tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50685300502967079622024-03-13T14:41:07.733+00:00Telly-CentricTelevision - Movies - Books - AND NOW 'DOCTOR WHO' AGAIN, YAY!Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comBlogger252125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-79923368173986259142014-02-07T00:53:00.001+00:002014-02-07T00:53:59.558+00:00I'm back!It's been a while, so I'm sorry. Please stay tuned! XGareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-43937706277762980492013-11-10T00:29:00.001+00:002013-11-10T00:33:03.276+00:00Christmas Is Coming!The fiftieth anniversary special of Doctor Who is just around the corner, and what with trailers, interviews, leaked photos from set and gossip from the cast, there's a fairly huge amount of info about it doing the rounds.<div><br></div><div>But what of Matt Smith's final episode? What of the Christmas Special? Well, here are a few hints at what we can expect! Just a few teasers, nothing seriously spoilery! But read on at your own risk:</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-cl3mhFSY2N4/Un7ThJjQvXI/AAAAAAAABV4/AJT-0E34zf4/s640/blogger-image-791322617.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-cl3mhFSY2N4/Un7ThJjQvXI/AAAAAAAABV4/AJT-0E34zf4/s640/blogger-image-791322617.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-Matt's regeneration (or the circumstances surrounding it, anyway) has more than little in common with that of the First Doctor.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-He's still got one more than the Daleks! (Legs, that is...)</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-Silence MUST AND WILL fall when the question is asked.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-Expect enemies galore! But not all of them are real.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-Matt really is the 'Kids' Doctor' - there are drawings to prove it!</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-An intimate area of a previous companion (sort of, anyway "LOL!") makes an important reappearance.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-Clara's a teacher?!</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-Moffat is most definitely making his first Doctor the longest-serving incarnation! </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-The "Tenth" Doctor was so, so vain. To "Eleven"'s detriment, it would seem!</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-But where on Earth can it all go from there?!</span></div></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Trailers, interviews and images from the fiftieth are available all over the bloody place. Google! </span></div>Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-70762474514353477432013-09-08T18:19:00.001+01:002013-09-08T18:19:33.130+01:00Dead Ends<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">After a day of searching the Internet and the streets of Cardiff for Doctor Who filming - and after FOUR (yes, four) false alarms - we have admitted defeat: we don't know where they are today.</div><div><br></div><div>Day One:</div><div>Crew 1 - 0 Fans</div>Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-83432258746144592012013-09-08T13:23:00.001+01:002013-09-08T13:23:31.204+01:00A Fresh Start!Doctor Who begins shooting on its Christmas Special today, so after months on inactivity I'M BACK! <div><br><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-XtrA8l3AD1g/UixsQPpnf3I/AAAAAAAABRo/WOA5waFpMj4/s640/blogger-image-1458186763.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-XtrA8l3AD1g/UixsQPpnf3I/AAAAAAAABRo/WOA5waFpMj4/s640/blogger-image-1458186763.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>Stay tuned for set reports as and when we them!</div><div><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div></div></div>Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-80243899587624707642013-05-08T00:15:00.004+01:002013-05-08T00:15:57.721+01:00Tomb Raider<div style="text-align: justify;">
I remember when I was given my very first PlayStation. I got Rayman 2 and Disruptor with it. I loved both games and thought I was so cool. Then my mates told me all about this busty kick-ass character called Lara Something and I thought hard about how to ask my parents for a game that had a woman with boobs in it... I was a kid. These things spring to mind as issues!</div>
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Almost two decades later and it's my girlfriend who's buying me the Tomb Raider game! Boobs and all! Only, hang on... roll back a little. Because the boobs have been made largely irrelevant! As have any Tomb Raider titles in the last decade.</div>
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Tomb Raider is a total reboot of the franchise, charting the very first steps of a naive and inexperienced Lara Croft, Archaeology Graduate, into the world of adventuring. When the crew of the Endurance are shipwrecked on a mysterious and storm-laden island somewhere off the coast of Japan a wet-behind-the-ears (and all over) Lara must seek out, rejoin and save her research associates before they fall victim to the mysterious Solarii cult led by the maniacal Father Mathias.</div>
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Gone are the days of shimmying from unusually straight rock edge to unusually straight rock edge (though there is some rock shimmying), and here are the days of brutal, desperate survival at all costs. Tomb Raider isn't about raiding tombs (though there is some tomb raiding); it's about Lara's unforgiving struggle to not die on this lonely, rocky, dangerous rock. And more than any other game I have played in the last few years it delivers thrills by the barrel-load. The movie-like (yet player-controlled) action sequences are unrivaled by any game I have played in terms of sheer terror and nerve.</div>
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There is some pretty violent combat (though always necessary and regrettable) but you could almost make it the whole way through this game without killing. But where's the fun in that, right? Well, judging by Lara's reaction to her first kill, it'd be her preferred method! This game has euphemistic body parts by the bucket-load; heart, brains, muscle, balls and, more than all of those, legs! This is the probable new first chapter to an all new Tomb Raider franchise that could very really eclipse the polygonal package that has come before it.</div>
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I've yet to finish the main story mode so I shall keep my thoughts about just how complete a first chapter this feels until I've done so. But judging on the spine-tingling journey I've been on so far, this game could just become my favourite ever. Everyone loves Lara but, until you play Tomb Raider, nobody loves her enough. This isn't the wise-cracking, smart-dressing, ass-kicking Lara of old; Angelina Jolie couldn't play this new Lara. This Lara is a real, living, breathing character with a sense of conscious and no experience when it comes to doing just what she has to do: kill or be killed.</div>
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If you're a fan of the old, jumpy, crawly, shooty Tomb Raider then you should either avoid this game or embrace it as a new beast. This is not platform gaming-by-numbers as many of the TR sequels were. This is as close to dangerous, bloody, real-life terror as any game has ever got. This game is breathtaking. Buy it!</div>
Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-79465705305220428232013-04-21T17:38:00.001+01:002013-04-21T17:38:20.372+01:00Hide<div style="text-align: justify;">
Um... I thought this was going to be a ghost story! And it sort of was; well, a ghast story. But there was so, so much more going on! All over the place! Um...</div>
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So, the Doctor and Clara turn up in the 1970s at a house where a war-haunted scientist/ghost hunter and a cute empath are about to attempt to contact the spirit of the Witch of the Well, a seemingly ever-present (and ever-afraid) lost soul who has called out for help. There's a bit of spooky wandering about and bumping noises, some horror-staple creepiness and some lovely jumpy bits. And then the episode took a side-step into a territory nobody really expected it to go.</div>
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You see, the ghast is actually the echo of a time traveler from the future who has crash landed in a collapsing pocket universe that is running at a very different speed - one second in that universe lasts about 100,000 years in ours. This has resulted in the image of a frightened woman imprinting itself across history in the same area, inflicting the same second of terror and distress on unsuspecting house-guests for generations. And she's being chased by a hideous creature that seems to want passage to our realm!</div>
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It sounds bonkers and it was, but it was very, very good! 'Hide' managed to cram an effective ghost story, a quiet romance, some arc-plot, some great sci-fi action and a big, silly ending into a 45 minute period that should have felt too busy but didn't. Lost Time Traveler Hilla turned out to be the great-great-granddaughter of the awkward couple-to-be guest stars, Dougray Scott (wonderfully underplaying a man who's seen far too much in his time) and Jessica Raine (companion material, if you ask me!) And despite looking a bit silly up-close, that Crooked Man was as freaky as they come! </div>
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The story of the week was wonderful - a close contender for the best we've had all series. But it was one scene in particular that stood out as something special in my eyes; There's something very unnerving about seeing the TARDIS being bitchy and mean to the companion. She doesn't like Clara one bit, does she? I can't wait to find out why! There is nothing about this episode that didn't grab my imagination and drag it through the streets, hitting it with a stick. There wasn't a second of the last two acts of this episode that I <i>expected.</i> This was billed as a ghost story and wasn't. A surprise for us all, I think.</div>
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If Bells was a modern tech thriller, Ring was a space opera and Cold War was a classic homage then Hide was... like nothing we've really seen before. Genuinely original, genuinely odd and very, very good fun. We're half way through 7b and I'm loving it all!</div>
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Next week we Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS - which is kind of a big deal!</div>
Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-37862025057845831832013-04-15T22:32:00.002+01:002013-04-15T22:32:08.977+01:00Olympus Has Fallen<div style="text-align: justify;">
Today I was lucky enough to attend a preview screening of Gerard Butler's new action epic (for which read "big, silly, shooty, blowy-upy film") 'Olympus Has Fallen'. And I bloody enjoyed it!</div>
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Basically, Korean terrorists muscle their way onto US soil, into US airspace and into the US's whitest house - The White House - and take President Harvey Dent and his staff hostage. Disgraced Jack Bauer-alike Mike Banning (Butler) is forced back into action as the only one-man kick-ass machine in the area at the time (all the others are horribly killed by massive guns during the first fifteen minutes of the movie). Of course, the stakes are high as the Korean madman running the show is trying to get his hands on the codes for a secret Nuke-stopping safe-guard system that will leave the USA largely undefended.</div>
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This is a brave (if overly bold) movie that doesn't pull its punches for a second (except that very last second when the Americans obviously have to win); the terrorists have no qualms whatsoever about shooting important and likable characters in the face without warning just to get the attention of Acting President Morgan Freeman (a warmonger plunged into a situation that leaves him totally out of his depth) and us, the audience. The death count is very, very high throughout and there is enough blood and guts to push this good looking (if CGI heavy) gem into the fun-but-gritty realms of 'Die Hard With A Vengeance' rather than the safer territory of 'Die Hard 5: The Unwarranted And Unbelievable Money-Spinner'.</div>
