Top 11 funniest clips of 2011.

Well we’re in that awkward week between Christmas and New Year so with 2012 looming I thought I would look back at some funny clips of 2011. I’ve probably missed out some good ones, but these are the ones that stick out the most in my memory. So without further ado here are my top 11 funniest moments (that are on YouTube) of 2011.

Beta Testing.

It has been nine months since the Nintendo 3DS launched and up to now I have done my upmost to resist its lure.

Yes, like a particularly attractive mermaid the 3DS has been tempting me with its gorgeous looks and upped visuals and so far I’ve managed to stay strong and keep hold of my money.

My brother gave in instantly on launch and bought it with Street Fighter 4 and Pilotwings but was starved of games really until Ocarina of Time and Starfox 64 came out. Yet he is being rewarded this Christmas for purchasing on launch, and rightly so as Nintendo dropped the price only a few months later.

Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.

Racism has reared its ugly head in the footballing world on a few occasions this year. Most notably with Luis Suarez and England captain John Terry.

Last week Suarez was charged by the FA for using “insulting words in reference to Manchester United defender Patrice Evra's colour” and was given an 8 match ban alongside a £40,000 fine.

This has caused people to react in two different ways. Many people are glad he’s been given such a severe ban as there really is no place for it in society let alone football. But there have been certain sections who’ve reacted in support of Suarez, obviously the majority of them are Liverpool fans.

Going to war with Lapland.

Well another year has flown by and we’re now fast approaching Christmas yet again. It seems like it was only yesterday when I was being daunted by Christmas dinner and its shed load of calories. This year’s been no different really, the same just without the 200 metres of snowfall.

Well I couldn’t let a year go by without commenting on the annual festive adverts that have been doing the rounds since October. Oh the joy.

Yes, just like this year’s snowfall the offering has been quite pathetic. From Argos’ weird alien Bill Nighy family to Boot’s relentless use of that ‘here come the girls’ advert this year has been pretty poor.

The Great Lancashire Sack Race.

Tonight’s match between struggling Bolton Wanderers and the bemusing Blackburn Rovers is already being dubbed a relegation 6-pointer. Whoever loses is given the dreaded accolade of being bottom at Christmas.

Bolton have lost 13 out of 16 games this season and Blackburn? Well they’re a bit of a clueless embarrassment this year, mostly off the pitch. On it their performance isn’t actually that bad, in fact I reckon even if they were winning games the fans would be on the manager’s shoulder week in week out.

Now Russell's in charge of the buttons.

Kim Jong-il is dead. Aged 69 the North Korean dictator died of a heart attack prompting mass amounts of weeping from the North Korean public.

Well that’s what they’ve said anyway, for all we know he’s still alive, or was killed by an over-amorous swan whilst on an afternoon jog; and let’s face it the weeping could have been brought on by chopping a lorry-load of onions off camera.

This is from a nation who say Kim Jong-il was born in a log cabin under a double rainbow and a bright star in the sky. No really.

But regardless of what’s actually true he’s gone, leaving behind his son to rule over North Korea with an iron fist. This is all well and good, but there’s one small detail that puts the mockers on that scheme. His son, known by many as Kim Jong-un, is Russell from Pixar's Up.

Head stompingly good fun

Every year cinema provides a few hidden gems. Those movies you’ve heard nothing about and see with little-to-no expectations and yet they become one of your favourite films of the year. 2009 saw District 9 become a favourite of mine from absolutely nowhere, 2010’s gem was The Social Network and now 2011 has given me Drive.

The story centres around a character who has a very Daniel Craig from Layer Cake vibe about him; so much so that he doesn’t even have a name. Played by Ryan Gosling, this silent hero goes through the movie trying to do what’s right for those innocent around him, how he succeeds and how he fails.

Cast of the decade?

One of the most absorbing films of modern cinema was released this summer, filled with more British talent than the 1966 World Cup winning team and a screenplay that does the original proud. I am of course talking about Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Set in the 1970s the film focusses on the British Secret Service and their search within themselves for a mole. In order to smoke him out, the top dog brings in retired agent George Smiley, played by Gary Oldman.

Smiley knows the mole is one of four men: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, or Spy; his mission is to find out just who it is.

Rootin' Tootin' Cowboys (and Aliens)

If you’re looking for the most ridiculous movie of the year you’d be hard pressed to find something more bizarre than Cowboys and Aliens starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford.

Set sometime in the old West the movie centres around a cowboy called Jake (Daniel Craig) who gets abducted by aliens, as was quite common in them there days, and finds himself mysteriously back on the cold sandy planet we call Earth with an alien weapon attached to his wrist.

Harrison Ford plays baddie come goodie, Woodrow, who owns much of the land in the town and becomes distressed by the mysterious disappearance of his cattle and therefore money. He gets no such alien weapon, plenty of normal guns though.

America vs. Wild.

The BBC’s brilliant documentary Frozen Planet has wrapped up now but it didn’t quite manage to get to the end of its run without some form of scandal. Now even poor old David Attenborough has been the subject of widespread complaint from the British public. His crime? Misleading viewers, apparently.

Yes during the scene of a polar bear’s birth the documentary actually filmed the scene in a zoo. The run up to the scene was in the wild, and the actual cub being born was filmed in a Dutch zoo. I feel so mislead.

The Nanny State Schools.

The public sector strikes are on the horizon again with little chance of being resolved by Wednesday.

The public sector workers have been losing support as time has gone on; largely thanks to the government’s unfair analysis of them. They claim the public sector are being irresponsible by striking when talks are still on-going. The thing is the talks haven’t moved in months.

