Classic James Bond movies head to Blu-Ray

Just bought the latest restored versions of the James Bond movies on DVD? Well, I'm afraid we have some bad news - the James Bond back catalogue is to be reissued in high definition on Blu-Ray disc.

Good news if you didn't buy the most recent reissues though - and if you have a Blu-Ray player. According to MGM/Twentieth Century Fox, the new versions have been 'recently restored and re-mastered for the highest quality picture and sound quality via the state-of-the-art Lowry process digital frame-by-frame restoration. And they'll be packed with special features too.

The date for your diary is October 31st (same day as the new Quantum of Solace hits the big screen), with the first titles reissued being Dr No, Die Another Day, Live And Let Die, For Your Eyes Only, From Russia With Love and Thunderball.

James Bond (unofficial) website

Joy Division (2008) - the trailer

Following on from our review of the Joy Division documentary, here's the trailer for it.

Enjoy...

Review: Joy Division (2008)

One of my earliest childhood memories is being dragged into Manchester by my parents - and being ever-so-slightly scared by the decaying warehouses and factories, the disused Manchester Central railway station and the concrete monstrosities that made up the actual centre. It was grim beyond belief. But that decaying, depressing and hopeless environment produced one of Manchester's most iconic bands and the basis of this self-titled documentary - Joy Division.

Yes, with Control barely out of the cinema, here's another Joy Division story to replace it. But if you are a fan of the band, this is one you really need to see. Why? Well, it's all about the detail.

Fashion In Film Festival returns for a second year

Returning for a second year is the Fashion In Film Festival, mixing talks, exhibitions, newly-commissioned film works, but best of all, some rarely-seen cinema classics that show how fashion of the day was just as important as a good plot and scenery.

Some superb films on show this year too, with highlights (for me) including the visually stunning (see image above) 10th Victim (La Decima Vittima) from 1965 and Get Carter (1970) at the ICA, Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace (1964) at the Horse Hospital, as well as a double bill of delinquency curated by fashion designer and former mod Roger K. Burton (The Violent Years from 1956 and The Boys from '62), Dario Argento's The Bird With Crystal Plumage (1970) at the BFI plus Plein Soleil (1960) and Fata Morgana (1965) Ciné lumiére.

Much more besides, including some rare silent flicks and classic US film noir. Check out the full programme at the website - the event runs from 10th - 31st May 2008.

Fashion In Film Festival website

For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond at the Imperial War Museum

London's Imperial War Museum is the location for a major Ian Fleming and James Bond exhibition - For Your Eyes Only.

A look at the man and the character, it features a large amount of material on show for the first time, including  a selection of annotated Bond manuscripts and Fleming’s Colt Python .375 Magnum revolver, along with material from the films including the ‘blood–splattered’ shirt worn by Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, Rosa Klebb’s flick–knife shoes in From Russia With Love and Halle Berry’s bikini from Die Another Day.

There's also a number of events and family activities relating to Bond, plus free screening of some early Bond classics - Dr No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger. The exhibition opens on 17th April 2008, running until 1st March 2009. See the website for full listings.

Find out more at the Imperial War Museum website

Via Retro To Go

DVD Review: Edmond (2005)

Splatter director Stuart Gordon and a typically brilliant William H. Macy rise to the daunting task of translating David Mamet’s pitch-black 1982 amorality play into film in this bizarre, jolty, brutal little piece whose brief running time belies its depth, slaughterous humour and disturbing commentary on urban pathology.

The story is the simplest thing here. Edmond Burke (Macy), a part-naïve part-jaded white-collar jobsworth, leaves his wife, citing sexual and spiritual boredom. He consults a tarot reader, who tells him "you are not where you belong." Reading moral apocalypse into this proclamation, he proceeds to get beaten up, to beat up a mugger himself, to get laid (with several humorous false starts), to kill with no apparent motive, to verbally abuse commuters and ultimately to get arrested.

