Gooder's Front Room

Trailer of the day

2012-01-26T23:29:00.002Z

Right, the moving flat blackout is over so it's time to get back to posting the odd thing. A small start with the trailer for Ridley Scott's film with "Alien DNA".

Looks intriguing and Scott rarely makes out and out stinkers so could be the 'sleeper' hit of the blockbuster summer between those Avengers and Mr Wayne.

Senna

2012-01-02T20:34:00.005Z

Right postings last year were a little bit stop and start but I shall at least pretend to try and be a bit more active this year for a little while.

First it's time to take a look at 'Senna' director Asif Kapadia's documentary about the Formula career of Ayrton Senna The film itself is constructed from existing footage of Senna from race broadcasts, family home videos, news reports, TV interviews of the day and is shaped by commentary from those who knew and worked with Senna

It's a brillant move to create the story this way and it is of course helped by the sensational career of the man himself. In fact Senna's rivalry with Alain Prost could almost be purposefully written for a sports drama

It does have to be said this is a somewhat blemish free treatment of Senna (it can be argued that he was indeed arrogant) but it's hard to detract too much from the determined man of faith presented here, especially in the sections that highlight how much the man meant to his country (and his country to him).

I challenge anyone not to be thrilled by the racing action caught here, outraged by the FIA's campaign against him, inspired by his determination to be all he could be and of course not moved and saddened by the events of that fateful weekend in Imola.

A fantastic chronicle of extra-ordinary career, recommended for even those with no knowledge or interest in the sport - the human story tells it all here.

Film 2011

2011-12-13T21:36:00.005Z

Ok, after a long long gap we're back in action (sorry folks but I keep getting distracted by stuff whenever I meant to write anything) as in time to look back at the year that was 2011 in film.

We saw Harry Potter end (quite well I thought), Kevin Smith's film career give up it's final spluttering breaths (no Kevin, the man isn't against you, you just haven't made a good film since Chasing Amy).

No sign of Lindsay Lohan pulling herself together, Mel Gibson falling apart, Kirsten Stewart becoming the most bankable actor thanks to Twilight, Film 2011 reborn as a glossy er nothing (bring back Barry Norman) and finally the announcement that an Arrested Development film is indeed on the way!

So time to have a quick glance through some of my hits and misses of the year. Now if I don't mention a film it's either because it falls into the largest category which is "average" or it was entirely forgettable or I've not yet seen it. (And with the likes of 'Drive', 'Submarine', 'Senna', 'Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy' on the not seen list I've got some work to do).

So first of all lets go through some of my favourites from the year:

'True Grit' - the Coen brothers prove once again masters of genre they turn their hands to as they bring us a fully blown western. Jeff Bridges is always good value and his Rooster is more layered that Wayne's but it's Hallie Steinfield who is the real standout here giving an excellent performance for one so young.

'Thor' - undoubtedly my favourite of the 'blockbusters' this year. Somehow Brannagh pulls of the trick of marrying Thor's hyper real homeland with modern Earth without anyone looking silly. It helps that film has a healthy sense of humour throughout and it holds the most charismatic villain in any of the Avengers properties so far in Tom Hiddlestone's Loki.

'X-Men: 1st Class' - in the 2nd best blockbuster the X-Men get themselves a bit of James Bond 60's cool. Ok so continuity wise things get a bit messy but it's a fun romp that somehow even manages to invoke Inglorious Basterds at one stage. Fassbender makes for an excllent Magneto too - here's hoping for a 2nd Class.

'Meek's Cutoff' - a tale of a wagon slowly getting lost in the deserts of American gives low key character drama surrounding by glorious scenery and shows Michelle Williams promise (which is according to most currently underlining in My Week With Maryilyn)

'The Fighter' - another character drama this one and it's the tale of a down on his luck boxer who rises again brought to life by it's performances. Christian Bale got all the attention but Mark Whalberg's unassuming turn is the glue that holds it all together and Amy Adams shines as well throwing the best punch in the whole thing.

'Source Code' - Duncan Jones' follow up to Moon may not hold together to well if you really sit and think about it but if you give with it you'll find a tricksy little tale that isn't short of heart either.

'We Need To Talk About Kevin' - quite unnerving and emotionally raw but an excellent film and Tilda Swinton absolutely knocks it out of the park.

'Fast Five' - yes it's deeply stupid but it knows it's deeply stupid and it's a lot of fun. The casting of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to join the main players is also a stroke of genius. Now if only they can get The Stath to sign on for the inevitable sequel for the franchise that will not die. (Also best post credit teaser of the year..)

'Fair Game' - which seemed to slip out and go unnoticed by most but it's a fascinating drama about what happens when your government decides to turn on you and hang you out to dry as Naomi Watts' CIA operative has the rug pulled out from under her because her husband annoys the Bush whitehouse.

So those were my favourites of the year so far (of those I've seen) so what about the disappointments? Well most under par films I admit I forget having even seen most of the time, so these are more sort of the films where I saw some promise that just was delivered upon for one reason or another.

'Bad Teacher' had promise with a strong cast and good idea but watching it you get the distinct impression it's been robbed of it's bite by studio meddling and it ends up muddling along unsure of what it's really doing.

'Green Latern' is film where it feels like about a third of it was left on the cutting room floor in the edit suite. Nobody has a character arc, Ryan Reynolds doesn't learn a lesson about being a good person he just continues being a smug git and just happens to get a super magic ring. Events happen almost seemingly at random and it's a bit, well, silly in a way that Thor somehow managed to avoid.

'Sucker Punch', ok I can see what Zack Synder was trying to do, but it really does not work and ends up as a boring repetitive mess with a whiff of misogyny.

So there we go, I'm pretty sure I'll like Fincher's take on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo when that arrives just before the year's end and of course there some strong candidates in those I've yet to catch up with.

And it's time to move into 2012; will 3D finally prove it's worth or die away? Just how much money will Batman's nexy outing haul in? Will The Avengers actually succed in fitting everything in? And most excitingly what will be the films that surprise and come out of nowhere to be the year's best?

Scream 4

2011-08-28T09:46:00.003+01:00

Arriving a decade after the last installment the Scream franchise returns to cast an eye over the state of the horror genre once more.

The first thing I'd say though is that Scream 4 is no longer a horror film in it's own right. Whilst Scream was undoubtedly a stalk and slash horror film with added commentary on the genre and knowing dark humour the latest film comes across much like an outright parody of the genre not the pastiche the first film was.

It's actually quite a funny film, the opening sequence is a great gag and it's full of brilliant lines ("The voice from the films or well, you know, your life"), but it never quite comes together as tries to balance various aspects as the original.

One of the key factors is the characterisation which was actually quite strong in the first two films. Then the main cast were people with believable lives, motivations, emotions and the secondary cast feel like, well, people rather than ciphers.

However this time around the returning cast aren't really given a chance to anything other than advance the plot or get chased around whilst the new generation of kids seem to neatly fall into either victim or suspect categories.

Emma Roberts is bland as Sidney's cousin failing to grasp the chance to be the new center of the film. Only really Hayden Panettiere's Kirby seems to have any real spark to her and as such is seemingly rewarded by having the most screen time of the new faces.

Another factor which stops the film from really excelling is the lack of intensity. Whilst director Craven still manages to pull out the odd effective moment this time out the attack sequences just don't seem to carry the same level of menace and tension as the first and second outings (probably about the same as the weaker third entry).

Interestingly whilst there is plenty of blood on show the violence here is much more theatrical in feel in comparison to the much more brutal, almost more real feeling violence of the original. That opening sequence in Scream still stands as something genuinely quite disturbing.

But perhaps the lack of characterisation and the stylisation of the slightly neutered violence is all part of the critique of the modern horror scene which this film certainly talks about. It does seem Kevin Williamson is not keen on the uptake of horror remakes and dismisses the likes of Saw within the opening ten minutes.

It is strange to watch a film which spends so much time telling you it shouldn't have been made in the first place. But it does raise some interesting points about the state of the genre the franchise did so much to revitalise in the mid-90's and it does also stir in the modern obsession with fame for the fake of fame.

So it's certainly fun (it made me laugh out loud a couple of times) but it lacks the intensity of the franchise's first steps but it's self awareness certainly makes it interesting for the film students amongst us.

Project Potter Part Two

2011-08-17T20:55:00.004+01:00

Ok, so here we go with the second half of the Harry Potter phenom.

..And The Order Of The Phoenix

This one starts with a fairly creepy scene, although it did take me time to work what was going because the actor playing Dudley had changed so much and at this stage I has assumed that Harry basically wouldn't be with the Dursley's again and would be living with the Weasleys. Just something that doesn't quite make sense for me at this stage since they hate him, he hates them and it's surely exactly where everyone would look for him.

Anyway it is a nicely creepy attack. After this I think this is possibly the weakest of the later films and it's possibly down to it being very much a mid story arc sort of affair and what I suspect it's main purpose in novel form is essentially edited out, that of introducing and establishing the Order's members that we only see briefly like the wife of Remus.

It is surprising however just how dark things do get though in places (such as Umbridge's torture punishments, the notion that witnessing death changes your perception of things) and Bonham-Carter's Bellatrix Lestrange is a enjoyably demented character. To be fair the last section within the Ministry of Magic and the confrontation with Vodlemort is well realised but to some extent just highlights the lack of any real drive in the rest of the film.

I also feel that whilst Luna has potential as kooky character it's hobbled by Evanna Lynch's performance in the role. Sometime the glassy eyed quality works but often she comes across pretty woodenly.

So very much a bridging effort this one and probably my least favourite after the first two and marks the point where you can really tell large parts of the tale are being exercised.(Also not enough Gary Oldman!)

..And The Half Blood Prince

A nicely understated opening shows director David Yeates really starting to get to grips with the franchise and in a strange way it almost reminds of Zack Synder's work on Watchmen.

Again things are getting darker, the cursed student fairly early on being notably creepy and Snapes meeting with Bellatrix shot through with rain and gloom with an added sense of dread. Although it does feel like the storyline of Draco is not emphasised as much as it could have been. At the end it's clear Draco is struggling with what's expected of him but sadly I don't feel enough screen time is given over to him (and I think Tom Felton is one of stronger performers amongst the kids too)

It's hard to tell if Broadbent's slughorn is supposed to be just plain naive or blinded by his desire to 'collect' people as we discover his involvement with educating Tom Riddle on how to make himself seemingly unkillable.

Whilst again the main plotline seems to stutter until the final reel (it takes Harry a long time to realise he can use the luck potion to find out what he needs to know), the Half Blood prince reveal seems almost like an afterthought when it comes, things are better this time round as there is more to generate interest. In particular Hermione and Ron's relationship as the two struggle to actually say what they want to the other.

And in truth Watson and Grint are much better in this installment than Radcliffe who just doesn't sell the idea that Harry is able to lead the other students with any real conviction. Though to be fair he does fair better in the final scenes as he forces his mentor to drink the enchanted water.

So stronger than the previous entry but a little weak as a standalone film and much more a building block, although this is somewhat to be expected at this stage.

..And the Deathly Hallows Part 1

I know this one seems to be often criticised as being an exercise in exposition before the fireworks start but I actually really enjoyed this one, even the camping trip parts.

It's just really well made with a lot of attention to detail. For example this film is much darker not only in content but the hue of the film itself is washed out, greyer and darker than the previous entries (and for the duration not just the opening two minutes; pay attention Verbinski!). And of course on top of that we have things like the teacher pleading with Snape to save her, the torture and marking of Hermione and the general genocide of mudbloods vibe running through things.

I admit the notion of the corrupting pendant is a little bit of a steal from Lord Of The Rings but it isn't overplayed so I'm happy to let it go and does play nicely with the relationship of the lead trio as Ron suddenly finds himself over aware of Harmonie's interactions with Harry. And the soul of Voldemort's attempt to use to this it's advantage is well realised as Ron goes to destroy the locket.

The animation for the tale of the Deathly Hallows is also a good move helping to put across an important part of the story in an imaginative way. You get the feeling if Chris Columbus was still in the chair he'd just of had somewhere read out to screen for five minutes.

Elsewhere though there were a couple of things that felt a little under explained like the significance of Lucious losing his wand to Voldemort and again Draco's struggle to chose where his loyalty really lies isn't focused on as much as it could be.

So it's a thumbs up for this installment overall and I am starting to worry that it says something about me that the darker and grimer things get the more I find to enjoy.

..And The Deathly Hallows Part 2

And we're onto the big finish. First of all I'll say I saw this on the big screen in 3D and would actually say although as far as I know it's a conversion job it's the best example of the new 3D technology I've seen, it impressed me far more than Avatar did.

Onto the film in general as a closing installment I thought it worked well and although I was initially cynical about the need for two films to complete the final tale I would say there is enough material here to justify the move.

A lot of fairly cool moments here such as Neville's tauting of the wildmen, the coming to life of the statues, McGonagall turning out to be kick-ass, the rampaging fire, the dragon back escape but in the end amongst the spectacle it comes down to the character moments.

Whilst it is true some of the characters are undeserved such as Remus and his wife I think the major moments are captured. Ron and Hermione's relationship comes finally comes to a resolution and works well, especially in those moments where she realises he has been paying attention all these years.

Harry's interlude with those he loves manages to be quite moving and avoids falling into saccharine as it could have easily done (and yey, more Oldman) and his face offs with Voldemort are quite tense. Oh, Ralph Fiennes is excellent as the evil wizard. Creepy, slightly deranged, cruel and in this installment managing to combine this with a growing desperation.

I admit I don't quite follow though what exactly allows Harry to live after going to his death in the forest nor really the significance of the wands and their owners. But I did quite like the visual of the ghostly Kings Cross.

Key to the heart of the whole film tough is that flashback of Snape's story (and my I bet his death scene has caused a few nightmares in younger views as it's really quite brutal even if it is indirectly seen) as he turns out to be one of the most tragic character's ever. Also turns out Dumbledore is a bit of git. But that works as the mentor is show to have his faults whilst we learn the mean man was the one to sacrifice the most in the end, basically every shred of his happiness.

Although again I admit I've not put my finger on the significance of Snape having the same patronas as Harry's mother.

One thing that does disappoint is that in the end Voldemort seems to go down quite easily and in fact it feels somewhat anti-climatic when Harry defeats him (the same goes for the end of Bellatrix too).

The closing scene as the gang years later families in two is probably the expected way to conclude (at least there is only one ending as opposed to LOTR's like twenty) but it does feel a little flat in the end, but having said that I'm not sure how it could have been approached differently.

Conclusions

So overall I've enjoyed Project Potter. It's a slow start with a bit of wobbly middle but it's a pretty good ride and a fairly strong tale in the end. I don't think there is too much lost from not having read the books until the final stretch where it seems some of the details to really get the nuances of aspects of it seem to have been skipped over along the way. But I don't think it's enough to really spoil it all.

In the end I still think Radcliffe is the weakest actor of the lead three but certainly does get better as things go along and is solid enough as to not take you out of things. I stand by my view that Grint is the most natural performer but I do suspect it might be Watson who goes on to really establish a career away from the franchise (well if she doesn't get too busy with this fashionista stuff).

Of course the supporting cast of luminaries are all excellent (and of course Bill Nighy appeared eventually) but of those I think it's David Thewlis and Gary Oldman that stand out and seem to really commit to their roles.

Thankfully David Yeates proves a strong guiding hand for the last few installments but it's definitely Alfonso Cuarón's work on the third film that really kicks the franchise into life and I think he is probably the one that ensured there was enough life in it to see things get to the conclusion.

I would also in the end Rowling's writing and storytelling turned out to be stronger than I was expecting it to. Starting off simply it did introduce a number of interesting elements and I think should also be applauded for taking what is essentially a children's series into some very dark places.

So to those like me who've never seen these I would recommend the series both in terms of the tale told and that there is some quality filmmaking to be found here.

(And this is my brief thoughts on things for a fuller musing on thing's you'll probably actually need to talk to me I'm afraid!)

..

Trailer of the Day ; Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part II

2011-08-16T12:43:00.001+01:00

With the second part of Project Potter coming soon (hopefully later today) to build up enjoy the below trailer for the final Potter installment.

