LATEST ADDITIONS

Anton van Beek  |  Jun 06, 2011  |  0 comments

Taxi Driver remains the highpoint of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro many cinematic collaborations. Which is quite something when you consider that this 1976 masterpiece had to beat out Raging Bull and Goodfellas for that particular honour.

Anton van Beek  |  Jun 06, 2011  |  0 comments

The Bridge on the River Kwai finds David Lean at his absolute best. Every bit the equal to his latter Lawrence of Arabia, this astonishing World War II epic stars Alec Guinness as Colonel Nicholson, a no-nonsense army man who obsession with rules clouds his loyalties when he and his fellow POWs are put to work building a bridge for the Japanese in the jungles of Burma. On a collision course with him is William Holden’s Shears, an American who escaped from the camp and has been forced to return with a small team to destroy the bridge.

Anton van Beek  |  Jun 06, 2011  |  0 comments

The Mechanic isn’t a film about the trials and tribulations of a wannabe Kwik-Fit fitter. It’s actually a remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson movie of the same name, with HCC favourite Jason Statham taking over as the burly bloke who makes his living ‘fixing things’ (by killing people). With its undemanding student-teacher story and its predictable twists, the film doesn’t add anything to the genre that you won’t find in numerous straight-to-DVD flicks. But The Mechanic does offer up some great action and the chance to see Statham kicking ass again – which should keep fans happy for a couple of hours.

Anton van Beek  |  Jun 01, 2011  |  0 comments

It's been six years since developer Traveller's Tales unleashed Lego Star Wars: The Video Game on unsuspecting gamers - and in doing so demonstrated that it was possible to successfully transform the popular building brick toy line into pixel-based entertainment. Much of that success hinged on the personality that Traveller's Tales were able to inject into the Lego characters through the application of the Star Wars licence, giving the title both a sense of focus and humour that had been sorely missing from earlier 'edutainment'-centric Lego titles.

Ed Selley  |  May 28, 2011  |  0 comments
5.1-bung jumper adds bounce Adam Rayner reveres Scandinavian engineering and tweaks a-plenty

I was once lucky enough to go to Sweden to make a TV show about tractor pulling. Blokes go along, eat smoked eels, get drunk with true determination, then hoot and holler while mad tractors fling mud around, and some announcer shouts: ‘Fuuuull Puuuull!'

Ed Selley  |  May 28, 2011  |  0 comments
Wacky streamer can confuse Adrian Justins ponders the promise of a flawed fancy

Boxee Box acts as a conduit between your TV and an unrestricted universe of online entertainment including movies, TV shows, music and photos. It also lets you share your favourite content via Facebook and Twitter.

Ed Selley  |  May 28, 2011  |  0 comments
Mains-lining to the video vein Martin Pipe tries a networking solution that bridges wi-fi and powerline

Powerline networking, which uses your home’s mains wiring to transport data, has become quite popular. But there can be messy cables to deal with, and when you discover that one of your items is ‘wi-fi only’, and there’s not enough signal from your existing router, this product comes to the rescue. This kit consists of 200Mbps HomePlug AV network adaptors, incorporating a Wireless 802.11n extender.

Ed Selley  |  May 28, 2011  |  0 comments
Terrestrial Terminator Martin Pipe tries the world’s first PC tuner to support DVB-T2

Until now all of the digital terrestrial tuners sold for use with PCs complied to the old DVB-T standard. But all HDTV transmissions employ the newer and more efficient DVB-T2. The T2 290e, a tiny and stylish USB 2.0 dongle, is the first to be compatible with both. It can be used with notebooks or installed on desktop machines.

Ed Selley  |  May 28, 2011  |  0 comments
Player courts the net Martin Pipe likes Sony’s first standalone networkable multimedia player

There must be plenty of readers who have spent the best part of a grand on a cutting-edge full HD TV, only to discover that its replacement model is ‘network-enabled’. Increasingly popular, this feature enables you to stream video from various websites, install widgets and play video content, music or photos stored on devices connected to your home network.

Ed Selley  |  May 28, 2011  |  0 comments
Well served for little outlay Martin Pipe builds a media server and has change from £100

Networked-attached storage (NAS) is damn useful. In addition to providing a convenient means of backing up important data stored on your computers, today’s consumer-orientated models typically incorporate a DLNA media server.

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