All the while, numerology and totemic imagery from the tarot session recur: the number 115, three swords impaling a heart, the figure of death. Edmond strives to find significance in them, a third prime cause "beyond genetics and environment," but finally confesses his failure to do so. Ironically (but not paradoxically, Mamet’s adaptation of his own play seems to be getting at here) he finds unprecedented peace and fulfilment in prison and the film ends on what is, measured against the playwright’s career-long coverage of humanity’s war on its psychological self, an optimistic note.

The Harder They Come - The Barbican's Jamaican film season

London's Barbican centre is hosting The Harder They Come season, celebrating the best of Jamaican cinema.

In terms of movies, The Harder They Come is obviously heading things up, followed by director Perry Henzell's follow-up movie, No Place Like Home, 70s cult classic Rockers, Smile Orange from 1976 and recent flick One Love. Also featured in the season is the stage version of The Harder They Come and a live show headed up by Linton Kwesi Johnson.

Full details are on the Barbican site, with the season kicking off on 6th March.

Find out more at the Barbican website

DVD Review: In the Realms of the Unreal (2004)

Jessica Yu's award-winning documentary, In the Realms of the Unreal offers a portrait of one man's astonishing inner life.  Henry Darger was an elderly recluse.  He spent his childhood in an Illinois asylum for 'feeble-minded' children and his adulthood working as a janitor in Chicago.  He lived a quiet life alone in his apartment, while regarded him as a harmless eccentric.  But when Darger died in 1973, his landlady discovered three hundred paintings in his room, some over ten feet long, and a 15,000-page illustrated novel called The Realms of the Unreal.  Darger's magnum opus told the epic story of the virtuous Vivian Girls, seven angelic sisters who lead a rebellion against the cruel, child-enslaving kingdom of Glendillinia.  Bursting with colour and imagination, the artwork was exhibited in major galleries and went on to inspire poetry, music and plays. 

Storybook narration from child star Dakota Fanning sets the tone for Yu's engaging fable.  She weaves portions of Darger's autiobiography read by Larry Pine, interviews with his surviving neighbours, still photographs (only three pictures of Darger exist) and animated excerpts from The Realms of the Unreal, and creates a moving picture book.  As a human being, Darger remains a mystery even to those who knew him.  Many of those interviewed here can't even agree how to pronounce his name, or on small details like where he sat in church.  Darger himself sometimes claimed his real name was Henry Dargarus and he was born in Brazil. 

Battle Royale T-shirts

The London based design company Airside created these rather gory and terrific looking t-shirt designs inspired by Kinji Fukasaku's great Japanese film Battle Royale (Batoru Rowaiaru, 2000).

Each shirt cost around £24.99 and they come in many different sizes for males and females. Airside also offers shipping to to anywhere in the world.

For more information please see the official online Airside Shop

Coming soon: The Bank Job (2008)

Not long into 2008 and we're already being greeted by another British gangster flick - although The Bank Job has more to do with 1971 than the modern era.

It's actually based around true events, specifically an unsolved robbery 37 years ago, when thieves broke into a London bank vault, looting boxes worth millions. No-one was caught for it and the government issued a press gag on it. The movie second guesses what was hidden in those boxes, throwing in a tale of murder, corruption and a sex scandal with links to the Royal Family, not to mention lots of early 70s style.

Coming soon: Martin's Scorsese's movie on the Rolling Stones - Shine A Light

Movie history is littered with movies about or featuring the Rolling Stones, but that's not stopped uber-director Martin Scorsese from adding to the collection with Shine A Light.

It could be good, it could be bad. In essence, this is a live show on film, with Scorsese capturing the band in a small venue in New York - in essence, trying to film the 'electricity' of the band's live performance, mixing it up with background, interviews and history. Which sounds great, but for the fact that the band are well past their peak (though still a decent live act), not to mention that the gig seems to have various walk-on 'special guests' who probably contribute nothing to the event.

But I'll wait until the film's release in April before I pass judgement. In the meantime, check out this trailer for the movie for a taster.

