London's best ice cream

After dinner on Sunday, between visiting Madame Tussauds and Ripley’s Believe it or Not, we stopped for ice cream at “The Icecreamists” in Covent Garden, which proclaimed itself as London’s only gay ice cream parlour. Not only was the server dressed like Mr Slave from South Park but the ice cream sundaes had hilariously camp names, my favourite of which is below (read the whole thing, it’s brilliant).

As for the ice cream, it was possibly the best I’ve ever eaten. The coffee was amazing and the milk chocolate tasted like liquidised dairy milk buttons. Absolutely one to visit when you’re in London.

House of Wax

I spent Sunday at Madame Tussauds (which I always struggle to spell), for my friend Laura’s birthday. It was great fun despite the fact it was insanely busy. Apparently tourists love a wax model - who knew?

Of course the highlight for me was the Marvel Superheroes exhibition, which I’d been to before but still enjoyed as if I was a little school child. Once again I saw Iron Man, Spider-Man, The Hulk, Wolverine, Nick Fury and Mrs Fantastic. This time though Captain America was there, so I got to add another photo to my ever increasing list of photos of me with superheroes.

It’s a great day out and the 4D show at the end is loads of fun.

Also, I got to punch Justin Beiber in the face, but that’s another story.

One of these men is an American icon, the leader

of the Avengers and a symbol for hope, liberty,

truth and justice. The other is Captain America.

You look like you’ve seen a Ghost(writer)

The Ghost, to call it by its proper British name, is a tense and enjoyable thriller.

Set against the backdrop of a bleak island in the United States, it stars Pierce Brosnan as a thinly veiled copy of Tony Blair, trying to write his memoirs. As his previous ghost writer has been found dead, Ewan McGregor is drafted in to help him finish the manuscript. But as events unfold, McGregor begins to question whether his predecessor’s death was an accident after all...

I enjoy a good thriller and The Ghost doesn’t disappoint. Slow and tense, it takes its time gradually building to the climatic conclusion.

There are some great performances from Brosnan (who’s not in it as much as you’d think), Kim Cattrall (whose accent isn’t bad) and Tom Wilkinson (who is great in everything). There’s also a small role for Timothy Hutton (Nate from Leverage) and an almost unrecognisable James Belushi (the years have not been kind). Ewan McGregor is an OK lead, but not quite the leading man he could be. The real stand-out performance comes from Olivia Williams as the mock Cherie Blair. It’s the first thing I’ve seen her in since Dollhouse got cancelled, and she’s a great actress – here’s hoping we see more of her.

All in all, a good thriller, worth a watch if you like the genre.

Also – just an addendum on the title of this post. Apparently, in the US they had to call the film “The Ghost Writer” as the studios were worried that audience would be disappointed if they saw a film called “The Ghost” which featured no supernatural spectres. I personally know quite a lot of Americans, and (although admittedly they’re all in the 22% that own passports) I don’t think any of them would be flummoxed by such a title (although they might be by the entirely too British word “flummoxed”). My point is this – studios, please stop treating the audience like they’re mentally deficient.

We Got Him!

I don't want to get all political here, but there's been massive news coverage about the hunt for Colonel Gaddafi.

Well on my travels I found him - turns out he was in London the whole time...

One of these men is a tyrannical despot. The other is Colonel Gaddafi.

Disclaimer (may not actually be Colonel Gaddafi).

The Capes of Wrath

Special congratulations to TV show “The Cape”.

Everyone has their Achilles heel when it comes to films. You know, the genre/type of movie that you will forgive almost anything in. For my wife, it’s eighties movies; she absolutely loves them. One of my friends has a penchant for Ray Harryhausen. For another it’s violent sporting movies (“Kickboxer”, “Best of the Best” etc). For me it’s superheroes. You have to work exceptionally hard to make me dislike something that is based around superheroes.

I freely admit, I’m not the best judge when it comes to that sort of film. I saw “DareDevil” at the cinema AND got it on DVD, that’s how willing I am to lose myself in a superhero story. Heck, I’m a vociferous supporter of the “Fantastic Four” movie (the first one anyway, I’ll concede the second one is lame). I even have “X-men: The Last Stand” in my DVD collection.

Which brings me to “The Cape”.

