And the Winner is…

Hello Everyone :-)

I watched the BAFTA television awards on Sunday night and very good it was too. I was filled with a lovely fuzzy feeling (which may have had something to do with the fact that Sunday was the first time I’ve had Sherry, it’s yummy) because I think  it was a proper celebration of talent.
So practise your best ‘loser face’ everyone because I’m going to run through some of the Winners and the ‘also rans’ (only the ones I’m interested in so don’t be thinking you’ll see anything about Soaps on here) because it threw up a few curveballs last night and my god do I love a good curveball (no, that’s not a euphemism you filthy minded buggers!).

Drama Series
Being Human (BBC Three)
Downton Abbey (ITV1)
Misfits (E4)
Sherlock (BBC One) - WINNER
I don’t know about you but I found this one really hard to call. For my money the last series of ‘Being Human’ was the best yet however I wax lyrical about ‘Sherlock’ seemingly every day but then ‘Misfits’ was the highlight of my televisual 2010 and ‘Downton Abbey’ isn’t my kind of thing but I know loads and loads of people watched and loved it. Ultimately though the award went to ‘Sherlock’ and I’m glad. I know I’ve gone on and on about it before but the writing is exceptional and the performances are all wonderful, it’s a well and truly deserved award.

Supporting Actress
Gillian Anderson - Any Human Heart (Channel 4)
Lynda Baron - The Road To Coronation Street (BBC Four)
Jessie Wallace - The Road To Coronation Street (BBC Four)
Lauren Socha - Misfits (E4) - WINNER
Granted Lauren was the only one I’d seen in this category and I’m really glad she won. I’m sure the rest of the nominees were all kinds of awesome but Misfits is superb and Kelly is a fantastic character. I was surprised BAFTA decided to go for such a comic creation, but really pleased.

Supporting Actor
Brendan Coyle - Downton Abbey (ITV1)
Johnny Harris - This Is England '86 (Channel 4)
Robert Sheehan - Misfits (E4)
Martin Freeman - Sherlock (BBC One) – WINNER
For me there was only ever going to be one winner in this category.  I watched a bit of ‘This is England ‘86’ and Johnny Harris was good in it, likewise I watched ‘Misfits’ and loved it and Robert Sheehan is great but Martin Freeman played a blinder in Sherlock. Just so you’re not reaching for the sick bucket with my incessant praise for Sherlock, I’ll stop there.

Single Drama
Eric and Ernie (BBC Two)
I Am Slave (Channel 4)
The Special Relationship (BBC Two)
The Road to (BBC Four) – WINNER
Not so pleased about this one. ‘Eric and Ernie’ aired at Christmas and I really liked it. I don’t know a great deal about Morecambe and Wise save for what I’ve seen on clips shows (the breakfast sketch and the “I’m playing all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order” one) so I went into this with no romanticised ideals about how it should be. I got properly into it. The music is gorgeous and the performances are so lovely.  I’m a sucker for anything set in the 40’s and 50’s (when this is mainly set) and it was obviously all done with a great deal of love and admiration so I think ‘Eric and Ernie’ should have won. Boo Hiss BAFTA!

Male Performance In A Comedy Programme
James Buckley - The Inbetweeners (E4)
Tom Hollander - Rev. (BBC Two)
David Mitchell - Peep Show (Channel 4)
Steve Coogan - The Trip (BBC Two) – WINNER
I don’t really agree with this one either. I watched a bit of ‘The Trip’ and whilst it was funny Coogan basically played himself. I personally think it should have been James Buckley for ‘The Inbetweeners’. Say what you like about ‘The Inbetweeners’ it’s rude, it’s crude but it bears more a resemblance t0 my college experience than ‘Skins’ ever did. Jay is every stupid, show-off, arsehole you ever knew at school. It might not be as clever as ‘Rev’ or ‘Peep Show’ but ‘The Inbetweeners’ is proper belly laugh funny and it’s no small part to James Buckley.  

Female Performance in A Comedy Programme
Dawn French - Roger and Val Have Just Got In (BBC Two)
Miranda Hart - Miranda (BBC Two)
Katherine Parkinson - The IT Crowd (Channel 4)
Jo Brand - Getting On (BBC Four) - WINNER
I’m so chuffed about this one. Everyone had their money on Miranda Hart to win but she’s won everything else so I’m glad someone else got it, especially Jo Brand because ‘Getting On’ is genius. It’s been quietly good for a while and it’s lovely to see it get some recognition.

Sport
6 Nations: England v Wales (BBC One)
FA Cup Final: Chelsea v Portsmouth (ITV1)
Wimbledon 2010 (BBC One)
Formula 1: The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (BBC One) - WINNER
Despite my dislike of any kind of team sport (or indeed exercise in general) I found myself in the weird position of actually having watched and enjoyed 3 of the 4 nominees in this category. Formula 1 is a bit of a love of mine, Rugby and Tennis I dip in and out of as is my want but I will watch the F1 from the start of the Season to the very end. The presenters do a brilliant job; Jake Humphrey holds a special place in my heart because I used to have a massive crush on him when he presented CBBC, but David Coulthard, Eddie Jordan, Martin Brundle, Ted Kravitz and Lee McKenzie (I WANT HER JOB!)  are all fantastic and Sunday afternoons wouldn’t be the same without them.

