TV Moments of 2011: Angry Boys

In truth, Angry Boys probably could've been 6 episodes instead of 12, seeing as not much happened in the middle and if we're being really honest the Jen Okazaki and Blake Oldfield characters weren't ever that great to begin with - but when Angry Boys concentrated on the stories of the Sims family and one hit wonder S.mouse it was as funny as anything from Chris Lilley's previous hit Summer Heights High.

The decision to touch on Alzheimer's was a brave one and rewarded with some touching moments that you rarely see in sitcoms, giving dignity to Gran yet still finding humour in a tragic situation was reminiscent of Blackadder goes Forth at times.

TV Moments of 2011: Appropriate Adult

Dominic West's performance as Fred West may have got the headlines, but McNulty's turn as one half of the infamous serial killers veered a little too close to comedic at times. Monica Dolan's portrayal of Rose West is the one that should win awards as it was properly chilling at times, but it was sadly one that was slightly on the sidelines thanks to a story that mainly focused on the relationship between Fred and his AA Janet. Still, Appropriate Adult was the best thing on ITV for ages and any doubts before about whether this was just a sensationalist cash-in were quickly dispelled.

TV Moments of 2011: Black Mirror

The Twilight Zone was mentioned a lot in the hype for this series from Charlie Brooker, but in the first of the 3 episodes, The National Anthem the show that immediately came mind was The Thick Of It - getting Malcolm Tucker involved might've been the only thing that could've improved this tale of a Prime Minister having to decide whether to fuck a pig on national television to secure the release of a beloved princess.

Fact fans may like to know this idea was originally from an idea published by Brooker 9 years ago in a Screen Burn column. Terry Wogan mustn't have been available.

TV Moments of 2011: Coogan on Newsnight

In the midst of the phone hacking scandal, walking punch bag Paul McMullen was doing the media rounds where various celebrities lined up to vent their anger at having their private lives violated. The highlight of this came on Newsnight where McMullen's latest attempt to justify the actions of the press caused Steve Coogan to gradually boil up with rage, becoming more like his most famous character by the second.

'Hitler was nice to dogs' will go down as the greatest Alan Partridge quote that never was.

TV Moments of 2011: Graffiti Wars

Thanks to Exit Through The Gift Shop, you weren't actually sure of how much of this to believe at first, but this tale of the battle between Banksy and underground graffiti artist King Robbo was gripping stuff and whilst also managing to raise issues about the different perceptions between street art and graffiti.

The war between the two has now apparently been called off, with King Robbo lying in a coma as a result of an unfortunate accident - but shown back to back with Banksy's poor Antics Roadshow it was clear who won the TV battle that night.

TV Moments of 2011: Great British Railway Journeys

Having a former Tory MP hosting a show about Britishness really should be a recipe for disaster, but Great British Railway Journeys manages to perfectly judge the tone of being educational yet easing as Michael Portillo travels across the country by train, loosely based on Bradshaw's 1840s railway guide.

TV Moments of 2011: Ortis Deley Presenting Masterclass

Ortis Deley presenting masterclass by yidioh

Poor Ortis Deley has obviously been spending too much time with computerised aids since getting a job on The Gadget Show. Hired by Channel 4 to be the face of their coverage of the 2011 World Athletics Championships, Deley went to pieces without the presence of an Autocue, leading to T4 Presenter Rick Edwards having to takeover presenting duties and save the day.

Edwards would go on later in the year to make a Curb Your Enthusiasm style TV pilot about a bumbling television presenter. I do not know if these two events are linked.

TV Moments of 2011: The Shadow Line

On the surface, The Shadow Line looked like being yet another TV series about cops and robbers - that couldn't be further from the case. Despite The Wire being mentioned lazily in the hype, thanks to the central plot loosely having something to do with drug dealing - what we got was closer to State of Play as the conspiracy at the heart of the show widened.

In particular, Episode 2 is one to watch as both sides of the law close in on Wratten's driver, leading to some of the most tense television you'll see for a while - alongside the best use of train stations and the London underground since The Bourne Ultimatum.

TV Moments of 2011: Shooting Stars

Despite being cancelled by the BBC, Shooting Stars was arguably better than ever in its final series. Moving Angelos Epithemiou over to the scores in place of a phoning it in Matt Lucas was an inspired move, his weekly rave-up was always proving a highlight.

TV Moments of 2011: Stewart Lee on Stand Up

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle returned for a second series this year and managed to top high standards set in the previous run. Promoting the interviews with Armando Iannucci from the Red Button to the main show proved an inspired choice, not only did it give more people the chance to see the nearest thing to Frost/Nixon for the modern comedy generation, but they also worked much better alongside Lee's acerbic stand up than skit interludes present in the first series.

The series stand out moment was when Lee took aim at several of his comedy peers, most notably Al Murray and Michael McIntyre - but always with his self-deprecating style leaving you to wonder whether or not the walkouts were staged.

Top Tracks of 2011 Playlist

Kicking off my 2011 end of year Listorama - Here's a playlist of some of the best tracks from 2011. You can check them out by either watching the YouTube playlist above, clicking to go direct to the Spotify playlist, or going via Sharemyplaylists to check out the list there.