Even with the excessive amount of goodwill that I’m bringing to the table with regards to Superhero related enjoyment, The Cape still managed to bore the hell out of me. Was it the bad acting? The dire storylines? Or the fact that the creepy guy from “Requiem for a Dream” was the only character I was rooting for? Was it the inclusion of Summer Glau, who seems to be the kiss of death for any TV show now.

I really wanted to like this. “A weekly show about a superhero...surely it can pick up from where Smallville has left off”, I thought to myself. To quote ‘Mad Dog Tannen’ from “Back to the Future: Part III” – ‘You thought wrong.’

I’m glad it got cancelled. There I said it.

The old switcharoo

Oh Jason Bateman.

In my mind, Arrested Development is one of, if not THE greatest television comedy series to have come out of America in the last ten years (possibly ever). And you were the lynchpin of that show Jason!

You’re better than doing romantic comedies with Jennifer Aniston. Why have you stooped to this?

In fairness, “The Switch” wasn’t too offensive in the end, and was redeemed a lot by Bateman and Jeff Goldblum (where’s he been since Jurassic Park?)

Ultimately though, for a comedy, it just wasn’t funny enough.

You need to be more than this Jason. Be all you can be.

Keep on Running

So as part of last weekend’s cinematic marathon, I got to rewatch “Midnight Run” for the first time in about fifteen years.

What’s amazing is how little it’s dated (with the exception of everyone smoking inside buildings/on planes, and a few outlandish outfits).

Robert De Niro is outstanding, and I wish he’d stuck to this kind of comedy instead of dragging himself down to the depths of “Meet the Fockers”, which I’ve lambasted in the past. Charles Grodin is also great (whatever happened to him), and the two of them play off each other brilliantly.

It’s everything a buddy-movie should be, and the only saddening thing about it is the fact that they just don’t make them like that anymore.

I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me

I caught “The Losers” when it was released at the cinema, but due to an epic day of filmage on Sunday (the aftermath of the beer festival), I was treated to a second viewing.

I genuinely think this film would have done better if it hadn’t been released around the same time as “The Expendables” and “The A-Team”. Overall, it works as an ensemble revenge piece, with standout performances from Chris Evans (the “Journey” scene is the highlight of the film for me) and the ever-brilliant Idris Elba.

It’s better than you would expect, so if you get the chance I heartily encourage you to check it out.

A festivus for the rest of us

So Saturday was spent enjoying the delights of the Denbigh Beer Festival. This largely involved arriving at 1pm, being hammered by 4pm, leaving at 8pm and being in bed asleep by 10pm. Who says I don’t live a rock and roll lifestyle?

Other than the copious amounts of alcohol I consumed (to the point when me, my sister-in-law, my sister-in-law-in-law, and one of my best friends were doing a full rendition of “Delilah”. Unfortunately there is video of this somewhere) the highlight was tearing apart the ridiculous adverts in the Beer Festival programme. Call it professional pride, but some of these adverts were so poor it made the “marketing” part of my brain melt. Some of them didn’t even have contact details on them! Hideous.

So ultimately, this weekend I learnt that I can’t switch my work brain off, even when it’s pickled in alcohol.

That’s right, I reached the point in the evening where I thought
it appropriate to throw up some “gang” signs.

Blog Fail

I didn't post yesterday, due to an epic amount of sleeping when I was home. Oops.

Must try harder, and posts will resume as scheduled tomorrow.

Weekend Aftermath

Spent an absolutely awesome weekend in Wales, which involved attending a beer festival on the Saturday and then having a DVD marathon with my adopted family (in-laws and best friends) on the Sunday.

Will break it down fully, but first I must catch up on all the sleep I missed due to ecessive drinking and DVD watching.

My own fault really, but I'd do it all again...

Hug it out

I'm quite sad to see the end of Entourage. 


The original "bromance" show, following the ups and downs of Vince and his posse has kept my attention for eight seasons now, which is a long time in television terms. 


I liked all the resolutions for the characters, and am glad that Johnny Drama (the second best thing about the show) finally got his break. I think I'm definitely going to miss Ari's vitriolic rants though...no idea what I'm going to do without having his hilarious tirades to keep me amused. If nothing else should come from the show I hope Kevin Dillon and Jeremy Piven both get lots of offers for comedy roles from this so they remain on my screen.


