I would strongly recommend Blackadder as your English teacher.
....

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Flogging servants: once just a hobby, now a motion picture
Review: Don't be teased: BACK AND FORTH isn't a fifth series of BLACK ADDER. It might be CALLED "BLACK ADDER V", but it's no such animal. It's a special, one-off film, much in the tradition of BLACK ADDER'S A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Like that predecessor, it takes the basic BLACK ADDER elements and uses them to its own purposes.

If this were truly the fifth series of BLACK ADDER, we'd expect to see the familiar cast of characters put in a single time period for a few episodes of mirth in the context of that time. Instead, perhaps inspired by Rowan Atkinson's own trip in the TARDIS, this is BLACK ADDER meets DOCTOR WHO.

The comedy, here, comes from sending Blackadder and Baldrick on a search for historical artifacts in a faulty time machine. As might be expected, they can't quite work the controls, so they go through the titular "back and forth" movements through time, meeting up with familiar faces from the series' (and Britain's) past.

It's great fun--much, much better than A CHRISTMAS CAROL at making multiple time zones work. Heeding the rampant criticism of A CHRISTMAS CAROL's "future" scene, writers Curtis and Elton have Blackadder only barely venturing into the future, here. Happily, they place Blackadder firmly in the past, with a wider range of actual historical (or at least legendary) figures than ever before. Blackadder's sharp criticism of historical greats like Shakespeare, Wellington, and Robin Hood will leave you laughing. But the best part is perhaps the ending, which holds unique satisfaction for long-time BLACK ADDER fans

Still, it's not a five-star effort. Just as in BLACK ADDER'S A CHRISTMAS CAROL, the need to visit all these time zones means that the characters along the way don't get the attention they deserve. Writers Curtis and Elton are guilty here of taking the easy historical joke from each time period and then running like hell. It's not a HUGE sin, because the jokes are very, very good--but there's nevertheless a sense that Curtis and Elton would've done better by simply choosing one epoch and staying there.

Also, I think that while this filmed production has higher production values than its siblings, it's not necessarily the better for it. In particular, I would've traded all the sumptuous location shots for a studio audience. As a television series, BLACK ADDER had a very syncopated, rhythmic prose; as a film, it's missing the punctuation of a studio audience's laughter. It's not just that it's minimally less enjoyable to watch without the laughter, it also affects the actors somewhat. In some scenes, the actors just slightly lack the timing and the energy they've had on other BLACK ADDER projects.

Laying these two objections to one side, however, you really should get this film. While I think some of its humor is vastly improved by having seen the television series--and even better enhanced by knowing some British history ---converts to the cult of The Black Adder could certainly do worse than to start here.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantastic
Review: For all the bad reveiwers out there this is not all that bad, It was never meant to be a series but a stand alone episode made entirly for the new millennium, it was 1st shown on new years eve 1999 at the millennium dome in London and was supposed to be a fun educational show for the kids and it worked!! but as so many people liked it the wise creators decided to add it to the fantasic series and release it on DVD and i am very glad, i think its one of the best (not as good as II but almost) 5*****

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Strictly for Ardent fans
Review: I am the biggest fan of the blackadder there is (including three email addresses entitled blackadder), but this video is for the fan who waxes nostalgic. If you have every thing else by all means purchase this if you (like myself) always crave more of Lord Blackadder. On the other hand, this is not the place to start, in fact it is rather disappointing, better to get the complete collection and the Christmas special first.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Strictly for Ardent fans
Review: I am the biggest fan of the blackadder there is (including three email addresses entitled blackadder), but this video is for the fan who waxes nostalgic. If you have every thing else by all means purchase this if you (like myself) always crave more of Lord Blackadder. On the other hand, this is not the place to start, in fact it is rather disappointing, better to get the complete collection and the Christmas special first.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brilliant Masterpiece!
Review: I saw it first time in the Millennium Doom in London, England and I love it! Rowan Atkinson and all his crew gave a brilliant performance! You must see it couple of times to understand all the nuances between the lines. You will not regret!


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