Leading Actor
Jim Broadbent - Any Human Heart (Channel 4)
Benedict Cumberbatch - Sherlock (BBC One)
Matt Smith - Doctor Who (BBC One)
Daniel Rigby - Eric and Ernie (BBC Two) – WINNER
I love Doctor Who and Sherlock with a passion, but I don’t mind that they didn’t win because Daniel Rigby was really really good in ‘Eric and Ernie’ and I think the award went to the right person. I feel bad for him because the legions of ‘Sherlock’ and ‘Who’ fans have taken to the internet and seem to have banded against him saying he doesn’t deserve it. I hate to make sweeping judgements but I’d be willing to bet money that most of the people having a go at him didn’t actually see ‘Eric and Ernie’. If they had they’d have seen a lovely performance by someone who (I’m not familiar with the mannerisms of the great man so I’m reliably told by my Nan) was scarily like Eric Morecambe. And I think he’s cute (long hair, blue eyes, sense of humour… swoon!). So leave him alone!

YouTube Audience Award
Downton Abbey
Miranda
My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding
Sherlock
The Killing
The Only Way Is Essex - WINNER (TOWIE from this point on)
I thought I’d leave this one till last as there is much to say. I’d hope it’s apparent that the one I wanted to win did not take the prize, but to be honest I’m not too concerned. I understand the arguments, TOWIE isn’t the trussed up costume drama of Downton Abbey, it’s not the fizzing dialogue of Sherlock and it’s not the dark, gripping plot twists of ‘The Killing’, it’s big busted, perma-tanned faux-reality TV. It’s not clever and there are so many reasons why there’s outrage at it winning but let’s get a bit of perspective shall we, lest we lose our heads.
First off, it was the ‘YouTube audience’ award, it’s not like Mark Wright won best actor. This also means we only have ourselves to blame, if you didn’t vote, you let this happen and have lost all right to whinge (I exclude myself from this because I voted for ‘Sherlock’… quelle surprise). 
Secondly TOWIE is transient. Proper TV Dramas like ‘Downton Abbey’ and well written comedy like ‘Miranda’ will always have solid viewing figures, stuff like TOWIE relies on the reality TV audience and bless ‘em, they’re a fickle bunch. Viewers are already tiring of the predictable Arg/Lydia and Mark/Lauren arguments and the actors/people/ejits involved have become so self-aware, playing up to their ridiculous personas that any shred of likeability these characters had has gone. With similar faux-reality offerings arriving in the shape of ‘Made in Chelsea’, ‘Geordie Shore’ (which looks set to be more shocking than TOWIE in every sense of the word) and the return of ‘Big Brother’ reality fans are going to be spoilt for choice.
Also, this might just be me but it is a little bit funny that they won. If only for the looks of bemusement on the faces of the people in attendance as these tangerine tinted fools went up to collect their award. I just found it hysterical that Oscar winning actor Jim Broadbent had to sit and clap at a clip of Joey Essex saying ‘reem’ and Amy Childs talking about ‘vajazzling’.
Ultimately the shelf life of shows like this is minimal so let’s pretend it’s like a hurricane and just hunker down until it blows over.

With all that out of the way let’s see what are my…

Reasons to be Cheerful
1. Continuing the ‘Hobbit’ based news more wonderful casting has been announced. BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH HAS BEEN CONFIRMED FOR ‘THE HOBBIT’!!!!!!!!!!!! ALL MY CHRISTMASSES HAVE COME AT ONCE! This following the news of Stephen Fry’s involvement in the project has led me to believe that Peter Jackson reads my blog and is making ‘The Hobbit’ purely to make me happy. It’s working Peter. I’m loving it and they haven’t even finished filming yet!

2. The first reviews for ‘X:Men First Class’ are coming in and they’re good. Really good. I’m glad because I adore X:Men, I used to watch the cartoon and I like the films (saying that the Wolverine film did try my patience) so I wanted this to be good. I’m excited!

3. Channel 4 has commissioned another mini series from the pen of Charlie Brooker. I’m super happy about this because the last thing he wrote was ‘Dead Set’ the Big Brother house based zombie horror drama that aired just before Halloween in 2008 which I really liked/scared me silly. This new series will be called ‘Black Mirror’ and each episode will be a standalone and it’s due to air later this year. I await it with great interest.

That’ll do for today.

Goodbye till next time
x x x x x x x x x x

The Good Wife

Hello Everyone :-)

Last Saturday was the hotly anticipated (by hotly anticipated I mean in the world of nerd, not so much elsewhere) Neil Gaiman penned episode of ‘Doctor Who’ called ‘The Doctor’s Wife’.