The post-credit epilogue suggested that we might not be done with Ari just yet, so here's hoping that we see a spin off or an Entourage movie in the future...


Oh, and E was still incredibly annoying, to the very end. 

Goodbye Miracles

Watched the final episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day on Thursday. 


Overall it was a pretty up and down series. I know I've spoken about it's pros and cons in the past, but I really did think it got better as it went along. With the exception of the diabolical plane episode, it was a pretty interesting story, especially the moral darkness of the "burn centres".


It was definitely pitched at a transatlantic audience, with a couple of scenes feeling too "American". Not that there's anything wrong with American drama, which I'm a massive fan of, but it just felt out of place on such a thoroughly British show. 


There was also the fact that they rolled out a "who's who" of guest stars from American sci-fi. From Q off of Star Trek: The Next Generation to Officer Don from Third Rock from the Sun, Major Kira from Deep Space Nine to Sierra from Dollhouse; it was clear that the endless conveyor belt of guest appearances was aimed squarely at American sci-fi geeks.


But all in all, it was quite good. 


They kept some of the knowing humour from the early British versions, including Gwen and Jack admitting that they're willing to kill each other before "hugging it out" and becoming best friends again, or Gwen scoffing back laughter in the face of the CIA director when he made a joke that would normally have been ignored on an American show. The concept of "nobody dying" was definitely the most interesting of all the Torchwood storylines, and the ten episodes gave them time to explore it thoroughly.


It was also good to see writing/production credits from Buffy and Angel alumni such as Jane Espenson, Kelly A. Manners and Skip Schoolnik, which might have helped give an edge to a lot of the shows writing. It was also both entertaining and disconcerting to keep jumping from the grandiose storylines set in the US to the much smaller storyline in Wales, but that certainly made it stand out from every other show out there. 


It will be interesting to see how well the show did and whether or not there'll be another season. 


The dual epilogues at the end of the episode would suggest it might be in the works...   

I Am Number Bore

With “I am Number Four “we see yet another film in the mould of “Twilight”. This time however, it’s aliens rather than vampires that go through the Twilightification process.

I’d do a full plot synopsis, but there’s not much point. John Smith (The dude who played “Stormbreaker” – you don’t need his real name) is a brooding teenager who’s actually an alien, yada yada yada. He falls in love with an attractive high school girl (the pregnant one from Glee) who is ostracised by her peers blah blah blah. He’s hunted by evil aliens, gets a couple of side kicks (a dog and a geek), and then ends up forming a love triangle with another alien… basically there’s nothing new here.

Despite the fact that it’s cliché-ridden and entirely predictable, it’s not unentertaining. The plot moves fast enough and the fact that John is discovering his powers as he goes along makes him much more interesting than Edward from Twilight. That said, I do have a soft spot for Sci-fi, so maybe I forgave it more than it deserved.

A Little Focking Disappointing

I liked “Meet The Parents”.

It was back when Ben Stiller was still making a name for himself and when seeing Robert De Niro doing a comedy role was still somewhat of a novelty. I remember watching it at the cinema that I worked at throughout college and university. How depressing then, that it was released eleven years ago.

“Meet The Fockers” wasn’t anywhere near as good, but still raised a few laughs. “Little Fockers” however, raises barely any.

This time, Ben Stiller has two twin children and has to content with Owen Wilson returning still carrying a flame for his wife, dealing with the advances of Pharmaceutical Rep Jessica Alba and Robert De Niro trying to make him head of the family as “The Godfocker”.

It’s really not very good. Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand return in glorified cameos, and the whole thing just leaves you wishing you were watching “Meet The parents” again instead.

When a comedy isn’t funny, then what is it? A waste of time.

Warrior, come out to play-ay…

Another night, another advanced movie screening courtesy of Sky Movies.

This time it was “Warrior”, which is aiming to be the MMA equivalent of Rocky and stars Tom Hardy and Nick Nolte.

Two brothers have separately escaped their abusive dad and gone their separate ways. One is a school teacher, the other a former marine. All they have in common is fighting (which they do, a lot). When the elder brother’s house is due to be repossessed he enters the “Sparta” tournament, a sixteen man elimination MMA event, in the hopes of winning the $5million cash prize. However, his younger brother has reunited with their estranged father and is training in the hopes of winning the same tournament…

I appreciate that this will make me sound old, but there is absolutely NO WAY that this film should be a 12a. A lot of films get a 15 rating based on swearing. Whilst this doesn’t contain any naughty words, it contains extremely brutal violence. Lots of it. Not that it’s a bad thing, but I’m sure there was enough to warrant making this a 15. I looked on the BBFC website about this, but at the time of writing there was no further classification information available. Oh well.

