I think it's fascinating that this film made only about $25k in the box office and was yanked after 10 days. It broke records with the speed it went to DVD - 18 days. I mean, it wasn't great, I will admit to that. A lot of shrieking, some pretty unbelievable villains, but an okay premise and a plot that wound its way towards the end through some medium-level twists and turns. It wasn't my favourite film of the year, I agree, but I have seen an awful lot worse!

I liked this one, it was funny in places but it didn't quite seem to fit together properly. The story was incredibly unbelievable, even from the basics of why they were planning the heist in the first place, never mind the end result with the car. The story only really worked because of the strength of the characters, and I thought the acting was good, considering it was quite difficult material to pull off well. Overall enjoyed it, though.

Really, very, very good. I was surprised at the relatively slow pace of the film. No major moments, no big action sequences, just an undercurrent of fear as the virus slowly spread. For such a large cast of characters, it was easy to get behind most of them (give or take!). The only one I didn't really understand was Marion Cotillard's character, but I suppose they needed to get her out of the way before she uncovered the origin.

A couple of good runs this week, but no big one at the weekend. I was mentally prepared to do it, but then the race went on a bit longer than imagined and I ran out of time. Oh well, gearing up for it, I suppose. During the week, I found myself listening to my own music, rather than those big running megamixes I have downloaded. At some point, it …

I have a couple of scarves in my wardrobe, and I love them. It totally could become an obsession, but I haven't let it. Yet. I'm almost partly sad that spring and summer are heading rapidly towards us as it often gets too hot to wear them - particularly in the office. Anyway! I love this video, partly because of the inspiration but also because it's very well made. I …

Interestingly, for a film that I've seen before, this still made me nervous and jumpy. That is a plus point all in itself. I was so impressed with how not-dated the film looked, in every capacity but the computers. Oh, they were dire. They only managed to take away the tiniest bit of realism for me, though. That, and the weird bit where they are all sitting around chatting and smoking. You wouldn't smoke on a space ship these days.

Back to running again, which was a good feeling. The first run back was great! I thought it would be tough, but as it turns out, it was pretty much exactly the same as the one I left off with - and that was a good one! I had intended to go out today, but it's been a bit of a busy and mixed up weekend - what with the …

As I remembered, it is both awesome and a little bit cringeworthy at the same time. If you can ignore the disturbing conversations between men in white pants, and the awful sequence of him hitting on her at the beginning of the film, then we've got something really very good. At its best, we have a complex tale of a troubled pilot wanting to do what is right for him, his friends, colleagues and country. Strip that away and we have a man dealing with friendship and loss. Take all of that away, and you're left with some pretty spectacular plane porn. Bundled all together, we have a hit.

I just can't make my mind up about this one. The CGI was absolutely incredible, very well made throughout. The acting was pretty good, but the story was as predictable as it comes. The ending, perhaps, was slightly better than a too-good-to-be-true Hollywood thing, but still, it was all a bit silly. Despite that, I still really enjoyed it. The kid was obnoxious, and their relationship was an awful stereotype, but they had good dialogue.

This was good but not as good as the original. After a few minutes of watching, I remembered that what I liked about the first film was the partnership between the two. The moments when they were talking, just being normal, or bickering like an old married couple. In this second film, they spent far too much time apart, so whilst it was fun, it wasn't quite as good.

No running for me this week, and boy do I feel guilty about it. I'm seeing tweets of people running super speedy 10k distances, or beating their personal bests, or Jenson Button's girlfriend completing her first marathon and I just feel awful. Physically, I probably could have managed a week of running but mentally, I was all over the place. Job stuff, car stuff, work/life balance stuff, podcast stuff, it's …

My relationship with tea thus far has been limited. As a child, I just didn't participate in any hot beverages - except for the occasional hot chocolate, and a hot orange squash when I was under the weather. Since I've been with Mr C, I've drunk more tea but still not really enjoyed it. Recently, I tried some tea without milk in and liked that a lot better. My Life …