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead Pure Radio Cosplay
Arctic Monkeys Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair
Ben Ottewell All Brand New
Bon Iver Holocene
British Sea Power Who’s In Control
Calvin Harris Feel So Close
Cass McCombs The Same Thing
Chase & Status Ft Liam Bailey Blind Faith
Chromeo Ft Elly Jackson Hot Mess
The Civil Wars Barton Hollow
Coldplay Paradise
Cold War Kids Louder Than Ever
College, Electric Youth A Real Hero
Com Truise VHS Sex
Connan Mockasin It's Choade My Dear
Cut Copy Need You Now
Death Cab for Cutie Underneath The Sycamore
Desire Under Your Spell
Does It Offend You, Yeah? Wrestler
DZ Deathrays Gebbie Street
Elbow Lippy Kids
Emeli Sandé Heaven
Florence + The Machine What The Water Gave Me
Foo Fighters White Limo
Foster The People Pumped Up Kicks
Fucked Up Queen Of Hearts
Gallows True Colours
Glassjaw All Good Junkies Go To Heaven
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx NY Is Killing Me
The Go! Team Buy Nothing Day
Gruff Rhys Honey all Over
The Horrors Still Life
Jamie Woon Lady Luck
Jay Z + Kanye West Why I Love You
Jonny Candyfloss
The Joy Formidable Austere
Justice Civilization
Karen O, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross Immigrant Song
Kasabian feat. LL Cool J Days Are Forgotten - Ztrip Remix
Katy Perry Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)
Kavinsky Nightcall
Korn Narcissistic Cannibal
Kurt Vile Jesus Fever
Lady Gaga Born This Way
Lana Del Rey Video Games
Let's Wrestle In Dreams Part II
M83 Midnight City
Mark Ronson & The Business Intl Record Collection 2012
Mastodon Curl Of The Burl
Matt Berry Take My Hand
Metronomy The Bay
Miles Kane Inhaler
Mogwai Drunk and Crazy
Mogwai White Noise
The National Think You Can Wait
Noah And The Whale Tonight's The Kind Of Night
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds AKA... What A Life!
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart Heaven's Gonna Happen Now
PJ Harvey Let England Shake
Pulled Apart By Horses V.E.N.O.M.
R.E.M. Discoverer
Radiohead Lotus Flower
Real Estate It's Real
Rihanna, Calvin Harris We Found Love
Rival Schools 69 Guns
Smith Westerns Weekend
S.mouse Slap My Elbow
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks Senator
The Streets Lock The Locks
The Strokes Machu Picchu
Trophy Wife Microlite
Tyler, The Creator Yonkers
The Vaccines Norgaard
White Lies Bigger Than Us
The Wombats Jump Into The Fog
Yuck Get Away

TV Club #9 Blur - Showtime

When it was announced recently that Blur were to get the Outstanding Contribution award at the 2012 Brit Awards, this edition of TV Club was a simple choice.

This live performance, taken from the Showtime video, captures the band just before their breakthrough moment at the 95 Brits, where they won 4 awards on the night - kicking off the Britpop era and one of the seminal periods in British music history.

Review: Hanna

Hanna is an action/thriller about an isolated young girl raised to be an assassin that spends far too long without much action or anything particularly thrilling.

This film would actually benefit from using the Taken approach and just focus on filling 90 minutes of travelling across Europe & North Africa stabbing, shooting, kicking and killing people in a quest for revenge. Instead what we get after a promising start is a film that gets ideas above its station and throws in a load of clumsy metaphors, morphing into coming of age road movie that completely kills any momentum built up by the well-choreographed and shot action sequences.

Saoirse Ronan plays the title role really well, but the sadly the infuriating inconsistency begin to add up - add on ending that you can see coming a mile off means that despite when Hanna is good its really good, the film ends up a bit of a disappointment.

Review: Limitless

For a film about using the full potential of your brain, Limitless ends up working best when you switch your brain off.

Taking it's cue from Fight Club, director Neil Burger makes use of a wide range of digital effects straight out of Fincher's playbook - but an underdeveloped supporting cast and an unsatisfactory ending means Limitless falls shirt of such a high watermark.

Bradley Cooper excels in the lead role, but those looking for their De Niro fix will be left disappointed that he plays such a minor role. Abbie Cornish gets a bit more screen time, but that seemingly consists of little more than breaking up with Cooper/then changing her mind for the duration of the film. Limitless's premise is a good one and does manage to hold your interest throughout , but its pushed to breaking point by an over-reliance on the NZT-40 pill's powers to explain the increasingly silly storyline.

By the time the film does reach its close, several minor plots and characters have been forgotten, but the decision to keep things short and snappy is the right one - but the terrible epilogue makes a mockery of the previous 90 minutes with the ease he dodges trouble, leaving you wondering why he didn't just that at the start to save us all load of bother.

Review: The Ides Of March

The title may reference a date in March, but the everyone involved clearly has a certain date in February on their mind, delivering their best acting performance to woo voters. Gosling and Clooney may be on the poster, but the clash of the titans is the battle between Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti to see who can deliver the best performance of a grizzled campaign manager.

The obvious comparison is with Sorkin's The West Wing and thanks to a much a slower pace alongside a much gloomier visual style & theme, The Ides Of March doesn't always feel like it lives up to its esteemed predecessor - a feeling not helped by a conclusion that leaves you wondering if that much actually happened during the film.

The problem isn't that The Ides Of March is bad, its just that it doesn't live up to its potential and the all-star cast it boasts.

Is The Dark Knight Rises Viral The Prologue Plot?

The viral marketing campaign for the Dark Knight - tracking Harvey Dent's political campaign and the chaos caused by the Joker helped raise interest in Nolan's sequel to near-rabid levels. With The Dark Knight Rises less than 12 months away the launch of a similar campaign over recent days has sent the Internet into meltdown. What we've got so far is 3 leaked CIA documents and I have a theory about what they mean.

