My first Lost related post for a while. It seemed appropriate as things seem to be winding up for the start of the new series. The web is a-wash with blog posts, theories and teasers all waiting to inform, annoy and finally ruin your day with their show spoiling articles. Quite ironic really, me writing this as most of my friends ban me from saying anything about any show as I normally end up letting a bit too much information go. Like last night in the pub where I may have inadvertantly ruined the end of the "The Road" for a friend.

Hey guess what though? I just can't help myself. Check out the the image below.

(Via aint it cool and one of their eagle eyed users who recently visited Hawaii)

It might be a spoiler, but it also might not be...ok it’s a spoiler. Looks like the Hydra station doesn’t it? But knowing my track record of trying to predict these types of things it will be something completely different...like a picture of Jack or something. Ok maybe not a picture of Jack, Kate maybe? Infact I know what it is because it said on the Aint it cool post where I stole the image from. I was just trying to add some mystery where there isn't any. Bad form, I appologise. This is really turning in to a rubbish post, I appologse.

Anwyay, MORE SPOILERS! I hear you cry. Isn’t that what the internet is all about? Spoiling our favourite shows? You demand to know which actors will be returning?. How about pretty much every all of them. Put that in your pipe and smoke it! No surprise really as nothing seems to stay dead for long and that crazy guy in black seems to be able to make himself look like any – dead –body he wants to. To go in to a little bit more detail I will mention names. Boon, Michael, Libby and some others which I can’t remember because I was in the pub till late last nigt spoiling shows for people.

The Lost Initiative will be back of course. I know you either love or hate our childish banter. So if you hate us then go away please you smell of wee. However if you like us than keep an eye out on the horizon that is the SkyOne website, we will be making our triumphant return soon.

Right I’m off to watch the Lovely Bones in the work cinema - living the dream. lol

After a long feminine induced hiatus I'm back with mind crushing news!!!

As a big Spider-Man fan I'm not too devastated by the news the fourth film is canned for now, particularly after the pea soup of a movie they squirted out last time.

The good news!!!

According to the boffins over at aintitcool.com that now means Sam Raimi is going to do the Warcraft movie!!! I know I have a pant ripping erection too.

All we need now is Ted Raimi as a night elf and the man himself Bruce Campbell doing a cameo as some knuckle head hero and I'm in heaven.

Sweet!

I haven’t posted in a while, I think it’s because I have been caught up in all the Christmas shenanigans that tend to fill up your calendar at this time of year.
I’m up in Sheffield at the moment watching the Pigglet Movie on BBC 1, soon to be followed by the Tigger movie apparently. TV this year has been terrible, probably to do with the recession or something. So I thought I would waste sometime on a few kids movies.

One of my biggest grievances this year has been the lack of Scrooged (Bill Murray). That changed last night as it was on Film4. Now I’m not a scheduler but what the hell is that movie doing on the 29th December. There are three films that must be shown on Christmas eve: Scrooged, Elf and Cliff Hanger. It’s not rocket science, hopefully someone will pay attention and fix it for next year.

Anyway, I thought I would post some trailers that have got me excited for the coming year.

Kick–Ass

I got shown this yesterday by Greg. It looks VERY silly, but there is something refreshing about the young girl’s potty mouth.


Iron man 2

I loved the last movie and the sequel looks like more of the same. More drinking, more womanising and loads more flying suits with guns...oh and Mickey Rourke.


Mass Effect 2


Yes it’s a computer game, but the Mass Effect series is as close to a film as you can probably get. The next game stars Martin Sheen, Seth Green and loads of other famous people, good at being famous.

Is Carly Simon Famous? She’s singing at the end of the Pigglet movie. She must be a country singer of something. She definitely hasn’t made it big over in the UK.

Homeward bound 2 is after the Tigger Movie...oh why not, I’ve got nothing better to do.

It's been a hell of a long time since I posted anything on here, as Geeky Tom pointed out yesterday. Rubbish excuse, but I have been meaning to post for ages (I even started one on Pixar's UP a few months ago but got sidelined partway through and never finished). So to try and make amends, here's a bumper post on all the film and telly things recently viewed, in a not-very-concise-at-all manner.

First up - the latest Steven Soderbergh film, THE INFORMANT.


Based - loosely - on the story of real life corporate whistleblower Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), who discovers his agro-chemical company are involved in international price fixing. He turns spy for the FBI, but it becomes apparent over time that Whitacre is a fantastist (perhaps even bi-polar) - and not the most trustworthy of informants...

Damon is excellent as the moustache-sporting, lumpenly egotistical Whitacre, demonstrating strong comedic chops after honing his action hero skills as Jason Bourne. Soderbergh's eye for detail and careful production design lovingly re-creates the look and feel of a midwestern US office in the early 90s, making it seem every bit as historic to us now as the 1960s and 70s. Unfortunately, the satirical schtick only goes so far to make this an entertaining dark comedy, and Whitacre's unreliability as a narator and constant evasiveness make it difficult to engage as a viewer. There's also too much repetition of the central conceit, causing the movie to lag in the middle. Ultimately, The Informant is an exercise in style over substance, lacking a much needed bite of meaty drama.

I was lucky enough to be invited to a preview screening of highly-anticipated Spike Jonze feature WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. Having read a couple of swooning reviews and an interesting feature on the genesis of the movie and the 8 foot tall puppets created by the Jim Henson Company, I was looking forward to this film a lot - perhaps too much. Hearing something's praises sung to the highest heavens does tend to create unrealistic expectations, and while I truly liked this undoubtedly bold, brave, singular movie, I didn't quite feel the sense of magic, of being transported and uplifted, that I secretly wished for.



Nonetheless, I don't have anything bad to say about this movie and it does achieve something really hard to come by in Hollywood movies - a true sense of originality and artistic vision. Max Records gives a wonderful, unreserved performance as 9 year old Max, riven with feelings, fears and impulses he can't fully express. The adult actors, from Catherine Keener as his harried single mother, to James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Forest Whitaker and Catherine O'Hara who voice the astonishing puppets are by turns endearing and scary. And a special mention must go to the beautifully atmospheric music created by, amongst others, musicians from the Yeah Yeah Yeah's, The Raconteurs and Queens of the Stone Age.

Some have said Where The Wild Things Are is about childhood but not for children, and it's hard to see what young viewers used to live action kids' movies and animated family films will make of this. But it does convey the tumultuous and volatile feelings of growing up in way that does justice to Maurice Sendak's bestselling book, with no Disney-fied sugar coating to sweeten the pill.
Go see - and in the right mood, you might really feel the magic Jonze has laboured to create on screen.

This post has run away from me, but in brief then, TV I have been watching recently that you too should be watching:
E4's Misfits - acerbic, dark, funny, self-deprecating and very British;
Sky's Modern Family - best new US sitcom this year;
Glee (coming to E4 next year) - a mix of comedy, drama and musical that is original and joyous;
Mad Men - 60s set ad-men drama continues to scintillate;
Vampire Diaries (ITV2 in Jan) - chiselled teen vamps with enough lust and angst to tide you over til True Blood returns;
Fringe - mind-boggling sci-fi drama brimful of inventiveness;
The Good Wife (More4/C4 next year) ER alumni Julianna Margulies plays a woman who stands by her adulterous US State Attorney husband in this finely-crafted drama;
Flash Forward - it aint Lost, but it's getting better all the time;
V - loved the pilot, not sure I've been convinced by the subsequent three but will persevere.
Finally - it's not current but I've just finished The West Wing and it's now in my all time top shows. If you've never seen it, it's sublime - invest in the box set.

That's it for now...over and out.