"I'm nobody's puppet!" - Jonathan Hardy dies at 71

It is a sad day. Jonathan Hardy, the man whose voice brought Farscape's Rygel to life, has died.

Without Jonathan's brilliant vocal talent Rygel may never have become science fiction's littlest, wittiest, most bad-ass and emotionally complex piece of puppetry. He'd kick Yoda's ass any day. And he will be fondly remembered.

New 007 trailer is 33 seconds of Bond-gasms

 

Bond proves he's back with a bang in this new US teaser trailer which debuted on NBC during the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony. Another reason to love us Brits! It's quite clear that come November they'll get to see Daniel Craig doing all sorts of your typical Bondy shizzle, such as having sexy flings with beautiful women, shooting big guns, falling from great heights, going to fancy parties and straightening his jacket after having very nearly been killed.

Mr Bond, Mr Bean, Mary Poppins & the Queen

Beautiful, epic & funny. The London 2012 Olympic games got off to a flying start last night (that featured no huge technical faults!) with a brilliantly British opening ceremony.

It was fairly dull to begin with, however. We saw a bunch of people standing about in fields for a while which eventually lead us on to a massive set change too, because there's nothing more majestic than watching a large woman lug a shed off into the distance. But, once that was all out of the way, things really began to hot up!

The Inbetweeners, americanised...

It is thought by many that if an american were to watch the UK's original version of a comedy they've stolen, they would burst into flames and burn to dust before the end of the opening credits. It simply cannot be done. This, Misfits, Skins and Spaced have all been morphed into completely naff shows by the americans. Even Only Fools & fucking Horses is going to be getting one of their makeovers! The question is, why don't we make our own versions of Friends, Will & Grace, 30 Rock, Malcolm in the Middle or How I Met Your Mother? And the answer? Because we appreciate that what makes these shows funny is their context, and that they are indeed american. They are american characters in an american world. It's the way it was meant to be shown - the way the artist intended. You try and fuck that shit up and it just won't work - you'll lose track of the 'punchline'.

Review: The Dark Knight Raises... the volume!

 Warning: "Holy spoiler-alert, Batman!" 

As a teary-eyed farewell to a beloved film franchise (until the inevitable reboot) critics are flashing their five stars at Batman, in much the same way they did with Harry Potter's final adventure. This is not a five star film (and neither was the final Harry Potter). It's being said, however, that The Dark Knight Rises is not only a brilliant Batman movie, but one of the best movies ever made. It's a good film, yes, but it's also absurdly loud, ridiculously moody and buried so far up its own arse it thinks it's back in the bat cave.

Review: Killer Joe doesn't stop to think

You'd assume Killer Joe is Joe's story, but all the other characters get just as much of a look in as he does, but with no real outcome for any of them. It's a 'slice of life' - an absurd life, yes - but it isn't much of a 'story'. So much so that there appears to be a lack of focus here - who's driving this thing forward, who's journey is this film? Sure, you can have multiple leads, but Killer Joe seems to have one big supporting cast, no leads, and not a clue why it's even bothering.

Zap! Reviews - Pulp Fiction

Get zapped back in time and revisit Pulp Fiction for a review that'll blow your socks off! Here's a lightening speed look at what makes this film as good as it is and, if you've not yet sat down to watch it, learn whether or not it's worth the effort! 

 

DC's Justice League movie set to be a marvellous mess?

You'd never catch Marvel making such a mess of things! Let's just ignore how shit Captain America was and take a look at where we stand in DC-land at the moment: Batman is currently the darkest franchise at the movies. It's so dark in fact, that if it were to get one shade darker it would collapse in on itself and form a black hole, instantly destroying the entire galaxy. Whereas The Green Lantern is cheerful, bright green and completely ridiculous. Superman is on about his 15th reboot and Wonder Woman didn't even land her own TV series. There is literally naff all that's exciting about Aquaman, along with a whole array of other DC characters nobody's ever even heard of. Bringing this batch of mismatch characters together for a 'Justice League' movie wouldn't work right now - which means, everyone will have to get rebooted again beforehand. How many reboots would a reboot reboot if a reboot could reboot reboots?

Sneak Peek at Dexter's 7th Season

So, it's on its way (in the US at least) and there's very little Dexter fans can do to contain their excitement. Here's a sneak peek at how the next season opens...

 Warning: The following video serves as one humongous spoiler 

 

Breaking Dawn French

A whole bunch of brand new posters have been released for The Twilight Saga's latest attempt to rob pubescent girls of their money - 'Breaking Dawn', Part 2. And one can't help but wonder if anybody else reads that title as though it's the name of a dirty movie parodying the BBC comedy series, The Vicar Of Dibley...?

Review: Spider-man's almost amazing reboot

 Warning: A significant amount of spidey-spoilers included* 

It's quite brave for a film to label itself and its main character as 'amazing', but 'The Amazing Spider-man' did and - is it as amazing as it thinks it is? No. It isn't. A more appropriate title would have been 'The Pretty Enjoyable But Nothing Special Spider-man'. In many ways, it's miles better than the original version, but there are also plenty of moments that don't sit right. It's stuck between living up to its 'amazing' title and being a film you'd simply rather watch when it's shown on ITV in about 10 years time, split in two halves by the 10 o'clock news.

Misremembered TV & Movie Quotes - Vol. 1

Have you ever watched a film or TV show, loved a quote and then tried to remember it the next day? Sometimes you'll find that you have a little trouble getting it spot on - this is quite common. You should probably bear that in mind while HCTV begins to compile a collection of some of the most loved TV & movie quotes ever murmured...

There's more after the jump...

New US TV series 'Revolution': Will you switch off?

Why are TV shows these days so desperate to be massive? They want, more than anything, to be set in a movie-type universe where crappy fight scenes go on and on, where they can get away with using 'Two Steps From Hell' music in their trailers and where the mysteries and plot twists are prioritised high above character development. Whatever happened to a TV show taking advantage of the fact it's small and focussing on the people, emotions and then gradually building the tension until the story gives its makers no other choice than to make it get bum-clenchingly epic?