Get your giant Slurpee and a big bucket of Popcorn, sit down and watch a master craftsman at work. Even though he is pushing 80, Clint Eastwood’s latest film, Gran Torino,  in which he both stars and directs, proves that age does not dull the talent.

Gran Torino is the story of Walt Kowalski, a bigoted Korean War Veteran and ex-Ford factory worker who has seen his Detroit neighbourhood taken over by Asian immigrants. Having recently lost his wife, his family wants him to move from the area and into a retirement community. One night he catches his young next door neighbour, Thao, played by Bee Vang, trying to steal his prized posession, a 1972 Ford Gran Torino as part of a gang initiation. A gang he doesn’t want to join. After he stands up to the gang, Kowalski becomes a hero to the local Hmong immigrants and he strikes up a friendship with the family next door when Thao is forced to work for Kowalski to apologise for attempting to steal the car. A fued develops between Kowalski and the Hmong gang.

I wont go into further detail as it will spoil the story for you, but I will say that this is a film well worth the admission money. Eastwood is great as the gnarly old war veteran with almost every line being delivered through clenched teeth as only Eastwood can. I will guarantee that “Get off my lawn” will become almost as famous as “Go ahead, make my day” in the catalogue of great Eastwood lines. It is a film that explores the relationship between Americans and new immigrants, between the older and younger generations and between the different cultures and ethnicities in the area.

If you like your films to be Politically correct…. do not go and see this. The range of offensive terms for various ethnic groups was pretty big but delivered in such a way that everybody got a taste of it rather than just one particular group. Black, Asian, Hispanic, Polish, Italian and Irish all get a share of the abuse.

There is already awards buzz for this film and early numbers suggest that this could be the surprise hit of the year. I would urge any fan of Eastwood to go and see this and even if you aren’t a big fan, go and see it anyway. You will not be disappointed.

Score 9 out of 10

There is nothing subtle about AC/DC. There never has been and there never will be. When you go and see their show as my son Tom and I did last night, you are pretty sure what you are going to get. A full on, auditory, ass kicking and we were not disappointed. After a regular show, you get the high pitched whine for a few hours afterwards and then it goes away. Mine was still there this morning and Tom says he still has his.

The “Black Ice” World Tour is a mix of new stuff from the current album along with the classics you would expect. Tracks such as “Rock and Roll Train” and “Big Jack” from the current offering mixed in seamlessly with “You Shook Me All Night Long” and ” Hells Bells”. The new stuff didn’t sound out of place at all, basically because is is pretty much the tried and tested in your face stuff that made the boys famous in the first place.

Brian Johnson sounded like he had been gargling Razor Blades before he came on stage but was spot on in his delivery. Angus Young, who is now 53, was as demented as ever, still in the Schoolboy outfit, which he still strips off during every show. Scrawny he may be but I wish I had that much energy. The rest of the band were almost secondary to the performances of Young and Johnson although it was amusing that Drummer Phil Rudd had a ciggy on the go for what seemed like the entire night.

Highlights of the night were ” Whole Lot of Rosie” and “Let There Be Rock” in which Angus assaulted our eardrums with close to 15 minutes of the loudest fastest guitar work I think I have ever heard. And just when you thought that you were in for some releif, the encore let us have it all over again with “Highway to Hell” and ” For Those About To Rock” complete with the 6 cannons at the back of the stage. When the show turns up in Europe, go see it. There can’t be many bands that put this much into a show for the fans.

I would also like to offer my congratulations to the support act. A bunch of Irish lads called The Answer. It must be daunting to open for such luminaries as AC/DC, but they did an excellent 6 song set and were warmly applauded by the crowd. Good on yer lads.

Sorry…… I couldn’t resist.

Man Arrested After Urine Samples Stolen

Well, here we are 3 weeks into the new Premiership season and 2 clubs already have a “Vacancy” sign on the Managers door.

Alan Curbishley has walked away from the Hammers and Kevin Keegan away from Newcastle, and to be perfectly honest, who can blame them. Back when I was a lad, a manager was a manager, he bought and sold players, he picked the team, he had total control over training methods and staff and therefore he kept his job or was fired based on his results. The Board was there merely to advise if necessary and to provide the readies for a dip into the transfer market if the Manager deemed it necessary.

He certainly didn’t have the owner tell him who to buy, who to sell, or worse, be told that a player had been sold without his knowledge. I suspect the tone of the conversation from both Mssrs. Keegan and Curbishley was ” I don’t need this B******s, I’m off… find your self a new puppet.”

