Now, Waitress was a film that I knew about long ago, most likely from my whedon.info newsletters; and at the time its synopsis sounded interesting enough; but placed as a fairly independent film I saw no chance of it gracing our shores.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find I could get free preview tickets to go see it; unfortunately it meant going to Cardiff especially. But I am glad of it now, as it introduced me to the very cool Red Dragon Centre, as well as the lovely walk along Lloyd George street at around 8pm.

Waitress is about Jenna; a recently pregnant, unhappily married waitress living in the Deep South, where -as my sister puts it- everything looks so old fashioned.
The film stars a fairly low-key cast with Keri Russell in the main role, and Jeremy Sisto (six feet under) as her rather jealous, controlling, abusive husband. Adrienne Shelly writer and director of Waitress also starred alongside Russell as Dawn who had such a warm lively character, and of course starring everyone's favourite actor Nathan Fillion, who played a small role as Dr Pomatter, Jenna’s gynaecologist who she intiates an affair with.

The cast was great, each female character was well-rounded and written amazingly, and in Waitress unfortunately the same can not be said for the men of the film. Although Earl’s jarring horn sounding gave a particularly unnerving edge, the men of the film were otherwise definitely not as well-rounded as the female characters, (a strange scenario in film), but I really have to ask, is this actually a problem? Because a few reviews I read complained profusely on this part!

Yet women have been written the same shitty 2-dimensional roles ever since movies began, so it’s always a nice surprise when women get some really strong roles, and both Jenna and Dawn carry them; I am a little unsure of Becky's character, so, thank you Adrienne Shelly!

Waitress is remarkably different to any other romantic comedy out there in two particular ways; the main female protagonist; Jenna doesn't ride away with the man she is unable to live without; she finds her own place in the world. Then there is the look and feel of Waitress; you can tell that more thought and love has gone into the making of it, compared to most stoic romantic comedies, Waitress is genuinely different, and slightly eccentric in the good kind of way.

The terrible shame connected to the film has to be the death of Adrienne Shelly; writer, director and Dawn of Waitress, who was murdered shortly after the film was accepted into Sundance. The worst part of it was that she could have easily become a successful and influential female writer-director... because other than Nora Ephron, there aren't many of them out there!

Whoops! Almost forget Amber Benson!

The film is a strange sweet thing, not too saccharine but at times feeling slightly over-the-top, though its mix of amazing alluring characters and southern setting lends to a wholly endearing film, hopefully one that each and every woman can enjoy.

I give it a shiny cptalbertwesker rating of 7/10 for being such a lovely eccentric film by an independent whiz!

Now, I have to agree with my Swedish friend that Bioshock is perhaps not as we had hoped; after all of the beautiful water and stunning locations, it does basically turn into a common place FPS. But I think (like a few select games) the situation and setting, plus the period in time and dystopian setting has completely won me over. Right now, I’m thinking I really couldn't care if the game were some cutesy platformer, as long as it remained faithful of the dramatically different environment then I would be sold.

Bioshock does seem a bit like Condemned’s lovechild to some strange Jules Verne nightmare with a bit of George Orwell added in for good measure, put more simply the game rocks my socks off, just for being so unbelievably beautiful and adventurous for deciding not to base the game in some secret government lab, or a war for that matter.

This is one reason why I so recently fell in love with Stranglehold; John Woo's spiritual successor to Hard Boiled (on a games console). Because the game is set in Hong Kong, which is great! How many games do you see set in Hong Kong, I'm wanting to bring Resident Evil 5 up again, because unfortunately as poor an excuse as it sounds; all these games look amazing for me for that simple reason; they are different. They designed a game and said no to the conventional settings. Which I hope will be the way forward, after all, gamers have seen too much of the same thing for far too many years, and sadly these type of drastic changes only come by once in a while. But one thing they are always bound to do, is make a difference!

Need I mention the fact that the moment the Bioshock demo went up on the Xbox Live marketplace suddenly the traffic went up, downloads close to ceased working; hell I was stuck on my 7mb line downloading a 1.3gb file for at least close to 12 hours! This game is big news, and everyone knows it.

From the get-up you can tell (and I hope it's true) that this game has character, and somewhere hidden it better have an amazing story! Because after all, it's linked to the System Shock series; one with -granted I have not had the chance to play because it is so hard to get a hold of- a critically acclaimed story and -not surprisingly- a very different setting for when it was made!

