Twi-Hard: Vote with a Vengance

Isn’t the cinema fantastic? For a few quid you can sit down in either a plush or stiff seat for at least an hour and a half and be sucked into an alternate reality. Bills, rent, impending court appearance and nuclear annihilation (except if you are watching a Tom Clancy based film) all cease to matter as what is happening on the big screen in front of you and shows you what goes through a directors head.

Every year, award ceremonies across the world celebrate the glory of cinematography, screen plays, set designers and directors, all of whom pour their heart and souls into pictures. Ceremonies such as the Oscars and the Baftas always look at the cream of the crop in the previous twelve months of film. Films that have moved people with emotional performances, light hearted scripts, gripping action, dazzling scenery and dialogue so quotable it becomes ingrained into the public’s vocabulary for a few weeks.

However, the National Movie Awards, ITV’s latest attempt to gain ratings decides to do away with esteemed judges and knowledgeable experts and decides to throw away awards by asking the public to vote for the winners of each category. They seem to have tried to follow in the MTV direction of film awards but while Americans create glitzy, glamorous and more money than thou ceremonies, for ITV, James Nesbit will do.

Just pay the nice Mexican

Back in 2007, BFF film directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez had an idea to recreate the B movie films of their childhoods for a modern audience. Their finished product was Grindhouse, a project with each director creating their own film and giving a total run time of around three hour with a very 70’s feel.

Unfortunately, it went down the pan. Critics weren’t a fan of Tarantino’s contribution, Death Proof, the tale of a stunt driver that gets thrills out of killing women with his stunt car. However Rodriguez’s effort in Planet Terror won slightly more favourable reviews in his modern day telling of military biological warfare chemicals turning the population of a small Texan town into what we masses know and love as zombies.

Eurgh...Effort...

Over the span of 52 weeks, there are about 4 – 6 weeks which make my life more miserable than an Irish priest skipped out by the Popes pardon. These periods in blocks of three are the weeks leading up to university deadlines. I hate them. With a burning passion to challenge that of the smug sun we see cruising across our sky.

Halo Reach Beta Review

The Halo Reach beta test is one of this year’s most anticipated gaming events. The prequel to the enormously successful Halo franchise is meant to be wowing audiences in the autumn but to keep fans and critics hungry for more, the beta gives a taste of what the online play is going to be like.

As this is a prequel, most of the Master Chief time line weapons will be replaced by their predecessors. Bungie have managed to create a new breed of weapons that create a game play feeling that Reach is different to the previous Halo games. The DRM rifle and assault rifle bear all the similarities to their successors but have a type of retro charm to their aesthetic appearance that makes them favourites to pick up but as lethal as their offspring.

I'm In a Rock N Roll Band - BBC2 Saturday 1/5/2010

BBC2 needs to sort itself out. Its motto to inform, entertain and educate is a fine motto, so where does snooker come into this? It fills none of the criteria they stand for except entertain all the 5 people who couldn’t get tickets to see a game which seems to never end and pushes back the TV listings for a show people actually want to see.

That aside, I’m in a Rock N Roll Band finally aired a meagre 90 minutes late but was worth the trouble and abuse thrown at my television screen.