Project Potter : Part 1

2011-08-02T20:47:00.006+01:00

Right having let slip that I have never read nor watched any of the Harry Potter installments (well, I had seen the first two films previously) I was roundly castigated and thus decided to fix this cultural oversight on my behalf.

I am now roughly halfway through (and on course to get myself caught up in time to catch the final installment before it leaves cinemas) and thought I would present my opinions so far.

..And The Philosopher's Stone

So we start we first of Chris Columbus' brace in the directorial chair. Now this one is solid if somewhat uninspiring but it does do well to introduce the fictional world of the stories along with the main players. Much of the film plays along the lines of The Worst Witch crossed with Just William before the final stretch presents a standard spot of adventuring.

The three young leads do ok but at this stage Emma Watson is very much the most confident performer but the real joy is in the performances of the role call of British acting stalwarts in the supporting roles and making up the majority of the teaching faculty.

Richard Harris in particular really nails it as Dumbledore and it's shame we were denied the chance to say him carry the role through to the end as for me as good as Gambon is latter I think Harris' version is the superior.

So overall this first installment is fairly rigid in it's structuring playing as if consciously ticking off various boxes but a fairly creepy conceit towards the end helps pick things up as does the fun of spotting various bits of Durham Cathedral and remembering I once walked past those props!

..And The Chamber of Secrets

Again this one is a little leaden footed in it's presentation and almost structurally identical to it's predecessor although that may well be as much down to the source material as anything else.

Grint and Radcliffe however show to be more confident performers and there is a decent chemistry brewing between the three leads. Underlined in a few comedic scenes which bring a little more life to the thing. Even Dobby managed to duck under the line of being entertaining rather than annoying although Brannagh's Lockhart appears to have wandered in from the nearest panto rather than anything else.

And sadly the central mystery surrounding the chamber and the living diary of Tom Riddle does feel rather rushed, a little wasted and the feeling is the film could of benefited with more emphasis on this aspect of things and a little less of the class room based scenes. This one feels a little like treading water.

..And The Prisoner of Azkaban

Now this where things really start to get going. Firstly and most noticeably (well to the likes of me anyway) this entry has a director in the seat with a real sense of flair and imagination. Alfonso Cuarón who was coming off the back of 'Y Tu Mamá También' proves a masterstroke of choice and really does a lot to bring Rowling's world to life.

From the use of simple touches like well chosen fades and wipes to the imagination shown in the way the Shrieking Shack is bought to life this entry feels so much more fantastical and well, alive. The Dementors in particular bring a real sense of menace to proceedings whilst Cuaron injects some sly humour into the changes of season with the whomping Willow.

Of course it also helped by the fact that cast are now all settled into their roles and the lead three in particular all do decent jobs, thought I would note that Watson and Grint are ahead of Radcliffe, who does struggle with the parts where's he asked to really emote strongly.

Added to the ever excellent back up team is Micheal Gambon taking over as Dumbledore (though as noted above I do wish we'd been able to see Harris continue, David Thewlis is excellent as Lupin getting the often difficult tone of the mentor figure just right and of course Gary Oldman excels as Sirius Black.

Another key factor in the upturn is the fact that main thrust of the storyline is now getting going as the threat of Voldemort raises and we start to learn about the events of the past and how Harry fits in. The storytelling is also developing, presenting genuine mysteries and surprising turns rather than plodding from A to B.

For anyone looking to do a similar catch up I recommended reading the catch up notes for parts one and two then starting here basically.

..And the Goblet Of Fire

Now this one is very much a middle part of the story entry, building things up for the future. Thankfully the newly found spark of the previous entry is largely continued and director Mike Newell pulls of some really nicely realised sequences. The sweeping shots of the Great Hall as the other school students enter in particular highlight how far things have come since the pedestrian presentation of the first two entries.

Though this is also the first time I really got sense of things being pruned back from the book to fit the film into a reasonable running time. The growing relationship between Ron and Hermione is where it really seems to show as we lurch somewhat from joshing to the fall out of the dance (although there is still enough I would argue both here and in Prisoner for it to work).

In truth it is the closing section that this entry really shines though as those final scenes with Voldemort fully resurrected are full of menace and dread. Although the impact of Cedric's death would have been greater had he been featured previously.

Brendan Gleeson's Madeye Moody carries probably most of the rest of the film, a brilliant creation even if he does fall foul of one my least favourite forms of plot twist towards the end.

Interlude

So that's the first four down (I have watched five but figure I'll round that up with the final three, um two, er two and a half) and so far I confess once past the first two, which to be fair had their moments but were a bit of a slog overall I'm actually quite enjoying these. More so that I thought I would to honest probably and I can see why these are so popular and will no doubt be a cultural touchstone for a generation of kids that have grown up with them.

And to finish for now the below rather amused me:

Drive Angry

2011-07-11T20:09:00.002+01:00

First and most notably of all this film is just plain mad. A man breaks out of hell and races across the deep south in order to prevent his grand daughter being sacrificed by a demonic cult all the while pursued by The Accountant.

And yes that plot summary makes it sound far more reasonable and sensible than it actually is. Whilst you struggle to call Drive Angry a genuinely good film (it's not) it succeeds very much in what it's aiming for. To be an entertaining "beer and pizza" movie and in this desire to be a raucous, throw about couple of hours entertainment it succeeds much more than a lot of others that aim for that 'B-movie' exploitation vibe (for example all this films missing the joke and graduating from Grindhouse spoof trailer to actual film - far too self aware to work).

Nic Cage puts on one of his best fright wigs and stoically grimaces his way through blowing away bad guys and delivering random bits of exposition. Meanwhile Amber Heard provided the sex appeal (she is a very attractive lady) and does well enough bringing a bit of life to her sidekick role but it's William Fichtner who steals the show as a delightfully deadpan Grim Reaper out to recapture the walking dead Cage. One minute coolly threatening and cajoling cops to help him, one minute driving a tanker truck into road blockades singing along to disco hits all the while.

There in truth not a lot of driving amongst the barrage of wilfully OTT action sequences (where a lot of things fly towards the screen, because you know, 3d!) but there is one handsomely mounted sequence featuring of all things a mobile caravan.

So it's mad, makes little sense, is tonally all over the place and is basically trash of the highest order. But it deserves at least one viewing because I promise you'll raise a smile amongst the nonsense at least once.

Trailer below but warned it gives away one or two of the best bits (though other highlights are not featured)

Quiztime : Endings

2011-07-07T21:57:00.003+01:00

Right, since people seemed to have mastered openings this picture quiz tasks you with identifying the films from the endings. All are pretty much the closing shot (give a take a few seconds on one or two). So away you go.....

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Nothing on TV for the Tea Party.

2011-06-30T17:27:00.003+01:00

Unsurprisingly a book published by an arm of the Rupert Murdoch media empire claims that American TV is full of left wing bias.

Unsurprising because, well it's published by the owner of Fox and because well it's obviously right. Now I'm not saying this is a bad thing but saying that this is something surely obvious to everyone.

The world of mass entertainment is and has for a long time been liberal, looking all the way back to the days of Hollywood pushing against the limits of the Hays code until broke.

Today even the 'safest' comedy mega-hits are arguably rather liberal. Until the breakdown of Charlie Sheen "Two and a Half Men" was basically the biggest sitcom on American TV and whilst no-one can accuse of it being cutting edge and it's comedy is quite safe in terms of content if you look closely it's quite the liberal.

Think about it revolves around a divorced single father, his idiot sun and (until recently) his unmarried playboy brother who barely works. At one stage his ex-wife has a same sex relationship and pretty much every episode features extra marital sex of some kind or another.

The previous comedy hit to really dominate the landscape, 'Friends' is also full of relationships and situations that would probably drive conservatives mad. But it's not just comedy, it seems true of drama too. The West Wing is of course the obvious example but also take a look at the likes of Six Feet Under, E.R., Dexter and even the likes of Law & Order.

And of course Hollywood itself is still way out there. Whilst it may produce the odd right leaning film for everyone of those there is probably at least five closer to the likes of "Bridesmaids". I can name quite a long list of films made in reaction to the conflict in Iraq and the war on terror, they may have mostly been avoided by unkeen audience at the box office but they got made and a good few are far from what you'd call Indie Dramas.

So whilst it sounds like the book has some interesting inside views I don't think it tells us anything that wasn't obvious. Ok, there is some counter examples, (many would cite 24 but even then I'm not convinced it's prevailing right wing in it's bias) but in world where Fox itself broadcasts The Simpsons, Family Guy and more I don't you can say the theory is wrong.

True Grit

2011-06-26T17:30:00.005+01:00

Now, a much better film I've seen recently but not written about thus far is the Coen brothers version of True Grit.

It'll come as little surprise to hear that I think is another gem from the brothers. It's not as bleak as their modern take on the western 'No Country For Old Men', not quite as tragic as 'Fargo' but not as funny as 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'. In truth it lies somewhere in the middle of those three in terms of tone.

It has moments of comedy (the Coen's love of language games), but these are for the most part low key and the coda underlines the message of what vengeance can make of a person and that nothing in life comes for free.

Praise was rightly given to Jeff Bridge's turn as Cogburn, this time interpreted as a man with a distinct sense of wrong and right but with a sometime questionable interpretation of them. An almost broken man doing his best to try and do some right (we're given some brief glimpses into his life and how he got to this point in some of the stories he tells).

Matt Damon is also strong as the Texan ranger LaBoeuf who at first is presented as rather unlikeable but ends up developing an almost Odd Couple partnership with Bridge's Cockburn. One almost the idealised version of the old west and the other muckier reality.

But the true standout is Hailee Steinfeld as the young Mattie Ross. As determined as Marge Gunderson and as forthright as Holly Hunter's Penny from 'O Brother', she truly is the star of the show. As convincing as when she hard bargaining a horse trader as when Mattie lets the 14yr old girl occasionally break through her steely determination to see justice done for her father.

After the hot and uncomfortable West of 'No Country' this time around the Coen's present the cold and uncomfortable West where an untimely end is and ever present danger with the odd splash of surrealism thrown in.

So think Unforgiven with a lighter touch and a couple of jokes and you're pretty much there.

Akira

2011-06-26T17:24:00.002+01:00

Ok, I admit I was half a bottle of wine, a bottle of cider and some whisky down and I was watching it in the early hours of the morning but I have to say I really don't see that much in Akira.

Yes some of the animation is quite nice but apart from that the film basically boils down to teenage boy gets super power, is an asshole. Destroys Tokyo. The end. And that's about it. Even the hero of the tale is only slightly less of an asshole than the kid that destroys the city, only the military authority figure, who I'm guessing we're supposed to not like, is worthy of any sympathy since he's just trying to keep as many people alive as possible.

In short the Internet may be throwing it's toys out of the pram regarding a muted Hollywood remake but honestly the existing version isn't exactly good to start with.

X-Men : First Class.

2011-06-06T16:32:00.004+01:00

To put it straight forwardly this summers return to the X universe in X-Men: First Class is pretty much what it says on the tin. First Class.

This time around we're back in the '60s as the Cuban Missile Crisis looms and Charles Xavier is taking the first steps to creating his superhero team alongside his friend and ally Eric Lehnsherr. As from here it's very much the tale of how these two men who inspire others differ in their worldview and end up on opposing sides.

Both James McAvoy and Micheal Fassbender excels as Charles and Eric respectively. The first making Charles a cheery good hearted man (prone to a bit of partying) put into a position where he has to learn to lead and show the way whilst Fassbender's Eric is a bristling presence of anger, power and determination.

Backing them up is a decent cast (with extra points for having Micheal Ironside in it!) although with the number of characters floating around some of them don't get a lot to do. Standouts are Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique and Nicholas Hoult as Hank (aka Beast). It's their relationship and interactions with the lead pair that helps illustrate how people end up on either side of the equation.

In fact Eric's distrust of humanity is served well and it's almost his film in this respect as he struggles to be the man Charles believes he can be before being the man (villain of the piece) Sebastian Shaw as made him. A line of his late in the film is particularly telling "I'm been at the mercy of good men under orders before. Never again".

If there is one area where the film is weakest it is probably in it's villains. Kevin Bacon is nice and smarmy as Shaw but never really feels too threatening whilst his gang are basically characterless beyond January Jones' Emma Frost and even then her main characteristic appears to be her wardrobe (or rather lack of it)

Director Matthew Vaughn fresh off making a satire of comic book films here (and with the guiding hand of Bryan Singer) takes relish in making a real one and does a fine job of balancing the character driven drama (although one or two moments in the script are a little heavy handed) with bursts of comedy (including a smart little cameo) and the inevitable mutant power driven set pieces, with Eric pulling a submarine from the sea a standout moment.

There is also a dark edge running through the film which gives it something extra from Eric's early Nazi hunting (with a scene appropriately reminiscent of Inglorious Basterds) to a standout disturbing moment as Eric gets his vengeance through the unexpected death of one of the class.

And it's all draped in a wonderful '60s vibe that echoes the Bond franchise in it's prime with chic costuming and set design really giving a sense of time and place. Vaughn even takes it further by using edits and wipes reminiscent of 60's cinema during a couple of montage sequences.

For those concerned about continuity it all pretty much fits with the existing films and the one or two reworkings aren't major (and certainly no worse than those seen in the source material itself)

It won't surprise anyone to learn that things are left in place of another outing with this new generation of mutants and I for one do hope we see it, more so if they can make the same type of jump up in scale and quality as made between the first two films.

This may well be the best of the tentpole pictures this summer and certainly is up with the first two X-Men films in terms of quality and entertainment. Highly recommended.

Trailer of the day : The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

2011-06-05T21:50:00.002+01:00

When I thought before Fincher would be a good fit for this, looking at the below I think I was right. The original film is excellent but I think this might well eclipse it.

Great little cheeky tag line too..

Behind the Scenes - A quiz!

2011-06-05T21:29:00.006+01:00

Ok, another guess the film quiz and this time the twist is all the below are behind the scenes production photos. Some easy, so not so...(but if you ask me they're mostly easy!)

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Babylon AD

2011-06-02T20:01:00.004+01:00

Babylon AD is a feel which I honestly had no clue what it was supposed to be about when it finished. Ok, yes it's about Vin Diesel gruffly protecting a girl in a future dystopia but why, from whom and why she's significant I honestly could not tell you.

It does have a few nice bits of design and one or two interesting ideas (an onscreen credit for a refugee camp features a constantly rising population count) but sadly it all ends up a bit ramblingly incoherent and as such you don't invest in any of the characters which kind of nullifies any tension or excitement.

Also it loses points for suggesting a Humvee can be run off the road by a Landrover.

At World's End : Should it have been franchise's end?

2011-05-29T11:10:00.003+01:00

Taken me awhile to get around to the write up but I have now also re watched At World's End the until recently final installment in the Pirates series. The good news is I did actually enjoy it more than I thought I would, but it still does have it's problems.

Taking in the rescue of Jack from the afterlife, a trip to Singapore, the Pirate's council, Will's quest to save his father, the return of Barbossa, the tragedy behind Davy Jones, a sea goddess and a fight against the oh so evil East India Trading Company on of the film's problems is at points there just too much going on.

It's a strange one really, Dead Man's chest suffers from there not being enough ideas as it essentially reworks a sizable amount of the first film whilst this time round it feels like there are far too many ideas being squeezed in. This is at least partly how we end up with the nigh on three hour running time.

A running time that could easily be cut down. The early jaunt to Singapore doesn't really serve a lot of purpose and whilst they are well realised Jack's sequences inside the locker of Davy Jones don't really move things forward. In fact the whole effort to rescue he seems to fall a little flat when it turns out he's almost rescued himself by the time he gets there.

Elsewhere things are padded out by the increasingly daft constant double crossing and deal making that goes on between Tom Hollander's Lord Becket and basically everyone else in the cast. A loyalty change every few minutes soon gets tedious.

I guess whilst I'm on the negatives I'll mention the complete waste of the Kraken. The best thing in the previous film by a country mile is here killed of screen and dismissed as something out of it's time. You suspect the writers couldn't think of a suitable way to deal with it on screen.

And finally after doing fairly well to ground the series in the first two parts this time around Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom fail to convince the audience of either their romance or apparent status as highly skilled pirate types.