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I won't go into plot intricacies (there aren't many) but even if I did it wouldn't spoil the story as you've already seen it a million times; it's all unexpected combat skills, sharp one-liners and eleventh-hour rescues. The film also has some very funny, very sweet dialogue too, however, which make you really care about the characters in ways that most action blockbusters never quite manage. There are great performances throughout, too. Aaron Eckhart just passes as Presidential but remains human throughout - a wonderful performance. The same must be said about Butler, who somehow manages to out-do both Bauer and McClane in terms of ballsy brute force and no-nonsense villain-killing.</div>
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If you're looking for a balls-out action gunfest then this is a great choice. Switch of your cynical brain, sit back and enjoy a cartoon-patriotic love letter to America, made by Americans for Americans; this is the '24' movie they never got around to making. I loved it. It was a big, loud, flashy, exciting One Man Army staple. A wonderful addition to the Unbelievably OTT Action Epic Hall Of Fame. A grisly, sweary and - most of all - FUN two hours. Take your Dad along with you and he will love you forever!</div>
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'Olympus Has Fallen' comes out on general release this weekend. Go and see it. You probably won't regret it. And even if you do, at least you're one of the very few survivors!</div>
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Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-63389288840971998722013-04-14T20:55:00.000+01:002013-04-14T20:55:12.808+01:00Cold War<div style="text-align: justify;">
Wow. If ever there was an episode to divide opinion in the most surprising way then it was this. Cold War, Mark Gatiss' Ice Warrior return; in my opinion the best episode of the whole of series seven (including the Ponds' last five).</div>
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Let's get it out of the way straight away; there was little in terms of actual plot in this episode, but its claustrophobic setting and near-real-time format meant that it hardly needed anything to push it along. The story was very simple and, I think, very effective.</div>
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In 1983 a Russian Nuclear submarine finds a creature encased in Arctic ice and ill-advisedly thaws it out. The creature was a Martian Ice Warrior which had been frozen for more than five thousand years. A clumsy attack from the Russians is all it takes to send this confused and desperate soldier into attack mode. Enter the Doctor and Clara, missing Vegas by miles and years.</div>
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Without retelling the tale frame by frame, it was up to the Doc to mediate between frightened humans and deadly Martian. And that's it. Forty minutes of an alien stalking the atmospheric innards of a leaky submarine. And it worked.</div>
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Many claim it was boring; I can't agree. It was hellishly suspenseful, taking the singular threat format of series one's 'Dalek' and adding the fact that this alien probably could be reasoned with! Others claim nothing happened; again, I can't agree, although I concede that what could have been a more perilous hunt was softened by the episode being a single-parter. With a little more of a journey this would have made a fabulous two-parter.</div>
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Still others claim that the dialogue was clunky in places, which I will agree with. There were too many attempts to force the fact that this was happening in the 80s down our throats and a few clunky "we've seen these monsters before" reminders too. But I don't care. After last week's disappointing if pleasant offering, this week dragged me back into my love for Doctor Who with a great story of desperation and responsibility told with a minimalism that only adds to the pleasure of watching.</div>
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Cold War was simple, creepy and looked great. Even the Ice Warrior armour - something that has always looked so silly that even a redesign can't shake the giggles - was used to brilliant effect, ramping up the peril by giving a knowing audience something they aren't familiar with, even after 39 years of knowing the baddies. Seeing the Ice Warrior out of its armour could have been a very bad idea, but it was handled with style; the vicious, if slender, claws slowly grasping from the darkness more than makes up for the rather generic CGI face we got (but shouldn't have got) to see towards the end.</div>
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All in all, I have one or two niggles and no complaints. I loved it. I've watched it three times already and will be doing so again later tonight too. It was a lovely surprise - it could have been awful and it really, really wasn't.</div>
Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-49404748641963246292013-04-06T20:37:00.000+01:002013-04-06T20:40:11.584+01:00The Rings Of Akhaten - Tried Too Hard<div style="text-align: justify;">
Okay, before I tear it into pieces, please believe me when I say that Rings held my attention and that I did actually enjoy it. I don't hate the episode and the great thing about Doctor Who, for me, is that I like some rubbish episodes and dislike some great ones. So...</div>
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My problem with many sci fi novels on the market - some of which are praised as wonderful by others - is the way that some authors go far too far with the "fi" bit. When I read a blurb that goes "The Ice moon of Blaagrat has been at war with the fire moon of Ghamalshaal for fifty generations. Countless lives have been lost, found, then lost again. But the tribesmen of Booshan think they've finally found the key to peace - a young shaman boy named Bookgraaval!" I go Zzzzzz!</div>
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This week's Doctor Who was a bit like that for me. An alien ceremony on an alien world with a hidden and horrible threat that poses no threat at all, in any real terms - there was no way in the world that anything bad was going to happen. Even when the Star (which was the real villain apparently, rendering a well-realised "mummy" alien more than redundant) was seconds from destroying all that surrounded it, before moving on to devour all life in the universe, the people gathered for the ceremony remained seated and watching, as though it was a nothing more threatening than a stage-play. </div>
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Someone on Twitter said it felt like an opera and they are right, in a way it did! But then, it wasn't trying to be. It was still trying to be exciting and action-packed family entertainment. Kids will love the monsters, the soppier among us will love the sentiment, but those looking for jeopardy and weight would need to look elsewhere, in my opinion - and Operas need those things too.</div>
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Then there were the Vigil, who look fantastic and carried a menace that was lacking in both the star of Akhaten and the Mummy that was its... what... decoy? But the Vigil were introduced and disposed of in a minute. Two at the most. It was disappointing.</div>
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When Doctor Who does "big alien planet" it tends to either look TOO CGI and epic, which removes some of the personality of the inhabitants, or it looks like a corner of an aircraft hanger dressed to be "a corner of an alien market" or the like. Tonight's Who gave us both of those. The setting was odd. A system-wide event of cosmic significance watched only by a few thousand gathered aliens. It was a case of trying too hard to look too good. Doctor Who, for my money and especially since its HD days, looks better when shot on location - in forests, wastelands, on beaches, streets and rooftops or even within spaceships - but tonight's episode looked every bit like it was filmed on a sound stage.</div>
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It was all a bit gentle. It was all a bit small beer for the setting, despite a cosmic threat (which I never found myself believing was much of a threat at all). And the characters were few: Clara, The Doctor and The Queen of Years (unfortunately child actors never fare too well in Who) and a hundred or so "generic alien-headed monsters". It felt like a badly-adapted novel done on a budget. But I still enjoyed it, a bit. Enough to watch again if I needed something to watch but not enough to tune in to if it was repeated on schedule.</div>
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Overall, the emotion was forced, the threat was weak and disposed of too easily, the great ideas within (the Doctor's history being vast, Clara's history being powerful) were thrown away. The humour was a little too childish (barking aliens and alien fruit) and the ending happened without me really noticing.</div>
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What saved this episode in terms of importance to the ongoing story were one or two little things that could have been missed if the plot (there was one, I'm assured) had caused you to zone out a bit: Clara's little snub by the TARDIS ("It doesn't like me") and the fact that she has a seemingly ordinary past. And the last three minutes, where it's clear that neither lead character trusts the other completely, was the most exciting part of the whole 43 minutes: my heart actually fluttered when that TARDIS door closed between them!</div>
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A lovely episode to throw on when there's nothing on telly and you've watched all your favourite episodes of Who to death already that week; it's a "I haven't watched that in a while" type of episode, I think. But The Rings Of Akhaten was lacking a little something for me. Weakest episode this series, including The Snowmen and the five that came before it. Ice Warrior on a submarine next week. I hope it lives up to my expectations!</div>
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Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-27769526116481547362013-04-05T15:51:00.000+01:002013-04-05T15:51:06.161+01:00BBC Rule Eccleston Out For 50th<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So today, responding to rumours that Christopher Eccleston had "stormed out" of preparations for the Doctor Who Fiftieth Anniversary Special, the BBC have stated that nothing so dramatic has taken place and that Eccleston was never on board to appear in the special. </div>
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So that means we know, for sure, that we're getting the Tenth Doctor and the Eleventh Doctor, but definitely not getting the Ninth. And I think I'm okay with that! I'd like to see Paul McGann involved but, again, it wouldn't be the end of the world if he wasn't. Interesting that there's no news either way on him as of yet. I wouldn't be at all shocked if he showed up - he's high on my list of Best Doctors.</div>
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So, Ten and Rose, Zygons, John Hurt, Eleven and Clara, Joanna Page as Elizabeth I (probably) and many, many more surprises promised... This is going to be one hell of a treat after all!</div>
Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-71596335178445638422013-04-02T20:50:00.001+01:002013-04-02T21:11:43.450+01:00Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Episode News<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Loads of news has arrived over these last few days about the 50th Anniversary episode of Doctor Who:</div>
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David Tennant and Billie Piper have been confirmed as appearing in the special feature length episode, alongside current Doctor Matt Smith and his most recent companion Clara, played by Jenna Louise Coleman. Speculation is rife among fans as to whether this is actually the Tenth Doctor or whether it is the "metacrisis Doctor" created half human in Journey's End. Recent filming locations would suggest this is the Doctor and Rose, pulled from their timeline of adventures in series two.</div>
