A couple of weeks ago on a Facebook film discussion page someone posted a challenge for me to name my Top Ten films of 2001. I could have just left a comment on the page with the list but thought why not go the whole hog and actually write a post. 2001 wasn’t a classic year in film and saw the release of Freddy Got Fingered, Pearl Harbor and Planet of the Apes…
A To Z Bookish Survey
11 September 2013 by 1 Comment
A few weeks ago I picked up on a meme that brilliant book blogger Jamie at The Perpetual Page-Turner was running. As always I’m a little late to get my entry in but here we go with my A-Z of reading survey….
Top Ten: Movie Rivalries
6 September 2013 by Leave a Comment
With the release next week of Rush and its brilliant portrayal of the rivalry between Formula One drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda it seems the perfect time to look at some of the greatest rivalries in cinema history. Here’s my top ten in order of when the films were released…
Playing with Fire
5 September 2013 by Leave a Comment
One of the UK’s hardest working crime writers must be Kindle sensation turned paperback hit Kerry Wilkinson. Already we’re onto the fifth novel in his DS Jessica Daniel series and there’s no sign of a let-up with a new spin-off series in the pipeline. I’ll admit that when I received a review copy of Playing with Fire I was a little worried….
Rush
2 September 2013 by Leave a Comment
Ron Howard is a funny old director. You never quite know what you’re going to get with him. His work ranges from the brilliant (Apollo 13, Frost/Nixon) to the fairly good (Backdraft, Splash) to the diabolical (The Dilemma) and encompasses every stage in between. He hits more often than he misses but his name isn’t an automatic guarantee of quality…
The Book Thief Trailer
21 August 2013 by Leave a Comment
The first trailer for the film adaptation of Markus Zusak’s brilliant The Book Thief has been released. As my review explains, I love The Book Thief. It is one of the few books released in the past decade that I would call a true classic and I’m evangelical about getting as many people to read it as possible…
Gone Girl
19 August 2013 by 2 Comments
One of the most popular and talked about books of the last 12 months has been Gillian Flynn’s mystery Gone Girl. Reviews have refused to discuss the narrative in case any of the suspense was spoiled and it has been praised for its literary excellence as well as its ability to please a mass audience…
Ron Burgundy Memoir Announced
14 August 2013 by Leave a Comment
Deary me, a “memoir” of fictional 70s newscaster Ron Burgundy will be published later this year by Random House. The thought doesn’t exactly fill me with enthusiasm. For a start I hated Anchorman. I’ve tried to watch it five times…
Jaded Youth
7 August 2013 by Leave a Comment
At the end of last year I read and reviewed the debut novel of local author A.G. Chambers. Jaded Rein was an assured science fiction debut which held my interest and could almost see me develop an interest in a genre that I’ve so far pretty much ignored. Jaded Rein…
Sequel…Sequel…Sequel!
6 August 2013 by 2 Comments
The teaser trailer for Muppets Most Wanted has been released and much to my delight it’s very Animal-heavy. No hint of a plot other than the fact it’s a road movie of some sort but that doesn’t matter. It’s the Muppets back on our screens….