UFC: Ultimate 100 Greatest Fights [DVD Review]

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

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“UFC: Ultimate 100 Greatest FightsAnd here we go!!!!!!!!!!” – Mike Goldberg, announcer for the UFC.

I really like the UFC, but I’m a fairly new fan to it. I got into it starting December 2008 when Stephen invited me over to see it at his house. Over 2009, I slowly learned more and more, and then when the latest season of the Ultimate Fighter came out, it really kicked in for me at a new gear. Then, I learned about Spike TV’s show reviewing the best 100 fights in UFC history, and then the DVD set with all those fights got released.

Money –> Amazon = Done.

Description:

For 16 years, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has been the gold standard in combat sports. Now you can re-live the 100 greatest fights in UFC history with this once-in-a-lifetime collection. Featuring all the greats of the Octagon, from Royce Gracie and Chuck Liddell to Matt Hughes and Randy Couture, this set contains the most dramatic, explosive and memorable battles of the UFC in their entirety from 100 down to the greatest UFC fight of all time.

Since I’m not a UFC expert, I can’t comment on its value to someone who’s been a long time hardcore UFC fan. Also, in the US, I think you can just watch most of the UFC fights via cable, ppv or something, so maybe it’s not that big of a deal to have it compiled in a set.

For me though, since I’m mainly in Vietnam, and internet is a lot slower here, it’s a great starter set. I’m not sure if all the fights are really that great, but I can see that certain fights are in the set because of their importance as landmarks in UFC (for example, the Royce Gracie fights are boring to me, maybe due to presentation, but it’s good to see them there) history. I’ve seen other reviews state that fighters the UFC no longer likes get discriminated against in the set, such as Frank Shamrock. Nonetheless, I am happy with the set, and would recommend it to anyone who’s like me, not a long time UFC fan, but really interested in the subject material.

Other notes:

  • I like Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg as the announcers. I think they have good voices and do a good job of educating the audience (which is lacking in most sports announcing today). At the same time, when you start hearing them a lot, especially in succession as on the set, you can pick up certain things, like Goldberg and Rogan often using definitives and agreeing with each other, almost blindly. “Absolutely, Joe”.
  • Video quality and audio quality are quite good. No issues for me here.
  • Many more of that fights are from the last 4 years versus the previous 10 years. One reason is that there’s more frequent UFC events now than when the UFC first started. For the most part, I don’t like many of the older fights that are featured, anyway- I don’t know if I’m wrong, but I assume the skill level has gone up more and more, so I assume the competition level of more recent fights is tighter.
  • I wish there were more extras to the fights. For most fights, you just get the actual fights- a lot of footage before, between rounds, and after the event is cut. It’s hard to learn more about the fighters like you do during the actual UFC events.
  • 8 DVDs, over 16 hours of fights. It’s long. This is good, as it’s a a set that retails for $99.97.
  • The DVDs have no extra, just fights.
  • I’m not sure the 100 –> 1 countdown is the best way to organize the fights, especially when you have to consider that a lot of fights are a part of a series of battles, so you’ll watch them all out of order and learn who won previous fights inadvertently.
  • Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/UFC-Ultimate-100-Greatest-Fights/dp/B002GU65M4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1262537962&sr=8-3
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09.01.2010 Reviews No Comments

How to be a Digital Pirate in Vietnam

Saturday, March 21st, 2009
piracy vs iTunes

Image by Will Lion via Flickr

(Or how I buy Video Games and Blu-Ray Movies in Vietnam described over 1500 words)

I’m a pirate. I wish I were the high-seas version (what are high seas anyway?), but I’m just the standard RIAA-hated version, downloading (or purchasing illegal copies) music, movies, and games.

There are lots of good reasons why I pirate, but I do pay for the above legally from time to time as well, if that really matters.

Anyway, back to pirating in Vietnam. Most people (ok, everyone) do it. It’s quite difficult to not pirate, in fact. If you’re a company, it truly is an issue of money. When an employee’s monthly salary can cost $200 USD a month, weighing between $200 Windows software and an employee is probably an easy decision. The government has stated they will start to crack down (they are part of the WTO now, you know), and they have, from time to time, on
.some companies.

On an individual level, you’re not going to teach (again, remember $200 monthly salary) someone to purchase legitimate music for $10/album, $20/DVD, $50/game when they can buy perfectly working copies for $1.50 a few minutes from their house, or download for free.

