December 2008 Archives

When you've broken your toys, had a family row during Charades, thrown Monopoly against the wall because a six-year-old bankrupted you, and sprained your wrist playing Wii Bowling... chances are you'll turn to the comforting bosom of telly -- to relax with a mince pie and glass of wine...

As usual, the schedules are crammed full of festive specials and movies getting their terrestrial premieres. My weekly TV Picks will be along every Monday to point you in the direction of each day's best stuff, but in the meantime here's a special guide to the twelve best things on TV this Christmas...

 

Two box office kings square off this weekend in the United States, with Will Smith and Jim Carrey both vying for the top spot. Oh, and there’s a mouse trying to squeak his way into the action, too.

Frankly, though, it doesn’t seem like much of a much. Jim Carrey is back doing what fans love most – goofy comedy – whereas Will Smith, the most reliable man at the box office these days, is in the one genre where he’s truly weak: drama. 

It's been a strange one.

Woolies is almost wrapped up, Microsoft has had to plug a hacker-shaped hole in IE7, their Xbox 360 has been voted the most desired crimbo gift by teenagers whilst simultaneously having fingers waved at it for scratching its game discs.

The next Mac World expo in January 2009 will be the last one that Apple will attend – and there'll be no more keynote speeches made by Steve Jobs. Ever!

And now there's a white DSLR camera!!!

The Golden Globe nominations were released this week, and there were a few odd choices. Where was The Dark Knight, the critical and box office darling that has been gathering steam over the last month? If not Best Drama, then at least Best Director and Best Original Score. 

Tom Cruise is nominated for Best Supporting Actor, an odd choice considering that even though he was one of the highlights of the movie, he wasn’t that good. Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a movie that received lukewarm reviews, got nominated for Best Comedy. 

Thankfully, In Bruges, the Colin Farrell-starring comedy that no one in the U.S. saw except for my roommate and I, landed three nominations.

The Mir:ror tag is a little misleading as it’s not reflective (as far as I can see) and you’ll need to connect it via USB to a puter - so hanging it on your hallway wall maybe a little tricky.

Instead of checking yourself out before you leave home you’ll be waving your various possessions over its USB-connected sensor....or should that be Sen:sor?

Why? Well by the magic of small RFID stickers, enhanced-reality style info will be displayed on your computer.

Kenneth Branagh plays eponymous detective WALLANDER in this English-language adaptation of Henning Mankell's best-selling Swedish novels. Oddly, despite taking place in Sweden, with newspapers printed in Swedish, and everyone having Swedish names, the people speak in colloquial English! It’s a discordant element that takes awhile to adapt to, but it's not long before the story and a terrific central performance from Branagh makes you forget this incongruity.

In the United States, the weekend following the four-day Thanksgiving holiday is the worst box office weekend of the year. The legions of people who flocked to theaters after filling up on Turkey throw their noses up at this weekend, more inclined to buy Christmas trees and buy gift cards than spend hours of their lives in darkness.