On the 7th January, I went into town and visited the Post Office and the bank. I remember the date specifically because I had been trying to get to the bank for a couple of weeks, but their opening hours were not coinciding with my free ones, and they also shut over Christmas. I had to send a letter overseas, and I had to bank a cheque that wasn't in …

Despicable Me 2 Mr C said: "You'll love this!" and played me the video. Unfortunately, the first time I heard it, I was listening audio only, and I was not impressed. "Turn it off!" I squealed. Then, of course, I saw the actual video itself, and - MINIONS! I do still think the song is annoying, but hey, it has a payoff at the end. And even more hey, it …

Really enjoyed it. The concept is totally intriguing, I spent quite a long time pondering the idea afterwards. Some of the filmmaking was a let down, particularly the over-use of music to try and stir up emotions | predictable and disappointing. There was also this, which may be the most awful and obvious 'toy car in place of real car for crash' scenes I have ever witnessed. Mr C and I both burst out laughing when we saw it, and he mentioned it was like Thunderbirds.

So, Tony had a heart attack. I don't think anyone saw that coming, did they? Even on the official Archers blog they had to admit that it was a rather anticipated event. It happened right at the end of the month, after another couple of busy weeks for Bridge Farm. With launches, more talk on the long-lost grandchild, Tom's never-ending obsession with pork-based ready meals, and Pat's animosity towards Brian …

I'll admit it, I've been pretty hopeless with the running this week. With all kinds of healthy activities really. It's just been hectic, and excuses, excuses, excuses. Today should have been my long run day but I woke with such a headache, I couldn't face it. This is the first day in a long while where I have just had the entire day free to do what I want, and …

I think I've blogged on several occasions about my love/hate relationship with hairdresser. Mostly, it falls on the side of hate, I will grant you. The trouble is, that I don't really like being made a fuss of in such a fashion, and having strangers riffling through my hair isn't fun. The answer is to not be a stranger to a salon but with life how it has been for …

Last time I checked, the new Formula One season was still something like 80+ days away. The beautiful off-season stretched luxuriously ahead of us and there was all the time in the world to knuckle down to some projects. Then I blinked. Now there are 20 days left. That's like, three weeks. The off season is all but over and what do I have to show for it? Well, actually, …

During the week, I managed two runs which isn't quite up to the amount I want but is close enough. Finally, my new shoes are broken in and the problems I was experiencing are all gone. The only issue I'm left with is that the flat of my feet feel a bit weird once I take the shoes off. I'm assuming this is something I will get used to. I …

It turns out the reviews for this are mostly bad, but I didn't think it was so awful. Taylor Lautner certainly wasn't very convincing, and if he was hired for his looks, well that's an odd decision too. I thought the story was interesting, though, and I enjoyed how I started out annoyed by the girl clinging to his heels but gradually came to really like her. Some of the sequences were interesting, like that in the café, and the ending at the baseball game. It clearly wasn't a patch on real Bourne, but it wasn't a waste of two hours, either.

I really enjoyed this one. I wasn't at all happy with the sound mixing, which must have happened with whoever put together the HD version, because I can't believe someone would release a film like that. It was like the music and the voices and the sound effects were all at exactly the same level, so it's not that you couldn't hear any of it, but it was all a bit indistinguishable.

Formula One enters its 63rd year in 2012, with a packed grid of 24 drivers, 12 passionate teams, and a calendar bursting at the seams with 20 races across the globe. Pitting brand new drivers against returning faces and defending champions against title hunters, the sport will cross five continents in nine gruelling months to discover who is the best of the best. By year’s end we will see a …

Oh how I hated it. Granted, I wasn't exactly coming into it expecting great things but it was worse than I could have imagined. It was very similar to Bad Teacher, in respect of the fact that the lead character was completely hideous, so that I didn't think she deserved the happy ending. I didn't particularly want to watch her get it. There were just two redeeming moments, one with the My Fair Lady Mention - and Martin Freeman was fun - and the moment she pondered whether she shouldn't have just waited in his apartment. A fabulous bit of self-awareness, that the rest of the film was sadly lacking.

