Chimpomatic

Top Boy

Utterly outstanding, multi-stranded British urban drama. Beautifully shot, written and acted. Catch it on 4OD.

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6th Nov 2011

Life In A Day

Touching, inspiring, crowd sourced documentary. Like a people-centric Koyannisqatsi.

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5th Nov 2011

Unstoppable

More unsubtle, pretentious action from Denzel and Tony Scott. Must have been inspired after Pelham 123.

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4th Nov 2011

At Close Range

Well handled, tense 80s angst classic, with Penn(s), Walken and Glover amongst the rogues gallery.

Halliwell says: Relentlessly brutal, dispiriting and quite pointless melodrama, even with the saving grace of a factual basis.

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4th Nov 2011

John Mayall

Poole Lighthouse

This was our second John Mayall concert - the first was in 1967 (UCL Union); so only a wait of 44 years in between. In that time John, who remains one of the godfathers of British blues, has made many albums, lived a life of constant touring and launched the careers of many rock & blues legends - Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor and John McVey to name but a few.

This was the 6th night of a 25 date British tour that ends 18th November. The band retains a traditional line up of Rocky Athas - lead guitar, Greg Rzab - bass guitar, Jay Davenport - drums. Remarkably, Mayall did all the vocals, played keyboard and/or harmonica on all numbers apart from one, when he played guitar - not bad for a 77 year old!

The programme consisted of many standard rhythm and blues pieces, which were all played at a high technical level with a lot of feeling. Particularly memorable were “All Your Love” and “Parchment Farm” from the Blues Breakers (the Beano) Album.

Supporting act was from the Oli Brown Band.

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3rd Nov 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Easy A

Cocky teenage comedy, featuring lots of people talking over the top of each other.

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1st Nov 2011

Due Date

Nicely costumed but otherwise unremarkable inflight entertainment. Planes, Trains meets Old School.

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31st Oct 2011

Wilco

The Roundhouse, London

Wilco albums come and go, but the live act remains strong and steady - well aware which songs have stood the test of time and which have dropped off into back catalogue. New album and show opener "Art of Almost" immediately scored itself a position as today's song of the year, setting the scene for a heavy set that wasn't afraid to bring a couple of extra guitars off the bench when neccessary.

Possibly slightly more truncated in length than previous shows and light on Tweedy-stand-up, it was still plenty for my ageing body support system - and with another show tomorrow probably drawing back many of the beard-heavy crowd no-one is likely to be complaining.

Never, ever disappointing. Set list over at Wilco World.

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29th Oct 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Easy A

Sparky high school riff on The Scarlet Letter, as Emma Stone fake-tramps her way to notoriety.

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26th Oct 2011