A Simple Wish (1997)

My small cousins found this in my DVD collection over the Easter weekend and decided they wanted to watch it.
A Simple Wish is brilliant. Martin Short plays male fairy godmother (they had to let him pass the exam because otherwise they'd be accused of sexism, despite the fact he undoubtedly failed) the way you'd expect him to play it. This is before the Damages days so we'd only ever seen Marty play a total nut, but never a threatening nut, that is most important.
I used to love this film, I was thirteen when I first saw it and loving Martin Short in the innocent way that I did I did not see anything sinister about it at all. I made my grown up pals watch it last year and they were extremely creeped out by it. He is twitchy and awkward and he tells 8 year-old Mara Wilson (Matilda) not to tell anyone about him. He arrives in her room in the middle of the night and despite being a creepy middle-aged man she accepts he is a fairy godmother... Ok, so I see their point, maybe it is kind of weird and it wouldn't get made in the same way today. I was worried the kids would think it was weird this weekened, but guess what- they loved it.
Yep! It is magical! And the fact that he's awkward and useless isn't creepy, it's funny and cute.
I was so relieved that I googled Marty to see what the heck he's been up to these last few years, he hasn't made a film for ages! I was horrified to find out that his wife died last year, really, really awful. I completely loved him when I was small and I remember reading about a lot of his family dying when he was young, I couldn't think of anything more horrific to happen to someone who from what I remember in those old interviews obviously just wanted a happy healthy family of his own. I'm glad his kids are all quite grown up and they have him. Poor Marty. He was my total hero when I was small.

Martina Cole's The Take (2009)

Why did they cast a girl who looks JUST like Tom Hardy as Tom Hardy's wife?

A Steady Rain (Schonfield Theatre)

So Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman are doing a play- who cares what it's about I'm there!! Hugh Jackman is ultimate hot and Daniel Craig was in that brill episode of Drop the Dead Donkey (and he's also James Bond).

Well, it turns out that A Steady Rain is ok, it would have been better suited to radio or Afternoon Play slot on TV. It's not brilliant, it has no surprises, in fact it's quite predictable and average, and seeing as neither of the two Adonises do much more on stage than sit in chairs for an hour and a half I'd say it's a waste of such hotties.

But here's news for you; I went to see Jackman and he was corny, over the top and completely miscast in straight theatre, also he seems to have suddenly got kind of weasely and his face is too small for his head... Daniel Craig is a mighty good actor, he played the part really really well, he was quite cute in real life, not too much like Sid James... and I liked him an awful lot more than Showtime Jackman. I should have known really that he was going to be excellent, he was excellent in Our Friends in the North (not to mention that episode of Drop the Dead Donkey where George makes him sing the Birdie Song) And Jackman, well, I should have waited for him to do another musical, he was fab fab fabulous in his Oscars opening ceremony.

Ashes to Ashes (Series 2 Episode 1)

Ashes is back! Slow start! Cringworthy Life on Mars-style hearing things! Obvious kidnapper! Everyone has different hair!

Well, except the important characters, ie Ray.

The Public Enemy (1931)

Jean Harlow, sex-symbol. eh? Looked like a hideous troll-pig to me.

The Public Enemy was some sort of public service film to put people off becoming gangsters, getting mixed up in bootlegging and disappointing their Ma. It was terrifying! No exaggeration, I will have nightmares about that final scene!!

This was back in the day before censors, there's sex, violence, gore, all sorts of stuff! So the message was crime doesn't pay, they made that pretty damn clear!

James Cagney here in I think one of his first film roles, well, he was a sort of even-creepier Malcolm McDowell. I don't know how Jean Harlow makes it onto the poster she was in three scenes, what a sicht! The girl Cagney was seeing before her (the one whose face he shoves a grapefruit into- iconic/controversial scene) is very elegant and pretty, I suppose she would have been a drag though, too boring for a gangster. It must have been part of the message; if you turn to crime you will never be with beautiful women, only skanky trolls.

Anyway it put me right off crime, I did feel sorry for Ma and for the shell-shocked veteran brother (who seemed to smash all the furniture in the house), Tommy was a prick but that final scene was a bit much:

"Ma! Tommy's coming home from hospital!"

"Is he all right?"

"-he must be, or they wouldn't be bringing him home..."

A knock at the door, Mike opens it to Tommy's corpse, he is tied up in a body bag, showing is his dead blood-drenched face staring blankly, it keels over face first onto the floor with a sickening thud.

They all drank lemonade.... The End!