Via Electric Roulette

DVD Review: Forest of Death (2007)

If nothing else, Forest of Death proves it's possible to make a supernatural thriller that isn't particularly scary, but still compellingly odd.  Following their jointly directed triumph Re-cycle (2006), the Pang Brothers went their seperate ways this year.  Oxide Pang made the psychological thriller Diary, while sibling Danny takes the helm here. 

The film opens with a young girl driven to slash her wrists amidst the eerie, mist drenched greenery.  Local rumour has it the mysterious forest induces suicides and shock deaths, the next being a police inspector who succumbs to a heart attack while investigating a crime scene.  Detective Ha (Shu Qi) takes up the case, pursuing an arrogant triad rapist.  In a radical move, she teams up with maverick botanist Steven (Ekin Cheng), who believes the living forest thrives upon, records and stores human pain and suffering.  Steven has invented a machine that can talk to trees (Shades of Clint Eastwood in Paint Your Wagon!), while May (Rain Li) his selfish, tabloid TV reporter girlfriend angles for a scoop. 

In the movie's most effective scene, Detective Ha and Steven use the forest's powers to goad a confession out of the rapist, while the trees traumatize the assembled reporters with the victim's pain.  But bodies keep piling up.  Ha discovers some suicides have been missing for decades, their corpses neither decomposed nor aged.  Meanwhile May, tortured by professional failure and a suspicion that Ha and Steven are having an affair, is lured into the forest. 

DVD Review: Diary (2007)

A dark, psychological thriller with fantastical flourishes, Diary is a solo outing for Oxide Pang. Released alongside brother Danny's supernatural thriller Forest of Death (2007), it is the better of the two films but still requires patience and perseverance throughout its duller patches. 

Winnie (Charlene Choi - one half of Cantopop superstars, Twins), a troubled young woman, leads a miserable life alone in her grungy apartment since her boyfriend Seth went away. She spends her days scribbling thoughts inside her diary, making creepy wooden puppets, and chopping up some suspicious looking meat. Her phone conversations with the errant Seth provide no explanation for why he left.  "Men would do anything for you before they get laid", Winnie confides in her best friend Yvonne (Isabella Leong).  "After that they all change." Yvonne urges Winnie to move on, but she begins stalking Ray (Shawn Yue), a young man whom she mistakes for Seth.

Review: Young Birds Fly (2007)

I have been privileged enough to be one of the first in the UK to view a new independent film based on Mod Culture and have been asked to write a review of the film by the film’s American director Leonardo Flores. Young Birds Fly is the first feature length film from Mod enthusiast and California State University graduate Flores and is the story of young quiet American girl, Jill, who blossoms into the Los Angeles Mod scene. 

The film tells a detailed tale of Jill’s transition as she discovers the joy and amazement of the Mod scene…the music, the dance moves, the scooters and the fashion. And it really does give you a sense of Jill’s wonderment as she grasps Mod with both of her hands until it is part of the air she breathes.

It takes a brave man to follow in the footsteps of a cult classic such as Quadrophenia. Indeed, Mods and those with an interest in the scene are quick to grab hold of any film made in connection with it, with movies so few and far between. But this isn't just a depiction of contemporary mod in LA, Leonardo has endeavoured to tell a tale that also criticises much of the scene’s lifestyle, showing young Jill’s disappointment and frustration as she discovers the shallow side of Mod.

Taschen's Cinema Now - book and DVD set

Lacking a good knowledge of contemporary film? Cinema Now from Taschen could fill the gaps.

Cinema Now examines the work and key themes of 60 filmmakers working around the world today, from Hollywood to the new wave of Asian directors and new movie men (and women) in Europe and Latin America, including the likes of Pedro Almodóvar, Wong Kar-Wai, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Carlos Reygadas, Guy Maddin, Matthew Barney, and Tsai Ming-Liang.

As well as facts and photos, the book also features an exclusive DVD containing exclusive short films, extracts, trailers, and much more, so you can see for yourself the work in question. Combined, the book and DVD sell for £24.99 (and probably less if you shop around.

Find out more at the Taschen website

Joy Division documentary premieres at the Salford Film Festival

Ok, it's not exactly Cannes, but Salford does have a Film Festival, with a mix of classics, new movies and documentaries on offer this year.

