My 2010 Awards of the Year

Well with 2010 done and 2011 ahead I have decided that I may join in with everyone else and provide a list of “Awards” (In Name only don’t be expecting any money) and Predictions for the year ahead.

Working in chronological order I will start with the Awards for 2010 first and then deal with 2011 in a subsequent post.

So here are my Awards for 2010.

SPORTS

SPORTS TEAM OF THE YEAR
My sports team of the year is the England Cricket Team, whilst cricket is not my main sport I think that the team who have long been seen as underachievers (Aren’t all England Teams viewed in this way.) but this year they have quite literally taken the world by storm, Winning the third instalment of the 20:20 World Cup before days before the end of the year producing a great performance to retain the ashes – So what if most of them seem to be South African!

SPORTS HERO OF THE YEAR
My Sports Heroes of the year (Joint Heroes) are unsurprisingly from Tottenham had you asked me last year I would have hoped they would have been from England’s World Cup Winning squad (Football not Cricket.) but we all know how that turned out. So instead of an Englishman my picks are a Welshman and a Dutchman. Between Gareth Bale and Rafael Van Der Vaart Tottenham have started to not just deliver some good football – even during the last 20 cold years we have played some great football – but they have actually changed the way Tottenham feel, no longer do we have to look at the list of upcoming fixtures and dread meeting Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool or even Newcastle we now know that when we are on form we can beat anyone and that has come from these two figure heads for the change that has come about in the last five years.

SPORTS TRAVESTY OF THE YEAR
This has to go to FIFA for their Awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar. Now I have no issue with these two countries being made hosts of the tournaments, obviously I would have loved England to get the World Cup in 2018 but if FIFA wanted it to go to Russia and they believe that Russia can put on a great World Cup then that is good enough for me. What I consider the Travesty is the process by which they were awarded the competitions. If FIFA had already decided (As seems to be the case) that they wanted to send the World Cup to areas where it had not previously been held then why make previous host countries go to the expense and trouble of preparing bids and sending delegates when they really had no chance whatsoever.

HONERABLE MENTION IN THE WORLD OF SPORT
An honourable mention in the world of sport this year goes to not an athlete but rather an administrator, Again using my personal bias I have gone for Daniel Levy the CEO of Tottenham Hotspur PLC, The reason I have selected him is that over successive years since Levy and ENIC have run Tottenham they have moved forwards time and again and have improved right up to last seasons achievement of finally competing in the Champions League, for me what makes this all the more remarkable is that it has been achieved not through a big money donor (Although I have never thought that they have limited the money Spurs managers could spend.) but by building year on year and making very astute transfer dealings. There is a very good chance that we may not qualify for next years competition and that Manchester City could spend their way into the top four but at least Daniel Levy has shown that in this big money world there is still the ability for a club to be well managed and still make an impact on the European stage.

TECHNOLOGY

PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Again for people who know me, very little surprise here as my choice for Technology Product of the year which goes to the HTC Desire HD, I have had the HTC Desire for just under a year now and the phone is as near to perfect as I could find, and the HD version is even better, I think that the Apple IOS and Google Android battle will run throughout 2011 and beyond (With Windows Mobile 7 a really unknown quantity at this point.) however for me the freedom represented by Android as well as HTC’s integrated apps (Friend Stream, HTC Sense etc…) really make the HTC Android handhelds stand out above Apple, and while I know there have been many people pointing at lower specs handhelds such as the Wildfire to show Apples dominance this is unfair as the Wildfire should be compared instead with Apple’s entry level smart phones (Which they haven’t got) so it is the two top products the Desire and the iPhone 4 who should be compared and for me the HTC comes out on top.

INNOVATION OF THE YEAR
The innovation that has blown my mind this year was the revelation that Google had completed thousands of miles in a self driven car, my blog post on this subject took me on a variety of emotions from being awestruck that the realty was this close to completion to worries that this could be one change to many for the world and that there was a chance that the economy could not handle the amount of jobs that may well be lost from this new technology (From Taxi Drivers and Driving Instructors to Parking Attendants and Street Cleaners) however for giving me a quick glimpse as to what I have always imagined being the future then this is my Innovation of the Year.