Viral #1

Wired.com

Viral #2

Empire Online

Viral #3

@thefirerises

My theory is these documents have been leaked to raise interest before the Dark Knight Rises Prologue is screened before IMAX showings of Mission Impossible 4 in a couple of weeks. Total Film reported previously a rumoured plot for the prologue

"Bane and his mercenaries hijack a military plane transporting a dictator of a country which is in unrest (think Saddam Hussein type figure). 

'He successfully kills the leader, but makes some mistakes along the way and is unable to safely land the plane. 

'Because of the resulting injuries from the accident, he has to undergo complicated surgeries and that is how he winds up with that scar down his neck and the need for the mask to numb the pain.'

Is 'Operation Early Bird' the mission in question?

Is Bane the Operative FO439 in charge?

Is Alon Abutbul set for a William Fitchner style role in the prologue as Dr Pavel?

Is Dr Pavel the target (as opposed to a dictator)? The documents seem to suggest he is based in a country full of milita

Will the prologue end with the botched Hijack of Dr Pavel that results in Tom Hardy turning into the Bane we've seen so far?

Only a couple of weeks to see if I'm right a Mission Impossible 4 opens December 16th in USA and Boxing Day here

TV Club #8 Beastie Boys - Fight For Your Right (Revisited)

The latest inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced this week, featuring the likes of Guns N' Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Laura Nyro, The Small Faces/Faces, Donovan and New York rap trio Beastie Boys.

Looking back over their 30 year career, the hip-hop group has changed an awful lot since their 86' breakthrough Licensed to Ill, a point which the cameo-tastic Fight For Your Right (Revisited) makes better than anything else could.

Featuring the likes of Seth Rogen, Elijah Wood, Danny McBride, John C. Reilly, Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci and Will Arnett: this star-studded video picks up immediately after the original Fight For Your Right video and ends up in a dance battle with their future selves.

Review: The Crazies

Unlike the Fright Night remake, this recent take on the George A Romero original starts out quite promisingly but struggles to keep its momentum going for too long. The scenes of military takeover are done well, creating a believable atmosphere of chaos. It's a shame that by the time we get to the Hollywood ending The Crazies ends up being predictable and pretty unbelievable stuff that's been done better elsewhere.

Fans of two sheriffs trying to cope with a load of virus infected people trying to kill them are better of checking out The Walking Dead. Whilst fans of Timothy Olyphant in a cowboy hat are better of checking out Justified.

Review: Fright Night

This remake of the 1985 original starts of a little slow, but once David Tennant drops the whole poor man's Russell Brand shtick this really comes to (after)life and packs in plenty of thrills and jumps to make one of the year's most entertaining (if not particularly scary) horrors.

All the cast play their roles well, McLovin plays McLovin and its no surprise David Tennant steals scenes when taking on a load of monsters - so Colin Farrell breaking from the leading man norm to play a sinister, sleazy vampire deserves credit alongside Anton Yelchin doing that Eisenberg/Cera thing of showing Shia Lebeouf how to do his job properly.

The 3D works well in Fright Night and the tech suits a genre where things jumping out of the screen is part of the appeal. However someone really should have pointed out that Colin Farrell morphing into a vampire monster looks a little bit too much like John Travolta to take seriously.

Review: Warrior

Warrior certainly won't win any prizes for originality as you've seen a similar story told several times before in fight films - It's also far too long at 2 hours 20 mins, taking well over an hour to get to the tournament where it all kicks off, figuratively and literally.

Tom Hardy eschews the Christian Bale approach from The Fighter, instead offering up his best De Niro impression as the Jake La Motta-esque Tommy Riordan, a brilliant fighter but a broken human being, scarred by his war experiences. Nick Nolte comes close to out-mumbling Hardy as the father cum coach with his own demons - but the real acting credit here should go to Joel Edgerton who much like Wahlberg did last year, offers a restrained performance in support while others around him give their best shot at impressing judges going for awards.

When they finally make it to the cage is where the film finally starts to show its potential with fights brilliantly shot to give a real sense of the brutality involved in the world of Mixed Martial Arts. Whoever cast Kurt Angle deserves credit, as anyone who watches wrestling will tell you that there is no one better at putting on a fake fight than the former Olympic Gold Medallist.

Much like the characters involved, Warrior starts flawed but ends up pretty good.

Review: 50/50

A comedy about a young man who learns he has cancer, and his battle to beat the disease: 50/50 essentially takes the good half of Funny People and turns it into its own full-length feature film.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a step up from Adam Sandler in that he can actually handle the dramatic stuff when it comes his way and 50/50 features several beautifully shot sequences that show both the desperation of the disease alongside an uplifting live for the moment attitude alongside it. One particular scene brings a new meaning to the term hospital trip. Seth Rogen is probably meant to be seen as comic relief, but the whole vile and nasty man-child routine seems horribly out of place with the film. The highlight isn't JGL's relationship with Rogen, but his with fellow patients Philip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer in combining successfully mirth with morbid in the way the film sets out to.

However, the major downer on the film for me was how it portrays its female characters - Bryce Dallas Howard's Rachel reprisals for her failings as a girlfriend are particularly unpleasant and aggressive. Right from the start she is castigated for not fulfilling her duty of sex with a man who later admits has never said he loves her. This nasty streak is present throughout with Adam's mother shown as smothering and a bit mental. Countless anonymous bimbos are lined up who can't resist the lure of a cancer sufferer just to reinforce what women are simply good for. Even though Anna Kendrick gets shown some sympathy as love interest, she spends most of the film being portrayed as hopeless at her job and can't wait to ignore all that professional ethics gubbins and get with Adam.

