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Cate Blanchett.

Come on, what more would you want?!

Just realised all my review posts have been a bit negative lately, so I'd like to redeem myself by saying that I've seen the first three episodes of Preacher Season 2, and sweet drokk, is it a HUGE step up or what? I found the first series massively underwhelming , as a big fan of the comic, but hell, season 2 is way more where it's at.
Looking forward to each new episode now. Keep it up, folks, great viewing.

[Alien: Covenant]

Alien: Covenant
Thought it was absolutely shocking, to be honest. The first half hour seemed to be a less imaginative remake of "Alien", and the less said about the rest, the better. Zero suspense, hugely predictable, this felt more in the AvP mould than something from the great director that made The Duelists, Gladiator and Blade Runner. All I can think of is that some studio offered Ridley Scott tons of money to make his own better project next if he tossed this one out. Seriously, not good at all.

Wonder Woman
I managed half an hour of this, then switched off. To be honest, I've been pretty much done with CGI, folks - leaping - about- in - slow - motion movies based on American comic books for quite some time, and this did nothing to draw me in. The leads seemed very good, everyone concerned seemed to be doing a good job, it's just not for me. The Greek myths exposition part seemed to be written by someone who thinks Homer is only a guy who's married to Marge.
Plus, how clunky is that opening scene, in the present day? Immediately it's saying NEVER MIND THIS MOVIE, WAIT TIL YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS IN THE NEXT ONE. Whatever happened to people making great standalone movies without eyeing up six more?

Gah, two misfires for me tonight. Firing up the Pink Panther box set to salvage something of the evening.

As usual, I thought an excellent set-up episode was followed by the worst of Moffat's "LOOK HOW CLEVER WE ARE!" Excesses. How the hell did they make it so DULL? What was the point of bringing THAT character back last week? And was it as bad as "and then a magic eye opened in the sky and gave him another 13 lives"?
Yes, I think it was. Shame really, I've mostly really enjoyed this series.

Oddly enough, I'm in the opposite camp- I really enjoyed that episode, after a couple of ropey ones, but I've really not bought into any of the Missy In The Vault Becoming Good stuff. It feels to me like they've not given her enough motivation to do so, or is that what the execution scene was setting up a few episodes ago?
Whatever, this season's still been the best one since Tennant left for me - here's hoping Moffat doesn't screw it up with one of his LOOK HOW CLEVER I AM finales.

Gotta collapse now, but I'll take that, been down the local all night with various union boys. It was never gonna be a labour victory, but that'll do for me. Now let the horse trading and gnashing of teeth commence!

Early days yet, I'm waiting a couple of hours before I let my hopes rise....

Two pages in and nobody's mentioned Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds???

That Luke and Leia one is breathtaking.

[Trainspotting 2.]

Trainspotting 2.
I found the whole thing kind of pointless, none of the characters seem any wiser than they were 20 years ago, and whatever plot there is (was there one?) is incredibly dull. More like something you'd come across on Sunday night on BBC2. Shame really, there were one or two hilariously dark scenes and some excellently shot set pieces.

Great work Steve! Couldn't believe you got a smiling Chukwalla in there. Never shake his hand! Really brightened up an otherwise shitty day

For some reason, the Word app on my iphone's telling me I don't have the necessary permissions to edit the work I've saved on Onedrive. I've switched to using WPS office and that seems to work, but to be honest, you can't beat a pen and a damn lovely looking notebook!

Ho - kay, now this post will likely appeal mainly to those squaxx who, like me, are in the forties, have read the prog since we were kids, and are getting on with raising young squaxx of their own.
And look, I'm not trying to blow my own trumpet or get you to love me or anything, but tonight my 10 year old daughter has literally blown me away. I mean, flabbergasted me in the most wonderful manner. And it's like this...
You see, I'm a musician and a writer. Never had anything published, beyond a couple of short stories and poems in various underground magazines. I write songs, hop into a studio, record 'em, then bugger off on the road in my wee camper van (still can't beleive I had a whole conversation with John Wagner last year about camper vans and neither of us once referred to them as Mo Pads) and play gigs and get rewarded with beer and sheckles. I pop my books on amazon and while I'm far from rich, between this and working three days a week down my local, I do alright.
So tonight, me and Small Rocka pop down the local (I need a quick word with my Gaffer), have a J20 or two and a couple of pints of Guinness (guess who had what), and then...
..Small Rocka suddenly began to outline an idea she'd had about a House Cat called Jasper. I told her that that may be a bit derivative, so Jasper became a superhero cat called CATMAN. And his owner was The Librarian. And The Librarian was a SUPERVILLAIN. So Catman spends his nights secretly undoing all the supervillain's nefarious plans. And Catman's greatest enemy is Sharpclaw, who's owned by the world's greatest Superhero, and who spends HIS nights undoing all the superhero's good deeds.

Fast forward half an hour, we're back home from the pub, Mini Rocka is on the laptop typing as fast as her fingers will let her, while I'm pacing the floor with a cigar in one hand and a glass of red in the other, firing out ideas, and together we're coming up with the outline for a seven book series that's pulling in everything from Empire Strikes Back to the Killing Joke, via Dredd and half of the prog's output of the last forty years.

And that's when I realise. THIS IS WHAT I DO. WITH MY MATES IN THE BAND. WITH ANYONE I WRITE WITH. I pace the floor, drink and we fire out ideas at one another.

Only now, I'm doing it with my 10 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER. And she's firing out the ideas!

My God, has anyone else had this feeling? It's breathtaking. I'm a single Daddy, and all of a sudden, this tiny thing that was the length of my forearm is now upstairs at midnight scribbling frantically in a notebook while I tap at the laptop down here trying to figure out why Microsoft Word will no longer let me edit things I download from Onedrive (so we can both work on the novel, independently).

It's an amazing feeling. Time was, I'd have been hollered at for being up at midnight at age 10, but hell, she's fired up, scribbling frantically and coming up with some DAMN GREAT STUFF. You can't cut that shit off, you've gotta feed it.

So, has anyone else got any similar stories? I swear to God, once the first three books of Catman's amazing adventures are in the can, I'll option 'em to Tharg.

Cheers for listening. I really hope this makes sense.

Making homophobic comments will tend to net you accusiations of homophobia, ya berk. If you can't see what's wrong with your earlier statement, you shouldn't even be commenting.

Horrible news. Chris Cornell. I'm absolutely gutted. Just... NO.