The festival is already underway, but some real gems are still to come this week, including a comedy double bill of A Night At The Opera/The Lavender Hill Mob do, the rarely-seen and very strange 1966 mini-movie White Bus by Shelagh Delaney (previously featured here on Cinedelica) and real coup for the festival - Joy Division: The Documentary - a first-showing of this feature, introduced by Salford lad (and Joy Division member of course) Peter Hook.

Check out the site for the timetable, which runs until Wednesday 28th November.

Find out more at the Salford Film Festival website

Win Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who on DVD

Just out in time for Christmas is a two-disc DVD set of The Who's finest moments coupled with rare footage of the band and band members - Amazing Journey: The Story Of The Who and Six Quick Ones. And we have three DVD sets to give away.

Directed by Paul Crowder, Amazing Journey tells the story of the band through the music, footage, new interviews with the band, celebrity fans and musicians, plus recently-discovered concert footage, kicking off with I Can't Explain and ending with the band's most recent tour and recordings. There's also an additional Six Quick Ones disc, which focuses on each individual band member, the mod scene, the pop art movement and more rare footage - including film of the band as the High Numbers at the Railway Hotel - the earliest footage of the band known to be in existence.

If you want to be in with a chance of winning a set, just enter your details at our sister site Modculture, following the link below. The winners will be drawn just before Christmas.

Enter the Who competition at the Modculture website

DVD Review: Election 2 (2006)

Johnnie To’s sequel to Election (2005) swaps high-octane action for Machiavellian power plays and character exploration, though in the final analysis it’s every bit as violent as its predecessor. Like much recent output from the HK crime school, the film treads thematic water. Excellent performances and To’s ever-impeccable production values make it watchable, but workmanlike dialogue and too many blatant rips from the American gangster canon prevent it from being anything more.

Two years after Lok (Simon Yam Tat-Wah) wins the captaincy of the fearsome Wo Sing triad, the time arrives for him to cede power to a new ‘Godfather’. But the incumbent is reluctant to leave, even though the triad’s legislature doesn’t allow consecutive terms.

Other candidates are mooted. The favourite, Jimmy (Louis Koo Tin-Lok), is initially as loath to step up as Lok is to leave. He runs a highly successful pirate VCD empire, and only joined the triad for its business connections. He has no interest in its internal politics or its ideological pretentions to alternative government.

It becomes increasingly obvious however that his business interests hinge upon his becoming Godfather. More than that: Lok’s appetite for an extended term becomes homicidally ravenous, and as the other candidates are serially dispatched, Jimmy realises that he must get elected to stay alive.

DVD Review: Re-cycle (2006)

While Hollywood's horror hacks obsessively remake the gore movies of the 1970s, Hong Kong cine-siblings Danny and Oxide Pang have been quietly turning the genre inside out.  Re-cycle reunites the Pangs with leading lady Angelica Lee (star of their breakthrough hit: The Eye (2002)). 

Lee plays Ting-yin, a successful novelist whose public persona masks a troubled past. Following an awkward press conference, and an uncomfortable reunion with her ex-boyfriend, Ting-yin begins work on her new horror novel, and is suddenly plagued by terrifying supernatural visions.  The Pangs tease us with glimpses of a long-haired ghost girl - suggesting this is going to be yet another Ring knock-off. 

But the film soars onto another level, as the ghost leads Ting-yin into a bizarre parallel world, beyond our reality.  She journeys across a breathtaking CG wonderland, confronting lost souls, giant killer toys, a cave haunted by aborted foetuses, and hordes of screaming, snake-necked zombies.  It's a rare horror movie that makes successful use of computer graphics, conjuring an eerie, oppressive atmosphere.  The decayed buildings Ting-yin wanders past are recreations of once-famous Hong Kong landmarks, demolished to make way for the economic miracle.  As Ting-yin befriends a pluck little ghost girl, whose familiarity holds the key to unlocking her dark secret - the Pangs draw ingenious parallels between their heroine's suppressed anxieties and Hong Kong's forgotten past. Their ambitious subtext is given weight thanks to yet another brittle, sensitive performance from the gifted Angelica Lee, and her remarkable rapport with child actress Qiqi Zeng. 

