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…