NOT INTERESTED OF THE YEAR
This award might actually be a surprise to some who know me as I am obviously a massive cinema fan and a big technohead but the big invention (Well proliferation anyway.) that I have had no interest in this year is 3D. The enhanced dimension cinemas and televisions that we are all being told we have to get just holds no interest for me at all. Whilst I appreciate that it gives you a greater depth of vision into the movies I really do not find myself forgetting that I am watching a film in the cinema, so what’s the point? I can follow a storyline on a 2D screen just as well so if it is not to give you a greater sense of “being part of the action” it adds nothing, and if it is to make you part of the action then it is simply not good enough to make you forget that it is on a screen. I have pledged that 2011 I will be viewing all films in 2D where possible as this is one giant leap sideways I will gladly see dropped.

CINEMA

FILM OF THE YEAR
For me the film of the year was most probably Inception, Now if you have read my review of the film you will know that it was not actually my favourite film and the ending was quite frankly laughable but in a year in which Hollywood has struggled to produce even a rudimentary amount of originality the concept of this film was as refreshing as watching The Matrix for the first time. It made you realise that there may actually still be one or two people in the movie industry who were capable of independent thought, and hopefully it will not be another 10 years before they have another one.

PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
Obviously I understand that if you want to be taken seriously as a film fan then when Hollywood makes a new version of a non-english speaking movie, you are required to always speak about how much better the original is. However the performance of Chloe Moretz in Let me In, the US remake (Sorry Re-Imagining) of the Swedish Vampire Love Story Let the Right One in, was really a first class performance from the 13 year old which deserves recognition.

WORST FILM OF THE YEAR
This has to go to the Other Guys only the second movie I have not managed to get to the end of, From the very beginning to the point where I left (As they are caught up in an explosion) I do not remember laughing or even understanding what they thought was funny, the main characters were losers whose personalities were such that in fact you wanted them to lose with the supporting characters being equally as cringe worthy that the very idea of any of them coming good would insult every ounce of fairness in the universe.

POLITICS

STORY OF THE YEAR
There was only really one story that dominated this year politically and that is the coming together of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to form a peace time coalition. Back before May there looked to be a wide spread fear that we may get a hung parliament and therefore have to hold another election before the end of the year, on the 5th May it looked as though in fact it would be a Conservative Government followed later on in the night with the realisation that it would be a Hung Government. Most people I think at the time were expecting a Conservative minority government but instead after a couple of weeks of negotiations we were presented with a solution. There rest of the year seemed to consist of the really not news revelations that 1) The Coalition members are not all of the same ideology (Obviously as if they were they would have all been in the same party in the first place) and 2) that the public are not going to enjoy the necessary cuts.

PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR
It may seem like a bit of a cop out here but my Political Personality of the Year goes to David Cameron, aside from obviously securing his position as Prime Minister, brokering an extraordinary coalition agreement and starting to steer the economy away from the financial melt down that Gordon Brown was heading for, This has been quite a year (and a bit) for the PM. Starting last year with the death of his Son Ivan, through the closest fought election battle in memory, including presidential style TV debates (A flop in my opinion.) and then into Number 10 followed closely by the birth of his second daughter and another personal tragedy with the death of his father. So whatever your views are on his politics or even his background (never quite sure why that matters.) you can’t disagree that this has been a very interesting year.

FALSE HERO OF THE YEAR
The False Hero of the Year Award is created especially for Julian Assange, the founder and spokesman of Wikileaks. The reason that I have selected this particular award to be presented to Mr. Assange is that he seems to being held up as a messiah of digital freedoms and whilst I really have no strong feelings of wikileaks one way of the other – I am mostly of the philosophy that the information released is not very interesting, the fact that the US ambassador thinks that a chancellor who has never been in power is inexperienced really isn’t a great shock – the simple fact is that Assange is accused of not one but two counts of molestation, something that makes him a very unlikely hero. He has claimed that if he returned to Sweden to face the allegations he will be quickly smuggled to the US to be incarcerated. Surely the attention that Wikileaks have received over the last year would make any silent transfer an impossibility and therefore the only thing it appears to me that Assange is trying to hide from is the full effect of Swedish law – Sweden which according to the corruption index is the second least corrupt country in the world (After New Zealand) – This leads me to think that therefore the only thing that Assange is scared of is that he will be found guilty in court and have to serve the sentences fitting the crimes he has been accused of.