TV Film Memorabilia magazine

Whilst out shopping today, I noticed (and indeed bought) TV Film Memorabilia magazine, which claims to be a publication for 'fans of TV, film & collectables from the 1960s to the present day'.

And while not everything in there appeals, it's certainly worth a browse, especially for fans of 60s TV. The current issue includes an extensive feature on The Avengers (and classic collectables and merchandise), vintage tie-ins from Adam Adamant, Monkees memorabilia, Batman vs The Green Hornet, a feature on 1967 and various buyer's guides for vintage items.

It does occasionally go a bit too sci-fi geek for my own tastes (and there's the worry that future issues might go a little too far that way), but this first issue is certainly worth a look in your local newsagents. It retails for £3.

Find out more at the TV Film Memorabilia magazine website

James Bond Ultimate Casino Edition DVD set

I'm petty sure that if you wanted all the James Bond movies on DVD, you would have bought one of the numerous sets or reissues by now. But just in case you didn't, here's the latest set to tempt you - the James Bond Ultimate Casino Edition.

So, what do you get? Well, there's 'deluxe acrylic packaging' that holds 20 Bond movies from Dr. No through to Die Another Day, all as two-disc special editions, plus a two-disc version of 2006’s Casino Royale. And that's not all - it also includes two sets of branded Casino Royale playing cards and a complete set of poker chips from Carta Mundi, as seen in the film.

It retails for £199.99. If the casino add-ons don't really appeal, you can also pick up the James Bond Ultimate Collectors Box-Set for £149.99. Both are available from 12th November and indeed available now, heavily discounted for pre-order, from Amazon.

Find out more about the DVDs at Amazon.co.uk

Coming soon: The Who - Amazing Journey on DVD

Out on November 5th 2007 is a two-disc DVD set of The Who's finest moments coupled with rare footage of the band and band members - Amazing Journey: The Story Of The Who and Six Quick Ones.

Directed by Paul Crowder, Amazing Journey is the lead feature, telling the story of the band through the music, footage, new interviews with the band, celebrity fans and musicians, plus recently-discovered concert footage, from I Can't Explain to the band's most recent tour and recordings.

The Six Quick Ones disc focuses on each individual band member, with a fifth part looking at the mod scene and the pop art movement and a final segment where legendary filmmakers The Pennebakers film the band in the studio recording material for the Then And Now album.

Testcard TV - more free movies and TV shows online

We very much enjoyed Joox during its short existence, but it had one flaw - it hosted a large amount of  film and TV without the owners' permission. That isn't the problem with Testcard TV.

The service is an aggregator or indexer of content hosted on 3rd party platforms such as Google Video, YouTube or on mainstream broadcaster websites from around the world. Nothing is hosted by Testcard TV - so presumably that sidesteps a particularly deep legal hole.

After undergoing a month of testing, the service is now available to all - which means you can access free online tv, movies, shows, cartoons, music videos and more, on either a PC or Mac - just as long as you have the divX player installed. You can even sign up to save your favourites or send to friends.

Looks like that day at work just got a little bit brighter.

Find out more at the Testcard TV website

Book review: London Film Location Guide

As a film nerd buff, I don't just like some films, I get obsessed with them. And on the evidence of the London Film Location Guide, author Simon R.H. James is very much from the same mould.

This is detail over and above the call of duty. 276 pages and something like 750 films about London featured, dating from the 1920s through to the present day - an exercise that's taken the author the best part of 10 years to complete. And if that sounds a little too much to deal with, you'll be pleased to know that there's a film index, postcode index and even a street index to help you through the mass of movies featured.

Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who (2007)

Music biopics and documentaries seem to be popping up all over the place this year and one of the new music documentaries currently getting rave reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival is Murray Lerner's Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who (2007). The film was authorized by The Who and it's being called "the definitive" film about the band. The documentary runs two hours long and features lots of archival footage, as well as insightful interviews with the surviving band members.

