MY RATING OF 2012 MOVIES THAT I'VE WATCHED SO FAR

Here is the list of 2012 movies that I've watched so far and my rating on each film, starting from my most favorable up to my least favorable one. I always tried to rate a movie from an audience's standpoint and gave my honest opinions to it, on how I actually enjoyed, felt and experienced the movie. Good or bad a movie is sometimes relative and will depend on each audience's taste...

Book Review: Q, A Love Story by Evan Mandery

What is the point of this story?What information pertains?The thought that life could be better Is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brainsEvan Mandery won me over immediately by opening his latest novel with the above quote from Paul Simon's 'Train In The Distance'. It's one of my favourite lyrics, one that I've often heard rattling around my brain even when I've not listened to the song in...

Movie Review: The Muppets

If, like me, you grew up with The Muppet Show, these little fuzzy felt characters will always hold a place in your heart. And if that's the case, the new Muppets movie gives you everything you could possibly want. A heartwarming backstory, perfectly pitched so that innocence overrules sentimentality thanks to the performances of Number One Muppet fan (and co-screenwriter) Jason Segel and Amy Adams...

RIPC

So, 40 might yet be the beginning of my life... but it was the end of my computer's. Last Friday I went to turn it on... and nothing. The motherboard was kaput. A nice local computer-fixing man gave it the burial it deserved and managed to salvage the hard drives and locate them in a new home for a very reasonable price (considering my current lack of funds). So I'm back up and running... just. (I...

Top Ten 40 Songs

It was inevitable, wasn't it? 10. The Enemy - 40 Days and 40 NightsThe Enemy go for a walk to the supermarket and find themselves snowed out. While they're away, someone else shacks up with their girlfriend for 40 days and 40 nights. Meanwhile, they band is left sleeping in a petrol station. I wish I was making this up.9. Badly Drawn Boy - 40 Days, 40 FightsAfter which time, Damon lets The Enemy have...

Movie Review: Safe House

I can never quite get my head around Denzel Washington being a bad-ass. In my mind he's an ordinary, everyman hero-of-the-people so whenever he plays a psycho or supervillain I always feel like I'm watching my dad dress up in a Freddie Krueger Halloween costume. It might be scary, but I know it's still my dad underneath. In Daniel Espinosa's Safe House, Denzel plays Evil Jack Bauer, a former CIA agent...

How I Spent My 40th Birthday...

...because one day I might look back on this blog as a record of the significant events in my life. Where was I when I turned 40?Well, the day began in the JobCentre+. Sadly, my signing-on day fell on my birthday. I got there nice and early so as to get it out of the way and get on with my big day."Sorry, mate," said the bloke on the door, "you can't go in till 10 minutes before your signing on time.""You've let me in 15 minutes before my signing...

Life Begins At 40...

So they tell me.Guess I'll find out today.Here's an appropriate song...

Live Review: The Civil Wars

So if my life begins on Monday, this must be the death throes of my old life. I have a baaaad cold. And before you all cry "man flu!", can I just point out that Louise had it first and she can testify to the sheer, snot-drenched awfulness of it. If I talk today, I sound like a cross between Tom Waits and Jabba The Hutt. None of this stopped me going out to see The Civil Wars last night, but it might stop me writing much of a review... other than...

Countdown To 40: A Song A Year - Thirtysomething Else

In the last ten years, all the really good music ran screaming from the charts and founds its audience underground. Is that the sound of a 40 year-old muso talking? Perhaps. Perhaps that's what 40 year old blokes have always thought. But I remember all those 40 year old blokes buying Blur and Oasis albums and feeling like a teenager again 15 years ago. And that's how I feel when I listen to the latest...

Comic Review: Spandex #6

At some point during my regular reviews of Martin Eden's excellent small press comic Spandex, I am guaranteed to use the words "best issue yet". So let's get it out of the way right now, shall we? Spandex #6 is the best issue yet, once more proving that it's "gay superheroes" gimmick is anything but, and delivering more action, characterisation and hip, sarcastic dialogue than most comics these days...

JOHN CARTER (2012)

MyRating: YYYYDirector: Andrew StantonCast:  Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Willem Dafoe, Mark Strong, Dominic West, Thomas Haden Church, Ciarán Hinds, James Purefoy, Bryan Cranston, Daryl SabaraMPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and actionTagline: Lost in Our World. Found in Another. Distributed by: Walt Disney PicturesProduction Budget: $250 millionJohn Carter...

Book Review - 11.22.63 by Stephen King

If you'd told me there was a new book out in which a teacher has to travel back in time to try and stop the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on the 22nd of November 1963, I would have bought it regardless of the author. From Back To The Future to Mad Men, I've long had a great affection for late 50s / early 60s Americana, and I've also always been fascinated by the way the Kennedy assassination...

Countdown To 40: A Song A Year - 20 Is The New Teenage

The first ten years...The troublesome teens...And now, part 3 of my Countdown to... 21 (1993) Aimee Mann - I Should've KnownIf I were being retroactive, I'd pick something like OU or Razzmatazz from the Pulp: Intro album, but sadly I didn't discover Jarvis till the following year. I did discover Aimee Mann in '93 though and even chose her debut solo record, Whatever, as my album of the year. Mr. Harris...

Movie Review: The Descendants

There were a lot of reasons I wanted to see The Descendants. I'm a big fan of director Alexander Payne's previous movies: Sideways, About Schmidt and Election. I enjoy George Clooney's laconic Cary Grant shtick and was intrigued by the awards buzz surrounding his latest performance. And the film's set in Hawaii, so if nothing else we could be sure it'd be nice to look at.As with all Payne's prominent...