Five Stars

“Super 8” finally has competition.

I saw “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” the other night and now there’s another five star film that’s been released this year. I won’t give a plot synopsis in case I accidently spoil anything, but it’s a brilliant film, filled with gripping performances and palpable tension.

Gary Oldman is outstanding (and I would expect to definitely be in line for a BAFTA) and is ably supported by a who’s who of British acting talent including John Hurt, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch and Kathy Burke.

Like I say, I don’t want to spoil anything, but I can’t recommend it enough – go and see it.

What are you still doing here? Go!

Hammer Time

Another day, another movie starring someone from “Game of Thrones”. After seeing Cersei Lannister in “The Broken” earlier this week it was now the turn of Petyr “LittleFinger” Baelish (Aidan Gillen) to star in low budget Hammer Horror “Wake Wood”.

Gillen and his wife have recently lost their daughter in an animal attack, and relocate to start their lives over in the country village of Wake Wood. However, it’s not long before they discover that the villagers know a way to bring the dead back to life for a short period of time...

So far, so “Pet Cemetery”. And unfortunately the problem with that comparison is that the film never gets anywhere near as good as the book that the central conceit is based on. Gillen is good, as is Eva Birthistle playing his wife, and it’s always good to see Timothy Spall popping up. But ultimately, this isn’t great.

On a side note, “Game of Thrones”, which is still for my mind the best TV series of the year, is being repeated on Sky Atlantic from Sunday. Definitely worth a watch if you missed it first time around.

Return of the Fringe

It doesn’t seem like too long ago that I was extolling the virtues of Fringe, my current favourite Sci-Fi show. And now it’s back for Season 4.

Having just caught up with the first episode, it looks like it’s going a slightly different direction this year, and I’d guess the crux of the first part of the series is going to be the hunt for Peter. Glad to see this sides’ Agent Lee joining the team, and I like the intentional Ret-con of Walter’s relationship to the team without Peter. At least it gives the often underused Astrid more to do.

The show kicked off with Amber/Orange titles, and is still the only show I watch that gets me excited about a different coloured credit sequence.

Weirdly enough, seeing Olivia and Fauxlivia (both played by Anna Torv) in the same scene solidified for me how much more I fancy Fauxlivia. Not sure if it’s because she’s a red head or slightly evil. Either way, not sure what it says about me.

Pretty Broken

Weird film the other night in the form of “The Broken”, starring Game of Thrones’ Lena Headey as a Radiologist who begins to se evil Doppelgangers of herself and her family.

It’s a fairly underplayed horror, until things escalate QUICKLY in a quite graphic shower scene.

An interesting film, but not quite as compelling or as scary as it thinks it is.

Still I'm a supporter of British films and low budget horror so glad I checked it out.

Not a Belieber...

As mentioned the other day, here is me punching Justin Beiber in the face. Unfortunately, it's just a wax work.

One of these men is an intenational teen

heart throb, with legions of adoring fans.

The other got punched in the face.

A Nightmare at the Movies

It’s with immense pride that I can now say that my first novel “A Nightmare at the Movies” is now available to download from Amazon.

It can be downloaded for the Kindle, the iPad, the iPhone, the iPod Touch, Macs or PCs.

It’s currently selling at the bargain price of £1.71 on Amazon.co.uk, $2.99 on Amazon.com and €2.99 on Amazon.de.

Please take a minute to pay the small charge and download the book. You’d be supporting a struggling author and doing me a huge kindness.

Thanks all

Killing Me Softly

Thanks to the greatness that is my Sky Plus box, I've managed to save the entire first season of "The Killing" up and am now working through it as if it was a boxed set.

I'm about halfway through and already have my theories as to who killed Rosie Larson (I'm just hoping it wasn't "society"). So far it's been tense, intriguing and well-plotted, with some excellent cliffhangers to end a number of episodes. The standout performance so far has to be Michelle Forbes as Rosie's grieving Mum. She was great in "True Blood", excellent in "In Treatment" and I even remember when she was Ensign Ro in "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

All in all, a good season so far, I just hope it keeps it up...