Next interview... Samuel L. Jackson

Got a invite this morning asking if I wanted to interview Samuel L. Jackson...
Oh, OK - go on then!!

Still love his hitman bible quote from Pulp Fiction - kind of a spin on Ezekiel 25:17

"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee."

Bring it...

Book Review: DIARY Chuck Palahniuk

"set foot on the island and you will die"

DIARY

Chuck Palahniuk

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

Ever since I first saw FIGHT CLUB I’ve been a massive Chuck Palahniuk fan… He is my joint favourite author along with Iain Banks and Christopher Brookmyre. He writes brutal, compelling fiction that is backed up with real thinking and genuine wit. I’ve read all of his books and have just finished DIARY, which continues his run of quality novels.

This is the story of Misty Marie Wilmot, a white trash trailer park refugee, her husband Peter is failed rebel who after ‘hiding’ rooms in houses he has filled with threatening vile messages scrawled on the walls, spends most of the book in a coma (hence the title as this is Misty’s Coma Diary). The setting is a place called Waytansea island where the populace are a bunch of sinister oddballs in the vein of the neighbours in Rosemary's Baby. The element of threat and destiny for Misty builds up wonderfully as the freaks on the island wait for her to manifest a reincarnation of prior Waytansea artists who ‘save the island from the mainlanders’. The island, it appears, does not want to become just another overdeveloped resort, and it is reaching across time to stop the flow of progress in a horrific way…In every Palahniuk book there are fascinating background details that permeate the narrative. For example at one point DIARY serves up Information about the Jewish Essenes (apparently a group who abandoned their families, training themselves by enduring sickness and torture – performing the very miracles that Christ later did and some of whom were credited with teaching the young John the Baptist and JC Himself!?)…



Palahniuk in a recent interview says: "In 'Diary,' the motto really is: Where Do You Get Your Inspiration? It coaches us to be aware of our motives and not just be a reaction to the circumstances around us. And then - if we screw up, which we will, again and again - to forgive ourselves and try to be more aware and make better choices the next time around.”

"Your life isn't about doing one perfect 'thing' and then falling down dead," he continues. "It's more like going to church or writing a book. You do it over and over, always trying to be a little bit better. Then you die."

Darkmatt Rating: ööööö (excellent)

"Waytansea Island will kill every last one of God's children"

Film Review: Creep

 

Creep (18) 

Dir. Christopher Smith 

Reviewed by Matt Adcock (@Cleric20)

Christopher “The Day Grandad Went Blind” Smith’s low-budget shocker CREEP takes a fairly interesting premise: “What if there is some kind of demented killer creature lurking in the depths of the tube system below London?” and then doesn't do quite enough with it. 

Starring Franka ‘Bourne Identity / Supremacy’ Potente as Kate – a party girl who falls asleep waiting for the last tube train and then has to spend the next few hours running away from Craig the Creep.

Poor Craig, he’s obviously some half-bred / scientific experimentation survivor who looks like Gollum’s retarded older human brother. At one point he puts on a surgical gown and for a while could almost pass for one of Hellraiser’s cenobites. 

Kate performs absolutely all of the ‘woman in peril’ clichés – from going back to see if her friend who is being noisily attacked is alright, through to not killing the monster even when he’s lying defenseless at her feet next to a handy spear. The tunnels and sets are only occasionally used well and the whole film feels like it could have taken off and been a new horror icon, but instead comes off a merely decent. 

Unfortunately, a couple of cool moments (Craig does get one iconic backlit pose - which doesn't seem to be available online anywhere otherwise I'd have posted it here) get washed away in a sewer pipe full of below-par production values...

As a tube commuter – I’ve got to admit that I’ve had scarier journeys to work on the Northern Line than anything on offer in Creep.

Darkmatt Rating: ööö (not a horror classic but not bad!)

"looks interesting but just not creepy enough"

Make someone happy (me) - check out my novel - click this banner...

DVD Review: Revelation

"The bible - now with added machine guns"

Revelation (PG)
Dir. André van Heerden

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

Welcome to the near future where after the rapture, remaining new Christians are known as 'The Haters', a new messiah has set up O.N.E. - One Nation Earth and a the 'day of wonders' computer game is about to cause even more upset than Manhunt... Yes we're pretty far off the scale into serious biblical territory here, but you don't have to have sold your soul to the Anti-Christ to enjoy this sort of 'straight to blessed DVD' B movie although it might help...