Knightly in particular runs aground when asked to deliver what is meant to be a stirring pre-battle speech to rouse the crew. It comes across so poorly that it's almost funny but sadly just remains rather rubbish. As for Orlando, it seems for some reason this time around they've merely asked him to hang around and look as pretty as possible.

Right, I know I said I enjoyed more than I expected so I'd better get to the parts I liked.

Firstly it's in the smaller comic moments that film works well and regains some of the sense of fun present in the first outing. Like Jack asking if anyone came to rescue him because they liked him or the bickering between Jack and Barbossa over who gets to be captain.

In fact Rush's presence as Barbossa helps a lot whenever he's on screen, manging to ham it up horribly whilst looking like he's playing straight next to Depp. Credit though has to go to Depp too who does a strong comedic touch when given the chance.

Although I do think they try to cram too much it is nice to see new ideas and the journey back from the afterlife is one of the strongest sections, in particular the recently dead sailing silently in the opposite direction - a sea of lamps in the dark. Also the story of Davy Jones is quite well played out even though making him effectively a lackey for Beckett seems a poor choice.

The final showdown also has it moments (although the Calypso storyline goes nowhere) and could have had a classic scene with the mid battle marriage if not for some poor editing, a dodgy sense of timing and general lack of conviction.

So whilst I did enjoy more than I expected, I expected it to bore the tears out of me and I think looking at the above it's safe to it's not moved up too far in estimation. Essentially it has a few amusing moments and few nice ideas but these unfortunately are adrift in a sea of narrative dead-ends (can anyone tell me what Jack actually wants by the end?), over indulgence and a reliance on two main characters who shed any sense of screen presence.

Safe to say Curse Of The Black Pearl remains the only entry that's really worth watching again.

Dead Man's Chest : Still not great.

2011-05-22T21:38:00.003+01:00

Right, with the release of the fourth installment of the Pirates of Caribbean franchise hitting cinemas (at extravagant cost looking at the reports) and having noticed I could get hold of parts two and three for a reasonable amount of pennies I have rather rashly revisit them.

Now, as some my recall I've not been particular enthusiastic about of these two film, like much of the world, but since I've not seen either of them in their entirety since the cinema I'd thought it would be worth reassessing them.

Just to clarify I do think Curse of the Black Pearl is a top notch fantasy comedy action adventure that did a fine job of not taking itself too seriously.

First up is Dead Man's Chest (I've not yet caught up with At World's End since it's about eight year long) which was promised as the "Empire Strikes Back" of the trilogy. The dark middle chapter where the good guys don't win. Well that's true in some respects but truly it's only the opening minute or so that really holds to the idea of a darker tone.

After that it's more of the same as the first film with action set pieces separated by comic beats, romantic beats and Johnny Depp being paid a lot of money to lark around. Which would be fine but for the fact that the sense of fun seems to have gone.

An overly portentous plot regarding Elizabeth and Will trying to save their own lives whilst Jack tries to evade having his soul taken by Davy Jones with the East India Company being evil in the background bogs things down and is not helped by the fantastical elements heaped upon it.

For the crucial failing of the story is the fact that Jack, who was basically the comedy relief of the first effort, is here put front and center only to them spend most of the running time double crossing most of the other major characters to save his own skin.

He does over everyone and yet they all decide to try and save him at the end. Hmm. Yes, Jack still has a few nice comedic moments but personally in this film I find it hard to buy him as the roguish chancer who is good at heart. He's much more the slimy operator out to benefit no-one but himself.

The strained effort to create a love triangle between the three leads is strained and unneeded as well.

Anyway, it is the lighter moments that film works be those the fleeting one-liners (the best often from Kevin McNally's Mister Gibbs), the skewing of film tropes (there is at least one quite sly sequence riffing on clunky exposition) and the standout set piece of Will, Jack and Norrington's three way duel that ends up on the water wheel. The set piece with a sense of fun. And one of the few bits of the film imaginatively staged.

Elsewhere the film feels as little overdone (Tortuga is too self consciously pirate town, the Voodoo lady could be straight out of Monkey Island) especially in the design and execution of Davy Jones and his crew. The conceit is nice one but is overdone in an orgy of CGI and misplaced gothic design as the film tries too hard to recreate the ghostly crew of the first film. It's hard to really emphasis and take the plight of Bill Turner seriously when half his face is a starfish.

Though I admit the kraken is a largely successful inclusion and makes for a solid monster to be feared and it's attack on the Pearl is a decent sequence, which makes it the stranger that it is inexplicably cast aside in the next installment.

Anyway I think it's safe to say my judgement of the film hasn't really changed. It made chuckle once or twice, I still think making Jack the star was a mistake and I frequently found my attention wandering during the run time (it can easily be at least twenty minutes shorter).

So, basically, it's on the a little bit rubbish side of alright. I'm not really looking forward to watching At World's End, but who knows I've not seen any of that since watching it the first time. Though at the time I thought it was terrible.

Trailer of the Day

2011-05-17T21:19:00.001+01:00

A pretty good cast with some decent lines in the trailer (and an admittedly eye catching moment with a banana) Could be worth keeping an eye out for.

Doomsday

2011-05-15T16:37:00.003+01:00

I caught Doomsday for the first time the other day, it's the third film from Neil "Dog Soldiers" Marshall and to be honest it's rubbish.

It's basic plot revolves around a team looking for a cure to a deadly disease in an apocalyptic Scotland. On top of that Marshall has thrown a bit of everything he thinks he is cool onto the basic structure.

So we have a distopian Britain, elements of Mad Max, Dirty Dozen, Escape From New York, 28 Days Later, an inexplicable medieval society that clearly loves Gladiator too. Add in the random bouts of nudity, poll dancing and comical violence and you truly have a film born of the dreams of a 14 year old boy.

The distopia is whilst at least relevant for the story it is a rather poorly realised one and no where near as effective as the likes of V for Vendetta as a weak Prime Minister is bullied into unthinkable action by your classic evil second in command type.

A lot of the other elements kind of work such as the Mad Max style elements (well, up until the singing along to 80s hits en mass, really. It comes out of nowhere and goes on for a good five minutes.) whilst others are wasted. Why bother sitting up a team on a mission structure when all bar two of said team who killed only a handful of minutes later before we even really know their name.

This is all topped off with the bizarre choice to include a medieval culture in the mix. Whilst it seems most of Scotland (walled off from the rest of the world) has become a lawless frontier it seems a government scientist has created his own Camelot. And there is explanation why.

Now, we're not talking a group of people who have simply moved into a castle and adopted a feudal style system of law, no, what we have here is an actual total recreation down to the clothing and armour. Why?

I could of maybe bought it if they'd had perhaps been a couple of lines about the scientist at the head of this society having been a history fan or something but there is noting. We're expect simply just to accept this to the point where twenty years after Scotland was walled off a grown woman has no inclination what a car is! Ok, a bit weird but maybe possible until you realise that this woman's enemies, who her brother actually leads and who have at the start of the film captured her, drive around. In cars.

In the cast the recognised names either feature for mere minutes like Sean Pertwee or sleepwalk through it like Malcolm McDowell and Bob Hoskins. And whilst she does ok, lets be honest Rhona Mitra is a cut rate Kate Beckinsale (which is faintly damning in itself)

Elsewhere things randomly explode or hardened APC's prove laughably susceptible to bows and arrows but fun can be had spotting a number of goofs and gaffes throughout the film.

Basically the whole thing is B-movie clag that was lucky not to head straight to the £3 DVD bargain bin market and for me The Descent remains Marshall's only really genuinely good film (though I've not yet seen Centurion)

Even the Promo trailers are very cool.

2011-05-10T22:31:00.000+01:00

Screen Test

A Despicable Mind

2011-05-09T20:21:00.005+01:00

For some reason you often find that the Hollywood system manages to produce similarly themed films within months of each other, so you get Ants and A Bugs Life, Armageddon and Deep Impact, Capote and Infamous amongst many other examples.

The last one two comes in the form of two animated films that take the Supervillain of comic book lore the central focus. Dreamworks brings us 'Megamind' not long after Universal bought us 'Despicable Me'

And is often the case they both take the same initial idea and work it in differing ways. The Steve Carell starring Despicable Me is the gentler of the two efforts, yes, it does have outlandish moments but generally is the lower key of the two.

Following Carell's Gru as he struggles to mount the greatest crime of all time it sees him slowly but surely grow fond of the three orphans he's forced to take in as part of his plan.

The film works largely because thankfully the orphaned girls are as charming as they need to be for it to work and this is backed up by the comedic efforts of Gru's minions. It's also something a bit different from what you'd expect to see from a Hollywood studio thanks to the European sensibilities of directors Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud.

MegaMind is the brasher of the two and plays much like, well, a Will Ferall film as we follow his titular Megamind as he finally defeats his lifelong nemesis and finds himself falling for the reporter always caught between the two.

So lively gags here keep the film ticking over and much like Despicable Me Megamind's minion is a comic star. Elsewhere this plays out much like a rom-com and a strong one at that with a sparky to and from between Ferrell's blue headed villain and Tina Fey's Lois Lane type.

Both efforts are worth watching, but if I had to pick a favourite I'd go for Megamind but it's a close run thing.

Sunday Smile : The Big Lebowski 2

2011-05-08T21:06:00.000+01:00

The Big Lebowski 2 with Tara Reid from Tara Reid

Thor

2011-05-05T18:36:00.003+01:00

Ended up catching this on the most appropriate day of the week and as the first salvo of this Summer's blockbuster efforts and in particular a key part of Marvel's big Avengers plan it works pretty well.

Opening with a brief Earth set sequence the film soon zaps the audience to the other realm of Asgard, where Thor demonstrates his power, gets exiled, Loki plots and Anthony Hopkins collects his cheque. Then Thor must use his time on Earth to learn how to be humble, wise and not generally be a crass jock smartarse. Then he saves the day, obviously.

The Asgard based scenes are where the film could have easily failed and have slipped into overly campy territory but they are executed well striking a solid balance between the required Shakespearean mythic qualities and the much needed reality to sell the concept.

Design wise it is an excellent set of work both in the architecture of the Kingdom (both ultra modern and reminiscent of Norse myth) and the costuming ensure the characters look imposing rather than daft as easily could have been the case. In fact one can only imagine the presence Idris Elba's Stringer Bell could have had on the streets of Baltimore if he'd had access to the same wardrobe as Heimdall

Away from Elba who does well as the largely static Heimdall and Hopkins as Odin (who does ok but doesn't really put any real feeling into his role), the cast is pretty strong.

Natalie Portman is charming as Jane (even if she doesn't really convince as a scientist), Kat Dennings provides solid comedy support, Stellan Skarsgard manages to make a good first of a largely exposition based role and it's always good to see Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson.

But crucially it's Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston that really standout as brothers Thor and Loki. With Hemsworth bringing charm and physicality to his role alongside a sense of vulnerability as his Thor trends the path from cocksure through to lost before re finding purpose and humility.

Whilst Hiddleston's Loki is built more as the son looking for his father's acceptance rather than just a hissable villain. In fact it's the strong sense of relationship between Loki and Thor that helps the film through it's rather confused and slightly rushed climatic scenes.

And this is where the film does fall down, it does come across in the end almost as a two hour prologue to something bigger. Which in fact it actually is as it's here to setup Thor for his appearance in The Avengers. But you are now really starting to get a sense of Marvel's movie world building with brief mentions for Iron Man's Tony Stark, a Hawkeye cameo and the regulation post credit appearance of Samuel L Jackson's Nick Fury.

Despite this though it is an entertaining prologue for the most part with Kenneth Brannagh showing he has the lightness of touch needed to balance comedy (an early hospital based sequence is a highlight), adventure, perils and drama without the film feeling like it's violently shifting gear.

He makes a decent fist of the action sequences too, with Thor's multiple SHIELD agent takedown and an early brawl against some frost giants being the highlights although the final confrontation is a little unclear and not helped by some slightly dodgy effects.

Brannagh does also find time to include some nice bits of framing and a couple of quick shots that feel like they've been cribbed from the pages of the comic book source.

So overall, it's a fun film that gives you a sense that Marvel's grand scheme could well pay off very well indeed but standing by itself it does feel a little like the opening chapter rather than a whole story. And for what it's worth I did really like the closing line.

Sucker Punch

2011-04-03T13:10:00.004+01:00

Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch is the director's first totally original film with all his other efforts being adaptations of existing material. And it is fair to say the whilst the visual flair remains his handling of the narrative is fumbled and the overall tone of the film suffers from some questionable decisions.

So looking at the positive the film is fairly impressive visually, it of course features plenty of Synder's trade mark slo-mo interspersed with blasts of sped up action but beyond that the film has a nicely 'aged' look and is probably the closet thing yet to a comic book brought to life - a lot of the shot setups seem heavily reminiscent of comic panels.

Alongside this the film as an excellent soundtrack which is used to great effect in a number of sequences and it's when this combination is in action that film works best, particularly in the opening sequence which you can see below. (And does seem to be an emerging pattern that the best part of Synder's films are the opening five minutes).

But if you look a little deeper what you find in amongst all the bombast and breathless action is a group of underwritten characters moving through a story that would be lightweight for a videogame. The central characters are all pretty much cookie cutter set-types; the quiet but determined one, the cautious one, the naive one, the gung-ho one and in fact Jamie Chung's Amber and Vanessa Hudgens' Blondie barely get any lines at all.

Emily Browning, Jena Malone and Abbie Cornish are a little better served but not by much and they are all somewhat undermined by being required (by a frankly pointless part of the setup) to spend all their screen time dressed in tottering hells and fishnets. This is because the fantasy action sequences are bordered on two sides by the asylum in which Browning's BadyDoll ends up in and the bordello she for some reason imagines it as.

The film would work well enough without the bordello aspect, why not simply paint the asylum as a nightmare worth escaping, which only seems to serve to sexualise proceedings needlessly. And the less said about the fact the girls' escape plan revolves around distracting men via Babydoll's dancing the better. I'm sure it's supposed to be a female empowerment thing but I don't think it really works.

It is true that the film has somewhat more interesting ending to it that I expected halfway through and comes to a close on something of a low key note but sadly whilst Synder is undoubtedly a showman but here fails to successfully draw the three lines of reality cohesively together.

In the end it plays out like a sequence of set pieces strung together and hung a skeletal frame which has the potential to be much more developed than it is. Which is precisely what it is since Synder admits to thinking up the various set-pieces first and then writing around those.

So I'd say if you're going to see it, see it on the big screen where the look and soundtrack can have their full impact since there isn't much beyond that.

Unstoppable

2011-03-29T15:05:00.005+01:00

Unstoppable is the kind of stripped back action thriller you rarely seem to get these days. Purely and simple it is the story of a runaway train and the people trying to stop it before it derails in the middle of a town and that's about it.

There is no romantic subplot to speak of (though worried family members of course feature), no moralising, no political agendas, just some guys (and gals) trying to stop a train who a misguided company boss for a bit of booing.

Once things get rolling there is no doubt that Tony Scott is a wise choice for this moving as his energetic style dovetails nicely to project a sense of constant movement and people trying to keep with a situation that is spiraling out of control (although he does manage to pack in quite a lot of helicopters for a film about trains).

A well used mechanic by the director is the frequently switches to news camera footage as the drama unfolds, these little sections allow for the use of maps to show us where everything is, stats on the number of people endangered and recaps on the plans to stop the runaway freight train in case the audience wasn't paying enough attention.

Denzel Washington and Chris Pine prove a capable central paring, who at first of course don't get along but buddy up across the film's runtime with one the veteran and the other rookie. A classic setup yes, but it still works well. Washington is always reliable and this kind of honorable blue collar man is the sort of role he works well in, Chris Pine shows he is more than just a certain Starship captain even if he isn't really called upon to do anything much more than charmingly a bit cocky (like a certain captain)

And backing them up is Rosario Dawson as a rail company co-coordinator and again whilst she isn't called upon to do anything too heavy she delivers what she has well in a role where her gender is irrelevant. She's not romantically involved with any of the other cat nor is ability called in doubt because she is a woman (which so often the case in these kind of films). She's just a professional doing all she can.