Loved this. It didn't have quite so many laughs as the first outing of English, but there was plenty to enjoy as the story unfolded. I thought it was quite innovative - things like the helicopter, and the motorised wheelchair chase were great, without being cliched. I thought the James Bond comparisons were a bit too obvious in this one, even the music was the same except for a single note. I don't remember it being like that in the first film but perhaps that is just my poor memory. Overall, a fun watch.

It's been an interesting week, running wise. It started off with the first run for six days on Monday. It wasn't very good, my ankles and calves hurt. My knees started protesting after the event, and it just all felt very wrong. I tweeted about it and got a few good responses with ideas of what it could be - a lack of practice, the requirement for new shoes, the …

The new Windows 8 logo was revealed today. I love Windows, I truly do, but it is an eyesore to say the least. I like that it's a window instead of a flag. That's a good thing. Previous iterations of the logo have not necessarily made sense. If my window was wibbling about the way those logos did then I'd be seriously concerned. However, the single colour is a radical …

Generally, I liked it. It was well made, and I was impressed with the CG. The only bit that felt out of place was the bit where he jumped onto the wing. Not so great graphics and didn't really fit. Considering this is a mash up of high tech aliens and low tech cowboys, that was a pretty hard task to achieve.

The BBC aired a documentary about the new panda couple at Edinburgh Zoo, covering why and how they arrived at their new home, how their handlers were trained up, and what the zoo expects from the happy pair. Naturally, I was their target audience, and although there was nothing groundbreaking in there, it was a cute way to spend an hour or so. Here are my notes, although, again, nothing …

Again, it was a bit of a dull week, as the weather played a big part in keeping me indoors. I tried to make up for it by using our newly acquired exercise bike, and I was intrigued by the results. I thought my legs would kill afterwards, but actually they weren't too bad at all. I presume that is something to do with all the running, perhaps my legs …

Overall, I liked it. I thought the naturalistic dialogue was great, Chris O'Dowd was lovely, and I really found Kristen Wiig delightful. Of course it was Melissa McCarthy who stole most of the scenes, but they were a good ensemble really. The story was a bit of a surprise to me, I had thought it would be more Hangover than rom com, but it wasn't so much. The dress fitting was flipping awful, and the start of the movie dragged a bit. Once the engagement ring was on the finger, and the cop showed up, it all got going nicely.

I'm going through one of those phases where I'm working on so many projects, that this here blog falls lower down the list. I know when I'm just posting Film Watches and Casual Reader reviews that I've got a little bit busy all of a sudden. I've got several items I've been meaning to write about, but there isn't time, or I've written myself out of words on something else, …

Tricky one, this. I like that it poked fun at romantic comedies in general, and I like quite a lot of the dialogue. Some of the surprises were good, the Hollywood sign was ace, and the music conversations were good | or they would have been if I'd have known any of the songs. Trouble is, whilst ripping rom-coms, the movie took the exact same form to an irritating degree and without a hint of irony. There were some weird leaps in their relationships that didn't seem all too explainable, but I did think they made a great couple, so that's half the battle I suppose.

I loved it. I was fully expecting to be disappointed and/or bored, but I was not. In the first few minutes, it was chuckleworthy, and then gradually the laughs got louder. I thought the characters were great, I really wanted to see them get their happy ending and felt invested in the twists and turns of their lives. And there were a couple of twists that I didn't see coming. Perhaps I should have, perhaps I'm a bit embarrassed about that, but at least it means the film wasn't predictable.

In my ongoing experiment with Terry Pratchett, this one I actually enjoyed. I can understand how it made it onto the Big Read list, and why, therefore, it is on my reading list. Although it isn't quite time-travel, it does embrace the concept of messing about with the expected pattern of events - and the consequences of doing so.

It's been a while since I read the Crimson Petal and the White, and although I didn't realise I was missing the characters, when I spotted this book available for the Kindle, I got quite excited. It's very short, just a few short stories featuring some of the characters from the main book.

