British 2000-2010

Directed by Shane Meadows (This Is England, Once Upon A Time In The Midlands). Written by Meadows and Paddy Considine. The brilliant Considine (In America, My Summer Of Love) plays Richard, a former soldier who returns to his home village to exact revenge upon the petty drug dealers responsible for the physical and mental abuse of his mentally-challenged younger brother.

With echoes of Travis Bickle, Considine's character is a man full of hatred and emotion. Early on in the film he is accosted by one of the drug dealers and he lets out a spine-chilling outburst full of rage as a clear indicator of what carnage is about to come.

There are also moments of dark humour spread throughout and particularly involving the farcical petty drug dealers. There are some beautiful moments Richard spends with his younger brother, though they are of few words, there's a special bond of feeling between them.

This movie is intense. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

A moving and powerful film based on the tragedy that took place in 2004 at Morcambe Bay, Lancashire, UK. 23 Chinese illegal immigrant workers, cockle picking on the notoriously dangerous coast, died after becoming trapped by rising tides. Nick Broomfield, a veteran of creating documentaries, writes and directs. He cast amateur actors to play all the roles to help bring a sense of realism and grittiness to the story.

'Ghosts' is an ambiguous title. In one sense it is the word Chinese use to refer to white westerners and the other is a reference to the invisibility of illegal immigrant workers who are unprotected and poorly paid.

The story follows Ai Qin, a young Chinese girl who pays Chinese snakeheads to smuggle her to the UK in order for her to support her family and child back in China. Once she arrives in the UK she is forced to live in cramped shared accomodation with many other illegal Chinese immigrants. They are desperate for any kind of work to enable them to send money home to their families. Not only are they faced with racism and threats of violence from their neighbours but also from fellow cockle pickers. The gangmasters take them to pick cockles in the evening at Morcambe Bay but they're completely unaware of how dangerous the changing tide can be.

Some facts about the real incident: 21 bodies were found but 2 people were never accounted for, many of them in their teens and some were discovered naked having attempted to swim back to the shore. They were working for gangmasters, slave labour to you and me, they were working for a tiny amount of money to send back to their families. Instead of dialling 999 for the emergency services on their mobile phones, they called their families to tell them they loved them and the majority of them never saw their families again. Neither the British nor the Chinese government were willing to give financial help to the families who lost loved ones.

"I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one."

A group of friends take their divorce-suffering mate away on a short holiday in a remote village in England. Danny Dyer (Neil), who was also in Severance, stars as the sexist leader of men. To use his own words, he and his friends are suffering from "social gender anxiety" and they must discover their "inner bloke."

They head for the small village of Moodley. Shortly after arriving they discover that all the men have disappeared and there's something not quite right about the women of the village. A virus has turned all the women into man-hating zombie cannibals.

"What kind of virus only affects women?"

Neil: "Bird flu." (you may only get that joke if you are British!)

Neil and his friends find themselves overwhelmed with weapon-wielding blood-stained zombie cannibals. Ranging from a hairdresser with dual pairs of scissors to an old lady with a Zimmer frame. Even the zombie status of the women doesn't stop the lads from objectifying them by discussing which one they like the most.

The acting is very good and the script is witty and sharp. Make-up is excellent. Negative aspects are a lack of ideas as we often see the characters run in and out of houses/shops and the ending is unfulfilled but possibly hinting at a sequel. If you can appreciate sexist humour and cannibalistic gore then you should be able to enjoy Doghouse.

I owned a ZX81 and a Spectrum 128 +2.

The true story of two climbers, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, and their ambition to be the first to reach the summit of Peru's Siula Grande via the West face. During their descent from a highly successful climb, Joe sustained a serious leg injury. Following another incident, Joe was controversially (among the climbing fraternity) left for dead. Simon, who genuinely believed his friend was dead carried on down the mountain alone. What happened next was an astoundingly courageous display of physical and mental endurance.

Filmed in a docu-drama style with the real climbers providing their story through an interview and interspersed with impressive beautifully-filmed scenes of the events, their story is compelling from beginning to end.

Charming little time travel comedy. +half star for the inclusion of Anna Faris, -half star for the Morrissey comment but +half star for writing a letter to Hollywood asking for more Firefly or Serenity.

Dave Gorman is very well known to UK TV viewers after his excellent shows, 'Dave Gorman's Important Astrology Experiment' and 'Are You Dave Gorman?' The latter being undertaken following a bet with a friend. Dave was tasked with finding 54 people (1 for each card in a deck including jokers) with the same name as himself - and meeting them. A journey which took him all around the world.

'Googlewhack Adventure' is his true story of his next journey around the world, covering over 90,000 miles in the pursuit of new Googlewhacks. It is a multi-award winning stand-up show recorded in front of a live audience in Swansea, Wales, UK. It won the award for Best One Person Show at the 2004 HBO US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado - an award he won in 2001 for Are You Dave Gorman? It also won the 2004 Nightlife Award for Most Unique Comedy Performance while being performed in New York.

One day, sitting at his computer, attempting to write his novel but void of his muse, Dave received an email announcing that he was a googlewhack. Unaware of the term 'Googlewhack' Dave proceeded to investigate. He learned that his website was actually a Googlewhack (Francophile Namesakes) , not himself. Mild curiosity manifested itself into an obsession and Dave decided that Googlewhack-ing was more fun than writing a novel and he challenged himself to find more Googlewhacks. He found two, he contacted the originators of the Googlewhacks, and using his financial advance from his publisher, Dave set off to meet them and his journey began.

With the aid of a projector for showing slides and bar charts, Dave Gorman's comedic story is unmissable from start to finish. Apparently to this day he still has the alcohol-induced Texan driving licence tattoo on his arm which he regrettably received one night during his mammoth journey. This is one of the funniest and most entertaining stories ever told.

Emily Blunt is outstanding in this movie.

Thoroughly depressing. A girl born into a life which she hopes to leave but her naivety and misplaced trust really do condemn her to live the same life as her mother. She will be forever exploited by the social class above her.

Welcome to the genius known as Chris Morris.

"The English accent kills all credibility for a black gangster movie."

That must be the stupidest comment I have ever read in my entire life.

I'm sure the BBC is already lining this up for a 7pm slot on BBC1. To me, this kind of light-hearted inoffensive comedy is at least 15 years out of date. I want moments where I'm shocked, where I'm uncomfortable and where I do actually laught-out-loud. Sadly, Infidel provided me with none of those.