Top Thirteen Ghost Songs

I celebrated Halloween earlier this week with my Top Twenty Horror Films, but I also wanted to do something to mark the day itself so I started collecting ghost songs with the aim of compiling a Top Ten. Then I realised there were more than 10 essential ghost songs, so I bumped it up to 13 in honour of the day. As mentioned previously, I'm a supreme triskaidekaphobic, but this is the one day of the...

Top Twenty Horror Films (Part 2)

(Click here for 20-11.)OK, we're back with my Top Ten... and I'm sure it'll have you screaming at your computer screens. "WHAT - NO DRACULA 2001? ARE YOU AN IDIOT?" Etc. Etc.10. Paranormal Activity9. The Amityville HorrorI still remember watching this on TV late one night when I was a kid and not being able to sleep afterwards. For a long time. I became obsessed with the Amityville story and read...

Top Twenty Horror Films (Part 1)

In preparation for Halloween, everyone's listing their favourite horror flicks. Well, Final Girl is, and Ryan 'Stinkbrown' Lindsay is too. I'm sure a bunch of other people are thinking about it. Show me a barrel and I'll scrape it... Runners up included Evil Dead 2 and 3, Final Destination (any of the first three, not the rubbish 3D one), Rec (Spanish), The Fly (Goldblum), The Hitcher (Hauer) and...

The Best In The West

The traditional Western hero is a loner. A man with no name, and few transparent emotions. He is as cold and hard and lonely as the country that shaped him. He strides into town, delivers justice, then rides off into the sunset... and rarely do we get any more than a glimmer of the man beneath the hat.Andrew Cheverton and Tim Keable's Jerusalem West always appeared to be just such a man. Standing...

The Good, The Badly & The Ugly

In which I end up walking out of a gig after a blazing row over a mobile phone...You know how most gigs start out a bit rubbish, with a lacklustre support act, then gradually improve as the artist you've come to see plays all their new songs before working up to an amazing greatest finale hits finale that sends you home on a high?Friday night was a gig in reverse.It began with the best support act I've seen in donkey's ages, The Candle Thieves, just...

STEP UP 3D (2010)

MyRating: YYYYDirector: Jon ChuCast: Rick Malambri, Sharni Vinson, Adam G. Sevani, Alyson Stoner, Joe Slaughter, Keith Stallworth, Stephen Boss, Martín Lombard, Facundo Lombard, Oren Michaeli, Kendra Andrews MPAA: Rated PG-13 for brief strong languageA group of young New York City underground street dancers named themselves House of Pirates, led by Luke (Malambri), faces tough times when their practice...

LEGEND OF THE FIST: THE RETURN OF CHEN ZHEN (2010)

MyRating: YY1/2Director: Andrew LauCast: Donnie Yen, Shu Qi, Anthony Wong, Huang Bo, Shawn Yue, Yasuaki Kurata, Ryu KohataDonnie Yen reprised his role as Chen Zhen, the role that he played in the 1995 Hong Kong TV series "Fist of Fury". This fictional martial artist and Chinese culture hero, created by the Hong Kong writer Ni Kuang, was first popularized by the legendary Bruce Lee in his 1972 martial...

THE OTHER GUYS (2010)

MyRating: YY1/2Director: Adam McKayCast: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes, Michael Keaton, Steve Coogan, Damon Wayans Jr., Rob Riggle, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne JohnsonMPAA: Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language, violence and some drug materialAllen Gamble (Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Wahlberg) are second grade New York City police detectives, who spend their times mostly behind...

Friday Flash - The Man In The Barn

Almost didn't make the deadline for this week's Friday Flash. The idea came to me in a dream, as many of my best stories have, on Sunday night but I've struggled to make it work. Changing from a first person to third person narrative helped greatly; sometimes when writing more personal stories, the temptation is always to write first person. I've found that can make these kinds of stories a little...

Under The Dome

It seems the pattern these days that a new Stephen King novel will be greeted by two wildly differing reactions from longterm fans. It's either "great - a real return to form" or "SO disappointing - not a patch on his old stuff!"The problem is that I generally wait to read King's novels in paperback, so by the time I got round to Under The Dome I'd already read loads of reviews - by people whose opinions...

Top Ten Self-Pity Songs (Volume 2)

Some guy on the net thinks I suck and he should knowHe's got his own blog!By popular demand, I'm back with another pathetic playlist of pity. Many thanks to everyone who suggested songs last time, some of which are included here, others will be featured in the future.You know the drill by now... this is Radio I Hate Myself & Want To Die FM!10. Skinny - Failure"Why have I always been a failure?"...

The Social Network

A movie about Facebook starring the current king of loveable geeky losers and Justin Timberlake? I'll pass.A movie about Facebook written by Aaron Sorkin, directed by David Fincher, and also starring the new Peter Parker? Oh, go on then.Unlike Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg himself, The Social Network rarely puts a foot wrong. In choosing Jesse Eisenberg to play Zucker, it gives welcome vulnerability...

There Goes The Thea

If I ever became a singer-songwriter (don't worry, being unable to sing and rubbish at rhymes it seems highly unlikely), I wouldn't want to get too famous. I wouldn't want to play cold, hollow stadiums or large capacity venues that smell of flat beer, vomit and piss (to uninterested, 'entertain me!' audiences who largely smell the same). I'd much prefer it if I developed a strong, loyal fanbase that was just big enough to allow me to pick and choose...

LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS: THE OWLS OF GA'HOOLE 3D (2010)

MyRating: YYY1/2Director: Zack SnyderVoice: Jim Sturgess, Geoffrey Rush, Ryan Kwanten, Emily Barclay, David Wenham, Helen Mirren, Joel Edgerton, Hugo Weaving, Miriam MargolyesMPAA: Rated PG for some sequences of scary actionZack Snyder is continuously building his profile as a fine new generation director, whose upcoming movies are always being waited and talked about. Since his successful debut with...