Blogs

Putin, Russia and the West BBC 2. This is a four- part documentary by Norma Percy and it is one of the kind of things that BBC does so well despite having only one quarter of the budget of Sky. And it is difficult to see a Murdoch empire despite the growing money difference having the clout to get big hitters such as Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice and their Russian counterparts talking about the relationship between Putin’s Russia and the West...

tallhotblond is a textspeak story about life and love and murder and redemption, or it is not. It is set in a world before Facebook when MySpace was the monster roaming the internet eating everybody’s lives. Tallhotblond is a star in this world living life online and hooks up with the aptly named marinesniper, 47- year- old married man Thomas Montgomery, an ex-marine and proud of it who lives in a small town near Virginnia, where only virgins...

Horizon, ‘Playing with God’ biology, genetics, synthetic biology. These are all terms we are vaguely familiar with. Biology and genetics take the DNA as building blocks for cells and make proteins that make tissues and muscles and bones that work together into complex systems such as humans. Man has always tinkered with this system. Farmyard animals are bigger, stronger, able to produce more milk, more beef, more wool by selective breeding. The...

‘The Reader’ (2008) directed by Stephen Daldry, produced by Anthony Mingella and Sydney Pollack, screenwriting by David Hare, based on a book by Bernhard Schlink. I’m telling you all these boring facts so that you know that this screams out QUALITY film even before the first scene. The most important fact, of course, is the eponymous reader Ralph Fiennes, looks like a German. He’s always looked like a German, even when he’s not knocking about...

That's the title of the new book of poetry by ABCtales member Swep Lovitt - known on here as bosch. Swep has longed to publish this book for a while and now his time has come. The poems in the slim volume take us on a personal journey through the break-up of his marriage and divorce. It's not bitter but it is sad. The poems have been carefully honed. The work on them shows through time after time. You realise that every word has been considered...

That's the title of the new children's book by ABCtales member Richard Penny - better known on here as Blighter's Rock. It's the tale of a little girl with a dream - to meet the Queen. She and her father camp outside Buckingham Palace every weekend until eventually she is invited in for supper - bangers and mash - and her dream comes true. The book is illustrated by Chris Baker with a series of delightful drawings that bring the tale to life...

Adventureland (2009) written and directed by Greg Mottola has a simple premise: a middle-class boy, (Jesse Eisenberg) and preColumbian grad has to go and work in his local amusement park and mix with the natives. I actually worked at the shows in Butlins for a year so I can tell you this film is brilliant. Most rides look complicated, but, hey you just press a button. The live in staff know all the scams and how they are worked. Everything is...

Horrible Bosses (2009) written by Michael Markowitz et al and directed by Seth Gordon is a film with a stellar cast of Hollywood stars including Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Anniston as horrible bosses. The Sun described it as jaw achingly funny and it made a respectable profit. My question would be why? I’m old enough to remember 9 to 5, which had jaw aching song by Dolly Parton who also let her hair and breasts act in it. Three women decide they...

The Informers (2009) written by Bret Eaton Ellis and staring just about everybody in Hollywood is a story about the rock band ‘The Informers’ World tour of 1983, which reaches Los Angeles (City of Angels)and branches off into other people’s stories. There’s Billy Bob Thornton, a studio boss who is going to produce something, a film with a giant tomato as lead, and starring The Informers. There’s Billy Bob’s wife, Kim Bassinger, who he is bit...

Beowulf (2007). What do you do if you’ve got an old English/Germanic epic poem, which nobody reads, celebrating the legendary Scandinavian hero Beowulf? The answer is obvious turn it into an animated action moved, using real actors such as Ray Winstone, Angelia Jolie, turned back into animation, which, not surprisingly is entirely life-like. The next step is to cut out the human element, but that’s boring, and if we are going to see a simulacrum...