Archives – Pete Baran  
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TORCHWATCH: Photographing Fairies
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(Running a week behind, though not slipped as far as Robin Hood the Emo Years Watch) The trailer to this episode promised if not to fill in the seemingly important mysteries about what Captain Jack has been up to and fill-out some of his past exploit[…]

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TORCHWATCH: Cyborg vs Pterosaur FITE!
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So we are four weeks in on the Doctor Who spin-off, and my telebox almost exploded with joy when it sensed that there might be a Robot vs Dinosaur Fite! in the episode Cyberwoman. Let us move swiftly on from Captain Jack’s masterplan of siccing[…]

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The Shawshank Redemption In Waiting
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Basically Cinderella Man is a solidly told true story of the depression and the power of sport to inspire people. But it came at the wrong time, with the wrong subject and probably the wrong cast to explode at the box office. Perhaps that is how Ron […]

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The FreakyTrigger Top 25 Brands: 24: TOP OF THE POPS
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Top Of The Pops is a brand. Marketing says so, the BBC say so. Question is, how important a brand is it? Vacuum cleaners would exist without Hoover and (these days) Dyson, but the existence of iconic brands within a marketplace helps raise the profil[…]

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Would have been better with Big Ted, Little Ted and Humpty
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All The Kings Men: quite simply the worst film I have seen in the cinema for quite some time. We only barely got through it with the aid of a can of beer and guffaws. We just about survived the initial shock of Sean Penn’s ridiculous bouffant h[…]

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Its A Mystery: Part II
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There is a species of murder mystery, like say Columbo, where the fun is not in working out whodunnit. My run in with the London-wide mystery film phenom was a bit liek this in two ways. I had decided to go see the one at the Muswell Hill Odeon. Choi[…]

CSR: Cinematic Social Responsibility
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In the great balloon debate of the arts, there will come a time (possibly after Mime has been chucked out) when those left will debate the idea that as art reflects life to some degree, it is vital for us to understand the human condition and put ce[…]

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From Westwood To Hollywood*
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The Devil Wears Prada is a pretty toothless satire of the fashion industry. So toothless that it is almost an apologia for it, instead heaping most of its scorn on its cruel fictional villain***. What is much more interesting in this tug between prin[…]

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Who’s The Rat?
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One of the DEPARTURES of the film THE DEPARTED from its source material – Hong Kong thriller INFERNAL AFFAIRS – is a DEPARTURE from the TIMELINE* of the original. Not only does the undercover cop character changes his whole identity in IN[…]

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New Story Old Star
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I could go on at some length about how New Police Story, Jackie Chan’s return to Hong Kong cinema, is all about fathers. From Jackie’s surrogate fatherhood of his sidekick, to the villains main motivation being to piss off Pater: this is […]

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  1. Notes from me.... 11 Clarkson has shifted from full-on pop star to daytime chatshow host who is also a part-time…