Revelation tries hard and to their credit all the actors keep straight faces, even when delivering classic dialogue like when Helen Hannah (Leigh Lewis) asks her brother: "Do you really need those things?"

He - Willie Spino (Tony Nappo) replies: "Hey, sis, listen - any wimp can quit smoking, OK? It takes a real man to deal with lung cancer."

So if you're very curious to see what might happen should the book of Revelation actually be true and you can tolerate low budget / production values then this is an undemanding way to kill a couple of hours. And if you get into it then it's part 2 of a series of 5 films and counting. But overall, considering the awesome imagery and freaky tales in the book itself, I'd recommend reading it rather than watching the film...

Darkmatt Rating: öö (poor)

"clue... blue eyes = good, red eyes = bad"

Miami Vice: New Movie vs Original Series...

"take that you unfashionable freaks! pastel suits rule!"

Ah Miami Vice... fast cars, senseless gunfights, cool scenery but most of all - 80's fashion – the pastel / silvery suits with their jacket sleeves rolled up… who on earth would go around in a white jacket, sleeves rolled up?
Ahem, OK, I confess that it was me – 1989, wanting to be Detective ‘Sonny’ Crocket, cruising around Canterbury and Herne Bay in my fuel guzzling bronze Nissan Bluebird, impressing the ladies with my muscled arms – which were sticking out my rolled up cream jacket. Getting into insane drug related shootouts and having my commanding officer threaten to suspend me for ‘looking too cool whilst blowing perps away’… Those really were the days…

And now I won’t have to just make do with my fantasies and region 2 DVD Pilot episode of the TV series any more – because next year Michael Mann is bringing it to the big screen. Step up Colin Farrell as the new Crocket…

Asked recently if he’ll be doing a Don Johnson impression:
“No, God, I’ll leave that to Don. Michael Mann wrote a great script. It’s not tongue in cheek; it’s not ‘80s. It’ll be a different period, a different sensibility.”

And the suits?

“One would hope not to be stuck in 2005 wearing a silver shiny *beep* suit with the sleeves rolled up and the baggy pants. It wouldn’t be very good undercover, definitely.”

Plus with Jamie ‘Ray and Collateral’ Foxx as Tubbs – my spider sense is tingling!!

dark matt

DVD Review: Angel Wars

"Let's go and kick some demon ass!!"

Angel Wars: Guardian Force

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

This the first in a three-part DVD series of animated, supernatural adventure of angels battling fallen spirits – was brought back from a children's workers conference by my wife, so obviously I was deeply sceptical and immediately expected it to suck. There I was with my boys - watching the DVD, waiting for it to be horrible and twee, do gooding Christians failing to comprehend what makes a cool film, poor animation, rubbish contrived plot...

But miraculously, Angel Wars is good and I'm shocked to be saying that it will now sit proudly on my shelf next to my other animated films - Akira, Ghost In The Shell, Blood: The Last Vampire, Patlabor, Wings of Honneamise etc. Wars has effective use of low budget CGI, interesting conceptualisation of angels (some fly on Green Goblin like gliders, others have kind of laser enhanced wings) - the baddies are even half decent - sexy evil demoness, large evil robot warrior - what the hell is going on?? Yes it might be made for boys aged 8 and 12 years old but damn it, I’d venture 30 something comic book fans like to see huge sword wielding demons just as much...

Angel Wars creator Chris Waters explains: “We didn’t make this series to provide escape; we made it to give hope. We want kids to know that they matter, that they can make a difference, that there is a spiritual battle going on every day” – a spiritual battle fought here to the rock music of dc talk, Newsboys…

Darkmatt Rating: öööö (good)

Film Review: Meet the Fockers

"their Focking back for more"

Meet the Fockers (12a)

Dir. Jay Roach

Reviewed by Matt Adcock


So you thought your parents were embarrassing? Yes, whilst my dear mother never misses a chance to tell people amusing anecdotes about me (the one when she found me singing ‘Oh happy day, oh happy day, all we like sheep have gone astray’ in my cot is a particularly painful favourite), I still count myself lucky because, well, I could have been a Focker.
If you’ve seen Meet the Parents and had wondered ‘what sort of people name their son Gaylord ‘Greg’ Focker?’ then get ready because you’re about to find out.