Striking is the only right workers in Britain have left and they wouldn’t be doing it if they didn’t feel so strongly about the unfairness of the reform. It’s not a case of total disagreement; it’s about the severity of cuts and the devaluation of their roles.

@Spoilers.

I’ve been a gamer for quite a while now. The Super Nintendo was my first home console and I can still remember the anticipation I felt when a new game was about to be released on it.

Back then games catalogues were immensely smaller and the only real way to find out if a new game was good or bad before was to buy gaming magazines that’d give you a score, detail the positive and the negative points, show you some snapshots of the game and leave you to make your own decision.

Oh how times have changed.

Facebook: Racism is funny too.

It seems Facebook aren’t happy to accept that their site will slowly become redundant in the next few years; instead they want to self-sabotage their own organisation before the inevitable happens.

Following on from the last post (Keep up Facebook) where Facebook said it was fine to laugh in the face of rape victims, it seems the social network site still hasn’t gotten to grips with the internet yet. It still has the stance of “add a humorous or satirical tag and everything‘s fine.”

Keep up Facebook.

Facebook have finally backed down to pressure and removed a group that depicted rape as a comical activity. I can’t believe it took them so long.

The main group in question was the “You know she's playing hard to get when you're chasing her down an alleyway” like page. It had nearly 200,000 likes on the social network site. That stat alone is one to send shivers down your spine.

The Heavy Hand of the Law.

Tomorrow there will be a massive student protest in London. They will be protesting against the massive tuition fee hike they’re set to pay in 2012 which leaves them at least £27,000 in debt before they’ve even started their working life.

Tories and other unaffected citizens will no doubt condemn them for protesting. “Just take it on the chin” they’ll say. I wonder if they’d take £9,000 a year leaving their bank accounts on the chin. To be fair, some of them are so rich they probably would.

You Don't Say.

The 5th of November has been and gone now, the official day of fireworks up in smoke for another year. Firework pun, hooray! 

This year’s bonfire night will probably be most remembered for a footballing clown setting his bathroom on fire. Of course I can only be talking about Mario Balotelli.

Mario is football’s comedian right now. In his uncanny ability to fail on massive proportions whether it be setting his shower curtain alight, swearing on tele or not being able to put a bib on, nobody matches him in entertainment value. 

Of course the papers were set alight by the bathroom calamity. Balotelli has become their lifeblood in recent months. Without him the tabloids would be bankrupt. The day after City’s drubbing of United the papers went bananas with firework puns. It was almost like a competition between them, who could use the most puns in one article.

Manchester United - A Class Apart.

Manchester United played in the Champions League against Otelul Galati on Wednesday evening at Old Trafford, and I went along to watch it.

It was my first game for a long while. I seem to average about one game a season with United these days which, for a lifelong fan, is pretty poor. Unfortunately I’ve been priced out, I just don’t love the game enough to turn up week in week out and pay through the nose for the privilege.

Homo Stultus Vulgaris

Last weekend I went on a night out into the great city of Manchester, something I rarely do considering it’s ridiculously expensive and heavily over-rated but nevertheless it happened.

The night itself wasn’t too bad and was largely enjoyable, however there is always a problem with going out on these excursions: transport.

Getting there is easy enough, you simply go to the train station and get on a train. Sure they’re packed out to the point where if there were a fire everyone would die a horrible horrible death as they scrambled around trampling people underfoot, but they get you from A to B fairly quickly and cheaply.

Colin

With Summer near enough over the movies started to slowly dry up. All that remained was the remnants of the Summer blockbusters and of course The Inbetweeners Movie, and I didn’t really fancy that due to the fact I’m 25 years old.

I’m fairly sure there are plenty of people out there who like The Inbetweeners, well I’m definitely sure, I have Facebook, it‘s the only thing people spoke about for about seven weeks. I’ve never got into the hit E4 show, from the stuff I’ve seen it’s okay, crude but it has it’s moments. These moments aren’t laugh out loud, but they raise a smile.

Hail Caesar.

As the Summer blockbuster season drew to a close it dawned on my that it had been largely underwhelming. It all kicked off with Pirates of the Caribbean 4 which was average, had sprinkles of mediocre with Cars 2 and The Green Lantern, and a large dollop of boredom with Transformers 3.

It’s no surprise then that I didn’t walk into Rise of the Planet of the Apes with high hopes, and yet I walked out pleasantly surprised by it.

The movie is obviously a prequel to the movie: Planet of the Apes, I don’t think it matters if it’s Burton’s version or Schaffner’s. It starts off with a scientist called Will Rodman, played by James Franco, who is working on medication that will treat, and possibly cure Alzheimer’s. His father has the illness and so this motivates him to carry on his work.

Why the long face?

I saw in the news yesterday that jockey, Richard Hughes, has effectively retired by giving up his riding licence. He’s done this in protest to a new rule that limits the amount of time a rider can whip his horse.

Apparently the new limit is seven times in a flat race and eight in a jumping race with an additional five in the final furlong or something. This has Richard Hughes up in arms, claiming it hinders the riders.

Like ET, only slightly bigger.

It hasn’t exactly been the greatest Summer of all time for movies, but nonetheless it has provided some good ones. And one of the best has to be J.J. Abrams’ science fiction thriller Super 8.

Set in the 1980s (well, 1979 actually), Super 8 focuses on a young boy who, with his friends, comes across an alien who is trying to get back to his homeworld. Yeah, it isn’t difficult to see where the comparisons to ET came from is it? It’s even produced by Steven Spielberg himself. Of course being likened to one of the best science fiction movies of all time is hardly a bad thing, and in fairness it is different enough to stand on its own two feet.

