Customer Reviews

Globe Trekker - Australia (Double DVD)

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I guess I could not relate to this travel DVD. It offered little travel info. Most of the segments involved tourists and their relations in the cities. There was hardly any information given on huge cities like Sydney and Melbourne. The hotels and things that were shown looked great but did not give names or address. There were few benefits to this program.

Feature Packed Double DVD contains 4 shows: Outback Australia, Queensland & the Great Barrier Reef, Southeast Australia and Southwest Australia. On these shows they cover Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Alice Springs, Perth, Darwin, and Canberra!!

Unlike other Travel DVD's this is interesting, fast paced, sometimes funny, filled with up to date non-biased information and has some breath-taking visuals!! They always make a huge effort to get to know the people and the culture, provide a little bit of history and show fun things to do in the area for a younger crowd below 30. I would recommend this DVD to everyone interested in Australia! You will definite feel like you're right there as a couch-traveller!!

Who funded this, and do they know how it came out? The two-disc set is an embarrassing waste of time. The hosts simply fill air time with pseudo-entertainment. They don't bother to do any work at all to develop any depth, but rely intead on fluffy, fast-cut MTV shots, and a high-tempo soundtrack try to create the illusion of interest.

Specific examples:

In the Queensland chapter, Brisbane, the state capitol and the state's major city, which has evolved over the last twenty years into a thriving visual feast, is ignored completely, and instead we are given coverage of Megan McCormick simpering and being cute in a bus station, Megan McCormick simpering and being cute in a hotel room on the Sunshine Coast, and Megan McCormick simpering and being cute while driving a jeep on a beach (which could be any beach).

The Southeast chapter starts with a generous segment allotted to Ian Wright making faces and being cute while trying on a silly hat (it's witty, see, because it's a woman's hat). The preponderance of the Sydney coverage is comprised of tight shots of Ian Wright making faces and being cute on a sailboat. Important city and regional features, like, say, the Opera House? Nothing. A fast shot of the entrance to Chinatown, a visit to a backpacker hotel, and a long shot of Ian gazing out to sea from the rocks at Bondi, and Bob's your uncle, they're done with one of the most beautiful tourist destinations in the world. I'm betting that the Sydney sequences took a total of about six hours to shoot.

It seems clear that these folks have low ambitions, and perhaps a budget to match, and they waste no time bothering with tedious things like research or planning. If you're interested in actually learning about these locations, or in planning a thoughtful trip, do not, do not, do not waste your time here. There is no substance, and there is no merit. On the other hand, if you enjoy reality-TV, personality-style entertainment, and if you aren't really concerned about the subject matter, this could be the ticket.

a quite typical travel guide for the eurotrash tourist, pulls all the stops for parties, multicutural experiences, politically correct blabber, and little or no geology, science, history.