Posts by author:

Robyn Wilder

You know what women love? Comic book superheroes. That’s women all over, isn’t it  – noses forever buried in graphic novels, absently scratching their privates through their sweatpants.

And men! Are they ever going to get enough of that Ryan Reynolds character? Cinemas are FULL of typical men swooning whenever Ryan Reynolds drops a signature witticism (“What?” or “Hi”), then going all quiet and thoughtful when he takes off his shirt.

Wait, no – scratch that, reverse it. Women like Ryan Reynolds, don’t they? And it’s men that like superheroes. So a superhero movie starring Ryan Reynolds like The Green Lantern – appealing as it will to both genders – must be the perfect date movie, right? Wrong. The Green Lantern is rubbish, and we’ve got the trailer to prove it.

Read More >>>

There was a time when most US TV comedies were a variation on this theme: Tony Danza standing in a beige living room, burping and farting to a canned laugh track and making lame jokes about modern life. But no more. Now they’re all quirky and self-referential, like Modern Family and Arrested Development. They have indie soundtracks and drop knowing pop culture references hither and thither, like 30 Rock and Scrubs.

Community, the latest US export of this type, gets its UK airing tonight at 9pm on the Viva channel, and you should really watch it*. Here’s why.

It’s set in an adult education (or, wait till you see what they did there, ‘community’) college, where Jeff Winger, a smart-alec lawyer and scarecrow (Joel McHale from fast-talking entertainment round-up The Scoop) is banished when his law degree is discovered to be fraudulent. There he meets blonde liberal Spaniel/woman Britta (Gillian Jacobs), and organises a study group purely in order to get into her pants. Read More >>>

Dinosaur Pile-Up are a trio from Leeds who REALLY like grunge. We mean they REALLY like it. They like it so much that they probably start their day with a big bowl of Grunge Flakes, and possibly a banana.

A grunge banana.

But they only like the really GOOD bits of grunge – that is the driving riffs, muscular drumming and basslines so powerful that they rearrange your organs through your ears. Read More >>>

Science. Isn’t it a marvel? Without it there’d be no internet, which means we’d all probably have horrid, tanned, athletic bodies and nasty, well-rounded psyches unburdened by celebrity minutiae.

Without science we wouldn’t have photographs of that face on Mars that isn’t a face, or that Large Hadron Collider thingo that was meant to punch a hole in the universe and didn’t.

And without science we wouldn’t now know that pretend-vampire Robert Pattinson might be a non-pretend-vampire, because his dad’s Dracula, his mum’s Stephenie Meyer, Prince Harry is his cousin and his funny uncle is, oh, who knows, probably Jesus.

Read More >>>

Suddenly we’re feeling a kinship towards Robert Pattinson.

Yes, in the past we may have been irritated by his hair and face and ubiquity and the way his American accent makes him twalk a bwit like a robot Christopher Walken – but now he’s said that he doesn’t understand the Twilight saga, we’re all “Hey Robert Pattinson, wanna shoot some hoops after school?”

Because we don’t get it either. We don’t understand why a story about an incredibly old man and a sullen child trying to out-sulk each other would prove so popular.

But we seem to have a better grasp on the actual story than Robert Pattinson, so maybe we can help each other out.

Read More >>>

Summer just isn’t summer without a few establishing factors. Good weather. The inevitable Katie Price autobiography/perfume.

People drinking cider with no apparent shame. Beloved icons of our childhoods dying in tawdry and depressing ways (although that’s been autumn, winter and spring too).

But everyone knows summer can’t really start until two black holes of musical ability release a stompy, braying, call-and-response cover of a song that wasn’t very good in the first place.

Well, spritz yourself with Katie Price’s Stunning and start scrumping for apples, because Jedward are HERE TO SAVE SUMMER with their cover of Blink-182‘s All the Small Things!

Read More >>>

Leona Lewis doesn’t care what you think, especially if you’re a lawyer.

Lawyers don’t have vision. Leona Lewis has vision. Leona Lewis has a vision of herself riding a horse onto the stage during her UK tour, and she’s NOT going to wear a hard hat, no matter what you stuffy old lawyers say.

Got it?

Read More >>>

Female recording artists are getting a bit peculiar these days.

On one side we have the self-conscious, bizarro posturings of the Gaga/La Roux brigade, and on the other fey types like Bat for Lashes are dancing around with fairies coming out of their ears. It’s almost as if the whole thing is going to reach some sort of surrealist, over-produced event horizon and disappear up its own upholstered behind.

Luckily, She Makes War has arrived: a female artist who – in full warpaint – delivers interesting, edgy tunes with music and stuff in them. Imagine!

Read More >>>

Former Anti-Celebrity Guest-Star Celebrity Neil Patrick Harris Guest-Stars In Glee

by Robyn Wilder

Glee! If you’re one type of person, it’s ohmigodsqueeawesome validation for your inner Barbara Streisand, secretly memorised High School Musical dance routines and total lack of self-respect to come pirouetting out of the closet. Or it’s that unbearable jazz-hands crap your partner makes you watch. Anyway, hold onto your earplugs (sane people) and your pants [...]

6 comments Read more >>>

Enemy Of Chaos: Book Review

by Robyn Wilder

Remember the kids’ TV show Knightmare? Where a gawky square-eyed thirteen year old wandered blindly through a Dungeons and Dragons style green-screen environment, with buck-toothed team mates urging him on with instructions like, “two paces left. No, two paces. No, your other left”. Along the way he’d encounter wildly overacting characters who would declare “WELCOME [...]

2 comments Read more >>>