Historically speaking, the Super Bowl halftime show usually falls into one of two categories: mind-blowing clusterfuck or state fair parade of lame. Examples of the former include the 2001 “song fight” between Aerosmith and ’N Sync (culminating in a giant end-all version of “Walk This Way” performed by both bands plus Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige, and Nelly) and last year’s hypersexual twelve minute Prince guitar solo. Examples of the latter include 1997’s “Blues Brothers Bash” (finally, Jim Belushi and ZZ Top on the same stage!...

The world was in a right old state, but there was one source of solace for the lonely science fiction-loving geek on our small little island, a TV channel that had been a beacon of geek for the nerd in us all: the one and only Sci Fi Channel. This was a channel that, in past years, had been filled with science fiction greats and had brought us some of the best B-movies and underground cult series around....

Like most DNF teasers, the new footage is pretty dodgy. And not that new. According to Broussard it was filmed at 3D Realms’ offices around six months ago, and not originally intended for public release. It’s recorded on handheld cameras so the quality is pretty ropey, and Broussard insists it shows out-of-date particle and combat effects, which ‘have been replaced by now with new hotness’. So is this the beginning of the end for Duke Nukem Forever’s endless development cycle, or just another false dawn?...

Aside from the risible latter efforts, the success of those early Police Academy films was responsible for much, much worse. During the 80s, Neal Isreal, the man behind Mahoney, Hightower et al, retread the same comedic ground with a couple of similarly themed films that quite failed to repeat his previous box office success. In 1985, he directed Moving Violations, a film in which a bunch of bad drivers are sent to traffic school to keep them on the straight and narrow....

The Royal Institution Lectures are a grand Christmas tradition, having been on our screens for the last eight decades of their nearly two hundred-year history (The first of this year’s lectures, about Michael Faraday, will already be available on iPlayer by the time you read this). Designed to bring science to a general audience, the lectures feature scientific concepts delivered in an entertaining fashion. However, for all of their fun tricks and experiments, the RI lectures are ostensibly still that – lectures – and as such they are often lacking in such key areas as comedy sketches, full-blown musical numbers and Warwick Davis....

1.12 The Curse After a pretty lacklustre series of episodes, The Following has more or less reached a level of appealing weirdness for me. For example, this week’s episode (written by Seamus Kevin Fahey and Amanda Kate Schuman) takes great delight in taking all of the characters we know and completely flipping their established roles. By and large, if someone has been behaving a certain way throughout the entire season, this episode they decided to completely change their motivation for various reasons....

Catching Fire picks up more or less where the first film left off. Katniss and Peeta have returned home to District 12, where they’re rewarded with huge new houses and all the food they can eat, but that doesn’t mean they can live happily ever after. Winning the Hunger Games comes with more than just a material prize – Victors can also look forward to traumatic flashbacks, constant nightmares, and an inability to let their guard down, ever again....

Ah, that wonderful moment of anticipation before someone finally makes you a man or woman! An experience that will only ever happen once in your lifetime, and not without a considerable amount of sweating and possibly crying beforehand. Tara has decided hers and Simon’s relationship is ready for the next level and our spiky haired would-be Casanova just can’t quite believe his luck. Just a shame his idea of dirty talk is a swift bout of Tourettes....

Once upon a time, this superhero classic was not always considered a sure bet. Released in October 2004, the mask-and-cape craze was only beginning to take Hollywood by storm. There was no shared Marvel movie universe and no rising Dark Knight. The idea of mainstream audiences embracing a team of squabbling superheroes seemed as far out as a thunder god battling aliens in New York. But Pixar, the ambitious studio that could, hired then-outsider Brad Bird to realize his groovy vision....

The acting profession have long felt that it can be used to get them out of trouble when they fluff their lines or do something unbelievably naff on television. If my memory isn’t having its customary walkabout I think it was Lady Chatterley’s Lover, written by D.H Lawrence in 1928 and aired in court during 1960 under the Obscene Publications Act (1959), which brought words into into vogue that had been seen as obscenities reserved exclusively for the male gender....

