Review: Mr. Adams’s Last Crusade by Joseph Wheelan

[AMAZONPRODUCT=0786720123] Ask anyone of a progressive bent who features in their pantheon of political heroes, most of the answers you’ll get will be fairly modern: usually icons of the Sixties, like Noam Chomsky or Robert Kennedy, get many mentions. Sometimes you’ll get Herbert Marcuse. The most historically minded tend to go for Franklin Roosevelt. It […]

Review: “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” starring Brendon Fraser

Some movies are not intended to be high art. Before the invention of television, this was often the case: the thirties, forties and fifties were littered with throwaway films with forgettable characters and laughable story lines. The most extreme examples were the movies that were made to work with the traditional red lens / blue […]

Coming Soon…Dubya the Movie

As the trailer indicates, this bio-pic going to be as scary as hell: Tell me again, how did this man become President?

Review: “The Dark Knight” starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger

At the time of writing, it is highly likely that the new Batman film, entitled “The Dark Knight” is on its way to being the largest money-grossing film of all time. It certainly is exploiting the merchandising possibilities as well: it’s difficult to escape mentions of “The Dark Knight” these days, there is even a […]

A Nihilist Interlude

Nihilism has been a feature of our culture for a while: this past weekend, I saw Cruel Intentions, a 1999 film which drove the point home. [AMAZONPRODUCT=B00001PE4D] This film recasts the 18th century French novel, “Les Liaisons dangereuses” (by Pierre Choderos de Laclos) in a modern setting. Perhaps predictably, the film is set among the […]

DVD Review: “There Will Be Blood” starring Daniel Day-Lewis

[AMAZONPRODUCT=B004XBOG48] “There Will Be Blood”,starring the Academy award winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis (as oil man Daniel Plainview) has recently been released on DVD in the United Kingdom. Given how the oil crisis has recently intensified, its re-emergence could not be more timely. The film is loosely based on the book “Oil!” by Upton Sinclair. This […]

Hey, Good Lookin’

Honda’s hydrogen fuel-cell powered FCX Clarity is due to debut in the United States this month. Its sole emission is water vapour. While not all the kinks in it have been worked out, it looks promising – here’s a road test: Refuelling is a problem at the moment, as there aren’t too many gas stations […]

In Memoriam, George Carlin

One of the funniest comedians ever to trod up to a microphone, George Carlin, has passed away at the age of 71. Here is a sample of his best work: Thanks for the laughter. Rest in peace, George.

Book Review: “The Teapot Dome Scandal” by Laton McCartney

[AMAZONPRODUCT=1400063167] It’s very rare that a book about the 1920’s should make one think about the science fiction show, “Battlestar Galactica”; however, this volume certainly brought to mind Battlestar’s signature line – “All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.”   To which I would add, “…but I hope not.” The […]

Me And My Blog

Picture of meI'm a Doctor of both Creative Writing and Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering, a novelist, a technologist, and still an amateur in much else.