The film itself is better than I expected. As predicted it is (of course) primarily about the fight scenes, but Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton give the film some heart as the two brothers, whilst Nick Nolte gives powerful support as their father trying to make amends for his past misdeeds. Wrestling fans will also enjoy the appearance of former WWE wrestler and Olympic Gold Medallist Kurt Angle as the “best MMA fighter in the world” Koba.

On the negative side, Jennifer Morrison, who was annoying in House and annoying in How I Met Your Mother, is annoying in this. Another problem is that both characters have reasons to win the five million dollars, and the film ends without explaining whether the loser resolved the problems he needed the money for, which is slightly unsatisfying. It’s also long (think it came in about 140mins), so could have done with being 30mins shorter; however I wasn’t ever really bored so that’s not a major concern.

The fight scenes are really what people are going to want to see the film for, and there’s an interesting mix of different types of fights. I found the mixture of brutal knockouts (Hardy) and ground-based submissions (Edgerton) entertaining. I’ve only got a fairly amateurish knowledge of MMA, however I would question how gripping they might be to someone who had no knowledge of the sport.

Ultimately it’s a fight movie with heart, though not as much heart as Rocky. Worth a watch if you’re in the mood for some brutal violence.

The Trans-Atlantic Scheduling Conflict

The other day I was talking about Dexter, and I mentioned the (frankly insane) amount of time that it takes some UK TV channels to show American imports. This was something that was fine in the eighties and nineties, because back then, UK fans didn’t really know what was going on with US television anyway, and regardless, there was no other way for them to watch the show, short of having a friend or relative in America video (yes, how dated is this reference now) the show for them, then air mail it over. Even then, it would only work if you had one of those funky VCRs that played both British and American video tapes.

Then came the internet, to be specific dial up internet, giving us Brits access to amazon.com and playusa.com, where, if you had a multi-regional DVD player, you could buy exorbitantly priced American DVDs of your favourites shows, pay the ridiculous shipping charges, and then be ahead of all of your friends whilst they waited months and months for Channel 4 or the BBC to show episodes that had aired in America up to a year before.

But then came illegal downloading and streaming, which was a game changer for the more forward thinking of TV companies. People were no longer content to be months and months behind their American cousins when it came to their favourite shows, and rather than waiting for TV companies to pull their finger out and air the show, they’d just watch it directly online. Sky found a way around this by showing LOST just days after it was aired in the US, ending with them simulcasting the final episode at the same time that it was shown in America. Now Sky Atlantic airs shows like Game of Thrones and Entourage the day after they’re shown in the states, making downloading them illegally impossible to justify. Paramount has followed suit with South Park, and Sky1 looks to be doing the same with Glee.

Not that I ever would justify it. To make it clear, I’m not condoning people downloading things illegally, I’m saying that I understand why they do it. If they pay for a channel like FX, and FX are showing Dexter in six months, why not just download it now? They would have watched it in six months anyway and they’re still paying for the channel, so in theory there are no losers, right? Wrong. And this is what really annoys me about the channels that are stuck in the nineties when it comes to US scheduling; the more people that watch a show when it’s on television, the better the ratings are, and the better the ratings are, the better the advertising revenue is. The more advertising revenue there is, theoretically, the more that channel can invest in shows. And that’s what I don’t understand about TV schedulers. Love or hate internet streaming/downloading, it’s a fact of modern existence. You can’t just close your eyes and wish it wasn’t there. The quicker they air their US imports, the more viewers that they’ll have, and ergo, the more they can charge for advertising slots.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know anything about the practicalities of scheduling, but surely, even if there’s a greater cost to air a show within a week of it broadcasting in the US, that money can be recouped by increased advertising revenue? Maybe I’m just being too logical about it.