At the same time, there have been attempts. A couple of years ago Sony partnered with Galaxy to distribute a select sample of their movies here.

First titles into the market will be a package of 15 including “Casino Royale,” “Surf’s up” and the “Spider-Man” franchise, that go on sale May 9. After that some 5-10 titles per month will be released. Blu-Ray high definition discs will follow later.

If you go to the Galaxy site, you’ll see that announcement was made back in 2007, almost two years ago. A long time ago, I saw an ad for the legitimate DVDs at Victory, a pirated DVD shop in Hanoi. I don’t think you could actually buy them at Victory, however, you had to go find the Galaxy office or official distributor, of which their website lists:

  • HCMC – Thuong Xa Tax, Nguyen Hue (ground floor), Q1.
  • HCMC – Saigon Center , 65 Le loi (1st floor), Q1.

There have been no more title releases or Blu-Ray releases that I know of, and I think I can conclude this was a big fail, perhaps both in effort of execution, and concept.

This is something that Warner had also tried, with some success, in China with Superman Returns. They released a basic DVD version in China for $3 or so the same time bootlegs hit the market. Then again, China has done a real job of cracking down on piracy; Jimmy has been in Beijing for a while and told me it’s really difficult to find pirated movies there for him now.

So, to quickly summarize, for music and movies, you’ll find that Vietnamese download through torrents, file servers like Rapidshare and Megaupload (you can even buy accounts from authorized resellers here), or just go to a shop in the neighborhood.

Video and PC Games:

For video games, it’s a little bit trickier, but not really. If you live in Hanoi or TPHCM, things are still fairly simple, and shops have a big web presence so you can go research pricing and chat (instant messenger) with store employees before you get on your motorbike and take a trip.

In Hanoi, there’s shops like X-Game (http://xgame.vn/, 270 Ba Trieu, Q. Hai Ba Trung), and in TPHCM/Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City, you have Halo Shop (http://www.haloshop.vn, 82 Pasteur, Q. 1, TPHCM).

X Game, Hanoi Halo Shop, TPHCM

If you’d rather do forums for some C to C action (consumer to consumer), though shops have their own threads there as well, you can visit the Muare.vn forums (http://muare.vn/forum/GameItems.ttvn), which is more focused on Hanoi users.

Muare.vn Forums

When I say video games, I do mean both console and PC games, though Halo Shop only does consoles. But in that same neighborhood, you can find a number of PC game shops, so no worries.

At any of these shops, you can have virtually any modern console system modified so it can play pirated game discs, or in the case of the Nintendo DS, just buying an add-on to play game roms. Feel free to bring an existing machine in, or buy one there. Only the Playstation 3 is still unhackable (perhaps more to do with the Blu-Ray discs needed rather than the machine itself), so if you want a PS3, you’re paying $60 USD/game (pretty much normal price in the US)

To have your existing system modified (modded) will cost between $50 and $80, depending on the system, but whether it’s a PSP, DS, Game Boy Advance, Xbox 360 (I don’t think anyone is selling Xbox 1’s anymore), Nintendo Wii, PC, or Playstation 2, you can pirate games for $2 USD or less.

You will want to make sure your shop is good though, just as you would any electronics or home repairman in the US. X-Game and Halo Shop are fairly reputable, and though I don’t trust them 100%, I still purchase from them.

Blu-Ray and HD Movies:

There is an irony that HDTVs have been super popular in Vietnam for the last couple of years, and yet there are no HDTV channels. I did hear last month that a few are available if you buy a $300 box, but yeah
.right. And you can’t get international feeds. I imagine though, if someone finds a way to tap into international sports and movie HD feeds, there will be a paying audience. People only pay about $3/month for cable, but I would definitely front $10-$15 month for good HD programming.

The second irony is that no one is watching movies in HD either. Well, a very few select, yet, all the TVs being sold today are HD. You go to the showroom and they’ll show an HD feed to wow you, yet you’ll never watch that at home.

The select few who know how to watch HD movies either have Blu-Ray through a Playstation 3 (unlikely) or pirate (ding ding ding!)

I recently found out about this stuff myself, after checking out Halo Shop for games, I saw they also sell HD movies: 10K for Blu-Ray quality movies (Some are in 720P, others are in 1080P) transferred to your hard drive. I can tell they don’t rip them from legit copies, they just download (filenames are similar to what you see on scene/torrent releases). You could just download them yourself, but it definitely is cost and time effective to just get them from a shop.

