A look back at 2012 in the cinema

2012 has been a massive year for cinema. Bond struck back with Skyfall, The Hunger Games began, Spider-man did it all over again and The Cabin In The Woods pretty much reinvented everything we know about horror. Prometheus both amazed and appalled audiences, The Hobbit was either too long or not long enough and nobody even knew John Carter happened. The Avengers did 'comic book movie' better than ever before and Batman finished his run. It's been epic - so here's the best and the worst of the lot of it...!

Hold your breath & count to ten...

Here it is - the new Bond theme from Adele doing her best 'Shirley Bassey' to the sound of sexy trumpety music! It's very Bond - a return to form.

Epic and classy seems to be the overall verdict. There are however folks out there who disagree, having stated that the track sent them to sleep - but who bets they had some fucking exciting dreams as a result!?

Shouldn't have gone to Specsavers

The following video will have you learning why movie-goers need to ensure they get the correct prescription for their glasses! We've got to wear two pairs and feel like we're in the science labs at school whenever we see a 3D movie - so we may as well do it right! Specsavers is not the place to go if you're after things that are done right, here's why...

 

Will Albert Square give 'Chryed' a happy ending?

Big soapy gays Syed & Christian are due to leave the happy world of Walford later this year, it has been revealed - but will they be leaving together, or in seperate black cabs after half an hour of shouting and crying? Only time will tell.

Metal Gear Solid will finally become a movie

It's been a long time coming but at last the stealthy CGI world of Solid Snake and chums will make it to the big screen! A film version was announced at the 25th anniversary event in Tokyo and Avi Arad has already signed up! It's actually going to happen! It's actually becoming a thing! How cool is that?! Let's put on our fanciest camouflage and celebrate!

The Doc's 54 seconds of 'Pond Life'

Watch the first episode of a Doctor Who online-only miniseries entitled 'Pond Life' after the jump, in which the Doctor does his usual 'running about as if he's in a comedy' routine. That, and quite frankly absurd activities that'd kill a character in any other sci-fi with half a brain, such as surfing - wait for it - on fire. Yes.

HCTV is 5

HCTV has been around for five entire years. That's a ruddy long time!

"How come this blog only dates back to 2011?!" - now that's easy! HCTV's been on the face of the planet for five years and since it first rocketed into existence in 2007 as a mere video blog, it's changed an awful lot. It started on Youtube, gradually building more and more of an audience and, as this happened, it became clear that the channel needed to offer more than just Roo's boring old face - so sketches started happening and movie reviews and pretty much anything that meant it was all a lot more exciting for everyone! As a result, Youtube decided HCTV's content was too cunting 'edgy' for its innocent little eyes and everything was wiped. Roo swore never to return. But, HCTV lived on, on it's own flashy website for a few years - splendid - until it needed to reach a bigger audience once again. So, Roo swallowed his pride and signed back up to Youtube. Then it became a blog about movie and TV stuff and the rest is fucking history.

Podcast #3 - Advertising

How would you advertise HCTV? That's one of the many advertising-related topics discussed in HCTV's 3rd exciting podcast, complete with new theme tune! Is advertising, in general, too politically correct? Do you feel special when you buy a snack from KFC? Which is the most irritating cheese-related rhyming advert? Find the answers below! Click play or go to HCTV's Podomatic page to subscribe with iTunes!

Podcast #2 - Bad sci-fi

For those of you who were big fans of HCTV's first podcast, gleefully listening to it on your way to work, or on the lavatory, brace yourselves - here's another one! This time we're delving deeper, asking what it is that makes us human and what our purpose might be, here on Earth... Well, almost!

Roo & Will take to the microphone a second time to discuss why some sci-fi turns out so bad and which genres of film and telly are the most believable. Mull over a shoddy third installment of Men In Black, a consistantly disastrous Doctor Who, an undeniably pretty-looking Prometheus & the ultimate in whacky space operas - frelling Farscape! Keep up to date with HCTV's podcasts by going here (or by following the link over on the right), and then clicking 'Subscribe with iTunes' on our Podomatic sidebar.

Malcolm In The Middle, in the end...

What's so great about shows like Malcolm In The Middle is that they don't shy away from being completely bonkers. They proper go for it, diving in head first and leaving the audience confused - stunned, even. It's the broader minded folks who don't let that get in the way of ploughing through the initial stage of overwhelming weirdness to go on and discover what's undeniably one of the funniest and most inventive sitcoms to have ever been shown on our teleboxes. While it had a few rough patches where it seemed to lose its footing momentarily, for the most part it stayed true to its characters and, most importantly, kept on being funny.

Podcast #1 - Children's TV

As you may or may not be aware, making video blogs is quite a long and complicated process these days. So, due to the fact HCTV isn't anywhere near as video-heavy as it used to be, it has been decided that Podcasts are now our new 'in thing'. Let them be yours too!

And now for the introduction: It's a brand new feature for HCTV starring your favourite two 'old skool' video bloggers, Roo & Will! Take a seat and brace yourself for our very first podcast and a fun little chat about good old fashioned children's TV. From Mark Speight's untimely demise to The Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Lab, completely unscripted and hopefully quite funny, we're off to a flying start! You can click play below, or go here (there's also a link in the side bar) to keep fully up to date, episode after episode.

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?

7 cool-like tips on how to make amazing Youtube Vlogs

If you've recently watched charlieissocoollike's two-part video, 'My YouTube Rules', you should know exactly how to go about creating a fairly decent video blog, apparently. However, CheekTV has already addressed that some of the things ol' Charlie bangs on about in his video seem a tad 'off', shall we say. So, here's HCTV's niftier set of tips (well, rules, really) for making the best Youtube Vlog that a person can.

The SFX Geek-fest 2012

It has to be said that Prestatyn doesn't look like the sort of town that gets a lot of action. Traditionally, geeks don't either, so what better place to hold the 3rd annual SFX Weekender?!

SFX's 2nd event was impressive, but was the 3rd year better? Well, yes, it was. How about Pontins? No. Hell no. Actually it was probably worse. It's amazing how after a few minutes of downpour the entire holiday park floods. It's strange how they think they can get away with keeping almost every chalet freezing cold, holding back on the hot water, supplying broken fridges and, most importantly, refusing to clean up the majority of the previous holidaymaker's pubic hairs off the bathroom floor.

How to tell if you are 'Jexy'

There are some lucky people out there who are 'Jexy', and they know it. Some don't know it. What are the telltale signs that you are one of these people? Here are a few pointers...

Hello & Welcome

HCTV is now four years old - That's right! Mental. HCTV has been on the face of the planet for a total of four crazy years - it's refreshed, back in action and it's well and truly better than ever before. Start here with a new video - Roo's always wondered what it is about London that makes it so amazing, and this is his verdict: The god damn people, duh!