English

From the moment Triangle starts, we sense there is something "not quite right".

A seagull cry here, an ominous piano cue on the soundtrack there. A young mother, Jess (Melissa George) hugs her child to comfort him and says he's just having a bad dream. This may seem an odd place to start a film.

And so it is.

The young woman goes on a trip on a yacht called Triangle with her friends, but is caught in a storm and the group take shelter on an old fashioned liner. From here, things start to get really weird. Jess appears convinced she has been on the ship before, yet how could she have been? Has she simply gone insane? Can she trust anyone? She appeared detached and cold for some of the film, and so not totally likeable to me, but we do see the film through her eyes, and are often confused and frightened as she is, wondering what on earth is happening. Perhaps that is the reason for this (and so this can work in the film's favour). Her performance, and those of the rest of the young Australian cast are very good

The use of Groundhog Day/Memento style cues in the film - repeating things yet in a subtly different way each time, gradually revealing more of the story, is splendidly creepy and it also plays with our perception of time.
The mood in the film appears genuinely sinister and unsettling, perhaps dreamlike - even if much of it takes place outside in bright sunlight. In fact, in my opinion this actually adds to the tension - this nature of seeming disquiet is at odds with the warm, brightly lit scenes of the yacht trip, and blue sea (the film was shot in Australia, doubling for Florida). This is also hinted at by style and placing of the music, which ranges from piano music, to a big band.

I was impressed by the way the film made me think about what I'd seen to try and work out the puzzle and how it isn't just a bog standard "horror" film, but more cerebral in tone, like a psychological thriller. In a sense though, this makes the film's jumpy moments seem even scarier.

Extras on the Blu Ray include a 42 minute Making Of (which I honestly don't recommend seeing until you have finished the film, because it goes into some deeper detail about the story, and will spoil things for you).
The Blu Ray transfer is not too bad, but I felt the bright scenes in particular didn't seem very detailed, especially for such a recent film.

This is overall a very good film, a brain teasing and claustrophobic thriller that I certainly believe you should see, but it really is best to go in with a clean slate, knowing as little as possible.

This film - and it's central character of Harry Palmer, is almost like the flipside of cinema's other famous spy, James Bond. Despite the presence of many the production team who worked on the early Bonds - Ken Adam, Peter Hunt, 007 producer Harry Saltzman, and composer John Barry, in many ways this seemed like an antithesis to Ian Fleming's creation.

The film takes place in rainy London which looks decidedly dreary next to any of 007's exotic locations. The performances of the cast are very good, particularly Michael Caine as Palmer. Our main character is really a rather ordinary guy, and un-glamorous - indeed, when we first see him he is just waking himself up in his flat, and making coffee. In fact I often got the feeling that he didn't really want to be a spy anyway, as his job mainly appears to involve mundane paperwork.

While the overall tone of the film is darker and more serious than the Bond oeuvre. it has its own wry sense of humour which I liked. One memorable line is "Don't come slouching into my office like a pregnant camel!"

There is a feeling of paranoia and unease present in the film, not surprising since the plot concerns the mind control of British scientists, and the search for a traitor. Maybe this ties in with the general feeling of the time in politics as well, considering it was the Cold War. There's some clever suspense and plot twists which can be exciting, and held my interest too.

John Barry's music in the film is excellently atmospheric and suits the mood - in fact the main theme, to my mind recalled the previous year's title song to Goldfinger in places.

The Blu Ray transfer looked impressive for such an old film, even bringing out details like the textures on peoples' skin.

The only extras on offer here are a trailer for the film, and a Photo Gallery, and the main feature is presented with optional English subtitles for the hard of hearing. To be honest, I found the extras disappointing - a commentary or retrospective documentary would have been welcome, given the extra space on Blu Ray discs. In fact, there's a DVD release of this film which has a commentary track, making it's omission here even more puzzling.

In my view this is an interesting, and absorbing film which is certainly worth seeing, even if it may not be as light-hearted or fun as Bond.

The theme of this stand up show was apparently meant to be "Doubt". Or was it?

Ahhh - do you see what I did there?

This is certainly an improvement on the shaggy haired comedian's last "proper" gig - Tinselworm, from 2008 and in my opinion marks a return to form. Maybe it's the more intimate venue (O2 rather than Wembley), that helps and though some of the surreal moments here may not be for everyone (some messing about with a Middle Eastern instrument called an oud - similar to a lute - fell into the category of "maybe you had to be there" for me at first), but for some reason, the whole audience chanting "Oooooood", as if it was some kind of religious symbol, was after a time, stupidly funny.