The story picks up after the events of the first film where male nurse Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) managed to convince ex-CIA man Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) to let him into his ‘circle of trust’ and wed his daughter Pam (Teri Polo). Now all that needs to happen before the big day can take place is for the in-laws to meet…

Enter the Fockers - father Focker Bernie (Dustin Hoffman shows he can excel at OTT comedy) and um, mother Focker Roz (a sex mad Barbra Streisand). The Fockers are the polar opposites of the uptight and repressed Byrnes and so the stage is well and truly set for the maximum number of awkward situations, misunderstandings and plays on the word ‘Focker’ you’ll ever see in just under 2hours. Hoffman’s touchy feely humanist Bernie Focker steals all of his scenes, when he’s not canoodling with his free love empowered wife, he’s invading the personal space of repressed Jack Byrnes and it’s just wonderful to watch. Each character gets their moment of glory like when Pam tells her parents that she’s definitely going to be “Pamela Martha Focker!” or little baby Jack’s first word…

Throw into the mix a surgically enhanced lusty housekeeper, plentiful painful slapstick, witty banter and even some interspecies dog / cat experimentation and there it is… It might not be clever and it’s certainly crude but it’s also really funny – and if you liked Meet the Parents, you’ll laugh loud and long at Meet the Fockers (at least I did).

For some reason many critics have panned this film – I have to disagree and with a worldwide gross of $287million and rising it looks like there are a lot of Focker fans out there. If you’re in the mood for a good laugh, I suggest you join them by going to Meet the Fockers for yourself.

Darkmatt Rating: öööö (good fun)

Click here to read interview: Matt Adcock Meets Dustin Hoffman

Click here to read Matt's other: Film Reviews

"the family weren't sure about De Niro's breakdancing"

Andy Flannagan vs Linkin Park

"I need to feel the cold of shadows running free"

Food for thought - it's possible to have things but not really 'have' them...

SON is a cool and thought provoking album by talented singer / songwriter Andy Flannagan (best track 'All I Am'), Collision Course however is the new fusion of Linkin Park and Jay-Z (best track 'Numb/Encore'). Today I've been challenged to assess what I'm doing with what I have, am I becoming numbed to the 'power to have joy'?

Man I hope not...

There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is hard on men; A man to whom God gives money, wealth, and honour so that he has all his desires but God does not give him the power to have joy of it, and a stranger takes it.

Ecclesiastes 6: 1-2

I love the concept that you can have everything and yet nothing if you don't appreciate it...

"I’ve become so numb... Can I get a encore? Do you want more? " ...deep huh?

Darkmatters Fiction: Cleric shows up

Darkmatters
by Matt Adcock

‘Our glorious leader, in whom we pledge our trust, the great political instigator who has united the diverse peoples of London2. Only in Marcus Razour have we finally found our true leader – and it is he that will take us to the new dawn of man.’
“Who writes this crap?” said Cleric after reading the latest GOV infovert – “And just when exactly did our political leader start on this messianic ‘I’m going to save the world’ drive? It’s absolute bollocks…”
Cleric’s Social Rating™ blinked “* * * * Pissed Off and Dangerously Anarchistic.”
GIX kick in with a verse: “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world…”
“Leave it GIX, I’m not in the mood, I thought you’d had your biblical messages of doom wiped anyway?”

As fate would have it, miles across the city president Marcus Razour was thinking about Cleric at that very moment. Deep in the parliament battle fortress, in his luxury GOV office overlooking neoTowerbridge he is in council with his head of security Andious Fal.

“Tell me about this ‘Cleric’, I want to know why he’s being classified as potential terrorist threat?”

“Well sir, he showed up in a general sweep – he’s ex I.F. and then crossed reference as you requested with anyone who has links with the church of the True God, he showed up there again – not a practising believer we believe but his parents were both heavily involved – might explain his freaky name too? And we believe he has a decommissioned Faithbot mk7 with him, you remember the mk7’s I take it?”

“Yes yes, so, I see...”

“Andious, perhaps we might arrange for him to be brought in for an informal interview – I have a strange feeling about him and I don’t like having feelings because they often end in my having to kill lots of people.”

“Yes sir.”

Andious made his way to the elevator, he preferred whenever possible to travel by conventional methods – he was still somewhat dubious about the STREAM technology and only used it when it would look bad not to. Things were moving ahead nicely with the Victim Marker programme and now that there had been a breakthrough with the Dark Matter Collaboration too it seemed that both of Razour’s pet projects were going to succeed. Andious liked to be on the winning team, always had. The feeling of being able to operate above the law, of having unfettered command of the L2 GOV military response units and all security services – even the battle mage commanders reported to him which added to his sense of invulnerability. Razour was the man, there was no point in denying it and whilst he wouldn’t ever want to question his own sexuality – he certainly had uncomfortable feelings for his boss that went some way beyond loyalty.