One of the real plus points of the film is the almost total lack of CGI (there probably is some but nothing I really noticed - most likely during the high speed curve glimpsed in the trailer above) as the action is mostly done with good old school stunt work. Where real trains are driven through real trucks and real people run along the top of real speeding trains.

One breathless sequence sees Pine's character struggling to couple train cars together at over 70mph whilst blinded by grain escaping from one of the cars. It's an exciting sequence and although you know I'll survive it's tense as he disappears from view seemingly under the train.

How close things are to the events that inspired the film I don't know but I do know it is a thoroughly entertaining race against time thriller with a strong cast and real sense of momentum.

R.Tv.O.F.R : Love The Way You Lie

2011-03-27T23:06:00.004+01:00

Truly "Recovery" was a return to form for Mr Marshall Matthers and Love The Way You Lie is the biggest track from it so far and the accompying video is one of the type they rarely make anymore - that bizarre combination of being unshowy and yet undoutedly an expensive one full of great imagery (and actually possibly Megan Fox's best performance to date..)

Sunday Smile

2011-03-27T21:36:00.002+01:00

They've done True Blood (aka True Mud) now it's CSI's turn to get the Sesame Street treatment

And a spot of Law & Order for good measure

Quiz Time : Opening Images Level 2

2011-03-20T22:35:00.004Z

Right, challenge accepted! Another batch of stills taken from the opening moments of films and this time no url based clues. Once again there are couple of gifts in there (the first two really should ease you in) but this time I think there are a couple of genuinely tricky ones.

If anyone wants to hide their answers from others send 'em as a message on good 'ol facebook.

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Quiz Time : Opening Images

2011-03-15T20:25:00.004Z

Basically name the film from the screenshot, all of which have been taken from the opening moments of the film in question;

(And know I consider at least three of these embarrassingly easy)

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Trailer of the day : Bad Teacher

2011-03-06T17:30:00.001Z

Quite childish, but quite funny and I've met teachers a lot like this...

The General.

2011-03-06T17:24:00.003Z

The film comedy that made me really laugh out loud a few times the other day was in fact nigh on ninety years old and still a brilliant piece of work.

It was Buster Keaton's "The General", which tells the tale of a railroad engineer racing to save at first his train and then his fiance during the American civil war and it is packed full of fantastic comedy timing and outrageous stunts.

You're unlikely to find today's comedians going as far as risking their life and physically manhandling railway sleepers all for the sake of a gag. He then plunges a rail train off a real bridge into a real river...

How the Stars stay fit..

2011-03-01T17:52:00.002Z

(Disclaimer : comedy skit from Jimmy Kimmel, not actual smut!)

And it's all awards over...

2011-03-01T17:06:00.002Z

Well the jockeying and jostling is over as the film award season once again comes to a close with the Oscars and well the prizes went to pretty much you expected them to in the end.

The only real question in the end was would Fincher get a nod for direction on Social Network? True to form the Academy declined to separate Best Film from Best Director and both awards went the way of The King's Speech.

At the end of the day it's the Academy Awards themselves that are finding it increasingly hard to make an impact in this day and age. By the time the grand daddy of film awards comes around there have been so many ceremonies each year that fatigue sets in and often the repeated awards go to the same faces making the Oscars easy to predict seeing as many of the Academy vote in these earlier bouts.

It doesn't help that the ceremony itself once a big time television event full of glamour finds it's harder to find an audience and stay relevant to a younger audience. This year's approach using James Franco and Anna Hathaway to front instead of the usual candidates (Billy Crystal) didn't quite come off.

The two actors didn't look that comfortable and the material they were given was MTV Movie Award Lite and it was left to some impromptu swearing to really make much of a stir.

Next year I suggest an abridged version where the whole thing takes place on the Red Carpet, after all that's the part people are interested in...."What are they wearing?"

Tokyo cool Stormtroopers

2011-02-28T21:10:00.003Z

These will bring a smile to your face (well, it will if you're kind of geeky)

And to finish "We can't repel funk of that magnitude..."

Trailer of The Day: Thor

2011-02-20T12:43:00.003Z

And today we have a bit of a longer look at the upcoming Thor. Looks like it's shaping for Marvel to rule the summer with this, First Class and Captain America hitting screens.

Trailer Of the Day : Dead Island

2011-02-17T23:17:00.003Z

Today's trailer is actually a game trailer, I don't know much about the gameplay as yet but this little film is well done. This is what you get if you take a little bit of Coldplay's The Scientist video, a little bit of 21 Grams and a chunk of Left 4 Dead....

Resident Evil : Afterlife

2011-02-16T14:54:00.002Z

The Resident Evil film series returns, again. Somehow it's a franchise that just keeps going despite being slightly dodgy in terms of quality from the moment it started.

This fourth installment picks things up as the army of Alice (Milla Jovovich) clones glimpsed at the end of the last film attack Umbrella headquarters in Tokyo. Well, under Tokyo, yes it seems Umbrella has managed to build a massive underground lab/military base under central Tokyo with no-one knowing. Hmmm. That's just one of the many ludicrous things you just have to run with here.

After much shooting, punching and throwing of things into the screen (this is a 3d movie don't you know) Alice confronts Umbrella Director Wesker (who is comically evil just like his game counter part) who manages to inject her with a cure for the T-Virus making her human again (not that you'd notice as she continues to be supernaturally capable) which he obviously can't be bothered to do to the rest of the population.

Anyway, from here Alice teams up with a bunch of survivors, including a returning Ali Larter as Claire Renfield, so they can be picked off by the various nasty things until only a couple are left and it's time to face the end of film boss.

To be fair there are a few bits of decent characterisation (and someone has a thing against film studio execs) and a great (dare I say even post-modern) gag at the end of the film. But it is mostly nonsensical stitching together of daft action sequences where people have the time to setup traps and daring escapes whilst the monstrous horde waits politely it seems. Still the inevitable giant axe guy sequence is well presented.

So all sense of logic and reason has been almost entirely thrown out the door and the set pieces get dafter as more and more things from the game series are ticked off the list, but it's all still stupidly entertaining if you're in the right mood.

Dollhouse; a quick overview

2011-02-10T18:58:00.000Z

Ok, I've now seen all of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse and the following is what I think of it overall, now be warned there are big 'ol spoilers in the below. Not those vague kind you get in most reviews but bona fida revelations of plot details and what happens to who.(Edit to add; Actually the below is more vague than I thought it would be)

So that's the formalities out of the way, Dollhouse started back in 2009 with a thirteen part season and was widely expected not to receive a second series, but to the surprise of most (including most of those working on the show) it received a second order and a second run of thirteen episodes aired in 2010.

So it was again a short lived series for Whedon but twice the length of fan favourite Firefly. Undoubtedly the uncertainty surrounding the continuation of the series did influence the way it developed by to their credit many of those working on it fully admit that and are open as to why the series didn't find the audience it needed.

In fact Whedon himself admits he got the start of the series wrong and admits it failed to find a rhythm and a sense of itself quickly enough. This to be fair is apparent in the opening few episodes of the series. Whilst the opening set of episodes do set out the basics of the Dollhouse itself and start to build the supporting characters the main problems are that Echo herself remains mostly a blank slate and the story of the week format is let down by some very by the numbers plotting.

However it is a bit of a strange one, Echo's anonymity serves the story of the series as at this point she is supposed to be like all the other actives as the audience get used to the fictional world created. But crucially it leaves the show without a central hero for the audience to follow since Echo is by definition a different character each week for the majority of the episode. In fact at this stage Agent Ballard is the closed thing to a hero but is crucially clearly not the main character as his investigation of the house is the B-plot of each episode rather than the main drive.

The diverse elements and ideas floating around finally come together solidly for the first time in the sixth episode to air, 'Man On The Street' as finally we get the sense that the Dollhouse provides so much more than high class prostitution (from the heartbreaking story of Joel Mynor's lost wife)and the episode also dramatically spins Agent Ballard's investigation. Yes Ballard finally comes face to face with Echo who delivers a warning from inside the house.

In subsequent episodes the pace picks up as we learn more about who Echo was before the house, the House toys brutally with Ballard through his neighbour Mellie with a stop off for a good solid high concept episode as Echo is imprinted with the mind of a dead woman and sets out to find her own killer.

When then get the appearance of Alpha (terrifically performed by Alan Tudyk) the mad genius killer active with the minds of forty people figthing inside his skull. He is the first really tangible adversary for Echo and the House who his two episode brace begins the ball rolling for Echo to become 'Super-Echo'.

Now finally here get 'Epitaph One' which was made under the belief the show was to be cancelled and so uses a flashforward and back format to show a world in ruins thanks to the imprint technology and what has happened to our cast of characters. Whilst it is a strong piece of television sadly it ties the writers into a path once starting out the second series. We know where it is all going.

The most interesting part in the episode is I believe centered around Topher. We see him as a broken man holding the guilt of destroying society on his shoulders, long gone is the hyper-confident young genius and his journey to this point that would prove one of the more interesting aspects of the series going forwards.

In the first few episodes of the second series the show plays much like it did in the first with one off stories taking most of the screen time but once we hit episodes five the brakes are off and it's pretty much a non-stop ride to the conclusion.

Alexis Denisof's Senator turns out to be something more sinister than a doll as it's revealed he's a man who is who he is but has been subtly altered by (the Dollhouse's overseeing corporation) Rossum to suit their own ends. In fact his investigation ends up clearing the company of any link to illegal activities and sets him up as a Presidential candidate in waiting, one under Rossum's control.

Echo begins using skills from past imprints, is captured by another house were further details of her past are uncovered before she ends up on the run with the aid of Ballard before returning to the house able to take advantage of all the knowledge and skills she has ever been imprinted with.

It's then a return from Alpha, a trip to the Attic (which is quite effective and has another one of the shows high concept ideas) and onto the end game where one of the cast is revealed to be very bad indeed.

And it is a reveal that does somehow play out fairly believably thanks to the way it is written and performed, as the 'what? but?' is smartly covered by making them clearly on the mad side of sane.

Finally Epitaph 2 ties up the lose ends as well as raising some interesting questions of it's own before finally in the end it's Topher (having become perhaps the most interesting character) who sacrifices himself to save the world.

Overall I can see why the series failed to find an audience, it is initially hard to like and connect with but once it find's it feet I think it is a great little series. It has the Whedon humour in it no doubt but it does also routinely raise really interesting questions about identity and ethics as well throwing around some truly high concept sci-fi ideas such as human beings becoming literally avatars for others and supercomputers constructed from human minds.

In the cast Eliza Dushku is always solid if rarely excellent, Fran Kranz makes Topher more than an immoral geek (and indeed excels in the later stages), Henry Lennix's Boyd radiates quiet authority and Olivia Williams is great as the head of the house with a heart under a skin of stone. Special mention to Enver Gjokaj as Victor who excels in whatever role is given to him and is by far and away the best of the 'dolls' on display.

And so Dollhouse took it's time but has finally placed itself as my second favourite Whedon show. Buffy of course will always remain top but Angel's disappointing fourth season and I felt wasted opportunity of a fifth alongside Firefly's brevity (stopping it from developing) and over reuse of stock character types sees the 'house claim that second spot mainly in the end thanks to high ideas.

Though it would have been interesting to see how the series would have gone if allowed to run with those pulling the strings implying t would have become almost a 'Charlie's Angel's' style show with Echo and the rest fighting each week against misuse of the 'printing tech.

Superbowl Trailers

2011-02-06T22:43:00.003Z

With a post on Dollhouse getting longer than expected and taking longer to make coherent for now I'll leave you with a few of the early Superbowl trailer spots;

The main trails for many of the upcoming big hitters (including a first real look at Captian America) will aire during the game so we'll take a peak at those tomorrow.

Sunday Smile : Back To The Terminator Future

2011-01-30T20:07:00.000Z

Natalie Portman Raps

2011-01-30T19:48:00.001Z

This still makes me laugh;

More Awesome Action Movie action from India

2011-01-27T22:59:00.002Z

This is epic and also badly dubbed over in Russian for some reason

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Ratings & Classifications : An opening ponder.

2011-01-27T22:35:00.000Z

After watching Mark Kermode's interesting entry on effect of age rating certificates and their differing effects on the performance of films I did starting thinking about what he said and then about film censorship in general.

Of course recently there has been some renewed discourse around the issue down to the fact that for the first time in a few years the BBFC refused to release a film unless cuts were made. That being the four minutes of cuts made to A Serbian Film.

Now rather boringly I have to admit I think the current state of affairs is probably about right. Currently very few films are refused classification by the BBFC and they are these days very open about the decisions they make. I do think they were right to ask for the cuts in A Serbian Film since the material in question centered around the sexual abuse of minors.

Now some people may say that as adults we should be allowed to all make our own decisions and we have a right to free speech. First off I don't think anyone who calls for total free speech has really thought about what they're asking for and secondly (and perhaps somewhat conservatively) I'm happy there is a body examining media released into the cultural sphere in this country.

I don't think anyone can argue that things are restrictive at present. Look at The Hangover (which received an 'R' in the states), which pretty openly strides through drug abuse, alcohol abuse, prostitution, gang violence and a lot of swearing. It was given a '15' rating, which I think is fair but I can imagine if had been released perhaps as early as the 90's it might have been bumped up to an '18'

At the other end of the scale the introduction of the '12' certificate has opened up the market, but it is a certificate I admit I'm not sure about. Illustrated by something like The Dark Knight; clearly the studio involved was happy to let director Nolan make things a little darker (well a lot in comparison to Batman & Robin) in the knowledge that they could hit the '12' and keep the valuable family market that would be cut back by the '15'.

Now I'm all for as people being allowed to see a film as possible but am a little wary since it seems very few parents check out a film before taking along children and something like The Dark Knight I can imagine being a little much for 'younger' 12 years olds. And from the other side the film was hamfistedly edited in places to ensure the lower certification especially the infamous pencil trick and any of the scenes involving knives.

In the end though I'm fairly certain we have a better system that the American one which pretty much allows anyone and everyone to see has much violence as they like but slaps it's highest certificate on pretty much anything sexual, so the likes of Blue Valentine gets initially an NC-17 (reduced to an R on appeal) whilst The Expendables happily gets the much more lucrative R rating straight out the gate.

Made all the more bizarre considering anyone can go to an R rated film if there is someone over 18 with them. The cultural attitudes touched upon by Kermode are also interesting, where the American audience seems to still treat NC-17 as something lurid, perhaps its a legacy of the exploitation film scene that exploded in the seventies.

Now that was a bit of a ramble and I may come back to the topic again at a later date once it's had more time to roll around my brain.

Trailer Of The Day : The Fighter

2011-01-27T22:06:00.001Z

Everyone needs a good sports drama now and then;

Baldie Statue time!

2011-01-25T17:48:00.004Z

Well, here go on the final straight of film awards season. The first thing to note is looks like I will have to catch up with The King's Speech soon!

But seriously looking at the main categories it's pretty much the expected suspects making up the numbers. So let's have a look at the runners and riders;

BEST PICTURE
127 HOURS (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
BLACK SWAN (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
INCEPTION (Warner Bros Pictures)
THE FIGHTER (Relativity Media/Paramount Pictures)
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (Focus Features)
THE KING'S SPEECH (The Weinstein Co)
THE SOCIAL NETWORK (Sony Pictures)
TOY STORY 3 (Pixar/Walt Disney Studios)
TRUE GRIT (Paramount Pictures)
WINTER'S BONE (Roadside Attractions)

It's a decent selection this year with nothing in there that makes you think it's been included to try and popularise the event, everything named honestly would seem to merit inclusion. A couple of popular crowd pleasers in there with Toy Story 3 and Inception but crucially they were actually good. Nice to see Winter's Bone get a mention.
But this is one is most likely already a case of straight up fight between The King's Speech and The Social Network. It seems Social Network has the zeitgeist and King's Speech the momentum so it's hard to call but I'm going to call King's Speech to pick this one up.

BEST ACTOR
JEFF BRIDGES - TRUE GRIT (Paramount Pictures)
JAVIER BARDEM - BIUTIFUL (Roadside Attractions)
JESSE EISENBERG - THE SOCIAL NETWORK (Sony Pictures)
COLIN FIRTH - THE KING’S SPEECH (The Weinstein Company)
JAMES FRANCO - 127 HOURS (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Again a decent set of nominations, Jeff Bridges got an award for being Jeff Bridges (ie awesome)last year so I think he's out. I think it might be between James Franco and Colin Firth for this one with Firth most likely coming out the winner.

