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Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), head of federal agency CTU, receives intelligence that David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert), a senator running for presidency, may be assassinated during the primaries. In the meanwhile, Bauer's wife and daughter get kidnapped, forcing Bauer to deal with both situations. Oh, and one of his colleagues is not to be trusted...

Just pretending to be a particular character is B-grade actor stuff, actually being the character is a performance. Kiefer Sutherland shows he can do much better than the pull-the-string-for-an-excuse military guy roles (hence the extra role in 'A Few Good Men') he's usually receiving in his mailbox. Sutherland ís Jack Bauer. The man is a pro. Jack Bauer is portrayed as a hero, the man who can't be harmed, who kills the bad guys and saves the innocents. Sounds ridiculous and Disney-esquire, but Sutherland makes Jack Bauer a believable person.

24's first season is the pick of the bunch. Even in this debut season, the scriptwriters didn't manage to write a story that could last for 24 hours, and to be very honest, you won't get a better season after this. It's not Jack Bauer's story, but all the sub plots that let this show down. Elisha Cuthbert made herself infamous by playing Kim Bauer, Jack's daughter who has some neurotic determination to get herself into trouble. While Cuthbert's character served a purpose in the first half of the first season, Kim Bauer hampers the show's pace by repeatedly getting kidnapped, arrested, or generally ignoring dad's wise advisory.

It's fascinating to see how much suspense 24 creates, even if most of the shots feature 'inactive activity', like characters driving a car, sitting behind a computer or being locked in a barn. The photography department does a good job in using the right techniques - e.g. the picture-in-picture idea that 24 adopted with good result. Almost every episode ends with a thriving cliffhanger. The finale, without giving anything away, is top grade television.

The second season is a bit of a let-down, at least in the storyline department. The writers bring in subplots that are totally irrelevant to the main - Jack Bauer - plot, nicely illustrated by a Kim Bauer running around LA with subsequently her au pair kid's angry dad, the PD, a cougar and a desperate wood cabin guy on her tail.

Even though the show features an 'open ending', you don't need to give in to the urge to smash your money on the other DVD-boxes. Season One is best seen as a 'stand alone', for it is a nice, wonderfully put together TV series, that sadly tries to milk its hype by advertising for Ford and Nokia and not by providing a compelling story, comparable with Season One.

The original Driver was brilliant: it brought movies like Bullitt to your computer or PSX, so you could be a Steve McQueen doing handbrake turns in '70s American muscle cars. Its only (major) glitch was the poor performance on the original Playstation. Far too many times the ruddy thing crashed, because it couldn't cope with more than three active police cars. The traffic consisted of only two types of car per city (Miami, Sisco, LA, NY), so the PC players had a big advantage here. (I'm actually considering grabbing a PC copy out of the bargain bin.) Driver's sequel (called Driver 2 - how original is that?) was also released on PSX. Sadly, the original game showed that the Playstation had reached its limits, but that didn't stop the developers to go over them. Driver 2's main feature is Detective Tanner's ability to get out of his car. The only times you will ever use this option, is when you change cars or open a garage door, which makes this option quite pointless, especially because Tanner is all but able to do a decent job at walking. Firing guns? No way, Jose.

The storyline takes Tanner to (again) four cities: along with Chicago and Las Vegas, it also features Havana and Rio de Janeiro - Havana boosting most of the fun, since you can do your Handbrake 90's with old Volkswagen vans and Bel Airs here. The driving missions are still the daddy, and I was able to do all of the missions without cheats (unlike Driver 1, where the final mission was anything but possible).

When you need a taste of the Driver feel, buy the PC game of the original and leave the PSX games.

(Repeated line in the DVD director's commentary: "We cut that scene, 'cause we wouldn't want to hurt any people.") Tom Shadyac seems to have a knack for completely inoffensive, high morale, family valued, junk food comedy features: hence Liar Liar, Ace Ventura, you know the bunch. Bruce Almighty is in the same league, but fails to be funny for the entire length of the movie. Instead, it is a moralizing piece of bull that could have been so much better, if only Tom Shadyac wouldn't have listened to his stupid focus group audience.

Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) is a reporter for the Buffalo local news station, but he's fed up with making reports about low-rent, trivial subjects like he's (apparently) been doing for the last few years. Instead, his goal is to become the anchor of the news station and become Buffalo's own Walter Cronkite. When his slimy colleague Evan Baxter (Steve Carell) snitches his beloved job opportunity from under his very nose, Bruce starts a rage against God, blaming him for all the misery he's in. Consequently, God (Morgan Freeman) grants Bruce all his powers, so he can prove that he can do a better job.

Of course, this leads to the usual series of hilarious events, but suddenly, the script demands a more serious approach. Enough with all the mild Bible jokes, it's time for some tear-jerking morale! I don't mind the morale, but why does it take Shadyac half a movie to make his statement? There is absolutely *nothing* to laugh about in the second bit of Bruce Almighty, and that's the first reason why it fails to be a good comedy.

The second reason is Shadyac's enduring fear to offend people. The film would have been a lot better if only he had the bloody cojones to ignore the complaints of the ruddy focus group. How could a simple God joke be offensive, when thousands of Christians approve of a movie where Jesus Christ is beaten to a pulp for two hours (Gibson's Passion of the Christ)? The only thing I find offensive about Bruce Almighty, is the way Carrey's character behaves to his girlfriend (Jennifer Aniston in a stereotype cast) and gets away with it. Just like Maura Tierney in Liar Liar, Aniston has to play a woman who simply loves an insulting, betraying, generally mistreating jerk. For that I don't blame God (for I'm not Bruce), but Shadyac. Family values, tssk.