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Appearing as guest stars along side two confirmed Doctors and two great companions are "Gavin & Stacey" star Joanna Page and screen legend (and shit dragon) John Hurt. It promises to be a massive, massive adventure - and we've only just broken the skin of what to expect!</div>
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Possibly most exciting of all the news to break is today's enemy announcement. The Zygons are back! The ugly looking fella above (the second spot-on redesign of a classic monster in so many weeks) was spotted filming scenes set (it would appear) in medieval times (or somewhen). As usual, just before the news could go properly viral, the BBC released this promo image, assuring once more that they get the scoop and not the pesky Fans With Cameras. Isn't it beautiful?! More when we get it. Stay tuned!</div>
Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-32957165132782542242013-03-30T20:28:00.002+00:002013-03-30T20:30:22.315+00:00The Bells Of Saint John (I guessed what that meant!!!)<div style="text-align: justify;">
And breath. After far too long a wait Doctor Who is back! And, judging by the reaction to tonight's episode - The Bells Of Saint John - online, it didn't disappoint! So what did we get?</div>
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Well, the episode title was just a clever play on words. The Doctor, having spent a long while almost alone in a Cumbrian monastery investigating the Clara issue, receives a call on the TARDIS phone: they are the Bells of Saint John, geddit?</div>
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And on the other end of that line is Clara, in present day, in need of tech support - she can't seem to connect to the internet. Next thing you know The Doctor and Clara are off on their first (third?) adventure!</div>
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The episode got straight to the point. Something sinister within the wifi seems to be capturing people's "souls" and holding them. Camouflaged "Spoonhead" robots are stalking the streets, acting as walking base stations. </div>
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It seemed that Celia Imrie's Miss Kizlet was behind it all - until that last minute reveal which sets the series up as we plough on.</div>
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As series openers go, this was up there with the best of them, combining a clever, creepy threat with enough chatting time to flesh our new companion out. And she's lovely! Jenna-Louise Coleman was superb. I'm reserving the right to bleat more about just how wonderful she is as the series progresses. I think it is safe to say that she's made a massive impact on the fans. I wonder how many people will be to embarrassed to complain after their social networking accounts are hacked - it'll be their own fault for changing every password they have to 'rycbar123'...</div>
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Matt Smith, too, is completely back on form. He seems to have shaken off his awkward "I'm a bit awkward yet still super-cool" cloak that covered so much of his Doctorishness toward the end of the last half of the series. He's more like "Series Five Doctor" than he's been since, well... series five.</div>
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The Bells Of Saint John was action packed enough to keep the adrenaline up but had plenty of quiet pauses, into which (it seems) the production crew have slipped plenty of clues, references, hints at the "bigger story" and nice little nods to the past. Keep your eyes open for the return of Page One!</div>
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All in all, I personally loved this new episode and it seems that most others I've spoken to loved it too. There's lots more to come and much more of the mystery left to uncover. Who is Clara Oswald? Or maybe... maybe... What is she? Maybe? Maybe. We've got seven more episodes to see before we're going to get a full answer to the question that is inevitably going to be the through-thread to this half of what could be the best series of Doctor Who since its return!</div>
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Stay tuned!</div>
Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-65395441057648198522013-03-23T18:10:00.000+00:002013-03-23T18:10:35.718+00:00Doctor Who Finally Returns!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We've waited long enough but next weekend - on March 30th - Doctor Who finally returns with the sixth episode of its seventh series, The Bells Of St John, starring Matt Smith as The Doctor and Jenna Louise Coleman as his most recent companion Clara Oswald.</div>
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Something's using the WiFi for nefarious means in episode six, and it's up to the Doctor and recently refound companion Clara to put things right. But rest assured, the doors will be opened onto a bigger mystery. One that may even be beyond the Doctor's comprehension. Who IS Clara Oswald?! Why does she keep popping up?! </div>
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Don't expect all the answers at once because Moffat and the gang have eight episodes ready to thrill us with before we're thrown head first into the 50th Anniversary celebrations this Autumn - celebrations that have already divided fandom, despite nobody really knowing what we're going to get.</div>
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But before we get there we can expect to see deadly enemies, old and new, as well as some welcome friends of yester-Christmas. Packed with special guest stars (Celia Imrie in this first episode) as usual, this run promises to be every bit as thrilling as ever!</div>
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Below you can see the prequel to The Bells Of St John which was released online today by the BBC. It's very sweet and sets up the mystery to come very well, even if that ending is signposted from a mile off. I have a feeling this next eight episodes could be some of the best we've ever had.</div>
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Unfortunately, they could be some of the last episodes to feature Matt Smith as the Doctor. Rumour has it he's set to regenerate in this year's Christmas Special. I hope, but not disrespectfully, that Moffat goes with him, opening the series up to new talent. It did wonders for the show when Moffat took over and it's about time the same happened again.</div>
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So with any luck, this time next Saturday I'll be penning an excited intro post to what some reviewers have called "the best series opener we've ever had" (though The Eleventh Hour will be a tough one to beat). Only time will tell! And there isn't that long left to wait. Let's do this.</div>
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Here's the prequel to The Bells Of St John:</div>
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2IROtC6cAT4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-76774445842762833052013-02-24T19:18:00.001+00:002013-02-24T19:18:19.600+00:00Derek<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ricky Gervais's most recent creation, Derek, has inevitably divided opinion - some think it's offensive to people with learning difficulties or disabilities, others think it is a sweet and harmless portrayal of a character we don't usually get to see the likes of. I think I'm in the latter camp. In a nutshell the show is this: a totally kind and selfless - yet odd - man works at a care home for the elderly. That's it. There's no making fun or being derogatory to anyone with disabilities at all, as far as I can tell.</div>
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The supporting cast are spectacular (most notably, a surprisingly good turn by Karl Pilkington as the home's put-upon yet happy-to-help and totally no-nonsense handyman Douggie.The show is warm, cheeky, usually funny and always a little sad. It's lovely. I'm enjoying it very much. Last one next week, so you can catch up on 4OD now!</div>
Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-90280000135688153032013-02-03T16:27:00.002+00:002013-02-24T19:21:01.037+00:00A Return!<div style="text-align: justify;">
Oh God! It's been so long since I've blogged about anything that I've almost forgotten how to do it. But I used to love doing it (indeed, still do) so I'm making a promise to post more often. Starting today, with the return of Being Human! Alongside that, there are some other great shows available to watch lately too. Channel 4's Utopia and Netflix's original series House Of Cards have both had me hooked! I'll be telling you all I have to say about all three very soon, so stay tuned!</div>
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It's nice to be back :)<br />
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EDIT: Due to no internet for a week, no computer for two weeks and no telly you'll have to wait a little longer for these reviews... Sorry.</div>
Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-9675174108969051482012-12-25T19:45:00.000+00:002012-12-25T19:45:16.752+00:00Doctor Who - The Snowmen (First Thoughts)<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Snowmen is the best Christmas Special since Steven Moffat took over, without a doubt. And, for such a complex and busy event, it keeps confusing exposition monologues or wispy godlike prophecy right out of the equation. It is many things and all of them work. Here's how:</div>
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Firstly, it's a rip-roaring adventure story. A classic Base Under Siege tale that managed to pull the Doctor from a grief-induced retirement and into a Christmassy yet Chilling alien invasion story. Details and motive are brushed over to make room for scary monsters and creepy villains. </div>
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It has humour and jeopardy but never veers too far into slapstick or unbelievable doom. We meet new friends and old friends and there's even a little nod to an enemy of old that most won't know but fans can pat themselves on the back for knowing. Moffat knows his audience, too - we get the best returning characters, Sherlock Holmes references and enough wink-wink innuendo to keep Tumblr bubbling.</div>
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Secondly, this is an introduction to our new companion. And it's done well. There's no big drama, no prophecy or centre-of-the-universeness (yet). Just a capable, intelligent girl who catches the Doctor's eye by asking the right questions and having the same thirst for rule-breaking. Clara Oswin Oswald (for that is the name on her gravestone) is set to be great fun! I just wish I had the first clue as to what she's all about! I wouldn't expect this all cleared up in 8 episodes this year if I were you. As we have been told, this gets more complicated before it gets clearer.</div>
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And then, shrouding all this, The Snowmen is a Christmas Special! Big names, snowy Victoriana, action, sadness, a bit of heart-string-tugging emotion and lots of snarling Doctor Who Monsters made this something special. And on top of a cracker of an episode, a new companion, a new mystery, an old villain, a star-studded cast and THAT trailer, we also got a new TARDIS interior (lovely!) and a brand new title sequence and theme arrangement (including a blink and you'll miss it face in the titles). Christmas afternoon telly at its best and 100 times more enjoyable than the too-clever-and-too-busy effort we were given last year. Great fun. Not just a lovely Christmas special ep, but a pretty decent episode full stop!</div>
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So, what of our new girl? Well, she's fabulous. And we met two of her... Which means we've not met "Clara Oswin Oswald" three times in all and she STILL hasn't joined as companion! Her story promises to be one hell of a mystery. I hope Moffat knows what he's doing. I suppose only time will tell! I'm excited. That 7b trailer has me bouncing impatiently on my chair. I think I'm most intrigued about the episode featuring our heroes on an aeroplane! Not long to wait now. Another few months... And the wait for Christmas wasn't too bad, was it? Was it? It was, wasn't it. Bugger.</div>
