Heather and I went to Borat on Sunday. Whilst I laughed most of the way through it, I left the cinema feeling half entertained.
People criticise the film for portraying the Kazakhs as rapist and anti-semitic, however it’s obvious they are not. The film is partly sold on how stupid Americans are, however unlike Ali G the interviews are cut very short in a way that it seems that after 30 minutes of filming only 2 minutes could be used to make a point. Everyone seemed quite innocent, and only the frat students and the guy at the rodeo come across bad but I know people in the UK who hold similar views.
You’re never too sure which people were in on the joke or were actors, the hooker? And in those final scenes, if they weren’t in on it, surely he would have been shot at in the car park of the Virgin Megastore?
However there were funny bits, the ice cream van, the bear, and that fight scene.
If you’ve got nothing else to see and you’re going to the cinema, it’s worth watching, but you may just want to wait for the DVD. 6 out of 10.

Finished this book off last week, but only now have got around to writing this review.
The book was picked up at the Lincoln Book Festival, when John Harvey and Mark Billingham did a crime novel talk. I’ve not read any Johns books before and he’s written quite a few, so wasn’t too sure of what to expect. I also don’t know what I’ve missed out on from not reading the previous novel.
However I was surprised to realise how much of the description of Nottingham I was able to recognise. I’ve been several times for various different reasons (although mainly drinking) yet I could picture most of the book. The plot is good and leaves you guessing , and when I finally started reading it I almost lost a Sunday. 7/10

Having purchased this book by it’s cover some time ago, I’ve finally got around to reading and finishing The Manuscript and whilst it had some geeky Usenet and Grepping, it let me down on the blackberries (as featured on the cover) and a plot line that was just too unbelievable. I couldn’t workout where in the 2000’s the events were taking place as I’m sure they were mixing technologies. The story had too many organisations, too many escaping shootouts and not enough geek. 6/10

Back in May I went and saw Mark Billingham at the Lincoln Book Festival. Whilst there I got his latest book Buried signed. However only last week did I actually finish the book. It’s not that I’ve been busy reading other books or that the book was a slow one to read, it’s just that I haven’t actually read anything for 3 months. When I finally got around to reading it the book was finished in 4 days. Unlike other Billingham books this one is centred around a kidnapping and not a murder. It still has Tom Thorne and the rest of the usual characters appear throughout the book.
If you’ve enjoyed any of the other books, you’ll definitely enjoy this one. 8/10

ps, anyone got any idea why the new book Johnny Come Home by Jake Arnott isn’t on Amazon? I’ve just started reading it and had the book on my shelves for quite a while so it can’t be that new, but can’t add the link to my sidebar.

Been to the movies twice since my last review. David and I saw Miami Vice last week. I don’t remember the original TV show, but this was a great film. The camera work in the final battle was really good with handycams being mixed in with normal cameras. The film might have been a bit long in the middle and one of the plot lines was so obvious that you could see it coming from the first few minutes, but still it was better than a lot of the other films out at the moment and I want that boat. 7/10

The next film I’ve seen wasn’t on the list of films to watch this summer, but as we had Heathers niece and nephew over and Heather was at singing practice I agreed to take them to the cinema. They choose Monster House. The animated film is based around Halloween and has a House which eats people. I do enjoy watching children’s films, only on Monday we watched the Shrek 2 DVD, but the film wasn’t that great. The plot was boring, the animation wasn’t near the levels expected these days and the kids didn’t seem that excited once the film finished. 2/10

Saw this on Wednesday with David. It was a great film. Lived up to the first two superman movies and Brandon Routh played a great Christopher Reeve. Rather luckily the little boy wasn’t anoying at all and Kevin Spacey pulled off playing Lex Luthor, both things I worried about whilst watching the trailers.
My only issue is why was Lois Lane dating Scott (Cyclops) from the X-Men? 8/10

Yesterday twelve of us went to see Pirates of the Caribbean. The film is a great action movie, with amazing CGI and stunts. The only problem, the film never ends. I’ve seen many films which are clearly made to promote a sequal, however they normally tie up most of the plot lines, leaving one or two to be carried over. In Pirates none of the plot lines end, so the film turns into a 2.5 hour trailer for Pirates 3. 5/10

The Omen, saw this on the 6/6/06. Unlike the orginal this isn’t scary. Instead of using music to set the scene, they have scary dream sequences. 3/10

Fast and the Furious – Tokyo Drift. Unlike Pirates this film didn’t really have much of a plot, nor any real twists. However it did have fast cars sliding around and that was the reason why we went to see the film. A great fun film to watch with the freaky kid from American Gothic all grown up. 6/10

The last film that I haven’t been bothered to blog is The Da Vinci Code. As a Catholic I didn’t find it offensive. The film was ok, but Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou were crap, you just couldn’t believe in their characters, whilst Ian McKellen was just playing the same character he always plays. Jean Reno was good though. 4/10

Next week, Superman!

For only 99p from Waterstones, it was a good bargain. If I didn’t have at least 15 books on my to-read shelf, then I might look into reading other books from Stephen Booth.
Derbyshire isn’t really a part of the country I know much about, other than I drove through it on the way to Cheadle, so I wasn’t sure of the geography, but it did sound nice.

7 / 10

We saw this film last week, and it’s great.
Tim Burton has worked the magic of Roald Dahl and Johnny Depp was great as Willy Wonka.
The set looked lovely and the Ompa Lompas were classic.
My only problem that I had was location. Where was the film set? Half the cast were British the other American. The streets looked Victorian, yet Charlie found a $5 note.
If you haven’t seen it yet, go and see it.

10 / 10

This book has a great start that makes you want to keep on reading. Unfortunately the book doesn’t keep up the pace of the beginning, but is still a good read. At least in this book Karin Slaughter doesn’t keep going on and on about the characters previous plot lines in earlier stories. Would recommend waiting until it came out in paperback, as it’s not worth paying the hardback price (although mine is signed, so that’s ok.)

7 out of 10