Also, I think that in demonstrating more unusual instruments like this, including playing a tune on a Japanese instrument called a tenori-on, he does show he is a talented musician and very creative. There is certainly much of his musicianship to enjoy (a love song based round the Internet, and Kraftwerk meets The Wurzels which is hilarious).

There are some opinions and rants about Simon Cowell (that one was certainly accurate!), the coalition Government, US President Barack Obama, and the England World Cup team, and surreal observations, often typical of his performances, that just make me laugh in their oddness (What if the Nazis had established a Reich in Western Australia?)

Overall this show was very funny and enjoyable to watch, and when Bailey indulges in musical mash-ups and flights of fancy, it frequently shows how clever he actually is (another great example is the routine where a version of Gary Numan's hit "Cars" is played on actual old car horns). Bill isn't a classically trained musician for nothing.

The performance on Blu Ray looked very good to my eyes and the music certainly benefits from a DTS soundtrack.

This retrospective 2 disc set is certainly an enjoyable romp through Sesame Street history, filled with nice memories.

Disc 1 covers the period 1969-1989, or Seasons 1-20, and Disc 2 contains material bringing us into the more modern era, with songs, sketches and clips from Seasons 21-40, going right up to 2009.

Though Sesame Street repeated lots of its' content over the years (the reason why a high number of earlier sketches are so familiar to me) in actual episodes, my "period" that I watched the show was probably from the late 1980's and into the 90's. On the 1st disc in particular I loved Kermit's famous, poignant song about discrimination "Bein' Green", Bert and Ernie's hilarious skits, and the clip with a little girl colouring in a picture of a butterfly, blending into a film about how crayons are made. I also was pleased to recall the particular song We All Sing With the Same Voice (My Name is You), such a charming piece celebrating diversity that shows how children can come from diverse backgrounds or live differently, and yet still be very similar.

Also the Peanut Butter Factory song (by Joe Raposo) was a real memory jogger and I loved the groovy "Put Down the Duckie" song (the version appearing here features celebrities including Jeremy Irons and Danny Devito, but one was also filmed without them). The amount of famous faces on display in the show is striking with Diana Ross, James Taylor, Robert Deniro, Tony Bennett and Alicia Keys making appearances over the course of the set.

What was special about Sesame Street for me was it seemed to appeal to those older than its intended audience as well as young children, with its' excellent characters, music and humour.

One clip included here that I hadn't seen, before watching this set (perhaps surprisingly), is a famous one where Big Bird is handing out pictures of the cast (these were actually drawn by a cartoonist) for everyone including Mr. Hooper (Will Lee) but Big Bird says of Mr. Hooper's picture, "Well, I'll give it to him when he comes back".

Tearfully, Bob (Bob McGrath) and the gang explain that Mr. Hooper has died and is never coming back. The emotion in this clip is completely genuine, very moving but also hard to watch, as I could see the tears in his eyes and the sadness in his voice. This was an incredibly brave move for a children's show, explaining a dark subject (dealing with the loss of a loved one) in a sensitive way, yet being truthful - in fact the shooting of the scene coincided with the actual death of actor Will Lee.
I also remembered the sweet scene from the 20th season where Maria had her baby very well (this is present on the end of the 1st disc). In fact, around that time, Sonia Manzano had been pregnant with her real life daughter, so that had been written into the programme.
Despite the criticism that the 2nd disc seems to spend too long on the show's recent history in my view (most of the material seems to cover the past 10 years or so, which I don't remember being shown on TV and besides, I was getting older!) there's still some enjoyable segments, like Grover's Monster in the Mirror song early on, and later, fine song parodies by the Spin Doctors (Two Princes), Tony Bennett (a lovely take on Fly Me to The Moon), Feist (a version of 1,2,3,4), and Alicia Keys (she performs a clever spoof of her hit, Fallin' in a skit with Elmo, which is a new one for me).

The DVD transfer is not too bad, considering some of the materials age and varying condition (I guess it was taken from old film or NTSC tape).

I felt the spread of clips could have been improved, perhaps explaining exactly which ones were from which Season if you select the "Play All" option (they are introduced by The Count character, simply as "Seasons 1 through 5", "Seasons 6 through 10", etc with each block of segments following). There is a "select a segment" option in the menus however.