Ultimately though, whilst FX holds the rights to True Blood, Burn Notice and Dexter, UK viewers will remain a season behind their American counterparts. I have no idea what Comedy Central is doing with 30 Rock and The US Office, but their scheduling is so all over the place that perhaps they’ve shown the new series of these but just buried them in a midnight slot. God knows, now they’ve bought the rights to Friends that’s all we can expect from them every evening from 6 until 10. Which is their prerogative. I don’t own Comedy Central or FX, and if their owners think the delay appropriate (or more realistically cost effective), who am I to argue? I’m not a TV executive, and so I’m not qualified to make those decisions. Unfortunately though, whilst they are scheduling in this way, I fear that illegal downloading will only become more prevalent.  And downloading TV shows is a gateway crime, which leads to illegal music and film downloads. And sadly, a lot of it could be avoided by smarter scheduling.

But then again, that’s just my opinion.

Close Encounters of the Absurd Kind

So prior to my attendance of Batman Live, I went to see Cowboys and Aliens (because I was determined to have the busiest day ever).

Daniel Craig wakes up in the middle of the Wild West desert with no memory and a weird device strapped to his wrist. He makes his way into town and soon crosses paths with Harrison Ford, who plays a grizzled war-veteran-turned-rancher. Just as tensions between the two of them are about to come to a violent head, mysterious lights appear in the sky and alien ships begin attacking and abducting the band of cowboys and prospectors. With no way to comprehend what the aliens are, the townsfolk’s first thought is that they’re being besieged by demons, and set off to try and rescue their kidnapped family members…

Maybe it was because I’d heard all of the negative reviews and so I went in with really low expectations, but I didn’t think it was anywhere near as bad as the critics are making out.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not anything special. There are some great supporting turns by Clancy Brown, Sam Rockwell and Paul Dano, all of whom could have done with being in the film more. Olivia Wilde is fairly bland as the love interest, and Daniel Craig is charismatic enough as the action hero. Whilst I’m not a huge fan of him as Bond, when he’s not being 007 I’m reminded that he is actually a strong actor. Let’s not forget Layer Cake, which is hugely underrated.

But then there’s Harrison Ford.

Grumpy, miserable Harrison Ford.

I’m not even sure if he’s acting in the film, because in all of the promotional publicity for the film he seems just as grumpy and miserable as his character does on screen. What’s he got to be so miserable about? He was Han Solo and Indiana Jones. He’s an icon. To an entire generation he is their childhood. I mean, true Hollywood Homicide was one of the worst films of the noughties, and true, I’ve almost entirely wiped the last Indiana Jones film from my memory because it’s such a travesty, but still. He’s Harrison freaking Ford! Cheer up. It’s depressing to see someone you idolised as a kid slowly become the Victor Meldrew of Hollywood. Anyway, protestations aside, Ford’s grumpiness works for the role.

The aliens aren’t that scary and some of the action scenes could have done with being a bit more action packed. The film actually works better for the first thirty or forty minutes when they’re playing it as a straight Western, and I can’t help but feel that if they had given it a different title and kept the aliens a secret, they could have had a twist as pleasantly surprising as the one in From Dusk ‘til Dawn. But let’s face it, with a studio film like this, that was never going to happen.

Overall a fun yet somewhat hollow watch, which would be perfect for a family viewing on a Sunday afternoon. 

Bone Idol

Just a quick note about Winter’s Bone, which I realise is now somewhat redundant as I missed it both at the cinema and on DVD and caught it on Sky after everyone else had already told me numerous times how good it is.

I can confirm that it is exceptionally good.

If you haven’t seen it, check it out. It’s heavy, harrowing stuff, but totally worth it. Jennifer Lawrence is absolutely brilliant in this, and I can see why she got the role in X-Men First Class off of the back of this.

Definitely worth a watch, but not if you’re feeling fragile.

On a side note, if I ever meet Jennifer Lawrence I might offer to show her MY Winter’s Bone, partly for funsies and partly to see if she’d laugh or have me arrested.

Just Saying.

Going for a song

After the awesomeness of Batman Live (see yesterday’s post), how could my Saturday night have gotten any better?

Well for starters, after the show, we headed back to the Sky bar (as mentioned previously) where I began drinking Hoegaarden’s like they were going out of fashion. Apparently singing “I’ve got Hoes, in different area codes” (of course a reference to the alcoholic beverage) is only acceptable if your wife isn’t there to hear.