The Doctor, Amy and Rory, answering a Timelord distress call, go to a scrap yard planet outside the Universe where the only inhabitants are Aunty, Uncle, Idris (Suranne Jones) and an omnipresent entity called House. On arrival Idris seems oddly familiar with the Doctor and when he tries to get to the bottom of the Timelord message thing take a turn for the worse and Amy and Rory’s lives hang in the balance.

 I tried explaining the gravity of this whole episode to some friends when we were out on Saturday night, they didn’t really get it. For the uninitiated Gaiman is a fantasy writer. He’s penned ‘Coraline’, ‘Stardust’, ‘American Gods’ and wrote ‘Good Omens’ with the wonderful Terry Pratchett. Not just novels, he’s done children’s picture books, comics, teen fiction, screenplays, anything and everything. I like his work very much so this for me was a bit of a coming together of two of my favourite things hence the insanely hyped up state I was in on Saturday afternoon.

I worry when I get like this because although I’m a positive person, there’s always part of me that thinks ‘this cannot possibly be as good as I think it’s going to be’ and it hurts a bit when that’s the case. Some may argue that it didn’t, but for me, this episode met my insanely high expectations.

This episode was another standalone episode but I think it worked better than ‘The Curse of the Black Spot’. This might sound a bit hypocritical since I said the last episode fell down because it didn’t have enough to do with the current story arc, but bear with me. This episode doesn’t have a bearing on what’s going on in this series but it does have a bearing on the world of Doctor Who. I think long after we’ve tied up the loose ends of who River Song is, is Amy pregnant and who is ‘eye-patch lady’, we’ll be talking about ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ because of its impact on the show as a whole.

I won’t go into too much detail but there’s a lot of brooding Doctor in this episode. It treads where other episodes have been before, the Doctor muses the idea of forgiveness and redemption. I do enjoy it when they bring in the history of the Timelords because it’s something that’s taken for granted time and again. I’ll save the in depth character study (and my god what a study it would be… probably more like a novel) but as well as saving people and defeating the bad guys the Doctor is running away from his troubled past.

On that subject, Matt Smith has his finest moments in this. It’s a weird one because the Doctor finds himself with someone who knows him better than anyone and who points out his mistakes. It’s not often that the Doctor is on the back foot but for much of this episode he is. Smith grabs the emotional core of this episode and runs with it and throughout he is on top form. He tackles so much in from anger to regret, sadness and joy and the final farewell is so poignant and lovely and Matt Smith does it all without seeming false or overly quirky. All the haters that doubted his ability have well and truly been silenced.
Suranne Jones deserves a medal because she’s tackled something few actresses would try. I won’t give the game away but needless to say it’s all about Idris in this episode. This will sound mental if you’ve not see the episode but for those that have, she sounds exactly how I thought she might sound. The way she talks and more to the point the way she talks to the Doctor is exactly what I’d imagined (yes, in the past I have pondered what she might sound like…).
There was an interesting sub-plot thing going on with Amy and Rory being trapped in the Tardis and facing impending doom. The force keeping them locked in the Tardis seriously messes with their heads and there’s a sequence where Amy loses Rory in the corridors which is really quite shocking. The set annoyed me a bit though. Amy and Rory leave the control room and wander the hallways of the Tardis and it reminded me a bit of Scooby Do. You know when they’d walk down a corridor and the back ground would be ‘plant, water cooler, door’ repeated over and over and in this it was the same corridor repeated again and again. Granted, this added to the confusion of what was where and what’s real which was good but on the other hand I REALLY want to see the other parts of the Tardis. I want to see the Doctors bedroom!!!!

I absolutely loved its glorious nerdyness. Gaiman has crafted 45 minutes of Whovian bliss. The fair weather viewer won’t get it, but it’s full of details that crazy fans like me will love. Little things like why does the Doctor always push the Tardis door open when the sign on the front says pull? I love how the rooms work as well. There’s a bit when the Tardis is leaving the universe and the Doctor has to jettison some rooms to give them enough power to get out. I’d always thought of the Tardis as a physical space that gets destroyed and rebuilt but the way the Doctor deletes rooms makes it seem more like a computer. There’s also a moment where we find out that all the previous incarnations of the control room have been saved and filed away and I love that, like it’d never really gone, the Tardis remembers all.

I can’t tell you how much I loved this and it’s a hard one to blog about because it’s so easy to spoil plot points. I get that some on and off Who watchers will probably feel like it goes nowhere but for those that watch it regularly and have done since Ecclestone you will love it.

I think it’s about time for…

Reasons to be Cheerful
1. STEPHEN FRY HAS JOINED THE CAST OF THE HOBBIT! OMGOMGOMGOMG!!! Two of my absolute favourite things! Super Yay!!!! He’s going to play the Master of Laketown! But he could have played an Orc for all I care, he’s in it and when he first appears on screen I will squeal. Guaranteed.

2. Marshall Lancaster is making an appearance in this Saturday’s Doctor Who. For those that have not witnessed the majesty that is ‘Life on Mars’ or ‘Ashes to Ashes’ Lancaster plays Chris who was one my favourite characters. This one looks proper creepy with clone people and all sorts of weirdness!

