Reviews

I watched this last night, not really expecting very much, but I like Matthew Perry and the whole 'swapping bodies/age' concept so thought it would be OK.

It's certainly not the best of the bunch - I think that award will always belong to Big for me personally, but it's a lot better than I thought it would be and I was surprised at how good Zac Effron was too. I've never really paid him much attention before, being in my late 20's I'm not really in the target audience for his previous offerings! He's a surprisingly good actor and what I was particularly impressed by was how he nailed Matthew Perry's mannerisms and speech style and fed them into his portrayal of 'Young Mike'. Very Clever.

Matthew Perry was actually slightly miscast in this I thought, but unfortunately, I think the ghost of Chandler Bing will follow him throughout his career and he may seem out of place no matter what he does.

The storyline has a few whopping holes in it - I spent half the movie trying to work out how Scarlett supposedly fell pregnant in '89, yet 20 years later her child was still in High School? Never mind though, it was a perfectly reasonable piece of fluff to while away a couple of hours and sometimes you don't need to look any deeper than that!

I watched this last night on Channel 4 and I honestly cannot believe just how much it has challenged my opinions on this highly emotive subject. I cried very hard for about 20 minutes after the end credits and I still cannot stop thinking about it. I almost wished I hadn't watched it as it has just challenged my way of thinking so much - although I suppose that is what films are supposed to do.

The story revolves around Jack - formerly known as Eric - a child murderer released at the age of 24 after serving 14 years in prison for a crime he committed with his accomplice Philip at the age of 10. It follows his re-entry into the world, making friends and finding his way.

Suffice to say Eric and Philip were two very neglected souls. Philip, we discover through a series of flashbacks, is suffering very severe sexual abuse at the hands of his older brother (and I just have to say that Taylor Doherty who played him is hopefully set for a very bright future - what an understated and convincing performance). Eric is neglected by his family, friendless, bullied and he clings onto his only friend in Philip - which I believe is probably why he goes along with the crime - for fear of letting down his one and only companion in the world.

This has reinforced my opinion that children, including child murderers, are not born evil - they are shaped by their surroundings and their upbringing. It has changed my opinion of how they should be handled - they SHOULD be given a second chance. Jack was a lost soul who had played a part in the most heinous crime but he was desperately trying to turn his life around. It is hammered home that he is not evil when he saves the little girl from the car accident. He is living a haunted half life - 24 with the naivety of someone half his age. I so wanted him to build up a good life which I think was why the ending upset me so much. The whole film leads up to it and Andrew Garfield's superb performance just haunted me afterwards.

To be honest - I don't think I will watch this film again as I just find it too upsetting - and that really is not like me (although I am pregnant and a bit hormonal at the moment) - but I think there are some future stars in this film, namely Andrew Garfield who played Jack and Taylor Doherty who played young Philip Craig.

You really should watch this film

This programme was 100% TV Gold when it first began. Series 1 & 2 were fabulous. It had it all - fabulous comedy, heartwarming family dynamics, strong characters - the works.

Unfortunately, that is where it should have ended. Shameless lost two of it's most integral characters during series 2 (Steve and Fiona) and I don't think it ever really recovered. I think it might just have coped without James McAvoy, but without Anne-Marie Duff it lost a lot of the much needed warmth and became a show purely about a slightly chavvy family living on a rough estate in Manchester.

It limped along through a third series which was just about OK thanks to excellent comedic performances from David Threlfall (Frank), Maxine Peake (Veronica) and Dean Lennox Kelly (Kev). However, it was a dying duck and the absolute final nail in the coffin for me was the return of the awful Monica into the family fold during series 4.

It was shortly after this that I switched off.

Shameless was truly excellent to begin with - I don't know anyone who didn't love it. But it's had its day now and I wish the producer had been brave enough to pull the plug after series 3 at the absolute most so it could have been remembered as a great show. At this rate it's going to end up another 'Bad Girls' - a quality show to begin with that descended into really, really crap pantomime because the production company was too greedy (or short of new ideas) to:

JUST. LET. IT. GO!!!!

I didn't have particularly high hopes for this film - I'm not a fan of Jennifer Aniston movies, however I was pleasantly surprised. I found the characters very believable (I have finally managed to squash the image of 'Rachel' out of my head!) and I thought Aniston and Vaughan acted out the demise of a long-term relationship very well and with a lot of emotion that actually rang true.

The film displayed just how petty adults can be when they are hurting and trying to shield themselves and how heartbreaking the end of a relationship is.

I thought the ending could be seen a mile off, however I was again very surprised. About 30 minutes from the end I thought it was obvious they were going to stay together and it would all be tied up in a typical, pretty Hollywood-happy-ending package. Amazingly, it didn't - but it was still very touching and most of all - very realistic. I liked this film.

I hate this film with a passion. It is merely a showcase for Carey to display her (admittedly impressive) singing abilities and nothing else. The worst thing about this film is that all the way through it you can tell Mariah is taking it sooooo seriously - despite her oh-so-obvious lack of acting ability. The only scene where I suspect no acting was required was during her 'diva-strop' scene.