The initiative intends to uncover the most exceptionally bright of hominoids and utilise their talents for the good of the USA. The primate-primer exam that every ape inductee must sit consists of several rounds of rudimentary arithmetic and logic puzzles, a game of pin the tail on Shrek’s Donkey and a geography assessment, where candidates are asked to locate Iran on a map. The final, hardest challenge evaluates the primates’ linguistic skills....

This week’s episode starts as Thack reunites with an old flame. A lovely young woman wearing a prosthetic nose comes to see him. She and Thack used to date, before she married and before her husband slept with the ‘syphilitic whore’ working in his office. To his credit, Thack barely bats an eye when he sees her and agrees to help her try to repair the gaping hole where her nose used to be....

Developer: Arkane Studios Category: Action-adventure, stealth Price: $10/800 Microsoft Points After the somewhat odd and weirdly displaced time-trial focused Dunwall City Trials DLC back in December, we finally have our first story-driven add-on content for Dishonored, the acclaimed stealth adventure from renowned publisher Bethesda. This time around, we step into the shoes of the ruthless assassin Daud, in a storyline that parallels the main narrative of Dishonored, as it follows Daud’s quest for redemption after assassinating the Empress Jessamine Kaldwin at the beginning of Dishonored....

This review contains spoilers. Saying that, exactly what we want on our plate, within the wrapping, and on our television screens on Christmas Day can differ every time. The Last Dragonslayer might, at first glance, look like it’s offering something that’s getting a bit too familiar. For instance, it’s a story about an orphan who lives in a magical world that’s in peril, and that orphan is going to turn out to be the key to saving that world....

I couldn’t help but think of a famous Jeff Daniels quote after dishing out my first one star review last week and witnessing this Sunday’s rebirth of Aaron Sorkin’s newsroom. The ratings held steady after the strong premiere episode, however I’m curious to see if The Newsroom will see a drop off after a disappointing second episode. I can make the case that it was the worst episode of the series to date....

It’s set in modern London, where discreetly wealthy young couple Kate (Clemence Poesy) and Justin (Stephen Campbell Moore) live in the top half of a Victorian town house. Downstairs, a more conspicuously well-off couple have just moved in – statuesque Theresa (Laura Birn) and her older, banker husband Jon (David Morrissey). Coincidentally, Theresa also happens to be pregnant,and Kate is envious to learn that Jon is so wealthy that he plans to take early retirement in just five years’ time – a far cry from Justin, who spends most of his waking life sitting in front of a desktop publishing package....

1.21 The Battle Of New Orleans As penultimate episodes go, this was a pretty good example of a show carefully setting up pieces exactly where they need to be for an explosive final hour. There were a couple of twists, some good action and something for every character to do, but there was also an inordinate amount of setup. That would be a problem if placed anywhere else in the season’s trajectory, which it has been on this delightful mess of a series, but for now it teased us just enough....

After securing the airfield in an explosive encounter last week, the Marines are now sent into the hills to flush out the remaining Japanese, only to discover that they are hidden in a series of underground fortifications. Faced with a literally unseen enemy, and one who refuses to surrender, it is questionable how long Sledge can keep it together. Episode 7 begins with what seems to be an anti-Rocky montage, which, instead of showing us inspirational images, browbeats both Sledge and the viewer with images of death, destruction and despair....

As usual, feel free to discuss whether you’re watching along or you’ve seen it all, but please don’t spoil future episodes for anyone in the comments. Well, it’s safe to say that Sarah making a romantic move on Frank (or should we say “Pete”) was about as inevitable as it could’ve been, though I found it really interesting that Micro and Frank didn’t necessarily react in the obvious ways that they could have....

Redoing Rocky Horror is a Herculean task, then, but, in my eyes, nobody is better equipped to tackle it than Kenny Ortega. The man who directed Hocus Pocus and the High School Musical trilogy as well as being the choreographer for Dirty Dancing and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a more-than safe pair of hands, he’s almost a sure-fire way to guarantee The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do The Time Warp Again success....