3. The Friendly Fires album is AWESOME! It arrived on Tuesday and it’s brilliant. Very summery sounding and Ed’s vocals are really lovely. Not a totally new direction but new enough to keep me interested in them. Still a fan.

4. No more news from me but these posters are highly amusing.

Enough for today!

Goodbye till next time :-)
x x x x x x x x x x x

“That's an alien, bruv, believe it!"

Hello everyone :-)

Last Thursday I went to see the first directorial offering from Joe Cornish of ‘Adam and Joe Show’ fame. Aliens descend on Brixton; welcome to ‘Attack the Block’.

The story goes a gang of 5 kids mug a trainee Nurse as she’s walking home. As they’re taking her things something falls from the sky, crashes into a car and the Nurse seizes the opportunity to run away. The gang look into the car and before they know what’s going on, whatever fell from the sky lashes out at Moses (the gang leader) and runs away. Moses, whose pride has taken a beating, sets out with his gang to kill whatever it was that scratched his face. The gang find the creature, discover it’s an alien and promptly dispatch it. This unleashes an alien invasion on the tower block where they live and they must all band together to protect the Block.

People are understandably talking about the language. Every other word is ‘blood’, ‘cuz’, ‘bare’, ‘fam’, ‘peak’, ‘murk’, ‘bruv’, ‘shank’, ‘shiv’ and whatever else. I think of it a bit like French. I can understand it, if someone asked me a question and spoke like that I’d know what they were saying, but I wouldn’t be able to answer them in the same language… I understand it but I can’t speak it. I really love the way the gang talk, it adds a lot of humour and it’s true, there really are kids that talk like that. There have been some who have suggested that because the language is so South London, the movie will find it hard to travel. I’d have harboured the same concerns but during the South by Southwest festival Cornish did a Q and A where he asked the audience if they could understand the slang and they all said yes, and that’s in Texas…

The cast are awesome. I cannot fault them. The five that make up the gang have been given a mammoth task as for most of them this is their first time in a feature film but also they’ve been given the task of making chavs likeable and I think they totally succeed on all counts. 
Sam the Nurse played by Jodie Whittaker is good. She’s the audience’s point of reference amongst the drug dealers and gang members; Sam is the bastion of normality.
There are a few smaller parts I like. Nick Frost is the Block’s resident drug dealer Ron. He raises a few chuckles along with Brewis played by Luke Treadaway, a thoroughly middle class stoner. On the flipside of that is High Hatz, Ron’s boss, drug lord and self proclaimed owner of the Block, he is pretty terrifying.
Most of the praise however must be heaped on the five young actors that play the gang members. They make this film.
Leeon Jones, Franz Drameh and Simon Howard play Jerome, Dennis and Biggz respectively. They add different things to the group, Jerome is clearly a bit brighter than the others, Dennis is the brooding bad boy and Biggz tries to put on a front but really he’s a kid that wants to play FIFA.
Pest is my favourite, played by Alex Esmail. He has all the best lines, all the biggest laughs and a seemingly endless supply of fireworks. Esmail pitches it perfectly between endearing and annoying; you love him and laugh at him at the same time.
Moses is the leader and newcomer John Boyega makes a proper impact. I love him as Moses (no points for getting the biblical reference to ‘setting his people free’). A great performance as the ostensibly amoral, teenage gang member that’s torn between what’s right and what he needs to do to get on in the world of the Block.

I feel like I should say, it's possibly not as funny as is being suggested. I know the poster says 'From the Producer of Shaun of the Dead' and yes I did just say the language is funny but there are some shocks. I found parts of it funny but then to be fair I have an odd sense of humour, there are a few deaths that are pretty bad (one of which owes a lot to the end of 'Raiders of the Lost Arc') and I'd hate for people to go thinking 'lets laugh at the way the chavs talk' and then get an awful shock when they see someone being eaten by a monster. Be prepared for a bit of blood.

I love that everything seems to have come together to make for a wonderfully cohesive whole, it's really nice to see something that just works. The music is innocuous when it needs to be and punchy in the more action filled scenes (Basement Jaxx have done a sterling job). The film had a budget of about £8,000,000 and although the visuals aren’t flashy it looks really good. The monsters are live action with a little bit of computer trickery which makes them simple yet effective; proving that the best monsters are the ones you can’t see when the lights are off, save for several rows of bioluminescent teeth. 
The Block itself is full of little idiosyncrasies; time lag lights, union flags and all. I can’t help but feel a touch of ‘what ifs’ about it though. ‘What if they’d had a bit more money, imagine what it could have been’ but in all honesty the film succeeds in spite of its small budget and I was never left wanting.

I haven’t seen or heard anything Cornish has done before so I went to this with no expectations but I definitely left a fan.  It’s evident that Joe Cornish knows what he’s doing. He’s painfully cine-literate and ‘Attack the Block’ owes more to films like ‘Assault on Precinct 13’ and ‘Escape from New York’ rather than full on alien invasion films like ‘War of the Worlds’ or ‘Independence Day’ but there’s also an obvious comparison with stuff like ‘Kidulthood’. What Cornish has managed to do is to acknowledge these influences and still create something that is shiny new.
He has a real talent when it comes to visuals, creating the desired effect and for a film that comes in at under 90 minutes he’s managed to develop his characters but avoid skimping on the action. I doff my proverbial cap to you sir.