The man who put a ding in the universe.

The world was saddened on Wednesday night to hear that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had lost his battle with pancreatic cancer at the young age of just 56.

He was a visionary businessman who turned his small computer company into a market-leader and changed the world with his vision, innovative ideas and uncanny attention to detail. The man in the black-shirt and denim jeans did this by finding out what consumers wanted before they even knew they wanted it.

Twitter Etiquette

I joined Twitter at the beginning of this year to see what all the fuss was about and it didn’t take long for me to see just what I‘d been missing. All this tweeting, following, and hash-tagging has gotten me fairly addicted a mere nine months into my Twitter career.

I quickly learned that this thing was much better than Facebook. Since having Twitter my status updates have dropped by around 50%. I sometimes don’t even log in at all. For a start, with Twitter you follow people who are interesting, you don’t have to put up with that guy you went to school with who you barely spoke to then let alone now.

Pimpin' Ain't Easy.

It’s been a couple of days since Carlos Tevez infamously refused to play football in Munich, and by now the poor sod is covered from head to toe in the brownest, smelliest mud you can find.

The Argentinean has been chastised by all sections of the media, with the tabloids in particular completely annihilating him. Fellow players, managers, fans, and journalists have all been catapulting condemnation into his face since the moment the whole misunderstanding on Tuesday night.

Hail Hydra!

This year has been another big year for the superhero genre with Thor, X-Men: First Class and The Green Lantern all screening. And as the summer months drew to a close, the genre still had one last trick up its sleeve: Captain America: The First Avenger.

This is Marvel’s third movie of the year. Not content with Thor and X-Men, the comic book giants released one of their personal favourites, Captain America in the later Summer months. Did they save the best until last? In a word: yes.

The Ruddy Doors.

Pixar have made some great animated films over the past 10 years. With titles like Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, and Wall-e, you’d be hard pressed to find a production studio with a higher success rate than theirs.

They have some of the most original ideas in animation and their creativity is amongst the highest in the business. As the years tick by they’ve moved more and more into adding sequels to former movies. Toy Story has had three movies now dedicated to it and Monsters Inc will be getting a sequel in 2013. Both of the originals were great movies and therefore deserving of sequels. Strange then to see that this year’s Pixar animation was a sequel to their 2006 movie: Cars.

The Hangover, for Hens.

At the beginning of the Summer movie season, there really was a lull in movies that I wanted to go and see. After seeing Transformers: Dark of the Moon, there was nothing for a couple of weeks. This usually leads me into seeing movies I have only a faint bit of interest in. Bridesmaids is such a movie.

I didn’t have high hopes for this flick. Sure it has Flight of the Conchords’ Brahbrah in it as well as Roy from the IT Crowd but judging by the trailer alone, I wasn’t really that excited about seeing it. I could never figure out if it was a chick flick or not, in the end it kind of was but it was still watchable for men.

Extra! Extra! Tweet all about it!

Journalism is an ever evolving profession that is becoming increasingly competitive day by day. Technology has changed the way that we receive our news. Gone are the days when the only sources were the broadsheets and television news bulletins. Now there is rolling news broadcasting around the clock, countless digital radio stations, and of course the internet.

The world wide web has changed the way journalism works. The scope has suddenly been vastly expanded with users able to access their news wherever and whenever they want to and even broadcast their own news.

Happy as Larry.

After seeing Transformers: Dark of the Moon there was no question that I needed to see another film as soon as possible. And so a week later me and my brother went down to the cinema to find something new to watch so our minds would be absolved.

Truth be told we were in a little bit of a lull when it came to finding a new movie to watch; Transformers and The Green Lantern had been seen and Captain America and Cars 2 weren’t quite out yet at the Box Office. So Larry Crowne it was. 

Optimus!

This summer the Transformers movie trilogy came to an end with the release of Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon. Was it any good? Of course it wasn’t, it was a horrible movie that only has one silver lining: it‘s the last one!

Now, I watched the first Transformers movie when it first came out back in 2007 and it wasn’t too bad. Sure the story is a complete wafer but on the whole it was a decent movie. It didn’t get nominated for any Oscars but it was watchable if nothing else. Transformers 3 however, makes the original look like The Shawshank Redemption!

Rioters: They’re not big, and they’re certainly not clever.

Being British can be embarrassing at the best of times but this week has taken it to a whole new level. For no real reason a bunch of morons have decided to riot across England, looting and leaving a path of destruction in their wake.

All of this started when a man possessing a gun in London was shot by police. During a peaceful protest from that man’s family on the streets where he died, some thugs hijacked it and started rioting. It spread, not just across London, but across England, with riots being started in Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Gloucester amongst others.

Tipping Point.

Amongst all the rioting news this week there was a little story that emerged about David Cameron’s holiday in Italy where he failed to tip a waitress. For some reason this was met with public outcry, demanding Dave return to the coffee shop and tip the waitress in question.

But should he have been made to do so? Apparently he had to go and get his own coffee when he patronised the shop so why then is it deemed necessary for him to tip the waitress?

Labelling, re-labelling, or not labelling at all.

London has been taken over by rioters over the past few days. People have been vandalising shops, looting goods and setting fire to everything and anything including fire engines themselves. If you haven’t heard about it you’re probably a hermit crab, or David Cameron.

