The BNP

I will write again. I have been triggered by recent activity against the BNP and I feel it is time to get my opinion on this site. Mainly because sooner or later, I will be stopped from talking altogether. As everybody can see, I have written an essay below describing how the BNP are absolutely a fascist party. Let me start by saying that my opinion has not changed in the slightest. They are and we must stop them.

However, the techniques used by this government and indeed this country are little less than Stalinist. I realise that they are not that much of an opposition party, but they are still in opposition to the government. Members are now prevented from getting a job. Teachers Unions are stopping them from becoming teachers. Facebook is being asked to wipeaway all information to do with the BNP. Hitler against the Jews. I hate to agree with BNP members, but as it states below, it is very difficult to identify fascist characteristics in the BNP, so now they are essentially piling pressure and hatred from the rest of the country on white middle income and working class Englishmen. Stopping them from getting a job. With that kind of treatment, what do you think this group will start to do but join the BNP? The treatment by the government is ridiculous. 'Positive racism' - there is no such thing, and if anyone believes there is then they are as racisr as the BNP. I then wrote on the Sky News and BBC website but Sky won't let me say Stalinist and the BBC stopped debate altogether. What's next 42 day detention? ID cards? Positive racism? oh - already been tried ah well then - Welcome to Stalinist Britain!

The 40 Year Old Virgin

I am forced to ask what the genre of this film is. Is it American Pie silly or It's a wonderful life? Meaning, does an experience change a person with a fault in their nature or a point of view that should change for during the film that endeavors also to change ours? Well it certainly is silly as many of the characters simply are silly and could very well have featured in American Pie and we would be happy with their involvement. And it certainly is trying to create a situation to change someone's crisis. It seems pretty obvious then that The 40 year old virgin is about a virgin who is 40 who requires his friends around him to change that for the better. Steve Carrell is Andy Sitzer. A man who finds himself working in an electrical goods store and a virgin at the age of 40. He is very much in the background of this store and is clearly unsuccessful. It then becomes the challenge of his colleagues to push him out of this situation and slowly it works out this way and then a woman called Trish comes along to end it in the best way possible. As you can tell, this film was always going to be silly and it should be expected to be as it is very silly. The humour is very much for an American Pie audience, and the ridiculous amount of swearing only underlines this issue. However the biggest problem with this film is not that there is too much swearing. Nor is it the silly humour. But instead, it is the fact that I seriously do not believe that Steve Carrel, a handsome man who is mature, clever and owns his own home, would ever in real life be a virgin by force. And of course, for him to be changed it needs to be by force, but I watched this film thinking he must have chosen this, not been forced into it. One character said that she would have sex with him in seconds. The film then puts it down to accidents but accidents are not the reason why someone would be a virgin. So you see you find yourself thinking is this just silly or is it trying to say something about being a virgin at 40. That's obviously up to the viewer. Still it will make you laugh and you should enjoy this film. Apatow is a funny man and is backed up by Carrell who is always funny. Worth seeing but tell me what the genre is. Is it American Pie stupid, or is it an It's a Wonderful life thoughtful? I can assure you that it is a great and thoughtful American Pie-like film. Alternatively, if it is meant to be It's a Wonderful Life, it isn't great and sufferd from plot holes that are indeed very noticeable.
***1/2 - Good funny film for an evening in.

The Good German

Well I must say I am biased in this case. I just don't consider George Clooney to be a good actor. I am sorry but when he decided to do an 'oscar grabber,' I thought, there might be a chance for him. Especially being set in Germany after the war. With a decent cast of Toby Maguire and good old Cate Blanchett, I thought that this might be different. However this flick is attempting something that The Pianist, Downfall and Schindler's list all attempted, and following them needed something special. Unfortunately the wooden acting will leave you not taking George seriously and the film has an over complicated plot meaning that this black and white is not black and white. It is not straight forward but a pondering through a dull and tedious script made worse by Pinocchio playing the lead. Cate does well and of course, most expecting me to say that she out did everybody especially the usually drab Maguire, are waiting in vain. Maguire is fantastic and worth the money you paid to see the whole film. And then he dies in the first 20 minutes leaving Cate as a side for Clooney's awful German, awfull acted, painfully boring script. I guess oscars don't just come to anyone doing the war. **