BEST ACTRESS
ANNETTE BENING - THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (Focus Features)
NICOLE KIDMAN - RABBIT HOLE (Lionsgate)
JENNIFER LAWRENCE - WINTER’S BONE (Roadside Attractions)
NATALIE PORTMAN - BLACK SWAN (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
MICHELLE WILLIAMS - BLUE VALENTINE (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

I think here we're pretty much looking at Natalie Portman picking this one up since she's been picking up the awards throughout the season. Jennifer Lawrence may be an outside bet since she is absolutely excellent in Winter's Bone, also great to see Michelle Williams (who has been quietly impressive for a few years) get a nod. Plus notice once Nicole Kidman ditches the botox she returns to the nominations!

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
CHRISTIAN BALE - THE FIGHTER (Paramount Pictures)
JOHN HAWKES - WINTER’S BONE (Roadside Attractions)
JEREMY RENNER - THE TOWN (Warner Bros Pictures)
MARK RUFFALO - THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (Focus Features)
GEOFFREY RUSH - THE KING’S SPEECH (The Weinstein Company)

A bit of mixed bag, Renner wasn't that good in The Town, which might see method madness steer it the way of Christian Bale's emaciated turn in The Fighter as Rush already has one and so won't win for just being him Jeff Bridges style.

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
AMY ADAMS - THE FIGHTER (Paramount Pictures)
HELENA BONHAM CARTER - THE KING’S SPEECH (The Weinstein Company)
MELISSA LEO - THE FIGHTER (Paramount Pictures)
HAILEE STEINFELD - TRUE GRIT (Paramount Pictures)
JACKIE WEAVER - ANIMAL KINGDOM (Sony Pictures Classics)

Hmm, hard to call here, but word seems to possible point this one in Amy Adams direction but none of the performances are distinctly ahead of any the other's mentioned. If King's Speech is on a role though by this point expect Mrs Burton to take the award home

BEST ANIMATED PICTURE
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (DreamWorks Animation)
TOY STORY 3 (Pixar/Walt Disney Studios)
THE ILLUSIONIST (Sony Pictures Classics)

It's Toy Story 3. It will be. Always bet on the Pixar.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“127 Hours” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
“The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
“Toy Story 3” Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
“True Grit” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
“Winter's Bone” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

I think The Social Network will probably take the baldie here though there is much love for the Coen's work with True Grit. I admit I'm not sure why Toy Story 3 is in this category.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Another Year” Written by Mike Leigh
“The Fighter” Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson;
Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
“Inception” Written by Christopher Nolan
“The Kids Are All Right” Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
“The King's Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler

Most likely to be The King's Speech again here but Inception's screenplay that combined intelligence with big time thrills for a summer audience might have a shout at this one. The Kids Are All Right is probably you're best 'outside' bet though.

DIRECTING
DARREN ARONOFSKY, Black Swan
DAVID O RUSSEL, Fighter
TOM HOOPER, King;s Speech
DAVID FINCHER, Social Network
JOEL AND ETHAN COEN, True Grit

Now I suspect King's Speech might well pick up a lot of awards but I have a hunch that this will go David Fincher's way. Social Network was not only entertaining for a story about civil lawsuits and internet start-ups but was also a technical masterpiece in it's construction. Though I can possibly see Black Swan's delirium turning a few eyes. But I'm betting on Fincher here.

Sunday Smile : also good for Monday Mornings

2011-01-23T20:37:00.002Z

This week a bit of sweding Star Trek style (if you don't know what sweding is check out 'Be Kind Rewind', tell you I'll pop the trailer for that on the end here):

True Blood, now with extra Wolf

2011-01-22T12:07:00.007Z

First of all let's just say it's great to have True Blood return to our screens (well technically our monitors since so far I've caught the first two episodes of the series on iTunes) and it's still a great piece of work.

There are of course some spoilers from here on in as we take a look at the first couple of episodes (Bad Blood and Beautifully Broken).

It all opens just after the disappearance of Bill at the restaurant and Sookie is frustrated that no-one seems to take it seriously, with the Police not helping. Meanwhile Tara reels from the death of Eggs as Jason and Andy try to work what they are going to do about explaining it all.

To be fair this episode is a little bitty as it needs to set threads running after the fall out of last year but for the most part it is successful as we learn those we have taken Bill have a certain lupine quality about them. However Tara still is annoying for me as she manages to blame Sookie for Eggs' death within about thirty seconds of talking to her and then ignores LaFayette in favour of her unstable mother.

Things settle down a bit in the second episode of the series as we learn that Bill's captors in fact work for a vampire Lord who is maneuvering to take over the land of Bill's Queen. Who herself, is looking a trouble as investigations begin into the amount of 'V' being sold in her territory.

Along the way we see Eric and Godric in '40s Europe, posing as members of the S.S. no less as they track werewolves, Sam has some uncomfortable dreams about Bill and Jessica finds herself struggling to deal with a dead body as continues to learn about being a vampire.

It certainly seems like the series is shaping well with a lot of avenues to be pursued (why does Bill appears to have a dossier on Sookie?)and hopefully the number of strands will help avoid the bogging down that occurred last year during the Marianne sections.

The Girl With The Draon Tattoo

2011-01-20T12:24:00.002Z

I recently caught up with this excellent Swedish thriller. It follows the tale of a recently disgraced journalist (Michael Nyqvist as Mikeal) as he investigates a forty year old disappearance for a reclusive rich business man and the trials of a twenty something hacker with an abusive past (and present) who ends up helping him.

The presence of the missing Harriet Vanger hangs over the film like a ghost for most of the runtime (indeed helped by the isolated setting) as Mikeal investigates the dealings of the Vanger family and their dark secrets meanwhile playing against the traditional thriller fair of the investigation we follow Lisbeth (Noomi Rapace) as she endures and fights back against some terrible abuse at the hands of her probation officer.

Indeed this section of the film is very dark stuff indeed and is hard to watch at times but does go a long way to explaining Lisbeth's actions at the film's end. To really say more here would go a way to spoiling the mystery at the heart of the film but be warned this is some distressing stuff in here.

The mystery and investigation itself are compulsive and things take a turn once a series of murders is discovered connected to the family and echoes of Se7en enter the frame as each crime is played out in a specific way.

Sadly once the villain is revealed things stutter a bit as the last third of the film both dispatches them and ties together some lose ends in a slightly stilted way. But the motivations of a couple of the characters turn out to be distressingly similar and you will be made of stone if at least one part of the final third doesn't get to you.

Michael Nyqvist as Mikeal is solid in the role and does give you the sense of a man who once intrigued won't let thins lie but it's Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth who puts in the star performance. Given an incredibly complex character to work with she succeeds in making Lisbeth a rounded if damaged individual, someone who is looking for something in her life she isn't sure exists, love. Sounds cheesy I know but it is played and written excellently.

It's a great film of the type of investigative thriller you seem to get so rarely these days and am also indeed now very much looking forward to the US remake since remembering it's David Fincher calling the shots. The material is certainly right up his street and the last time he made something similar we got the masterwork that is Zodiac.

The NC-17 quandry

2011-01-19T22:51:00.001Z

An interesting one from Mr Kermode here which I think I shall have to muse on as I think it's probably worth having a longer look at certification and the problems it can cause.

Trailers of the day.

2011-01-17T14:40:00.004Z

This time round we have two trailers, one that doesn't inspire me at all and looks like a fairly tired comedy and another that trailer that looks quite cool and the film should hopefully be a barnstorming take on the 'ol alien invasion thing.

So first up the underwhelming looking 'Paul' with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost

It just don't make me laugh or smile and the CGI looks pretty poor if you ask me and Seth Rogen's voicework just feels out of place.

And that was Battle: Los Angeles aiming to give you alien invasion from the point of view of the army grunts on the front line. Could be pretty dumb but it looks like it's going to be pretty epic whatever the intelligence level.

Song line game

2011-01-13T21:15:00.002Z

Well, it's the old opening lines from songs game. You know the score, name the songs. I suspect some of these might be quite tricky and be warned my musical taste really is quite far ranging

1. "For a long time I was in love/ Not only in love I was obsessed"
2. "Jojo was a man who thought he was a loner / But he knew it wouldn't last."
3. "Good and bad I swear I've had / Tho' both are overrated"
4. "You took my hand, you showed me how / You promised me you'll be around"
5. "Well she lives in a fairytale. / Somewhere too far for us to find"
6. "Lord, give me grace and dancing feet. / And the power to impress"
7. "I dreamed I was missing / You were so scared"
8. "Love, love is a verb / Love is a doing word"
9. "I got to testify / Come up in the spot looking extra fly."
10. "Are we growing up or just doing down? / It's just a matter of time until we're all found out"
11. "There is a house in New Orleans"
12. "Loose lips might sink ships. / But loose gooses take trips"
13. "I'm in the sky tonight. There I can keep by your side."
14 "In my happy home I barely breath. In my lover's arms I find relief"
15."Leaves area falling all around / It's time I was on my way
16."It's hard to rely on my good intentions. When my head's full of things I can't mention"
17."Five hours from now you'll be sleeping. I'll be lying awake wondering;; did we make the right decision?"
18."I rather be liberated. I find myself captivated. Stop doing, what you keep doing"
19."Just gonna stand there and watch me burn. That's alright because I like the way it hurts"
20."Standing in line to see the show tonight and there's a light on."

Quiz Time : A quick 2010 film quiz

2011-01-03T13:08:00.003Z

Pretty much what it says on the tin. I admit I'm not in practice with writing quizzes so I'm not sure if it's too easy or too hard. Submit your answers and I give the answers once it seems everyone who wants to has had a go. (There might even be a promise of a drink bought for the winner) Stay away from the IMBD and qive it you best shot.

1.Let Me In was the English language remake of which Swedish chiller?

2.Scorsese’s Shutter Island was based on a book by which author also known for Mystic River?

3.Edgar Wright, pal of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, director of promise brought a comic very much to life in 2010 with which film?

4.Who took over as Lt Col James Rhodes in Iron Man 2 and who did he step in for?

5.Rickey Gervais and Stephen Merchant wrote and directed which slice of small town life?

6.The Town saw the second director’s chair outing for which former Marvel superhero?

7.Just how many levels of dreamscape where there in Cillian Murphy’s head in Inception?

8.Matthew Vaughn brought to screen the whirling dervish of Kick-Ass with his third stint as director, but which very different film was his second directorial outing?

9.The Social Network told (a version of anyway) the story of how Mark Zuckerberg established Facebook. But it seems his business partner and friend in the film is heading to grander things, as Spiderman. So who played friend Eduardo Saverin and is soon to be Peter Parker?

10.Four Lions is the film debut for director Chris Morris but it’s two writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong are the brains behind which Channel 4 sitcom?

11.Bradley “The Hangover” Cooper became one of The A-Team last year. But which one?

12.Toy Story 3 was a triumphant return for Woody, Buzz and the gang. Even Barbie found love, who was it that voiced the oh-so slightly camp Ken?

13.Just before the end of the year Sofia Coppola returned with the tale of a film star drifting through life. Name it.

14.Who was the other, other guy to Will Ferrell in the cop comedy The Other Guys?

15.M. Night Shyamalan looks like he may have finally killed his career stone dead with which family adventure derided by all?

16.The excellent Monsters appeared towards the end of the year, written and directed by Gareth Edwards who also worked on the visual effects. But through which country are the protagonists trying to find a safe way home?

17.The Bourne team of Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass reunited for which Middle East based thriller?

18.In the Summer Jake Gyllenhaal was the titular prince of where?

19.Restrepo was an unflinching documentary following a platoon for a year on tour in which conflict zone?

20.Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe teamed up once again and brought us their version of which legendary outlaw?

R.Tv.O.R.F.

2011-01-01T12:35:00.002Z

Yes it's a little prentious but the tune is catchy and parts of the documentary style video shows a great eye for an image and a surefooted sense of timing.

Films Of The Year (2010)

2010-12-15T18:40:00.020Z

Now I did promise I would pick a top ten of films from this year in the end that became too hard to really do, there was too much "hmmming" and "ahhing" about. So in the end I've picked a top five (in no particular order) and a group of films all bubbling under but which I couldn't cut down enough to end with a top ten.

So first we're looking at those films that just missed out on the top spots. First up is Micheal Winterbottom's "The Killer Inside Me", by no means an easy watch but this tale of a psychotic town Sheriff is expertly put together with strong performances for it's three leads.

Next is Ben Affleck's second directorial outing "The Town" whilst it's not as strong as "Gone, Baby, Gone" it' still a tightly put together crime thriller which retains a very real sense of time and place in it's Boston location. It's starting to look like Affleck has found where he really belongs on the film set, behind the camera.

A pair of British comedies next with "Four Lions", which was Chris Morris' film debut and Banky's "E xit Through The Giftshop". Both are very entertaining and show promise for future efforts but both also had a feeling of being a bit too self aware of their satirical nature to really shine.

Christopher Nolan's "Inception" showed you can marry smarts to massive budgets and come up with something worth watching. It does have a couple of very impressive set pieces and imagination to spare but it just misses out on the top spots because the emotionality of the story wasn't quite there for me.

I also enjoyed Scorsese's "Shutter Island" with another fine performance from DiCaprio and the kind of ending that I perversely really like but it did suffer from a rather intrusive score in a few places.

"Iron Man 2" weighs in as the best of the typical summer blockbusters. Yes, it is essentially more of the same as before but Robert Downey Jr still has charisma to burn and is only a truly interesting villain away from scoring a superhero film that is a stone cold classic as opposed to just very entertaining.

And before we get to the final five as it were I'll reveal that "The A-Team" has been the guilty pleasure of the year. Yes it's silly but it knows it is. They managed to get the banter between the titular team right, some of the action is outstanding and what's not to like about a film with tank flying and Jessica Biel in uniform?

So here we go, it's my top five films of the year, but remember they're not in any particular order here.

The Disappearance Of Alice Creed
Released in April this year, Alice Creed a twisty turney three role thriller. Writer/director J Blakeson keeps thing taught and unpredictable crafting something that keeps you engrossed despite being largely set in one flat. Gemma Arterton proves she is more than a pretty face given the chance and Eddie Marson & Martin Compston excel as men quickly finding themselves out of their depth and struggling to get a foothold on events.

Up In The Air
A slight cheat this one but Jason Reitman's comedy drama hit these shores in January of this year. The tale of George Clooney's corporate downsizer is insightful, funny and heartfelt. It's also seemingly more relevant than ever in these economic times.

Winter's Bone
Debra Granik's rural thriller is outstanding and the surprise of the year to emerge from the festival circuit. Packed full of menace, mystery and a sense of place so strong you'll think you can see breath as you watch it. Jennifer Lawrence's central performance as the determined girl willing to do anything to keep her family together marks her out as a talent to watch out for in the future.

The Social Network
David Fincher strikes again with this tale of the rise of Facebook and the college guys behind it all. Technically masterful in every aspect(the real film nerd in me could pull this film apart endlessly in the skill of it's assembly) The Social Network makes combing divergent timelines and events seem easy and with the aid of Aaron Sorkin's script pulls together a witty and compelling story out of the real life events (albeit the truth is slightly bent to serve the film). Computing is the rock 'n' roll of the generation.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World
This hyperkinetic film assaults the senses and comes away a winner. Breezy, full of invention, charm and wit with that added glow of nostalgia for those of us that remember the days of 8-bit adventuring. Director Edgar Wright further hones his frenetic style but also keeps his hand sure during the (few) slower moments. Sadly Mary Elizabeth Winstead's Ramona never really seems to be really all that great but Kieran Culkin's scene stealing turn as the flat mate makes up for the one disappointing performance. Rarely will you see anything else with such a sense of fun, vibrancy and sense of life.

So there you go, I'm sure people have vastly different opinions on their own choices for the year but that was mine. Just before we go I'll end by saying that at the other end "Predators" whilst perhaps not the worst film I've seen this year was certainly the most disappointing since I actually hoped it might turn out well but in the end it was the most criminal of things for a film. It was just plain boring.