He didn’t want to think about his love life though – that was the one area that Andious had just never succeeded, he was a damn fool and he knew it. Rachell had been the one, he knew it now – that had been the only relationship that ever had any potential - years ago now, he’d been stupid thinking he could move on by finding another girl. He was still haunted about how they had lost their innocence together…Still having flashbacks of his first time…which couldn’t be normal. He felt sick inside, not then, but now – now when he found himself obsessively tracking her – seeing her happier than she ever had been with him. And these days what good would he be to her anyway? He was so damn impotent he could barely raise a smile. Regret was his solitary companion in the dark these days and it didn’t matter how many under age hookers he took home – he knew that he had blown his chance for ‘lifelong love’ and he just had to get over it somehow.
Marcus watched Andious leave – poor bastard that he was –a shame that the only thing he was useful for was his vicious ‘bully boy’ mentality that went down well with the troops. At least he was loyal and easily controlled which were the key traits Razour favoured. But he was entirely expendable and that suited him just fine. He turned and looked out on the bright lights of the city and sipped his single malt, still thinking about Cleric…

Other extracts from Darkmatters the novel by Matt Adcock:

Film Gunfight

Fear of Death

Matt Adcock Meets Dustin Hoffman

"I'm a very good driver..."

Matt Adcock meets Dustin Hoffman


Dustin Hoffman is a true movie legend, he’s won two Oscars, been nominated for seven more and his diverse roles have included such gems as The Graduate, Tootsie and Rain Man. Now however he’s taken on the challenge of being one of the most embarrassing dads ever to hit the screen in smash hit comedy sequel Meet the Fockers.

In Meet the Fockers you appear to having great fun, did you like your role?

“Bernie is great – he is basically that kind of guy who wouldn’t mind leaving the open while he went to the bathroom on an airplane just so he could continue a conversation with the people that he was talking to. When I played him I just let it all hang out – in fact that’s what the director told me to do.”

How was having Barbra Streisand as your Mrs Focker?

“Unbelievably this is the first time we’ve worked together but I loved it - there was an openness, especially as the director said to ‘make out all the time – as much as possible!’ I'd say to Barbra, ‘Man, your breasts look great today’. And she loves her breasts... I’d whisper that to her during the scene - I like to do real stuff because I wanted it to be real. I don’t like fake arousal scenes, it has to be real. It might simply be to do with a look. There are five senses, so sometimes it's in a look or in a smell. I love the neck, snuggling into it and smelling that. It’s like prolonged foreplay – that goes on all day – when you can’t wait to get to go to bed together even after being married 20 years. Barbra said I should ‘do whatever I wanted’ and I think what existed between Barbra and I was an affection that was genuine.”

And bouncing off Robert De Niro?

“This is the third time I’ve worked with Bob and it’s always easy and fun to be in a project with him. This time I even managed to get some beautiful blushes out of him! I set out not trying to get to De Niro's character, but to get to Bob himself. I know Bob doesn't like his space being invaded but I said to the director that the first thing I was going to do in the scene where we meet and shake hands, was feel his peck muscles because I know he works out. And then give him a nice kiss on the neck. But I didn't want him to know it was going to happen.”

So are you much like Bernie Focker in real life?

“My family say that what I did on screen in Meet the Fockers is more the way I am at home than in any other film that I've done. I'm a grandfather now and I find that’s great, it broadens what you can do – so putting a large side of myself at home into a role - I’ve never done in a film before, because no one has ever asked me to do that.”

And with that he has to go – but I’d urge you catch him in Meet the Fockers as soon as you can - it’s definitely the funniest film of the year so far.

Click here to read: Matt Adcock's Film Reviews

"D'oh... I'm a father Focker"

Elektra is "awful" admits Jennifer Garner

"does my bum look big in this little black low cut dress?"

OK, this might be my last post about the Elektra film (at least until the DVD is released) but it's going out on a happier note... It appears that even she doesn't like the film - and thus my faith in her has been slightly restored (although she's such a hottie that even messing up Elektra couldn't remove her completely from my affections or stop me posting regular photos of her)...
Anyway, her ex-boyfriend Michael Vartan has apparently told Us Weekly "I heard (Elektra) was awful. (Jennifer) called me and told me it was awful. She had to do it because of Daredevil. It was in her contract."
It's just a shame that none of the studio execs realised that Elektra sucked ass when there was still time to improve it!!

