Chindie

Hes been a DM for Bulgaria for pretty much his entire international career. That for Celtic he was a goalscorer says more about the SPL than it does Petrov imo.

That is one of the big strengths of the film though in my opinion. I was more than happy to take a trip back to those days of cinema. The whole film just had a romanticism to it in my eyes. As I have said already, it's the best big budget film I have seen this years hands down. Don't focus on the little blips and enjoy it for what it is. It's a good summer blockbuster that transports us back in time to a period in which film was more fun. It won't win any Oscars but it is enjoyable and certainly worth seeing in my opinion. By the way, was Dr Woodward the science teacher from Gremlins? I could be mistaken... I did say that the homage stuff is the films main success It's not a bad film by any means and I did roundly enjoy it, but a problem of the inspiration it clearly has is it makes you just want to watch one of Spielbergs films, which did it first and did it better, and didn't run out of steam. It's not actually a big budget film either - $50m budget, pittance by todays standards.

Special edition announced. It comes with the increasingly ubiquitous big dumb statue, a map, making of DVD and a 200 page art book. Oh and steelbook case I think. Looks nice. It's £130. **** that.

Watched Super 8 last night. Could be known as 'Lens Flare! The Movie'. It's such a homage to Spielbergs 80s sci-fi that it verges on a photocopy at times - the location, the look, the atmosphere, it's drenched in E.T. and Close Encounters. It even nicks Spielbergs long time fascination with portraying father son relationships as strained and detached. It's successes, which basically is the above, don't save it from being tinged with disappointment. The whole film feels like a movie made by someone who's seen a lot of movies, but doesn't really get the deeper side of things. Everything in the film is a nod to something else, and its swimming in cliche - of course those stern looking Air Force men aren't all that they seem! (which, honestly, spoils nothing of the story -you know where this story is going if you've seen 10 seconds of a trailer). The kids suffer from playing caricatures, Elle Fanning aside who does appear to be able to act. The film also absolutely telegraphs a few minor things from pretty much the word go. I simply couldn't buy the design either - and I've not met someone yet who has managed to believe in the way somethings are portrayed here, shall we say. I'm not sure I'll ever like J.J. Abrams. I've never been totally sold on anything he did - even the Star Trek reboot was a little too much style over substance for me. He knows how to get a look.

First shot of Selina Kyle Would have posted the image could be construed as a bit of a spoiler (the pic is also huge). You can't see too much, but YES. YES. YES **** YES.

Its accurate to the comic - in Dark Knight Returns, Batman is in his 50s and been out the game for a while so has, er... Bulked up...

I don't think thats the case. Most straight war films or dramas of recent years I can think of, dealing with the Second World War, are tinged with a sense of sadness and a sense of great sacrifice. Saving Private Ryan was a special effects film, it could be said, but I still watch that film, despite it largely being hooey and despite it being a little grim with the truth (throwaway line about Monty, for example, accurate to US sensibilities but not the whole story and unfair on him), and can't help but feel a weight of sadness about it. It may not be as real to me as those that lived through it, but I still can reflect on it, understand the power of it, etc. I don't think anyone makes a straight war film these days (as opposed to something Inglourious Basterds, which is purposefully overwrought and comedic) with the intent to gun for the Transformers buck, or simply to wow audiences with CGI. Even today I think WW2 has a resonance and weight that people still understand to be very real. Even in pieces of film fluff. I don't see how this ties into a minor change to what is still, despite the weight of the subject, a piece of entertainment for a modern audience that will not be too enamoured hearing a racist term thrown about (even if it is accurate - its not 'cool' so to speak, and thus it's easer to change it to Digger, or whatever, and save the uproar for something so unimportant in the grand scheme of things). I can't overstate how much I disagree with that statement Mike, I really can't.