The Power of '3'

2010-12-13T12:30:00.002Z

3 is the magic number next year in the world of gaming with three of the biggest franchises rolling out their third installments, each one looking to be truely epic saga endings.

So watch below and wait with baited breath for the return of Nathan Drake, Commander Shephard and Marcus Fenix.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Video Games | Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception | VGA 10: Exclusive Debut Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Mass Effect 3

Video Games | Mass Effect 3 | VGA 10: Exclusive Debut Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

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Trailer of the day: Somewhere

2010-12-05T22:52:00.001Z

It's another mood piece from Sofia Coppola and by the sounds of it another little charmer;

The A-Team

2010-12-05T22:19:00.003Z

It's another return to the 80's after Predators resurrection of the archetypal big concept movie we have a retooling of one of the classic TV series of the decade hair styling forgot.

Yes, it's the new A-Team film. Released in the cinema earlier this year it didn't really set the world alight but catching up with it on Blu-ray I can honestly say the film was a lot of fun. A lot of big 'ol dumb fun, just like the television show.

We open on with a prologue that sees the gang meeting up with each other for the first time and we're introduced to each one in turn with character names stamped onto the screen as iconic lines are delivered, gone is the fear the film might take itself too seriously.

It's a sequence that also nicely sets up B.A.'s fear of flying throughout the rest of proceedings during a frantic helicopter chase featuring a stunt so cool even the bad guys applauds the antics of his would be quarry.

Leaping forward a few years we see our heroes get framed (after another frantic action sequence), then break out of various jails (there's a nice nod to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and Phil Silver's Sgt.Bilko plus time for a couple of cameos)before setting out to clear their names and recover some stolen franking plates.

Whilst not being over taxing the plot does use a couple of neat turns as the gang avoid capture by Jessica Biel's dogged pursuit to recapture them, deal with a shady CIA agent (Patrick Wilson going for ever so slightly panto) and try to work just exactly who it was that set them up to start with. Along the way things exploded and people wise-crack.

But that's exactly what this film should be, one imaginative sequence sees the team plummeting in earthward in a tank. Yes, it strains the laws of science but, heck, go with it and it's all done with a sense of fun. Mercifully director Joe Carnahan lets you see what is going on for most of it too; nailing the action with aplomb and showing a comfortable hand with the comedy, it's only the more traditionally dramatic sections where he's a little unsure what tone to strike.

Liam Neeson is dependable as ever as Hannibal the wily old operator, Bradley Cooper turns on the charm as 'Face' and sparks well with Biel and Quinton Jackson acquits himself well enough as BA. But it's Sharlto Copley who gets the best moments and makes the most of them as Mad Murdock, overall the guys do function well as a group bouncing off each (lines come in and over each other, helping give the sense these guys have worked together for years.

So turn off your brain and enjoy a daft adventure (with the occasional streak of wicked black humour) with plenty of bangs and a couple of laughs. It may take a while to settle down (the opening ten minutes or so is a little choppy) but it left me with a silly grin on my face.

And of course it ends with that monologue...

Trailer of the Day : Die Hard

2010-11-29T20:56:00.001Z

A classic Christmas movie....

Avatar reassesed

2010-11-28T10:42:00.009Z

Unleashed upon the world in December of last year Avatar was hailed as a bold new step forward in cinema, as the greatest thing you will ever see. It was James Cameron's new monster following Titanic and almost one year later it has indeed gone on to be one of the biggest ever box office hits, taking over $760m in the USA alone.

People like it, people liked it a lot. People went to see it in 3D at the Cinema multiple times, some even complained that they felt depressed that they didn't live on the fictional world of Pandora. At the time I thought, well, I thought it was alright. A little overlong with a simplistic set of characters and story with a 3D element I found technically impressive but I felt didn't really add that much to proceedings.

I recently picked up the Blu-ray however (it was a quiet week and disc appeared good value with three cuts of the film and two discs worth of extras) and have rewatched the film in a longer cut plus a good deal of the supporting production material and I feel it's time to look at the film again.

First of all I'll start by saying I enjoyed the film much more the second time round probably due to a different level of expectation of what I was going to get from it and it is still worth talking about what works and doesn't work.

The version I put on was the latest cut released which clocks in at about two hours fifty minutes or so and one of the key differences is right at the start. Here we open up the film on Earth and witness the dead end existence Jake (Sam Worthington) is in until executives approach him with an offer and the news of his brother's demise.

This helps gives a little more colour to where Jake is coming from and is interesting in it's depiction of what has become of Earth, but is far from essential and as Cameron himself observes it does slow down the start of the film delaying the arrival to Pandora. The other major piece of material re included brings more depth to Sigourney Weaver's Grave as she recalls past days in the school and gives you more of sense of the friendship she shared with Neytiri's sister.

Elsewhere it's mainly extension of already existing scenes with a few seconds added here and few more over there and whilst the extra material gives a bit more breathing space to a couple of characters the truth is the cast of players is still very much a set by the numbers.

Jake is fairly strong as a lead character and whilst is never quite comes across that he has truly taken to the heart the ways of the Nav'i he does convince as someone who could a leader of people with Worthington giving a strong authoritative air when required.

The one moment when the film really puts across a strong sense of what Jake is feeling is during his first session in his avatar body, in particular the joy as he breaks out into a run for the first time since being crippled.

Zoe Saldana's Neytiri is probably the strongest character in the film, whilst she does start of as something of a cliche woman of the wild as the film runs we get a better sense of the pride in and duty to her people she feels. And it is interesting to obverse the differing take of Yunjin Kim in some test footage seen in the behind the scenes material when test sequences were put together.

In fact having seen the making of material a word of praise must go to all the Nav'i performers who went through a lot of work from classes in Archery to movement workshops to develop an 'alien' way of moving and it is true that if watch all the Nav'i move and walk in a way that is both different to the human cast and consistent as a group.

Character wise everyone else is there to move the story along pretty much. Grace is on hand to provide exposition when required, Michelle Rodriguez's Turdy flies people about, Stephen Lang's Colonel is evil (upto the point of almost having a black moustache to twirl) and Laz Alonso's Tsu'tey there to provide the required initial distrust and acceptance of Jake.

But most wasted I feel is Giovanni Ribisi's company man who seems to have had a character arc sent to the cutting room floor at some stage entirely. We're given just enough to think he isn't a bad guy and that he might feel what he is doing wrong at some level but by the end his only contribution seems to be to cheer on the Colonel. I not sure if this is what was intended but it does seems strange to make such little use of the character.

Whilst the characters are a little shallow the cast all put in decent to strong performances with Stephen Lang probably taking the right route of being ever so lightly pantomime in his role. But it is Zoe Salanda who stands out, which is a remarkable achievement given her performance is completely behind the technological CGI wizardry.

Now, there is where I shall divert onto the production side of things for awhile. Back when it was released I wasn't convince why Avatar was a "game changer" but now I start to see.

All the performances beneath the CGI are genuine performances you see, just ones that happen to look like blue cat people. The system used basically allows the actors to perform as they would normally but wearing special suits that are tracked by a number of cameras, footage for which is then captured and used to render the final images.

The facial performances are captured by cameras rigged to helmets fitted to the actors which gives close up footage of the all important element, the face. Which is then used to ensure the captured performance is translated as well as possible when it comes to be turned into the CGI image. Some minimal animation is applied by essentially what you see on screen is what the actor did.

Taking things to really the next level is the fact that Cameron can watch all of this virtually, instantly. That is to say that looking at a monitor connected to a collection of sensors and a no doubt very expensive computer rig he can view the actors and action in front of him pretty much as it will finally appear, from any angle.

That is to say the system is applying the CGI and animation on the fly, instantly and it is very impressive indeed. It is this and the effectiveness of translating the actors performance that is potentially a changer of the game. As Weaver observes now she can play anything; a blue cat-person, a small girl, a younger version of herself, a blading middle age midget and it will still be her performance we see rather than a cruder mash of her and a bunch of animators.

And it is this technological leap that helps the film in it's most successful aspect, it's overall production design. Whatever you may say about everything else the world of Pandora is glorious to look at (botanists and biologists were consulted alongside a team of some of the best fantasy/science fiction artists out there) from the bio-luminance of the foliage to the impressive array of creatures that populate the forest.

If I was ten the visuals and imagination would blow my mind completely, as it is I am quite impressed. The sight of Pandoran horses running through a burning forest is as striking an image as you'll find anywhere. Though I admit I still have some doubts on the design of the human technology, as much as I like the Shuttlecraft I don't like the cumbersome looking giant helicopter thingy.

James Horner's score is perhaps not that distinctive but is effective in doing it's job, contrasting the tribal rhythms and sounds of the Nav'i's world with more traditional orchestral bombastic scoring when called for, i.e when things are fighting.

Yes it's simple, it's a little over earnest and it's all about the spectacle but then so was Star Wars. So whilst I wouldn't say I think the film is a great one, I will happily sit and watch again when in the mood for something that looks glorious but isn't too taxing on the brain it will fit the bill perfectly.

On a small note I will say that for all the hoopla the 3D version I saw at the cinema was spoilt slightly by the 3D as it seems rather than proving more immersive it had the opposite effects and pulled me out of the film a little. Thus I was prevented from allowing myself to be swept along by it and left to admire it on a technical basis.

The Academy still called it right though, Hurt Locker gave me heart attacks.

The best scene of television I've seen in a long, long time...

2010-11-23T20:12:00.002Z

Sadly no link to embed, but follow the link and witness three and half smart, heartfelt, fantastic moments of drama.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suRDUFpsHus&feature=fvw

Brilliant even if you've not been watching the series and just breathtaking if you have (the end of this episode is a gut punch as well)

Trailer Of The Day : Your Highness

2010-11-18T22:41:00.002Z

This looks very immature, but like it could be really quite funny. Doing what Tropic Thunder did for the way movie for the fantasy epic?

Oh, this Red Band trailer probably a little unsafe for the more staid offices....

Chelsea vs Sunderland

2010-11-14T19:18:00.004Z

An unexpectedly excellent point for Sunderland at the Bridge. Yes, Chelsea were poor and off the pace but credit to Sunderland for taking advantage. Bruce bravely went with two front men and the side responded as everyone had a good game.

Combing energy and commitment with some phases of excellent play Sunderland were rightful winners. Not allowing to Chelsea to settle on the ball they ensured the opponents didn't create any real chances in the opening thirty minutes or so and with the crowd quiet, the Black Cats began to push forward.

The pace of Welbeck and determined play of Gyan started to unsettle a makeshift Chelsea defence and it wasn't long before Sunderland fashion a series of excellent chances with Cech keeping them out. It was actually after a great double save by Cech that the opening goal of the game came.

Nedum Onuoha had followed the play froward from right back, picked up the ball near the edge of the area and dramatically ran through a gap of the center of the Chelsea defence, eluded a couple of chances and managed to scuff the ball into the far corner of the net.

Amusing when asked on the radio after the game if knew what he was going to do upon collecting the ball his response was to observer that he knew he was too far to shoot and just decided to push forward and see what happened.

In the second half it was fair to expect a response from the champions, but it never really came as again dogged defending from Sunderland (Zenden in particular was excellent in this regard) denied them a clear opening and seven minutes into the half a counter attack saw Welbeck combine with Henderson who played Gyan through on goal for the Ghanaian to finish comfortably.

Impressively Sunderland's work ethic didn't falter throughout the rest of game and Chelsea appeared to lack imagination enough to unlock and well organised defence. Turner and Bramble proving strong in the center as the full backs and wingers did well to keep Chelsea quiet on the flanks denying Cole and Boswinga the change to push forwards.

Sunderland's third came from a mistake from Cole as he undercooked a pass back to his 'keeper but it was a goal well deserved for young Wellbeck who I'd pick as today's man of the match for the red and whites.

Predators

2010-11-13T11:03:00.006Z

A follow up to the 80s action 'classics' (let's face the originals are both kind of ropey albeit entertaining) Predators sees a band of survivors thrown together in a mysterious jungle to battle eponymous creatures.

Right, so yes they are on an alien planet but no there are nowhere near as many Predators involved as you have been led to believe. (To the point where one part of the trailer is a complete lie). Our group of characters nee disposable ciphers are all vicious killers of one type or another but sadly most of the fail to carve out any kind of memorable feature.

Leading the lot is Adrien Brody doing his best Christian Bale as Batman impression as some kind of tough but honorable underneath mercenary soldier, the type essayed so much better by Vin Diesel in Pitch Black. Suffice to say he really doesn't convince, nor does Alice Braga in the standard tough woman role who just doesn't make you believe this woman is a soldier, it's a part that should have gone to Michelle Rodriguez who plays this type of part in her sleep.

Elsewhere Laurence Fishburne is entertainingly mad in a brief appearance about halfway through and Topher Grace's character at least has some development but it is left far too late to really make much of impact on things.

So the characters aren't that interesting, what about the action? Sadly this isn't great either. There is less of it than you would of thought and when it does arrive unfortunately director(and Robert Rodriquez understudy)Nimród Antal makes it hard to really tell what is going on for large parts and fails to inject any sense of excitement into other parts.

Take for example an early section where are group of survivors are attacked by alien dogs things. They all turn and start blasting away with their various weapons...and apparently hit nothing at all as the dogs keep coming. Even the girl with the sniper rifle is just blasting away and the guy firing the minigun which should be destroying the forest (a la the first film) is doing no damage to anything, anywhere. Of course as the scene moves on our 'heroes' become deadly accurate as needed by the beats of the action.

"We're much better than these guys"

It's not helped by the Predators themselves which seems to act in different ways depending on what the script dictates. At first they creep around using their camo tech to sneak up and skewer people, then they seem happy to just blast away with their shoulder canons before illogically accepting stand up sword fights with a Yakuza gangster wielding a samurai sword in an open field.

We even have a Predator vs Predator fight for no clearly explained reason but even this is unengaging. In fact nothing interesting is done with the Predators themselves, they just become fairly unimaginative monsters. You could probably replace them with any other cinematic boogie man without really changing the film. They simply turn up, kill people, vanish, turn up again and them get themselves killed in idiotic ways.

It's like someone put together a list of cool things to have in a Predator movie (see the above mentioned samurai sword wielding Yakuza), scratched their heads to string them to together and threw in a couple of references to the original and filmed that.

Unfortunately this means you're left with a film everybit as unfocused, underdeveloped and half cocked as that makes it sound. In short it's very disappointing to the point where I'd say AVP: Alien vs Predator is a much better Predator film than this one.

Bollywood Action : What the hell...? Seriously, whaaaa....???

2010-11-10T18:04:00.000Z

The Social Network

2010-11-08T16:55:00.002Z

I've been a bit slow to put something up on this one having seen it last week. It's the story of Mark Zuckerberg who became the youngest billionaire on the planet by striking lucky with Facebook. But was it all his idea and who got burnt in the process?

Now admittedly in it's purest form the story may not seem that interesting to many (I find this kind of thing fascinating) and the way the film unfolds is potentially alienating as it skips between three different strands; two lawsuits and the past events involved. But I thought there was life enough in the film to make it a fine watch.

Jesse Eisenberg's Zuckerberg is something of an enigma. It's hard to really warm to the character but a combination of wry wit and the fact he often seems to be something of a rabbit in headlights keeps you on his side. Just about. It's a strong performance and astute writing (from Aaron "West Wing" Sorkin) that pulls of the balancing act of the character.

But it's Andrew Garfield's role as co-founder Eduardo Saverin that more often than not you're sympathising with as he remains the level headed one just trying to keep control in the escalating phenomenon around him. There is also a stand out turn by Armie Hammer as the twin brothers who argue the site was their idea.

Justin Timberlake also continues to build himself a respectable acting career in his turn as Sean "Napster" Parker coming across as something approaching Tyler Durden for the IT crowd.

Away from that the film is of course as technically excellent as all of Fincher's work. Smart mise en scene and editing means we never lose track of where we are as the film jumps between the two lawsuits and the evolving story of the site's creation.

Added to this is an excellent sound design (note the slyly changing volume levels during the house party) with an off kilter soundtrack provided by Trent Reznor of 'Nine Inch Nails' fame that keeps the film always seeming slightly out of control as were the real life events.

