It took me a while to get on board with this. I like memoir books but getting through the early part with life history can be difficult. This one wasn’t too lengthy but there was a tone in there that I couldn’t put my finger on. Reinforcing that his children had been brought up right, and that the new digital age isn’t necessarily a good thing didn’t sit right with me.

Allan Karlsson treads a fine line between not being such a great person but also having a really inspiring outlook on life. The characters he meets along the way are also fun and interesting, particularly Benny who is a perpetual student without really doing anything with his life. And there’s an elephant! What else could you wish for? Occasionally a bit graphic, the disembodied head was a surprise, but mostly a bold and brilliant endeavour. Totally recommended.

This is a film that many people have told me to watch, it’s something of a cult classic and has definitely been popular amongst Sidepodcast readers. That always worries me though, when something is so beloved I’m always concerned that I’m not going to get it or like it and that might be a problem.

Turns out, it was far better than I thought. Interesting story, tough but understandable characters and some really nice shots throughout - Paris, you know how it is. There were  a few irritants, his illness and the treatment didn’t really make sense and I wish that Amber Heard could have been a powerful woman without having to dress in skin-tight leather all the time.

Somehow, I’d managed to see part one of the Ocean’s Eleven series multiple times, part two maybe a couple but never got round to seeing part three. That all changed, and after viewing the first two as a bit of a refresher, we opted to watch Ocean’s Thirteen to complete the trilogy.

There’s definitely a darker tone in this final book of the original Oz series. With an imminent war about to breakout, Princess Ozma goes to intervene and finds herself trapped, in a situation where her magic just won’t help. It’s up to the rest of the gang (and pretty much all of the previous characters were revisited here), to come along and save her, with inspiration coming from an unlikely direction.

The penultimate book in the original Baum series of magical Oz adventures and it’s very similar to those that have gone before. Several of the characters from previous books, including Dorothy, head out on adventures to try and find Ozma a birthday present. What do you get for the girl who has everything and if she doesn’t have everything she can just magic it into being?

At first, I wasn’t convinced I would like this book but as with all good thrillers, it drew me in until I couldn’t stop reading. The main protagonist is your standard troubled cop but this time, he’s convinced about who is guilty even though no one else is.

Less like TimeRiders and more like Tomb Raiders, this edition of the series has some significant story updates with just a smattering of time travel thrown in. This book really started to make me question some of the time travel logic - something you can’t do too much of in any story of the genre - but ultimately you just go with it and enjoy the ride.

It’s been a while since I delved into the world of the TimeRiders - I’ve been saving them up so as not to have to hang on too long for the final installment. With book nine only a few weeks away, I opened up the seventh installment, slightly nervous about what was in store. The idea of the TimeRiders somehow finding themselves involved with pirates seemed somehow far-fetched, but actually it was really well done.

We have been looking forward to this one for ages, and for some reason it’s been available to pre-order on iTunes for soooo long without being up for rental. So it’s been staring us in the face everytime we log in. In all honesty, we should have just bought it and got it over with.

What’s not to love about Notting Hill? Guy meets girl, girl is actually very famous, chaos ensues, guy and girl eventually end up together. It’s full of all the classic Richard Curtis things, but done well for those looking for a warm and fuzzy couple of hours.

This has a very interesting concept, and the twist is great. But everything in between those things isn’t really as good as you’d hope. Asa Butterfield holds his own as the kid with the weight of the world literally on his shoulder, but I wasn’t all that impressed with the grumpy Harrison Ford.

With Jerry Maguire being such an unwatchable disappointment, we moved straight on to another sports films (iTunes having put together a collection for us to work our way through). I’d not heard of this one, or the story behind it, but was tempted by the trailer and the fact that Matthew McConaughey is always a welcome addition to the Film Watch stable.

This, I know, is a classic film, and it was quite cheap to rent in the iTunes store, so we thought we’d give it a shot. One that Tom Cruise is particularly well known for, with catchphrases that I have used without actually knowing the reference for. It also fitted in with our returning enthusiasm for sports films, after the success of Draft Day.

As one of the earlier Seth Rogan/James Franco match-ups, this was on our list but I’ll be honest, after watching the trailer I wasn’t keen. Long hair on Franco, plenty of drug nonsense, and references there’s no way I was going to get. But with our twenty minute rule firmly in place, I decided to give it a go and switch it off when I inevitably hated it. I was pleasantly surprised. It was much better than I expected, hence getting to the end!

I love it for the disparate characters coming together for the common goal. The way the Scrounger can get what he needs, and how they manage to find wood from every little place. The way they cover up their activities, the way they have highs and lows, and sometimes the lows are just too much.

We only watched this for Stephen Mangan and David Tennant. A great cast, but Postman Pat is a beloved nostalgic character and these types of films normally ruin that. I thought they did quite a good job, really. It certainly had funny moments and the story was alright - although based on the very flawed premise that Postman Pat is unable to actually talk to his wife. Crazy.