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Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-32244439258481269222012-12-09T00:38:00.001+00:002012-12-09T00:38:56.653+00:00If I Ruled The X Factor...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So that's another year's X Factor over with, almost. And I've watched roughly an hour and a half of this whole series. I've done my best to keep up with the buzz on Twitter but I really couldn't be arsed to give up my entire weekend for a show I cannot help but think is deeply flawed.</div>
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So, as I've probably done before but am too lazy to check on, I shall tell you how I would do The X Factor if I was in charge.</div>
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First off, I'd scrap the Theme Of The Week. There's no use giving an awesome RnB singer Dancing Queen to sing on ABBA week. They'd be voted out because that's not their thang! So many great, talented acts have been lost mid-series thanks to their inability to adapt to some Theme that really isn't their thing. All this bollocks about "going out of your comfort zone" is bullshit. Eminem wouldn't throw a Beatles cover on his album, but he's a marvellous rapper! Nobody wants to make (or buy) an album consisting of two ABBA covers, a Christmas song, something to do with love, something that's thought of as a "guilty pleasure" (don't even get me fucking started on that term!) and a frigging unknown 80's power ballad that was No1 in Azerbaijan for a week.</div>
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Next, reduce the number of contestants, the number of weeks the show runs for and the number of auditions shown. Sure, it's great to see the funny auditions, but they could throw a couple of episodes on ITV2 showing nothing but shit acts. A week of decent auditions, a week of Boot Camp, the Judges Houses selection weekend and then on to the live shows where ten acts, not bloody twenty and a "wild card" or whatever, sing one song each for the first three weeks (with an elimination each week) and then two each until the final week where the top three acts sing three songs (of their choice and their style) until a winner is crowned. The Mentor system remains, but there are no categories; simply a few acts each, randomly assigned.</div>
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Then, instead of giving the winner a shitty cover or an "uplifting ballad that retells their X Factor journey" have them spend a while in the studio, with a few writers and musicians, where they'll come up with a single that matches their talents and style. The songs they've chosen to sing all series (covers) will still be available to download from iTunes or wherever. No need to rush out a shit song; spend some time on a decent single that the winning artist can proudly put on their album.</div>
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And then the name "The X Factor" will seem less pretentious and less contradictory, frankly. I don't think that ANY of the X Factor winners have what I think The X Factor means. They're all carbon copies of Robbie, Will Young, Beyonce, Whitney, Britney and bloody McFly or [insert teeny boyband here].</div>
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See? Telly magic.</div>
Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-60471491128698169182012-09-02T01:17:00.002+01:002012-09-02T01:17:25.215+01:00Asylum Of The Daleks<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now was that worth the wait? I'm voting yes!</div>
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Dragged to Skaro, then to the Dalek Parliament on some dodgy errand for the mysterious Darla von Karlsen (obviously Dalek something, anagramfans!) the Doctor, Amy and Rory find themselves in the midst of the most insane and dangerous mission they've ever had - probably. They must enter The Asylum Of The Daleks! </div>
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You all watched it! Of course you did! so let's skip the recap and get straight to the meat of the story. Instead of appearing when she was meant to appear, naughty Jenna Louise Coleman showed up about five minutes into Asylum and gave everyone who didn't know she's be there (which, considering thousands had already seen this at screenings the world over and the fact that her appearance was leaked on forums this week anyway, probably wasn't many) a big surprise! But she wasn't playing the companion character here, as far as we know... No, no! This character was called Oswin Oswald and was the Junior Entertainments Manager on Starship Alaska until its fatal plunge onto the surface of the Dalek Asylum planet... Okay, I said no recap. I'm sorry!</div>
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This episode was very, very overhyped. I'm not saying it wasn't a good episode - it was. A very good episode, great even! But the hype-hangover from the screenings and the constant reminder that it was to feature EVERY DALEK EVER pushed this one into the stratosphere in terms of expectations. Some would have expected a massive, action-packed Dalek adventure. That's not what you got here.</div>
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What you got was - and I'm not complaining, because I'd rather this, personally - a small Dalek story with a nice big mystery at the centre. Because Oswin was no ordinary extraordinary computer hacking genius junior entertainments manager from the future! She was in fact a girl who had become a Dalek still dreaming that she was a girl. A girl making soufflés. The clue was right there, really - a genius with a whisk, had to be a Dalek.</div>
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What this means - and what other Big New Things mean - for the future of the series I do not know. But those Things were well-played and nicely explained. First off, we got to see the Parliament of the Daleks and meet their Prime Minister. We also learn that Daleks are able to adapt human physiology to create a kind of Dalek Puppet; a sleeper agent that has no idea it is on a mission for the Daleks until the eye stalk pokes out of their forehead. Both of these are interesting new additions to the Dalek legend and you'll either like them or not. I did. I thought the idea that the Daleks have a home again, a base from where their twisted logic is written and passed out as Dalek Law and that they can now get closer to their victims than ever before creates an extra level of power and malice to them. The Daleks were truly made scary again this week. </div>
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But the biggest mysteries of all could spell mystery and danger in what's to come. Now that Oswin - the One Good Dalek - has erased every scrap of information about the Doctor from the Dalek's memories are they still his biggest and most feared enemy? Isn't he now free to do whatever the hell he likes to them? They don't know who he is, as illustrated in a smashing little gag where the entire Parliament chant "Doctor who?!" at his as he skips away for adventures aplenty as per. I fear this interesting (and, yes - for once, Moffat, you were telling the truth - Game Changing) event will end up coming back and biting the Doctor on his big, smug arse. You mark my words; when he'll NEED someone to know him, nobody will. And it will spell disaster.</div>
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The second massive mystery is this; Since we're pretty damn sure Jenna Louise Coleman plays a character called Clara in this year's Christmas Special and it is this character, not the Oswin character, who ends up travelling with the Doctor for the second part of series 7, how will they explain away the similarities in appearance between the two? Will they be related? Will they be connected at all? Will it be ignored?! </div>
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Who cares right now, eh? We've just been given one of the most exciting and interesting episodes of Doctor Who since the show came back in 2005! And next week we get Dinosaurs! On A Spaceship!!</div>
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(Oh! I loved the ep, by the way. Top stuff! 8/10 - I'll update this post with more opinions and observations when I get a chance to watch Asylum again... which I'll do tomorrow, asap!)</div>
Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-49682181598937836282012-08-01T14:58:00.000+01:002012-08-01T14:58:01.481+01:00TWEETER PUT TO DEATH FOR HATING CHRIS HOY'S SHOES<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've deliberately tried my best not to blog about the abusive Twitter user who launched an unjustified attack on Tom Daley recently. I didn't want to give the guy my time, but some of his tweets and other online contributions really wound the users of Twitter up and led to him being reported to and arrested by Dorset Police.</div>
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And so began a media storm (albeit a small one) about the 17 year old man arrested for being critical of Tom Daley's dive. The media love a story about anything to do with online abuse and/or uproar by users of any social network. They like to report the incredible Other Culture to those who don't use these networks as though we were a mob on vigilant lookout for a misbehaving target 24/7. This is only partly fair. Yes, there are those who jump on any old nasty bugger, with torches and pitchforks, and try to push them off Twitter. Some of this "mob" are the tutting over-moral bandwagon-jumpers who want nothing more than to show everyone else in their social circle just how right on and moral they are; just how outraged they are by anything, be it suppression of free speech or that same free speech taken a tad too far. The others are nasty trolls themselves, no better than their target, who see this single horrible sod as a fair target. Both are wrong, but that's neither here nor there because free speech means both sets - and I've been a part of both sets before now, unfortunately - can do this.</div>
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However. If the media are going to report on this particular issue, which they are loving doing, they should probably get their facts straight! The BBC reported on the news last night that "a 17 year old man has been arrested after Tweeting Tom Daley, saying that he has let his late father down". This is not true. Yes, the tweeter told Daley he had let his father down after his dive, but this wasn't the reason for his arrest. It was simply the loudest of his tweets - the side effect of being re-tweeted by an Olympic Sportsman - and the one which drew attention to his already vulgar, racist and homophobic time line packed with death threats, abuse and downright unpleasantness.</div>
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Also unearthed was a YouTube video which sees this tweeter (I STILL don't want to use his name) threatening another user, recent Twitter-famous target Olly Riley - who was attacked by many tweeting under #OllyRileyIsAPedo for daring to tell his followers that he thought girls in long socks are sexy (a sentiment I'm in complete agreement with, incidentally!), resulting in a stream of photos from his teenage fan base's long-socked legs. Our recent Twitter Twat told Olly that he was going to find him and kill him. The video contained over 70 uses of the word 'fuck', at least five 'cunts' and many more 'f's and b's', along with so much table-kicking that it's a wonder the camera stayed put.</div>
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So this guy was not arrested for daring to criticise a diver but due to his unruly and hateful online presence as a whole. His YouTube video and his Twitter time line were both full of racial abuse and death threats, apparently apropos of nothing. This wasn't an arrest based on criticism of a sportsman, or a breach of this guy's right to free speech. This was an arrest undertaken after the violent and abusive threatening of many. You can't clap that that fella went to jail for having a go at a black footballer, then tut when this guy gets picked up. And also, it's nothing at all like the Paul Chambers case, however much you argue it is.</div>
