Shane Meadows “This Is England” is an affecting portrait of skinhead life in the early eighties. Tied closely into the twin historical behemoths of the Falklands and mass unemployment, it manages to show both sides of the skinhead culture[…]

Nearly all the reviews of Straightheads have been dismissive of this British revenge flick (example from Time Out here). Generally it got one star, half a paragraph and a snide remark that Gillian Anderson was slumming it. And perhaps in the upmarket[…]

Oscar nominated Mark Wahlberg is back, in this years most high octane film about a SNIPER. In it Wahlberg plays Bob Lee Swagger, an army SNIPER, left high and dry in a covert op in Ethiopia – who resigns and lives with his dogs in the mountains[…]

Next is a stupid movie, almost as if it were de rigeur for a book based on a Philkdick short story. And yet the ideas in Philkdick’s stories often demand schlocky film versions. What other way does Hollywood have to illustrate various ideas about t[…]

Scientists are being naive in saying that the government report on granting rights to robots is a waste of time. But then scientists are always the last people to apologise when their wacky projects accidentally end up grafting intelligent robotic ar[…]

Sex in plane toilets be damned lest CSI: New York’s next Blue Ice story be turned into a rape thriller. No, no, though it really does happen occasionally. This story is about CENSORSHIP. Airlines were wary to show Airport’77, Airport&#821[…]

There is a rule in the FT Top 100 which means that Tom won’t write about a number one: clearly he is going to write about all of them in Popular. And he is not a million miles away from reaching Carl Douglas’s Kung Fu Fighting: and what&#[…]

There are some lovely spaces in London institutions. The Turbine Hall in the Tate Modern has rarely been filled, but feels majestic in its own right – almost as if to cleanse your art palate before hitting the galleries. Big opening halls in cl[…]

Idiocracy is Mike Judge’s follow up to the under-marketed and thus cult DVD hit Office Space. In many ways Idiocracy shares Office Space’s occasional flashes of brilliance padded around a dullish romantic central point, and is never quite[…]

the who ep on sat (“gridlock”) has divided the fans sharply (er WARNING — portals to LJ): — i really really genuinely enjoyed it start-to-finish and was initially totally surprised that anyone else didn’t: except on refl[…]