Watch Micro Men For Free

good back-story, and good acting

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I grew up in the era where myself and my friends were playing and swapping Sinclair Spectrum games with each other, as well as during the infancy of using BBC micros at school. If you are of that same era, then Micro Men will seem like it was written for you. It's just perfection! It's factual, funny, and jammed full of references to the 1980's computer era. Even the music fits perfectly with the theme and date of the story. Martin Freeman and Alexander Armstrong play their roles incredibly well, as do all the other characters. Some people may criticise the accuracy, but at the end of the day, it's a story about a 4 or 5 year period squashed into about 90 minutes, so some creative writing had to occur in order to make the story flow. But overall it tells the story very well and accurately. There are some parts that I actually remember myself from the day, such as the fight at the 'Baron of Beef' which I remember reading about at the time in 'Crash'. If you still have a fond spot in your heart for your old ZX Spectrum, then you'll love Micro Men. It's one of my top films/documentaries of all time, and I always find myself watching it every few months. I've oribsbly watched it 20 times now, and it never gets boring! I love it. :)

Micro Men is an enjoyable docu-drama about the early days of the home computer revolution. As I was there at the time reading computing magazines avidly and typing out the printed programmes which never worked because of typos, this was avid viewing.Its Sinclair versus Acorn. Although you would never from this film would realise Clive Sinclair was better known as Uncle Clive, the genial, nerdy 1970s whiz kid who built cheap home computers with dead flesh keyboards. The Acorn boys on the other hand built more stylish computers with proper keyboards and they even got the contract for the BBC computer.In this drama, Clive Sinclair (Alexander Armstrong) is seen as a bad tempered bully (he was never regarded as such a person at the time, although he was later revealed to be a bit of ladies man, loved a flutter at the Vegas casinos and voted Tory.) Chris Curry of Acorn (Martin Freeman) is the more lovable one. The nice, genial one with his more business headed Austrian partner.The early 1980s when British companies led the world of home computing although Microsoft had plans for a uniform operating system. Pitching Acorn v Sinclair helped with archive footage is a great history lesson and drama. Unfortunately, both companies were also left picking up the pieces afterwards as Microsoft surpassed them a few years later.

I watched this single piece drama last night on BBC4 and thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.All the actors did a fine job and convinced - despite Mr Armstrong's (Sinclair) rather obvious makeover for the role. The mixture of archive footage and new filming hit a balance that was enjoyable.The programme addresses the beginnings of the Home Computer industry in the UK and the roles & rivalries of Sinclair and Acorn in those early days. For those of us of a certain age it was extremely nostalgic stuff (even though I ended up getting a CBM 64)! A mixture of reality, light comedy and invention (some scenes were 'invented' according to the titles) kept me engrossed and actually rather disappointed that it had finished so soon; I think a 2 part show would have kept me interested.Some of the most fascinating stuff for me was a reminder of some of the side issues, for instance the UK general public's initial reaction to the technology - those of us who bought them were considered 'hobbyists' at the time. However, on reflection possibly the most important side- effect was the fact that a public organisation like the BBC was allowed to pursue the making of its own branded model in an attempt to raise the nation's computer literacy above other's. The BBC model B sold widely in schools, this combined with the home market growth must surely have contributed enormously to the strength of the UK programming industry (of which I was part) in the formative years. Whilst never rivalling IBM and HP in the end (as poignantly if somewhat mawkishly shown in the final scenes) this era and the people involved, must be considered as a time which generated huge revenue for the UK as well as a great platform for the public to get to grips with computers. Our programmers are still regarded as some of the world's most creative, despite financial difficulties; and this period ensured that as a nation we are not only regarded for older, but venerable, media such as the pop music & individual greatness in film & drama.Highly entertaining as a drama, thought provoking if you care about the beginnings of the industry; I was entertained and amused throughout. Recommended.

This was a generally enjoyable watch and I'm grateful that anyone would make a programme on such a "niche" topic, however it was not without flaws. For a start, as has been mentioned by other reviewers, Sir Clive is painted as borderline psychotic with serious anger management problems, whereas Curry is some kind of super-good Luke Skywalker of the computing world. I'm sure it can't have been as clear-cut as this. It's also true that Alexander Armstrong's acting is very mannered and feels like something out of a comedy sketch show, while Martin Freeman gets to act much more naturally.The second problem is really just an anachronism caused by poor library footage placement. At the computer fair/exhibition we see the team telling reporters about the capabilities of the new Acorn Atom, and we also see Clive Sinclair talking to the Sinclair User journalist about issues to do with the "new" ram pack for the ZX81. Even leaving aside whether these two events happened at the same computer fair, since blah blah artistic license etc., there are two pieces of library footage shown, as if they are taking place at the same event. The first piece of film shows some schoolboys using some computer that I can't identify from the clip, playing a game, then the next clip shows a man trying out an Amstrad CPC464. This computer wasn't introduced until much later: 1984 in fact and is really out of place. I don't know about other people but it caused me anguish seeing it.