Mixed feelings on this one. Lesley Mann is brilliant, but it takes a while to become acclimatised to her. The high-pitched voice, the sort of crazy wild-eyed antics, it’s a good ten minutes before it settles down. The set up is a little bit unbelievable too, that they would be able to sustain a relationship based on the cheating husband’s antics doesn’t really sell well.

I absolutely loved it. I had to pause ten minutes in to google what the whole draft thing was about but once we established what the point of the film was, it was brilliant from there on in. Tense, enthralling, with a handful of relationships around the edges to keep it interesting. I didn’t necessarily buy the relationship between Costner and Garner, but I thought she was fab.

Was in two minds about this one. We were keen to watch as it is part of Curzon’s new ‘in cinemas and available to rent at the same time’ initiative, which we wholeheartedly support. It’s also got Jennifer Aniston in, which should be a good thing, but overall it looked a bit arty and that made me worried.

At this point in the Oz series, it feels as though we’ve actually hit a new stride in fresh ideas. Rather than repeating the ‘disaster leads to journey’ formula that has served so well in the past, Baum digs into the history of the characters for a new adventure. This time, we’re journeying with the Tin Woodman in search of the bride he left behind.

Naturally, my obsession with time travel led me towards this book but I thought it was an interesting take on the sci-fi trope, putting it into a slightly different context and genre. This time, we’ve got more of a rom-com feel going on, with our protagonist visited from the future and told that history has taken a bit of a wrong turn - things need to be corrected.

We’ve had this one on our list for a while, it’s so supremely popular and referenced all over the place - movies, TV, you name it - so we knew we’d have to give in and watch it eventually. The trailer didn’t exactly inspire me, and god how I have struggled with films set in the 1970s this year. However, after watching the brutality of Lone Survivor, I needed something completely different and refreshing.

I got well past our usual twenty minute cut off with this one but eventually had to hold my hands up and say it was too much. Brutal is the exact right word to describe it. I don’t know whether it’s because I opened those emotional flood gates or not, but I just couldn’t bear to watch the rest of the film unfold. It could also have been because there was clearly only going to be one survivor (the title and the opening sequence made that perfectly obvious), so why would I want to sit and watch how the rest of the guys get picked off. It’s like Final Destination except totally honest, real and terrifying.

The trailer for this one seemed amusing enough for us to give it a watch although I did have some misgivings. We liked Ted, but I’m always slightly wary when someone writes and stars and directs in things - as though no one else was really bothered about the project.

I gave it four episodes, and in the end I’m going to have to admit that Peter Capaldi’s Doctor - so far - is not for me. The first episode I had to give the benefit of the doubt because it was a regeneration episode, one in which the characters were finding their feet and getting to know each other all over again. The second episode was instantly forgettable - something about a Dalek? The third was more entertaining, but for the Robin Hood aspect rather than the Doctor being the star of the show. When he was shooting the arrows, I just thought… this doesn’t feel right. I just finished watching the fourth episode in the series, one which a few have claimed as one of the best, and it was fine, a bit tense, but ultimately not gripping.

My interest in forts, bunkers and castles is well-documented, and recently I managed to squeeze in a visit to another place of interest that falls into this category. Somehow, it is both fort and castle, as Hurst Castle on the south coast was initially a Tudor dwelling, converted into a sea defending fort during the war. The castle is at the end of long shingle walkway that takes it out of you if you try and walk it. Well, so I’m told. Naturally, I took a boat.

I had sort of been saving it for a special occasion, but actually, in the end, it just felt like the right time to watch it again. It was all the brilliant things I remembered - great characters, far-fetched but wonderful story, and fab one-liners. And if it reduced me to tears when I was hard-hearted, I was in floods this time.

This film was a lot of fun, very entertaining and a great story that we thought was going to be one thing but that then turned into another. I liked the backstory, explaining how he became an analyst and then emerged from behind his desk to become an action hero again. It made a lot more sense than ‘oh, I have found myself on a submarine, how odd.’

I loved it! Amazingly, despite being a film that is all about technology, it didn’t age that badly at all. The upscaling to HD was good, and aside from the state of the green screen monitors and the giant phone modem thing, it was actually very well done, believable with barely a plot hole to be seen.

I had read a brief summary of this book before I started so wasn’t surprised when the lovely Ozma of Oz disappeared. The remaining residents are left to find her, track down who kidnapped her and locate her missing magic trinkets too. That’s right, the Magic Mirror (and Glinda’s Magic Book) that irk me sometimes with how easily they solve story problems, they’ve been taken as well.

This is the first in a series of books about an apocalyptic disaster and what happens to those that attempt to survive. I thought it was fascinating - I mean, I love a good disaster movie and this was essentially one of those in written form. Each chapter brought a new peril for the surviving characters, unable to trust the earth beneath their feet.

It’s far from a secret that my obsession over all things French continues to grow, and it was only a matter of time before it entered our film life as well. There have been a couple of French trailers appear on the iTunes store, and they eventually arrived to rent. This, with that guy out of the Matrix, seemed like a reasonably entry point into the world of subtitles.