After they kicked us out of the Sky bar (we were the last ones there unsurprisingly), we wandered aimless as a cloud (or more accurately several clouds) until settling on another bar where we could continue drinking. By this point I had resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to get to eat anything to soak up the alcohol until the end of the evening.

After several more drinks, we decided to call it a night – largely in order for the people who had to get the last tube home to be able to get the last tube home. Now at this point, those of us who were getting driven home (thanks Jake BTW), decided that the best possible course of action would be to get ourselves a midnight snack from McDonalds. My stomach did not thank me in the morning.

On the drive to the “restaurant” (and it does deserve the speech marks), I received a call from my friends Alex and Laura. After warning Alex that I was pretty hammered at that point, she decided she still wanted to talk to me. Now, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, Alex is in an all girl band called My Heroine, who incidentally are (in my humble and entirely unbiased opinion) the best unsigned band on the planet. So at this point, they play an impromptu song down the phone for the listening pleasure of myself, Jake and Paul. The song was brilliant, and had a number of references to superheroes throughout, making it the perfect way to end an evening already jam packed with comic book heroes and villains. My (admittedly somewhat skewed) recollection was that they had written that song specifically for me, and even if they hadn’t, I’m going to continue to believe they did until one of them corrects me. In fact, next time I see them I might suggest they call it “Wesley’s Song”. I’m sure that’ll go down a treat.

So, in conclusion, an absolutely amazing evening. All in all, my life is pretty damn awesome sometimes.

Incidentally, if you are interested in checking the girls out you can find them on http://www.myheroineofficial.com. They’re all absolutely lovely, down-to-earth and friendly, and personally I think it’s great to see an all girl band who: a) can actually play instruments, b) write all of their own songs, and c) are entirely unmanufactured. My personal favourite song is “Default Man”, with “Breath” and “Show and Tell” close second and third. Check them out and see for yourself. I’ve got a feeling that they’re going to be huge in 2012, so get on the bandwagon early…

The not-so-Dark Knight

I said on Tuesday I'd review the Batman stage show before the end of the week, so here goes...

So after months of waiting, I finally got to see the Batman: Live Arena tour on Saturday. I’d booked the tickets the day that they were released so I’d managed to get seats five rows from the front looking straight at the stage. The seats were great, we were really close, the only drawback being that as the Gotham City seats weren’t stadium style, it meant that you had to look over/around the people in front of you.

The whole experience was greatly enhanced by the fact that I’d booked our group tickets for the Sky VIP bar beforehand, which meant bypassing the queues and then chilling out before and after the show in the luxurious bar that (whilst crazy expensive) does have a free pool table, really nice seats, free massages (if you can be bothered to queue up), free face painting and a 3D recording studio where you can sing along to a song whilst your friends can see you on a 3D screen. There’s also a great amount of fun to be had posing in front of the paparazzi wall with your friends (pictured below).

As for the show itself, it was great fun. Moving away from the darkness of the Christopher Nolan films, the tone was much more child friendly, with a few laughs thrown in for good measure. The feel of the show was like Cirque du Soleil starring Batman characters, as the first half is primarily based around the circus where Dick Grayson’s parents are killed. The show has a bit of a panto vibe, with audiences cheering for their favourite characters when they appear for the first time. For example, I was very please to see Poison Ivy, although do have somewhat of a crush on Harley Quinn now.

The primary characters of the show are Batman, Robin, Joker, Harley and Catwoman, with support from Two Face, The Riddler, The Penguin, The Scarecrow, Ivy, Alfred and Commissioner Gordon. Personally I would have liked to have seen more of Two Face, but the context of show didn’t really allow for that. The guy playing The Joker is outstanding, making him like the character from the comics rather than trying to emulate Heath Ledger. As mentioned above, the woman playing Harley was the other stand out performance, she had lifted the voice directly from Batman: The Animated Series, however this was by no means a bad thing.

The really fantastic parts of the show were the set pieces, the bulk of which were in act two. I will warn that the below contains spoilers, so if you don’t want any turn away now.

First of all, the Joker’s first appearance inside a Jack-in-the-box looked amazing. All of the joker scenes upped the anti from there, with the Joker’s face looking brilliant and finally the Joker balloon (which is subsequently engulfed in flames) being the show stealer. I thought that the brief appearance of the scarecrow was also really well done - it was just a guy on stilts, but as Batman had been subjected to the Scarecrow gas, it worked. And then there was the Batmobile. Everyone cheered for the Batmobile. It’s not in it much, but by God, they’ve included the Batmobile in the show.