I found it a funny, scary and exciting watch. This is exactly the kind of cinema that should be coming from the UK; we need to aim high just like ‘Attack the Block’ does. It’s a great idea executed with flair and weirdly has a kind of truth about it. I mean, aliens’ aside the characters could be real people living on an estate round the corner. Cornish has made his mark as far as I’m concerned. I’ll be keeping an eye on what he’s doing next.

Now I think it’s time for…

Reasons to be Cheerful
1. ‘Pala’ is released this week! The new offering from Friendly Fires is hotly anticipated because their first single from it, ‘Live those days Tonight’ is brilliant also they were the soundtrack to the entire of my 2009 so I’m looking forward to this. It should be delivered to me today so I’ll let you know what it’s like.

2. Donald Trump isn’t running for President. Thank God. I mean the whole thing was mental anyway but the idea of having that badly syruped megalomaniac in charge of arguably the most powerful nation on the earth is just too much to bear. And quite frankly Obama is far too cool to be kicked out of office. After Trump publicly questioned whether Obama was born in the US, at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Obama said that since his birth certificate had now been released, the businessman could focus "on the issues that matter, like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and 2Pac?" Mr Trump, you sir, have been OWNED!

3. Watermelons have been exploding in China. Another example of a story that sounds like a euphemism but isn’t.

That’ll do for today.

Goodbye till next time :-)

x x x x x x x x x x x

Yo Ho Ahoy!

Hello Everyone!

So last Saturday was ‘Curse of the Black Spot’ aka the Pirate episode of ‘Doctor Who’ with guest performances by Lily Cole and the never knowingly bad Hugh Bonneville.

The story is that the Tardis follows a distress call and lands on a ship in the middle of the ocean, stranded on calm water. The Team soon discover that the ship is being terrorised by a Siren Mermaid who puts a black spot on the palm of the injured and then appears and seemingly disintegrates them.

First off this is a self-contained episode. It references ‘Day of the Moon’ in that ‘Eye Patch Lady’ (I’m not being stupid, she’s actually credited as that) makes another appearance and there’s another inconclusive scan on Amy, but other than that there’s nothing going on that involves the current story arc. This is a bit of a Marmite subject for some Whovians, I know people that get really annoyed with this kind of episode whereas I amongst others quite enjoy these little flights of fancy.

It looked really nice; the ship gave a nice oldy worldy contrast to the interior of the Tardis. It could have been used a bit better; perhaps there might have been a bit more tension if they’d have played up the claustrophobia of being on a ship stranded in the Ocean but I like it none the less.

Hugh Bonneville is at his swash buckling best. As gun toting Captain Avery Bonneville is clearly having the time of his life and it’s lovely to watch. Some of my favourite scenes were between the Doctor and Avery, talking Captain to Captain. I found the only thing about Avery that annoyed me was the inclusion of his son as a stowaway. Yes yes… it was sweet and gave a bit more emotional substance to the episode but it felt a bit superfluous to me, like a bit that had been bolted on just to tick the ‘emotional core’ box. I like that Avery is a reference to a William Hartnell episode of ‘Doctor Who’, it’s not hugely obvious but the uber fans will get it and it’s always good to appease the uber fans.

Arthur Darvill was on top form again. Providing the laughs as Rory gets hit by the curse and Amy keeps dragging him away from the Siren (“Did you see her Eyes? Like Crystal Pools”). Plus Arthur Darvill is a fellow West Midlander so he’s naturally just all kinds of awesome… In all seriousness, I think this series might be the making of Rory as long as Moffat stops trying to kill him! Seriously Moffs, leave the boy alone! Yes, yet again we were beat by the stick of fake death and Rory nearly snuffed it for something like the 14^th time over 2 series. It was handled well which is why it didn’t annoy me too much, it wasn’t fleeting so there was a sense of maybe this time could be it.  

I think it mainly worked. It’s been likened to ‘The Vampires of Venice’ and I get where they’re coming from with that comparison. I don’t mean it in a negative way (I like that episode), but in the same way as ‘The Vampires of Venice’, this episode is ultimately inconsequential. I think this the weakest episode so far and judging by a review I read of next week’s episode it may well be the weakest of this series. Although, saying that an episode of Doctor Who is the weakest of the series is a bit like saying one of McFly is the least attractive, they’re all gorgeous but perhaps one has less defined abs or a bump in his nose but even so you definitely wouldn’t kick him out of bed.

Now it’s time for…

Reasons to be cheerful
1. I’m starting to feel like a broken record but I’m really excited about next week’s Doctor Who. It’s Neil Gaiman. Neil Ruddy Gaiman! Writing for Doctor Who! That’s like a double rainbow of amazingness! I’ve read a review (don’t worry it gives nothing away) and it just pushed me to the edge of excitement so much so  I think if anyone asks me between now and Saturday if I’m looking forward to this week’s episode I might just scream in their face and collapse in a sobbing heap.

