ROK

Well this was a great way to spend an evening, I mean it's obviously well atleast at the end ] a pilot for a hoped series of movies or TV series, but in it's self it's an entertaning few hours.

Kenny rogers is a recently released "con" who checks into a hotel looking for his ex-wife and gets embroiled in a plan to rob a casino in Las Vegas.

With guest appearances by a number of known faces from the world of TV most noticeably Barry Newman, still known to people of my generation as the hopeless house builder but un-beatable lawyer Petrocelli.

This is a nice movie, with good action sequences and enough twists to keep you interested.

One thing though either there was an injury of the main star or something 'cause he seemed to do a good stunt fight early on then they put in a not very similar stunt man for a sequence that seemed little more than a scuffle, not sure why there.

But definatly worth checking out.

Well now then after a comment like that how can I back it up. Well firstly by stating that this is obviously a subjective view.

But to the movie.

This was released in the UK on video in the early 1980's. It's the story of Benji, Bobby and Huey, well atleast those were the names in the English translation. This is an Israeli [not sure if that's how you spell that but you get the point] movie. It tells the story of the Boys search for Love and..... Sex basically. Making the point early on that the two are not necessarily connected.

Benji the "quiet" one falls for a girl who he invites to a party, she says no but then turns up with his best friend, the `good looking' one, True to life or what! She eventually succumbs to Bobby's advances, and gets pregnant, at which point he dumps her. Benji stands by her organising an abortion and paying for it, well I never said this was a family film. At which point as soon as they return home .. well check out the end yourself, if you can get a copy that is, why I don't know but this is almost impossible to obtain a copy of. Other stories revolve around the boys visit to a prostitute, their catching of an embarrassing condition, And their run in with an Italian nymphomaniac while delivering ice.

So basically if you want to categorise this movie it's a sex comedy set in the 1960's. But it's more than that. For a start it has one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard, and the story and characterisation is in my opinion well up to the standard of Hollywood

Well the first episode of this new series has finished and i for one really enjoyed it. It puts a newish twist on cop dramas. The two leads Nick Berry [ Eastenders, Heartbeat ] and Stephen Tompkinson [ Drop the Dead Donkey, Ballykissangel ]have proven themselves elsewhere and seem to gel well. The stories ( this first one at least ) seem to have enough surprises to keep you guessing right to the end. Even though the BBC do seem to have an unfortunate habit of showing too much as a trailer for the second episode at the end of the first, and seem to re-cap 85% of the first at the start of the second.

In the first story Nick's character has to investigate his old Squad, which is now run by his Wife's best friend's husband who is also a close friend of his. "Garth" Tompkinsons character, gets involved with the lives of the Prostitutes he's using to try and get information on a Madame who is running them.

All stories mix and leads to a stage where almost everyone is under suspicion of something and your left guessing till the very end what the outcome will be.

Check this series out. It deserves to run for quite a while...which probably means it'll be cancelled after one season, as seems to be the norm these days for anything that dares to be innovative or different from the diet of soap operas and makeover shows that fill 80% of the schedules these days.