Results tagged “Reviews”
CD: The Killers: Day and Age
DVD: Mamma Mia (PG)
Book: From left-wing to D-wing - The Len Glover Story
Game: Gears of War 2
CD: Guns 'N' Roses: Chinese Democracy
DVD: Wall-E
Game: Dead Space
– UK's Finest @ Indigo2
– Ultimate Boogie Night @ Indigo2
– The Stylistics @ Indigo2
– Waterson:Carthy @ East Wintergarden
With a nod to the '30s cabaret clubs – when it was de rigueur for the beautiful people to spend an evening in one establishment, wining, dining, dancing and being entertained by all the big name performers of the day – Gaucho at has launched its new Saturday Supper Club with everything you would expect on offer.
– CD: Now 71
– DVD: Indiana Jones 4
– Book: Shackleton's Way
– Game: Fable II
By Miriam Gillinson
Lotty’s War at Greenwich Playhouse is that most frustrating of combinations: a compelling story backed up with some strong research, trapped in a lacklustre play.
Soaked in sweat and marinated in cider, seas of kids worshipped at the altar of Brit Pop in the mid-nineties.
More than a decade later, these girls with asymmetric fringes and boys in ironic flat caps are all grown up and at an opera composed by the scene's leading light, Blur frontman Damon Albarn.
The Wharf and its contributors review the latest in CDs, DVDs, books and video games.
This week's whirl around the shelves digs up a shiny but empty effort from Girls Aloud, a sizzling glimpse of the Rolling Stones, one man's take on billionaire Warren Buffett, and the second game in the Far Cry series.
THEY say you can't take it with you. Until then there's always room in life for a gadget.
But the average self-respecting gadget-lover doesn't just want any old tat. They want something that drops their jaw, sets their tongue wagging, and stays gripped in their hand until the undertaker has to remove it with a light-up bottle opener.
The Wharf and its contributors review the latest in CDs, DVDs, books and video games.
This week we cast an eye over Razorlight's new album Slipway Fires, the Kevin Spacey DVD '21', Family Cookbook 2008 by Annabel Karmel and Left 4 Dead, a horror shoot-em-up.
When on the Wharf, why not eat at the water’s edge? Or at least as close as needs be from the comfort of a well upholstered chair in warm surroundings on a grey day.
If the rain’s battering your office window, why not wander down to Fisherman’s Walk?
The Wharf and its contributors review the latest in CDs, DVDs, books and video games.
This week we cast an eye over Pink's new album Funhouse; Superhero movie Iron Man; Lego Batman: The Game; and an expose into the world of secret handshakes.
It may sound like a gimmick.
Bring in an award-winning chef to design a few pizzas and replace the cutlery with a pizza cutter.
Sounds like a gimmick. Looks like a gimmick. And works… fantastically.
Astro-physicists like neat answers to big questions creating eternal certainties.
Life, as angst-ridden academic Felix Humble discovers, is squidgy, ragged, misshapen and generally unwelcoming to the notion of universal truths.
By Miriam Gillinson
Flat Pack Productions has breathed new life into Bill MacIlwraith’s The Anniversary, with an assured and lively production at The Greenwich Playhouse.
The Wharf and its contributors review the latest in CDs, DVDs, books and video games.
This week we look at the latest Kaiser Chiefs CD; Wanted starring Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy; London Lights, a historical study by James Hamilton; and Viva Pinata: Trouble In Paradise
FAMILY
City of Ember (PG)
4/5
Just weeks before City Of Ember was due to hit the screens, someone opened their mouth and got people talking.
Unfortunately, it was about a completely different movie.
LONG before they closed the show with a rousing version of "We Are The Champions", Queen and Paul Rodgers had conquered an adoring audience to claim The O2 as their own last night.
The veteran rockers made a triumphant return to London proving once again there's no substitute for great songs and well-honed stage-craft.
COMEDY
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (15)
3/5
According to the old Transylvanian saying, you can make a vampire less dangerous by filing down its teeth, but then it’d just be a guy who stays up late.
Only a couple of decades ago, the idea of going to an Italian restaurant was pretty exotic.
I remember discerning diners flocking to the Pasta Pasta restaurant on the seafront near Hastings,
humming to themselves at the unique prospect of eating tagliatelle cooked in an actual professional kitchen.
