Is there really that much of a difference between Moliere and the American Pie films? Possibly. Farce is damned hard to do, and even harder to do well, it is to their credit that the American Pie films are rarely content in setting up the situation a[…]

Help Me Rhonda! is a television polyglot of that feel-good judgmental hue, where bland and broken people are invigorated and reborn for our nasty little pleasure. This program has no idea of its own, only a shell format that can absorb any of its ki[…]

It’s the kind of commonplace everyone feels safe saying: “The industry’s in a terrible state if they’re getting ideas from computer games.” Like many too-quick assumptions about cultural hierarchy, and intelligence, and […]

Adverts ‘fat’ joke ruled ‘funny’, not offensive, according to the Advertising Standards Authority.
Which is more than can be said about Jamie Theakston’s presenting on The Games which scores doubly bad on fatuousness (is[…]

Reality Blurred: a Reality TV weblog (US shows and networks only though). I’ve been having a little sniff around for TV weblogs, Google hasn’t been very helpful though, loads of right-wing sites rooting around looking for ‘bias&#821[…]

Walking out of the cinema I tried to work out exactly what it was that made me dislike Man Of The Year (O Homem De Ano) so much. After all it was a nicely balanced tragic thriller, almost classical in range regarding an ordinary schmoe who ends up an[…]

Belleville Rendez-vous starts with a crackly black and white TV showing an animated dance number by the charatcers the Belleville Triplets: an homage to all those Merry Melodies and Silly Symphonies which cluttered up the cartoon times of my youth. I[…]

HORNBLOWER! Marvellous stuff. No series has ever been more
a) NOBLE
b) HEROIC
c) ridiculous
as the adventures of Captain Horatio Hornblower and crew of able Seamen. Even now as I type, the plucky ENGLISH hurrah are getting boats to sail offshore int[…]

60’s kitsch can rarely be done better than Modesty Blaise, which I recently saw on American Movie Classics. If you haven’t seen this film, you should: Modesty (portrayed by Italian actress Monica Vitti) uses her Mod-style to bring down th[…]

I’ve no idea whether Calendar Girls is a good film or not, though I’m always content to watch Julie Walters in anything. I’m reacting here without seeing the film. For those who don’t know, it’s about a true story, a cle[…]