It has understandably been the main story across all the news media recently, but after reading about it all, or watching news bulletins on TV something is troubling me. Why are the rioters being called ‘protesters’ or ‘demonstrators’?

Living in Batman's shadow is bound to turn you a little green.

I must admit, of all the superhero films that have been released over the past decade, The Green Lantern isn’t one that had me excited to go and see it. For all the trailers and other promos they released alongside the movie, none of them really enticed me into watching the movie itself.

But watch it I did, and it’s an alright movie to be fair to it. Unfortunately though it isn’t the most spectacular of superhero films. It has plenty of action involved with very little filler in-between which is good and bad. On the one hand there’s little depth to the characters in the movie, but on the other it keeps you entertained.

An Old Friend's Retirement.

Retired - The good ol' Samsung.

I’ve never really been the most punctual person, but I do get there in the end. It’s better late than never… I’m finally here in the 21st Century!

I decided last month that I would buy a new phone as my poor old Samsung was getting a little tired. The cheeky little blighter turned 4 years old last month and I decided it had worked long enough. Upon this decision I thought it was the right time to get a new phone and retire my Samsung, I did consider the same option as the government - increasing the age of retirement - pushing it to five years, but I thought this was just unfair on my poor phone who’d worked bloody hard these past four years.

Deal or Deal.

The government is currently on a slashing spree. Desperately clawing back every penny they can in order to get us out of recession and get our economy growing. It was revealed today that Steve Hilton, one of David Cameron’s policy advisors, came out with some ridiculous ideas in a meeting back in March.

According to Hilton, the government needs to scrap maternity leave altogether to stimulate the economy. Really Steve, that’s your big idea? Force women to go back to work immediately after birth? Or is the plan for them to actually give birth at work? Surely that's against the law.

Kung Fu Panda 2: Black belt or black eye?

It’s a bit of a year for animated sequels this year. Pixar are serving up Cars 2 this summer while Dreamworks have released Kung Fu Panda 2. To be honest both of them look a little underwhelming, Cars is probably the weakest film Pixar have done so it’s a strange choice to bring out another. Kung Fu Panda was a relative hit, a decent movie that is probably more variable than Cars to get a sequel.

That being said Kung Fu Panda 2 doesn’t really capture the same magic of the first instalment. Po the Panda is already a Dragon Warrior so the object of this movie is simply stop the bad guy from doing evil stuff.

Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose.

It’s been just over 15 years now since the death of Ayrton Senna during the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994 and to commemorate this anniversary a documentary was made about him and released in cinemas. It came out this year in the UK and focuses on Ayrton Senna’s career as a racer from his karting days up until his World Championship winning Formula 1 days.

Of course back in Senna’s era, Formula 1 was a great motorsport competition with great drivers with great personalities, and no driver was better than he was. He may not have won the most races or held the most championship titles, but he was the best, and everyone, including his closest rivals, knew it.

Vote Magneto.

The superhero genre is one that refuses to go away. It’s a genre that’s always been with us ever since Batman was calling Robin his good chum back in the 1940s. Since then though the superhero snowball has tumbled down the hill, further and further until it’s become so big we’re finding the number of superhero movie releases in a year approaching double figures!

This year isn’t showing any signs of melting the big ball of frozen water as we’re being bombarded by the likes of Thor, The Green Lantern, and Captain America. Over the years though, I’ve found that superhero movies have slipped a little and the movies aren’t quite up to scratch. In recent years the only superhero movies worth mentioning are Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and possibly Kick Ass, if you can class that as a superhero flick.

Retail Therapy.

The high street has been taking a bit of a beating recently thanks to the poor economic climate. Many companies have seen profits drop to an absolute low with some taking the drastic measures of closing stores and making staff redundant.

If the current economic climate were an actual climate then I would liken it to the harsh dry sandy deserts of the Sahara. Although every desert has an oasis. For example Marks & Spencer recorded a growth in sales recently, while Sports Direct have been making a profit. It appears the chavs who used to shop at Jolly Jolly Bargains (JJB) have moved retailer and are now shopping at Sports Direct!

Summer Blockbuster Season Ahoy!

About a month ago I went to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean film: On Stranger Tides, the movie that kicked off the Summer blockbuster season, and to be honest I don’t think it was that bad.

Critics have pretty much buried this movie, they've given it a heavy slating it but I thought that was largely unfair. Yes, this is nothing more than a Bruckheimer cash-cow but still, if you ignore that fact and just watch the movie you’ll find it isn’t as bad as it’s been made out to be.

It follows the same swashbuckling formula of its predecessors and has just the right amount of humour to keep it going while the cast is decent enough to keep you interested. Penelope Cruz is the new love interest: Angelica, Geoffrey Rush returns as the legless Barbossa, Frank from Hot Rod (otherwise known as Ian McShane) is the new villain: Blackbeard, and of course Johnny Depp is back as the indispensable Jack Sparrow!

That's no moon.

Today is the end of an era: The News of the World have published their final newspaper in their 168 year old history. Good riddance.

Parent company News International has taken the decision to close the doors after the massive backlash against the paper when it was revealed they’d not only hacked the phones of celebrities and politicians but also those of bereaved families of killed soldiers and the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler; as if her family hasn’t gone through enough recently.

Ready to Rumble: Public v Private; Serwotka v Maude; Daily Mail v Journalism.

Last Thursday thousands of public sector workers went on strike in their continuing battle against the government’s public sector pension reforms, and depending on who you listen to it was either a massive success or a complete damp squid.