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So, papers and TV: Please stop using headlines like "Tweeter Arrested For Criticising Daley" because that is not accurate. You lose credibility every time you cherry-pick your facts; see Aurora Shooting coverage.</div>
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Rant over. Glad to get this out of my system. Sorry this post is a garbled mess. Anyway... I'm off to the Olympics tomorrow! Yay!</div>
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<br /></div>Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-54077751384971634612012-07-23T16:30:00.000+01:002012-07-23T22:46:06.431+01:00The Aurora Shootings<div style="text-align: justify;">
A little after midnight on Friday a gunman opened fire in a crowded movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado. <span style="background-color: white;">This shooting took place at a midnight premier that was evidently going to guarantee a full, sold out theatre. The shooter bought a ticket for the film, sat through the first ten minutes of it, then left the theatre. He went to his car, dressed in body armour and a gas mask, loaded an assault rifle, a shotgun and two pistols and returned to the theatre where he proceeded to fire randomly into the crowd.</span></div>
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Twelve people were killed and more than fifty people were injured. The shooter, James Holmes, was arrested shortly after. He showed absolutely no remorse whatsoever for his crime. Police officers sent to search his flat found the place booby-trapped with explosive tripwires. It took them a while to get inside the apartment where they found ingredients for making explosives, along with documentation for his firearms.</div>
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Those are the basics. This was a terrible tragedy and was clearly perpetrated by an incredibly unhinged individual. Due to the severity of the incident this event obviously requires reporting. The facts are shocking and the motive unknown and it is news. But I think, personally, that the second and third paragraphs of this blog post does a good enough job of reporting the facts as they are known. The world's media seems to disagree - they are the professionals, after all, so what do I know, right? </div>
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What the papers and rolling news channels seem to like to dwell on here is not the fact that a twenty -four year old neuroscience student was able to legally purchase a combat weapon, a hunting shotgun and two handguns, along with over six thousand rounds of ammunition, military grade body armour and tear gas canisters from both local and web-based weapons stores without anyone thinking there may be something a little iffy going on, but the fact that the movie he chose as a venue for his crime was The Dark Knight Rises.</div>
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The Sunday Mirror claimed, in a double-page spread adorned with a half-page mugshot of a grinning Holmes, with the sub-heading "self proclaimed Joker", that he <i>may</i> have got inspiration for this horrible and senseless attack from a Batman comic - The Sunday Mirror wrote, "in the violent comic a shooter with red hair - like Holmes - opens fire in a movie theatre showing a Batman-inspired sex film"... I've read this comic book and that sentence has NOTHING to do with what it actually portrays. Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Rises contains<span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">seven frames, in the second part of its four issue series from twenty-six years ago, in which a mental patient decides that a porn theatre is corrupting the innocent of Gotham, so opens fire during a screening of "My Sweet Satan", a sex flick featuring "sexy Nuns". There's nothing that is "Batman-inspired".</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">But of course that doesn't matter! Joe Public, reading about this event, would see that and make a connection, apropos of a badly researched piece of journalism at best (and a blatant and dangerous lie at worst), between the crimes and Batman. Since the movie this comic book fan chose as his venue was a Batman movie, this too is seen as a contributing factor. This has led to Mr and Mrs Outraged crying out for the cancelling of all screenings of The Dark Knight Rises, to american cinemas banning the wearing of costumes to the movie (but not others, so presumably when you go to see The Expendables 2 in the cinema you can strap a bazooka to your back, paint your face, prep your AK47 replica and strut about in your camouflage gear to your heart's content!) and to the apportioning of blame - directly or indirectly - to the makers of the movie and its predecessor by those who, most probably, haven't even seen them!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Worse still is that the papers also seem to enjoy picking apart the lives of the murderer, today named as James E. Holmes, instead of simply James Holmes as he was known yesterday. I wonder when that'll get extended once more to James Edward Holmes (or whatever the E stands for) in order to make him sound <i>that little bit more </i>like a mass murderer in true media terms. It turns out that, when the police finally entered Holmes's apartment, the place was "adorned with Batman paraphernalia and explosive trip wires" (as though the two go hand-in-hand, naturally) but was, as far as I can tell from their reporting, perfectly ordinary. The Batman "paraphernalia" was the only new detail in today's reporting of the inside of the flat - the trip wires were known about on Friday - but this one new detail is still enough, apparently, to justify a headline on the LA Times site which reads "Profile of Aurora shooting suspect keeps getting murkier". </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I have two points to make about that single headline. Firstly, I have a table full of empty coffee cups. Should I decide to shoot up a Costa's tomorrow and booby trap my flat with trip wires, would I then get a headline reading "Profile of Costa's Killer gets murkier - suspect's flat adorned with coffee cups and trip wires" as though they too were connected? And secondly, I think it's fair to say he's no longer just a suspect. James Holmes has admitted to the killings and was seen by hundreds committing the crime. At least, I hope the cops are sure it was him or poor James Holmes' life will now be ruined after the coverage he's getting in the press!</span></div>
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The point here is not that the guy liked Batman, but that he was clearly unhinged enough to shoot random people in a crowded movie theatre. If Holmes had been at a midnight screening of Mamma Mia and decided to open fire there would we now be crying out for the banning of Abba?! No. So any calls for a ban on screenings of The Dark Knight Rises are completely stupid. Banning people from wearing costumes is silly enough - what on earth is that going to achieve? If someone wants to shoot people mindlessly they will do so whether they are wearing a costume or not. If fact, Holmes WASN'T dressed "as the evil villain, Bane" as some news sources have claimed, but simply protected from any kind of attack on himself thanks to body armour and protected from his own tear gas attack thanks to a gas mask. It wasn't a costume, it was armour!</div>
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So the blame has to lie with a) the man who committed the crime and b) the system that made it very easy for him to obtain four lethal weapons, six thousand rounds of ammo and military style armour and gas canisters. The problem here is gun control. "But," as one Texas politician has disgustingly bleated, "if everyone else in the theatre were carrying a gun too, the chances are Holmes wouldn't have had chance to kill as many as he did! We need more guns, not less!" Utter bollocks. Four guns going off in a crowded theatre resulted in twelve dead and more than twice as many injured. HUNDREDS of guns going off would likely leave very few survivors at all. </div>
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Holmes's character has been picked apart for days now, apparently revealing a twisted and depraved individual. But it doesn't matter what he wrote in his lonely hearts column, or what his answer phone message was, - mine, incidentally, was an impression of Heath Ledger's Joker telling people to leave a message or suffer the consequences, when The Dark Knight came out - or even if he was "a shy loner". The fact is he killed strangers with seemingly no motive and should therefore be investigated and punished. But what is more unsettling is that the final moments of the victims are being retold in movie screenplay fashion by the Dailies. "Twelve people died in Holmes's attack, two of whom died as heroes while protecting their girlfriends" - so the other ten were what? Cowards? Hey! Maybe we can make a movie based on the last two hours of a few of the victims' lives along with those of Holmes? We could show them getting all excited about the movie and having fun with their mates while Holmes is shown brooding and cackling in frames lifted almost directly from the coolest Batman stories! Or not.</div>
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Apparently it's news that one victim, a twenty five year old Mother in a serious condition, has been told this morning that her six year old daughter is dead. There are even some lovely photos of the dead child playing in the park, cuddling with her parents and smiling cutely at the camera. I'm glad they've written another double page spread on this one fact in the Daily Mirror today, the world NEEDS to know.</div>
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I'm sick of the media and pompous, bloated preachers blaming Batman or video games or whatever for the actions of sick individuals with murder on their mind. I'm sick of these deranged people being let of the hook by the papers and rolling news channels because they enjoy horror movies. And I'm sick of reading that Warner Bros and the cast and crew of The Dark Knight Rises have be doorstepped to give awkward messages of condolence and gentle, unneeded apologies as though they are partly to blame. </div>
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I'm very sorry that these events happened. My thoughts go out to all those who are affected. Holmes deserves to remain in prison for the remainder of his days. Nothing can excuse or explain his actions, which were clearly those of a very disturbed man. But if I was the spokesman for the Batman movies I'd say "hang on! This has nothing to do with us or our movie. It's very sad, of course. Devastating! But until there's a proven link between the actions of this madman and our movies please lay off us!" Insensitive? Maybe. But do they ban lunchtime or close the nations's cafeterias every time there's a high school shooting? No. </div>
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I could talk and talk and talk but it would only be a rant, as much of this has been. The point is, as usual, the media are irresponsible sensationalists churning out glamorised prose about real life disasters as though they were reviewing the latest Hollywood action flick. What we should get from our media is balanced, informative journalism that reports the facts and little else. This is just the latest in a long line of dangerous media reports that, more than any comic book or video game or rock song, will inspire other, similarly unhinged individuals to commit copycat crimes. They'll chase headlines like "'The Joker' kills 12, injures 50+ in Batman Shooting Spree" or "The Dark Knight Massacre". So, next time something like awful happens, let's nickname the killer "The Small-Cocked Mummy's Boy" or something equally as humiliating. Or we could stop with the sensationalism altogether and simply report the news.<br />
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<b>Edit 23/07/12, 22:35</b> - ITV News just claimed that Holmes showed up for court "with hollow eyes and dyed red hair like the character he aspired to be; Batman's arch-nemesis the Joker..." which is not only disgustingly sensationalist (and basically giving this sick individual exactly what he wants, namely infamy) but completely factually inaccurate.