And you would never guess that the Winklevoss brothers are one actor.

Good old Roger Ebert sums up it well when says ""David Fincher's film has the rare quality of being not only as smart as its brilliant hero, but in the same way. It is cocksure, impatient, cold, exciting and instinctively perceptive"

Sunday Smile

2010-10-31T22:19:00.001Z

This starts slow but keep watching, it's random, it's genius.

Trailer Of The Day : Scream 4

2010-10-28T18:53:00.001+01:00

I rate the first two and the third is diverting enough so I quietly excited about the upcoming return to Woodborough.

Trailer of the day : Drive Angry

2010-10-23T21:41:00.000+01:00

The Cage gets even more B-movie crazy on us...

Sunderland vs Aston Villa

2010-10-23T21:27:00.003+01:00

Villa will count themselves unlucky to come away from this one with a defeat as in truth they dominated large parts of the game, keeping Sunderland penned back in their own half of the field for the duration of the second half in particular.

With Ashley Young and even Heskey proving constant threats. Sunderland played in well in bursts with once again Al-Muhammadi proving a handful on the wing. However Darren Bent was subdued and found his touch loose on a few occasions, though Cattermole once again managed to balance aggression and competitiveness.

But in defence Sunderland looked nervous and conscious of the pace within the Villa side, Turner in particular had a poor game as he constantly played the ball out of touch or straight back to his opponents.

The decisive goal game in the first half as Steed Malbranque made to it to the touch line and saw his cross put through the back of his own net by Villa's Dunne. Welbeck and Elmohamady both came close to adding to Sunderland's tally in the first half but after the break it was all Villa (although Bent was denied by an excellent challenge by Dunne when set free behind the Villa backline)as Sunderland throw bodies on the line and rode their luck during some vaudeville defending.

So not the level of performance of the last few games but the win will do the side good and Gyan appears to be getting close to full fitness and did enough to suggest a good partnership can develop between him and Bent during his spell on the field during the second half.

Slighty odd but captivating video of the day

2010-10-13T22:01:00.002+01:00

The official video for a song called 'Remains' by Maurissa Tancharoen which was co-written by Jed Whedon and featured in Dollhouse. It's a strange one but absorbing and features Fran "Topher" Kranz

You don't have to be Mad..

2010-10-09T17:01:00.004+01:00

Now having made my way through a good chunk of Mad Men I can say that I do like the show (even though it does tell my brain smoking is so cool) and I'm fascinated by Don Draper and Betty. Jon Hamm and January Jones both seem to be deservedly on the fast track to bigger things as both are excellent. Hamm brings and easy charm to Don with enough going on to convince you something is not as it seems below the surface whilst Jones bring a strength to the fragile seeming Betty.

It did take me a long time to recognise Vincent (Angel's Conner) Kartheiser as the vile little Pete Campbell. A man who will sleep with the new girl the day before his honeymoon and appears to be bored and contemptuous of his wife whilst desperately trying to suck up to all those around him. And yet watching this horrid man is compulsive as he strains to be top dog.

And it seems interesting times are ahead with the mystery of Don's background, the looming shadow of Nixon and Kennedy and just how far Peggy can go in a man's world.

If you've not checked it out yet I recommend it.

Trailer Of The Day : True Grit

2010-10-06T17:12:00.001+01:00

The Coens return to make a proper western after the success of their 'modern' Western. This one could well be outstanding...

Sarah Silverman : Jesus Is Magic

2010-10-05T20:41:00.004+01:00

First up on the Sarah Silverman DVD check list is 2005's 'Jesus Is Magic' a stand up performance taping with a few other bits thrown in.

Here Silverman's stand up covers race, politics (sort of), sex, the holocaust and midgets. It's all of course filtered through a off kilter world view and wrapped in a series of gags that rise a laugh from wrong footing the audience or from making an exaggerated observation.

The is no real link between each topic as she jumps around the material but this does mean that each segment doesn't overstay it's welcome and you're quickly onto another angle.

Stand out stuff includes the observation that Jewish people shouldn't buy German cars, a discussion of the appropriate use of racist terms, a rendition of Amazing Grace and how to choose the religion of your child. Truly everything is fair game with even the events of September 11th employed in the routine (the domain name pay-off is brilliant)

Less successful are the embellishments around the stand up routine. Basically these segments are tiny bits of The Sarah Silverman Program (which is basically for these who haven't seen it like Curb You Enthusiasm based around a Jewish white girl with a a splash of surrealism) which unfortunately feel out of place when presented in such short bursts with no real indication of who anyone involved is (aside from Silverman)

The amped up song numbers work a little better as they add a little more pep to proceedings and allow for at least one good visual joke.

Now I'm sure this show won't change your mind if you don't like Silverman's sense of humour but I'd recommend it as a good place to start for those unfamiliar with her and for those already a fan it will have you chuckling away.

The Sunday Smile

2010-10-03T22:04:00.001+01:00

It's the Muppets once again and this time they have friends!

F.Y.I

2010-10-03T15:31:00.002+01:00

Just you know, I've put off doing a post about Sarah Silverman until I've had the chance to so research. In other words I'm waiting to get the DVDs of The Sara Silverman Show and her stand up to come after ordering them at the end of last week.

Sarah Silverman has a solution to end world hunger

2010-09-29T22:56:00.003+01:00

The woman really makes me laugh, she really does. I've been checking out YouTube to see what of her stuff is out there and think I'll be together a highlights package to convince doubters over the next couple of days. Watch this space and I'll leave you with this Internet meme classic....

James Cameron does have a sense of humour

2010-09-28T21:59:00.000+01:00

James Cameron Laser Cats 5
Uploaded by FilmGeek-TV. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

Legion

2010-09-28T21:37:00.003+01:00

Legion is the very directorial outing for former Visual Effects man Scott Charles Stewart and is all about the efforts of a bunch of midwest American folks to survive a biblical apocalypse with a little bit of help from Archangel Micheal.

Unsurprisingly given his background the strongest aspect of Stewart's film is the way it looks. With suitably creepy adversaries as they scuttle across the roof and suitable majestic looking wingspans on the Archangels that feature.

It however could have done with a couple of turns at tightening up the script and story. We get vague attempts at adding depth to the array of typical 'Assault On Precinct 13' siege survivors but crucially the least convincing one is the guy who ends up effectively saving humanity.

Paul Bettany's Micheal just about gets away with it thanks to a spirited performance of wild eyed steeliness. Although a last minute reprieve for him cheapens an earlier sacrifice.

The main issue however is the film doesn't really commit to a given a scenario. A slightly overlong preamble means that when things kick off the film lurches from set piece to set piece trying to fit as many in as it can when it may have worked well as a tension racked siege instead of a flurry of fists and guns.

One that falls into that 'mostly forgettable' category when the idea is better than the execution.

Trailer of the day ; The Social Network

2010-09-23T20:05:00.002+01:00

Yes, I know it's judt been videos and trailers recently but I'll get to something more soon. In the meantime it's a first look at David Fincher's return with The Social Network and early word of mouth is promising indeed.

Trailer of the Day : Winter's Bone

2010-09-21T21:48:00.002+01:00

Another breakout from Sundance and one that could well be the film of the year.

"Oh, Sookie"

2010-09-20T21:54:00.002+01:00

Looking forward to the next series of True Blood? Well so is Snoop Dogg;

Your Sunday night pre-Monday smile

2010-09-19T20:02:00.002+01:00

It certainly makes me chuckle.

R.Tv.OR.F : Bluetones

2010-09-19T18:10:00.003+01:00

Back to the mid-90s with a spot of the Stereophonics and ironically as the summers draws to close it's a song that always makes me think of the start of summer for some reason.

Sunderland vs. Arsenal

2010-09-18T20:56:00.005+01:00

Right I thought I might start putting my own game reports here for the SAFC games I attend (and maybe the odd other game)so we'll kick things off with today's visit form the Gunners.

From the first whistle Sunderland started brightly, pushing Arsenal back and denying them the time and space to slip into their dangerous passing rhythm. Egyption winger Ahmed Elmohamady in particular was causing problems for Arsenal breaking down the touchline and winning the vast majority of balls that came his way in the air. On loan Danny Welbeck also looked sharp.

With Arsenal not clicking into gear they caught a lucky break when Cesc Fabregas closed down a clearance from Anton Ferdinand and so the ball come back off him and loop some 40yards over a stranded 'keeper to give the London side the lead.

However from here Arsenal failed to really take control of the game and most of the play and pressure was coming from a spirited Sunderland. But for all the possession a clear cut chance to level the scores couldn't be created and the half chance that were made were not taken.

Into the second half and Arsenal looked to impose themselves on the game, coming close to adding a 2nd goal to their tally through Arshavin and Chamakh but were reduced to ten men as Song saw red after picking up a 2nd yellow card for a cynical block on Sunderland's Malbranque.

Still having no doubt been given a earful at half time Arsenal's passing was back to close to it's quick and dangerous best, often putting the Black Cats on the back foot as Sunderland pressed for an equaliser.

An Arsenal penalty seemed to signal a win for the London club but Rosicky (on for Fabregas) blazed over giving renewed hope to his opposition. The final fifteen minutes of the game was open with both sides looking threatening as Arsenal broke whenever Sunderland pressure broke down.

Deep into injury time Darren Bent finally secured a deserved point for the Wearside team pouncing on a failed clearance in the box to smash home with pretty much the last kick of the game.

I'd pick out Elmohamady as Sunderland's man of the match for his work down the wing (putting in a number of dangerous crosses) and willingness to keep running to the very last. Slightly under pas was Jordan Henderson who wasted a number of corners but Danny Welback lucks a promising acquisition for the year and acknowledge must go to Titus Bramble who was once again solid and the back.

Kermode puts his money on the table

2010-09-16T19:54:00.003+01:00

And the last quick post of the day sees Mark Kermode put his money on the table and declare that once again 3D cinema will die out and once more be seen as a daft old gimmick.

I'm not so sure but I've yet to see a 3D film that really makes me think it's the way forwards

Trailer of the day : Monsters

2010-09-16T19:41:00.000+01:00

Looks like it could be a lot of fun..

Reach for that Halo

2010-09-16T19:31:00.003+01:00

And indeed it is epic. Yes, at it's heart it is more Halo with few significant additions or changes to the formula. But it is all carried out a grand scale to the planet spanning fall of the titular human colony to the presentation and wealth of features in the package itself.

Alongside the campaign (noticeably darker in tone previous installments) you have the ever engaging Halo multiplayer with all it's options, the Forge, the Theater (a feature that continues to impress) and Firefight.

Firefight being the mode introduced in ODST that sees you fight off successive ways of enemy forces in the quest to score as many points as possible and it really is quite compulsive. On top of this four player co-op is available for Firefight and the main campaign.

Elsewhere the game engine has been overhauled and rebuilt and is now prettier than ever and capable of vast battles over open landscapes. The Covenant AI is scarily impressive as enemies behave as if they want to survive, well apart from the deliberately suicidal ones.

Plus this time the engine stretches to some fun space battles Star Wars style as the collection of Warthogs, Banshees and bikes extends to Space Fighters and Harrier Style fighter aircraft.

If developer Bungie keep their word and indeed never return to the Halo franchise they have gone out on a high note that can proudly sit atop the Halo tree.

Trailer Of The Day: 'Halo:Reach'

2010-09-11T21:17:00.004+01:00

A bit different today as we go for a game trailer. It's the (very) soon to be here final installment in the blockbusting Halo franchise.

It's the fall of Reach, a corner stone of the franchise's rich mythology and it's shaping up to be epic.

...and we're back.

2010-09-11T21:06:00.002+01:00

Inter world wide web super highway connectivity is restored at home and so a spot more of rambling on this here page can go on.

Since the last posts I have seen and loved Scott Pilgrim vs The World and Man Men, seen and thought quite good Shutter Island, seen and been disappointed by Hot Tub Time Machine. Was pleasantly surprised by FAQ About Time Travel, struggled to see what was going on in Pandorum and found Body of Lies to be quite average but passed the time in that Jack Ryan style thriller sort of way.

So here we go again...

Delays, delays. It's just like traveling by rail round here

2010-08-10T13:31:00.001+01:00

Long delays on posting here since I've currently only got internet access at the office and not at home, as such no real time to post things up here.

Normal service will return as and when the web is home bound again

Trailer Of The Day : The Town

2010-07-20T21:18:00.003+01:00

Ben Affleck showed a surprising maturity with his directorial debut in 'Gone, Baby, Gone' and now he's back on the streets of Boston with his follow up (and once again has assembled an impressive cast)

The Phantom Menace : Review, you know again.

2010-07-17T18:39:00.010+01:00

Having watched this again recently (and remembering that my copy has the scribbles of Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and Nick Frost on it) I thought it was time to post up some thoughts.

First of I think it's fair to mention that The Phantom Menace was never going to live up to all expectations. Expectations which after sixteen years and one mightily impressive trailer (see below) had been built up to sky high levels and I still believe that a lot of the negative reaction the film gets is connected to the fact that it could never been the film of everyone's dreams.

Now certainly the film is far from perfect on it's own terms but it's not as terrible as many would have you believe. I would in fact suggest that it is a perfectly entertaining piece of escapist science fiction (of fantasy if you're one of those Star Wars is fantasy types)

Often the film is criticised for it's story and plotting with many accusing it of being too dry and overly complicated. I really don't think this is the case, ok the opening text scroll isn't the most interesting but overall I feel the story works on the two levels required of it; to set up the following arc and as a self contained adventure.

In terms of the arc story we have the Trade Federation being manipulated in order to generate a crisis situation allowing Palpatine to take the reigns of government (along with Anakin's first steps on his path) and the smaller scale we have the story of two Jedi Knights fighting to protect a Queen and save a planet from a hostile invasion force (and their encounters along the way).

How anyone sees this as on overly complex tale I don't know, maybe they get themselves too bogged down in the small details, but this is hardly 'Chinatown' here, after the whole franchise is inspired by the '30s adventure serials (hardly known for their intricate plotting)

Another thing people seem to gripe about is connected to the plot, often I see people say the film has no clear protagonists despite the fact that Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) spend ninety percent of the film on screen. Not sure how else you'd identify you're heroes.

What I suspect many people mean is that they feel there isn't a character which they can clearly identify with as the audience. In this I'd say there is more of an argument. In A New Hope Luke clearly fills this role as he is the outsider to the situation and this has to have a lot of stuff explained to him (and thus to the audience) added to this is the fact that he starts out as very much the 'boy next door' with nothing special to mark him out.

In contrast Qui-Con and Obi-Wan are already established players in their world, with special skills and little need to stop and have the world around them explained to them. They are indeed hardly to relate to as characters initially but that doesn't mean they aren't the film's main protagonists. In fact I'd even suggest Qui-Con is the main man and that Obi-Wan is amongst the second tier of characters alongside Padme, Anakin and Jar-Jar.

If you look at A New Hope it's the same kind of setup with Luke front and center with Obi-Wan, Han, Leia on the second rung then 'Droids and Chewie on the third. It's the characterisation that differs rather than the way the players are structured at this point.

It is true that film suffers from some dodgy acting, Jake Lloyd as little Anakin is terrible, but it's not all terrible. Liam Neeson in fact is very good throughout I feel, doing an excellent job of conveying a mentor figure to Obi-Wan and a very capable seasoned adventurer. He looks practiced in his sword fighting and even remains dignified when Jar-Jar is on screen.

Ewan McGregor is a little less steady as Obi-Wan but to be fair on this outing he isn't really given a lot to work with as at this stage his part remains largely functional rather than dramatic. The accent is a bit odd too.

Natalie Portman is decent as Padme (although the surprise reveal of who she was never did surprise me, but then that's because I can recognise actors) though her interactions with Jake Lloyd's Anakin are fairly poor, but I suspect that's largely not her fault.

Ian McDiarmid is charmingly suspicious, which is great because that's exactly what he's meant to be. And everyone else veers from a bit dodgy to blink and you'll miss them (keep you eyes and ears peeled for Keira Knightly, Soffia Coppola, Dominic "McNulty" West, Greg Proops, Celia Imrie and Terence Stamp) But then the original trilogy is hardly an acting masterclass but is largely carried along by the charm of Harrison Ford a lot of the time with the odd bit of help from various RSC members.