A bit HARSH Realm

Harsh Realm

Created by Chris ‘X Files’ Carter

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

This is a TV show from back in '99 which has intriguing premise - based on the comics of the same name, Harsh Realm deals with a Matrix like computer simulation of life, but this one is a military devised 'game'. Plucky hero Hobbes (alas not a relation of the one in Calvin and Hobbes) is played by Scott Bairstow (who?) Well, in the Harsh Real World he's just spent 4 months in jail in Washington for second-degree assault and undergone a sexual deviancy evaluation for sleeping with a 12 year old girl but that's another matter entirely.

What interested me most about Harsh Realm is the theology behind it - so along with your standard cheesy semi sci -fi action you get fascinating debates about the nature of reality, the concept of existence and the notion of an afterlife... Because in Harsh Realm, when you die, you immediately disappear - at least it cuts down on funeral bills...

So I'm a couple of episodes in and think it warrants a watch if you're into sci fi stuff - will give it a provisional

Darkmatt Rating: ööö (watchable)

Three almost interesting facts about the show:

Thomas Hobbes (the hero) is named after the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who believed in predestination and that people are inherently selfish and power-hungry...

The chair Hobbes sits in to enter Harsh Realm has "siege" and "perilous" written on its arms. Of course this is a reference to the legend of King Arthur, and a similar chair that would turn anybody but the bravest person in England into ash if they sat in it...

Harsh Realm met the harsh financially driven reality at Fox TV when it was cancelled after only nine episodes...

“It’s just a game”

This was PWEI - Wise Up! Suckers

"the incredible PWEI"

PWEI - back with a turbo charged, nitrous-fuelled adrenaline overdose, certainly one of the best gigs ever...

Highlights for me included:

• Wake Up Time To Die,
• Their Law,
• There is No Love Between Us Anymore,
• Wise Up! Suckers!

But there were so many cracking tracks, an awesome poppies stage performance and topped off with some quality new merchandise... I'm still grinning...

Now - how about some new material?


"oh come all ye faithful"

"can you dig it? - hell yeah"

Other related links:

PWEI This Is The Hour ,

PWEI Strike Back ,

Carter Shirt Wearing in The Guardian,

Review of London gig in The Guardian,

Matt Adcock's FILM REVIEWS man...

PWEI - This is the hour...

The PWEI (Pop Will Eat Itself) Reformation tour rolls into London today, for two nights at the Shepherd's Bush Empire...
I'll be there tomorrow night and my old pal Lee has reported back from one of the Birmingham gigs that the poppies are indeed rocking harder than ever AND the news on the merchandise front is also good...
e.g. see below for the new PWEI hat!

Going to be a day "long remembered" as the Dark Lord of Sith might say...

That's great but I'd rather read your: Film Reviews

PSP overtakes Nintendo DS for market share...

image from ign.com

Hot on the heels of my 'game of 2004' - Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
comes the news that the makers are hard at work on a new PSP game...
Makai Wars - your guess is as good as mine as to what it's all about but I've a feeling it will be
*SWEET*
And I read over at Media Create today that the PSP took 30.64% of last week's Japanese hardware sales, higher than the Nintendo DS on 25.39%... interesting, if you're watching the Sony vs Nintendo battle for handheld domination.

That's great but I'd rather read your: Film Reviews

Film Review: White Noise

"that noise you hear... it's the sound of sucking"

White Noise (15)
Dir. Geoffrey Sax

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

Did you know that apparently the voices of the dead are all around you – and all it takes to receive an ‘overtly threatening message’ from the other side is to leave your TV or radio un-tuned… Yes if White Noise is to be believed, (and it appears to want to be – despite being directed by the bloke who used to make the Cannon & Ball TV show), then the dead are queuing up to send spooky messages through the dubious paranormal theory of EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) – it seems people are still dying to get on TV…
Anyway, this is the mildly creepy story about an architect, Jonathan Rivers (Michael ‘best Batman – at least until Christian Bale came along’ Keaton) sees him lose his wife and then get mobile phone calls, television messages and visions of her from the other side. It’s probably not the worst ghost film you’ll ever see (actually it might be if you don't get out much), it doesn’t scare enough though and although Keaton is good, you can’t help feeling that this really is a poor man’s Sixth Sense wannabe. Yes, some nasty ghosties turn up and there’s a serial killer subplot – of course – but White Noise is not a ‘must see’ film by any stretch of the imagination, in fact as my friend Mike pointed out "It Sucks!!"
And the whole “if you open a channel – those who want to ‘damage’ will come” argument could just as well relate to having a publicly accessible blog…
oh, wait a minute…

Darkmatt Rating: ö (rubbish)

Click here to read more of Matt Adcock's: Film Reviews

"Busted's TV show was very poor quality..."

