Archive for May, 2014


A review of the new movie “Blended”

May 31st, 2014 by Roger Darlington

Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore have made their third rom-com together and you can read my review here.

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The 301 greatest movies of all time – as voted by readers of “Empire” magazine

May 28th, 2014 by Roger Darlington

As an avid film fan, I’ve been a subscriber to “Empire” magazine for many years. The current issue provides the result of a readers’ poll of the greatest movies of all time. This is the first such poll in six years and some 250,000 voted. A total of 301 films are listed in order of […]

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Out of a plethora of options, here are just a few of my most memorable movie moments

May 28th, 2014 by Roger Darlington

An American friend of mine is composing a book capturing memorable scenes from movies and has asked me to contribute a few. I could have given him hundreds, but these were my initial offerings: Gone With The Wind” – the scene at the railway depot where Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) walks between the bodies of […]

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The assassination of American presidents

May 27th, 2014 by Roger Darlington

This Bank Holiday weekend, as well as viewing the movie “X-Men: The Days Of Future Past” [my review here] – which suggested that President Kennedy was shot because he was a mutant (!) – I attended a one-day course at London’s City Lit on the assassination of American presidents. It was led by Dr Dale […]

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A review of the latest “X-Men” movie

May 26th, 2014 by Roger Darlington

On a Bank Holiday weekend (at least in the UK), what better fun than to see the latest film in a blockbuster super-hero franchise? See my review of “X-Men: Days Of Future Past” here.

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How to be risk savvy and therefore make good decisions

May 25th, 2014 by Roger Darlington

This week, I attended a public lecture at the London School of Economics given by Professor Gerd Gigerenzer. He is managing director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, former professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, and author of “Risk Savvy: How to Make Good Decisions”. Remember the volcanic ash […]

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What’s it like to split up with Gwyneth Paltrow?

May 24th, 2014 by Roger Darlington

This weekend, I’ve been playing the latest CD by Coldplay called “Ghost Stories”. It’s the fourth Coldplay CD that I’ve bought and very different from the last three – hauntingly moving. The reason is obvious: as Chris Martin was writing the material, his marriage to Gwyneth Paltrow was moving towards its “conscious uncoupling”. So how […]

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What’s it like being a professional film critic?

May 23rd, 2014 by Roger Darlington

One of the best film critics in the UK is Mark Kermode and six months ago I went to a talk he gave to promote his latest boob [see my posting here]. I’ve now read his entertaining work “Hatchet Job” – which has just come out in paperback – and I have reviewed here.

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Great result for Labour in my London borough of Brent

May 23rd, 2014 by Roger Darlington

Yesterday, there were local elections in England and Northern Ireland and European elections throughout the UK. Local election results are still being declared and the European results will not be available until Sunday when all the other EU Member States have voted. I have been able to vote now for almost 50 years: I have […]

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The strangeness of the English language when it comes to collective nouns for animals

May 23rd, 2014 by Roger Darlington

English is a funny language – as my Italian mother used to remark often. Perhaps nowhere is it stranger than when it comes to collective nouns, especially for animals (and most particularly for birds), many of which go back to the Late Middle Ages. Some of my favourites are: a congregation of alligators a shrewdness […]

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