Then people need educating about the way things were in 1943, rather than having history neatly censored for them. The dog was called Nigger. The codeword was Nigger. Nothing whatsoever to do with 21st century racism, even if it - in passing - says something about 1940s ideas. There is some talk that they might go for the halfway house of the dogs nickname - 'Nigsy', to try to compromise. I don't think changing it is that big of a problem... but leaving it might be, no matter that it is historically accurate. You just can't release a film with a dog called Nigger, with people shouting 'Nigger!' for joy, for a modern audience. The film won't claim to be a documentary, and things will change for the narrative's cause. Changing the dogs name is an easy way (if also a case of a rock and a hard place, admittedly) to make the film palatable to a modern family audience. I don't think teaching people a lesson about 1940s society is quite something the film will want to do, admirable as that might be.

The Dambusters remake is still coming by the way. It's just not got started yet. The dogs name is being changed. Regardless of it being historical fact, I don't think you can release a film today for the popular family audience, that features a dog being called a racist epithet. Worse, IIRC, they used the dogs name as a codeword for the raid, so at one point you have a bunch of people shouting that word with delight as they know it's gone ahead successfully.

Two Worlds 2 is bollocks. Buy Oblivion, plus add ons. It's probably not too bad on Steam.

Preorder bonus costumes. Not all of these have been confirmed for the UK market, only the 70s style (ShopTo) and Batman Beyond (Gamestop), along with Dark Knight Returns (i.e. the fat one) in the Collectors Edition. But you'd assume they'll either get picked up by a UK retailer or offered later on. Much love for the Animated Series one.

No club worth it's salt would degrade itself by letting Barton wear its colours.

Spoilerific photos from the set in Pittsburgh. And some from the set too. The pictures have a few interesting details. Apparently, Bane likes a coat .

I think thats a gorgeous car. And more attractive than Ferraris current flagship imo. I enjoyed last nights ep, thats what they should do more of. It was still entertaining, but it wasn't that stupid (one or 2 throwaway gags aside). Wasn't such a fan of the final segment though. No issue with the subject, but it was filmed in that mawkish way that anything to do with the disabled always is - it was more about the fact that they were disabled soldiers than it was that they were people doing something brilliant, if you see my point. A similar thing happens with the (number of) ads that have popped up cashing in on the Olympics - they have voyeuristic shots of Paralympic athletes that at once both try to plainly show 'This man is an athlete', but by focusing on the running blade or other prosthetic make it clear that he's not just an athlete in the eyes of the director/audience/whatever. I've always found that quite annoying. The lingering shot of the man who Hammond largely coaxed into welling up to the point he asked for a moment to compose himself was a pretty grim too. I don't need to see a man who has suffered terrible things cry, and I don't think it should have been something put on the film. Those couple of things slightly spoiled a good segment for me. But that was probably the best episode of the series. The electric cars thing summed up what Top Gear can do well - they did a segment that was both informative, but clearly had an argument to make and made that argument (and made it entertaining) by exaggerating or taking things in a slightly less than fair situation (those cars I would suspect the manufacturers would call 'City cars' or 'city runarounds', not big commute machines, for example), but at heart the argument (electric cars are potentially good but batteries are dumb, don't buy them) is sound. A little less cocking about, a little more light hearted not stupid fun and the series will get back on track.

A good signing, hopefully he can keep his head straight and not get mardy. We need more though.

Hadn't better let him anywhere near any establishment serving or selling alcohol. Allegedly.

