Hacking Movie Reviews

an episode into the eyes of profesional astronomers and narration by richard chamberlain will have you captivated.

I don't know why I didn't expect much from this set - somewhow I visualized a lot of talking heads telling me about every astronomer from Newton forward and backward. Not!

The series uses current astronomers to explain the theory they are investigating, complete with research steps and glorious pictures of what they saw and hoped to see. It was not biographical, but historical. The story line was the development of a theory. Several astronomers and their work were used, for example, to explain dark matter - what it was, the theory, and how they hoped to prove something that cannot be seen. Planets, star birth and death, supernovi,searching for the moment of creation, and other current matters of interest are given one tape each.

I am not saying this as well as I might. These videos taught me while keeping me so entertained that I just watched the set straight through. It was neither too simplistic nor was it over my head.

I liked it well enough to search the box with a magnifying glass for the producers so I could go to their web site and find other masterpieces. Sigh! They were a one masterpiece group.

You won't be disappointed in this one - and if I didn't say so, the visuals are gorgeous and unusual.

This set of videos does an excellent job of covering the field of astronomy in a comprehensive fashion. It covers both professional and amateur astronomy.

It has segments featuring John Dobson, who teaches amateur astronomers how to build their own telescopes and travels to public events to familiarize people with astronomy.

There are also segments on the many different areas of professional astronomy, including astronomers studying the stars and planets as well as those studying astrophysics and cosmology.

There are interviews with the astronomers where they talk about their work, how they got involved in the field, and segments on how they work to bring an interest in the field to young people.

The focus of the series is on astronomers themselves, but there are also many current subjects in the science of astronmy discussed, such as the structure of large groups of galaxies, the cores of galaxies, gravity, and so on.

I highly recommend this series for anyone with an interest in astronomy or those who are astronomers. If you or someone you know has an interest in becoming an astronomer, either as an amateur or a professional, this series is indespensible.

A Brief History of Time is an uncomfortable combination of autobiography and a bibliography of some (generally Hawking dominated) concepts in cosmology. While it does go into more depth (and is slightly more entertaining) than Stephen Hawking's Universe does when it covers these topics, the movie is greatly distracted by anecdotes about his life. Some of these offer an entertaining glimpse into his life and personality, some into how certain of his and other scientests' ideas were come across, but others are pointless and annoying, and on the whole they distract from the science, which is really the most interesting topic the film could cover.

It does deserve some props for being, visually, slightly superior to Universe. The Phillip Glass soundtrack also provides a nice ambience throughout, but it often seems inappropriate, and would be much more enjoyable to hear on its own. A Brief History of Time is something to watch if you're interested in learning some details of Stephen Hawking's life, an introduction to his work, or were dissatisfied with Universe, but, even if it lacks visually, I feel Universe was much more inspiring during its better moments.

This short film is about a monumental cosmologist attempting to delve into the unknown in order to know it. It poses the question as to whether there is a God behind the universe or a self-contained boundless system running blindly by its own physical laws (or perhaps there is a God but one who is impersonal to the universe). Today there are two theories about the expansion of the universe. Some believe that it will continue to expand forever while others think it will slow down, contract, and collapse with the cycle continuing infinitely. Hawkings clearly thinks the latter is more plausible. This probably explains his agnostic stance on creationism, while many theologians would naturally be more inclined to reject the theory of a collapsing and expanding universe because it does seem to do away with the idea of a "beginning" and "end." As an ignoramus in the field of physics and cosmology, I found this film to be a good compliment to his book (which is a read somewhat difficult for a person without a background in physics). Hawking's idealism is vibrant as he sounds hopeful that scientists are close to developing a unified theory of the universe that will be explicable not only to philosophers and scientists, but to the average person as well. This films only flaw is that it doesn't have captions telling us who is being interviewed and what their relation is to Stephen, but that's only a minor one at most.