The film has only gotten a limited theatrical release so far, but Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who is being released on DVD in North America on November 2nd and it will be released on DVD in the U.K. on November 5th. For more information visit the film's official website and check out the trailer below:

- Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who - Offical Film Site

- Kimberly Lindbergs

Win the best of British film on DVD

On the BBC and the cinema screens, we've been experiencing the Summer of British Film, showcasing classics and lesser-known gems from the British movie archives. And if you like what you have seen, you'll want to own the best of British film on DVD.

We've teamed up with ITV DVD and Optimum Home Entertainment to give away two sets of five key titles, each recently reissued - the controversial modern-day love story 9 Songs, Brit horror classic and must-own The Wicker Man, wartime blockbuster The Dam Busters, classic post-war thriller The Third Man and one of the finest British movies of the 1960s - Billy Liar. A great starting point for any budding movie collector.

The competition is running over on our sister site Modculture. If you want to enter, just follow the link below to find out more and to get your name in the draw.

Enter the best of British film competition

Tartan Grindhouse unveils new budget horror titles

Tartan's horror arm, Tartan Grindhouse, has a new range of titles set for an autumn launch and at a budget price - Basket Case, Society, Bride Of Re-Animator and Killer Barbys vs Dracula.

Basket Case needs no introduction, with one man and his basket seeking revenge on the doctor responsible for their plight. 25 years old and still with the ability to shock. This reissue tags on a trailer and image gallery, all for a £7.99 price tag from October.

November sees the reissue of Brian Yuzna's bizarre 80s debut Society, along with Yuzna's Bride of Re-Animator and a first-time UK release of Jess Franco's Killer Barbys vs Dracula - a mix of punk, vampires and the spaghetti western apparently, which sounds like a seriously tempting prospect. The latter titles all retail for £9.99. Hopefully we'll have reviews before the DVDs hit the shelves.

Find out more at the Tartan Video website

DVD Review: Sleeping Dogs (2006)

Comedians don’t generally translate well into script-writing, especially when it comes to film. Not nowadays, anyway. Britain’s seen enough of its finest comic talents who trod the boards on Saturday Live or The Secret Policeman’s Ball go on to make crappy big-screen adaptations of their best-loved characters (Kevin And Perry Go Large, Ali G Indahouse) to reinforce the point. Trouble is, most characters are a one-note joke – you can’t do a lot with a character that’s so ubiquitous thanks to a catchphrase or an action. Borat only really succeeded because he was a “sleeper” character, and as such was able to get away with a lot more than Ali G, for example, couldn’t. We knew what Ali G would say, but not Sacha Baron Cohen’s other creation.
   
Even in America, comedians tend to shy away from writing their own film scripts because they’re either too outrageous or they prefer the safety of television, where they only have to fill half an hour and they call the shots. Jerry Seinfeld, for example, will never make a Seinfeld film. There won’t ever be a Cheers or Frasier movie. Dave Chappelle, who was so successful with Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, only went with a ‘concert film’.

I'm Not There Trailer

One of the most anticipated movies of 2007 has to be Todd Haynes' upcoming Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There, which is scheduled to be released later this year. The film features six different actors in the role of Bob Dylan who play him at different stages of his life including Christian Bale, Marcus Carl Franklin, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, Richard Gere and even Cate Blanchett.

The official trailer surfaced last week and the films already getting mentioned as a possible Oscar contender. You can view it for yourself below:

- Kimberly Lindebergs

The Ken Loach DVD Collection boxsets

Ken Loach isn't everyone's cup of tea, but if you fancy getting to know the man's work a bit better, you need to pick up The Ken Loach DVD Collection boxsets, which are available from September.

Ken Loach is arguably Britain’s most respected director, with a career dating back to the mid-60s with the controversial Cathy Come Home and a body of work over the following 40 years to match - without concession to commercialism and always with a social conscience.

This Is England - full DVD details

We have just received the full confirmed details of the DVD reissue of Shane Meadows' This Is England, the much talked-about movie about growing up in the north of England - and as part of the 80s skinhead movement.