There's not much to report this week. I ran twice - the first was an excellent workout, I felt good and strong and capable of taking on the world. The second was the complete opposite, slow and muggy, and ended in tears. I was disappointed and frustrated and figured it was all pointless. You know how it gets sometimes. I posted my immediate thoughts on RunKeeper and had some brilliant …

Ambridge has brought in the New Year with a successful wedding, a disintegrating family, the potential for a big betrayal and some very tired people. It always amazes me how each episode of The Archers can pass without major incident, and yet the stories keep on moving stealthily forward. At Bridge Farm, preparations for the relaunch overshadowed everything else - including the now seemingly forgotten fact of John, the grandson. …

After a fabulous discussion on whether to continue reading the Terry Pratchett books or not, I decided to give the third book in the series a go, and then see how I felt after that. I still wasn't completely sold on the concept but I must admit I enjoyed it a lot more than the previous one. The characters seemed a lot better explained and it was easy to understand their actions - although I did think some of it was hard to believe of a child under ten years old.

Our fierce rate of consuming movies has abated somewhat, as we face a hectic start to 2012. It's all good but it does mean we haven't been keeping up with Film Watch as much as we had been towards the end of last year. The slower pace has given me pause for thought, however, and it occurred to me recently how much the process of completing a Film Watch post …

Earlier this week, I caught sight of this amusing video featuring Kristen Bell on the Ellen DeGeneres show. I'm only vaguely aware of who Kristen is, but she's telling a cute story about her boyfriend introducing her to a sloth, and how she flipped out over it. At first, I raised a judgemental eyebrow, but then I considered what would happen if a panda came to my house. Then I …

This past week only involved two runs, which was pretty disappointing. However, they were both much better than any of the other weekday runs I've done this year, I reckon. I also think I know why. On Monday evening, I suddenly decided that it was the time to start eating properly. There were three main reasons I decided to get an app. The first was to find out more about …

Once upon a time, before blogging was popular and Twitter even existed, I used to learn PHP. I had my books, I had my LAMP setup, and I had an expert at code sitting not too far away. There are various mentions of it on this site, until at one point, I gave it up in disgust. I had ambitions beyond my ability, and more importantly, beyond my patience. When …

Oh it was so good. So, so good. I love the characters, I love the story, I love the twists and turns and the secret nods and winks, and the appearance of ACTUAL SPOCK. There were a few bits I didn't like but the good outweighed the bad so much that it still gets a top score.

I'd never heard of this book or the author, and I didn't know anything about it. I didn't know what to expect as I opened it up, but I was pleasantly surprised. It took only a moment to realise I was reading another children or young adults book, but the story was brilliantly captivating.

The beauty of this book is that Tracy is really a very cheeky, obnoxious little girl, but brilliantly loveable at the same time. I've followed her through this book, plus watched her adventures on TV, and you just get under her skin enough to care, but still remain far enough away that she continues to surprise. At times you wonder why on earth Cam keeps coming back, but then you turn the page and the humour and joy of it all makes sense.

I really loved this. I hadn't known what to expect, and it wasn't until I read the introduction from the author that I realised not only that this was a long book, but that I was also reading the Director's Cut style version - extended even more.

I finished up my last Sherlock review with a note on the writers trying to force emotions on us, which I don't necessarily appreciate. However, I thought they handled the logistics of this final episode very well. We all knew what was supposed to happen, so starting the episode with a grieving Watson addressed that straight away. The story was not about the end result, it was about how we …

After last week's enforced break thanks to some poorly timed germs, it was hard going to get back into it this week, but I didn't do too badly. Went out on Monday and Tuesday - both of which felt like I had wooden legs and had forgotten how to use them. It was bitterly cold, and in places it was frosty, and as it is quite dark I was stepping …

It wasn't at all what I thought it might be. I suspected it might be either funnier | like Ocean's Eleven | or more serious | like Bourne. It was somewhere in between, but I couldn't quite figure out where it was trying to place itself. I'm not really a massive fan of Tom Cruise, but he did a decent job, and I honestly don't think I've ever seen quite such an impressive display of The Rage.