EMBARRASMENT OF THE YEAR
My final Award is actually the hardest as politically there have been many who could well fit the bill, from the Students who think that attempting to injure Police is not a serious matter, the Train Drivers who think that they should receive quadruple pay for Boxing day as many Londoners were forced to walk to work for basic Sunday payment. Or even Ed Miliband who looks set to be the least electable Labour Leader since Neil Kinnock stood grinning like his Spitting Image doll on the stage at the Labour Party Conference so many years ago. But in the end my Political Zero of the year is Liam Byrne, former Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the cluless individual who left the note “Dear Chief Secretary, Sorry we’ve spent all the money, there’s nothing left.” And in one note of attempted comedy summed up not just the problems facing the coalition but was also to show the disregard that the Labour leaders had for the economy and the public which caused the problem in the first place.

Happy New Year

Wishing all of my Readers (Both of You) a Very Happy New Year and a delightful 2011.

Band Aid not getting enough sympathy

Driving to work this morning on very icy roads I was listening to Band Aid’s do they know it’s Christmas (The original not the travesty of self promotion that was the latest effort) However I do not think the line “There wont be snow in Africa this Christmas Time.” Had quite the sympathy creating effect it was supposed to have.

What is wrong with the Press in the UK?

What is wrong with the press in this country? I listened to Nick Ferrari on LBC (97.3 FM) this morning on the way into work, he was interviewing John Redwood (Former Cabinet Minister, Current MP for Wokingham) and Ferrari was desperate to get Redwood to say that the coalition was in trouble, obviously Labour had been on earlier getting their political points in and trying to claim it signalled a general election around the corner but John Redwood was very level headed and simply gave his opinion this seemed to anger Ferrari who on a few occasions talked over him to try and bully (Which if you have ever seen John Redwood being interviewed you should know is nearly impossible.) to say that he felt that the coalition were in severe trouble. Now if you were to ask why he was so aggressive with him when he came on I am sure you would get the usual Press response. “It’s our job to hold them to account!” an interesting concept as surely isn’t the job of the press to actually report the truth? And as Ferrari is now a Talk Show host and not an actual reporter surely isn’t his job to facilitate a public discussion between alternate sides of a debate? Not to try and pick up some useful sound bytes?

This is not an issue unique to talk show hosts however as it would appear that an interviewer who does not attack his interviewee has failed his interview. Now I am not stating that we should return to the times where the interviewer was in awe to the politicians or even to a position where they were not allowed to go in hard when it is necessary, what I am saying is that it should not be the norm. It’s not that politicians need to be given greater respect, but that they should be given the respect everyone of us should be able to expect when being spoken too.

The other issue which the press bring up with our elected officials which has bugged me for a while (And which I may well have ranted about on occasion as well) is the way they attack politicians for changing their minds, the papers are full of stories of U-Turns and Backtracks as if the worse thing a politician can do is change their mind, now it may just be my naivety but personally I would prefer to have an elected representative who is willing to admit that they are wrong and make amendments to their policy than one who sticks blindly to their guns regardless of if the policy turns out to be wrong. This was typified for me in the debate about an Asylum cap before the last election. Cameron was pushed by Brown to give a number for the Asylum cap and when he said that he would have to work the figure out each year he was accused of weak leadership – for not giving an arbitrary figure. This was then repeated in the press so that a policy of having the right cap at the right time and for recognising that the world does not stand still (so what is right for 2010 may not be right for 2025, in fact I would say that it is highly unlikely to be.) was seen, rather than realism and a good policy, to be a lack of policy.

Can Vince Cable Bring Down the Government?

So it would appear from the press that the coalition are in the process of collapsing, this stunning revelation comes from Vince Cable stating that being part of the coalition is like a constant war. Now there are a few questions that come up from this story.

Primarily, is Vince Cable really a nuclear weapon? Or is this just wishful thinking? Personally I am taking this as a bit of a naive boast. Cable thought that he was talking to two Lib Dem voters in his constituency and it is possible therefore that he decided to “over egg” his power in the coalition in order to justify the votes he received. Surely there is no one man that could bring down the government in one move, if Cameron decided he’d had enough and walked away from Number 10, it may trigger an election but even then I think you will find that in this time of belt tightening and financial pain the general public have little appetite for another general election.

