Monday, May 19, 2008

This is quite funny, its a list of travel tips according to horror movies. It includes advice such as making sure you choose a desolate location with plenty of abandoned caves or mine shafts to visit. Other advice includes making sure you take at least one black friend because he will always be the first to die so will warn you about anything that might threaten the rest of the group. Advice on what to pack recommends taking revealing clothing or bathing suits but leaving out unnecessary items such as cell phones, first aid kits or a spare tyre as these will only weigh you down. Other tips including streamlining your group by having everyone head out on their own. Apparently this tactic is useful because then at least one person is guaranteed to make it out alive. It's all good advice and its worth reading the rest of the article.

posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 10:57:56 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0] Trackback
 Thursday, May 15, 2008

Fraggles_450x450 People who remember Fraggle Rock will be pleased to hear that the Fraggles are back. They will star in a new musical film where they leave Fraggle Rock and head for the real world. The film is expected to be released next year.

posted on Thursday, May 15, 2008 1:01:31 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [1] Trackback
 Thursday, January 03, 2008
I watched a documentary last night about a new type of doll called a Reborn. The dolls are highly customised to make them look as close to a real baby as possible even down to features such as veins and scratches. They weigh about the same as a real baby and have rooted hair and even manicured nails. The result is a doll like the one below.


The documentary which was shown on Channel 4 last night followed a lady who customises these dolls in order to make them look as real as she can. Personally I find the dolls more than a little disturbing but what I found more disturbing was some of the people that purchase them.

The programme centred on a few individuals, one lady who has converted a room in her house into a nursery. She owned several dolls and spent her time buying them expensive clothes, changing their nappies and styling their hair. She even went as far as to take them out shopping with her in a pram. The programme went onto to show her excitement at going to the US specifically to pick up her new “baby”, only to find it was not perfect and she would need to leave it behind, despite the fact she had already bonded with it.

Another lady featured in the documentary wanted a baby as a substitute grandson. Her grandson Harry had lived with her for the first few years of his life, when his mother had met a new partner and emigrated leaving the grandmother, missing the baby. Her solution was to visit the doll maker who made her a “Harry baby” which she appeared to adore. Her husband, however, was not so enthusiastic bout the new addition to the family. Personally I felt this lady would have benefitted from either spending some time with her real grandson or seeking some help to get over her feeling of loss.

You can view some of the clips from the documentary here but I think most people will agree there is something slightly odd about a grown woman pushing a doll around a shopping centre in a pram. As for the dolls themselves I’m not sure why but they remind me a little bit of Childs Play, maybe I’m missing the point? Either way the programme made interesting viewing.
posted on Thursday, January 03, 2008 4:27:04 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0] Trackback
 Thursday, November 08, 2007
I read this article about a new show called Arrange Me A Marriage which will be screened on BBC2 later on in November. The show will be hosted by Aneela Rahman who will match couples based on class, education, family background, life goals and earnings. Once the couples have been selected they will then have an introduction party to see how they get on. Aneela Rahman believes that British ways of finding a partner are random and likely to fail. It will be interesting to see how many matches are made based on her introductions.

posted on Thursday, November 08, 2007 12:58:25 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0] Trackback
 Friday, October 12, 2007
A new Wallace and Gromit short film is coming to TV next year. It is called Trouble At’ Mill and is about Wallace and Gromit’s attempts to run a bakery. The half hour long film will be screened BBC One late next year. I’m looking forward to it.

posted on Friday, October 12, 2007 4:42:53 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0] Trackback
 Monday, October 01, 2007
The BBC Trust has given its backing to a BBC high definition channel. It is expected that the channel will include programmes from across the BBC’s current channels and not just from BBC1. They are considering launching a four hour HD service on Freeview initially before rolling out the new channel later. It will be interesting to see how popular the service proves to be.

posted on Monday, October 01, 2007 8:00:14 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0] Trackback
 Friday, July 20, 2007

An owl shaped maze has been created into a farmer’s field to mark the lance of the latest Harry Potter book. The maze is 600ft/ 193m long. Amazing.

posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 6:15:34 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0] Trackback

I came across these great Simpsons quotes. Among some of the good ones are “Your questions have become more redundant and annoying than the last three “Highlander movies” from Comic Book Guy and “I’m normally not a praying man, but if you’re up there, please save me, Superman” from Homer.

posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 9:33:05 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0] Trackback
 Monday, April 09, 2007

I found this funny post listing 27 things computers are able to do in movies. My favourite is “All computers are connected. You can access the information on a villain’s desktop computer even if it’s turned off."

posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 11:18:43 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0] Trackback
 Monday, March 19, 2007

I watched Over the Hedge at the weekend and as with most of the movies from DreamWorks Animation I loved it. The animals wake up from hibernation to find a large green hedge all around their home. On further investigation they find that during the winter whilst they were asleep their forest has been turned into a housing estate and only a small square of their home remains. This means they have to look for other methods of foraging food. At this point a mischievous raccoon arrives in the forest. He has a dilemma, having just upset a very large bear whose food supply he has destroyed. The raccoon decides that the best way to solve his problem is to use his new found forest friends to collect food for the bear so that he can avoid getting eaten. This leads to a series of amusing scenes where the forest animals are introduced to human food and after having a taste of what looks like Doritos they suddenly don’t find their usual diet quite as interesting as before. The raccoon goes on a number of expeditions over the hedge to collect food causing a lot of commotion with the humans who would rather not have vermin running around the housing state. Once enough food has been collected the raccoon betrays the rest of the animals to take the food to the bear and save his own life. Unfortunately because his exploits have upset the humans they call in the verminator, a pest control expert to get rid of the animals. Luckily the raccoon eventually sees the error of his ways and returns to rescue his friends. His plan involves feeding fizzy drinks to a hyperactive squirrel who is then able to move faster than the eye can see and save the day. In all it’s a funny movie and great family fun.

posted on Monday, March 19, 2007 9:27:24 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0] Trackback
 Monday, March 12, 2007


I watched the new Borat movie at the weekend. The first thing I would say about this movie is don’t watch it if you are easily offended. On the surface the movie goes out of its way to be politically incorrect on a number of issues mostly on its treatment of the Jewish faith and Borat’s attitude towards women. However, I think it’s the more subtle references that for me provide most of the humour. I like the part where Borat speaking to a bunch of rednecks at a rodeo says he supports “America’s war of terror” note the subtle slip which the rednecks appear to put down to Borat’s poor grasp of the English language.

I also particularly like the part where Borat when driving an ice cream van accidentally turns the music on causing children to run towards it only for a large bear to appear at the window. The most interesting thing about this movie is that it is shot with a mixture of actors and real people whom are not aware of Borat’s real identity. In some scenes it is obvious that the actors know what is happening but in others we have real people thinking they are talking to a real journalist from Kazakhstan instead of a comedian posing as one.

This makes for very interesting viewing, for example when Borat is talking to a feminist group and asks why do we bother educating women when they have such small brains. The boundaries between real and scripted scenes are frequently blurred. I would hope that the redneck who shows such strong prejudices about homosexuals and Muslims is an actor and not a real person but we can’t really be sure. It’s either a very good example of real racist prejudices in American society or clever acting.

In all I enjoyed the movie although there are a lot of moments where you find yourself cringing at Borat’s treatment of innocent unsuspecting Americans. Still thats part of the films appeal.

posted on Monday, March 12, 2007 7:12:44 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0] Trackback