2. There’s going to be a preview of the Inbetweeners film on tonight’s L'Oreal National Movie Awards. Some think its crude but I can’t help but like it. The film is based on the boys having a boys holiday to Malia in Crete which I’m interested to see because I went on a girls holiday to Malia when I was 19 so I’m intrigued to see their take on what goes on at an 18-30’s.

3. ‘Campus’ comes out on DVD next week. This show has seemingly been damned by every critic that’s seen it but I really like it. It’s so easy to twist the knife in a new comedy, especially this one because it’s being advertised as “by the creators of Green Wing”. That is like loading a gun and handing it to the critics for them to shoot you with. Green Wing was so original and so clever and just so funny that anything that claims to have come from the same stock is going to be held up against it. I think ‘Campus’ is a fantastic, nonsensical trip into a comedy of implausible characters. It’s not for everyone, I’ll admit that, especially the first episode it’s a bit near to the knuckle, but I adore it. Watch it on 4OD!

That’ll do for today!

Goodbye till next time :-)
x x x x x x x x x x x

Something Old, Something New

Hello Everyone :-)

Last night I went to see the new Kate Hudson film ‘Something Borrowed’. It’s weird that a lot of people are calling it the new Kate Hudson film because really it’s more about Ginnifer Goodwin’s character Rachel.

So the story is that Rachel and Darcy (Hudson) are best friends. Their relationship is founded on Darcy seemingly getting everything she wants and Rachel just accepting that “that’s what Darcy does”. Rachel meets Dex in law school and gets a crush on him which he reciprocates but neither tells each other, then Darcy starts dating Dex the two become engaged. On Rachel’s 30^th Birthday and two months before Darcy and Dex’s wedding Rachel confesses that she had a crush on Dex in college and the two end up sleeping together. Rachel is then left to contend with her own guilt, her love for Dex and her friendship with Darcy.

I’m not adverse to a chick flick and for the most part it was fine. However I’m left with mixed feeling about the message it is ultimately sending.

The performances are ok. Ginnifer Goodwin as Rachel is continuing in the vein of her character in 'He's just not that into you' which I liked despite its many flaws. Rachel’s inaction regarding the man she loves grates a bit towards the end and she is a victim of her own indecisiveness so there are times where you want to slap her a bit but she’s so sweet it’s hard to hate her.
Kate Hudson is quite amusing as the attention seeking Darcy. I don't mind Kate Hudson, ‘How to lose a guy in 10 Days’ is one of my favourite romantic comedies. In this her character is polar opposite to the ‘girl next door’ type roles we’ve seen her in before but she does narcissistic bitch really quite well.
Colin Egglesfield as Dex is probably the weakest member of the cast. He’s wooden at the best of times and spends most of the 112 minutes trying his best to look like a conflicted man but fails pretty badly.
The best turn most definitely comes from the adorable John Krasinski, who I fell in love with in 'The Office: an American Workplace". He plays Ethan a childhood friend of Rachel and Darcy’s in whom Rachel confides about her affair with Dex. He’s funny, cute and by far the most likeable character in the film. Krasinski plays Ethan as someone who knows Rachel better than she knows herself, like those friends you’ve had for years and can be brutally honest with you. This kind of got on my nerves because in the scenes between Rachel and Ethan I just kept thinking “Why don’t you go out with him?” 

I’ll try not to spoil anything, but I think the ending of this film sends out the message that men are more important than friendships. If not then it at least sends the message that it’s ok to sleep with your best friend’s fiancé as long as he’s attractive and it turns out your best mate had some indiscretions too. I mean admittedly I’m a girl that doesn’t think I need a man to be happy but even the most hopeless of romantics would surely find this ending a little bit morally questionable. I saw this with one of my best friends who is in a long term relationship, very much in love and even she said she found this over-riding message a bit bad.
I know it’s a chick flick and you’re not supposed to take them too seriously but there are things you take away with you, even from films as fluffy as this.

So all in all it's ok, a pretty transient chick flick offering. The moral of the tale may have been a bit dodgy but I doubt it'll stick in anyone's mind long enough for it to penetrate. 

And now it’s time for…

Reasons to be cheerful
1. I’m sorting my blog out a bit. I can’t be arsed to differentiate my entries from telly and film so I’m just going to title them in a similar way and also I’m going to include ‘Reasons to be Cheerful’ in every entry because every day should be cheerful :-)

2. This isn’t cheerful but I think my blog has a hex on it. Last time I waxed lyrical about Charlie Wheeller a contortion breakdancer featuring in the BBC’s ‘So you think you can Dance?’ Then low and behold on Friday he gets kicked out of the show. Sorry Charlie!

3.  Jared Harris (son of Dumbledore, Richard Harris) has done an interview with Digital Spy about his upcoming role in ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’ about which I am super excited. I love Jared Harris. I’ve spoke before about my love of ‘Mad Men’ and I adore Lane Pryce, possibly because he’s the only Englishman in a sea of Americans but he just has a lovely way about him.

