Breakdancing Baby

This kid is only 2 and already he's a better dancer than me. If I ever have kids I want one like this. Breakdancing Baby

Casino Royale

It took me absolutely ages to go and see this film, both times I went to the West End to see it the cinema was being used for some premiere or something. I ended up going elsewhere to see it.

Daniel Craig is the newest Bond actor in this Parkour-meets-Poker tale that is fair to say, completely different to the Bond movies that have come before it.

No rocket launching baguette or ridiculous invisible car this time around, just a nice looking Aston Martin that can do 7 barrel rolls (the most from a cannon launch apparently).

No scenes where the bad guy explains to Bond how he's going to dominate the world whilst killing him slowly (in fact its not Bond that saves the day, and he has to be rescued).

No dumb women with names like "Vagina Itch", in fact of the two women in the film, one ends up dead very quickly and the other appears to be smarter than he is (its just a shame she didn't think to leave the scuba apparatus attached to her face when the camera was on her, there's an obvious line around her eyes where she's been wearing it).

No cheesy chat up lines. In this film Bond quite happily admits to going for married women because you know where you stand with them. Oh, I take this back there is perhaps the most rubbish piece of flirting dialogue I've ever come across.

Vesper Lynd: "If the only thing left of you was your smile and your little finger, you'd still be more of a man than anyone I've ever met."
James Bond: "That's because you know what I can do with my little finger... "

No five minute opening gambit with explosions and crazy stunts. This film begins in black and white and shows Bond smashing a guy into a tiled wall before drowning him in a sink. It does however soon lead onto a great 20 minute chase through a building site featuring the founder of Parkour (Free Running) Sebastian Foucan who shows a new way of descending a stairwell by not hitting the steps at all, preferring instead to hop from wall to wall. Utterly insane.

No fifty-year olds taking out a dozen guards with nothing more than a bit of fluff on his tuxedo. Bond gets bashed up pretty badly in this one.

In fact the only thing it does seem to have in common with the other Bond movies is the glamorous locations. Montenegro in particular looked amazing!

Its definitely the best Bond film I've ever seen. It really needed to be brought up to date as the Bourne movies were taking its crown. I think it might also be the best movie of the year, I liked it that much.

Irn Bru Snowman Advert

YouTube - Irn Bru Snowman Advert

For those that don't know what Irn Bru is its the most popular drink in Scotland, even Coca Cola get pushed to second place there.

Pan's Labyrinth

In the running for film of the year is this fairy story by the director of Blade 2 Guillermo del Toro. Firstly if you think it's the kind of Fairy Tale to take the kids to, I'd seriously reconsider as its definitely not Cinderella and it has a 15 rating for a reason. The overall content isn't particular child friendly, particularly a scene where a guy gets his face smashed in with a bottle. There's also some decapitation of fairies and not a particularly happy ending.

The tale is the story of a young girl who, with her pregnant mother moves into the safety of a mountain retreat belonging to an evil Military Captain at war with the local resistance. There she comes across a labyrinth inhabited by a creepy looking faun who tells her that she's really a princess from a realm beneath the earth and she's set 3 tasks to prove that she's worthy of returning there.

Visually the film is stunning but isn't as magical as the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet, relying more on a gritty vibe to reflect the war that is taken place elsewhere in the film. Setting it during the war also manages to give it a dimension that these films lack, its not just about the girl but the conflict that those around here are in.

However overall I found myself getting a little bored with it and it wasn't as good as the reviews had made it. It is one of the better films this year but it hasn't been a good year for great movies methinks.

Tenacious D - The Pick of Destiny

Jack Black's back in this rather weak tale for fans of his band Tenacious D. It's not Wayne's World, at least it doesn't have near as many laughs. Perhaps if I was a Tenacious D fan I'd think it was the greatest film ever but as I'm not, I'm can't.

The film tells the tale of how the 2 guys met and had to steal a pick formed from the tooth of Satan in order to win a music contest to pay their rent. Not even cameos from Tim Robbins and Ben Stiller can save the film, however I will admit to laughing at the scene where Tim Robbins crippled character is bragging to the police how he'd never be caught, only for them to walk up and arrest him.

As I type this Channel 4 is showing School of Rock, which was a far superior use of Jack Black's talent.

Christmas Shopping

In an attempt to attract more people to shopping in town the two main shopping streets in central London were closed to traffic, allowing the public are rare opportunity to walk down the middle of road. Its strangely liberating being allowed to do so. In an attempt to get some sort of carnival vibe going there were several sound systems in place. Whilst it might have worked with snow around, it didn't feel Christmassy enough to work.


It just doesn't look right having santa's but no snow.


People as far as the eye can see, now imagine what it was like when they had to reopen the roads and all these people had to move back onto the pavements. Nightmare!

At the intersection of Regent Street and Oxford Street were these balloons not advertising anything, lost opportunity there.

Marching pipe band, different in that they were all Indian.

On weekends we like to bang drums..........for peace.

The Nike store had a fitness themed sound system.

Hamleys did go the trouble of trying to create snowfall outside their store but it didn't settle. That's the problem with soap bubbles..

Some of the stores were using DJs to attract people in. The winner here was the Apple Store, which had this superb DJ juggling 2 decks, 2 CDJs and a range of bongo drums.

Circus performers must love this time of year!

This guy had a talent for painting very quickly upside down.

Very good it was too, rather oddly quite a lot of people couldn't see what he was up to until he spun the canvas around.

Santa's Ghetto

For the last 4 years, a bunch of underground artists have taken over some property and opened up a temporary gallery of their works. This year they made their boldest move yet in opening up the gallery on Oxford Street in what is the busiest time of year for the area. With the popularity of Banksy, one of the exhibitors, this year it's not a surprise they've been able to do this.

Here's a bunch of pics taken from the gallery. Enjoy...





Doesn't come out in low res, but the top but says "T-Bone is da illest" and beneath someone has written "I'm sorry to hear that, I hope he gets well soon"





















This was a fairground game where you had to throw hoops over the statues. It basically allowed the guy in charge to shout out "come and toss over the Virgin Mary".




Doesn't really come out in low-res but the guy is saying"I saw the advert where the car turns into the robot and goes ice skating, now where's the button that does that?"