Customer Reviews

Black Adder V - Back and Forth [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

For fans of the Blackadder comedy series, or for those who just love to laugh, this video will not disappoint. It details the zany travels of Lord Blackadder and his witless sidekick Baldrick "back and forth" through the centuries in their time machine.

Witness Blackadder's hilarious impact on the course of history, as he time-sails through historical eras and moments such as the Prehistoric age; encounters with William Shakespeare (in a hilarious cameo starring Colin Firth as the Bard) and Robin Hood (with Kate Moss as Maid Marian); The Battle of Waterloo; and many others.

You'll also laugh heartily when Blackadder returns to the present with "relics" stolen from each incident and discovers how he has unanticipatedly altered course of history--as well as his hilarious return travels to "right" his historical "wrongs."

This is Rowan Atkinson--also famous for his Mr. Bean character--at his best and includes the regular members of the Blackadder cast such as Miranda Richardson. As mentioned, there are delightful cameo appearances by Firth, Moss, and others.

This video will appeal to the Blackadder "novice," one who wants a sample taste for the more recent and zany comedy of the series. This is destined to become a family favorite! If you love odd-ball, wacky British humor ("humour"), this is an essential for your collection!

PLEASE don't let this be your introduction to the Black Adder series. It should only be purchased by completists, as it is the weakest of the bunch. But even as the weakest it rates more than one star, because the series is so excellent. Indeed, at its peak (years 2, 3, and 4), Black Adder is about as funny as TV gets. Alas, this one just doesn't cut it. Atkinson is not at his best, and the usually delightful Baldrick is WAY off his usual form (he actually looks and sounds ill). You'll get this with the complete DVD collection (which I highly recommend), though I'm pretty sure this would be your least-watched of the discs.

Edmumd Black Adder becomes a "Timelord". This would be twice for Black Adder star Rowan Atkinson after appearing as the Doctor in the Doctor Who Comedy Relief "The Curse of Fatal Death". I found this new installment of the Black Adder series to be very amusing with finds Edmund Black Adder and Balderick traveling through time in a make shift time machine. And making a mess of everything. Regulars to the series Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Miranda Richardson all return and are wonderful in multiple roles. Stephen Fry's best scene in the movie is as the Duke of Wellington during his famous victory against Napoleon. You'll also notice the lack of a laugh track in this episode. I found that to be very refreshing in a televison comedy. But I recommend this video highly for those who have only seen Rowan as "Mr. Bean". "Black Adder" is both very intelligent and sophmoric at the same time.

Originally created to be shown in the Millennium Dome, Blackadder Back and Forth is a victim of the Millennium Fever which afflicted the nation during 1999. Instead of another classic Rowan Atkinson - Tony Robinson double act, we are treated to about 30 mins of cliched plot, weak dialogue and a film that is the poor relation of all the Blackadder series seen before.

The threadbare plot surrounds Blackadder's attempts to win a bet with the guests at his Millennium party, the challenge being that they will each give him £10,000 if he can travel back in time and bring back various items to prove that the feat has been accomplished. Baldrick has built a time machine which, as far as Blackadder knows, acts as a trapdoor to his basement where, amongst the junk, he has hidden various items that look old enough to be passed off as fakes (one of the requested items being the Duke of Wellington's boots). Unfortunately, Baldrick built the time machine from a Leonardo Da Vinci's textbook which, somewhat unsurprisingly, means that it works thus he and Blackadder are catapulted to various different periods of time, ranging from an encounter with Shakespeare to Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo. The upshot of this is that they have to get back to 1999 in time for midnight.

Unfortunately that is about all you get as far as plot. There's a couple of smutty jokes about various maidens and the occasional witty retort from Blackadder but, generally, this is one which you shouldn't rush out to get from the local video shop/cinema. In an effort to fill up the rest of the running time, you are treated (I use the term loosely) to a "behind the scenes" look at bits edited from the film whilst various members of the cast and production team witter inanely at the screen. If you've not seen any Blackadder before then you're better off skipping this one and going for the original series, if you have seen them before then this is a huge disappointment. I'm left lamenting the paltry amount of time which seems to have been put into this project as, with more time and effort and less concern for jumping on the Millennial bandwagon, this could have been brilliant. Instead it is shoddy and badly constructed.

I have been a major fan of Black Adder for a long, long time. I was overjoyed to hear that there was a new episode. How utterly disappointing it is. It is pleasantly nostalgic, nice to see them all back together again, but it is thoroughly unfunny. It had the characters, but lacked the wit, cleverness, and j'n'sais pas. In my experience, British comedies tend to be either very very good or very very bad. Black Adder was always firmly ensconced on the good side. This reunion episode is entirely on the bad side of the line.

Still, it is nice to see them all back together again, so for a real fan of Black Adder, it is probably worth buying. Just don't expect to be laughing very hard while you watch it.

Don't believe the bad reviews. It's classic Blackadder all the way. He's as slimy, avaricous, clever, suave as ever and Baldrick is funnier than ever. The "behind the scenes" bit at the end shows scenes that had to be cut which are funnier than what was left in. Wonderful ending. Hilarious new words to the theme song. A great gift from the makers of Blackadder to us fans who were always saddened that the series ended.

Watching this, I was embarrassed for the actors. It was like watching an aging rock band reunion when all the members had forgotten how to play. I've been a Black Adder fan since first seeing the show in the early nineties, and I'd hoped for some of the old Adder magic. After all, Corporal Punishment, from the Black Adder IV series, was one of the funniest half-hours ever produced for television.

Sadly, this waste of tape had very little of that, instead mostly relying on puerile toilet humor and superficial unfunny one-liners.

If they get the urge to do another reunion, I hope they have a lie down until the urge passes.

I was watching PBS one afternoon and they showed a promo on Black Adder V - Back and Forth to be aired that very night at 10 p.m. Since I've always liked stories about time travel, I tuned in to watch it. Wow! I thoroughly enjoyed this. It made me want to view ALL the other Black Adder episodes. A friend loaned me one of her videos, and I enjoyed that, too. I plan to watch all the others.

If there exists a singular proof that you can't re-warm a souffle', this is it. The writing is thin beyond belief, as though the purpose of Elton and Curtis is to kill off their distinguished child. The cast deliver brief, set-piece lines that appear to be plucked out of former episodes...a sort of "Best Of Black Adder". It is, in short, little better than the worst of Baldric's many "cunning plans." I watched it once, and chucked it without re-winding.

Though this tape costs about as much as the normal tapes, it contains only 1 half-hour episode. Back and Forth starts out slow, and never picks up the pace. There were several (two I think) places where I actually laughed. Other than that I found the show pretty lame...Black Adder punched Shakespeare to punish him for his having to read his plays...Queen Elizabeth likes the taste of breath mints...I'm sorry but that's a pretty poor excuse for comedy.

Don't waste your money on this yawner! Two thumbs down!