Also, some of the clips on Disc 1 have already been seen before on other Old School sets (Rubber Duckie, Roosevelt Franklin, Bein' Green etc) but I suppose this is inevitable, both given the repetition of the segments in show broadcasts, and not forgetting that the notion of what is considered a "classic clip" among fans is subjective. There is so much material though to draw on, you can't help feeling they could have cast their net a bit wider.

I wish there had been more Ernie and Bert and Grover the Waiter skits, music parodies on the 1st disc, and retrospective matter personally, but you can't have everything.

The extra features on offer include a Trivia track (present on both discs), Behind the Scenes clips and interviews which are fairly interesting (not to mention sobering considering some of the writers or cast featured in vintage footage have now passed away), a clip which was voted "Fan Favourite" in a poll and a "TV montage" (flash clips from each season on the disc playing on a TV screen) which is in actuality a pretty pointless extra, since this can also be seen when you insert the DVD on start-up).

Additionally, a special booklet is included in the set with trivia and behind the scenes information, which is nicely presented.

Overall this is a really nice set for Sesame Street fans even if one can argue til the cows come home that "this or that" should have been included. I hope this leads to more full episodes being released on DVD.

With this movie, Pixar match the consistently high standards set by the previous Toy Story instalments, and I absolutely loved it.

Even though Toy Story 3 was released in 2010 - 15 years after the first film and 11 after the second, the sharp writing and the way the mythology is blended together makes it seem as if the creation of 3 films was the studio's plan from the start.

It seems to me that this was made not just for children but also fans like me who grew up with the previous films and are now older - watch for references to the 1st film, such as the brilliant opening Wild West action sequence, and the familiar song on the soundtrack that started it all - You've Got a Friend in Me, which is somehow now tinged with real sadness. Randy Newman's music is super.

No longer the child of the first 2 movies, Andy is now 17 and preparing to go to college, and has to decide what to do with all his old toys, Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen) and the gang. His plan is to put them in the attic.

Unfortunately, they all end up getting accidentally donated to Sunnyside Day Care Centre, presided over by a pink bear named Lotso (Ned Beatty), who appears soft and huggable but is not all he seems....

I actually had a thought that, as if to emphasise the increasingly darker tone of each film and the fact this movie explores how a young person moves on in life - the daycare centre was more like an old people's home, not a happy place but more like somewhere where the toys would go if they weren't wanted by their owner. If this qualifies as social commentary from Pixar, it's just another example of how and why they elevate animation beyond simply "children's films" to a higher plain and produce films for everyone to enjoy.

As the toys find out Day Care isn't what they envisioned they all try to escape and break out, to find their way home.

There were some hilarious moments in this movie (highlights include when Buzz accidentally speaks Spanish, and one of the new characters, thespian hedgehog Mr. Pricklepants), various exciting action set pieces when the toys are trying to flee, and some scary, genuinely moving and heartbreaking moments as well which touch upon complex ideas of abandonment and even death, but also show the true meaning of friendship.

This is not just a great film in its own right but also a superb conclusion to the Toy Story Trilogy which ties the story up nicely. It's such a lovely, touching film. I think the film shows that however painful moving on and letting go is, it's something we all go through and it's shown in such a sensitive and mature way.

Pixar has crafted an exceptional motion picture which isn't really about anthropomorphic toys, but if truth be told, about PEOPLE and human emotions.

All I can say is - thank you Pixar. Thank you so much.
The film truly does look fantastic on Blu Ray with bright and colourful images. I could pick out subtle details like the feel of some of the clothing, the wood grain of Andy's bedroom floor, even the texture of the cardboard box the toys are put in, which looks incredibly lifelike.

The film is on one Blu Ray disc, with lots of extras on the other.

These are divided into 2 main sections, "Family Play" and "Film Fans", and include a commentary track with the filmmakers, a few interesting making of featurettes and Pixar's anecdotes about making the movie (known as "Studio Stories") and, in the Publicity section, some American and Japanese teasers and trailers. By far the oddest extra is a couple of adverts for the Lotso Huggin' Bear toy that are treated to make it look as if they're genuine commercials from the 1980's which are quite funny.

While this season lacks some of the more famous and recognisable sketches in the Two Ronnies canon (for me anyway), in my view this was still an enjoyable watch of old-school comedy.

