Blogs

‘The Reader’ (2008) directed by Stephen Daldry, produced by Anthony Mingella and Sydney Pollack, screenwriting by David Hare, based on a book by Bernhard Schlink. I’m telling you all these boring facts so that you know that this screams out QUALITY film even before the first scene. The most important fact, of course, is the eponymous reader Ralph Fiennes, looks like a German. He’s always looked like a German, even when he’s not knocking about...

That's the title of the new book of poetry by ABCtales member Swep Lovitt - known on here as bosch. Swep has longed to publish this book for a while and now his time has come. The poems in the slim volume take us on a personal journey through the break-up of his marriage and divorce. It's not bitter but it is sad. The poems have been carefully honed. The work on them shows through time after time. You realise that every word has been considered...

That's the title of the new children's book by ABCtales member Richard Penny - better known on here as Blighter's Rock. It's the tale of a little girl with a dream - to meet the Queen. She and her father camp outside Buckingham Palace every weekend until eventually she is invited in for supper - bangers and mash - and her dream comes true. The book is illustrated by Chris Baker with a series of delightful drawings that bring the tale to life...

Adventureland (2009) written and directed by Greg Mottola has a simple premise: a middle-class boy, (Jesse Eisenberg) and preColumbian grad has to go and work in his local amusement park and mix with the natives. I actually worked at the shows in Butlins for a year so I can tell you this film is brilliant. Most rides look complicated, but, hey you just press a button. The live in staff know all the scams and how they are worked. Everything is...

Horrible Bosses (2009) written by Michael Markowitz et al and directed by Seth Gordon is a film with a stellar cast of Hollywood stars including Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Anniston as horrible bosses. The Sun described it as jaw achingly funny and it made a respectable profit. My question would be why? I’m old enough to remember 9 to 5, which had jaw aching song by Dolly Parton who also let her hair and breasts act in it. Three women decide they...

The Informers (2009) written by Bret Eaton Ellis and staring just about everybody in Hollywood is a story about the rock band ‘The Informers’ World tour of 1983, which reaches Los Angeles (City of Angels)and branches off into other people’s stories. There’s Billy Bob Thornton, a studio boss who is going to produce something, a film with a giant tomato as lead, and starring The Informers. There’s Billy Bob’s wife, Kim Bassinger, who he is bit...

Beowulf (2007). What do you do if you’ve got an old English/Germanic epic poem, which nobody reads, celebrating the legendary Scandinavian hero Beowulf? The answer is obvious turn it into an animated action moved, using real actors such as Ray Winstone, Angelia Jolie, turned back into animation, which, not surprisingly is entirely life-like. The next step is to cut out the human element, but that’s boring, and if we are going to see a simulacrum...

Cold Moutain (2003) written and directed by Anthony Minghella and based on a book by Charles Fraser. I’ve read the book and seen the film before, but in my usual way couldn’t remember either. I could remember Nicole Kidman, who can be plain and pretty and beautiful all at the same time, but I couldn’t remember Jude Law. So there it is. One goes to war, in this case The American Civil War and one waits. I’ll not spoil it by telling you which is...

Monsters (2010) written by Gareth Edwards and starring Whitney Able and Scoot McNairy. I’m not sure with names like that which one is the girl and which the non girl, but whatever one it is she is hot, in a messed up Gweneth Paltrow kind of way. Yeh, I know, my age is showing with the term ‘hot.’ I suppose that maybe because she has blond hair, but there is always something sexy about someone that is blond and can speak another language, in this...

Star Trek has got a bit like Star Wars trading on nostagia rather than storyline, but the former goes back further and was there at the start of the telly universe. Star Trek (2009) I grew up with Star Trek. It was one of the highlights of my week, which just goes to show what kind of deprived childhood I had. An extra edge was given to it by knowing or not knowing whether we would be able to watch it. My brothers and sisters weren’t as addicted...