If you want to know more, check out our in-depth review. And if that appeals, you might want the DVD, which is scheduled now for 3rd December. It's a two-disc release, including the following extras:

Disc 1: Commentary with director Shane Meadows, producer Mark Herbert and lead actor Thomas Turgoose

Disc 2: Behind the Scenes / Deleted scenes / Guardian interview with Shane Meadows at BFI Southbank / Interview with Shane Meadows (Jason Wood for Picturehouse cinemas), Interview with Mark Herbert / Production Departments: Hair, Make-up and Costumes / Crew interviews & Rehearsals / Production Design
Essays on Skinheads and The Falklands War / Cast Biographies / Theatrical Trailer

It should retail for around £19.99 (although Amazon are already heavily discounting for pre-orders). And if you want to see more from the same director, a Shane Meadows box set will also be released around the same time.

More about the DVD at Amazon.co.uk

DVD Review: Buy It Now (2005)

Sex, as seaside postcards insist, is a funny thing. Where else would female-dominated sketch-shows get their material? As each generation passes, we seem to be getting more and more promiscuous, until one day you’ll wake up and Dermot Murnaghan will be giving Kate Silverton her breakfast oats while handing over to the weather. At least, that’s what the tabloids say.

Kids are rampant these days, especially in Britain, where by all accounts they seem to run around the back of the bike sheds in the nude instead of learning how much it rains in Kenya every year. Obviously, that’s a load of tosh, but it doesn’t stop social commentators, usually of a conservative hue, wondering when our morals stopped being morals and ended up being a bye-line in a history textbook.
   
It’s an age where anybody can be a celebrity, and they usually achieve it by showing of various parts of their anatomy, or letting it get close to somebody else’s anatomy. For better or for worse, the human race is obsessed by the notion of sex; getting it, watching it, moaning about it, or wishing they could find a way to get it. Remarkable, really, for something that Johnny Rotten once called ‘two minutes and fifty two seconds of squelching’.

DVD Review: Off The Black (2006)

Tradition dictates that in sports films, there’s always an outsider; somebody who doesn’t quite fit. Of course, there are numerous examples of the crotchety, cynical old pro who hangs around for one last pay-day (Paul Newman in Slap Shot being the high-point of the sub-genre); or the maverick talent that doesn’t play by the rules (Tommy Lee Jones invests his portrayal of baseball hero Ty Cobb with bitter, hulking menace in Cobb). Then there are the ultimate Etrangers, like Arthur Brauss as the titular goalkeeper in Wim Wender’s The Goalkeeper’s Fear of the Penalty Kick.

It’s a device designed to focus human interest in what is essentially a team pursuit. Team sports are the ultimate brotherhood: a number of finely-tuned athletes striving together for the common good. There are no individuals, so to make the theme interesting, it is required that one nail sticks out of the wood to snag our attention on the wider story.
   
Off The Black falls defiantly into the latter category of unheralded outsiders. In order to be accurate, it’s important to say that it’s not a ‘sports’ film at all, even though the backdrop to the story and the genesis of the script are heavily involved in what our colleagues across the pond call ‘America’s Pastime,’ namely baseball.

BBC2 launches The Summer Of British Film

  Good news if you're in the UK - BBC2 is doing what it should always do - promoting the best of British movies, this time under the title of The Summer Of British Film.

Part of the season is a seven-part documentary series called British Film Forever, with contributions from the great and the good of British flicks. The rest is about screening the pick - around 70 in total, including films as diverse as Billy Elliot, Gregory's Girl, From Russia With Love, The 39 Steps, This Sporting Life, Whistle Down The Wind and Witchfinder General.

And as part of the season, the UK Film Council is releasing of seven of Britain's greatest films at cinemas across the UK on Tuesday's from 31 July to 11 September. Those are Goldfinger, Brief Encounter, Billy Liar, Laurence Olivier's Henry V, The Wicker Man, The Dam Busters and Withnail And I.

For more information on the season, check out the website.