London Film Festival: the hot news is, fuck the London Film Festival. It’s a kind of test case for reception theory: I used to think, sponsors be damned, here is an opportunity to watch lots of skill films. But such is the intensity of branding[…]

It won stuff at Cannes, is tremendously over the top and violent and yet the film that Oldboy reminded me of the most was Amélie. Not just because it employs a visual toolbox which encompasses state of the art digital trickery along with some wonder[…]

Channel 4: Not Rubbish
04:35 Honda F4-Stroke Powerboat Race Series
Navigational errors cause race upsets in the penultimate rounds of the 2004 Honda Formula 4-Stroke 150hp championship at the Honda British Grand Prix in Plymouth.
Perhaps I should […]

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
A sadly lacking game. Six or so out of ten. Come back Driv3r, all is forgiven.
Oh alright, bigger review coming.[…]

The problem with short films is that you nearly always see them in collections. I remember at the Dublin Film Festival seeing a whole day of shorts, mainly local ones, that the only ones that really stuck out were the really ropey ones. A good short […]

Stay behind after class
So, the fourth series of teachers has started on C4 with very little fanfare. I guess everyone else round here has given up on it, but I saw the beginning of the first ep on Tuesday. Since Andrew Lincoln (or Egg, as he&#8217[…]

A magazine editor once gave me a very severe look when I told him ‘Century of the Self’ was better than any movie in 2002. I don’t think he owned a TV. I like what I’ve seen of Adam Curtis’ newie ‘Century of PH34R&[…]

Notcied at the National (ITV – ahem) Television Awards last night was how one particular channel seemed to do better than all the others. Indeed I would be hard pushed to think of anyone who worked on a BBC show who won an award. That is fine h[…]

Can you make a successful film with a couple of good actors in the back garden of a stately home? Only if your source material is really top notch, and unfortunately The Triumph Of Love’s source materially is a ropey old 18th Century French farce. […]

Broadcasting legend John Peel dead
From the BBC Newsroom:
Radio 1 DJ John Peel has died at the age of 65. He was on holiday in Peru with his wife Sheila when he suffered a massive heart attack in a hotel. John had been on Radio 1 since it went on air[…]