Empire Big Screen Day has arrived

This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Empire Big Screen (2011)

Today I’m attending Empire’s BIG SCREEN event at the o2 in London. I’m looking forward to preview screenings of some of the summer’s hottest films, as well as interviews and discussions with producers, directors, set designers, renowned reviewers and journalists and a wide range of other film experts.

First up this morning is showcase sessions with 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures. I absolutely love getting to the cinema in time for the trailers so watching two hours of extended footage and previews is a dream. I understand that 20th Century Fox will be bringing along special footage from Titanic 3D. It’ll certainly be fascinating to see what James Cameron has done.

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Top Ten: The Kindle – Bargain Books at Charity Shop Prices

When I first got my iPad I immediately fell in love with it. There was so much I could do on it and the capacity for playing games was immense. I did download some free classic novels on the iBooks application but I never got round to reading them. I assumed that I wouldn’t enjoy books on an e-reader – I preferred the look, feel and smell of a real book. Then I discovered the rival Kindle App and all of that changed. I realised I could carry lots of books everywhere I went. Packing for holidays would no longer be traumatic as weight was no longer an issue. Best of all there is a great selection of cheap books to choose from – have a look, you’ll see that it’s easy to spend very little but get a lot of good reads.

Here are 10 books I’ve recently read on my Kindle:

1. Love, Sex and Tesco’s Finest Cava by Steve Carter

It was the unwieldy title and the thought of how anyone could enjoy Tesco Cava that attracted me to this book. The narrator Rob is 38 and newly divorced for the second time when he meets a new woman on an online dating site, this novel charts the ups and downs of their blossoming relationship and how this impacts on both their families. This is a great little book, full of humour and interesting characters and it’s good to read a romantic comedy from the man’s point of view. I read this in one day on holiday and it’s the perfect beach or lazy weekend read.

2. The Warsaw Anagrams by Richard Zimler

I had read one of Richard Zimler’s previous novels for work in my old job and really enjoyed it so this instantly appealed to me. A gripping thriller set in 1940 in the Warsaw Ghetto this novel explores the themes of loss, alienation, betrayal and brutality and tells the story of a crime set against the background of the greatest crime against humanity ever. This is both a moving account of the Holocaust and a fantastic crime story.

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The Top 10 Summer Blockbusters

Summer blockbusters

IIt’s summer and we all know what that means – long sunny days, plenty of fresh air and good clean outdoor pursuits. Oh yes, and hours of fun inside an air-conditioned cinema with popcorn, hot dogs and a rattling good summer blockbuster.

There are two main seasons for film releases. In order to qualify for Oscar consideration films must have a theatrical run in Los Angeles County between 1st January and 31st December. This generally means that studios release their worthy, serious films in November and December to keep them fresh in the minds of the Academy voters. If you take a look at the winter releases you can pretty much tell which movies will be the stars of the awards season in the spring but summer is the time for the big-budget, big-star name, big entertainment blockbusters to be released. Also known as the films that we actually pay to go and see….

I have some rules for what can be regarded as a true summer blockbuster. They’re pretty arbitrary, not everyone is going to agree….

It has to be an action film, no romances in my lists
It has to be a film I could watch over and over again – it can’t be a blockbuster if one viewing is enough
It’s not an animation (no matter how good it is)
The time of year matters – Die Hard is a brilliant, brilliant film but it’s set at Christmas, not summer
There has to be personality in there, no pointless sequels churned out just for filthy lucre.

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The Summer Book Buying Spree

It’s holiday time and for many of us and that means a chance to relax by a pool or on a beach with a cold drink and a book or ten! Unless you’ve bought hundreds of books that you’ve never got around to reading (yep, I’ve done that) then you’ll need to buy some to […]