4. Cheryl who? Who cares when Gary Barlow has been confirmed as a judge on the new series of X Factor!!! Yay!!!! Love Captain Barlow! I think he'll be and excellent judge, honest but not mean and more to the point he actually knows what he's talking about!

That’s it for today.

Goodbye till next time :-)
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The Spaceman Cometh

Hello Everyone :-)

I know, 2 entries in as many days. What can I say? I have a lot to talk about (and too much time on my hands… but shhhh don’t tell anyone)!

The 23^rd April was not only St George’s Day (I know… I had no idea either) but the start of the new series of Doctor Who. The sixth series opened unusually with a two-parter, they were ‘The Impossible Astronaut’ and ‘Day of the Moon’.

‘The Impossible Astronaut’ opened the new series with a bang. So many questions! Wibbley Wobbley Timey Wimey doesn’t even begin to cover it.

I don’t think I’m spoiling anything because it happens in the first 10 minutes of the episode, but the Doctor dies.
Like properly dies.
A character actually says ‘That most certainly is the Doctor. And he is most certainly dead”
I mean it doesn’t get much more finite than that, does it? It’s going to take an awful lot of jiggery pokery to make it so the Doctor lives to regenerate another day because he actually died, not almost died like Amy at the end of the last series, he properly died. But then we’ve been hit before by the stick of fake deaths. Rory died at least 12 times in series 5 (well maybe not 12 but it was something stupid) so I’m pretty sure this isn’t as cut and dry as it would seem.

The arrival of The Silence was awesome and has most definitely shut up all the people that have been whinging about last series’ lack of new monsters. They look properly freaky, from the neck down Mr Smith from ‘The Matrix’, neck up is a bit like an Ood but without the tentacles, and more scary. They are also seemingly unbeatable. How do you defeat something that erases itself from your memory as soon as you take your eyes off it? I love them :-)

‘Day of the Moon’ picked up 3 months after the end of ‘The Impossible Astronaut’ and tied up a few loose ends, mainly with the immediate plot line but a great deal of the overall story wasn’t resolved and will presumably run till the mid-season break if not the whole length of the series.  

There’s a weird symmetry with the start of the last series in regards to the inclusion of a child. Who this child is isn’t really gone into but what she is is sort of dealt with at the end of the two parter… sort of. There are a lot of theories, is she Amy’s child? Well I think not if the last few scenes of the second episode were anything to go by.  I don’t know, it’s a bit tricky.

Speaking of tricky something that’s been well publicised is that the Dr has gone to America. Yes these two episodes both take place in America in 1969, Richard Nixon aka Tricky Dickey is the President. There’s a nice bit where the Doctor seemingly sets Nixon up for a future of paranoia which I really liked and there’s a great scene at Cape Kennedy where Nixon gets the Doctor out of a spot of bother but instead of being a fully developed character like Canton, he was kind of sidelined and used for comedy value which I found a little disappointing. That said the best line of both shows has to be the very last thing the doctor says to Nixon “Say hello to David Frost for me”. I totally creased up.

The tone of both episodes was deliciously dark and if next week is anything to go by that will continue and I’m glad. I do enjoy the more light hearted episodes but it’s the darker episodes, ‘Blink’, ‘Midnight’, ‘Amy’s Choice’, those are the episodes that are great. I wanted a scarier series, I know the show is supposed to be aimed at kids and that might be why past series have opted to be a bit light on scares but as we all know, kids love to be scared so I’m hoping they stick with the more sinister feel.

I think it was a good start to a series that is clearly going to be twisty turney and full of surprises. The two episodes raised a lot more questions than they answered and that grated a bit but ultimately you had to decide, will you let yourself get irritated by the elliptical, open ended-ness of it all or do you do as I did and keep the faith that Lord Stephen of Moffat will guide us through and all will become clear.
Although I must say, Mr Moffat, don’t push it. I can deal with two, possibly three, at my most benevolent maybe four episodes of this enigmatic ‘who is that child?’ kind of stuff but if you don’t start giving us answers I’ll drop you like a hot potato. I did it with ‘Heroes’, I did it with ‘Lost’ so don’t think I won’t do the same to you… You’ve been warned.

And now…

Today’s ‘Reason’s to be cheerful’

1. It has got to be the glorious weather! We’ve just had the sunniest, loveliest 4 day weekend, it’s impossible not to be cheerful when there’s weather like this

2. ‘So You Think You can Dance?’ has reached the live rounds! Yay! Despite flagging ratings I still tune in every Saturday. My favourite couples are Charlotte and Matt and Kirsty and Lee B but my favourite dancer overall is Charlie. Call me a superficial girly girl (because I am one) but he’s just too cute and super talented. He specialises in Contortion Breakdancing (which is as impressive as it sounds). I love dancing of all kinds but when he does his contortion stuff I just can’t take my eyes off him, it’s totally mesmerising. Look him up on YouTube, his name is Charlie Wheeller, there are some videos up there of him and what I think are his mates from college and they perform under the name ‘Hitmen’. Watch them if you like that kind of thing, they’re all good.