I really enjoyed it. Something a bit different, brilliant to have a narrator, and so artfully done, each shot was exquisite. I was confused to start with because it felt like they were in France, going to French theatre, and cafés, etc, but then they clearly weren’t, so my brain had to shift halfway through the film.

It was a good film, based on a true story apparently, and it felt like an extended version of Hustle. It didn’t quite have the polished finish you might hope for, and some of the fight scenes looked very odd to my untrained eye. But the young stars were very good, Will Poulter in particular. Although it must be said from the variety of bikini’s Emma Rigby sported, I don’t think she was hired for her acting ability.

I don’t think this was a film I was eagerly awaiting, but after seeing the trailer, I was keen to see Zac Efron (I mean, you know), and I have a growing affection for Rose Byrne too. The film was so much funnier than I thought it was going to be. It got off to a really slow start, a lot of nonsense setting up the almost ideal life of Rose and Seth, with their baby daughter.

You can absolutely tell that this book wasn’t meant to be a part of the Oz series, set in a completely separate land with a slightly more aggressive set of characters. And yet, it fits entirely, due to the similar writing, the similar magic, and the similar whimsical, imaginative nature of the setting and story.

Never judge a book by its cover, but it was clear that this was going to be one of the archeological adventure books that takes some kind of myth or legend and it expands on it for a good romp across the globe. With that in mind, it was a very well done book of it’s kind, keeping you guessing about the double-crossing characters, wondering what mishap would occur next, and what the next stage in the journey would be.

This next adventure in the Oz series seemed to go back to its roots. A couple of non-fairy folk are transported to the fairy land and have to go through heaps of adventures to find their way to safety (which invariably means back to the Emerald City). I quite enjoyed this one, following the trials and tribulations along the way. Particularly Pessim, the eternally grumpy islander, and the forbidden love story at King Krewl’s castle.

Our experiments in expanding our food intake have so far taken in the excellent delivery service that is HelloFresh (still going strong, by the way, a few meals that haven’t been to our taste, but otherwise I’ve reached Apprentice chef level and am rapidly heading towards sous!) but we didn’t stop there. I’ve been aware of Graze for a long time, but never taken the plunge and ordered a box. Graze offer selections of healthy (and not so healthy) snacks, delivered to your door each week, from a choice of hundreds. You don’t get to specifically pick which ones you want but you can say what you do and don’t like, and those you would never want to receive. The great thing about Graze is, the boxes are long and thin, meaning they fit right through the letterbox and can be delivered by the postman. Genius!

I feel like this entry in the vast Oz series is slightly misnamed because it’s more about the Shaggy Man and his quest to find his brother than it is about Tik-Tok. There are a few disparate stories here, with strands that come together in the end to provide the usual fun and games.

Ahh, the returning adventures of Marie and her madcap family. I loved the first book written by Marie, once you get to know the family it really felt like you were on the adventure with them. Back then, it was about selling up, buying a narrow boat to live on, taking it on the long journey to the mooring and dealing with everything that happened along the way. Amazingly, this book is exactly the same and yet still enormously entertaining.

Since I stopped running, 18 months ago, I’ve turned my attention to a variety of apps and online solutions to the ‘easy workout at home’ thing. Some of them are fads that are dropped as easily as they are started, but I’ve stumbled across one that has actually got me hooked. I first tried the Fitstar app about six months ago, and loved the concept but had to stop almost as soon as I’d started due to a small injury.

I don’t know if you noticed, but this week, Apple announced a new product - their take on the wearable tech phenomenon. Initially, I wasn’t that interested in the watch. That’s partly because the stream of Tim Cook’s keynote address was so bad that I gave up following halfway through and missed all the announcements. It’s also because I wasn’t too keen on the big, square, bulky look.

Any book that has time travel in is going to appeal to me, and I was quick to pick this one up as soon as I saw it. The story itself started off pretty slowly, it was quite hefty going getting through the setup of the university itself, the time travel programme, and what happened when a professor at the university got lost back in time. There was a lot of emphasis on cookies, and cheese, and it felt like it took too long to get going.

The trailer actually didn’t thrill me too much, I thought it looked silly. As we started watching, it became clear why. It’s a spoof! I hadn’t realised going into it, but once my expectations were aligned with what we were watching, it was totally brilliant. A mixture of parody, homage and generally just poking fun, there were references galore and plenty of funny lines to repeat endlessly afterwards.

The only good thing about it was Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. I thought he was brilliant, quirky and witty, and generally really likeable even when going through the wringer. Emma Stone was good but I thought they weren’t quite as much fun together as they were in the first.

Aside from the forced alliteration in the title, there’s a lot to love about this anthology of crime-related short stories. They’re seriously short too, varying in length but none above 1000 words. The great thing about short stories is that you get a variety, some you’ll like, some you may not. With these super short stories, there’s not too much investment either. If it’s not your thing, you just move on to the next one.

It’s always fun to see an author resurrect a series that they had previously finished off so neatly. After tying up all the loose ends in the last book, Baum has to concede the children love Oz too much not to hear from there again, and hey presto, another story.