Why is War Of The Worlds (the book) any good. Tom points out the catastrophist nature of it here, and it is this which has been regularly cited. The Orson Welles radio drama is never lauded for its exciting plot developments or ending, but more for t[…]

A few things to say about The Descent, the mostly terrific Brit horror film by Neil Marshall.
a) He knows what he thinks is scary and he sticks to it. Mainly he thinks quickly stabbing people in the eye is scary. He is of course right.
b) Initially i[…]

Saw Stage Beauty the other day, Richard Eyre’s film of the play Compleat Female Stage Beauty. As such it purports to tell the story of the footnote in theatrical history when women were suddenly allowed to act. Interesting, if, one gets the fee[…]

I had heard a bit about an upcoming documentary on the Flaming Lips but didn’t immediately expect to be able to watch a copy on vacation in Europe — but such are the ways of staying with people who get promos. More importantly, The Fearl[…]

Because I’m a boring old sci-fi rockist, I didn’t get as much out of the new Doctor Who as most. Great start, lovely economy etc, but building up a series-wide theme to a climax written by Enya caused me to consider it a bit of a shame. N[…]

Bonbon El Perro (or just El Perro in Argentina) is a story about a man and his dog. It is tempting to say that this sweet, heartwarming tale of Patagonia and the bond formed between a man and his show-dog hides a biting satire on the current Argentin[…]

As I was trying to explain to my mother-in-law: “If you saw Airplane, and you had never seen a disaster movie, and in fact you had no idea that there was such a thing as a disaster movie, it would seem a very strange film.” And so Kung Fu[…]

If you could get past the insane suggestion that the Modern Review was the first publication in the history of the world to ‘take popular culture seriously’, the BBC4 doc ‘When Toby Met Julie’ did provide, possibly unwittingly[…]

OK, first of all, I was completely wrong about Big Brother this year. It is horrible, but also fascinating, and an amazing piece of collaborative theatre – directors and cast trying to pull it each into a different rhythm, all of them very awar[…]

ITV, not cowed by pisspoor reality TV ratings have hit on a new format that blends two of their biggest hits with one middling on. So take a soupcon of Hit Me Baby One More Time and add a bucket of Pop Idol and I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Her[…]