Emo Nemo

Mily

Yourneighbor

Sarah

Shaidrian Rios

Jimmy Beans

miCCwatreSSop

Julie Wynne - videos

Kapuster

Nicky Tallon

Harini Sen

Vastralaya

Update I've just watched the film. It's even better than the book, by a long way. It's very affectionate, and very much played for gentle laughs. The cast is fantastic, some of the best actresses around including Eileen Atkins and Joanna Ab Fab Lumley, Stephen Fry and Ian McKellan. The attention to detail was stunning. Everything had been thought of - the lighting, colours and even face makeup of the women changed to reflect the lessening of the stranglehold Aunt Ada Doom had on the Starkadders and the lightness that Robert Post's child, Flora, brought to the farm. The ending was also an improvement on the 5* book. If you like British films, this is so typical of gentle British humour. In an earlier decade it would have been an Ealing film. I don't think it could have been made in the US as most of the actors weren't remotely good looking. Even Elvine, playing a mini Eliza Doolittle role (an obvious pastiche) was rather average and the sex-obsessed and over-fertile girl had been made up to look like an unwashed farm girl. Only Kate Beckinsale (who is not the world's most brilliant actress, although she was competent here, was allowed to be a beauty. I do recommend the film. And the book. Rarely do I see a film much better than a really good book, but this is it. John Schlesinger and Stella Gibbons, author and director, geniuses both._______________________When Aunt Ada Doom was just a small child, she saw "something nasty in the woodshed". And if it didn't blight her entire life, she certainly made sure it would blight, or at least add even more blight, to everyone else at Cold Comfort Farm, the family home and ancestral seat of the Starkadders.Essentially this is the American tv series, the Hillbillies rewritten for 1930s Sussex and parodying Hardy, Lawrence, and various other Great British Writers, but is more related to the Hillbillies with incest, hellfire, strange obsessions (cows) and all manner of people who all have mental or emotional problems of the darker, more malign sort. Into this maelstrom of petty evil, fear and ineptness, come the heroine. Flora Poste is the posh city cousin fallen on hard times whose father the Starkadders did something unmentionable to and feel guilty about so when she has nowhere to go, they take her in. But not willingly. She sorts them all out and brings them from their ignorant, Gothic-y insular life into the modern world. It is a ridiculously funny novel, not as literary as the parodying might suggest. I haven't seen the film of it, only just learned there was one, which was apparently brilliant and stars top British actors and actresses (as opposed to 'stars' famous more for their beauty than any thespian ability). Sometimes I don't want to see the film of a favourite book in case the director hasn't seen it the same way as I have, but this time I want to.Finished 26 Dec. 2011Book review 19 May 2015Film Review 24 May 2015

I hate to be facetious about this, but it’s true. I love to read good books as much as I love to discover which ones are actual impostors—that is, which ones are overrated past the norm, books like “On the Road,” “Catcher in the Rye,” or anything by Ayn Rand. Yuck. Well, this one won the Booker, which I can only guess is a HUGE deal. But I guess the year this book was published there were a few other, if any, contenders for the top prize.It’s certainly not awful. It’s actually entertaining, readable, sometimes funny. There is true mastery of the language here, an even flow. The tone is more tolerable than say, Emma Donoghue’s “Room” which is also about a child growing up. But, although I am not at all a fan of the almighty “Huck Finn”, I must say that this one does not possess that wackiness—there is some unconscious logic to Twain's tale, at the very least. This is a chapterless novel; a pretty ordinary account of a pretty ordinary boy. What is the main motor that keeps the prose congruent, that makes the entire novel work? The fact that Patrick’s parents fight. That's all. They keep it private, they try to keep the kids out of it, yet this still registers within Paddy… he’s human alright, just not a remarkable one.Indeed Bookers are bestowed upon (like the Pulitzers here in the U.S.) to novels that exemplify the experience of being European (American for a Pulitzer). This hits several targets to become a well-loved book, but it still remains a coming-of-age story of an Irish imp—a precocious, slightly evil ten year old boy. Who do we side with in this account of playground cruelty &amp; cute impressions? With the bully? The victim? In this case, I would say... neither.Apathy is the worst type of feeling a book can give its reader.

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is set in the early days of the second world war, before Benito Mussolini invaded Greece. Dr Iannis practices medicine on the island of Cephalonia, accompanied by his daughter, Pelagia, to whom he imparts much of his healing art. Even when the Italians do invade, life isn’t so bad—at first anyway. The officer in command of the Italian garrison is the cultured Captain Antonio Corelli, who responds to a Nazi greeting of “Heil Hitler” with his own “Heil Puccini”, and whose most precious possession is his mandolin. It isn't long before Corelli and Pelagia are involved in a heated affair--despite her engagement to a young fisherman, Mandras, who has gone off to join Greek partisans. Love is complicated enough in wartime, even when the lovers are on the same side. And for Corelli and Pelagia, it becomes increasingly difficult to negotiate the minefield of allegiances, both personal and political, as all around them atrocities mount, former friends become enemies and the ugliness of war infects everyone it touches. British author Louis de Bernières is well known for his forays into magical realism in such novels as The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman. Here he keeps it to a minimum, though certainly the secondary characters with whom he populates his island—the drunken priest, the strongman, the fisherman who swims with dolphins—would be at home in any of his wildly imaginative Latin American fictions. Instead, de Bernières seems interested in dissecting the nature of history as he tells his ever-darkening tale from many different perspectives. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin works on many levels, as a love story, a war story and a deconstruction of just what determines the facts that make it into the history books.

