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.