I'd go as far to say Ronnie Barker was the more talented of the two, especially with the way he messes around with the English language, like in the "Limerick Clinic" sketch, or mixes up sounds into spoonerisms and tongue twisters.

There are some spoof public information films like "How to Get Married" with wonderfully deadpan delivery.
Of course, Ronnie Corbett was a talent too and does work very well with him, often playing the straight man like in a sketch about an Eastern European restaurant (and don't forget his rambling monologues) but Barker also wrote quite a high number of the sketches himself (under the pseudonym Gerald Wiley) and I just think he was funnier.

Its interesting to note that especially in the early seasons like this one, the full Two Ronnies shows were more of a variety show, with the sketches broken up by appearances from music stars of the day (for example in this season, we are treated to The New Seekers in one episode - sadly not the original Seekers), or some other novelty act - and Pan's People do a dance routine.

I felt the parodies of popular shows of the time (Upstairs Downstairs, The Onedin Line etc) outstayed their welcome somewhat. Perhaps this has something to do with not knowing the originals very well as they were before my time and I never saw them. The Star Trek spoof was funny though.

One of my favourite things in the Two Ronnies shows was their finale musical numbers, but they hadn't really become a fixture of the show at this point. There are a couple though, including The Short and Fat Minstrel Show in the final episode - on that note, its perhaps worth mentioning that some of their humour may be a bit un PC for some people, by modern standards but it's still funny, and thank goodness nothing was changed or cut. You have to appreciate the time in which it was made, with differing social attitudes.

I loved the sketch with Ronnie Barker as a last-minute commentator who finds all the different sports clips have got mixed up! Even though he's commentating at speed, somehow it all makes a crazy sort of sense which shows Barker's skill as a comic.

The eight episodes of this series are spread across two discs, but unfortunately there are no extras to speak of.

‘Temple Grandin' is a biographical film which largely focuses on her life and the effect that autism had on her. It does not really cover how it affected her family and significant others. This film captures her personality and belief in humane livestock husbandry. ?The actress, Claire Dane brilliantly captured the nuances of her speech and her determined and dogged spirit. It is a very watchable film and highlights the many obstacles that society places in the way of neuro-atypicals.

After a happy few early years, Temple Grandin endured a childhood of struggle and ridicule which was mercifully interspersed by the occasional person with compassion and insight, able to see beyond her eccentric behaviour. These individuals enabled her to salvage her life and to find meaning and purpose, something which is all too often denied to anyone unable to conform.

Temple Grandin is a visual thinker and has a visual memory and the film shows how this affected her ability to understand everyday language but also how it enhanced her abilities in many other areas. It is these abilities that she used to understand cattle who are also visual thinkers. Grandin observed the different sounds cows made and quickly differentiated between contented and frightened and was able to see the physical world through their eyes. She observed that they were happiest when moving in circles and would calm down when held firmly by a special container. These observations led her to design handling equipment and also a special box which she used to calm herself.

It was her science teacher at her last school who immediately realised that Grandin was something quite special He helped her to gain confidence and develop her area of aptitude and to realise that she could enjoy a career which encompassed the things she loved to do. As a result, she grew in confidence and later earned huge respect from others who, because of her talent, wanted to mix with her and were willing to accommodate her difference

The film documents what a struggle she had to be taken seriously as a woman. Her autism and sometimes rather inept communication style was an additional obstacle. Through persistence and some lucky breaks she eventually got the opportunity to pitch her ideas and once she focused on the financial benefits to the farmer rather than the humanity of her systems, her ideas were taken seriously. The film to me highlights why we must all learn to see beyond the social awkwardness, otherwise society will lose a lot of ingenuity.

The film is also a useful educational tool as it helps to demonstrate and explain the communication problems and sensory problems and what confuses and overwhelms as well as what calms and excites.

This is a feel good movie with many a lesson to take away. Difference in people can be good. It allows problems in the world to be inspected from a different, fresh angle, often seeing something that no one else could see. Temple Grandin because of her autism brought humanity into the world of husbandry and in her own words ‘nature is cruel but we don't have to be'

‘Mary and Max' is a 2009 Australian clay-animated feature film directed and written by Adam Elliot and produced by Melanie Coombs. The film is beautifully narrated by Barry Humphries. He has a soothing, Stephen Fry sort of feel, as though telling a story to a child but for adults.

The film deals with multiple themes including childhood neglect, bullying, loneliness, Asperger's Syndrome, over-eating, depression and anxiety. It is Wallace and Gromit meets Alan Bennett.