Also, it seems that the deaths of their children isn't enough for the families of the victims. They want one more murder. Holmes will likely get the death penalty. </div>
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This makes those family members and anyone else pushing for this punishment no better than he is. That makes them, in my eyes, at least accessories to the murder of James Holmes. No matter what a person has done, murder is not the right punishment. Should this be the outcome, should Holmes be put to death, no justice will have been done. All that will have happened is thirteen young people will have died in this senseless tragedy, not twelve. The final victim added to the count by a baying mob of people proving themselves to be as bloodthirsty and devoid of human decency as the shooter.<br />
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I have a feeling this blog will be updated many more times as the week progresses.</div>Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-48797452360465696452012-07-22T00:30:00.002+01:002012-07-25T14:07:26.886+01:00The Dark Knight Rises<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red;">-- THIS REVIEW CONTAINS <u>MASSIVE</u> SPOILERS FOR THE DARK KNIGHT RISES --</span></div>
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<span style="color: red;">-- YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED --</span></div>
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I flirted with the idea of writing a spoiler-free review of Christopher Nolan's conclusion to the Dark Knight trilogy but could not bring myself to do so. So, here's a very spoiler-filled review instead. I won't talk too much about the plot detail, but much of its skeleton is here and several of the big surprises - along with the ending of the movie - will be discussed in detail. You have been warned... Go away NOW if you don't want to know what to expect!</div>
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To begin with, let's remind ourselves of how things stood at the end of The Dark Knight. Harvey Dent, driven mad by the Joker's unrelenting picking and poking, threw murderous revenge about the city of Gotham, killing plenty. As Gotham's 'White Knight' it was important that the people of Gotham didn't lose their belief in him - and a brighter future - so Batman decided to take the blame for Dent's crimes and became the outcast. Gotham now believed it was he who was responsible for the murders committed by Dent. It believed that Harvey Dent, their guiding light, was murdered by the Batman. Batman is now Enemy Number One.</div>
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The Dark Knight Rises picks up this thread eight years later. Batman hasn't been seen since the night Dent died but, thanks to the Dent Act - a patriot act of sorts - there is little need for Batman as we, the audience, know him. Organised Crime is non-existent. The police are dealing just fine with the bag snatchers and joyriders that remain the only real threat to law and order in Gotham City. That is until a new threat surfaces.</div>
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A terrorist known as Bane has appeared. I won't give away the plot blow by blow, but it's fair to say that a complex plan involving identity theft, bankruptcy, civil unrest, moral outrage and a nuclear device means that Gotham once again needs the Batman - now more than ever!</div>
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And there's the snag. Bruce Wayne is a physically unsteady, emotionally broken man now. He needs a cane to walk. He has no cartilage left in his knees. His brain is a mess, thanks to all the concussions he's suffered when he was wearing the cowl. There really is no Batman anymore. And for a startlingly long time during the first act of this movie you'd be forgiven for thinking - if you didn't know better - that Batman would not be coming out to play today! Lucky, I guess, that Commissioner Gordon is still on hand to be the moral warrior. Except, he's not. Incapacitated during a raid he should have known to avoid, this once whiter-than-white man is now living under the shadow of the blackest of secrets. Only he knows that Batman is innocent and the people's hero, Dent, died a murderous, vengeful monster. And when the secret comes out it's a rookie detective, John Blake, who takes the hit the hardest.</div>
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Talking of hard hits, Bane is slowly tearing the city apart from within and Wayne has no choice but to get suited up and do what he can to stop him. This is where he takes the hardest hit of all. A one-on-one encounter with Bane is the straw that breaks the camel's back (or should that be the massive hulk of a terrorist leader who breaks the Bat's back?) ending Batman's time in the cloak and sending a ruined (and penniless) Bruce Wayne into hell.</div>
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Story-wise, I'm saying little more in detail. I've said too much already but you can't complain because I bloody warned you I'd be pulling no punches when it came to spoilers. And I have hardly started spoiling it for you! The best is still to come!</div>
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The hype for this movie was immeasurable. How on earth could it ever meet the expectations piled upon it? Some may have asked how it could possibly live up to The Dark Knight! Now, The Dark Knight was an exceptional movie. Batman Begins was, in my opinion, <i>just</i> great. The Dark Knight Rises would have to blow us all away or be seen as a failure. Well, for me, personally, it absolutely did not disappoint.</div>
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More than that, it exceeded my expectations (which were high) and managed to not only surprise me with events I had already read about online before I saw the movie but surprise me with events that I'd managed to miss when reading.</div>
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Technically there is nothing at all I can find to pick at. The look and feel of the movie is perfect. The performances are outstanding - even those with minutes of screen-time rather than hours (there are a lot of supporting characters!) shine. Not a single minute of Rises' gargantuan one hour and forty four minutes running time drags. In fact, I could easily have sat through a further thirty or so minutes and watched some of those supporting characters develop a little more than they did. Which is not to say they weren't developed as it is!</div>
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Christian Bale gives his finest performance as Bruce Wayne (and matches the growling intensity of The Dark Knight as Batman) and, obviously, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and (a slightly underused) Michael Caine are wonderful! But it's the new additions to Nolan's trilogy that are the most complex and interesting characters in this movie.</div>
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Tom Hardy excels as the terrifying and often horrifying Bane, probably the character who is taken furthest from his comic-book roots for this movie. Doing more 'proper acting' with his eyes than should be possible, his masked criminal mastermind is just a step above Ledger's Joker in terms of sheer uncomfortable realism, in my opinion at least. But his intelligence and physical superiority means he was never going to need to worry about getting his arse kicked by Batman. He is, in all aspects, the stronger man and Batman is absolutely no match for him, whereas the Joker was a maniac with a stick, poking the Batman, begging to be beaten. </div>
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The voice? Ah, yes. The Voice! I didn't have a problem at all understanding what Bane was saying behind his mask, but - as I've heard another reviewer say - it's a bit like the aural equivalent of 3D. Just as it takes your eyes a while to forget it's watching a 3D film and enjoy it so here it takes a while to 'get over' Bane's odd diction and almost-unidentifiable accent. I think his voice is incredible, personally. Strange, uncomfortably chirpy on occasions and completely unique. Bane is definitely the greatest threat Batman (and Gotham) has ever had to face, simply because HE COULD WIN!</div>
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Then there's Selina Kyle (Hathaway) who, throughout the whole movie, is never once referred to as Cat Woman. And I'm pleased. Hathaway gives a career-defining performance as the most believable Cat Woman we've ever had. </div>
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She combines clever and capable with sassy and sexy and never once feels like a cardboard cutout Doctor Who companion. Every second she's on screen - whether imprisoned, thieving, riding a bike, kicking people in the head or simply purrrring honey-coloured threats at old Batty Bats - is a pleasure to behold. When she puts her night-vision goggles up onto her head they look like cat ears and she has a tight black suit she wears when she burgles places, but that's as much costume as we get. Outstanding.</div>
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But the brightest light in all of this is seemingly ordinary but totally moral and committed rookie detective John Blake - a throwaway performance of the best kind; the complexity bestowed in this character seems effortless coming from Joseph Gordon-Levitt - who refuses to give up the good fight, even when Batman is forced to. </div>
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He is every inch the hero Bruce Wayne is, which pays off for fans when he's revealed to have been Robin all along. No costume. No mask. Just a very capable, very motivated helping hand. The reveal itself is cheeky and some-though-not-I may say tacked on; a simple "you may have my legal name on the form..." to the executor of Bruce Wayne's last will and testament (more about that in a second) and her reply of "you should use your legal name more often. It's nice, Robin" or words to that effect. And as soon as the word pops out of her mouth you realise that, OF COURSE he's Robin! He has been since about 30 minutes into the movie. And you didn't even bloody notice. </div>
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But here's the thing. We're being led up a blind alley. We have been for years. Bane isn't the main villain here, regardless of how this movie was promoted. Oh no, not at all! He's A main villain, yes. But he's just the wheels of a much larger machine. The League Of Shadows have finally put their plan for Gotham into action, now led by Talia Al Ghul (masquerading as Wayne Enterprises board member and Bruce Wayne's love interest Miranda Tate, played by Marion Cotillard). </div>
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The weaving and twisting and fraying of back-stories is meant to trick you into thinking that the 'one escapee' from the notorious hell-hole of a prison - where a crippled Bruce Wayne is sent by a victorious Bane - 'a child' referenced throughout the last two acts of this film is in fact Bane. Though, when the next almost-reveal is that the child's father was a mercenary called Ra's Al Ghul, those of you who know your comics will suss the misdirection immediately. But all the same, it's a lovely misdirection and a great way to up the jeopardy at the eleventh hour.</div>
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Throw everything I've talked about above (which is a lot, so thanks for your patience) together and you reach an ending that will thrill. </div>
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Bruce Wayne is dead, disintegrated in the neutron blast that would have demolished Gotham if not for the Batman's timely arrival and self-sacrifice. His estate is divided up. Property sold on. The day saved. The enemy defeated. The bat cave passed into the trusted hands of John 'Robin' Blake. Nightwing? Possibly. Or just the man to carry the Dark Knight into the future. What better time for Alfred to grab a coffee at his favourite Italian cafe?</div>
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Some will say the ending is open to interpretation, others will disagree. I think it's pretty clear what the ending is actually all about. I think interpretation is one thing, not looking at the screen so you're able to interpret as you see fit is quite another. But what this ending is - without question - is fitting and satisfying. I loved it.</div>