This film is so bad it makes Spiceworld and Crossroads look like Acadamy Award contenders.

Glitter also has the dubious honour of containing a scene so stomach-churningly nauseating I wanted to throw a brick at the TV. The scene in question is where she's split up with 'Dice' (wave bye-bye to your credibility Max Beesley) and they're both sitting in their individual apartments and she's singing along, coming up with a tune and melody and HEY!!! Whaddya know - across town IN HIS OWN APARTMENT, BEESLEY IS SAT COMING UP WITH THE EXACT SAME MELODY!!! Absolute Bulls**t and an insult to the audience.

Words cannot explain how much I detest this film. It is so hateful I just had to express my anger on here!!! Phew...I feel so much better now.

Where's the 'Zero' Vote button, because it's truly needed on this occasion.

After reading the terrible reviews, I watched this on Box Office out of sheer, morbid curiosity. Surely it couldn't be that bad!?!?!? WRONG. It is so bad that after 10 minutes watching it you feel like poking your eyes out.

It's been a long time since a film has been so atrociously bad it has actually made me angry. Yes...that's right...angry!!!! I won't even go into the plot because there wasn't one. The producers might as well have just cut and pasted together the excerpts of the films they were *supposed* to be parodying.

At least with films like 'Not another Teen Movie' and 'Scary Movie' you get some sense of a likable plot line cobbled together from all the films they parody. This film is just a collection of scenes, directly ripped from films like Bridget Jones and Meet the Parents and pasted together.

Whoever commissioned this film should be fired immediately and after that, every single copy of this film should be gathered up, put on a container ship and dumped at the bottom of the Atlantic. Then we can all breathe a sigh of relief and pretend this piece of crap never existed.

Pathetic

This is an amazing film and in my opinion should be shown to every person of school age to show them the reality of taking hard drugs. In this true story, DiCaprio plays Jim Carroll, a teenager with a promising future as a Basketball Player in front of him. He and his friends take uppers etc for fun, but this soon develops into more serious drug addictions after he and 2 of his friends are thrown off the team when they are caught out one day.

This film really shows the harsh side of drug-taking and that what may start out as a few pills and poppers, can lead to a more destructive path. Mark Wahlberg puts in an excellent performance as Jim's friend and I can honestly say I don't think there is a single cast member who lets this film down.

An honest depiction of drug taking and it's not so glamorous side.

I watched this when it came out and found it an amazing piece of work and kudos to Maxine Peake for shedding her comedy typecast and putting in a truly excellent performance.

This programme was not graphic, quite the opposite. What the producers did was concentrate on the everyday lives of Brady and Hindley, showing them to be, (Hindley on face value at least), normal people living normal lives. However, what chills you is that whilst they are going about their routine lives, the viewer knows that behind the scenes they are committing the most appallingly wicked crimes. This is highlighted by conversations held throughout the programme such as a discussion about a newspaper article that Maureen Smith had with her sister regarding the disappearance of Lesley-Ann Downey.

One of the slightly controversial aspects of this programme, was the decision to include real photographs within the scenery of the actual children who suffered at the hands of this evil pair. However, this was a clever move because it constantly brought home the very real and shocking subject of the programme.

In cases as hideous as this we, quite rightly, hear about the suffering of victims relatives, however See No Evil focused primarily on the destruction of the lives of Hindleys sister and brother-in-law, and God were their lives wrecked. Brady and Hindleys wicked cruelty destroyed many lives and I'm glad this programme was shown because it will all make us pray that Hindley will rot in hell and Brady won't be far behind.

It's ironic that this film ends with two of the lead characters swimming around at the entrance to a sewer pipe, because I think that everyone involved with this dud movie is going to find out that s**t definitely sticks.

Another year and another film designed to squeeze the last few drops out of the British Gangster movie genre. Words cannot describe how bad 'The Business' is. It is jam-packed with every tired gangster cliché you could imagine, from the 'snappy' title to the cheesy scraping-the-bottom-of-the-well-worn-barrel dialogue. Take this example - 'he was so hard even his nightmares were afraid of him'. WHAT???? Trust me, it sounds even worse when delivered, in voice-over, by everyones favourite one-trick-pony Danny Dyer. Now don't get me wrong, I like Danny Dyer, but I'm getting sick of his good-hearted villain routine. His repertoire is limited to say the least and I wish he would push himself beyond crap like this. However, he is not the worst. A terrible cast who are held to ransom by an appalling script. This film is a paint by numbers, lazy, cheap imitation of Sexy Beast.

The business has been made to generate a quick buck from the lads mag generation who will no doubt think this film is 'shit-hot'. It's not. There are better films out there. It's scripts are pathetic. There s no real plot to the film - it really has been made for the sake of it. It's one of the worst films I have ever seen and this is from a person who managed to sit through Final Cut.