X-Men: First Class

I have a bit of a strange relationship with the X-Men films. I loved the first one, thought the second was good enough and the third was a big steaming pile of…

We Need To Talk About Kevin

There are some books which are wonderful reads, but tough at the same time and generally not ones that lend themselves to re-reading. Lionel Shriver’s 2005 Orange-Prize winning novel We Need To Talk About Kevin is one of those books…

The Amazing Spiderman

2012 is undoubtedly the summer of the superhero blockbuster. Avengers Assemble set the bar very, very high and set the box office alight. The Dark Knight Rises is building anticipation with trailers and featurettes released on a regular basis and it looks like it could be one of the best films in the genre. And in the middle of these two is the reboot of the Spiderman franchise…

The Queen

This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Diamond Jubilee

When history looks back at the House of Windsor there will be a number of defining moments. The creation of the Windsor name, the abdication crisis, the coronation of the young, beautiful queen, this Diamond Jubilee celebration and of course the death of Diana, Princess of Wales…

Due Date

It’s been a good couple of years for Robert Downey Jr. His roles as Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes have seen him regularly at the top of the box office charts. The massive success of The Avengers make it likely that we’ll be seeing more of him as Tony Stark in sequels…

Dark Shadows

I had the luxury of a little free time in the day and decided to take myself off to the local multiplex, it was the first dry day in ages so what else would I want to do? I was torn – did I go to see Avengers Assemble again or did I check out one of the new releases…

Unthinkable

How far would you go to stop a terrorist attack? Waterboarding? Torture? Murder? Murder of the suspect’s family? That’s the question asked in the 2010 thriller Unthinkable starring Samuel L. Jackson, Carrie-Anne Moss and Michael Sheen…

Black Swan

It’s not often I watch a film and come away not knowing what I think about it. I’m usually very sure of my opinion whether or not it matches that of the mainstream. I’m the only person I know who thinks that the first Iron Man movie was completely dull…

Bad Teacher

Bawdy is a word that’s not used nearly enough these days. Meaning lewd or obscene it always brings to mind end-of-pier comedians in grotty seaside towns or small fat men chasing bikini clad beauties around the town. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of bawdy humour…

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

In my top-ten crime writers list published last year I included Stieg Larsson. His Millennium trilogy was a tour de force and Lisbeth Salander was a new kind of heroine – spiky, unique, damaged and at times a little unlikeable…