A Late Monday Review

Films

The Hurt Locker This is a war film set in Iraq and is about a bomb disposal team. The leader of the team has an addiction to war and another of the team has some psychology issues. The action scenes are phenomenal and have you holding your breath as you wait to see whether the various bombs get defused before they explode. At first you think there isn’t much to the characters but they develop lots as time goes by. This is one of those films that is hard to predict the ending but the ending that happens is satisfactory. This film barely made it’s budget back at in the cinema’s but it did really well at the last Oscar’s. Epically brilliant.

Books

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell This is perhaps the best book of the 20th Century. It is set in an England not hugely different from out own but one that where the government have total control over the people and the past. The ideas in this certainly make you think about how the world works and Winston Smith is a likeable central character as he isn’t a generic fictional one but a normal bloke. It’s a difficult novel to describe simply because of it’s brilliance. You must read this if you haven't already, even if you hardly ever read books. It is absolutely fantastic and will really get you thinking. One of the best books I have ever read. Literally ever.

TV Shows

101 Ways to Leave a Gameshow This is the BBC’s latest action gameshow following the success of Hole in the Wall and Total Wipeout. I love this type of show. Basically contestants are dropped of a tower into a swimming pool in various different ways. That’s basically the reason for watching it and you will know straight away if it appeals to you. The show is dragged out far longer than necessary but we must take the rough with the smooth to watch people cycle off a tower. Steve Jones is a really good presenter though and this show suits him to the ground-well tower. I enjoyed it but you might not.

Sporting Events

2010 FIFA World Cup (Football) Obviously this was a bad competition if you support one of the major teams who failed to do well like England, Italy, Brazil and Argentina. And a terrible one if you’re French. But I want to review it on a neutral point of view. Many of the games were rather dull as we saw teams with no hope of progressing very far play each other and good teams just being boring. But there were some very good games such as Portugal winning 7-nil. Spain were deserving champions though they were rather boring at doing this, winning nearly every game 1-nil. The refereeing this year was diabolical with some terrible decisions made. South Africa were an excellent host and I think the vuvuzelas added to the atmosphere. Overall, not the best competition ever but good one.

Hope you enjoyed this week’s reviews and I shall see all of you lovely followers very soon.