It won't flop, it's not like Nintendo will do what they did with the Virtual Boy, i.e. leave it to die and quietly pretend it didn't happen. They'll still be games for it. It may just suffer a little that publishers give up on it so to speak, and don't put in so much effort to release innovative games or, in some cases, games at all. It's safe to assume that this price cut is Nintendo bricking it that the 3DS hasn't sold as well they might like however, no matter what they try to dress it up as. In fact you don't need to assume anything, in 3 months they've sold about 700k. For comparison, the standard DS iterations available sold double that in the same period, and everyone and their dog already has a DS. If you were going to buy one, you need to consider a couple of things. The catalogue of games on the 3DS is currently grim, and the release schedule, while better, isn't superb. Theres a new Mario which looks very good, if a little clunky and slow (a problem of the 3D, I guarentee - speedy gameplay + 3D = headaches, nausea...), a new Mario Kart, Metal Gear Solid 3, Kid Icarus... It's an Ok end of year-ish line up. And they'll all be £35. At the moment the games about are pretty slim on the ground and pretty crap, asides from 3 or 4 titles. On the plus side theres a massive back catalogue of DS games the 3DS will play, though some look a little rough scaled up on the bigger screen. Secondly, the 3DS has awful battery life. If you use the 3D, it'll last about 3 hours continuous play. You can get to double figures if you leave the 3d alone (a good idea, it's very awkward to use whilst moving and doesn't add anything to gameplay really), but still it's not really a patch on what the old consoles could do. You can buy a bigger battery from other manufacturers, but that makes the machine bulkier and it's more cost. The price drop as I said also might not affect the actual price here - the system is already selling for way, way, way below the RRP of circa £230. It's been sub £200 even in games retailers (not always the cheapest) for a couple of months. Nintendo dropping the RRP here, which will likely only go to around what they're already selling for, probably isn't going to make it much, if any, cheaper here. I'd buy a 3DS now if I wasn't bothered about the battery, was really keen on the new titles being released and wanted to see what else would be coming soon to take advantage of the power available, had the money to spend and wasn't bothered about the cost of the new titles. If the power of the machine, the future prospects, the 3D etc didn't bother me at all, but I still wanted a dedicated handheld, I'd buy an older model, there are some decent deals about and there are a lot of great DS games out there and they're still being released. The 3DS becomes an easier choice to make if the price drop does further significantly affect retailers prices in this country. I'm not sure it will given the discount it's already running at. If it does, it's easier to recommend, because even at the price it's at now (£180 with a launch title IIRC was/is available in some retailers) it's still a little too flawed for a little too much money imo. However, thats just me. If £180 for the console and a launch title sounds decent to you, and the battery won't worry you and you love 3D and really want a powerful handheld and that Nintendo je ne sais quoi, i daresay you'll be happy with the purchase and will still be able to play all the old DS classics. Plus it seems that, if we are given the same deal as the US, you'll get a lot of freebies too for buying before the price drop.

Also I think it's safe to say that the answer to this thought I had was - 'A **** shitload'.

I'd really, really, really think about it before making the plunge. Especially since it's quite likely that in UK retailers, you're not going to see much of a price drop - they've already slashed profits to just shift the things. Which hasn't worked.

Most unsurprising price cut ever. The thing has sold horrendously and was always too expensive. Whether we actually see the difference here is another story though - retailers haven't had the 3DS anywhere near RRP for months... It still hasn't sold. This official price cut will likely only bring official rrp in line with current prices anyway. And theres still no software for it, besides OoT and SSFIV. EDIT - And what software there is still too expensive. Even discounted they're steep, especially in the current market.

Aguero to Citeh done.

Thats never really been that viable a path to follow, sometimes you have to buy supporting players, back ups, whatever, just to flesh out a squad when it's not feasible to purchase someone better. For what it's worth, however, I wouldn't buy Hutton either. Not because he's not good enough to slot in first choice at RB. Because he's Not Very Good.

Dzekos a strange one, I'd have had him as nailed on to be a Prem success, hasn't happened. He doesn't seem to fit at Citeh. Have they sorted Adebayor out yet?

I really hope that wage isn't true. I'm pretty sure it wont be, even Citeh aren't that dumb. Just something I'd heard elsewhere from a Citeh fan who is usually on the money. I hope/suspect he was having a laugh/taking the piss. EDIT - he was, phew. Ignore!

Aguero to Citeh looking to be done shortly.