It's a comedy.

It's been about 30 years since I read the robots books but wasn't the zeroth law an invention of the accidently telepathic robot Giskard? R. Daneel Olivaw was a prototype human-like robot, it was Giskard who led the fight against the space racists (I paraphrase).

I've seen posters for this movie about town for the past couple of weeks that show's the scary smily mask and strapline "from the producer of 'insidious' and 'sinister'". I'm disappointed that they didn't just call this "upsetting" or "irritatingly facile".

Odd thing about Iron Man 3 - this is not a spoiler - is how there's all this stuff about Christmas. Like it was meant to be released in November. Weird. Also it's better than Iron Man 2. You're welcome!

I was sure that was going to be "Turnip Farm", but yeah "Not You Again" is really good. "Turnip Farm" is a bit of a harder sell I suppose.

More people might recognise Sheard as Admiral Ozzel, but those of us who remember him remember him as Bronson. It's interesting to note that in a career including turns as Adolf Hitler and an imperial admiral, Bronson is clearly the biggest bastard.

78! Looked back on 76, which was about the same period as this one. We had Baby and OMG, and blah and blah and blah.

I watched half of Friday Night Dinner last night and lord fuck is it funny. Mark Heap is brilliant in it, though I'd like to see him play someone a bit less creepy from time to time.

CultOfRingo the over-praising of "The Great Escape" had completely slipped my mind. Of course the fact that Oasis lost the "Country House"/"Roll With It" singles battle counted against "Morning Glory", which helps explain the tepid reaction.

well certainly where Thom Yorke sings "She's running out again" that's the same sequence as "If I could make a wish…" which struck me the first time I heard it too, but does the rest of the song really fit?

Meaningless Lyrics
The main influence that Chris Martin took from Oasis was in lyric writing. His lyrics trump Noel Gallagher's for vapid senselessness.

"Be Here Now" and the British press
An important thing to realise about the British press reaction to "Be Here Now" is that it was a response to a perceived failure to get behind "Morning Glory". Reviews and comment on Morning Glory on release had been overwhelmingly average-to-negative, on a "Gallaghers have peaked"…

True and I realise the fatuity of my comment. Having said that my son's just finished playing through TP and I was reminded how much I enjoyed the snow palace and sky city levels - for the puzzles, as you say, but also for the novelty of the settings. Caves, trees and lava seem to be the order of the day here.

Well that looks…
I realise you don't expect radical innovation from a Zelda game, but beyond a tree chopped down during a fight it's entirely possible that this could just be Twilight Princess chapter 2. Not that that wouldn't be great but, hey! A lava level.

You're being quite the iconoclast if you rate "The Great Escape" at all. Here in Englandland that is seen as the undisputed nadir of all Albarnism - a soggy fart of oompah, condescension and puerile little Englandism that nearly destroyed the band and forced them to concede defeat to the brainless Oasis in the…

Oooh! My avatar!
Let nobody nick this one, like someone did with my caddish Terry Thomas earlier.

My company firewall has barred TVTropes. I can finally get some work done.

The doctor keeps standing around saying "I am scary, fear me" when he should be busy dying because the writers are a bunch of talentless hacks. Not really, well not completely, but the various times that nu-who growls and says "don't you know who I am" are a total violation of "show don't tell".

Thanks Raging Bear - might as well buy the DS version then (as I can share that with my son). I've played the PSP and DS versions of Lego Star Wars and the DS version is inexplicably awful. Sure I'd expect the bad graphics, but the gameplay is terrible and dumbed down too. For instance, when playing in story mode only…

Movie stars next to normal people
I suppose its not the first film to do this, but Jennifer Garner doesn't look like the same species as Ricky Gervais. She's so skinny she looks unwell. So take these hollywood actresses out of the usual parade of skinny tanned fabulousness and put them next to a normal person - and…