This delightful documentary gives a keen look at the intimate parts of Stephen Hawking's remarkable life. Interviews of friends, family members, and colleagues are artfully weaved with pictures of Hawking, computer graphic illustrations, and the commentary of Hawking himself. Along with the overview of Hawking's life we get fascinating bits of physics and philosophy that challenges his mind and everyone else's. If you have an interest in popular physics, then this would be a worthy purchase.

This isn't a spectacular documentary, it stays true to the accepted style that is both entertaining and at times predictable and plodding. It is humorous though, the opening scene involves a chicken and some stars, and much of Hawking's narration is filled with wry wit.

The First portion of the film is almost solely devoted to the early years of Professor Hawking's life. He wasn't good at school we learn surprisingly. He was never as attentive as he later wished he should have been. However, his genius was enough, and he got his degrees. However, it was being diagnosed with ALS that forced him to focus on what really interested him, the aftermath of which has been the cosmologist we know today.

Further into the movie there is a discussion of black holes, which is the subject of Hawking's first successes in physics. This segment alone I consider worth the price of admission, however an even stronger segment comes next; a discussion of the origin and outcome of the universe in which we live. It's all concluded by some whimsical observations by Hawking. This isn't a classic, but for those that don't have the time to jump into many works of cosmology and physics and philosophy, this provides entertainment and a fair dose of where physics stands today.

Let me start out by saying that I read A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking and really enjoyed it. But, then what a sad disappointment this series turned out to be. One could turn off the picture and just listen to the audio and get about as much interesting information. I realize that Dr. Sagan raised the bar pretty high but the makers of this documentary didn't even seem to care. Watch video sequences repeated over and over - sometimes not even relating to the narration that drones on in the background. Squint hard to see what is going on in the darkly lit sets as the camera super-slow pans into something that is supposed to be significant...but really isn't. I watched the entire series just waiting for a sequence that would capture my imagination. It never happened. As for replay-ability? I defy anyone who have made it through the entire series to watch it again. Dr. Hawking deserves better.

This is a very interesting program that is slightly belabored by a couple problems. First, the initial episode covers very familiar ground for anyone who's had a course in general physics, which is pretty much anyone who's been through high school... it's still interesting enough to sit through, but they could have done without it. Secondly, some of the topics are presented somewhat vaguely or are hard to keep track of (for instance, the interviewee presenting the phenomena or describing the breakthrough will do so in an extrememly roundabout way, telling a story... although this is interesting, i wished there had been some segment right before it that clearly explained the idea before going into the details of thought process). Also, ideas such as the superstring theory and quantum mechanics, at least for me, require more in-depth explanation to get a grasp on the concept, and this documentary seems to have a problem because it is balancing the accessibility of a documentary like BBC's The Planets with more scholarly aspects. It also could have used more of a graphic style, both to make it more entertaining and to help explain concepts to those of us who tend to prefer 'big picture' type visual learning.

It's four stars because its worthwhile coverage of interesting topics, but I have to agree with others that this would have made much better radio program or audiobook, because of the mostly uninteresting, unenlightening visual aspects.

Otherwise, Stephen Hawking's Universe is an engrosing documentary that covers a lot of interesting ground, and is definately worth watching by anyone with a passing interest to the subject matter (astral phenomena, creation-theory, black holes, etc...), although I'd give it a low rating for repeat-viewings, so it's probably best to pick up on your local PBS before deciding to purchase. I think if I had seen this in high school, I would have been inspired to do well and maybe working on physics-type major in university, instead of languishing at home in a dead end job >_<

Very informative and interesting. Thinking that the universe is the best topic to foster a kid's love of math and science, I bought these DVD for a seven-year-old boy, who I expect will watch them for years. Maybe, too profound. But isn't it that the universe all starts from a singularity? BY THE WAY, amazon.com is the best online shopping service. Very easy to cancel items, though I usually purchase them later on. I have no problem with their international shipping. Good job, Amazon.com****** +*****.