‘Mary and Max' is reportedly loosely based on a true story. In an interview given in April 2009, writer-director Elliot clarified that the character of Max was inspired by "a pen-friend in New York who I've been writing to for over twenty years."

It is a simple tale taking place over the course of twenty years and spanning two continents. The film follows the relationship of pen pals Mary, an eight year old child from the outskirts of Melbourne in Australia, and Max, a forty four year old Jewish man with Aspergers who lives alone in New York. Through their pen-friend relationship, Elliot explores the film's central themes of loneliness, mental illness, love and friendship with humour and pathos in equal measure. It is subtly observed - poignant, sweet, innocent, funny and slightly depressing - a film full of home-spun wisdom.

This is visually a film of astonishing naive beauty. Like all animation, much of the joy comes from the unexpected detail. It is evocative of a child's eye looking into a treasured museum piece doll's house, marvelling at the attention to trivia and catching sight of a tiny toilet roll holder.

Aesthetically the film is deceptively child-like; visually and narratively it seems like any children's story but the content is adult, the depth and breadth of the topics covered are for the thinking adult.

I loved this film and felt that it was a philosophical tale that just happened to involve a man with Aspergers rather than being exploitative.

I love this film, I think its one of the best animation shorts ever made and one of my all time Christmas favourites. Based on Raymond Briggs' classic children's book, it tells it's story entirely through animation which looks like coloured pencil/pastel drawings.

I think this animation would definitely lose something if it had any spoken dialogue. The music (which is composed by Howard Blake) compliments the images so well, from the little boy running downstairs to go out to play in the snow, playing a game of dress-up with his new friend in his parents bedroom, to the boy going on a motorbike ride, but one truly memorable sequence is the Walking in the Air song with the boy and snowman flying through the air, which is amazing.

In fact, this song is the only time any words are heard throughout the picture.

Interestingly, though Welsh choirboy Aled Jones scored a UK hit with the song, the version in the film is actually sung by Peter Auty.

Once the film even breaks the fourth wall as the Snowman sees a little figurine on a cake that looks exactly like him, which I thought was a cute touch.

I'm not ashamed to say I cried at the end. It was so sad and beautiful.

It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film in 1982.

This US DVD contains the original, unedited introduction, featuring author Raymond Briggs' solemn narration that I remember from when I was growing up. Nowadays, the version most available on DVD (and shown on TV since 2002) has a new animated opening, with Mel Smith (as Father Christmas) introducing the film. Having the author introduce it is much more meaningful.

An entertaining festive short, spun off from the popular series of movies. All the main voice cast, including Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy, return and reprise their roles and they all do an excellent job.

Christmas is coming, and Fiona (Cameron Diaz) and Donkey are looking forward to Christmas with their family and friends. Unfortunately for Shrek, he just wants to be left alone and won't get things ready for the big day.

Not letting on to Fiona that he doesn't even know what Christmas is and hasn't bothered getting ready - in a great scene set to the epic music of O Fortuna, poor Shrek frantically rushes out into the snow and buys a guide book called Christmas for Village Idiots to help him prepare for the holiday.

The film that preceded this - Shrek the Third, was quite disappointing, but I was pleasantly surprised by this short, which was much better and funnier. I'm a big fan of the Shrek movies and since this was first shown on TV it's become a Christmas favourite of mine that I'll watch on DVD, when the holiday approaches.

There are some funny scenes that made me laugh, and the CGI animation and voice acting is excellent - of the same stellar quality as the main films, and the transfer is very good.

The story is simple, yet also heart warming and touching, and this movie definitely gets me into the Christmas spirit. Shrek may be an ogre, but it's not like he's actually evil. The Shrek babies are adorable.

The characters of Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) in particular steal the show, and are hilarious. Despite the fact Puss in Boots is played as a kind of feline Zorro character, he's still a pussycat at heart!

In Donkey's version of the Christmas story, he tells of a HUGE waffle Santa - the way it was designed in this scene was surely a reference to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters.

Though the main characters have very modern sensibilities, the humans in Shrek seem to live in a kind of Ye Olde Fairytale world. The theme of the film is universal, Christmas may not always go exactly as planned, but it's a time for love and family.

The extras on the DVD include sing-along songs from other Dreamworks films, and a video game demo. Upon starting up the DVD, there are trailers for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and Kung Fu Panda which can be skipped.