Mad Men, Season Five (and yes I'm still alive)

Ok. I'm going to start with this one because I have just rewatched it on DVD after having watched it all when it was originally on tv. I haven't put anything on here since April, I've been useless! I blame having that job at the comic shop! And then having that tv job in Leeds and then being on holiday and then being in hospital. I am now bedbound and so I have no excuse... The thing is I actually did keep a note of all the films and plays I've seen and I prepared images for the blog, I just never seemed to have time to write it. So now, even though the reviews will be short and probably I'll say "I can't really remember it" a lot, at least I'll be back up to date!


Madmen season five was thrilling, I loved watching it weekly as well as watching it all in a couple of nights last week! Peggy is just the bomb, I can't wait for her in the next season. I can't write more, just that I love it and I'm glad after a season of Don thinking he can be different with Megan the final shot of him was like "Ah, fuck it, I'm Don Draper!"

Stardust (2007)

I refused to see this film at the cinema purely on the basis it contained Ricky Gervais, a man so undeserving of fame and fortune it makes my flesh-crawl, or perhaps he just makes my flesh crawl, anyhoo- I saw it on TV a year ago and I adored it. Just to make things clear, I think that even though Gervais is perfect for the part (a flesh-crawly creep) they could have got an actor in, after all, the film is full of talent, why not go the whole hog!?

Yes, Stardust is a joy, a magical fantastical, adventure in the vein of The Princess Bride, it's not as clever or funny but it's more action packed AND there's more British actors! Yes, there are a couple of bum notes in it; Sienna Miller is awful, but again, playing an appropriately hateful character. The lead could do with being a bit more charming and definitely could do with being more handsome, but if he were too handsome (see The Princess Bride) there wouldn't be any point in having such an amazing ensemble! Robert De Niro and Dexter Fletcher are great together, Michelle Pfeiffer is super hot, and my god, Mark Strong (see above) is gorgeous! Hooray for wigs!!!

Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound and Sheridan's The Critic (Double Bill at Chichester Festival Theatre)

When I was seventeen I was almost in a production of The Real Inspector Hound, we rehearsed it and had a good time and it was the first play I'd been in since I was about five, but in the end it was cancelled because the school decided to go with another play and a less giggly bunch of actors. I have to admit that we were shite, me especially as I'd never kissed anyone and my character had to make out with two of my teenage friends in the play so I was a bit inhibited when those scenes came along. When I sat watching Chichester's current production and watched actors Joe Dixon and then Nicholas le Prevost make out with the character I had almost played I thought; now there's a couple of people I wouldn't have a problem with.

At Chichester this summer there's lots going on, Rupert Everett is in Pygmailion, there's a stage version of Yes Minister with David Haig, 42nd Street is the big musical and over from the main building at the smaller Minerva Theatre there is a double bill of one-act plays both along the theme of plays within a play- and their critics.

The Real Inspector Hound was acted exactly the way I had imagined when I read it at school, it was ridiculous, campy, silly and just brilliant fun. The Critic was a little longer than Hound and I think was much better, strangely spot-on despite being written so long ago and it was riotously funny. I wasn't drunk but I hadn't laughed that much in years, I laughed so much that I was actually in pain.

Both plays were wonderfully staged with beautiful costumes- especially in The Critic, I do like the old powdered wigs etc. everyone looked so beautiful while they were being so stupid! Excellent direction, brilliant physical comedy from all the actors. Yes, it is of course the combination of sharp writing, clever direction and excellent ensemble that made these plays really shine. Joe Dixon, who I saw two years ago in the RSC's A Midsummer Night's Dream was brilliantly OTT in both plays, I was pleased I got to tell him afterwards that he had really made that Shakespeare because he was really really excellent as Bottom. I also met Sean Foley who was just as good in these two! I really love silly. I think that would be the best word for the sort of acting I appreciate. Nick le Prevost, of course, was super silly but he disguises it well by being completely natural throughout the farce, this is very good acting- but I also know that maybe he's a bit of a cheat because he's naturally a very silly man in real life -which is why I adore him. Una Stubbs cracked me up constantly in both plays and the two girls; Hermione Gulliford and Sophie Bould were so sweet, but not sickeningly so- only in a very silly way!

Yes, it hasn't been a very critical review, but I'm not a critic, this is my diary so I can remember what plays I've seen and why I loved them. I don't think I've enjoyed myself at a comedy play so much for years, I actually can't remember the last time I laughed so much. The sight of Nick dangling from the rafters hanging off a giant globe while screaming was a brilliant high to end on, and if they'd have left him up there and I hadn't got to tell him how much I enjoyed it afterwards I don't think I would have minded too much, it was perfection.

