“It takes time…” This finale begins in a very fractured place and rather than hide from the rampant pain, the episode leans into it when it’s appropriate. Noah appears to be okay, but there are still moments where he breaks down and the loss overcomes him. He’s not beaten down though. Cole on the other hand explicitly says that he feels terrible and wonders if he’ll ever be able to move on....
Baron Alan Sugar is going to love me. Because, after watching the latest episode of The Apprentice, I’ve got lots of business jargon, which I know the bearded one will be keen to hear. Here’s why. As some of you know, when I write these Apprentice reviews, I’m sat in a house just outside Dudley, downing whatever cheap plonk I’ve managed to pick up from my local Spar shop. This week, though, that’s not the case....
9.9 The Platonic Permutation We’re nearing the half-way point of The Big Bang Theory season nine, demonstrated by the Thanksgiving theme of this episode, and it’s about time for the writers to figure out what the heck they’re doing with Sheldon and Amy. Both characters are as big a part of the show as they ever were, and many episodes have been expressly about exploring the fallout from their breakup but, prior to The Platonic Permutation, we were seemingly no closer to a resolution....
3.5 The Wolf and the Lamb Cesare is off west to France and guess who’s there? Machiavelli. Oh, I missed you, boo. Never leave me again, okay? Stay forever. Stay and sass Cesare about what colour his shirt should be, all the conquest ambitions of the French king, and also which shoes go with that belt. The Borgias use his lone scene as a chance to play him with wonderful fun as a mix of Tim Gunn and Sun Tzu....
The film opens with a depiction of suburban mundanity at one of the titular complexes. As student nurse Asuka and her family move into one of the flats, a mystery is built up surrounding their next door neighbour. Initially unwilling to greet a new resident bearing cakes, strange noises coming from his flat wake Asuka in the night, and his alarm clock goes off at five thirty every morning. Meanwhile, her family are acting oddly, she’s befriended a little boy with Damien-from-The-Omen-hair (why do people still give kids that haircut?...
Anyway, it’s sad to think record stores might one day be as useless and forgotten as the telegram or Jimmie Walker. Here’s a piece I wrote a while ago for nobody in particular about my favorite teenage music shop hangout, Side One Records. I hope you enjoy it. The point is the Athens of Florida has seen its share of weirdos. One such weirdo was a stubby, spaced-out record shop owner who bore more than a passing resemblance to David Crosby....
Originally springing forth from a tale intended to entertain his children, Tolkien’s world of Middle Earth inspired generations of geeks and literati to create their own fantasy worlds inhabited by elves, ogres, and other mythological beasties and human off-shoots. Everything basically written since the books were published is either inspired by or directly ripping off Tolkien’s works, so it’s not surprising that in the wake of the insane success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy of films that someone would be wise enough to make a MMORPG set in the fantasy world that launched a thousand other fantasy worlds....
Review starts here:A small favour: do you mind if we get the hyperbole done and dusted right from the start? Appreciating that some of you want to come in, get a general impression, look at the star rating and move on, the basics are this. The Dark Knight Rises is very good as a standalone movie. As the bookend to a trilogy, it’s even better. Either way, it’s not without one or two slight problems, but they’re not massive ones....
So, we’re back for The Event and after the arguably convoluted and frustrating pilot, I’m sure the first question you’re probably wondering is, has it got any better? Well, while the annoying time-jumping flashbacks are still present, I’d say, on the whole, that, yes, the second episode is a definite step up. However, that’s not really hard. Episode two opens with the plane that mysteriously vanished in a flash of light when heading for the president’s convoy, crash-landing in the Arizona desert....
Religion is inescapable in Gilead, the fictional land of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The Sons of Jacob bend bible verses to their will, tossing out whole sections and making other things up in an effort to justify their society bent on control and repopulation. Atwood chose the familiarity of American televangelism and fundamental Christianity to ground her dystopian work of fiction in her audience’s reality. This makes the work more immediate, realistic, and devastating....
I was appearing in The Woman of Straw at the theatre on the end of Cleethorpes pier. The only way to get to the theatre was to walk along the pier. I left my car in a car park in the town. Just before I was to go on in the opening scene the stage door keeper got a telephone call from the Police. I had left the car lights on....
The Invisible Woman of the title, she is the secret sweetheart of Charles Dickens (Fiennes), whom he meets just as his career is at its peak – much to the apparent consternation of Nelly’s mother, Mrs. Frances Ternan (a delightfully stern Kristin Scott Thomas). Falling for each other over theatre rehearsals of his play No Thoroughfare, the movie follows the couple’s gradual romance in the face of society’s conventions, which leave Nelly forgotten in the shade of the writer’s public life....
Otherwise, you’re going to have to make it into the moviemaking business so you can get all Mel Gibson on history and, with blue-faced cheek, abusively reinterpret it in your own interest. Thus empowered, time no longer holds you prisoner and you can flash your backside in its face, defiantly cry “freedom!” and play with it as you will. Hollywood especially loves doing this and has done repeatedly until the remaining impression is that America broke the enigma code and that Tom Hanks saved Private Ryan, was the true hero of World War II and went on to be a bystander at a great many of the major events of the 20th century....
There’s a sort-of cult thing going on with these AOS operatives as they wore a badge of two crossed golden guns on their ties, swore allegiance and – quite touchingly – came up with verses to celebrate their sense of shared identity and commitment to cutting out Australian crime. Take this catchy poem penned by one AOS detective: “a squad of men all as one, ready to fight until the job’s done....
It’s sweet to know that David beat Goliath, and that the Hobbits cast the ring into the crack of Mount Doom and destroyed the evil Eye of Sauron. It’s sweet to see Ewoks battering Stormtroopers with sticks, stones and bongo drums, bringing down the Empire in the process. These narratives inspire us, make us a dance for joy and bring a warm fuzzy feeling. (That’s actually an Ewok in your underwear....
As Varrick and Zhu Li (poor girl!) are carted away, Korra shows up to tell President Raiko exactly what’s going on and why Unalaq has to be stopped. Raiko still refuses, however, on the grounds that if what she says is true, his first responsibility is to Republic City, and while he is kind of missing the forest for the trees, I do believe his sense of duty to the people he serves....
With Korra chained to the walls of a cave, Zaheer makes like a Bond villain and completely reveals his plan to her. A poison will be administered to her skin and, once absorbed into her bloodstream, activate the Avatar State, at which point the Red Lotus will kill her, ending the Avatar cycle. They get pretty far along in this plan, but don’t count on a delirious Korra breaking free from her bonds and fighting back....
The Magicians Season 1 Episode 8 Of particular note was the reference to magic being the tools of creation the gods left behind. This eye-opening concept fits well with the danger and potential for hubris involved in the art of spellcasting and gives Julia a nice avenue towards a new chapter in her pursuit of learning. It was nice to hear the head of the support group communicate the drug dealer aspects of the safehouse system Julia had been dealing with....
“The Dump” highlights the strong, enabling bond that Mickey and Alba share and how they’re truly terrible influences on one another. On that note, Sabrina and Chip also bring out the worst in each other in this episode when they both begin to take advantage of the Colonel and his veteran status. This is an episode all about manipulation and extortion and The Mick makes it all hilarious with a dark edge to it all....
Its central idea–a race against time to return a severed penis to its original owner so it can be reattached–is the kind of off-the-wall “what if?” scenario that can easily send a group of close friends into giggling fits. I know that my friends and I have cheerfully wasted many an evening indulging equally, if not more, sophomoric hypothetical scenarios. Movies, however, are not our friends, no matter how clearly lonely we all are and want them to be....
