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Sunday, February 6, 2011: THE WRESTLER (USA/France, 2008) 8/10 Thursday, February 17, 2011: FRANK AND OLLIE (USA, 1995) 6/10 Sunday, February 20, 2011: THELMA & LOUISE (USA/France, 1991) 9/10 Friday, February 25, 2011: ARMY OF SHADOWS (France/Italy, 1969) 8/10...

Posted at 10:19 PM in Cinema

Tuesday, February 15, 2011: L'ILLUSIONNISTE/LES TRIPLETTES DE BELLEVILLE (BD, Region B, France) Tuesday, February 15, 2011: THELMA & LOUISE (BD, Region A, USA)...

Posted at 10:15 PM in Blu-ray

The film: And now it's time for episode #436 of "Michael catches up with a significant movie he's never seen before"... Well actually, I did see the final 20 minutes of THELMA & LOUISE on TV years ago, but knowing...

Posted at 10:05 PM in BD Impressions

I've just got back from the annual Model Rail Scotland convention, held at the SECC in Glasgow (it runs from Friday through to Sunday). It was great seeing so many impressively detailed layouts (in a variety of gauges, from N...

Posted at 3:47 PM in Model Railways

The Movie Matters podcast continues with a Darren (REQUIEM FOR A DREAM) Aronofsky special, putting his latest film, the critically acclaimed BLACK SWAN, under the microscope, as well as his previous offering, the similarly acclaimed THE WRESTLER. http://rapidshare.com/files/449609230/moviematters-episode6-24-02-11.mp3 http://rapidshare.com/files/449788727/moviematters-episode6-24-02-11.mp3 iTunes...

Posted at 12:37 PM in Podcast

Short video showcasing my two favourite of my currently operational locomotives - A4 Pacific "Falcon" and Princess Coronation "City of Chester" (plus a special appearance by 9F "Evening Star"). The track layout is just a slight extension of the...

Posted at 3:39 PM in Model Railways

The film: Disney went through a period of making some very meandering, largely inconsequential films with minimal plotting, and ALICE IN WONDERLAND is probably both the best and most obvious example of this trend. It uses the same "It was...

Posted at 9:42 PM in BD Impressions

This evening, my copy of Adobe Photoshop (CS5 Extended student edition, which I bought last year for a fraction of the price of the non-student version) abruptly decided to stop working. No, scratch that, it decided that the software had...

Posted at 9:26 PM in Technology

(BD, 20th Century Fox/MGM, Region A, USA)...

Posted at 11:03 PM in Blu-ray

(BD, Pathé, Region B, France)...

Posted at 11:03 PM in Blu-ray

A word of advice to anyone thinking of picking up Icon's UK release of BURIED: don't. It is in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 rather than the theatrical 2.35:1. I don't know whether it's open matte, cropped, or a combination...

Posted at 4:17 PM in Blu-ray

No updates until the weekend, folks. I'm flying down to London tomorrow morning and from there heading out to Elstree for a three-day course on story structure....

Posted at 11:35 AM in General

Apologies for the tardiness of this comparison, but SZAMANKA was unfortunately plagued by supply issues and I wanted to wait until more people had got their hands on a copy before posting this. [Continue reading...]...

Posted at 6:40 PM in DVD

With the help of a great program called AnyRail, I've been experimenting with various ideas for permanent model railway layouts. As I mentioned before, I have a finite amount of available space on my bedroom floor, exacerbated by the fact...

Posted at 7:54 PM in Model Railways

The film: I purposefully avoided writing this post until after the release of Movie Matters Episode 5, because otherwise it would have been blatantly obvious what my personal number one film of 2010 was. That film is indeed THE SOCIAL...

Posted at 2:55 PM in BD Impressions

You will need: One (1) bottle cork One (1) unbent paperclip One (1) bottle of lubricating oil (approx. £3) Using the paperclip and cork as a makeshift eye-dropper, apply a single drop of oil to each of the pivot points...

Posted at 1:21 PM in Model Railways