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This movie has heart. You really care about the characters and their motives. Even the villains drag a cold, clammy, long-withheld empathy from your rigid bones. You'll laugh, you'll cry etc. But this film also delivers action on a truly epic scale. New toys like The Bat - an armored tank/helicopter - and Batman's EMP rifle are enough to keep the cool quota up without setting a foot into unbelievable territory. And The Dark Knight Rises has one of the best fight sequences I've seen for a while. Seeing your hero pounded to a pulp and left broken by the bad guy is a terrifying thing to witness in itself. The combination of pure joy and 'all in a day's work' that Tom Hardy manages to portray when he leaves Batman's shattered cowl in the gutter is enough to send shivers down the spine of any Batfan. </div>
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I've talked and talked, yet tried to be as balanced and withheld as possible with my gushing enthusiasm and praise, but I'm still unable to find a single thing to complain about. This movie is the perfect final chapter to what is undoubtedly the greatest superhero trilogy every committed to film. The film <i>as a film </i>is near-perfect, only losing credibility points as possibly the best crime drama/disaster movie of the last fifteen years due to the fact that its main character is dressed up like a bat. There is so much more I have to say but this post is already almost as long as the movie it's about, so I'll sum up (though, expect edits after I been to see it again).</div>
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Batman Begins was fantastic; a new, more realistic Batman for an ever more demanding audience. The Dark Knight was, thanks to stellar performances all round and a genuinely iconic take on an iconic villain, exceptional. But The Dark Knight Rises manages to pip its predecessor to the title of "Best Comic Book Movie Ever" through sheer intelligence, spectacle and a chillingly resonant and relevant story. Perfect performances. Perfect Pacing. Perfect end to a perfect story.</div>
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Nolan's trilogy may be over but there are so many places this could go from here... <span style="background-color: white;">Rise.</span></div>
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<b>9.5/10</b><br />
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(It would be 10/10 but I want to see it again before I blow my last 0.5)<br />
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EDIT: Saw it again yesterday. Wow. The score goes up! 10/10!</div>Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-86393186834392057192012-06-23T19:15:00.000+01:002012-06-23T20:44:45.777+01:00The Doctor. The Villain.<div style="text-align: justify;">
You know what? I've been thinking... </div>
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(This is a bit wordy, so please bear with me! And yes, I know this post is just speculation like everything else, but it's what I think people seem to miss when they talk about this storyline. We take the Doctor's goodness for granted).</div>
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There's been a lot of debate on Gallifrey Base and around the internet about how odd the plans of the main villains from series six - The Silence - have been. First they apparently tried to blow the universe up and blame the Doctor, so say many on forums, then they trained his Mrs to assassinate him. But why? Why not just use their obvious capabilities to put him out of action in a way that's easier than the convoluted, round-the-houses way they have done? As I've said, I've been thinking. Here's why I think we're calling the wrong people "Villain". (* = Probably)</div>
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THE SILENCE</div>
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We've been told that the Silence are "a religious order" who were formed to prevent... something... happening when the Doctor answers a Question on the Fields of Trenzalore - a place where, it seems, nobody can tell a lie. If you answer a question, you'll have to do so truthfully... there's nothing else for you to do. When said question is asked of the Doctor and he answers in his honest way - as he must - something awful will happen*. It's what they are all about. It's what they want to prevent. It's what they were founded to prevent! And since they have insider knowledge that this will indeed happen unless something changes, they pledge to stop the Doctor ever reaching Trenzalore. If he never gets there he can never be asked the Question so he can never answer it so nothing bad will happen. Silence Must Fall. And the best way to assure it does is to see that the Doctor is out of play.</div>
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MADAME KOVARIAN</div>
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Assisting The Order Of The Silence in their quest to stop the Doctor reaching Trenzalore is Madame Kovarian, a capable woman herself! She seems to be the leader of the more organised sections of the Order. She leads an army all of her own and they're also capable. She's an outside contractor brought in by this Religious Order to assist with the capture or kill of the Doctor. </div>
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What she isn't is the boss. She's not the leader of the whole Order, as some seem to believe. She's a middle-(wo)man. The whole Turn River Into A Weapon thing was her doing (see PLAN B, a little lower down the page). But the order came from (or was approved by) those above her in the pecking order. </div>
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THE MONSTERS</div>
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Allied to the Order Of The Silence are a species that you will forget as soon as you've seen them. Bulbous-headed and seemingly vicious, they have been hiding on Earth, scavenging technology and whatever else they need from a human race that simply forgets they are there. It's the perfect hiding place - in plain sight, but out of mind. These Silents are the footsoldiers acting for the Order on Earth. </div>
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We've seen them electrocute, then disintegrate, an innocent woman in the toilets of the White House in 1969. We've watched them drive a kind-hearted Orphanage worker out of his mind through contact with them and their unique ability. The Silents were the architects of the plot to send every enemy the Doctor had ever faced after him by framing him for the impending end of the Universe (see PLAN A). And maybe it's time to look a little closer to the ways in which Kovarian, the Silents and a previously-friendly Church of Clerics have tried to halt the Doctor in his tracks, stopping him ever getting anywhere close to the ill-fated Trenzalore incident.</div>
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PLAN A</div>
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Plan A has been seen by many on internet forum sites and elsewhere as a bit stupid; "why would the Silence want to destroy the Universe? Surely that's counter-productive? And if that wasn't their aim, surely they're intelligent enough to know that blowing up the TARDIS would take much of existence with it? If you think this, I have this to say to you: You're not quite getting it!</div>
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Plan A was actually this! Trick the most dangerous and capable races in all of history into thinking that the Doctor will fly his TARDIS into one day in the near future and there it will explode, taking all of history with it. Obviously, even the most evil of the sane races in the Universe don't want this. So they all form an Alliance and swear to capture the Doctor, trap him in the ultimate prison - The Pandorica - and by doing so, stop him ever taking that TARDIS to the ill-fated date of The End Of The Universe - for dramatic purposes, Amy and Rory's wedding day. Of course, it did have to be a day the Silence knew the Alliance would KNOW the Doctor would visit; no good setting the explosion for midnight on January 3rd 1920 since there's no guarantee he'll ever get there, so there's no immediate threat. All the Silence needed to do would be to set the TARDIS to explode, through whatever complex means they can, when it reaches a specific time and date, one the Alliance would be unable to miss if watching the Doctor. They chose the one day they knew the Doctor would visit - an explosion would happen pn the day when he would drop Amy home to get married. </div>
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Since they seem to think that only the Doctor can pilot the TARDIS ("The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know...") everything should be fine once the Alliance trap the Doctor and lock him up for good. What they didn't count on is the Doctor's squeeze. River. She, too, can pilot the TARDIS and does so, unfortunately, just when she shouldn't. And so play out the events of the Series Five finale.</div>
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And there it is, Plan A fails. The Doctor escaped his prison, reboots the Universe and the unintentional race toward Trenzalore continues... So it's time for Plan B!</div>
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PLAN B</div>
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Grab the Time Baby, conceived on the Wedding night following the failure of Plan A, and turn her into a sleeper agent, primed to kill the Doctor. </div>
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So Kovarian takes Amy while pregnant, replaces her with a Flesh Avatar, and "cultivates" a weapon by tweaking the DNA of this already-special baby. But the Doctor, being awesome, notices that there's something not quite right with Amy. He figures she's Flesh and triggers the events of A Good Man Goes To War. Unfortunately for arrogant old Mr Who, Kovarian has set a double-bluff trap (of course he was going to come after them!) and whisks poor Melody Pond away to start her life of training! The seed is planted that she must find the Doctor and stay as close to him as she can! Which, as his wife, is pretty close.</div>
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In Let's Kill Hitler we see Melody become the River Song we know and love. She plants a killer kiss on his lips and off she goes to have fun. But, because this is the Doctor we're talking about, she can't stay away long and ends up sacrificing her remaining regenerations to save his life. Not what the Silence wanted to happen at ALL! She's the weapon, but it would seem that someone else needs to be the one pulling the trigger.</div>
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A bit of fiddling by the Silent Monsters and a 1960s NASA space suit is ready for use as an energy weapon. One that River can be put inside, one that will take her against her will to a lakeside confrontation with the Doctor. Poor River. Poor Doctor. </div>
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Of course, she's River Bloody Song and she's not going to let a space suit force her to kill the man she loves! So she depletes the power in the weapon systems and spoils time. Cue the events of The Wedding Of River Song, during which we see that the Doctor is, again, one step ahead. He's figured out a way to cheat death and keep the Silence off his back at the same time! Ladies and gents, THE TESSELECTA - a robotic shape-shifting device staffed by miniaturised people. Shrink the Doc down, shove him in a robotic Doctor suit and allow River to kill THAT, all the while the Doctor and his TARDIS are safely sealed inside. </div>
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THE OUTCOME</div>
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It now seems, to the Silence, that the Doctor is dead and burned. River is imprisoned for his murder and there is no chance whatsoever of our hero reaching Trenzalore. That means the Question will never be asked of him. That means he won't ever be able to answer. That means the awful thing the Silence are trying hard to prevent* is prevented. Job done. </div>
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BUT</div>