Quite frankly, I applaud the pair of them. Sir Alice certainly wouldn’t put up with that kind of c**p and I’m pretty sure that Professor Wenger wouldn’t either.

So who will be next off the managerial Merry-Go-Round. Mr. Scolari perhaps, Certainly, Abramovich has a lot more influence on the team than he would let on. How will Mark Hughes get on with his new paymasters ? How long will Levy at Spurs give Ramos?

There are some Managers who I would bet my house on, not leaving this season. Martin O’Neil, Rafa Benitez and David Moyes for example, along with Ferguson and Wenger, but the rest… not so sure.

SEE THIS FILM !!!

Quite simply, this is the funniest thing I have seen at the movies in years. Steve Carrell gives a quite magnificent performance as Maxwell Smart, an analyst and would be Agent 86 for CONTROL fighting the baddies of CAOS led by Terence Stamp as Siegfried. The cast also includes Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 and Dwayne ( The Rock ) Johnson as Agent 23. Also watch out for cameos by James Caan as the President and Bill Murray as Agent 13.

The joy of this film is the sight gags, which not only come thick and fast but are beautifully crafted and executed by Director Peter Segal. I can honestly say that I have not laughed out loud so much in a cinema for a very long time. The film pays tribute to the original TV series from the 60’s and had the good sense to enlist the help of one of the original creators, Mel Brooks, to act as a creative consultant. I am sure this is where many of ther best gags came from. The influence of Brooks can clearly be seen throughout the film. Watch out for for such scenes as the miniature crossbow in the airplane toilet and the laser protected room.

Without spoiling it too much, the good guys win the day, but the big winners will surely be the producers who surely have a monster hit on thier hands.

It’s so good, I may well go and see it again.

Score 10 out of 10. My kind of film

Opening day here in the US was yesterday. We got our tickets online for a 5.30 showing expecting it to be pretty full…… it wasn’t. Choose where you want to sit. There was plenty of choice.

Considering this film was 18 years removed from the last outing, the excellent Last Crusade, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, especially from Harrison Ford, who is, lets face it, no longer of action hero age. This latest Indiana Jones film revolves around crashed aliens, a mythical lost city in the Amazon basin, a completely deranged Prof. Oxley ( well done to John Hurt for a great performance ) plus the usual baddies who this time are communist bent on world domination through mind control. Of course, Denholm Elliot and Sean Connery are both absent but the film does pay them a brief homage. Enter Jim Broadbent as Charles Stanforth, Dean of Students and Karen Allen reprising her role as Marion Ravenwood from Raiders of the lost Ark. Also add to the cast Shia LaBeouf as Mutt Williams, Cate Blanchett as head commie Irina Spalko, and surprisingly, Ray Winstone as McHale, a former colleague of Indiana Jones gone bad.

I wont spoil the rest of the story line but you can probably figure most of it out as you go along with the film. It is pretty much the tried and tested formula from Lucas /Spielberg and although it works, I left the theatre feeling a little short changed. I felt they could have done a little more with it and the end was, I’m afraid, a bit predictable.

I’m sure it wont spoil it for you to learn that Mutt Williams turns out to be the offspring of Indy and Ms.Ravenwood, so rest assured that there is a younger actor to take up the reigns if Mr. Lucas and Mr.Spielberg ever run short of cash… not that it is very likely.

Having said that, if you liked the other 3, then you’ll probably want to see this.

Score 7 out of 10

Well, that’s it then. Another season is pretty much over and the Gunners Silverware cupboard is once again looking pretty sparse. Not so long ago they were flying high with a good lead and looking like the team to beat.

Looking back there was one defining moment where it all came unraveled. Saturday 23rd February 2008 at around 3.03 pm. That was the moment a bone shattering tackle on Eduardo by Taylor of Birmingham freaked out the team to such an extent that including that game, Arsenal picked up just 8 points from the next 21 available. With Man U and Chelski only a few points back, you just cannot give up that kind numbers. As a young team, it was a shock to all around and you could see on the Arsenal players faces that they were shaken. Confidence is everything when you are chasing a title and they just seemed to lose it.

There are a few other factors which I think may have contributed to this seasons poor run in. The lack of a fit Van Persie has been obvious all season. Sure, Bendtner and Walcott will come good but they are not quite in RVP’s class as yet. Rosicky’s constant on-off fitness has also been a blow. Thank heavens for Fabregas and Flamini who held the midfield together as a near constant.

