Monday 28 March 2011

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.

Friday 25 March 2011

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.

Tuesday 22 March 2011

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.

Sunday 20 March 2011

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.

Tuesday 15 March 2011

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.

Thursday 10 March 2011

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.

Wednesday 9 March 2011

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.

Tuesday 8 March 2011

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. 

Friday 4 March 2011

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.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

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!

Tuesday 1 March 2011

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.