The reforms in question would mean that public sector workers will have to pay 3% more in their pension contributions, work for longer, up until they are 68, and once they do retire receive less money in their pension. The government has called this “fair to taxpayers.” I’m afraid the only government that could see this as “fair” would be a Tory government. Public sector workers pay tax too.

Enrolling at the Wii U - Nintendo Conference.

Nintendo were last in line to do their conference at E3 this year and of the three they were probably the winners. Sony should take notes regarding the start to the conference; they chose to show a boring five minute montage of game footage, while Nintendo blew the audience away with an orchestral rendition of various Legend of Zelda themes mashed into one, in honour of the 25th anniversary of the Zelda franchise.

Shigeru Miyamoto was out first to talk about the Zelda franchise as a whole. He started off talking about the music and he used the orchestra in front of him to full effect, having them play chimes from the game such as the classic ‘item get’ music and the fairy fountain theme. Ah fairy fountain, that takes me back, already I sense this is going to be a good conference! I do love Miyamoto though, he’s like 58 now and he’s still a child at heart, mucking about on stage, doing the actions for opening a treasure chest. It was great, even if the orchestra played it too quickly and the translator spoke over him the whole time.

The Elephant in the Room - Sony Conference.

Sony were second in holding their conference at this year's E3 and they started off a lot worse than Microsoft did. First they handed out 3D glasses to everyone in the audience, before showing them a promo reel of some Playstation games, the PSP and of course the Playstation Move. All of that would be fine if the promo wasn’t insanely boring and ridiculously long! Seriously it’s like four and a half minutes of footage, most of which we’ve seen; it was just so so boring. And 3D…really? Did they not get the memo about Nintendo’s 3DS? I can’t believe people are still running with 3D. It’s 2011, give it up already!

But Sony’s conference did improve, firstly they got rid of the ‘elephant in the room’ when Jack Tretton immediately addressed the Playstation Network problems, and credit to them for that. People wanted an apology, a real one, and this was probably Sony’s best chance to do that.

In-Out, In-Out, Shake it all About - Microsoft Conference.

Microsoft were first to hold their conference at this year's E3 and they kicked it off with some Modern Warfare 3 footage which included a demo run in a submarine and then on a speedboat. Yes of course it featured some bullet time again, there’s nothing quite like some overuse of bullet time in a game but overall considering I’m not a big Call of Duty nut it looked quite cool. It’s very high impact, very over-dramatic, very Call of Duty. It made me want to at least try the other two games.

Next up was the new Tomb Raider game which actually looks really good! It’s set to go back to the origins of Lara Croft and it might just tempt me into playing the franchise again. The demo shown appeared to be the start of the game where Lara is escaping captivity on an old ship that could be in the Bermuda Triangle, which I‘m only guessing because of the old ships Lara finds at the end of the demo. It’s a lot darker than we’re used to and looks very gritty, much more than the old ones. I haven’t played a Tomb Raider game since the PS1 and I’ll keep an eye out for this one as I’m interested in how it turns out in the end.

The Good, The Bad and The Downright Embarrassing - E3 2011.

The biggest video game event of the year took place a week ago and I’m always happy when it comes around. The Electronic Entertainment Expo has been visiting Los Angeles now for 16 years, and although in recent years it has downsized a little, it still has the magic all gamers know and love.

I love it when E3 is approaching, the anticipation for what’s going to be shown, what’s going to be playable, new hardware, new games, new ideas. It represents the biggest stage video game companies have in showing off their products to us. And boy do they like to show off!

I personally love E3 because it reignites the gaming industry and gets me interested again. People start talking again, forums start buzzing, Twitter explodes, everyone has an opinion and there are plenty willing to argue til their faces turn blue!

The Fast and the Furious: Rock edition.

You’ve probably seen the recent scene that depicts Vin Diesel calling together his bunch of mates from around the world: Paul Walker, the Asian dude who eats crisps, Ludacris, the black guy from Transformers and…the rest of them who have no personalities to speak of.

Turns out they got another job to do, and since none of them are actually doing anything these days, they get right on it. Their aim is to rob the richest and most powerful man in Brazil. Prompting several members to walk away, including the black guy from Transformers, but wait Vin’s not said the amount of money in that annoying slow voice of his “100 million dollars.” Everyone is 'down' and the black guy from Transformers is back on-side, Michael Bay mustn’t be paying like he used to.

No means no.

I was amazed last week when I saw a news feature on the emergence of a new Playboy club down in London. What amazed me most is that here in the modern world, Playboy clubs still exist.

Essentially, Playboy is a brand that makes large amounts of money by using women as basic objects, however some would disagree arguing that the women involved are ‘modern-day feminists’ empowering themselves and getting paid well while they’re at it. The fact still remains however that although they are paid, the profit made by the business is far greater than the wage expense, or ‘maintenance costs’ as they may call it.

All Gods go to heaven.

The superhero genre has shot to the forefront of modern day cinema over the past decade and this year certainly isn’t going to put a stop to that trend.

In 2011 there will be Thor, Captain America, X-Men: First Class and The Green Lantern. Thor was released first, outside of the summer blockbuster period, which was strange as it had the look and feel of a summer hit. The CGI, the action, the thumping music, Anthony Hopkins; what more could it need?

What's the going rate for a World Cup?

I think it’s fair to say it’s been a torrid year for Fifa. First we had the World Cup bids that resulted in one tournament going to the largest nation in the world and one going to a nation the size of a postage stamp; then we had the whole Andy Gray sexism debacle leaving a huge question mark over who will partner Martin Tyler on the upcoming Fifa 12; and then we had the inevitable questioning of corruption within the octual organisation of Fifa.