Inception (2010)

Best film I've seen for AGES!

Looked amazing, brilliant intelligent script, wonderful ensemble! No shortage of eye-candy either, god I love Tom Hardy.

I want to OWN it!

Cold Comfort Farm (1995)

I don't know why I never got around to reviewing Soccer-Aid on here, that was the last thing I watched on TV and really enjoyed! I always enjoy Cold Comfort Farm. Every time Anna and I have a visitor we educate them in the ways of the world through DVDs, usually with a Bronte TV drama to accompany their inevitable trip to Haworth and then after a walk in the countryside around our house Cold Comfort is usually (appropriately) viewed.

Anna's guest was American Maddy, she is not the first American to be subjected to Cold Comfort and Jane Eyre (Ruth Wilson & Toby Stephens), next thing Maddy knows she'll be sat in front of Brideshead Revisited or the complete Blackadder, that's what I did to my American...

This is going to be a bold statement: I like Cold Comfort Farm as much as I like Withnail & I- and not just because some of it is filmed in the same tea room-it is all extremely quotable. It is of course almost word perfect to the book but the casting is what really makes it a joy every six-months (I could watch it every week I reckon). It is an all-star cast, but none of them probably as massive in 1995 as they are now. And it is the role, out of all he has played on screen, that Rufus Sewell is most perfect in, the role that he should have lived, hell, if he really was Seth in 1930 he would have been a HUGE movie star. The way they shoot his scenes are brilliantly funny, he is perfect for that role. Le sigh! And lead Kate Beckinsale is adorable, if she'd have stayed in Britain she wouldn't have all the fame and riches that she has now in Hollywood but she would have continued to shine in lead roles in TV drama, her film roles of the last ten years have been nothing special, look how bloody funny and sharp she was in this! Jesus fuck! Brits are wasted in America!

Anyway, I like word perfect adaptations of good books, this one is one of the best (and the bits they changed I don't care about! Rennet and Reuben are good together!). I even like Stephen Fry's comic turn, though I suppose it was made before he was on EVERY channel EVERY night in self-indulgent TV documentaries.

Me and Orson Welles (2009)

I saw the trailer for this film ages ago and thought it looked amazing- as in, the look of it, the costumes and the locations, all perfectly 1930s. And Zefron was there too and I was really keen to see him in a film where he wasn't all-singing all-dancing!

I finally saw it last night and there was a bit of his singing and dancing but I think that was important to the plot rather than it being written into everyone of his contracts!

You know it's a good film when you assume it's American but are wonderfully surprised to see that absolutely EVERYONE (except Zefron and Claire Danes) in it is British. That guy who makes a living playing Orson Welles on stage must be well chuffed that he has played him on screen, it was an amazing performance, the main reason to see the film definitely! And like I say the ensemble were excellent, Eddie Marsan, Ben Chaplin and Kelly Reilly all fabulous support. It's a film about the theatre and it was well done, I loved it.

Sleepers (1996)

Paedophiles beget Paedophiles, this is a well known fact. So Brad Pitt's character who was obviously very disturbed to obsessively research such a scheme for 13 years to plot the downfall of his torturers in the end moved to England to be a "carpenter"... CODE= he's now a creepy English perv.

The film started off well with an excellent soundtrack and a horrific abuse plot but it went downhill as soon as Kevin Bacon was murdered. I saw the trailer last night and thought "wow, what an ensemble piece!" so I bought it for £3 from HMV but as soon as the childhood half of the film was over and the film's star was Jason Patric it was shite -and Dustin Hoffman and Bobby De Niro weren't in it enough to make a difference.

It was just BORING, and ridiculous that a judge would allow a lawyer to ask someone totally inappropriate questions for that long! "How is this appropriate to the case in question?" was only asked after about ten minutes! Stupid!!

I just got annoyed that it wasn't the bloody-revenge film I hoped it would be, I really liked the beginning! I did say at one point in the first half: "You know it's amazing how film making has changed, nowadays American directors would film the rape scenes, don't they understand that it's much more psychologically disturbing like this when it's all in your head?" But of course later on in the film there were flashbacks that debunked my praise.

And in the end let's face it! You shouldn't have stolen that hotdog cart!! You are not Ignatius J Reilly! You brought it on yourselves!!