Since then the British have been treated to everything from dim sum to shark vindaloo, and we’ve started taking the delights of pizza and pasta for granted.
But for me, it’s hard to top the taste of a freshly-made Italian-style pizza when it’s done well.
Where the Blackadder feared to tread – that is the territory occupied with resolution and wit by Simon Munnery and Miles Jupp in Stewart Lee’s take on the first Elizabethan age.
The plot of Elizabeth And Raleigh – passingly relevant as an excuse to move things along – has Raleigh wooing the Virgin Queen only to find her truculent, indeed downright vengeful, in the face of his romantic entreaties.
ACTION
Righteous Kill (15)
3/5
ROBERT De Niro and Al Pacino are screen legends.
Although previously appearing together in Godfather Part II and Heat the duo have only shared the same scene for about five minutes.
RAY Davies brings his latest project to east London, and it looks set to be a sure-fire hit on "home" turf.
The Kinks' 1983 hit "Come Dancing" provides the inspiration for this energy-packed musical, set in the Ilford Palais - a 1950s dance hall similar to those frequented by Davies' elder sisters at the time.
Docklands does seem to have a vast Lebanese community, especially among the workforces in Canary Wharf.
And with eateries like Byblos, which has just opened on Millharbour, it must feel like a home from home.
If people in Lebanon eat this well, then it may be time for me to leave Docklands.
ACTION COMEDY
Tropic of Thunder (15)
4/5
How much jungle does a guy need to blow up to get a laugh around here?
The evening Wharf is not a place for the faint-hearted.
Roll out of your comfortable air conditioned steel and glass box and you are confronted by a glut of humanity, each individual seeking the satisfaction of food and drink.
WITH many of us still dining out on our golden successes at the Beijing Olympics the taste for all things Chinese has never been sharper.
Yi-Ban has just celebrated five years at the London Regatta Centre.
Situated beyond Excel in an area often overlooked, Yi-Ban has forged a reputation for excellent Chinese cuisine that has seen it thrive while rivals have come and gone.
John Hill gawps at the overseas gems washing up in Docklands
Some film-makers are content to put together well-shot pieces about relationships, families and life.
Others are just...well...a little weird.
Welcome to the wonderful and eye-opening world of this year's short film category, which is laden with neat effects, black humour and twists that will keep you from getting too settled in that comfy sofa of yours.
John Hill samples the UK's top film-making talent
Why so serious, guys?
It's been an overcast summer, sure, but there's a definite air of glumness among the Brit entries at this year's Canary Wharf Film Festival. But I'd much rather be inspired than cheered up any day.
The 2008 programme features sick children, young criminals, doomed relationships, angry young men and fed-up professionals. Worse still, there's even a headset-wielding sleazeball thrown in too.
John Hill travels the world with the festival's documentary shorts
WOULD you wait several years to catch a fish?
In London, commuters would start burning effigies if they had to wait more than ten minutes for a sandwich. But this is Columbus, North Dakota, the frozen backdrop to Kelly Neal's poignant documentary How To Save A Fish From Drowning.
Laura MacDonald taps her feet to the latest music videos
Creating music videos that stray away from the slick formula of promos aired on mainstream music channels can be a risk but the artists being showcased at the 2nd Annual Canary Wharf Film Festival are proving that the gamble can be worth it.
Lucia Blash enters an unreal world at the second-year film festival
Animation, often weird, always wonderful, has delighted audiences since the early 1900s when Emile Cohl tapped the imagination muse, creating Fantasmogorie, and Walt Disney burst on the scene with Steamboat Willie.
Lucia Blash enjoys a cabalistic casbah at Plateau
YOU may be forgiven for thinking that the bars around the Wharf are already filled with their fair share of snakes and charmers, especially if you happen to be out drinking post 9pm on a Thursday night.
But pay a visit to the über chic Plateau and you’ll come face to face with a real snake and its charmer, willowy beauty Solariss and her 7ft albino Burmese python Sheba.
The exotic pair are part of Plateau’s Moroccan Nights, a nightly event inspired by the mysterious souks of Marrakech and the cinnabar-soaked casbahs of Casablanca.