This really is one of the most obvious statements in the world: Fifa are corrupt. It’s right up there with: oil is a valuable resource; Hitler wasn’t very nice; and Badger loves mashed potato! For some reason the world has only just realised this and several members of Fifa have been hauled in front of Fifa’s own ethics committee to answer to these charges of corruption. The very fact Fifa have an ethics committee is actually quite amusing.

Paintballing without the pain.

The latest animation from Blue Sky studios is Rio, the story of a rare blue macaw who must travel to Brazil in order to mate and save his species. Blue Sky are probably most famous for the Ice Age series, which I liked, but it did peter out towards the end so I was interested in seeing how Rio was going to turn out.

It was a good movie that I have to say I quite enjoyed, all be it at the start of the movie the colour was all in pink, resulting in the movie stopping abruptly and starting from the beginning…of the trailers. The projectionist simply skipped forward as if it were a DVD, which it probably was, and on we went!

Privacy vs. Freedom of Speech.

It was revealed yesterday that the footballer who holds one of the famed super injunctions is attempting to sue the Twitter users who have been revealing his name on the social network site.

Well good luck to him, because he’s going to get nowhere.

Twitter is a United States company operating in the state of California, therefore they are not under the jurisdiction of the high courts of the United Kingdom. Even so, the high courts have given Twitter seven days to reveal the names of those pesky users who’ve been committing that heinous crime of saying whatever the hell they want.

The perfect preparation for a 10km run.

I ran the Manchester 10K again on Sunday which was a gruelling battle between man and road. It was a good race that left my legs heavier than a pair of Americans after Thanksgiving and my ankle in quite a bit of pain. But I made it! All be it in a longer time than last year, a whole six minutes more, meaning I have some work to do for next year. Six minutes in a 10K is a week! Although my time was disappointing, I did manage to raise a lot of money for CICRA (Crohn's in Childhood Research Association) which is always great!

Of course being involved on Sunday meant that my Saturday night was spent indoors watching Saturday night tele. Lucky for me it wasn’t just any Saturday night, this one was special, it was of course Eurovision night!

It's just effing inconsistent.

What a weekend it was for Manchester! Manchester United made history by securing the league title for the nineteenth time at Ewood Park and Manchester City kept the Manc flag flying high by winning the FA Cup at Wembley!

It isn’t every day you’ll find both sets of supporters celebrating in the city of Manchester but this weekend showed it was indeed possible. And it could be a sign of things to come. We could be entering an era where English football is dominated by Manchester!

35 years.

So today is the big day: the FA Cup final! I don’t know about you but this year’s final just isn’t doing it for me. I honestly don’t care, and that’s really quite sad as it’s a competition with such great memories for me.

I know I’m a Manchester United fan, and Manchester City are in the final, but that isn’t the reason I’m not interested, heck I couldn’t actually care less if City won it or not. What the hell is wrong with me!? I am letting the red half of Manchester down big time.

Oh Boy!

Next up in my film blog catch up is one starring Jake Gyllenhaal, haven't seen him for a while. The film is about a man who somehow uses a computer program to leap into another man’s body and change his decisions in order to find out about certain happenings and events.

No, I’m not talking about Quantum Leap the movie, I’m talking about Source Code. It doesn't quite have the charm that Sam and Al had together with good ol' Ziggy and Gooshie but that doesn't mean it's not a good movie.

Eye stimulation without the silly glasses.

Sucker Punch was released a while back now and I’ve only just got around to writing a blog on it. Zack Snyder of Watchmen and 300 fame directed this so I was looking forward to it as he generally produces nice pieces of artistic creativeness if nothing else.

And that is pretty much what I got upon watching Sucker Punch. Its story is centred around a young girl named Baby Doll, who is oppressed by her step-father who simply wants the inheritance of her mother. He declares Baby Doll insane and she heads off to a mental institute.

To AV, or not to AV: that is the question.

It’s the big day at the polls tomorrow where the poor souls of the British public will have to vote for who they want as their local councillor and of course that pesky referendum on the voting system.

Yes it’s the AV referendum, the debate that swept across the nation and was promptly swept under the carpet. In the end not many people seem to care about the issue, which is quite sad considering just how dramatic a change it would be if we were to adopt the Alternative Voting system.

One Pill: Little did he know it was just a placebo.

So I went to see Limitless, which must have been the most popular movie at the time as the cinema was absolutely packed out. So much so they had a bouncer at the door. You know a film is going to be bad-ass if there’s a bouncer at the screen entrance.

Was it bad ass then? Well mostly yes. Limitless has its moments of brilliance that really keep you enthralled in the story, but there are some areas that let it down slightly.

A Right Royal Shindig.

The royal wedding is fast approaching, so far I’ve been lucky enough to escape the media coverage, but this week it is impossible to avoid. Absolutely impossible. It’s all starting to feel a bit like Glastonbury with people pitching up little tents along the streets of London, the brave little blighters.

I don’t really mind the royal wedding to be fair, I don’t dislike the royals and I don’t dislike the fact that the future prince is marrying. But my God, do we have to have constant wall-to-wall coverage of the royal wedding on every channel!? I wouldn’t be surprised to turn on Cartoon Network and find Ben 10 stood outside Buckingham palace telling me which Hanna-Barbera characters haven’t been invited.

Exceptional.

It has now been revealed by the universities across the country the fees that they will be charging students to study at their university in 2012.