To start with your HD movie piracy, you can get a Media Tank (see below and click to go there) for from $200 to $400 USD.

Network Media Tanks at Halo Shop

Media tanks are basically media consoles. They can play any format and hook up to your TV. They also have DTS/Dolby Digital out connectors to hook up to your home theater setup. Unfortunately, they don’t do stereo out for some reason, so you can’t just hook it up to your TV. It’s either home theater or no sound.

These also, despite their not-so-cheap price, don’t come with hard drives. You can use a USB drive of your own, or buy one at Halo Shop (or any other PC shop). Keep in mind that most movies will be 7 gigs or larger so even a 300 gig hard drive will only hold 40 movies. The price for High Definition
.

Bring the hard drive, not the entire machine, to the shop, and select which movies you want transferred in. Come back the next day, and time to watch movies!

But you don’t necessarily have to buy a media tank and home theater setup. What I’ve been planning is to hook up my laptop (virtually all laptops have VGA output) to my HDTV. Then, with movies transferred to my USB hard drive and hooked up to my laptop, play the movies from the laptop, with video connecting to the HDTV. For sound, sound jack connected to stereo speakers.

High definition, with less extra cost, and no home theater (5.1 speakers and receiver) audio setup required.

There’s a dedicated online community to HD movies and hardware at http://hdvietnam.com if you want to learn more:

HD Vietnam

Primer on HDTV pricing:

You can get a brand-name quality HDTV from the likes of Samsung and LG for:

  • 32 inch 720P: $420 USD, 7 Million VND
  • 37 inch 720P: $620 USD, 10.5 Million VND
  • 37 inch 1080P: $700 USD, 12 Million VND
  • 42 inch 1080P: $1000 USD, 17 Million VND

For shops, try Thien Hoa (http://www.thienhoaelectric.com.vn/) in Saigon or a price engine like Aha.vn (http://www.aha.vn/sanpham/tivi-lcd-plasma_dm74.html)

thienhoa aha

For non-Pirates:

In all this piracy, I did forget to mention that if you want to be legit, there are options, perhaps not so much in Vietnam, but through online like Play-Asia:

Play-Asia

Play-Asia is quote good on pricing, and offer free shipping to Vietnam for many items. The only problem is that expect one month delivery time- this isn’t Play Asia’s fault, however, blame Vietnamese customs. (Yes, I’ve purchased with them. I don’t know about trying to ship hardware in, or even game accessories, like joysticks, you might face a tax on those. Both for games and discs, I have been ok.)

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21.03.2009 Video Games, Vietnam No Comments

8 Minute Abs [Review]

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

Most people in the US are familiar with the 8 Minute exercise series.

I actually bought the complete exercise set on DVD a few years ago, well before I went to Vietnam, so I’ve been using them for a while.

Currently, I really only use the abs DVD, and it’s been more off and on (laziness) thing, but there have definitely been months at a time where I’ve done them 3-4 times a week.

I think all of the routines are legit, just depends on you and your willingness to do it every day.

These routines are more for toning rather than becoming super strong, but you will get stronger in any muscle group you focus on as well.

It’s odd we think of 8 minutes as a short amount of time, but it’s not that short when you’re focused with these routines- the major difference you’ll notice between this and working out by yourself is you’re actually doing this for a continuous 8 minutes, and I’m sure this is where the effectiveness comes in. You’re bringing blood and muscle activity for a full 8 minutes, you’re just rotating the exact muscles you’re working on as the exercises change. Because of the rotation, you don’t get super tired- try doing straight crunches (hands behind the head, elbows in line with your shoulders) just for 2-3 minutes and see how hard that is.

From my experience with abs exercises, the main thing working out does is it pulls your stomach closer, it forms a shape for you. Of course, you should have a good diet and take care of yourself in general, but if you do the ab exercises and slim down in general, you’ll see a box (the washboard in washboard abs) start to form around your stomach. The more you do, and less fat you have there, the better you’ll look.

8 Minute Abs is better than pure straight-ahead crunches because it targets all your ab areas on the sides, upper and lower, so you have a more well-done muscle tone. Normal crunches tend to be more upper abs oriented.