The demo (which granted I haven't had the time to finish, because it completed at stupid o'clock last night) looks and feels amazing; apparently they give you the first 45 minutes! Which is quite a lot compared to some demos, unfortunately of course it means that if there are any discrepancies they are not likely to be fixed, due to it's extremely imminent release *seriously cannot wait right now* but I may be able to put those aside for it’s incredible beauty (if I failed to mention it!).

It's a very curious thing (me) that about two weeks ago, I really didn't feel as though I could give a damn about Bioshock, but in the last 24 hours I have gone from not bothered to omfg-gimme-a-copy-now! It's awesome and just so very very pretty. I am only hoping that combat is not the most important factor in the game.

So I suppose I am recommending it, unfortunately -yeah right!- a PC demo has not been released! Haha PC peoples I laugh in your face! ..only of course because my PC would never run it until I do an upgrade.

Sorry, but yeah it does seem pretty awesome, and there are some nice elements to it, not to mention your radio buddy Atlas whose got a lovely Irish accent going on, it seriously for me just makes the game miles better! That and the awesome soundtrack –did I hear some Ink Spots?-, the sound is very very good, and it's a game I'm just betting I'm gonna love!

It may have been six years in the making, but the Simpsons movie has finally hit our screens, and although it might not please everyone, it still contains the solid charm and wit of any good Simpson’s episode.

The Simpsons movie is something that you always wished could happen as a child, though you could never really imagine it happening... it's sort of like making a film out of Friends, or an equal television show that doesn't really have the scope of being epic. (which is also why on a level Serenity doesn't work) It's a hard thing to do right, but with a massive hit as big as the Simpsons, you most certainly do not have to go through the motions of re-introducing each character to the audience, which is what most to-movie experiences have to do.

The Simpsons movie is a big thing; hell with a screening every half an hour, they're putting a lot of money into it; but there’s no danger that it would not pay off; with 400 episodes in their belt, the Simpsons is a worldwide phenomenon, and can be easily compared to Mickey Mouse, and nothing short of fame, the yellow-skinned family are making big news with their film.

The most obvious reason for this, is that the show is universal; and you can tell with so many famous fans; two in particular that I wanted to mention being Richard and Judy. Who (like every other talk show I'm sure) had a piece on the Simpsons movie, and I have to say, that -never being on the receiving end before- a raving fanboy (Richard) does sound a little silly.. so I apologise for the numerous outbursts I have on this little blog of mine. He was ranting and raving about how the Simpsons movie wasn’t exactly as he would have wished, and how some characters should have been in the spotlight; it was quite a bit funny.

Something that I seem to read everywhere is a critique that the film itself is riddled with plot holes and contains a bit of a fractured story... have any of these people ever seen the Simpsons?? Need I mention the story of A Tale of Two Springfield’s? ‘nuff said!

Of course based from the show, the film has numerous funny moments, and I've gotta say that some highlights had to be the rather aptly named 'boob lady' and Homer's trek through the snow with his huskies, which I would have to say is the sort of humour always present in the Simpsons; a very simple silly funny.

But my favourite part of the whole film had to be Lisa's first conversation with Colin -her little boy-friend who feels the same about the environment- and how, although he's Irish, it doesn't mean that he's related to Bono! That’s just funny, cos apparently some American’s believe that!

Prior to actually watching the film, I felt that from the trailers the whole Spider-pig thing would be a little silly. But actually watching it, it was actually pretty cool... and the whole pig element was rather cute.

Now onto my last bit, specifically on breaking the fourth wall, which is something in the film did get me kind of irked; it can be cute in some things, but overused and I get a bit miffed (see I'm even using that awful word!)and The Simpsons movie did really use it quite a bit... maybe an American would find some of them funny (like the fox advertising... we don't get that over here, so why should we find it funny) then there were bits like the 'to be continued' skit and the constant reminder that we are watching a film as opposed to a TV show; and paying for it... now this would have been cute if it were perhaps an in joke, or something subtle. But instead they just paraded it around, and made them seem a bit up-themselves.. I just don't find that kinda humour funny. Perhaps I'm old fashioned.

The way I see it, the Simpsons movie is a great many things, and one definite success they have had, is keeping the feel and mood of the Simpsons alive in this big screen outing, and really if it's got that, then it has succeeded in their goal.

I give it a cptalbertwesker rating of 8/10 after all, ya can't hate the Simpsons