It's a shame the misogynistic undertones are the lasting memory of what is an interesting film, with Levitt's nuanced performance having plenty to recommend about it. 50/50 seems pretty apt in the end.

Review: Pearl Jam Twenty

Best filed under 'One for the fans' Pearl Jam Twenty won't offer you anything if you're not familiar with the work of Eddie Vedder's crew. Though all seem nice enough, the fact that none of them come across as a larger than life figure means this document of the band's 20 year career ends up just becoming a series of archived footage in montage alongside a series of talking heads that all downplay the key moments in their history - the death of their original frontman, taking on Ticketmaster's unfair prices and the terrible events that took place in Roskilde.

You'd expect that from a writer/director as proficient as Cameron Crowe he'd at least be able to put an interesting cultural perspective on it from his time at Rolling Stone Magazine, but the lack of any real substance to that makes the film far too one dimensional to be anything memorable.

By the end of 2 hours you find yourself asking the question - if it's all about the music, what's the point of making a film?

TV Club #7 Kurt & Courtney

Friday night's on BBC 4 have been must-see TV for a while now, as you're normally guaranteed a great performance or documentary from the BBC Archives. This Friday was no exception as they devoted the schedules to all things Nirvana, featuring a storming live show from the Paramount, a doc detailing the last 48 hours of Kurt Cobain's life and my personal highlight, Left of the Dial which while focusing on the contrasting fortunes of REM and Nirvana, also provided a pretty comprehensive look at US Alternative Rock, giving plenty of screen time to likes of Black Flag, The Pixies and Husker Du.

But for this week's TV Club we focus on the most infamous document of Grunge, Nick Broomfield's Kurt & Courtney, where the British film-maker investigates claims that Kurt Cobain was actually murdered and if his wife Courtney Love was in on it. The film is interesting as opposed to informative and ends up being more about his hate-hate relationship with Love and her attempts to stop the film being made - but those looking for fresh insight into the death of Kurt will be left left disappointed as its light on evidence and heavy on heresy from a series of shady and strung out people who claimed to be close to the pair.

The grunge theme continues next week with the TV premiere of Cameron Crowe's Pearl Jam doc, Twenty Friday 11th at 9pm on BBC 4, this time around featuring a story that looks like having a much happier ending.

Review: Upside Down - The Creation Records Story

Those looking for something to relive the Britpop era with will end up disappointed at this look back at the history of Creation Records, as this documentary focuses much more heavily on Gillespie than Gallagher for the most part.

For anyone else Upside Down provides an engaging, if a little one-paced tale of the rise and fall of the infamous independent record label - The film would've benefited from having the likes of Liam alongside brother Noel, as the film tends to drift into becoming a bit one sided and self congratulatory at times - without that bit of conflict that's a staple of all good rockumentaries (see Dig!) , Upside Down lacks that certain something to make it a classic in the genre,

If the talking heads do suffer from being a bit samey with tale after tale of coked up excess, the fact that the film has raconteurs like Alan McGee and Noel Gallagher telling them means its always entertaining and by giving equal focus to the lesser known likes of House of Love, Swervedriver and Sugar there's plenty of interesting tales, alongside some great music to be discovered for those who think the label started and ended with Oasis.

The label's dying days at the start of the noughties may be glossed over too quickly for some, but you can understand them not wanting to talk about the likes of Mishka on camera really.

Review: Crazy Stupid Love

After the likes of Drive, Blue Valentine, Lars and the Real Girl and Half Nelson - you could be forgiven for forgetting that Ryan Gosling first big breakthrough was in the classic noughties sob-fest The Notebook.

Crazy Stupid Love is the closest he's got to returning to that territory in that its your by the numbers rom-com with few surprises to be had, but it always remains a step above the rest thanks to a classy ensemble cast and steady flow of funny jokes.

Steve Carell has the lead role as a father going through a mid-lfe crisis of sorts following the break up of his marriage and being taken under the wing of Womanizer Jacob (Gosling). The film gives him ample chance to show how Carell has moved on from the frat-pack comedy like Anchorman that first brought him to fame and he's now settled into the type gentle comedy roles like Bill Murray used to do in the nineties.

Comparisons have been made to Carell's best work, Little Miss Sunshine, but that's probably more due to the fact both films feature precocious kids - Crazy Stupid Love falls short of that standard by being a little too long (the whole babysitter lusting after Cal stuff could've been dropped) and the ending is a bit too cheesy and ties everything up too neatly it threatens to spoil the film a little. Emma Stone also disappears for too long for my liking as well

The likes of Kevin Bacon and Marissa Tomei turn up for cameos, but its good to know somebody's watched Josh Groban appearances on Never Mind The Buzzcocks as he's perfectly as Emma Stone's douchey boyfriend Richard.

Review: Bobby Fischer Against the World

Bobby Fischer Against the World is gripping tale of the American chess master's battle with Russian rival Boris Spassky in the Seventies - but while he was able to triumph over the Russian, the documentary questions whether his mind may have ended up defeating himself as well.

The highlight is the face-off with Spassky where Fischer's fame was at its height. The clash in Reykjavik is full of enough pantomime to put Vince McMahon and the WWE to shame. The tales of bugging, bluffs and walk outs with the Cold War paranoia turned up to 11 make the story universally accessible and not just for those who know their Kings for their Queens.