The Second question that struck me immediately on hearing the story was, Is anyone else actually surprised? This is a Coalition government not a single party system, a fracture in a party is something you may not expect (Although personally I welcome it.) but a fracture between two parties is hardly news worthy, I do not believe that the Lib Dems and Conservatives have formed a single party but rather are two parties doing the adult thing and are looking to put their differences aside in the national interest, this can not be easy for any of them and a coalition government will by the very definition always be weaker than a single party administration.

Finally I want to ask if Vince is actually wrong in what he said, he has always been a bit of an uncertainty in the coalition and is definitely one of the less easy cabinet members so I doubt very much that it will shock the PM too much. I am sure that they will be having a word with him to try and ensure that he is more careful with regards to who he talks too but at the end of the day shouldn’t MP’s be allowed to express their own opinions? Surely we elect these people based on believing they are the best person to represent us, therefore why do we insist on trying to silence them all the time. I may not like what Mr. Cable has to say but if it is what he believes then surely he should be allowed to say it (It would then be down to the PM to see if he should be allowed to remain in the cabinet, and the people of Twickenham to decide if he should be allowed to remain in Parliament.) I don’t really see what it has to do with the rest of us, I personally fear a time when our MP’s are not allowed to have independent thoughts, as then you will find that only a few people shape the entirety of our society.

Automatically Sort Excel Range

Had another Excel request through – You wait a month for one then two come through at once.

This time the request is how to make a sheet update automatically when a certain cell is updated, This is how I did it (Although in all honesty there are hundreds of snippets on the net if you look for them.)

Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
If Not (Application.Intersect(Worksheets(8).Range("N:N"), Target) Is Nothing) Then ‘Change this Range to contain the cells you want it to trigger for
AutoSort ‘This calls the sub procedure below which does the actual work
End If
End Sub

Private Sub DoSort()
Worksheets(8).Range("L2:O49").Sort Key1:=Worksheets(8).Range("L2"), Order1:=xlAscending, Header:=xlNo 'This line does the sort as requested in this case sorting the table L2:O49 by the field in column L2 – All of these calculations take affect on Worksheet 8.
End Sub

Handy Sub to Unlock Protected Excel Worksheet

Had a request a few weeks ago from someone who needed to unprotect an Excel sheet which had been protected by someone who was no longer with the company so they could not get the Password.

here is the procedure I developed,

Sub PasswordReset()

Dim ia As Integer, ib As Integer, ic As Integer
Dim id As Integer, ie As Integer, ig As Integer
Dim i1 As Integer, i2 As Integer, i3 As Integer
Dim i4 As Integer, i5 As Integer, i6 As Integer

On Error Resume Next

For ia = 65 To 66: For ib = 65 To 66: For ic = 65 To 66
For id = 65 To 66: For ie = 65 To 66: For i1 = 65 To 66
For i2 = 65 To 66: For i3 = 65 To 66: For i4 = 65 To 66
For i5 = 65 To 66: For i6 = 65 To 66: For ig = 32 To 126
ActiveSheet.Unprotect Chr(ia) & Chr(ib) & Chr(ic) & _
Chr(id) & Chr(ie) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & Chr(i3) & _
Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(ig)
If ActiveSheet.ProtectContents = False Then
MsgBox "Your Sheet has Been Unlocked Using " & Chr(ia) & Chr(ib) & _
Chr(ic) & Chr(id) & Chr(ie) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & _
Chr(i3) & Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(ig)
Exit Sub
End If
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
End Sub

So next time you forget your password and need to unprotect a sheet just add this to the VBA window and run the Module. Hey Presto.

Movie Review: Mosters

Final film I am going to review today (Or the first if you are reading the posts as displayed on the blog) is for Monsters, There have been many comparisons between last years District 9 and Monsters, both stories are about a world where Aliens have arrived and are looking to be contained, there are obvious parallels looking at the subjects of racial disharmony (District 9 being a reflection of South African racial tension) and of illegal immigration (Mexico is being decimated by the Monster Attacks whilst the US has built a giant wall to keep them out) however Monsters is much more a film about the relationship of two strangers during a stressful time rather than a film about the Aliens, it is in fact this interplay that is explored along with (Apparently unintentionally) the subject of Cross border Immigration.