If there’s a weakness to the exercise, I would see there isn’t so much focus on lower abs, or at least I don’t think they get as developed as much as the other muscles, but those are things you can work on yourself by just repeating some of the relevant exercises on the program.

Check it for yourself below:

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26.10.2008 Reviews, Sports 2 Comments

Classic Game Room (DVD) [Review]

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

image
There are two contrasting reviews of Classic Game Room, a documentary about a short-lived (1999/2000) yet supposedly (I’d never heard of it, as far as I know) popular Internet video show for video game review humor:

From DVD Talk:

It starts out a bit slow, but Classic Game Room develops into a worthwhile, entertaining documentary as the story unfolds. Director Mark Bussler obviously has a knack for the genre, balancing vintage clips and retrospective comments with ease, style and humor—and though it’s disappointing that co-host David Crosson didn’t make the party, Bussler does a fine job of keeping things organized and entertaining. Overall, those who enjoy classic video games (but don’t take them too seriously, of course) should find Inecom’s DVD package enjoyable, which boasts a solid technical presentation and a handful of fitting bonus features. All things considered, this saga of beer and joysticks comes firmly Recommended. Insert coin(s)!

And from Vintage Computing:

Even if The Game Room actually was innovative and ahead of its time, a filmmaker interviewing himself about his own project still seems a little like a person writing his own Wikipedia entry. Ultimately, the documentary spoils any good that could have come from a Game Room DVD collection. A ten minute introduction explaining the setting and the context in which the episodes were created would have done nicely, but Bussler went too far. Skip those segments and just watch the episodes.

The video quality of the collection is surprisingly clear and crisp for a low budget web TV show. The disc comes in a regular DVD case with attractive packaging. But at about $17 US (its current retail price) Classic Game Room is extraneously expensive and definitely not worth the buy for the average video game fan. As previously mentioned, the exclusive “documentary” footage adds nothing of value to the disc, and all that’s left is essentially a half-entertaining, amateur production that’s available for free online. My advice is this: unless you’re a die-hard fan of the original show (all three of you out there), you’d probably get more out of watching the episodes on YouTube instead. In the end, despite Bussler’s nostalgic machinations, history will likely remember The Game Room as a shining example of two genuinely talented people doing something genuinely mediocre.

Here’s the bad news: I read the DVD Talk review before buying this DVD. Read the Vintage Computing one after watching it.

Here’s the good news: I paid $10 USD, including shipping to Vietnam from Play-Asia, for it.

Here’s more bad news: Was not worth it.

While I respect the source material (and the original talents behind the show) for the DVD, I agree more with Vintage Computing- this documentary is a bit boring.

These guys definitely did something unique, and it’s interesting to see the beginnings of the show, but the in-depth self-interviews with Mark Bussler (one of the show’s hosts back then) go a little unnecessary, a little too long, a little too self-deprecating. It’s the type of sarcastic humor that Americans (me too!) seem to specialize in, but those moments tend to be funny when you’re half drunk with your buddies, not when you’re just watching something on TV sober.

I don’t think see the value in watching it again, and because there was so much unnecessary documentary footage, I wish they would have just cut that stuff out and included all the episodes they ever did, to at least add more value to the disc.

$17 or more really is asking a lot there
..

Definitely for the hardest of the hardcore gaming fans only, and I mean not if you are a game player, but just love anything related to the industry.

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24.06.2008 Reviews, Video Games No Comments

Ball Is Life The Project Volume 1 (DVD) [Review]

Monday, March 24th, 2008

The guys at BallisLife.com are bad ass. I watch a lot of basketball mixes (check out MixMakers.net), and they do as good a job as anyone. True professionals.

Anyway, about a month ago, they came out with their first DVD, Ball is Life: The Project Volume 1, at a very attractive price. Only $10 for the DVD, another $5 for shipping within the US, or $10 for international orders (for me). Simply, it is worth your money.

The Official DVD Trailer:


Featuring: OJ Mayo, Derrick Rose, (OJ and Derrick Rose are the super freshman at USC and Memphis, respectively) Demar Derozan (plays AAU ball with Master P junior, Lil Romeo), Brandon Jennings and a bunch of other high school and streetball (Exile, King Handles, Ball 4 Real crew) superstars, about an hour total in length. Basically, if you read Slam magazine, these are the guys always getting covered. I love this kind of thing because it’s like seeing a good glimpse at the future of the NBA. Even just 5-10 years ago, a normal person wouldn’t have had this kind of access.