Unlike many a sports documentary, the film does give plenty of time its subject's darker side, showing Fischer's descent into an increasing state of paranoia that was littered with anti-Semitic outbursts (despite his heritage) and gloating rants on radio about 9/11. But the rather half-hearted attempt to link chess genius with madness is the film's weak point, the lack of any real evidence shown to back up the claims just makes the section feel a little bolted on and would've been better served left on the cutting room floor.

Spot The Difference #6

Jessie J

Katinka Ingabogovinanana

Do it like a Zoolander character

TV Club #6 Threads

Contagion hits cinema screens this week (you can check out my review here), heralded as the 'feel-bad movie of the year' with its grim portrayal of global pandemic caused by Gwyneth Paltrow (I may have over-simplified that slightly).

For this week's TV Club, we head back to 1984 for another film that will have you hitting the supermarket to stock up on tinned goods and batteries as we take a look at the apocalyptic tale of Threads which a gives a worryingly convincing depiction of nuclear war and its effects on the city of Sheffield.

Like Contagion, Threads tells stories of personal tragedy alongside the unfolding global devastation, but unlike Soderbergh's effort the misery never gives up and there really is no light at the end of the harrowing 2 hours.

Review: Contagion

Steven Soderbergh harks back to Traffic with another multi-narrative take on an epidemic blighting the world, but this time swapping drugs for germs and with mixed results.

For the first half Contagion is tense, gripping stuff and not afraid to bump off several of its all-star cast to hammer home how serious things get - but the documentary-esque take on the story means in the end it just peters out instead of building to the big climax you want from a blockbuster disaster film.

Jude Law is the stand out of the cast, straddling the line between bad and awesome with an accent that takes you about half an hour to work out he's actually trying to be Australian - but he brings just the right amount of OTT to the performance that makes his portrayal of paranoid blogger Alan Krumwiede the highlight of the film. Its a shame Eliott Gould and Marion Cotillard don't get half his chance to shine, there characters seemingly forgotten after being introduced - a fact made even worse with what happens Cotillard's character when we leave her.

In the end, the unsatisfying finish does stop Contagion from being a classic, but the film still comes recommended for its thrilling first half and you'll find yourself looking funny at anyone sniffling for a good while after the film finishes.

TV Club #5 Micro Men

The death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs this week led to scenes like this across the globe - and led to Sony reportedly snapping up the film rights to his biography.

This week's TV Club features Britain's very own computing genius, Sir Clive Sinclair and the fictionalised account of the boom and bust of the British computing market in the 70s and 80s.

Sadly, thanks to the slightly melodramatic reactions to Jobs' death, I don't think we'll be getting Alexander Armstrong donning a bald skull cap for this portrayal of a computing pioneer.

Review: Drive

Ryan Gosling, a scorpion jacket, toothpicks and a pulsating electro soundtrack. This film is cool. Thankfully it avoids falling into any hipster style traps that the likes of Spun fell into by avoiding being all style and no substance.

Drive tells the story of a Hollywood stunt performer (Gosling) moonlighting as a getaway driver, who becomes involved with his neighbour, Irene (Carey Mulligan) and ends up getting tied in with the mob. The tension is high from the opening getaway and rarely lets up throughout thanks to the omnipresent threat of the ultra violent kill scenes that frequently appear out of nowhere. Even the tender scenes between Gosling and Mulligan are loaded with a sexual tension thanks to the lack of dialogue between the two, instead relying on stolen looks and glances to tell the story of the attraction between them.

Gosling is great, and is on a hell of a roll with this, Blue Valentine, Crazy Stupid Love and The Ides of March all out this year. Here he channels his inner James Dean and Steve McQueen and does the strong but silent thing with ease, but it almost a shame to waste someone as good as Gosling with so little lines.

The real star however is the soundtrack, a perfect fit for the sleazy, neon noir world in which the characters inhabit, wisely taking the good bits from the Collateral soundtrack and going easy on the Audioslave (Michael Mann take note next time).

Review: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Tomas Alfredson came to our attention with Let the Right One In, a vampire film that wasn't really about vampires. Here at the helm of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - the latest adaptation of the John le Carre novel, he does something similar, making a spy thriller that isn't actually that thrilling.

That's not to say the film isn't good, just that its the polar opposite to Bond and Bourne's kinetic energy we've become used to - the film progresses at an funeralistic pace throughout giving the excellent ensemble cast plenty of time to show the internal torture a life of subterfuge can bring as opposed to Daniel Craig getting his nuts cracked in Casino Royale.

In amongst several great performances, the highlight is arguably Tom Hardy following on from his turn in Inception as the best Bond there never was (yet) as the slightly rogueish Rikki Tarr, looking resplendent with some of the best/worst wig work of recent times.

TV Club #4 Radiohead - From The Basement

This week, Radiohead's Thom Yorke guested on Gilles Peterson's Radio 1 show and confirmed that the band will tour in 2012. This week's TV Club features the band performing the King of Limbs in full on producer Nigel Godrich's From The Basement podcast turned TV Show.

TV Club #3 Flipside

This week's Who Do You Think You Are? featured Alan Carr as the latest celeb to trace their family history. In an incredibly tenuous link, this week's TV Club investigates his TV history, going back to one of the shows which gave him his break on television and saw the start of his partnership with Justin Lee Collins.