All in all, it’s a really great night. They’ve gone for a comic book / cartoony vibe and it really works. If you’re a massive Batman geek like me, then it’s an incredible experience, but even if you’ve only got a passing interest in the Caped Crusader, I still think you’d get a lot out of it.

The real Batman doesn’t pose. He just smirks and looks nonplussed whilst wondering why he’s surrounded by geeky idiots.

Dearly Devoted

Caught the season finale of Dexter at the weekend, which is only big news to people who

a)     Didn’t watch it when it aired the best part of a year ago in  North America

b)     Are in Britain, but didn’t download/stream it online

c)      Are still watching the show five seasons in

But I’m one of those people, so I’ve only just finished.

All-in-all, it was an OK season. Julia Stiles got mildly less annoying throughout the season (before her annoyance factor cranked itself all the way back up to 11 in the final episode). Johnny Lee Millar was an OK antagonist, but suffered for having to follow in the extraordinary large shoes left by the outstanding John Lithgoe in season four. Quinn continued to annoy me. Angel and Masuka didn’t really do anything. The LaGuerta/Deb feud fizzled out too quickly, but Deb did have some hilarious sweary lines (as always). Dexter is uncomfortably too human now, not nearly as psychopathic as he was in season one. I know that’s character development, but he’s far too emotional now.

Much like Johnny Lee Millar, the whole season suffered from the absence of John Lythgoe. Not only did he make season four the best season since the first, but he added a whole other dimension to the series. Without him, the show feels like it’s missing something.

That said, it’s still good enough that I’ll watch season six.

I just hope FX can pull their fingers out and follow in Sky’s footsteps and air the show without leaving such a huge gap between now and it finishing in the US. I’d never advocate downloading shows illegally, but when there’s such a ridiculous gap between it airing in the States and it airing over here, I can understand why people do it.

I can catch them on the radio

Trumping all other film reviews, stage show reviews and my other generally irritating observations on pop culture,  is the fact that last night, whilst listening to the BBC Radio 5 Wittertainment podcast, I heard Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode reading out my review of Fright Night.


You can download the podcast here, it's the Fright Night (02 Sept 2011) one, and I'm about 45-50 mins in.


Fame at last!

Too much to catch up on...

There's absolutely loads to catch up on this week, not least of which has been my awesome day Saturday, when I saw Batman: the Live Arena Tour.


The whole day was great and included a song from my favourite band, but more on that later.


I've also seen "Cowboys and Aliens" and "Winter's Bone" (finally), so I'll reviews them this week as well.


This week (thus far) has been pretty busy, and am now off doing things for the rest of the day, so the first of the posts will be tomorrow...maybe I'll leave you on tenterhooks about Batman. In the meantime, here's a little taster from the night...

One of these men is the world's greatest hero, an international playboy, the world's greatest detective, a genius level intellect and one of the most skilled fighters in the world. The other is Batman.

No shiznit Sherlozzle

Last weekend I finally sat down to watch “Sherlock” which I’ve heard a number of people, not least of which my brother-in-law Rob, go absolutely mad for. I was somewhat dubious about whether the show would be as good as everyone said, especially as it’s written by the guy who writes Doctor Who, which as I’ve said before I’m not a huge fan of. I know, I know, they’re coming to take away my sci-fi nerd membership card as we speak.

Fortunately for me the series didn’t disappoint. Martin Freeman is an excellent lynchpin as Watson, and Bernard Cumberbatch’s Holmes manages to be both annoying and likeable. It was a good move to keep with the tradition of telling the story from Watson’s perspective, as too much of Holmes would have shifted him completely into the “more annoying than entertaining” camp.

The stories are all gripping, with only the second episode not quite fitting in with the overarching Moriarty storyline (he is mentioned but it feels a little tacked on), but when the storytelling is this good, who cares?

At first the concept of having text messages imposed onto the screen was annoying, but I made my peace with it; only the superimposed street signs during the chase sequence of the first episode annoyed me, as I just felt they were trying too hard to be different. The only other thing that jarred slightly was the music, but only because it felt like they’d lifted it directly from the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes film with Robert Downey Jr from a couple of years ago.