Like I said before, these guys are exceptional as mixers. The footage here, in terms of image quality (more like DVD rather than VHS), is excellent, no amateur handi-cam crowd-blocked shaky video. The action itself is also excellent and laid out with music (excellent track selection) that (they imply) they have the rights to. This is a very enjoyable DVD.

If you have ever watched things like ESPN’s 3D’s or Plays of the Day, this is the kind of mixing you’re getting. You are going to see effects, introductions, transitions, music syncing- if you watched this DVD on ESPN, you wouldn’t notice a difference between ESPN’s normal footage and Ball is Life.

I definitely recommend getting this if you’re interested in the subject material at all.

One thing to suggest for them for next time: Progressive Scan for people with Widescreen TV’s.

More details on the footage:

  • 2006-2007 high school season teams:
    Compton High School
    Mater Dei High School
    Campbell Hall High School
    Oak Hill High School
    Huntington High School
    Artesia High School
  • 2007 National AAU Tournies we attended:
  • Houston Kingwood Classic-Belmont Shore, Tmac All Stars, Pump n Run, Indian Elite, Inland Reebok, Southern California All-Stars (www.visionsports.com)
  • GBOA Challenge of Champions- Belmont Shore, Arkansas, Grassroots Canada, Texas Blue Chips, Southeast Elite, D1 Greyhounds, Lamar Odom, GBOA slam dunk contest (www.gboahoops.com)
  • Pango’s End of the Trail- LA Stars, LA Dream Team (www.fullctpress.net)
  • Pango’s Fall Prep Showcase (www.fullctpress.net)
  • Double Pump’s Adidas Best of Summer- Southeast Elite, Bay Area Hoosiers, Texas Blue Chips, Pump n Run Elite (http://www.doublepump.com)
  • Streetball- The once highly anticipated Exile Mixtape footage will be combined with footage of Ball4real, Dunkalicious, Kinghandles, and Hoop It Up Dunk Contest.
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24.03.2008 Basketball, Reviews 3 Comments

Yay Area’s Finest Volume 2 (DVD) [Review]

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

I could not be in any sense of the word, described as cool. As much I wish I could, I’m not someone who could ever use “Yay Area” the way it’s supposed to be meant, I’m more of a “Bay Area” in terms of coolness.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I do like stuff from the Yay, and well, I bought Yay Area’s Finest Volume 2 mainly because it was…from the Yay.

Buying this DVD was a lot harder than it should have been. Coming from an e-commerce background in the US, I’m just amazed at how difficult it was. I ended up getting the DVD over this past Christmas when I was in the US, but I had been trying to get it since summer 2006, before I had even left for Vietnam. Their official MySpace account said to go to Rasputin to get it. Not only did Rasputin (Los Gatos one) not have it, however, they didn’t even know what I was talking about. Impossible to find on EBay or through Google search.

I eventually had to log in my MySpace account (I rarely do this on my own) late last year and send them a personal message, to which I actually got a quick reply directing me to Rapbay.com, which seems to be dead at the moment, but worked for me in October. Sigh.

Anyway, on to the actual DVD.

Official Trailer:


There’s a lot of footage on this DVD. And I mean a ton. The DVD focuses on local Bay Area streetball (to their credit, they have a lot of footage from all over the Bay, not just 3-4 locations) and high school basketball. Here’s a quick description taken from the official site:

“But last but not least I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t ask for more shine. Some of the YAY AREA’S FINEST still need some love in the mag: My dude Devon Hardin from Cal is finna be a lottery pick in a year after he wrecks the PAC-10, the guy Terrence Jennings outta Sac destroyed the summer circuit and has climbed into the top 20 of the high school class of ‘08, another dude to watch for is my boy Wendell Mckines out of Richmond on his way to New Mexico State (if u never heard of him, watch the DVD, he’s the guy who clears dude’s head on the tip dunk at the end of a chapter and the reverse tip-dunk on the end of the “Bang It” chapter), couple other names of note: HS players: Frank Otis, DJ Seely, Reeves Nelson, Matt Simpkins, Ramon Eaton (some say he’s the 1 freshman in the country outta Sacramento), Chris Brew, Jared Cunningham, Collin Chiverton, Kelly Kaigler, Tyree McCrary, and the list goes on. College: Demarcus Nelson (Duke), Rogdrick Craig (Son of 49ers legend, coming back from a heart condition to play for Texas Tech), Kyle Spain (San Diego State), Dior Lowhorn (USF), Eli Holman (Indiana incoming freshman), too many more to name; Other dudes: Ballaholic, Moses “Ghost” Keys (killed in the and1 game), Exile, Sante aka 757, Drew Gooden, Drew Gordon (I see yall hatin on him online in the HS rankings, watch the DVD, he’s got about 75 clips on there, all freshman and sophomore year), can you tell I could go on and on all day? I just got so much pride in my region, and I’m trying to see my guys shine like they should. But anyways, yall ain’t gotta print this, or listen to any of my suggestions, just enjoy that DVD and know we doin it in the Bay. Thanks for the years of good work by the way. Gone.“

There are a bit too many segment introductions by famous and semi-famous (you probably need to be from the Bay Area to know at least a few of the names) rappers and basketball players. The footage itself is of decent quality, but this DVD just doesn’t resonate with quality in terms of production and editing.

My sister watched a little bit of the DVD with me, and while she’s not really a big basketball fan, she said, “this seems like something you might want to watch just because we’re from the Bay Area, but even then, there isn’t really a reason to watch this again.”

I agree perfectly.

A ton of footage (1.5 hrs), but a bit too much because it’s not edited and mixed well. Most of the footage isn’t that great and a lot of the DVD is just boring. I think that’s more of an issue of pacing than anything. Another issue is that I know a lot of hot players are in this, but the editors never highlight who you’re looking at, so you can’t get excited, “Oh, so that’s Drew Gordon” and so on. I remember reading a big list of who’s in this, but I don’t know when they actually get shown. I want to know who’s doing what! Since the chapters are named by song, I wasn’t sure if there were any themes in footage attached to a specific song. It’s extremely difficult to distinguish among them, which creates another problem for replayability- who is in and what happens in each section.

In the end, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone unless you’re a die hard Bay Area basketball fan, maybe not even then. They do some good things here, but it’s hard to watch. I hope they have some major changes for the next round, Volume 3, which has been “coming soon” for a long time (6+ months).

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23.03.2008 Basketball, Reviews No Comments

Kitchen Confidential

Sunday, November 4th, 2007

I didn’t realize this show was out on DVD until I randomly saw a review of it on DVDTalk. When it was first released in 2005, I saw all the of episodes broadcast on TV(though those were downloaded- I suppose people like me contribute to the killing of a show?), and I really liked it. Unfortunately, it only lasted 4 episodes, but the DVD set has 12. A lot of people you recognize (Jaime King, Nicholas Brendan, John Cho, kid from Freaks and Geeks, guest appearance from Michael Vartan of Alias), with the main focus around Bradley Cooper’s (Will from Alias) character Jack Bourdain.

Jack’s an ace chef with a lot of baggage- a superstar from a young age, he got caught in the excesses, had a huge fall, and now is trying to not only get his way back up, but stay there. Along with the chef, the show focuses on the entire staff of the restaurant, from waiters to dish washers.

Not sure if it’s a show females would like a lot, it kind of reminds me of a Maxim + Cooking. Or maybe Entourage + Cooking. Not sure if that makes any sense, but I can definitely see that guys would really enjoy this show.

Or maybe it also reminds me of Waiting, which I also enjoyed, if perhaps only because it has Ryan Reynolds. It also featured the previously mentioned kid from Freaks and Geeks. Waiting is also another movie, that I get the feeling, appeals more to guys than girls.

I usually don’t like to get into (when it comes to both reading and writing them) reviews with too much detail. I really couldn’t talk about someone’s performance too much into detail or compare something’s genius or lack of genius versus something else- maybe I just don’t have the skill level and deeper thinking required.

So, to break it down, Kitchen Confidential is a lot of fun. The characters are funny, there’s that good mix of sex, silly jokes and balanced stupidity/intelligence between all of the characters that make the scenarios (kitchen staff at a high end restaurant) seem feasible.

Definitely worth watching, and it’s only 12 episodes long, so it’s not such a huge investment of time or money. (Less than $20 shipped at DeepDiscountDVD)

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04.11.2007 Reviews, TV No Comments