February 2009 Archives

The weekend schedules are particularly stuffed just lately, with the BBC and ITV grappling it out across primetime. The biggest battle undoubtedly got underway last night with the premieres of ITV's flashy new game-show THE COLOUR OF MONEY and the BBC's charitable talent show LET'S DANCE FOR COMIC RELIEF. So, the nail-biting tension of a cash windfall for Joe Public, or the prospect of seeing celebs embarrass themselves on the dance floor –- which would you rather watch?

THE COLOUR OF MONEY is of crucial importance to ITV, who are hoping to sell the format abroad for untold millions and recoup major financial losses last year. So, in comes host Chris Tarrant -- presenter of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire; a format ITV never owned, so made no profit from its phenomenal global sales. Created by David Young (who also dreamed up The Weakest Link), Tarrant's latest money-spinning project trades on similar tension and a "shoutability" factor for home viewers. The rules are tricky to explain in writing, easier to pick up in the viewing...

By Erik Samdahl  

After weeks and weeks of countless releases – many of them of them lousy – we finally reach a weekend that, for whatever reason other than that it is Oscar weekend, only features two new releases, a cheerleader comedy called Fired Up and the latest Tyler Perry sapfest, Madea Goes to Jail.

Fired Up looks a lot like Bring It On, only it’s about two high school jocks who decide to skip football camp (and by football, I mean the sport-that-rarely-uses-foot-on-ball, American Football) and become mail cheerleaders, so they can spend time with hundreds of gorgeous girls in short skirts. It sounds like a fabulous idea to me.

Well, oh well.  I'm totally mobile phoned out.

8 Megapixel, Android or Windows, candybar or slider – I'm all of a spin!

For those who didn't realise – this week saw the Mobile World Congress which was all about the mobile.

On the subject of mobiles; it turns out that most 7-15 year olds own at least one mobile phone.

We may even get a standarised mobile phone charger!

As well as all that mobile phone eye-candy The Pirate Bay is in court and so far has managed to get the more heinous charges overturned – YAY!

MAD MEN returned to BBC Four last week, and love was in the air; mixed with cigarette smoke. We caught up with the advertising executives of Madison Avenue (the "mad men") 15 months after the season 1 finale, just in time for Valentine's Day 1962...

A lot has changed in that time: Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) disappeared for three months (to secretly have a baby, but her colleagues joke she went on crash-diet); Harry (Rich Sommer) rekindled his marriage, and his wife is pregnant; Pete's (Vincent Kartheiser) marriage to Trudy (Alison Brie) is still uneasy and childless; closet homosexual Salvator (Bryan Batt) has married a woman; Roger (John Slattery) isn't having a workplace affair with Joan (Christina Hendricks), as she's moved onto a hunky doctor; and Don (Jon Hamm) is trying to make his marriage to Betty (January Jones) work, but is now battling sexual impotence...

It’s the weekend of Friday the 13th, in more ways than one. Following the horrific but financially successful Freddy vs. Jason, the masked killer returns to the big screen in a reimagining of one of the longest running franchises of all time.

In Friday the 13th, Jason stalks a bunch of young, horny and high people who have traveled to Crystal Lake to relax and get trashed. What is essentially a remake of Friday the 13th Part III, the movie meets expectations: there’s plenty of nudity, lots of gruesome murders and… well, that’s about it. 

The acting isn’t terrible, but it isn’t great either. Still, this is the kind of movie you should watch in a crowded theater; rarely will you get to experience such a rowdy crowd who ooh, aw and snicker at the massacre that ensues.

Following a successful pilot shown on BBC Three last year, the supernatural house-share BEING HUMAN is now a fully-fledged horror-comedy, written by Toby Whithouse (No Angels, Doctor Who). The high-concept premise finds a vampire called Mitchell (Aidan Turner), a werewolf called George (Russell Tovey) and a ghost called Annie (Lenora Crichlow) living together in Bristol.

While certainly problematic in a few creative areas, Being Human is a very strong example of taking a silly premise and managing to imbue it with real pathos and humour, by treating it with a degree of intelligence and placing the emphasis on character. Tovey is particularly charismatic as the gawky hospital porter with lycanthropy, and Whithouse certainly knows how to stir up emotions and keep us invested in the bizarre, silly idea behind it all.

If I can choose the movie, can I choose none of the above?

It’s a battle of the Hollywood throwaways this weekend as five films compete to prove they’re not the worst. 

To be fair, Coraline looks pretty good. From the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, this stop-motion CGI adventure film is about a girl who, bored with her family, manages to find an alternate version of her life via a magical portal. Her new parents are cooler – until Coraline realizes that they want her to sew buttons over her eyes. That’s not very cool.

The UK – we talk about the weather yet can't cope when we get a light dusting of the white stuff.

The #uksnow seems to be melting in London now but it has been fun following the snow trail on this Googlemaps Twitter mash-up :)

As well as the snow other news includes Skype going to 4.0 with some neat refinements I must say.

Google has also added Latitude to Gmaps enabling you to track your family and friends via their mobiles (with their permission obviously) – iPhone owners have to wait a while by the sounds of things – Booooooooooooooo!