Speaking of Flamini, what is he thinking. Off to AC Milan as a free agent. I think I saw him called “FlaMoney” on one blog. At best, he will be a bit part player at Milan. He’ll drop down the pecking order for starts both at Milan and more than likely, France. He will regret leaving…. they all do…. one day.

So, to the future. Our young guns will go for it again next year. A year stronger and a year wiser. We need to strengthen. In the keeping department we should be OK. We need to bring in a world class central defender. Toure and Gallas are OK but Senderos has been found wanting on more than one occasion. Flamini will be missed but I am sure that one of several youngsters could fill the gap. Denilson looks a good prospect but maybe he needs to toughen up a bit.

No doubt Carlos Vela will be called back from his loan at Osasuna. He looks a great player and one for the future.

Maybe we also need one more proven goalscorer. I know the name of David Villa has been thrown into the ring but I think he’ll probably go to Madrid. Lets hope Eduardo recovers well and is available early in the new season.

One last thought. This season has gone very quickly, but I have still missed Challenge Lawro. Come on BBC, flash some of that outrageous license fee and get it up and running again “Bigger and Better” as promised.

Well, the first of the big summer blockbusters finally arrived last Friday so we made an opening day visit to Cobb Theaters in Lakeland, Florida. A full house. If there had been standing room, they could have sold that as well. The nice thing about our new Multiplex is that it is all stadium type seating so even if you have a basketball player in a hat in front of you, you still don’t have to miss any of the film. Anyway I digress.

Iron Man is the tale of Tony Stark ( Robert Downey Jr. ), an MIT graduate by the age of 15 and now the worlds foremost weapons developer and manufacturer. Whilst demonstrating his latest weapon in the desert in the Middle East, he is kidnapped and forced to build another weapon for terrorists. Needless to say, that is not what he does and the first Iron Man is created. Now, I don’t want to give anything away, but these are some nice twists in the plot, a little romantic interest with Miss Pepper Potts ( Gwyneth Paltrow ) and great performance by Jeff Bridges as Obidiah Stone, Stark’s No 2 at Stark industries. There is a nice little cameo for Director Jon Favreau, but the star of the film is the special effects. Downey is very believable in the role of Stark and no doubt Audi came up with some major cash as there are vehicles all over the place in the film.

If action / adventure is your bag, then I urge you to go and see this. Although I think it will look pretty good on the small screen when it eventually comes to DVD, the big screen with the Dolby sound system turned up loud definitely added something. I don’t think it will give anything away to say that Iron Man 2 will soon be in production. Oh yes, if you do go and see it, wait out the credits for the final scene. I couldn’t figure out why nobody was moving when the very long credits rolled, but one of the ushers tipped us off that it wasn’t quite finished. He was right !!!

Spend some cash and see this. Rating 8.5 out of 10

About 18 months ago, we bought some fruit and someone had told me that if you cut the top off a Pineapple, trim it so that there is no fruit left and stick it in the ground, in about 2 years it will produce fruit. Given our ability to kill plants almost instantly, we thought this would never happen. Wrong!!!, the picture shows our fledgling Pineapple which should be ripe in about 3 weeks as long as the birds don’t eat it. However, given that the plant will only bear fruit every 2 years, I don’t think we shall be relying on it as a regular food source. I think our next venture may be an Orange tree.

Loosely based on the book ” Bringing Down the House” by Ben Mezrich, this is the tale of a bunch of M.I.T. students who take on Vegas at the Blackjack tables. Ben Campbell ( Jim Sturgess ) is a straight A student who needs to raise $300,000 to allow him to attend Harvard Medical School. He is recruited by his Maths professor, Micky Rosa ( Kevin Spacey ) to join his team of card counters who run weekend trips to Vegas. Whilst his initial interest is only to get his tuition money, greed and excitement take over blurring the lines between his life as a student and that of a high rolling weekend gambler. Add to this his smart and sexy teammate, Jill Taylor ( Kate Bosworth ) and he begins to loose control. Although counting cards isn’t illegal, the stakes are high and he attracts the attention of Casino Enforcer, Cole Williams ( Laurence Fishburne ).

This was a really enjoyable film and appeals to teens upwards. This I know as my 16 year old daughter also really liked the film. There were some very good performances from both the main players and from the supporting cast and it gives an outsider a really good view of what Vegas can do to people.

The screenplay is well written and has a very good twist at the end which I shan’t reveal as that would spoil it for you.

Oh well, I guess I’ll have to read the book now and play spot the difference.

Score 8/10