In this episode of Flipside TV, the rare sight of the lesser-bearded JLC hosts the channel surfing show and guests include Karl Pilkington, star of the Ricky Gervais podcasts and An Idiot Abroad.

Review: Green Lantern

There's something childlike about this latest comic book conversion and you expect kids will lap up the adventures of the Green Lantern and his fights against intergalactic evil - yet you also get the feeling this is completely unintentional and they were actually trying to make something that plays to the same crowd as Marvel films such as Iron Man, Thor and Captain America.

But thanks to second rate CGI and a script full of one dimensional characters and jokes that even the ever- charismatic Ryan Reynolds can't bring to life, Green Lantern sits at the lower end of the superhero films seen on screen - more Batman & Robin than Batman Begins.

Add on the poor box office returns and you get a commercial failure too. You do wonder if they might've actually been able to save that if they'd embraced a younger audience and gone in for a PG instead of the usual 12A. In the end The Green Lantern is a misse doportunity on all levels.

TV Club #2 Smashing Pumpkins 1991-2000

This week Billy Corgan and company announced that the latest version of the Smashing Pumpkins would be hitting the UK in November for a 7 night tour. To celebrate, this week's TV Club lets you watch the documentary that gives you the full Behind the Music style story of how things went first time round in the build up to their 'final' Metro show in 2000.

TV Club #1 Brass Eye

Tonight at 9 sees the terrestrial TV premiere of Chris Morris' controversial comedy Four Lions. Kicking off a new section of this blog we go back to 1997 to check out an episode an episode of his TV series of Brass Eye, which after the recent riots seems more topical than ever.

For those wanting more, the entire collection of Brass Eyeepisodes is available from 4oD here

Review: Captain America - The First Avenger

The final offering in Marvel's Avengers origin stories, Captain America offers two hours of fun, but ultimately forgettable action - yet deserves credit for how it manages to avoid becoming the nationalistic nightmare that Matt Stone and Trey Parker so successfully lampooned in Team America: World Police.

Chris Evans is excellent in the lead role, his softly spoken portrayal of Steve Rodgers standing out against the usual OTT performances you've come to expect from Marvels' Superhero films. Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter is the stand out amongst the supporting cast, but one of Captain America's main problems is that there's too many of them - The Cap's crew coming and going in the blink of an eye being the case in point for too many cast members spoiling the broth.

Captain America also falls short of hitting the heights of the Superhero genre by just kind of petering out towards an end thanks to the lack of a big action sequence or the feeling that he's ever really in any real danger at some point resulting in a leaving the cinema in a bit on anticlimax.

*speaking of which don't bother staying after the credits this time - I'm pretty sure the original post credit sequence was moved to the end of the film and you just get a rubbish Avengers trailer this time.

Review: Super

Kick Ass is always a bit of a red herring when compared to a film like Super. Working outside the usual Hollywood model, Matthew Vaughn managed to bring together the money needed to make something that could stand up visually to the likes of Marvel and DC's latest action efforts - but just one look at the trailer for Super shows that despite sharing a DIY crime-fighter storyline, they really are completely different beasts.

Last year's Defendor is more suitable watermark for Super - and for me it falls short of that, opting after a promising start to just end up in a sprawl of increasingly violent deaths - so most of the impressive cast end up being wasted in more than one sense of the word.

In the end, its more average than Super.

Review: American - The Bill Hicks Story

Charting the life and death of the influential comic, it's the archive footage of a young Bill Hicks and the innovative, animated way in which its brought to life that sets American out from the usual talking head documentaries.

The majority of contributes are either friends or family, so its not exactly the most rounded discussion of Hicks and his ups and downs - plus it spends a bit too long making the point that most of America didn't get his shtick, but taken as a tribute to the man, its and absorbing experience throughout.

Review: Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

If you're a fan of monkeys jumping through glass, this is the film for you!

I'm not sure whether this counts as a remake, a reboot or a prequel, but whatever Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes is it's definitely good - John Lithgow is the highlight of the human cast, it's his performance of an Alzheimer's sufferer and his bond with young ape Caesar that shines more than lead James Franco, who still gives a fine performance Brian Cox, David Oyelowo and the one out of Harry Potter manage to get all they can out of some pretty unsubtle villain roles. Freida Pinto is basically just there to look pretty and unsurprisingly she does this very well.

In the end any Planet Of The Apes film comes down to how well they do the apes themselves - and thanks to excellent mo-cap work from Andy Serkis and team this is almost a total success, even if the hard work that went in to making them as realistic as possible is spoiled by the amount of times they fling themselves through glass windows several times to many.

Unlike may recent blockbusters, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes takes its time building up to the action , making you wait till the final set piece before the Man vs Monkey action kicks off in earnest. and is all the better for it giving it real impact. Not going for overkill also means that you leave the cinema actually wanting to see the sequel that is blatantly teased at the end of this surprising summer hit.

Review: The Adjustment Bureau

Matt Damon's latest draws comparisons to recent hits like Inception and Source Code in being a slick Sci-Fi thriller with brains, but sadly this doesn't quite manage to hit the levels of its peers, the greater focus on the love story making it come over more light weight in comparison.

However, The Adjustment Bureau is still a lot of fun and the love story really shows off some great chemistry between Damon and Emily Blunt as the couple who have to fight against destiny to be together, but after a promising start the film ends up as a bit of an anti-climax, with the final chase falling flat and failing to take advantage of Damon and get him to bust out his best Jason Bourne with a hat on impersonation.