This collection brings together music played by Captain Corelli himself and original pieces evoking the sounds and events of the book and of 3 earlier novels, the Latin Trilogy', by Louis de Bernieres. Mandolin music by Beethoven and Hummel is idiomatically arranged for piano by Richard Harris and contrasted with Neapolitan songs, folk songs from Latin America and Greece, and music by Stephen Warbeck.

In Black Ops 3, Treyarch introduces a new momentum-based chained-movement system which enables players to fluidly move through the environment with finesse, usi...

WWII - a breathtaking experience that redefines World War II for a new gaming generation. Land in Normandy...

Brothers in Arms is a fun action game while it lasts, which isn't very long at all....

A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.

1999 American drama film directed by Sam Mendes

A sole survivor tells of the twisty events leading up to a horrific gun battle on a boat, which began when five criminals met at a seemingly random police lineup.

1995 German-American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Bryan Singer

<p>Star Wars is a 1977 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas, produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is the first film in the Star Wars film series and fourth chronological chapter of the "Skywalker Saga". Set "a long time ago" in a fictional universe where the galaxy is ruled by the tyrannical Galactic Empire, the story focuses on a group of freedom fighters known as the Rebel Alliance, who aim to destroy the Empire's newest weapon, the Death Star. Luke Skywalker becomes caught in the conflict while learning the ways of a metaphysical power known as "the Force" from Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. The cast includes Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, David Prowse, James Earl Jones, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and Peter Mayhew.</p>

A weatherman finds himself inexplicably living the same day over and over again.

1993 comedy film directed by Harold Ramis

Eddy persuades his three pals to pool money for a vital poker game against a powerful local mobster, Hatchet Harry. Eddy loses, after which Harry gives him a week to pay back 500,000 pounds.

Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency.

1994 American drama film directed by Frank Darabont

Allied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their number to escape from a German camp during World War II.

Renton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out, despite the allure of the drugs and influence of friends.

Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.

2000 crime comedy movie directed by Guy Ritchie

An organized crime dynasty's aging patriarch transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.

1972 American film directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Three amateur bank robbers plan to hold up a bank. A nice simple robbery: Walk in, take the money, and run. Unfortunately, the supposedly uncomplicated heist suddenly becomes a bizarre nightmare as everything that could go wrong does

1975 American crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet

In 1980 Miami, a determined Cuban immigrant takes over a drug cartel and succumbs to greed.

1983 crime drama film directed by Brian De Palma

When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.

1999 American science fiction action thriller film

The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.

1994 American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino

When a simple jewelry heist goes horribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.

An in-depth examination of the ways in which the U.S. Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of people in a small industrial town in Pennsylvania.

1978 American war drama film directed by Michael Cimino

The story of Henry Hill and his life in the mob, covering his relationship with his wife Karen Hill and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito in the Italian-American crime syndicate.

A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.

1979 American war film directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Tragi-comedy following middle-aged taxi driver Karl and the voice inside his head as he attempts to move on from his ex-girlfriend Zoe and care for his auntie Norma.

Karl is faced with the different aspects of life by travelling around the world and discovering how different people face life's challenges.

The show centres on pub landlord Ken (John Henshaw), especially his preoccupation with his daughter Melanie (Christine Bottomley), and his nervous relationship with barmaid Tanya (Susan Cookson). Ken's wife left him for his best frie

Steve is asked to review restaurants for the UK's Observer who is joined on a working road trip by his friend Rob who fills in at the last minute when Coogan's romantic relationship falls apart.

Victor Meldrew is a retiree who attracts bad luck. If he's not driving his long suffering wife Margaret crazy with his constant moaning, he's fighting with neighbours.

Alan is handed a career lifeline - the chance to stand in (temporarily) as co-host on This Time, a weekday magazine show. But can he capitalise on the opportunity?

Cult Scottish comedy about the lives of two OAP's Jack and Victor and their views on how it used to be in the old days and how bad it is now in the fictional area of Craiglang, Glasgow.

Rick Spleen is a world-weary comedian who ends up doing far too many corporate jobs to pay the bills.

The prison life of Fletcher, a criminal serving a five-year sentence, as he strives to bide his time, keep his record clean, and refuses to be ground down by the prison system.

Brit Karl Pilkington has led a sheltered life. Not having done any traveling, he enjoys living within the comforts of what he knows, basically that being what is purely British. As such, his friends, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchan

British travel documentary television series

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant talk to Karl Pilkington about important things in life whilst Karl provides anything but intelligent answers. Comedy at its finest with wonderful animation.

Hotel owner Basil Fawlty's incompetence, short fuse, and arrogance form a combination that ensures accidents and trouble are never far away.

Alan Partridge attempts a celebrity travelogue around his beloved Norwich.

Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) is an actor with ambition and a script. Reduced to working as an extra with a useless agent, Andy's attempts to boost his career invariably end in failure and embarrassment.

Famous DJ Alan Partridge gives us an insight into what happens behind the microphone at North Norfolk digital radio.

Tommy Saxondale is an ex-roadie with anger management issues and his own pest control business in Stevenage. Having survived a hostile divorce, Tommy now lives with his girlfriend Magz. Tommy regards himself as a maverick and free th

Alan Partridge hosts his own chat show on the BBC. He insults and belittles almost all of his guests and is humiliated by the rest.

Alan Partridge, a failed television presenter, is now presenting a programme on local radio in Norwich. He desperately tries to revive his broadcasting career.

music

movies

shows

books

games

podcasts

Active tastebuds