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Aphrodite and the Rabbis

Burton L. Visotzky

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Hard to believe but true: The Passover Seder is a Greco-Roman symposium banquet The Talmud rabbis...

My Heart and Other Black Holes

Jasmine Warga

9.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Sixteen-year-old physics nerd Aysel is obsessed with plotting her own death. With a mother who can...

YA Fiction

Horrible Histories: The Movie (2019)

5.4 (7 Ratings) Rate It

Movie Watch

Roman teenager Atti is forced to join the Roman Army when one of his clever schemes falls foul of...

Awix (3310 KP) rated The Viking Queen (1967) in Movies

Mar 1, 2018 (Updated Mar 2, 2018)

The Viking Queen (1967)

1967 | Action, Drama, International

6.0

(2 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Wildly historically inaccurate, wholly absurd Hammer exploitation movie based on the events of the Iceni revolt led by Boudicca in 1st-century Britain. Roman governor (American) falls unconvincingly for Briton queen (Finnish); their imminent marriage promises to be bad for the business of the local merchants and their corrupt ally, a Roman general (Scottish), so a conflict is provoked, leading to rebellion...

Problems are mostly with the script, which appears to be only vaguely familiar with the concept of historical research, although a lot of the acting and staging is also pretty poor. Some usually reliable actors (Andrew Keir, Patrick Troughton) do the best they can with the material they're given. Probably best viewed as a high-camp piece of unintentional comedy. The widely-circulated story that one of the Roman actors can be seen wearing a wristwatch appears to be apocryphal.

Kudos

David McK (3372 KP) rated Master of Rome (Masters of the Sea, #3) in Books

Jan 30, 2019

The third book in John Stack's 'Masters of the Sea' series, this continues the story of Atticus from the previous two novels. As I've said before, it's an interesting setting - the Roman Navy during the First Punic War - due to it's relative unfamiliarity to the reader: we're all aware of Hannibal crossing the Alps (which was during the Second Punic War), and of the might of the Roman army, but I can think of very few other books dealing with their navy!

This starts with teh Roman army defeated at Tunis, and then details the repercussions from this defeat and various other naval battles the fleet participates in. The novel also covers a long(ish) period of time: the events within are, sometimes, maybe a year or so apart.

Readable enough, but not a brilliant piece of writing.