Review: Foo Fighters - Back & Forth

A documentary that traces the rise of the Foo Fighters to the stadium filling rock band of today, Back & Forth is always entertaining thanks to the way Dave Grohl and his band-mates can tell a tale, but the lack of real drama or conflict means this lacks what made other rockumentaries like Dig! classics. Try as they might, its hard believe that no matter how many times they tell you its that much of a challenge to make a record in a garage when Dave Grohl's garage is the size of a house itself.

Review: Lemmy - The Movie

You'd think Lemmy would be the ideal subject for a warts 'n' all documentary about life in a rock 'n' roll band - however Lemmy: The Movie is pretty much just 2 hours of famous people saying how cool Lemmy is and contains the not so shocking revelation that Lemmy likes to drink a lot. So whilst being lightweight stuff, not something usually associated with Motorhead, at least the famous people they rope in for talking heads are actually quite famous, meaning you actually care about what they have to say.

Review: Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids charm is found in how it switches around the traditional Judd Apatow set-up of friendships being threatened by relationships, to see it from a more female orientated point of view than the increasingly borish and laddish antics of Rogan and co.

That's not to say that the humour is completely different, with one scene coming close to matching Team America for best gross-out jokes of recent times, but the relationships at the core of the film make it more satisfying and realistic than the usual fat/man-child/stoner/slob wins over the supermodel plots of many other recent comedies from the frat pack.

Kristen Wiig does an excellent job holding the story together, but Bridesmaids strength is its excellent ensemble cast, though sadly a couple of the bridesmaids seem to disappear half way through the film with little explanation, a fact made doubly sad since unhappily-married Rita has many of the best lines on the film. When they go, the film isn't quite as good as it was, taking a little bit too long to get to the rather obvious ending.

Review: Kung Fu Panda 2

The first Kung Fu Panda back in 2008 was surprisingly good, so big things were expected from this sequel to the original adventures of Jack Black's martial arts animal.

However what we get is a poor film that seems longer than it really is, thanks to the incredibly formulaic pattern of joke about being fat followed by action sequence being repeated insensately over 90 minutes from start to finish with a lame adoption storyline tagged on to it as well. The impressive voice cast is wasted also, as looking back at the credits you realise some of the star names only had the odd line thanks to the reliance on Po's antics.

Review: Senna

An incredibly powerful film that tells the story of the life and death of Ayrton Senna, considered by many to be the greatest racing car driver of all time. Anyone with even a passing interest in Formula One knows what's coming as the film reaches its end, but that doesn't make the scenes any less shocking or upsetting.

The one downside in framing the story of Senna as Ayrton the Hero and Alain (Prost) the villain is that the film is so biased towards Senna you never really feel like you get the full story at any point - any criticism of Senna is quickly shot down as being someone else's fault - be it Prost, Politics or the position of pole and whilst lip service is paid to the amount of crashes and incidents the highly competitive Brazilian was involved in, no footage is actually shown of them.

Despite not dwelling too much on Senna's darkside, the raft of never before seen footage from behind the scenes is expertly cut together to make one of the great sports film of our time.

Review: Source Code

Starring Jake Jake Gyllenhaal as a brain stored in a container, this really should've been called Jarhead - but we've seen that film before, which is also strangely apt as Source Code is based around Jake living the same 8 minutes over and over again as he tries to save the day and stop the bomber on the train.

For a film based on such repetition, Source Code never bores, the changes keep your interest throughout. Wisely short and snappy at 90 minutes, Source Code doesn't give you time to think about a plot that probably has a million holes in it if you really thought long and hard about it and instead is entertaining pop corn fare that doesn't treat its audience like idiots.

Review: X Men - First Class

The most powerful super-power on show is that of Magneto's helmet, that suddenly makes Michael Fassbender shout in an Irish accent out of nowhere for the last half an hour.

Herein lies one of the main problems of X-Men: First Class, by sticking(ish!) to the timeline of the other films, the other mutants in the film are a bit rubbish for the most part. The film is at its best whenever McAvoy and Fassbender are together, hwich makes you wish they just did X-Men Origins: Magneto and had Fassbender mess around a the Jewish Bond for the full 2 hours.

Review: Cedar Rapids

A lot have hype has gone to Clay Davis doing a fine Omar impression in the trailer. What seems to have gone unnoticed though is Anne Heche's method metamorphosis into Julianne Moore.

However John C Reilly and Ed Helms don't bother stretching themselves at all, both playing their different types of idiot, but thankfully their performances are some of their better ones, meaning Cedar Rapids has plenty of laughs within.

Review: Thor

About as subtle as a hammer to the face - and there's a fair bit of that going on from the get go. Some of the dialogue up up there with Gran Torino in the unintentional comedy stakes, but Thor remains Thor-oughly good fun throughout thanks to a great cast that dives into the material head first, embracing the campness of it all.

Arcade Fire Live @ Madison Square Garden

via Youtube

Review: Due Date

Due Date really is a terrible, terrible film. Most of what is meant to be funny just comes across as nasty for the most part. The redeeming feature about it was a bit of Neil Young and Band of Horses on the soundtrack.

An Open Letter To the Roast Beef Monster - Part 2

Dear Roast Beef Monster,

I have lost my appetite.

Yours sincerely

iamstockmonkey

Review: Black Swan

Like Scorcese's Shutter Island, Black Swan doesn't do subtle - everything is way, way over the top and as an added bonus, any jokes about a honking soundtrack work on another level too this time.

