This weeks watching and reading has been...

The Core (2003) - Directed by Jon Amiel
Deep Core (2000) - Directed by Rodney McDonald
At the Earth's Core (1976) - Directed by Kevin Connor
Captain Scarlet - Series 2 (2005) - Directed by David Lane,Dominic Lavery and Mark Woollard
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) - Directed by Brett Ratner


Doctor Who - Special Effects (1986) - Written by Matt Irvine


Thought I'd have a trip to the centre of the Earth trilogy. The Core was a lot of big budget hokum, nice special FX but not a great deal of anything else. Deep Core was a DVD that a mate I go drinking with passed onto me, I should attach it to a brick and send it back his way. Still it does tell roughly the same plot as The Core even though it was made 3 years earlier. I remember sitting on the hall floor at Junior school in 1976 and watching At the Earth's Core as the schools Christmas movie, as a 9 year old I thought it was pretty amazing, now as a 39 year old I think Caroline Munro (pictured below) was the amazing part and the rest of the film was a bit of a let down. Still out of these 3 films it was the best. Good old Peter Cushing and Doug McClure too. I'd love to see someone try their hand at telling the Edgar Rice Burrough's tales set in Pellucidar, At the Earth's Core being the first of 7 stories published between 1914 and 1963, I think they'd make a great film series, even Tarzan visited the place in one story.
Out of the Gerry Anderson shows from being a kid Captain Scarlet was always my favourite, the new CG show has managed to do to the old puppet show what the new Battlestar Galactica did to the 80's version, re-invent the old idea but make it work on a whole new level. A fantastic show, pity it was put in such a crap timeslot by ITV.

X-Men: The Last Stand had some good bits and bad, the worst of the 3 X-Men films, but still an entertaining watch. Funnily enough both this film and The Core see the destruction of 'The Golden Gate Bridge'