3. As I type this, the new Fleet Foxes album is winging its way to my house! I am so looking forward to it.  I love them love them. They look like a group of hobos in need of a good wash and a shave but they play so beautifully and the all have excellent names like Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset!

And that’s all from me today!

Goodbye till next time :-)
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Rachel’s Monday Cinema

Hello Everyone :-)

Yesterday was Bank Holiday Monday and seeing as I had the day off I indulged myself and went to the cinema to see ‘Thor’.

Readers of my blog will know I have been excited about this for a while so I went with baited breath to see if my excitement had been well placed.

‘Thor’ finds our titular hero, the powerful yet arrogant Prince of Asgard on a mission against the Frost Giants. He is expelled from his home and banished to Earth after disturbing a truce held by his father Odin and the King of the Frost Giants. On Earth he meets Jane, an astrophysicist and then all sorts of shiz goes down and Thor finds himself on a mission to protect Earth and the ones he loves.

I’ll get this out of the way. Chris Hemsworth who plays Thor is to die for. The man is sexy beyond belief. Couple that with the fact he’s playing, not just a SUPERHERO but a PRINCE as well, that’s all a girl wants in one package (I know I know, I’m a shrink’s field day).

On that note Chris Hemsworth actually plays a really good part. He does arrogance as well as the softer side of our favourite Norse god. Needless to say he’s totally massive (he actually got so big he couldn’t fit in his costume…) and that helps you believe that he’s an other-worldly super being.

The romance between Thor and Jane some might find a little sickly but I actually quite liked it. As previously mentioned he’s a character seemingly designed to make girls go weak at the knees so ever woman that sees this film is going to identify with her. Natalie Portman sucks less that she has done in her last two films (‘No Strings Attached’ and ‘Your Highness’) but really it could have been anyone in that role.

Odin, King of Asgard, is played by Sir Anthony Hopkins and brings the kind of gravitas you could expect to such a role. For me it makes up for the hammy beyond hammy performance in the dismal ‘The Rite’.

Tom Hiddleston plays an excellent baddie. I worry that he’s going to be typecast because he plays it so well but hopefully he’ll prove his mettle in his upcoming role in War Horse (which I am also super excited about).

One underused character is Darcy played by Kat Dennings. I love her in ‘Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist’ and in this she provides some excellent comic relief but I wanted to see more of her character. I also love Heimdall played by Idris Elba. Elba is eminently watchable in everything he does.

The thing that struck me most about the Asgard scenes is the grandeur of it all. It looks amazing. The CGI has been used to great effect; the ‘rainbow road’ thankfully did not look like it’d been lifted from Mario Cart. The scenes on Earth were really good and funny in the right places.

It’s not all good, then opening Asgard scenes are a bit boring and just serve to set up the rest of the story, but thankfully they don’t last very long. I also found Thor’s band of mates a bit unnecessary, one of them reminded me of Cary Elwes in ‘The Princess Bride’ which I found terribly off putting.  But that’s about it really; a couple of minor niggles in an otherwise excellent film.

I think what makes this is the direction. Kenneth Branagh gave Chris Hemsworth a speech from Henry 5^th to learn to help identify with his character and he carried some of his Shakespearian clout through other areas of the film. I loved that. Admittedly I’m a fan of the Bard so I loved the drama of it all but it was subtle enough so that anyone who isn’t as keen wouldn’t take offence. I found the Father and Son scenes between Odin and Loki particularly smacked of Shakespeare and rightly so, they needed that kind of feel to them. Branagh was admittedly an odd choice for this kind of film but I swear, if you watch it you’ll wonder why he doesn’t do more stuff like this. I hope this leap of faith in a less obvious Director is bringing in a new attitude to directorial choices. The fact Matthew Vaughan has directed the upcoming ‘X-Men: First Class’ and Joss Whedon (of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ fame) is to direct ‘The Avengers’ makes me think this might be true.

Overall I loved it. I’m such a sucker for a super hero film and I’ve been let down in the past by the two attempts at the Hulk, ‘Superman Returns’ and although I didn’t hate it, I’d be lying if I said ‘Iron Man 2’ left me totally satisfied. ‘Thor’ left me happy and excited about where it’s going to go and how they’re going to tie it all together and of course with a massive crush on Chris Hemsworth.

Also the trailers before Thor were all kinds of awesome. We had ‘X-Men: First Class’ (love the Fassbender) and then two more ab-tastic superhero offerings in the form of ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ (Hugo Weaving OMG!) with Chris Evans who seemingly has a Achilles heel for superhero roles (previously having played the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four films) and ‘The Green Lantern’ which I hadn’t seen before but it looks a little more light-hearted, a bit less serious than the rest of 2011’s comic book based offerings and Ryan Reynolds is hopefully on as good a form as he was in ‘Buried’.

It all looks really good so hopefully I won’t be short of a hero or two in the coming months!

That’s it from me tonight.

Goodbye till next time :-)

x x x x x x x x x x x x

P.S if you go and see Thor, hang around till after the credits for an exciting glimpse into ‘The Avengers’!