For those in the UK, once you get past Mike from Neighbours (Guy Pearce) being an LA cop (and you should pretty quickly!) this is a cerebral whodunnit. It benefits from a second watching as I certainly missed several bits of the story. One of Russel Crowe's few good films. (50 words)

Okay (deep breath)...this book is about the true Grail...but isn't written by Dan Brown...it is very long and, whilst it has wonderful descriptions of Carcassonne and the surrounding hills (an area I know relatively well), the winding and often confusing story (set in the 13th and 21 centuries) is underwhelming. (50 words)

Maggie Smith and Judy Dench are, as usual, fabulous in this film about two elderly sisters who look after a castaway Polish sailor. However, I got annoyed with side plots that went nowhere and a fairly unstisfactory ending. Very pleasant but somehow lacking. (43 words)

Julianne Moore and Pierce Brosnan are sweet in this rom com about divorce lawyers. The supporting cast are fun and the dialogue witty. It is a bit forced in places but overall perfect Sunday afternoon viewing. (36 words)

What sounds like a recipe for a standard British ganster flick becomes more than the sum of its parts due to the quality with which it is filmed (London has never looked like this) and the well handled execution of what is an excellent story. Move over Guy Ritchie. (49 words)

Amy Adams makes a vague attempt at a rom com in this cliched story of a woman who follows her boyfriend to Ireland to make a leap year proposal, only to suffer misadventure and fall for the man who helps her. Uninspiring. (42 words)

Where have all the interesting samples gone? After KY and Lost Horizons I was expecting some new and interesting chill-out tracks but suddenly they seem to be treading water. There's nothing actually wrong with this but nothing great either, I suppose the bar was set too high. A great disappointment. (50 words)

Evan Dando and the gang created the best guitar-pop album of the year 1992. Every song on this (wonderfully short!) album is foot-tappingly great - Confetti, Frank Mills, Kitchen and Bit Part are stand-outs. Evan Dando still plays many of these songs when touring - they're still great! (48 words)

A story (well, three stories, in fact) about the Baudalaire children who are orphaned and left with various bizarre relatives, one of whom, Count Olaf (Jim Carrey), is trying to 'off' them to inherit their family's millions. A great film with stellar perfomances from the Baudalaire children. Highly recommended. (49 words)

The greatest best-of album ever made. With classics like Famous Blue Raincoat, The Partisan, Suzanne and Sisters Of Mercy, it is beautiful from start to finish. Without doubt this is the perfect intro to L Cohen's many, varied and patchy albums (albeit, it was released before Everybody Knows!). (48 words)

An adolescent Jean-Pierre Leaud debuts as the young delinquant in this semi-autobiographical Truffaut-directed masterpiece. The story of Antoine Doisnel - a young parisian misfit - glides effortless between comedy and pathos in a film that generally regarded as having kick-started the nouvelle vague genre. Genial! (45 words)

This is a departure for Coupland, told as a non-linear series of tales about Scout. To be honest I found this rather depressing as it offers a fairly comprehensive explanation of how events can lead to depression. However, it was thought provoking, and that's not always a bad thing. (49 words)

Miscellany book-style site generally for men. Claims to be the online answer to Schotts Miscellany and/or the Dangerous Book for Boys. Surf around the menu, the site turns out to be pretty big, no forums etc, but some decent pics and loads of info! (44 words)

This is the way that tech kit should be. You plug it in and it just works. Within 5 minutes I was connected to the internet via by ADSL provider. Another 5 and the wireless network was up and secure. It is fast, easy and seems secure. What more's needed? (50 words)

A site with a very simple idea - explain what Lorem Ipsum is (unless you are in advertising or website development you may not know) and offer the best text generator that I have found. Useful for filling forms and fields with a set amount of text. (47 words)

I can't believe it took me so long to see this movie - it lived up to all the hype. The premise of disfunctional family takes road trip to youth beauty pagent doesn't in any way describe how poignant, thought provoking and downright funny this is. Excellent individual performances. (49 words)

This dark family comedy covers so much ground it's incredible, with attempted suicide, death in the family and bankruptcy, hardy comedic material. And yet it manages to still be funny and heartwarming. Basically a classic road movie in story line with personal discoveries en route for all characters. Highly recommended. (50 words)

Miss Contweeniality (2 words)

Well executed adaptation of Little Women with Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon etc. Good Sunday morning filmbut not particularly innovative and, it has to be said, very girly! (27 words)

With perfect seats at this amazing stadium, all 17 bands looked good. Whilst the concert itself had dubious green credentials, the artists all seemed to genuinely care. Stand-out performances from Foo Fighters, Madonna, Snow Patrol, Keane and Black Eye Peas made for a memorable day. Now to the energy-efficient lightbulbs... (50 words)

Interesting new "Group Blog" idea for the Lotus development community. Still in it's early days but worth a look. (19 words)

After getting the book for Christmas of this motorbike tour from London to New York via Eastern Europe, Mongolia and Russia by Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor the DVD was well worth watching. They dealt with the extremely difficult conditions well having some truly interestin experiences along the way. Excellent. (50 words)

Unpopular review Number 1; Spectacular in its effects and its length, this finale to the trilogy had a lot more of the same, which was fine, but basically consisted of the most drawn out ending ever. He got there, the ring was destroyed, they all went home. (47 words)

Nicholas Cage makes the part of international arms dealer his own in this very dark comedy come commentary on the arms trade. A departure for Hollywood in that the story doesnt't take the easy route, at times you start to sympathise for Cage but ultimately you want him to lose. (50 words)

Worth watching if only for the product placement...watch the fed ex package delivery carefully. But in terms of "will they, won't they?", the film Brief Encounter is much better, but that one is in black and white, so you probably won't watch it :( (44 words)

Superbly acted story about the developing friendship between an aging American actor (Bill Murry) and the young wife of a photographer who is left alone in Tokyo for a week (Scarlet Johannson). Very funny moments but also poignant. Certainly made me want to visit Japan. (45 words)

Stella cast and many funny lines disappointingly don't add up to the long awaited nugget of joy we had hoped for. Too many stories and not enough time to care a lot about any of them but very enjoyable nevertheless. (40 words)

All through this Usual Suspects-alike thriller you're waiting for the twist to appear. It takes a while but the time's well spent with good performances from Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley. The twist's a big one and leaves you feeling a little cheated but it's a good journey getting there. (50 words)

This follow up to the Dark Material Trilogy by Phillip Pullman looks at what happened to lead character Lyra two years on. Nice to hear a bit more of her story but don't buy it for a long journey, it takes about half an hour to read! (47 words)