Gareth Edwards Directs in what is his biggest released movie to date, although still was filmed with a very small budget and staring real life couple and relatively unknown actors Scott McNairy and Whitney Able the film was mostly shot with just the two leads, a sound engineer and the Director and it is this intimacy which comes across in the filming as the giant octopi blending into the background of the story and being more the catalyst of the story rather than the story itself. The main issue with focusing so much on the story however is that the plot has holes bigger enough for the hundred foot squid aliens to walk easily through.

Firstly McNairy is told by his boss that he has to ensure that Able gets safely back to America, we are led to believe that Able’s father is a media mogul and that she is wearing an engagement ring that is worth over ten thousand pounds. There is also at no point any kind of information given that any of these aliens can fly. Both of these points lead me to question why on ensuring that she is safe and with Monster activity in the area why would he decide that the best way to ensure her safety was to head as close to the infected zone as possible to place her on a ferry, whilst an important plot point as if they are not there how would they end up having to try and cross the zone over land, surely the smart money would have been to head south to an airport and fly back to the states. There are constant Air Force flights taking place over the infected zone but even so there must be some kind of domestic flights which go around the zone? Eventually they enter into the zone and are carried across most of the zone until being left on their own after a monster attack; luckily they have a great sense of direction so are still able to find their way to the wall that marks the border in a very short amount of time. On arriving at the wall you start to think that their troubles have only just started as the wall is a few hundred feet tall and stretching as far as the eye can see, one of their guides a little earlier when talking about the wall states that in fact America is actually more like a prison trapping themselves in rather than keeping others out (Again the Director says that he did not intend it to be a commentary on immigration, which I find hard to believe.) However it is nothing like a Prison after all they can still get to Canada or the rest of the world – And as I say there must be a way to get to Mexico even if you have to fly around the zone. Anyway having made it to the wall they walk for what appears to be half an hour and find a massive gap in the wall where there is a small check point and after climbing about 12 feet (keep in mind this fence was built to keep out 100ft tall Aliens) they are able to walk into America only to discover the shocking news that this part of the US has been over run (or possibly lightly stepped over.)

The film has a few very good visuals of the Aliens right at the end although the tentacles searching the room shows that this film is not completely immune to Hollywood fashions (Skyline and War of the Worlds to name just a couple.) I would say that the main performances make this a worthy attempt at a compelling story but that I do not believe that it was not intended as a commentary on American immigration policy (Although if it was the final message appears to be that if you let immigrants in they will destroy your country and have sex in your petrol stations.) and the story that was used to add background was not thought out well enough to hold the plot in place, the small focus during a big event is very popular at the moment but unfortunately Edwards is not M. Night Shyamalan.

I would say however I disagree with the comment made by the person sat behind me in the cinema “That was the worst movie released this year.” But I guess he never saw The Other Guys!

Movie Review: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The next film of Movie Day was the Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third in the inconsistent series which follows the highly successful The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and the less successful Prince Caspian. There has been considerable speculation as to why Prince Caspian was less successful than The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe however the answer is typified for me in an interview in Empire magazine with Will Poulter who plays the ever annoying Eustace in the film in which he states that his experience with the C.S Lewis series is that he “read the first book, but hasn’t read any of the others.” This is the truth of it, The Lion, The With and The Wardrobe is a book that everyone knows and loves but the rest of Lewis’ chronicles are less known and hardly loved – How many people actually know the name of the next book in the series (The Silver Chair) a few but I would guess not a great deal.

Anyway the film follows King Caspian (Played by Ben Barnes) who is joined in Narnia by Edmund and Lucy the two youngest of the Pevensie children and their cousin Eustace when the three children are submerged in water from a painting of the Dawn Treader. Caspian brings them all on board and as is usual in Narnia takes them on a quest and into great danger; the quest is to find the seven missing lords of Narnia who before Caspian became king (As seen in Prince Caspian) left for the islands out to the east. Caspian is accompanied on his quest by Reepicheep voiced in Prince Caspian by Eddie Izzard and now voiced by Simon Pegg as the director (Michael Apted) thought that Izzard’s voice was too mature to play the animated rat, who always reminds me of Puss in Boots from the Shrek series, but perhaps Izzard was simply too busy losing an election for Labour to reprise the role!

