TV

...sings The Beatles
Culled from the BBC's extensive archives, a selection of Beatles covers from across the decades. They ranged from truly great to truly bizarre, but at least were never less than interesting -- just like the group being covered then.

The Beatles On Record
A rather nice documentary (as in good, not saccharine), covering the Beatles' work album by album. It largely leaves aside the oft-covered hype and media reaction that permanently surrounded them, and instead focuses solely on the music, a surprisingly rare occurrence for such a documentary. Another welcome rarity is the choice of narrators: the only voices we hear (aside from the odd reporter or somesuch) are the Beatles themselves, plus producer George Martin. No other voiceover narration to guide us through the 'story', no semi-qualified semi-famous (for now) people offering their semi-interesting opinion (and that's being generous) -- just the Beatles themselves, looking back on their own work. It's this undiluted, well-informed focus that makes this such a worthwhile effort.

See also the BBC's Beatles Week page.

FlashForward
1x02 White To Play
Fans of 24 with a good memory for the names of guest stars may've had fun with this episode. Not wishing to give too much away, but the actor in question was excellent at a similar role in 24, so that bodes well here. As does the developing mysteries, though the constant reminders and flashbacks of things we've already seen are too heavy-handed. Please, FlashForward writers, assume your audience has some memory.
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

House
5x12 Painless
It's funny: in the early days of House most of the regular characters were a tad bland and even add to differentiate, with the clinic patients and Mystery Ailment Of The Week providing most of the humour and drama. Now, however, the 'main' plot takes a backseat (in the interest stakes at least) to the developing character arcs. This isn't a criticism, just an observation -- House now is a surprisingly different show to the one it started out as.

new review at 100 Films

Predator 2 (1990)

It’s a bit like all the time, effort and money went on creating a good lengthy climax, then any-old hour-long urban crime movie was bolted on the front to create something feature-length. In fairness there are some good bits earlier on, but the final half-hour (or so) feel like it’s from a slightly different, slightly better movie.

Read the full review at 100 Films.

Tonight, I'll post a review of Alien vs. Predator, and tomorrow, one for Aliens vs Predator: Requiem.