The series as a whole was very entertaining and the series feels a lot like Jonathon Creek, which I’m sure was probably originally based on Sherlock Holmes anyway.

Overall a thoroughly entertaining watch and I’m looking forward to the second season. I only wish the BBC could only make more shows like this and less reality television. Oh well, guess we can’t have it all.

Bridesmaids revisited

After succumbing to all the hype I finally watched Bridesmaids the other night and was unfortunately disappointed. Part of the problem was the fact that it had been hyped so much, from comments like “funniest film of the year” to “the female Hangover”. For funniest film of the year, it might be, but only because I can’t think of any other comedies that are jumping out at me as being massively funny this year. As for it being a female version of The Hangover, which I’m a big fan of, I felt it fell short.

Not to say that I disliked it. The first act was pretty funny and a good scene setter, and the second act was hilarious – the scene on the plane was side-splittingly entertaining. However, the third act was disappointing and not funny enough to pay off a lot of good set up. The sing-a-long was also pretty misjudged.

Kristen Wiig is a strong female comic and made for a good lead, and Chris O’Dowd continues to break Hollywood as her charming love interest, but the film is less about her relationship with him and more about her “Bra-mance” with her best friend. It was a nice idea to shift the bromance concept that is permeating cinema at the moment onto women, and there were some really good comic moments, but I just felt that it could have been more.

There are some great supporting turns from Rose Byrne (who is proving to be incredibly versatile), Jon Hamm (playing a super-sleazed up caricature of his role on Mad Men) and Matt Lucas. The main comedy props go to Melissa McCarthy though, who completely steals the film from everyone else. By the end of the film you wanted to have seen much more of her character.

There are a couple of other characters who are woefully underused – Ellie Kemper from The US Office and Wendi McLendon-Covey from Reno 911 –just when they are beginning to develop on the plane ride to Vegas they end up disappearing for practically the rest of the film.  Which is a real shame as if there had been more focus on the Bridesmaids as a group in the third act and less on the lead character’s spiral into depression, the whole film would have been a lot funnier and would have remained consistent with the marvellous second act.

Overall, it’s good but it could have been better. I think my perception of it was skewed somewhat negatively by all the hype, but then it’s been one of the most successful comedies ever, so what do I know. 

Like a little school boy

I’m off to the o2 tonight to watch Batman: Live, and am super excited. It’s been pretty much all I can think about over the last few days, and I’m currently deciding whether to wear my Batman T-Shirt, my Joker T-Shirt or my Two Face T-shirt.

Maybe I’ll go with my Batman print shirt (below).

I’m a loser but at least I’m comfortable with that.

My Batman print shirt that everyone finds awesome unless they’re not me.
Laura’s look in the background will attest to this. 

The skies are falling

And with that, the first season of Falling Skies draws to a close. Overall I thought it was a solid show – but then I am a sucker for high concept sci-fi.

What made the show wasn’t the dodgy CGI but the characters. Noah Wyle was a little too goody-goody as the protagonist, but was infinitely watchable. Moon Bloodgood had just enough edge to her as the love interest to keep her interesting, and all of the sons were developed enough to be entertaining. The real show stealers were Will Patton’s gradual decline as Captain Weaver, followed by his reclamation of his leadership abilities and Sarah Carter as the damaged gang-member/hostage turned good. However, by far the most interesting character was Pope (Colin Cunningham), leader of the aforementioned gang who was just evil enough to be dangerous and edgy, yet just noble enough to be worth investing in.

The plots of each individual episode weren’t anything special, but the overarching storylines including the rescue of Ben were extremely interesting. There were also a couple of genuine surprises, which kept you guessing about the alien’s motives and tactics.

The ending was a little trite (I wouldn’t have trusted them), but then I guess they needed a big cliff hanger for the second season.

All in all, thoroughly enjoyable stuff. I look forward to season 2.

The miracle plods on

Admittedly I’m somewhat behind, but just finished episode 5 of Torchwood and glad that things are beginning to happen. They’ve just “killed off” a main character in a fairly hideous fashion. Long may that continue. I'm hoping Rhys is the next one for the chop.

Oh, and now the girl from Six Feet Under has turned up looking like she’s been on a crazy Atkins diet ever since then. She does have red hair though, so I'll forgive her almost anything.

There’s hope for it yet…