27.10.05 - It pretty much sucks to be a Rangers fan right now. Nothing more than mid-table battlers in a league that many consider to be full of glorified pub teams. Last nights 2-2 draw with bottom of the table Livingston is surely another nail in the coffin of Alex McLeish's Ibrox career. I like the man personally, but there is a section of Rangers fans that have never agreed with his selection and will not be happy till he's out the door. Where did it all go wrong? A good start to the season, defending our world record 51st League title, a string of promising signings, an Old Firm victory, a good start to the Champions League, everything was looking good. I could moan about injuries (and justifiably so, practically our entire strike force is out, including the cover we bought for the Champions League), but in reality we haven't played well. It seems we haven't had a settled team since the start of the season, down again to injuries at the back. So, there you go, I am going to blame injuries after all.... :p

Cheering up a bit I caught House of Flying Daggers the other night. This follow up to Hero by Yimou Zhang sees a secretive rebel group trying to take down a corrupt government. A young warrior joins with a blind girl in an effort to join the rebels, but is everyone as they first appear? Like Hero this is a great looking film with bold use of colour. Like Hero it tends to meander and is maybe a little over long. The fight scenes are great though and they are meticulously choreographed. Things get a wee bit confusing later on, and the finale is a little underwhelming. Still, if you like sweeping, epic feeling martial arts films then you'll lap this up. 7/10.

I saw yet another documentary but I have to say, this has been a good year for them. Anyways, March of the Penguins charts the birth cycle of the Emperor Penguin in Antarctica. It's a good film, with some lush scenery. The lengths that these animals have to go to is frankly astounding and it's painful to watch when things go wrong. Morgan Freeman narrates and he's a good choice, although at times I questioned the writing. Who knows if the " loss is unbearable"? Did the director ask the penguin? A small fault for an otherwise great film. 7/10.

I'm always up for a bit of onscreen violence and A History of Violence doesn't disappoint. Arragorn stars in this David Cronenberg film about a small town diner owner who kills a pair of armed robbers. When his heroics make the news a Philadelphia gangster come looking for him, claiming he is a mob hit man that disappeared almost 20 years ago. You know something? I would watch Maria Bello clipping her toenails. She is smokin.... Aside from that, this is a top notch thriller that is probably Cronenberg's most accessible film to date. Not to say it's devoid of his touch as the uber gore at times will attest to. Great performances and top direction, highly recommended. 8/10.

I see Andy Murray beat Tim Henman yesterday. Honestly, did anyone think that wasn't going to happen?

23.10.05 - I'm looking at some older movie news and I see that the new Harry Potter film has been given a 12A rating (PG13 in the US). What gets me is that the news media is making a big deal out of this. A few years ago when I read the book I new that this was going to happen. The 4th book takes a marked dark turn in contrast to the other books. A trend followed by the next 2 books in the series. I look forward to film 7 getting an 18 Certificate because of Harry getting wasted at the school disco and shagging Cho round the back of the bike sheds.....

Last night I watched Tupac: Resurrection, a truly inspired documentary that charts the mans life through his own words. Using a vast pool of video interviews the filmmakers have made Tupac himself the narrator in his own life story. The film doesn't glamorise his life, but instead paints a portrait of an immensely talented man, who's life was ended far to soon thanks to some relations with some dubious gangsters. It's a sad, but incredibly well made and engrossing movie. 8/10.

I was over at the apple site earlier and caught a fun looking trailer for a new film called Slither. It looks like a schlock, comedy/horror with Nathan "Captain Mal" Fillion starring. You can check it out here.

So, what to do. I haven't got time to write full reviews and keep the site updated so I figured I better jump on the latest bandwagon by starting a blog. Minimum upkeep and I still get to get all my nonsensical ramblings and thoughts out into the public domain.

Today I watched Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon after coming home from work. Normally I wouldn't go near a show with those two Tefal browed Geordie Trolls, but they were doing Bullseye this week. Ah, Bullseye, so many wasted Sunday teatimes watching Jim Bowen high on crack spell checking with  a poorly animated Bull. It was good to see the format again, but I can't be alone in wanting to see a new series with Peter Kay hosting. We can but dream.

Movie wise this week I saw Grizzly Man. This documentary centres on Timothy Treadwelll, a Grizzly Bear expert who spent 13 summers living with the bears in Alaska, until he was killed and eaten with his girlfriend. His video footage was found and put into this film by Walter Herzog. A fascinating film, it's never clear if Treadwell is nuts or he just really, really loves animals. Aside from that some of his footage is stunningly beautiful. One scene is also harrowing as we see Herzog listen to the final tape Treadwell made, of his attack and death. Somehow it's more affecting than if we heard it ourselves. This one is well worth the effort. 8/10.

I also caught Elf , the comedy with Will Ferrell as an orphaned boy who is raised by Santa Claus. When he finds out he is a human he goes in search of his father played by James Caan. Funny stuff all over this. Sure, it gets hella twee at the end, but it's funny enough over the piece to forgive this. This is probably Ferrell's last good starring roll before he sunk into the quagmire of Kicking & Screaming and Bewitched. 7/10.

Final movie this week was Flightplan with Jodie Foster. She plays the designer of a new jumbo jet whose husband has just died. When she and her daughter fly home from Berlin she finds her kid goes missing on the plane. The catch is that no-one on the plane can remember her, let alone find her. It's a decent enough thriller that falls apart the more we find out about the mystery. Peter Sarsgaard has another good supporting role, this guy is like this years Jude Law, he's in everything. 6/10.

What else have I been doing..... Oh yeah, I got Far Cry: Instincts for Xbox, damn that's a good game. Quite tricky, but once you get into it, it's addictive as hell. Nice graphics for the Xbox, life in the black brick yet. Cool feral powers that weren't in the PC version either. I'm stuck on it just now so I'm going to take a break.

In the mean time I've been playing Quake 4, it's based on the Doom 3 engine so it looks instantly familiar. The graphics are just lush and are smooth as a baby's bottom thanks to my recent PC upgrade. I think it's better than Doom 3 though as it's not so dark for a kick off and the locations seem a bit more open. I guess this more of an action game to Doom's horror though. I've played through to a nice twist in the story as well.

Speaking of horror, Halloween is just round the corner, I should really start choosing flicks for my annual Trilogy of Terror. If you want to suggest some, hit up my email.

You can still check out the menu items on the right, I may overhaul the site at some point to reflect the new direction, but as Krusty once said, I'm a lazy, lazy man. Laters...