Obviously the quest does not go smoothly when as they arrive at the lonely island where they should be they find them deserted and so in true Narnian fashion King Caspian leaves all of his well armed seamen on the beach and heads into unknown dangers with just the three human children as support – Not entirely sure why all Narnians seem to think that the presence of a 15 year old girl beats a dozen armed men but that is just the way their society seems to work so who are we to argue. So with the completely useless Eustace left to keep guard (Seriously how did this guy get to be king) it is perhaps (not) surprising that that they are ambushed and taken captive by slave traders. This is all very fortunate as they are imprisoned long enough to view a woman separated from her family being sucked into a mysterious green smoke. I won’t bore you with the details but eventually they are saved by the army they brought with them and so head off to search for the citizens who were taken by the smoke.

The rest of the story is pretty normal fare with the ship following the path set out for them and all the time relying on the ability of a few children to save the world, a high feat indeed as one of them is the ever slap worthy Eustace, luckily however he is soon turned into a Dragon and so starts to become instantly likeable – A bit of a shock change as he goes from Selfish and annoying child to selfless and brave dragon in an instant which perhaps could have used a bit of fleshing out. The finale is a bit of an anticlimax although does have quite a nostalgic moment which reminded me of the end of Ghostbusters (not that there was any stream crossing.)

After the main story has finished there is a little bit hinting at the Christian nature of the Chronicles of Narnia subtext, I was actually very surprised that my companion to the cinema was not aware of the Christian message, In Which on being told she could not return to Narnia, Lucy asked if she will ever meet Aslan again, to which the talking Lion replies “That is why I bought you here, that to know me for a short while in this world will result in you knowing me for a long time in the other world.” She was therefore trying to work out who was supposed to be the Lion in another form before I revealed the connection to Jesus. (Coming Back in the first film and then transcending to another world etc..)

The ending does bring up an interesting point of continuity however as Edmund Played by Skandar Keynes aged 19 and Lucy Played by Georgie Henley aged 15 are informed that they have become to old to re-enter Narnia in the future, despite the fact that William Mosley (Peter) and Anna Popplewell (Susan) were 21 and 20 respectively during Prince Caspian. Aslan then tells Eustace that he may well visit Narnia again in the future (As he does in The Silver Chair) However Eustace is played by William Poulter who is two years older than Georgie but I guess that is probably just me getting too wrapped up in the detail.

Movie Review: Megamind

Have seen a great many films recently as we had an entire day to catch up with the ones we had previously missed, So again it look like the next three articles will be film related (I do have other interests honest.)
First up in Chronological order is MegaMind this cartoon features the vocal talents of Will Ferrell with Brad Pitt as the supporting star (Brad Pitt supporting Will Ferrell – Hollywood has really gone mad!) The film is yet another evil genius turned good (Universal’s Despicable Me being another example) but being from Dream Works you are pretty much guaranteed that there will be a few laughs – although once again it would appear that Dream Works have looked to invest their budget in big name voices.

Megamind is the Blue coloured super genius who strikes up an early rivalry (From 8 days old) with Pitts Superman clone Metro Man when their planets are sucked up by a black hole and both are sent to earth to fulfil their destiny, Where Metro Man falls serendipitously into the mansion of a wealthy family his ship forces Megamind to crash in a Prison for the criminally gifted and so it would seem that their roles are set, to battle the causes of Good and Evil in intricate plans some of which Metro Man wins, others Megamind almost wins until almost by chance Mega Mind wins and is actually able to defeat Metro Man and so take over Metro City as the evil overlord – however soon a new threat emerges to attack Metro City and Megamind is called upon to become a hero – Can he answer the call? – of cause he can, I am sure that this isn’t a spoiler as if you didn’t see where this was going then this cartoon may be a bit to intense for you. Anyway the story aside, which is a very predictable by the numbers movie (It is after all a cartoon) the test of a cartoon these days is “are there enough laughs to make the film interesting to the Parents as well as the kids?” The answer is probably Yes, although as is often the case with these things there were not many laugh out loud moments and it is reasonably difficult to remember them afterwards.