Review: Blue Valentine

When a film starts with a dog dying, you know its not going to be a barrel of laughs - and if you think that sounds grim enough, just wait till the abortion scene.

Review: Morning Glory

Digital Spy reckon that Morning Glory is to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, only in the theme of proper journalism though, so you don't need to be worried when Harrison Ford starts talking about going for a prostate exam.

Review: Catfish

Thanks to The Social Network, Catfish is robbed of the best film about Facebook award, but it still manages to cram in several on the edge of your seat moments, not bad for a so-called 'documentary'.

Some have debated whether Catfish is real or a hoax - my two pennies worth is while it might not show 100% what went down as it went down. I do believe the central story is a true one, just one with a few extra shots thrown in to tie it all together.

Review: Let Me In

Featuring a bit more on the cop and the older man means Let Me In is more than just a pointless remake of Swedish classic Let The Right One In, the added CGI bits is a bad move though as the lack of that kind of thing is what made the original, and for the most part this, so good.

Review: Megamind

It seems the best Will Ferrell films these days are the ones where he takes a step away from crude man-child jokes. Here he drops the filth and in places it comes close to matching the same charm as Christmas mainstay Elf. On the downside Brad Pitt seems to be asleep/stoned or possibly both as the voice of rival Metro Man and the film would've been infinitely better with someone livelier in the voice booth.

Review: The Next 3 Days

The spectre of Crowe's last film hangs over this throughout. Firstly to raise the cash to break his wife out jail he has to go robbin' in the hood, then to break in he tries to become Robin of Locksmith by making a skeleton key. Is it any wonder in the end he picks a South American country with a load of trees to hideaway as a fugitive.

Review: The Fighter

Two things about this film:

1) It's terrible
2) Bale on crack is nowhere near as good as Phil Mitchell on crack

TV Moments of 2010: Barrowman Does Owl City

Even the image captured in the title doesn't quite match this for gayness. I still can't work out whether this is the worst or the greatest thing I've ever seen.

Barrowman! *shakes fist*

TV Moments of 2010: Doctor Who

Flawless reinvention of Doctor Who - within the space of an hour anyone doubting whether Matt Smith could live up to David Tennant had their answer. It also must be noted just how good looking the show is now (and I'm not just talking about Amy Pond) as its almost unrecognisable from the ropey sets that were about up till a couple of years ago.

TV Moments of 2010: Henry Rollins on Sons of Anarchy

If there was an award for Best Bastard of 2010. Rollins turn as a White Hate leader would win hands down - and was a major reason why Season 2 of Sons was so much better than its first.

TV Moments of 2010: The IT Crowd

In truth The IT Crowd is bit patchy now, but there's still enough funny moments to make it worth watching. Street Countdown was the best of the lot, not for Moss appearing on Channel 4's ultimate geek show, but for paraphrasing Rowdy Roddy Piper

TV Moments of 2010: Lost Finale

It could never live up to the hype and wisely never tried to, as to answer all the fans questions would've needed one of those Christmas Lectures in its place. The most notable thing apart from trying to work out whose dead was the 5 am simulcast on Sky1, just a shame that all the big TV shows have gone now they finally worked out a way to take on the pirates.

TV Moments of 2010: Phil Mitchell on Crack

Note to Peter Jackson. Forget all the expensive CGI nonsense, just give Phil a couple of rocks next time and you've got yourself a ready made Gollum.

TV Moments of 2010: Sesame Street

Sesame Street needs to be back on British TV now - rising to the challenge of Yo Gabba Gabba for the cool kids crown, this year's parodies and celeb appearances mean it is arguably better than ever now - though quite why this was okay and Katy Perry's breasts weren't is up for debate.

TV Moments of 2010: Sherlock

Apart from Moriarty going all Louie Spence at the end of episode 3. These 3 feature-length episodes perfectly puts Holmes of the past and into fast moving a modern day setting.

TV Moments of 2010: This Is England 86

Still one of the best things on TV this year, even if the last 2 episodes did end up a little bit like Kevin Bishop's Mind Cop - determined to fit a rape in.

TV Moments of 2010: Wagner

Proof that Eurotrash was the ideal Saturday night family entertainment show all along.

Films of 2010: Black Dynamite

2010 seemed to be the year of the notumentary and films pretending to be real, but so loving was the homage in Black Dynamite, you'd almost think this was plucked straight out of the 70s itself.

Films of 2010: Catfish

In any other year this would be the best film about Facebook by a long mile.

Films of 2010: Defendor

The 2nd best Kat Dennings release this year, after this (NSFW)

Films of 2010: Exit Through The Gift Shop

I'm Still Here had all the hype, but this was the year's best fake/real documentary.

Films of 2010: Four Lions

Going on a certain ride at Alton Towers will never be the same after this..

Films of 2010: Inception

A movie so good even Alan Partridge wants to take a break from Bond to watch it.

Films of 2010: Kick Ass

I can't quite work out whether Nicolas Cage is amazing or awful in this. But rested assured there's no doubt about how good Kick Ass is.

Films of 2010: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Scott Pilgrim literally and figuratively flies all over the place during this. There's just so much going on screen at one time you watch this several times and still find some new subtle geek reference. Flawed but fun.

Films of 2010: Shutter Island

A memorable soundtrack, and not always in a good way - Shutter Island is Scorcese at his most OTT, but is still great fun to watch.

Films of 2010: The Social Network

Whilst there's a few trademark Fincher flashes to found, director David Fincher takes a back seat for the most part to let Sorkin's script shine in this tale of the rise of the Facebook phenomenon.