Now, I already covered in my previous blog on April 1st (Cruel Intentions) which Northern universities were charging the full amount, or at least very close to it. At the time they were: Manchester, Leeds, Leeds Metropolitan, Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores, Aston, Birmingham, Coventry, and Loughborough.

Towards the end of that particular blog I said the following:

“Should the likes of Salford, Manchester Metropolitan, Sheffield or Sheffield Hallam succumb to charging £9,000 a year then the North of England might as well give up.”

Matthew McConaughey and the back seat of his car.

Matthew McConaughey was recently in the film: The Lincoln Lawyer, and I didn’t think he was too bad considering when I see him in movies I usually end up feeling nauseated and angry at the sheer implausibility of rom-coms.

But this one isn’t a rom-com! Hooray! No, it isn’t a historical drama based on Abraham Lincoln’s little-known career in the justice system, I somehow don’t think McConaughey could quite pull off the sideburns. Instead he plays a prosecutor who finds himself with the wrong kind of client: a murderer! Who’d have thought a prosecutor’s client could be a murderer. I know, it’s out there.

USMC - Be the best (All of you not just Eckhart)

I recently went to watch a weird new video game that didn’t allow the player to actually play. No controllers, no headset, just a screen. It was called Battle: Los Angeles.

Of course I jest, it isn’t really a video game, though the action found in it is more like a video game than Call of Duty is. Instead it is the latest alien invasion movie to hit the big screen. I went into this movie pretty pumped, I thought it looked action packed and I was looking forward to seeing what they were going to do that other movies sharing their tent hadn’t already done.

Fair and Balanced stories.

I went to see Fair Game the other week, and in truth it wasn’t half bad. Starting Naomi Watts and Sean Penn the movie is about the life of Valerie Plame, a former CIA agent, and her husband Joe Wilson, a former ambassador.

It’s a true story that occurred in 2002 when George Bush decided to go to war on the basis they had obtained uranium from Niger. As part of the intelligence to find out about Iraq’s possible weapons of mass destruction Joe Wilson is sent by the CIA to Niger in order to investigate the suspicion of ‘yellow cake’ being moved to Iraq.

He found no evidence whatsoever, so when Bush announces it as a reason for going to war, he publicly speaks out. Of course the government dislike this and retaliate by revealing the identity of his wife, Valerie. Yes folks, that’s illegal.

Cruel Intentions.

It was revealed last week that more universities had thrown their hats into the ring of nine hundred tenners and stated their intention to charge forthcoming students the maximum tuition fee available to them.

There are now 24 universities that have stated their intentions in terms of fees. Possibly most significant of all of last week’s announcements was the one made by Manchester University.

Yes, the pompous older sibling of the three Manchester universities became the first Northern institution to state their intent to charge the maximum tuition fee of £9,000 a year. Incredibly bad news for the North West.

The chameleon who stands out.

There’s another animated movie doing the rounds in cinemas. It’s called Rango, at least I think it is, if you were going off movie posters then you might think it’s called Johnny Depp.

Yes, Johnny Depp does the voice for the little lizard and the marketing for Rango has been completely focused around the A-lister. This did concern me at first as I didn’t know much about it, and the studio seemed to just be running with Depp’s inclusion in it rather than telling me anything about the story and whatnot. It could’ve been rubbish.

BBC Three does politics.

BBC Three aired a special version of Question Time on Wednesday, the same day as the budget. They made it especially for youths (hence its BBC Three appearance) and named it Young Voter’s Question Time. It was actually pretty good, I hope they do this sort of thing more often as it gets young people involved in politics. Which can only be a good thing.

To keep it down with the kids the Beeb decided to remix the Question Time theme into this weird sped-up version that wasn’t patronising at all, invited 150 under-25s to be in the audience and threw in Richard Bacon to host it. He was actually not too bad, he did sometimes argue with the panellists when he was supposed to be chairman but whatever, I didn’t really care. He otherwise kept a lid on it well and stopped the audience from killing many.

It's not Rio's, it's mine.

Did you know that Fabio Capello is still in charge of England? It’s an astonishing yet true fact that I have just recently learned. I thought he’d been sacked after that embarrassment at the World Cup in South Africa.

But apparently not, he’s still in the hot seat which is a bit of a miracle considering he’s only done a little bit better than Steve McClaren, a bit like the way the iPad 2 is a little bit better than the iPad.

You see Martin Harris, you really had a wonderful life.

It was revealed this week that there will be a sequel to the popular action movie Taken starring Liam Neeson. Of course Neeson will be back to find them and kill them…again. There’s currently a movie out in the cinemas that resembles Taken; it also stars Liam Neeson performing in a kick-ass role. It’s called Unknown.

Unlike Taken though, Unknown has a bit more of a well thought out plot. Sure Taken is good, but in the end of the day, there’s no twist or anything you just watch Liam Neeson’s daughter get kidnapped and then witness him hunt down the abductors and kill them. Simple as that. With Unknown there’s a lot more thought put into it.

Bourne meets Inception.

That’s pretty much been the tagline The Adjustment Bureau has based the entire premise of it marketing campaign on. TotalFilm really has a lot to answer for. So is it Bourne meets Inception? Well not really. It’s Matt Damon in a film that appears to have some sort of alternative reality, I think that‘s the link with Inception.

It has the science fiction vibes that Inception sort of has too. Well maybe not sci-fi but perhaps something a little more towards the supernatural. The film focuses on the idea of free will, whether we have it or not.

I am Bernie the Beagle's owner, and don't you forget it.