The main selling point of this film however is the voice talent and the visual scale with Metro City being carefully recreated by Dream Works which they clearly hope will be able to cover the inefficiencies in the plot and the lack of originality, I have read a review stating that the Film is not as funny as you would expect from a Will Farrell movie, which I disagree with however I have never been a Will Farrell fan as I find that I struggle to ever feel sympathy for the “idiot” character that he usually plays and so actually found the change of pace to the more cerebral, but luckless Megamind actually a much better fit with the comedy I enjoy.

Champions league draw, again

Well I was told that Spurs would never make it to the champions league, then I was told that we would be lucky to qualify, next came the certain fact that we would not qualify from our "group of death."
You can imagine how happy I am then to be waiting for the draw for the knock out stage of the competition, there are not a lot of easy teams left at this stage so anyone we get will of cause be tough, our opponents will be out of the second placed teams - not including Arsenal or Inter Milan - so it will be out of: Roma, AC Milan, Lyon, Copenhagen or Marseille. Of these I guess I would like Copenhagen and dislike AC Milan - although our last visit to Milan was definitely an interesting event.
I am very glad we finished top of our group however as things look a lot worse for Arsenal who will be travelling to Germany or Spain to face one of: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or FC Schalke. So I guess they will be hoping for Schalke but they are by no means an easy team, and I do not really understand Arsene Wenger's assertion that they don't fear Barcelona as they were beaten so badly last year, but I guess that's his job.

Anyway onto the draw:

We got AC Milan in what I am sure is the game of the round, at least no one can say we did it the easy way, the strategy should be to try and keep 11 men on the pitch there and then destroy them at home, it has worked so far.
Other games
Roma vs Shakhtar
Valencia vs Schalke
Inter vs Munich (so arsenal are going to Spain.)
Man Utd vs Marseille
Barcelona vs Arsenal - repeat of last year
Chelsea vs Copenhagen
Real Madrid vs Lyon
So not a great draw for spurs, but at least it is worse for Arsenal.

Harry Potter, The Deathly Hallows and the badly managed Plot

This week we went to see Harry Potter and the deathly hallows part one. I have to admit that I read the book simply as I had read all of the others, it is often said that the books become ever darker as the series continues however I would probably say that it felt more bogged down as the series continued and what is often considered depth is in fact simply over populated plot strings. This, for me, all culminated in a very, the best word I can think of here is boring, 1st half of the final book. This first half in my opinion should have been left out altogether in the movie (it could have been handled better with a five minute background scene.) Instead the fear of the ending of one, if not the, highest earning, franchises made them see fit to make it a stand alone movie.

The film starts with an overly active first set piece in which they rescue Harry and are attacked by the Death Eaters - Always reminds me of a gang of 12 year old wanna be gangsters - It then descends into a seemingly endless set up of staring, moping and sulking which seems to last endlessly and use up considerable amounts of the good will towards these characters who have been the main stay of English Cinema for the best part of a decade.

There are a couple of cringe worthy scenes, not least an impromptu, in appropriate and untimely dance sequence between Harry and Hermione which was as ungainly in it's delivery as it was superfluous to the plot. The plot is overly twisted and convoluted whilst at the same time being shallow to the point of confusing what is going on, There are so many quests all happening at once with the search for the Horcruxes that contain the soul of Voldemort as well as details of the Deathly Hallows - three magical instruments that can give the owner the power over death itself - however these details seem to be thrown in at the last minute to justify the films title, finally in case the search for these 8 items was not enough to confuse they decide the flow of the narrative is best served by throwing in a search for the Sword of Griffindor!

There are of cause some very good performances, after all the main protagonists have had 7 years experience and Helena Bonam Carter always gives a great performance as the demented Bellatrix.

Still I am happy to say that I infinitely preferred the second half of the book to the first so perhaps we may find that splitting it into two halves will leave a really great movie to close out the series, this one however in set ups for a final showstopper this movie was more Matrix Reloaded than Empire Strikes Back.

