entertainment manchester - dvd reviews - deal or no deal, girls aloud, jimmy carr

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Deal Or No Deal Interative DVD Game - by Paul Bullock

"I should have taken the swap." That's what I found myself saying when I was lumped with a jackpot of 1p rather than the £50,000 which was sitting snugly in the box I should have swapped with. It's the kind of all-or-nothing tension which has made Deal or No Deal such a massive hit for Channel 4 and the excitement makes the switch to this new DVD game, albeit rather briefly. It's a very classy affair. Noel Edmonds is his usual half-annoying, half-endearing self and many of the most famous contestants from past shows are opening the boxes, wishing you good luck. The problem with it though is once you've played it a few times, it begins to lose its appeal. After all, when you're not playing for actual money or watching other people put potential fortunes on the line for your gratification, the game is simply a group of people opening boxes. There's no sense of achievement because you're not answering questions and even if you do win, it's a victory which rings rather hollow since the only person you'll be getting one up on is the banker, who you never see or hear. Play it with mates and put a few quid on the outcome and it'll be a great game to while away the hours over the Christmas period. But it's unlikely to make the stretch beyond the New Year.

Girls Aloud - The Greatest Hits Live From Wembley Arena 2006

Greatest Hits Live? Basically it's just a gig from their tour, which obviously is their greatest hits, because what the hell else are they going to play? A cover of a Kaiser Chiefs song? Oh, right, they do that too. Girls Aloud are a band who get very lofty praise from some critics, but that is based more on the people who write their songs and control their image than on the five girls who are actually in the band, so its interesting to see how they cope on the live stage when they are - presumably - singing live. As you'd expect, there's lots of glam and saucy costumes, some laboured set pieces, lots of smiles and screaming tweenie girls in the crowd, as well as random time-fillers like some men breakdancing to Bohemian Like You to give the band time to change costume. Oh, and there's the limp and very forced cover of I Predict A Riot, where they famously change the word 'condom' to 'bus home', presumably fearing that teaching safe sex to their audience would be a bad thing in some way. There's lots of hit songs on here, lots of energetic dance routines and obviously there will be people out there who went to see Girls Aloud and thought it was the greatest show on Earth. However, the fact is that no amount about gloss paint can cover up the fact that they just aren't a good live act, with little real presence and poor voices. Pop shows can be incredible spectacles, but there's just nothing at all special about this one.

Jimmy Carr Live Collection

Here's a thought. If Channel 4 ever do a Top 100 Comedy DVD list (and let's face it, at some point they are bound to), will Jimmy Carr be too embarassed to present it when neither of these DVDs make the list? Harsh maybe, but true. This Live Collection lumps together Jimmy Carr Live and Jimmy Carr Stand Up, both recorded at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London, which makes it all seem a bit samey, even though the material is mostly different. The first of them, Live, is pretty awful on the whole, with Carr's jokes too random, too obviously 'offensive' and with some very thin material stretched even thinner. He insults members of the audience for being gypies, in-breds and for going to the toilet, then wastes about 20 minutes (or at least it seems like it) sitting at his desk reading out unfunny letters he has 'sent' to various politicians and celebrities. God it drags on. The audience chuckle along, but there's hardly the kind of hysterical response that top quality stand-up should provoke. The second DVD is at least better than that, with a fairly amusing intro provided by 'the warm-up act', a TV screen. But again, he falls back too often on making fun of gays, gypsies and women, and while it is certainly funnier than the first show, it is still too inconsistent and too many of the jokes fall too flat. There's plenty of bonus material, but when the main act isn't that good, why bother delving deeper? For fans only...