We’re a few months into the year now and we’ve been dealt our first superhero movie: I Am Number Four. Well it’s sort of a superhero movie but in truth I don’t really know what genre to put this movie in. It could be a whole range of things.

Upon going to watch this I had no idea about it whatsoever. It’s based on a book that I’ve never heard of let alone read, so really I could have been walking into anything. I hadn’t even seen a trailer for it. I just knew it was about some guy who has superpowers of some sort.

Fighting prejudice with prejudice.

I saw a story last week on a Christian couple, Eunice and Owen Johns, who have been told by two high court judges that they can no longer foster children because of the religious views they hold. The issue in question is their views on sexuality, being Christians their opinion is that homosexuality is wrong.

According to social services, under the introduction of equality laws the couple are no longer suitable to foster children because of their religious faith. The social worker handling the case was Lynda Williams who described the couple as: “kind and hospitable people who would always do their best to make a child welcome and comfortable”.

Sepp's pointless tea party.

The International Football Association Board met up earlier this week to focus on the pressing issues currently occupying the minds of everyone in football. No issue is bigger at the moment that that of snoods. Are they okay, or are they made of a terrible evil?

Well it’s of the opinion of Sepp Blatter and his henchmen that they can't make any money out of this fad so I’m afraid it’s going to be banned. That’s not the official reason of course, apparently it’s too dangerous to be wearing them. Expect our lads to be donning the old American football gear from next season then, as if safety is an issue perhaps they should just ban the likes of Wayne Rooney, Jamie Carragher, and Mathieu Flamini from playing football full stop.

Pegg + Frost - Wright + America + Brahbrah = Paul

Comedy duo, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg returned to the big screen once again in February with their new movie Paul. Although they’ve both been involved in plenty since, this is largely seen as the follow-up to Hot Fuzz which is now an astonishing four years old now. My, how time flies.

I loved Hot Fuzz, it’s one of my favourite comedies out there, so Paul was always going to have very large shoes to fill. I wasn’t a huge fan of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz was a huge improvement so I was interested to see what direction they were going to take with this new one. 

The Truly Gritty Performances of Hailee Steinfeld and co.

True Grit had a disappointing evening at the Academy Awards the other night. Though it was nominated in ten categories it failed to win in any of them. It didn’t fair too well at the BAFTAs either, receiving plenty of nominations but only winning one, for cinematography. I suppose that shows the standard of films nominated this year, when such a great film like True Grit was disregarded so coldly.

I saw True Grit not too long ago and I feel that it’s another great film by the Coen brothers. Set at the end of the 19th century and with all the prejudices that go along with that era, the movie is about a young girl called Mattie whose father is killed by the criminal Tom Chaney. Chaney escapes the law’s grasp and heads into the wilderness as a fugitive, and the law isn’t too enthusiastic about going after him.

Adverts are getting worse. Nine out of ten people agree.

Well the January sales are way in the past now and television is starting to get a bit of normality back into itself. If only that was a good thing.

With Christmas and Valentine’s Day done with advertisers have changed their focus, trying new and exciting methods to fool, I mean entice the poor general public into buying into their product or service. But my God, they’re terrible! Alright it’s not sofas, but some companies aren’t even trying anymore!

More speeches from The King's Speech.

Well the Oscars are done, dusted and polished for another year and it was certainly one to remember for the British contingent. Unfortunately for us Brits though, many couldn’t watch it as it happened because it was on Sky Movies. So we had to make do with the highlights a day later on the newly named Sky Living. Not sure what this channel is about yet; it’s replaced Living, or Dead as I call it, after Sky purchased the group sometime last year.

When the BAFTAs were shown on the BBC, there was an hour delay for some unknown reason, which was problematic as it could be ruined somehow by winners getting revealed to you before Auntie Beeb showed you. This problem was solved simply by a mobile phone, Facebook and Twitter blackout. The Oscars wouldn’t be as simple.

A Rocky Horror Show?

The Oscars are just a few days away now so I thought I’d review one of the nominations for Best Picture. Overlooked by this year’s BAFTAs, this rank outsider isn’t expected to win the Oscar but shouldn’t be totally overlooked. The film in question? The Fighter.

There is a bit of a theme going in the Best Picture category, most of them feature characters who display huge amounts of determination to achieve their goal. Heck one of them is even called True Grit, and in fairness The Fighter could easily have gone with the title ‘True Grit’ because main character Micky Ward displays so much of it Britain want to start using him on the roads in Winter.

It pays to be the strong, silent type.

Earlier this week, one of gaming’s greatest heroes reached the major milestone that is his 25th anniversary. The gaming hero? The one and only Link from the ever popular Legend of Zelda series.

Well I say the one and only but in truth there have been several different Links, each with their own story and past and of course in most of his adventures he isn’t usually called Link at all, he’s called whatever you want. In my case: Andy.

Disney lets its hair down.

So I’ve seen Tangled. You have a problem with that? Well, it was free after all so why not, and I have to say I don’t regret going to watch it.

In a nutshell: it’s a Disney movie. So yes, now you know what to expect. Wait, come back, I haven‘t finished! Although it’s a Disney move that is clearly aimed at kids, I have to say there were a few moments that had me chortling away into my Capri-Sun like a hyperactive child at a picnic.

The King's Speech's many speeches.

I enjoyed watching the BAFTAs on Sunday night, I’m a sucker for these movie awards. Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Oscars, I just love watching them. Usually just to see who wins, but they are strangely entertaining. Movies are pretty much the only genre of awards ceremonies that are good to watch though. I mean, the BRITS were on last night apparently, anybody give a Lego brick about it?