Half of my extended family are 'middle class', with the rest being 'pure Belfast' as the saying goes, my accent's all over the place as a result

Do you have any accent after living there so long? I'm a complete accent copy cat if I stay anywhere different for a while.

C

Nope. If you heard me you'd know I was from the north of England inside the first sentence.

Mark

Watched 'Dredd' last night. Thought it was.. better than OK. It obviously suffered from budget constraints but they captured the spirit/feel of the comic pretty well. Urban makes a pretty good Dredd and the idea of Megacity One is captured very well, although it feels sparse compared to the comics (again, budget I suspect). I thought Lena Heady was underused and a bit cartoon bad guy but then she's not one of the strip's known bad guys - it strikes me this is the 'franchise origin story' much more than it's trying to encapsulate the entirety of Dredd in a single film (which would be a disaster anyway tbh). It's a pity the plot is almost identical to 'The Raid' - which I think did have better action choreography, while Dredd has more style and humour to it.

Supporting cast was good, especially the actress playing Anderson, although she's not the Cassandra we know and love yet. I have a feeling as the opportunities for character development in Dredd himself are pretty slim, we may see Anderson growing into the more confident, wise-cracking judge over time.

Well worth a watch if you're an action fan. Probably worth spending money on if you're a Dredd fan. Good enough for me to actually want to see a sequel, although I hope they convince someone to give them a better budget for it. It's not the perfect Dredd movie, but then I'm not convinced such a thing is even possible, or economically viable. It is recognisably Dredd, which is more than you can say for the Stallone version.

Ghost Rider - Spirit Of Vengeance

It's actually worse than you've probably heard

We're talking EU investigation levels of ham and cheese here, I'd advise having a little drinky-poo if you intend to sit through it. The rider looks amazing on the bike, but that's about all this film has going for it.

Took me three goes to get through that movie.

I can't bring myself to watch the Ghost Rider films, being a huge fan of the comic in my youth (I'm sure I still have a stack of them in the loft, among others).

Big fan of 2000AD too, so I'll try to catch Dredd before it leaves the cinema.

I watched the first one and it was painful. Didn't bother with the second.

I read a review for the first one and it scared me off.

In other news, I sat through MiB3 recently. I really can't enjoy that series - another case of film completely destroying the comics. The comics are much more serious with a little dark humour - not this Disney nonsense.

MiB was good. 2 was okayish. 3 just looked dire and didn't bother watching it.

Couldn't get through the first one either but then Nic Cage was a red flag to start with.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (original version) - is the book this bad? Ponderous as all hell until the second half, with subplots that only really exist to hang 'shocking' or titillating scenes on throughout. The lead characters are badly defined, seemingly so they can show up in just about any situation. Even the main 'mystery' shouldn't cause you too much trouble!

I don't think we saw the same film.

Mark

There is a David Fincher version

I haven't seen the remake.
I have seen all the three original films. Not read the books that they are based on, but the criticisms you lay at the door of the first film … I don't agree with any of them.

Mark