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Our Doctor just can't bow out, can he? He's still alive and now, after a chat with Dorium's head, he knows that the Question he's due to answer at Trenzalore - the one the Silence have destroyed universes to prevent being answered - is out there, waiting for him. Since he's still alive he's still destined to reach the dreaded Fields of Trenzalore! And now he knows something else: The Question is all about him. About his origin, or his name, or his identity! Doctor Who?! How on earth do you expect this madman with a box to stay away from that?! At least when people thought he was alive the Silence were there to prevent this awful situation! Now he's presumed dead I think it's fair to presume that the Silence are sitting about in the HQ Bar back on Demon's Run, sipping White Russians and playing cards! </div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YUnAuzEDoGU/T-YEnyYWDfI/AAAAAAAABBs/2wdN8dCIpXE/s1600/Simon-Fisher-Becker1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YUnAuzEDoGU/T-YEnyYWDfI/AAAAAAAABBs/2wdN8dCIpXE/s320/Simon-Fisher-Becker1.jpg" width="320" /></a>So who's the villain here? The Silence have only really killed one person in cold blood, as far as I remember. That woman in the toilets back in '69. But how else would they have been able to drop the hint to Amy that she needed to share her baby news with the Doctor? What if the woman had called for the guards? What if they'd come in and shot the Silent dead there and then? Couldn't have that. Collateral Damage. <span style="background-color: white;">Other than that - and yes, I know this whole post hangs on the point that the Silence are trying to prevent something terrible happening, but that's how it's played out, right? - all the Silence have done is their very, very best to prevent the answer to The First Question being given. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">It's our Doctor that is hell-bent on pushing forward, reaching Trenzalore, showing himself again. When he reaches the Fields (as he inevitably will) we know it'll be at the Fall of the Eleventh - probably the Doctor's death and justly so! I'm sure he doesn't mean to doom us all, but it seems that once he gets to Trenzalore that's just what he'll be doing, against all the warnings of the Silence throughout the last two years.</span></div>
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I just hope the Silence can sober up in time to save us from the Doctor's reckless behaviour before it's too late. Don't be too harsh on the Silence, they're trying to stop a mad man with a box from unleashing a terrible fate on us all.</div>
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<b>TEAM SILENCE!!!</b></div>
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<br /></div>Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-39579554401238789772012-06-17T14:39:00.000+01:002012-06-17T14:40:26.938+01:00Red Lights - Don't Look Too Closely For Them<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The cast of Rodrigo Cortés' second offering all have something to prove. Sigourney Weaver and Robert De Niro, especially, have spent their recent years filling stunt-cast roles in dead-in-the-middle-of-the-road movies starring "new actors" - the </span>equivalent<span style="font-family: inherit;"> of that Charlton Heston cameo in Wayne's World 2. But I'm completely convinced that Red Lights is not only a great big "sorry" from them, but also a "we can still do this, see?".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Firstly, I know this review is wordy and lacking in details. I would love to write a "spoiler filled" review but I honestly believe that it would be an awful thing to do. So, you'll have to make do with a bare-bones synopsis and just enough vague comment and enthusiasm to annoy. So...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The premise of the film is age-old; Sceptics investigate paranormal activity with varying results. Here, a University psychology lecturer Margaret Matheson (an iron-clad performance from Weaver) and her physicist assistant Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy, proving here that he is every inch a leading man) spend their ample time and dwindling financial backing trying to expose fraudulent paranormal happenings - seances, faith healing, spoon bending - by looking for what they call red lights; the clues on show, to those who know where to look, which reveal the fakers' methods. The first hour of the film is, indeed, a fascinating how-to showcase of the methods used by table-tippers, mind-readers and money-grabbers. And it really is great. not only interesting and insightful but a perfect rationale, setting us up for the film's second act...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Which is this: Blind stage psychic, Simon Silver (a perfect performance by a recently-rubbish De Niro), once enjoyed success to rival that of Uri Geller in the 70s. He was the world's most popular paranormal performer, churning out psychic surgery, levitation and mumbo-jumbo to audiences of thousands. That was until a journalist who dared to heckle Silver at a show some years ago collapsed and died before he could so much as utter the word "fraud". Those convinced of Silver's powers were shaken by the possibility that maybe, just maybe, Silver psychic'd the journalist to death. Those more sceptical championed more grounded foul play. And now Simon Silver has come out of retirement for one last hurrah.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Determined to reveal Silver as the fraud he must by (surely?) Buckley sets out, with his hi-tech gear, to get him, against all the warnings from Matheson, who learnt long ago not to go up against the powerful and resourceful Silver.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And so the film drives towards a seemingly predictable final act via a generous sprinkling of genuinely unnerving set-pieces, successfully deployed jump scares and a rather brutal (even OTT?) fight sequence. Either Simon Silver is a powerful fraud hell-bent on keeping his secret or he's a genuinely powerful individual with actual psychic abilities... but which is it? The film does its best to lead you down blind alleys, make you look in the wrong places and listen to the wrong people, and make guesses as to the outcome the whole way through. And yet it still manages to slip twist after twist past you without you realising that you've probably already thought of them, about an hour ago, "when he did that, or said this, or appeared be whatever". </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">And that last comment - that you'd have already thought of the twists - is not a complaint. It's not a negative in any way. In fact, it's a perfect safety-net for a closing sequence that, in one single line uttered by Psychic Silver, sends the audience into a spin that changes the direction you thought the film was heading, whatever direction you thought it was heading.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The ending of this film will divide audiences, there's no question about that. I'd say a good 70% of you will think "that ruined it". That's not how I felt at all. In fact, when the answer to the Silver Question arrives, when he makes his admission (sort of), I felt that the rug had been pulled from beneath me and a smile spread across my face. This is the sort of film you can watch at least three times, in three different ways, and enjoy on three different levels. And genre-wise, too, it has levels. If you like jumpy suspense movies, watch it and jump. If you like sceptical, intelligent, thoughtful thrillers then this is for you. If you're looking for a paranormal drama then, sure, take that. It's everything you need it to be, a load of what you never expected for one second and only a little bit of what you wish it wasn't. But then, if it was perfect, I would be giving it that last star.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This film is packed with great supporting turns from Brits Toby Jones, Joely Richardson and Craig Roberts and a lovely little performance from Elizabeth Olsen. The only bad performance comes at the very start, from the hairdresser-cum-medium at the seance, but I wonder if that was deliberate? Oh, and eyes open for a fantastic 70s-era De Niro impression. One word of warning, though: Don't search TOO closely for this movie's Red Lights; it was the journey to the reveal and the surprise that comes from it that made this film such an edge-of-my-seat pleasure to watch. Wonderful stuff.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px;">★</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px;">★</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px;">★</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px;">★ </span></div>Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-23089423417286022612012-06-05T17:49:00.000+01:002012-06-05T17:49:11.850+01:00It's Been A While...<div style="text-align: justify;">
Oh, hello! Sorry. I've not posted anything on here in a while... I've been pretty busy with one thing or another. But now I have a little more time on my hands I promise to start blogging again more regularly. So, shall we have a little catch up?</div>
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First off, DOCTOR WHO! Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill have finished their time on the show. Amy and Rory Pond/Williams are set to leave the Doctor and the TARDIS in a story to be shown later this year. The new companion will be played by Jenna Louise Coleman who, we have found out, will be called Clara. </div>
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That's pretty much all we know at the moment, so there's not much more to tell. But there'll be lots more to come, no doubt! So stay tuned.</div>
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Honestly, I am really sorry for not blogging in months. I feel like I've got to get my mojo back now. Like I've forgotten how to do this properly (though some may argue that I never did it properly in the first place...).</div>
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What else has happened? Ummmm..... OH YEAH! The Jubilee! There were some boats, then a concert (with Madness playing on the roof of Buckingham Palace, complete with a street of houses projected on the palace front, which looked great!) and then today there was a parade or something. Then the Queen went to bed because she's eighty-fucking-six and she doesn't give a shiny shit about the Jubilee herself! So that was nice too.</div>
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This really is a post about nothing, I'm afraid, but I'm warming up to some cracking reviews of things I've watched recently (well, in the last few months) including blogs about Homeland, The Apprentice and a sarcastic one about RTD's upcoming kids' drama/fantasy Wizards vs Aliens! One last time: sorry I've been gone so long...</div>
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Oh, and last night we won the Quiz Of Rassilon... No big deal.</div>Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5068530050296707962.post-46196183219381925732012-01-05T05:57:00.001+00:002012-01-05T07:43:44.081+00:00I, Partridge - We Need To Talk About Alan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MALxOvIeOYw/TwU4cB5PFuI/AAAAAAAAA9U/-AmSWqISVis/s1600/Alan-Partridge-007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="192" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MALxOvIeOYw/TwU4cB5PFuI/AAAAAAAAA9U/-AmSWqISVis/s320/Alan-Partridge-007.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Between the ages of 15 and 22 I presented a weekly show on a local radio station that drew in excess of 500 listeners per show. It was something I loved doing and something I would never have done if it weren't for the inspiration lit within me by one Alan Gordon Partridge.</div>
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I've just finished reading Alan's second autobiography, I, Partridge (I unfortunately could not get hold of his first offering, Bouncing Back, since it was only on sale for a short while before poor uptake prompted the pulping of each and every unsold copy. I missed out. A shame. But this new book is a must for anyone with a dream of working in broadcasting (any medium).</div>
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Chronicling his life from birth to present, the tome goes further than his previous one, dealing with all aspects of his life and career; not just focussing on his battle with and recovery from Toblerone addiction.</div>
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I don't believe I have ever read a more inspirational, more open and more honest account of any one man's life. I laughed, I cried, I made notes. I shan't share them with you because I don't want to spoil the narrative. This really is a book you should pick up and read yourself. LOVELY STUFF!</div>Gareth Bundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15005286348783070800noreply@blogger.com