Student Tuition Fees

As the country prepares for more civil unrest from the nations students I thought I would blog my views on the subject of tuition fees. (Although I doubt anyone will care.)

Anyway, My opinion on this is that why should Students not pay for their own education? surely if someone is to pay it should be the person who benefits? that is just common sense. I have a degree in Politics and Government which I did to improve myself, why should anyone else pay for this? It is my life, my higher earning potential, my cost!

I did not go into the degree thinking the country owed me the right to study, I also worked full time whilst I was studying to keep my bills paid. For some reason though a lot of these Students seem to think that as the country needs doctors they are doing the country a favour; I wounder how many people would be going through Medschool if the wage of a Doctor was capped to Average Wage? perhaps that is what the students would prefer - all jobs to have the same pay level - I would wager that many of the popular courses today would be empty in no time.

Also it is not as if Student debt is real debt, real debt is relentless, it doesn't wait for you to be able to afford it. I have had real debt issues and managed them whilst earning below 10k a year, so I am hard pressed to feel sympathy for those who complain that they will have debt on twice that amount.

My last point on this is that, as seems to be known to everyone outside of Student populations and Government, There are too many people going to university, this is again as it is considered a right not a privilege, a privilege that should not be based on wealth, but on ability, but a privilege none the less.

A night of good results

As if Tottenham topping the group was not good enough Last night was also the night that Crawley Town booked their place in the Third Round thanks to two goals by Smith and an Own goal seeing off ten man Swindon in the Second round replay.

Crawley went 1-0 up thanks to Smith before finding themselves pegged back to 2-1 by the League opposition who were then reduced to ten men before an unfortunate own goal forced Extra Time, it was not until 28 minutes into the extra half hour that Smith struck again sending the Blue Square premier outfit through for the first time in their history.

So now they march onwards, however Championship Derby who will be visiting the Broadfield on the 8th January will be a different prospect altogether, but now is a time for celebration.

Tottenham top group of death

The group stage of Tottenham's first champions league campaign ended last night and, despite what I was assured by a Chelsea fan after the draw, Tottenham did not get shown just how out of their depth they are but ended up winning the group and in the process beating the German, Dutch and European champions - not a bad little run.

Whilst it is true that it was not an easy run - 4-0 down against Inter, losing 2 goal lead against Breman - in the end most pundits agree we were the best in the group.

The game last night really summed up our away campaign with letting the lead slip 3 times, the game started in comical fashion with the Twente keeper having a nightmare to watch a simple back pass bounce past his foot for Spurs' opener.

Twente were soon back in it however after the Referee gave a penalty, now I would obviously disagree with the decision whatever it was but this was a very soft decision with the spurs defender punished simply for the human instinct for protection, however as the next goal was the result of an even worse decision by the Referee there is not too much point in dwelling on it.

Tottenham re-took the lead through a quite sublime piece of link up play between Defoe and Lennon which showed a little of what we have missed in his absence before the ref struck again to level the game, this time a free kick outside the box to penalize Lennon for laying a hand on the shoulder of a man around 2 foot taller than himself.
Bad refereeing aside however the free kick was top class so no complaints there.

The Twente keeper who, apart from the first goal, had a pretty good game was unfortunate again for the third spurs goal as he produced a wonderful save from Palacios which fell into the path of the ever alert Defoe to do what he does best. However Twente struck back again with their first goal not directly from a bad refereeing decision (there was a touch in between the free kick and the goal) this was again a greatly taken goal and really showed how good a team Twente are,

Obviously I do feel slightly annoyed at the part the Referee played in the goals but he was not finished yet, after a Twente player went down in the box (which to be fair he should have been booked for as he went down for a tackle that never came.) The Referee, correctly told Tottenham to play on, only to bring play to a stop as Lennon was running in full stride towards the Twente goal. But the fact that the Ref seems to think that his role is to shape the game, should not be held against Twente who did well to capitalize on his vanity. so it ended 3-3 but with Inter losing to Bremen Spurs still top their group, so mixed feelings on the result but the achievements are still massive for a Champions League debut, as an aside spurs became the first team to score two goals in every game in the group stage, now if we can stop letting them in then the future looks very bright indeed.