The Not Show

I am a big fan of the Now Show but recently I have been much disappointed. Mitch Benn is usually funny but I do believe he is quickly running out of material and it really does show that all he does is seemingly pick a stupid fact and elaborate on it in an often semi-humorous way. The Now Show for the 4th July included two of his songs. The first was a short, perhaps even less than a minute simple tune describing Nelson Mandela as if he were a terrorist. The idea was that he was only just taken off the terrorism list by the US and therefore this seemed funny. But I am skeptical and I must admit I didn't laugh. Firstly, because it isn't that funny. Ha ha he is saying that the Americans think he is an evil terrorist. That's not really funny because it would go against his usual opinion of Americans to say that the Americans had even heard of him. Also to think that the British took this long to take Mugabe off the knighthood list is significantly more stupid. This really marks my recently poor opinion of him too. Mitch Benn is quite clever. He has a system. Take simple song tune and change words to fit recent news story. But every story on the news does not come out at America being crap. Nor does it come out as Britain being crap. I enjoy Have I got news for you more at the moment because they do not necessarily have a politics that is set. They insult everyone. Here though it is the same old annoying politics and they will even walk past something that is quite obviously something to insult and because they like it they will ignore it. It usually is ignorable but recently, it has become unbearable. Constant America bashing is not clever and it's not funny anymore either. I agree that they should, but Britain deserves significant attacks. They then would walk past the fact that the British government has allowed companies to be 'positively racist'. Without mentioning the fact that it is obscene, disgusting and anyone who believes in it should be shot in my view. John Holmes is usually quite funny but last week he went past useful jokes like that and got in the Zimbabwe jokes. Wow! Coz that's funny... Maybe not. I think it is a shame but maybe there are reasons why Have I got news for you is only on every now and again. Perhaps it would gt boring and perhaps the Now Show has as well. Maybe the Now Show has simply ran out of material. I would forgive Mitch Benn for that. After all, he obviously isn't that great of a comedian. Once again I can accept this but the annoying ideas they have do get up my nose. America isn't that bad and Britain certainly is. Why do they feel that it is ok to publicly allow racism? Why? It seems ridiculous to me. I just hope the Now show improves for next week. We shall see.

Make Dan a Dr Who Fan

Hi all,

As posted on AM's blog, I am challenging you all to make Dan a Dr. Who fan. Please post me an episode and a means of watching it that won't cost 70 pounds!

Dan

Forgetting Sarah Marshall Review SPOILER ALERT!

Starring Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis and Russel Brand.
Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) is a Hollywood actress currently fulfilling her role in Crime Scene, which is a spoof version of CSI: Miami, with the catchphrases to boot. We join Sarah after she just broke up with five year long boyfriend, Peter Bretter (Jason Segel), the man behind the music of her hit TV show. Peter finds out that she has been dating rockstar, Aldous Snow (Russel Brand) and bumps into them in Hawaii where he seeks to get over the long-term relationship. There he meets the gorgeous Rachel (Mila Kunis) in whom, he becomes infatuated in what terms out for a hilarious situational comedy. That's kind of what happens when you deliberately go where your ex-girlfriend told you throughout your relationship where she wants to go as her perfect romantic location - but what do I know.
After 10 minutes, I was forced to face up to the fact that this film was simply not going to cater for me. Faced with Segel's 'little dude' that early in the film was proof enough that this was a date movie that was for one gender only, and I am a straight, 20 year old male. But it would be easy for me to say that this is a bad film and that everyone really shouldn't watch it because that kind of goes without saying. It is a typical romantic comedy storyline that really has been seen a million times before. We have the cute confused blond star who is longing for more, the guy who won't commit or look to do more with his life, the girl who is scarred by a terrible past life, who we all know he should go out with. It has the typical complication and resolution at the end all for a happily ever after. I admit that this film is instantaneously 'Brand'ed as vulgar simply for a certain character involved, plus the Christian couple on their honey moon is really quite unoriginal. I may be seen as biased for complaining about this but really, the frigid Christian is not funny. There were also problems with the storyline. One cannot help but think that there was no need for Peter to get back with Sarah once with Rachel, all to discover that he is not supposed to be with her, all done for the fulfillment of typical Hollywood storyline. It wasn't needed, especially as a conflict of him leaving the Hotel and perhaps never seeing her again, may have been resolution enough. Certainly as he was made out to be extremely intelligent, sensitive and angry with Sarah for leaving her. This was a point that was expanded upon for at least half of the film. One would assume that the writer would remember that. One also has to question that if this film's target audience is women, why was it so cringe-worthy? How many women like The Office? Not that many and many would say that it was for this reason that they don't. Cringe-worthy humour is a very male-orientated humour and I am not sure whether this was wise.
Nevertheless, the film was quite funny and the acting was quite good. Kristen Bell may have been helped by the fact that she was playing herself in that we should all recognize her for her role as Elle on Heroes, and apparently is finding it very difficult to break into film. Russel Brand had his moments and some of the side characters were quite likeable. Some really weren't, but some were quite good and proved useful in building Peter's character. The spoofing of CSI: Miami was quite funny and was something I particularly enjoyed. Especially the use of Peter's music to similar effect. Rachel was quite an interesting character, although the use of Hawaii as a romantic destination is starting to become more and more popular as comedy. This worked well for 50 First Dates but I am unsure how long this will last as it is slowly getting old now. Although this is true it is a very funny film that does have some classic moments such as a brilliant scene at dinner, which is a must see for anyone into situational comedy.
*** - One for the ladies I think but worth watching and Brand isn't that annoying which is always a plus. What 50 First Dates if you liked this!

24

When I was told that 24 would not be coming this January, I was angry! Everything looked in a mess and with the quality of the last season, things did not look good. But now I have seen the clip for season 7 and well - I AM READY! Not only this, but 24 will include a preview this time that will be a 2-hour TV Movie! Jack Bauer in a film followed by another 24 hours of blood spilling, torture filled fun for starters, and a main course of neck chomping, leg breaking, knee cap shooting and so much more!
http://videos.24fans.net/uk_trailer/