Back in 1997 Tony Blair became Prime Minister for the first time, Katrina and the Waves won the Eurovision song contest for the UK, and Batman and Robin, complete with George Clooney’s wobbly-headed rubber-nippled caped-crusader, sunk a comic book movie franchise for eight years. It was also the year that […]
Matt Colver
Matt Colver is a carbon-based life form that lives in Nottingham. He lives mostly on sugar and carbonated drinks laced with caffeine. He writes things sometimes. He has never worn aftershave.
The Killer Reserved Nine Seats (1974) Giallo, from the outside-in (Blu-Ray Review)
One of my favourite novels is Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. It’s a dark thriller where a group of ten guests are invited to a mysterious island, and then picked off one by one, as they realise the killer must be among them. When I heard that The […]
Ultrasound (2021) The Sci-Fi of Questioning reality in a bold feature Debut (VOD review)
“What is real? How do you define real?” asks Morpheus in the first (and let’s pretend, only) Matrix film. It’s a well-trodden area for dramas, thrillers, and sci-fi films, in particular, to explore. Mental illness, memory loss, dreams, unreliable narrators, mind control, and simulations; all have been used as plot […]
Postman Pat and the reboot for Late-Stage Capitalism (the 1980s/2008)
‘Postman Pat, Postman Pat, Postman Pat and his alienated cat…’ You might think that using Postman Pat as a focal point for examining socio-economic changes over the last 40 years is an unlikely choice for an article. And you’d be right. But in this essay – sorry, article – I […]
Slasher: Scooby-Doo, with more blood and guts
I love a good mystery. Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, Scooby-Doo – anything where the central premise is uncovering the identity of the dastardly villain, or villains, behind it all. And I know I’m not alone. Mysteries have been popular ever since Edgar Allan Poe’s story ‘The Murders in the Rue […]
Car Crash Theatre: Heaven Sent (2016)(Review)
Watching for the joy of mocking what’s on screen is an underrated pleasure. There’s a vast library of so-bad-it’s-good films out there, but I’m always on the lookout for more. And so, the made for TV movie ‘Heaven Sent’ looked like it had a lot of promise. The premise is […]
The Fox in the Forest (2022: Tabletop Matters) Cards, cunning, and fairy tales (Review)
How’s the endless pandemic treating you? How was Lockdown and its sequels? How’re you finding sticking stuff up your nose, swabbing your throat, steamed up glasses, or washing your hands until they’re sore? If you’re looking for a diversion from the daily doom, try drifting into fiction, fantasy, or the […]
Hate the Player, Not the Game? The Art of Matching Games to Table-Top Personalities
In order to persuade people to play a game, you’ll need to know what motivates them. For some competitive types, it’s all about the winning. For others, it’s about social interaction and the taking part. Some like cooperating as a team. Some aren’t bothered as long as they don’t come […]
The Joy of Bad Films
You might think to enjoy bad films, and deliberately seeking them out is a bit strange. After all, no-one sits down to what they know will be a sub-standard meal when the more tantalising fare is available. But think of it in a different way, and you’ll realise that these […]
Dungeon, Dragons, and the World of Make-Believe: Why You Should Try Role-Playing Games
I want to talk to you about role-playing games. No, not the kinky kind, the ones where a bunch of people get together and pretend to be someone else for an evening, going off having adventures. Not online – though that can be fun – but face to face, in […]