The digital characters are very well realised (eleven years before Jim Cameron 'changed the game') weather you like them or not you can't deny the technical achievement of integrating them so well into the film. As annoying as Jar-Jar is (and to be honest I can live with him) he does mark a leap forward. As do the likes of Watto and Sebulba. Added to the fact that their performance are better than some of the 'normal' actors.

For the last word on the performances I'd say take a look at the background and production footage and see just what a weird environment they were working in. It's not surprising they performances are little flat when being asked to act in front so much blue and green screen, then having to redo things many time so calibration shots can be done for the CGI work and characters. (And it's fair to say George isn't really an actor's director)

Production design the wise I think the film is a big success. Every location, alien, prop, costume is lovingly crafter and many of the sights are really quite impressive but this often seems to be taken for granted.

Each location is distinct and varied from the underwater locales of Naboo to the massive Senate chamber to (And if you're going to question the reality of an all desert planet then I'm afraid you'll probably want to be avoiding space operas all together). Whatever Lucas lacks in terms of using his actors and refining his scripts he retains his eye for a stunning shot set-up and creating an evocative universe.

Even the Battle Droids look cool although they are pretty much lame in all other respects. There is much more imaginationion going on here than there was in Avatar and yet one of them is accused of being too cartoony and the other is apparently the best thing since the invention of the moving image. People even complained that CG Yoda didn't look right. Well that's probably because he still a puppet in this one people.

Plus of course the design teams here gave us Darth Maul one of the coolest things in the entire Star Wars cannon and a character that provides one of the best moments in all of the films if you ask me as he enters that hanger and sparks up his sabre.

It is shame he was dispensed with at this stage though as I feel it wouldn't take to much or a rewrite for him to stick around and take over parts of Count Dooku's place in events. (In fact I would have Maul largely play Dooku's role with the Count replacing Grievous in the narrative)

The duel between Maul and the two Jedi in the third reel is in my mind the second best lightsabre duel in the two trilogies and the best within the prequel set. And with the final Vader versus Luke confrontation taking the prize out of the sheer drama it's the Maul brawl that leads the way in terms of the physicality on display. Some may make fun of the force fields involved (and to be fair they are rather inexplicable) but they do allow for a great little character moment as Maul prowls, Qui-Con meditates and Obi-Wan looks on frantically.

It just as well that this fight is the business though as the films other action set pieces are a little disappointing. The space battle is easily the weakest in the series (and I've always wondered why the Droid ship's reactor is in the hanger bay) and the big ground battle is spoilt by being a too heavy on the slapstick.

Of course the Pod race is the other big set piece. This one is initially thrilling and quite breathtaking but then it just goes on for too long. Had the race been half the length it would have been much more intense and thrilling but has it is you do find your attention wondering a little as the third lap begins and Anakin once again overtakes everyone from the rear of the field. (Still it did give rise to the Pod Racer game which I used to love as it was ridiculously fast).

The race does do it's job of offering up some action at the halfway point and the classic Star Wars third reel action fest does end up working quite well despite he baggage of two underwhelming segments.

In general I think The Phantom Menace offers up a good solid Star Wars experience, ok there a few bumps along the road but then that's true of a lot of things. It is true that the continuity isn't what I thought it would be all those years ago but now I've had time to love with it, you know, I'm ok with it.

Sure a bunch of things don't quite make sense but then I'm willing to let a few things go in a universe with magic and laser guns! In the end I think, mainly because of Qui-Gon, I prefer this entry in the series over Attack Of The Clones (which I've also watched recently and will get to next) but behind Revenge Of The Sith in terms of the prequel trilogy.

I'm sure people will disagree but I think by and large it seems to be the done thing to have a go at Phantom Menace but in a series that already gave us fighting teddy bears there's nothing here in my view that 'breaks' Star Wars and as a film on it's own merits it's fine (miles better than Temple Of Doom for example) and in my view quite enjoyable.

Pretending I have famous friends

2010-07-11T15:08:00.002+01:00

I have spent a bit of time playing around on Twitter and I now can include Armando Iannucci, Elisa Dhusku, Kevin Smith, Elisabeth Banks, Sarah Silverman and William Shatner amongst those I follow as they post random nonsense about the world and thier lives.

Keivn Smith in particular seems to spend too much time on the thing...

Trailer of the day : Eagle Eye

2010-06-30T21:42:00.004+01:00

It starts off as something of a Enemy Of The State copycat then throws up a ludicrous twist in it's tale but it does so with such a breathless state of fun and excitement that if you go with it you'll have a very enjoyable thriller.

Stephen King : The Videogame.

2010-06-30T21:17:00.004+01:00

You are creeping through the woods, flashlight in hand frantically scanning the trees for the evil you know is lurking in the dark places beyond the shaft of safe light.

Your attention is caught by a sudden movement off to the side and your heartbeat races but as you turn it's plain to see that it was only a bird spooked as you pass by. As you reach the clearing you recognise the nearby bridge from the page of a manuscript you read only that morning. A manuscript you wrote but don't remember, but now you know what awaits you on the other side. And your blood goes cold.

But you must keep going to save the life of your wife.

This is the world of Alan Wake.

Alan Wake is a Xbox 360 game that has been in development for a number of years. It centers around the fictional thriller novelist as he takes a holiday to recharge his batteries in a small midwestern American town. However once his wife goes missing he'#s plunged into a living nightmare.

More an action adventure game than survival horror the game is an atmospheric little treat as you nervously stalk around in the woods. The key gimmick is the conflict between light and dark. The local townsfolk have been infected by a dark presence and to fend them off you must first burn off the darkness with the light of you torch before being able to finally shoot them down.

It's a simple mechanic that keeps the action of the game fun throughout it's playtime. But what really keeps you playing is the combination of sky high production values and an intriguing story that twists and turns right upto it's Twilight Zone style ending (it's no mistake the in game TVs all show episodes of a Twilight Zone knock off)

With set pieces ranging from a haunted asylum going all Poltergeist to fighting off advancing hordes from a rockband stage the game also has a sly sense of humour about itself. It's not the giant leap forward or masterpiece that the lengthy development time might have suggested but it's solid game and well worth a few hours of your time.

Recommended.

Taken

2010-06-24T22:14:00.003+01:00

Taken is a brisk and entertaining thriller from that slightly murky but oh so fun little corner of the film world that is Luc Besson and friends. Directed by Pierre Morel (a former DP for Besson) it follows the tale of Bryan Mills an ex-government super-agent as he uses all his deadly skills to track down his kidnapped daughter and then brutally kill all those responsible.

Taking place mainly in the underbelly of Paris the film moves bristly between set pieces and grimy locals. Liam Neeson convinces totally as a man who is very dangerous indeed and will not stop at anything until he gets his daughter back. Crucially he also has the chops to convince in the quieter moments (in a way the likes of JCVD never could).

An old school Euro-thriller that they rarely make these days the films is a great little actioner with just enough of that Hollywood sheen scuffed off to make it a bit of something different.

Like It's A Coincidence Those Teams Have "Left-Wingers"

2010-06-13T18:35:00.000+01:00

Having mentioned my interest in American coverage of the World Cup in an earlier comment, I spent a little time hunting for links this afternoon. I don't have a complete picture yet, but thanks to Media Matters, I can at least report one thing: the lunatic Right are apparently determined to outdo themselves.

I mean... it's just... well, goddamn. What can you possibly say about someone convinced that soccer is being forced onto Americans by the Left in order to prepare for when the Hispanics take over? Because it's a sport designed for poor people? Created by chopping the heads off of Caucasians, or something! I had to check Dan Gainor was a real person, and that he represented a real institute. And that I was reading a real website. And English was a real language, that these two could speak.

I have to say, though, I'm in awe of Liddy. It genuinely had never occurred to me that someone might argue liking football was a betrayal of American Exceptionalism. Remember, kids! Watching soccer isn't just pointless; it makes you a traitor!

Really, it's quite a trick. It's like Aesop's fable about the fox and the grapes, only in this case the fox is claiming he doesn't want the grapes anymore because he's recently learned they were planted by brown-skinned Communists in an attempt to poison Sarah Palin.

The rest of them

2010-06-11T11:43:00.005+01:00

Ok took a little longer than planned but here we go with the rest of the squads at the party

Group E
Holland - the Dutch have a great chance with a strong squad this year if they can avoid their usual trap of fighting and squabbling with each other. The ol man Arjen Robben (ok he's like 25 but looks about 50) has been on flying form and if he can get fit will play a big part. Likewise Robin van Persie should be coming back fresh having missed so much of the season at Arsenal and Wesley Sneijder has been running the show at Inter. Expect them to stick to the pattern tho', amazing in their group games and looking like surefire champs followed by limp elimination in the second round.

Denmark the Danish will look to the second round as the target goal and should be in good shape to get there. But expect goal scoring to be the weak point with the hardly inspiring Bendtner leading the line.

Japan bound for noble failure the Japanese side will be full of running but a lack of experience against more worldly opponents will be their downfall. A good J-pop track or two is probably the best that could be expected of them. Nice shirt though.

Cameroon the 'Indomitable Lions' are somewhat like an international Bolton side. Big, strong but not very pretty or too concerned with making the play look nice. The have a shot at the second round as they will no doubt manage to out muscle the Japanese and then it's down to their game against Denmark as to who goes on most likely.

Group F
Italy the current world champions do no look like a side capable of holding onto their crown. They do not have really any players who are likely to really be able to turn a game and warhorses like Gattuso are starting to run out of time and energy at this level. But once again we can marvel at how efficiently and expertly an Italian side can break up the flow of a game it's doing well in to stifle the opponent and you never know we might once again get a display of expert sledging even without Marco playing.

Paraguay confess I don't recognise a single name on their teamsheet apart from Roque Santa Cruz who has spent the last year at Man City polishing the seats on the bench with his backside. So really no idea what they'll be like, but that's half the fun of the whole thing

New Zealand again not much I can tell you beyond they will be happy to take part and will quite probably go home without a point.

Slovkia complete the group of question marks on teams I don't know much about (& Italy), word on the wind appears to favour them for a least a 2nd round berth.

Group G
Brazil are first up in this year's "Group Of Death" and will obviously be one of the favourites of the competition as they always are. These days they play with slightly less flair under Dunga and a bit more pragmatism. Still it seems Robinho has decided to be interested now he's out of Manchester, Maicon is as good a full back as you'll see and Kaka could you fulfil his early promise. No-one will want to meet them in the knock out stages.

North Korea Poor north Korea in the worst possible group they could have drawn. They are just going to be bulldozed by the others.

Ivory Coast hope beyond hope that Drogba is fit as he is the main man without question but they may not be stuck without as they do have a strong looking side with the Toure brothers and Chelsea's Kalou in the mix. Plus an old schemer in the form Sven in the coach's seat. I actually expect them to progress into the second round ahead of Portugal

Portugal When you play Portugal you'll either be beaten by Christiano Ronaldo or you won't be beaten. Yes, the Portuguese have the honour of being the team most reliant on one man to get anywhere this summer. Look beyond him and it's a side of uninspiring faces and an ageing Deco. Can the smug one carry the side to glory? Personally I don't think so.

Group H
Spain should be champions. The current European Champions won that prize at a canter. Blessed with a midfield stuffed full of world class players (the frankly brilliant Fabregas isn't good enough to get a game here) and a pair of strikers who just deadly in Torres and Villa. The only suspect aspect to the side is their defence but since opponents are unlikely to actually get a touch of the ball it doesn't really seem important.

Switzerland the Swiss are another solid but really that exciting team who will hope that good organisation and patient play will seen them get results against the South Americans in the group for progress into the knock out stages.

Honduras /Chile - I'll do these two together since it's once more teams I know nothing about and so couldn't really tell you anything about them. So there's at least one game in the group that will be a complete mystery!

So there you go that rounds up the rest of the sides taking part.

World Cup Blaggers guide; Them other teams

2010-06-08T21:58:00.004+01:00

Well I guess we better say a little about the other 31 nations taking part in this here festival of football. I think for ease of me remembering who is there we'll take it group by group.

Group A
South Africa - the hosts will be full of enthusiasm but weary of being the first host nation to fail to reach the knock stages in what should be a tightly contested group. Everton's Steven Pienaar is their most recognisable and probable best player. Expect lots of vaguely condescending commentary on their efforts and a lot of noise from the local fans. In with a good shout of making the top two.

Mexico - perennial turnouts Mexico typically turn up look disappointing and then go home. Their best player in this country is Carlos Vela who currently can't get a game for Arsenal ahead of Nicholas Bendtner (who is rubbish.) Will quickly fade away and hopefully be remembered for at least embarrassing the French

Uruguay - amusing names aside a team with a few useful players, notable Diego Forlan who used to look terrible upon terrible playing in this country but has since gone to remember he's actually a goal machine. Will via for progress with South African and France.

France - first all remember the French are only here because they cheated the Irish out of it. Then remember coach Raymond Domench picks his teams using astrology, and this is quite possibly why they have been terrible for the last two years or so. With luck they'll crash out in the groups, with more luck they'll go out later but in a blaze of flying headbutts as they seek to relive 2006's "glory". Ah, poor old ZZ.

Group B
Argentina - coached by the crazy, wild eyed national icon that is Maradona Argentina have a lot of very good players. The trouble is half of them aren't going because they haven't been picked. Lionel Messi is currently in brilliant form and is quite possibly the best player in the world at the moment. Expect him to have the holy crap kicked out of him at every opportunity by the opponents. Carlos Tevez is also quite popular in parts of Manchester and is the closet you'll see to an excited dog chasing the ball around on the pitch this summer.

Nigeria - one of the strongest African teams if rather uninspiring, some recognisable faces in there but will feel a bit like the newly promoted championship side trying to find it's Premiership way - i.e one or two surprising results but ultimately going home rather deflated.

Korea Republic - plucky underdogs who will do well to get a point away from home turf, but will undoubtedly do a lot better than their neighbours with whom they get on so well.

Greece - industrious but presumably all being paid with 'I.O.U's. Another dull but effective team making group B the least attractive of all groups to watch. May squeeze through to the next round but I wouldn't expect much more than that.

Group C
England - these guys we know about.

USA - ever improving but not as good as FIFA's confused ranking system makes them look. Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan will be the danger men and are indeed useful players, the rest however are decent but nothing special. Remember to mock the popularity of 'soccer' in the States and just look at the needlessly 'trendy' team shield to comprehend the tackiness of American culture. Should finish 2ND to England in this group though. If fate has a sense of humour they'll somehow end up playing North Korea.

Algeria are just happy to be involved and will take anything they can get. Their best player has been playing for the terminally doomed Portsmouth this year, which currently says it all and even in that bunch Hassan Yebda looked a bit rubbish .

Slovenia - another side happy to at the party and I'll admit I don't know anything about of them. Expect them to go home early though and perhaps for some of them to get signed by the likes of Bolton and West Brom for next season.

Group D
Germany - the Germans always do well at these things, so expect an efficient second round place at the least (where they could meet England), penalty scoring prowess and team made of Swiss and Polish born players. Important central figure and captain Micheal Ballack has been ruled out by injury but Phillip Lahm and Bastian Schweinstegier are a pair of excellent players. But a crucial lack of firepower should them eliminated before the semi finals.

Australia - team Kangaroo will hope to make the 2nd round and do stand a half decent chance although the team is aging and reliant on Harry Kewell being fit and probably also Mark Schwarzer making a lot of saves. Will be the most friendly bunch of guys out there but football is one sport at which the cork hats aren't that good. Also may be distracted by watching cricket instead of training.

Serbia - another team about which I'll admit I know little but the buzz and word of mouth suggests they are a fairly good outfit and will be expecting to progress past the group stages and that's really all I can say about 'em.

Ghana - a good group of players (including John Mensah who impressed me very much playing for Sunderland this year but don't know how much that says) but with possibly a bit of shortfall in terms of the goal scoring department. Hard to say if they'll make the next round in a tight group but playing in Africa will see them receive great support which might be the tell tale factor.

Right that's halfway for now, I'll do and update with the rest of the groups tomorrow.