This link is to a blog that explores EVP!!

Film Review: Ray

Ray (15)
Dir. Taylor Hackford

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

“Baby, when I walk out that door, I walk out alone in the dark,” these are the emotive words of Ray Charles – a man who overcame the odds to blow the world away with his sheer musical talent. Now his life explodes onto the big screen in an emotional biopic covering his rise from a desperate childhood to become one of the most successful musical entertainers the world has ever witnessed. When he said “I'm trying to do something ain't nobody ever done in music and business,” he wasn’t kidding and amazingly, the only thing more extraordinary than his music was the man behind it.
There is a lot of buzz about Jamie ‘Collateral’ Foxx’s Golden Globe award winning performance of the late great Ray Charles – and for once it’s all justified. Foxx is stunning, delivering an acting tour de force that should have Mr Charles smiling from beyond the grave at just how well his life has been recreated here. It’s quite a life too – I guess you don’t get to be survived by 12 children, 21 grandchildren, and 5 great grandchildren without having a significant interest in the opposite sex. And that’s another credit to the film – it doesn’t whitewash over the fact that Charles was actually a philandering junkie who spent years addicted to heroin and couldn’t walk past an attractive woman without cheating on his wife… Be that as it may, what shines out though is that of all his selfish vices he was mostly a slave to the music that welled up from inside him and just couldn’t be contained. Misunderstood by many, Charles had his music branded “blasphemous” because he dared fuse traditional Gospel with R&B, he was also resented by the friends who helped get him going and yet he easily discarded as he outgrew them. Director Taylor Hackford intersperses his life story with some powerful flashbacks of Charles’s awful childhood, the untimely death of his younger brother and the loss of his sight. Strong stuff.
Ray might be a deep vein thrombosis baiting 152 minutes long but I was hooked from the beginning and found that the time flew by (Foxx really is that watchable – which bodes well for next year’s Miami Vice film where he will be ‘Tubbs’).
So, you might not like blues, jazz or R&B but you’d be a fool to miss this inspiring and unforgettable true story of human triumph.

Darkmatt Rating: öööö (good)

Click here to read Matt's other: Film Reviews


"damn it woman, my nuts are trapped in the keyboard"

Sleeping Beauty - Little Britain Style

"don't fancy yours much"
Grandma 'A' took the family to see Sleeping Beauty - as an après Christmas "treat" ...

This version of the enchanting tale had Princess Aurora (Lucy Sinclair) cursed by the Wicked Fairy Carabosse (Toyah Willcox) - who interrupts the Princess’ christening and declares that the beautiful baby will one day prick her finger blah blah and only the kiss of a prince (Jack Ryder) can awake her...

So far, so average but the cast went for it with serious vigour - and it kind of worked better than it had any right to mostly because Dave Lee (far left in photo above) played his 'Dame' choc full of Little 'I'm a Lady' Britain references - unusual fun for a cold Saturday afternoon.

Bruce Willis in Hostage Situation...

Bruce Willis... I love that guy (in a non sexual, macho kind of way),

he's delivered some of my very favourite films:

DIE HARD,

UNBREAKABLE,

THE LAST BOYSCOUT,

THE SIXTH SENSE,

TWELVE MONKEYS...

/ big grin spreads across Matt's face just thinking about those films and now it looks like 2005 will be 'Brucetastic' because not only will he own SIN CITY but HOSTAGE looks pleasingly action packed too - plus DIE HARD 4 has popped up on the horizon - now we're talking...

Some favourite Bruce Willis quotes - can you name the films?

"I am insane, and you are my insanity."

"Yeah, that's what your wife said."

"Just needed to do a couple of things. I needed to help someone. I think I did. And I needed to tell you something. You were never second, ever."

"How's my driving? 1-800-I'm-gonna-f**kin'-die!"

"Take this under advisement, jerkweed."

"Honey, since I left you, this has been without a doubt the single weirdest f**king day of my life."

"You should never do anything like this. You know that, right?"

- I could go on all day...