Brett-Butler

As someone who spent his tweens enjoying ridiculously silly comedies that spoofed films & genres I’d never seen at that point (“Airplane”, Blazing Saddles & “Naked Gun” on one end, all the way through to “BASEketball”, “Jane Austin’s Mafia!” and “Shriek if You Know What I Did Last Friday 13th on the other), it was well up my street, even though I’ve never watched a minute of Downton Abbey. The cinema was near empty when I went to see it at the weekend, so I’m surprised it’s not done as badly as I’d thought, I’d not seen any promo for it bar its trailer on YouTube

Went to see this in the cinema last night. Haven’t laughed so much in a film since The Naked Gun, with the Downton Abbey gets the NG treatment being the perfect descriptor of what you get. Not all of the jokes land (about 75% of them do), but they fly at you so fast that if one doesn’t amuse you, there’ll be another one around the corner soon. Anna Maxwell Martin was great as the housekeeper (one line in particular when she is giving Eric an outline of his duties had me literally laughing for minutes afterwards), and there are a few very niche jokes that I caught - two characters whose only dialogue consists of fawning over men are introduced as the “Bechdel Sisters”. However I doubt it’ll be a hit - when I saw it last night there were only six other people in the audience, and I was the only person rolling with laughter. It hasn’t been well promoted either, if it wasn’t for funding the trailer by chance I would have never knew it was out. It’ll likely find its home when it comes into streaming in a few months.

“Running Up That Hill” is featured quite heavily in the episodes of Stranger Things released last week (its continued use remains an important plot point), no I’m not surprised it’s made a reappearance. I thought that one of the other reoccurring songs in those episodes would also re-enter, although I don’t think Tiffany is back just yet.

It feels at least 10 years too late to release a parody of Downton Abbey, but then again the Naked Gun films were parodying a genre that was well out of fashion at the time and they’re some of the best comedies ever. The trailer was really enjoyable and very much in that ballpark, but I hope they haven’t put all the best jokes in the trailer.

One long serving Labour MP has already called for David Lammy to resign over this - In other Labour news, they’ve suspended the whip from their poshest-named MP for voting against the government -

Regardless of the argument as to whether scraping juries for sentences of less than three years is good or not (I’m on the “bad thing” side of the spectrum) it’s pretty poor timing to do so in a week where one of your MPs has literally just sentenced to two years in prison following a jury-less trial, and technically speaking is a fugitive from the law. BBC NewsTulip Siddiq MP says Bangladesh jail sentence is 'deeply...The MP, and niece of Bangladesh's ousted former leader, received a two-year sentence in her absence over corruption allegations.

That must by the highest weekend gross for a #2 film in the Box Office for a long time, probably since Barbieheimer? Also surprised that “Pillion” did so well. It sounded so niche that I doubted it would even crack the top 10.

There’s already a Rejoin Party. They’ve… not done too week so far - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rejoin_EU

And now the first of the Independent Alliance MPs has walked away from Your Party. If any MPs bar Sultana are still there by the end of the year I will be surprised.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Robbie Williams signs up to do it, on the proviso that his wife Ayda Field takes part as well. Given that they appeared as joint experts on an episode of The Wheel last year, it wouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility. Of the more left field realistic possibilities, Jarvis Cocker would be great.

Quite a big piece of legislation. It would be a pity therefore if it turns out that a key member of Labour, for example one who is involved in Treasury functions, was to involve oneself in a controversy surrounding renting out a property, for example by doing so illegally. That would be highly embarrassing for the party. On an unrelated note: BBC NewsStarmer rules out investigation after Reeves admits renta...The PM says an investigation is not "necessary" as the chancellor admits "error" when renting out home.

Tom Waits is one of the biggest artists who hasn’t had a top 75 single, although covers of his songs have been top 10 hits.

The Perfect Blue re-release will be interesting. In the USA it has already outgrossed its original run & its 2017 re-release COMBINED in its first weekend (admittedly from a small base), so I wonder if it’s ever-increasing reputation will see it enter the top 10.

The most popular isekai at the moment is about someone who is reincarnated as a vending machine. That uma bolted long ago.

No, YOU’RE crying after watching the latest episode of “Dr Stone”. If you gave up on it a few years ago, the last few episodes have really cranked things up.

“Whatever happened to the Popular People’s Front?” “She‘s over there “.

“Head Music” was Suede’s third #1 album, you’ve missed “Coming Up”!

Blimey Charley, that’s a packed list of big films opening this week, although I would stick a fiver on “Demon Slayer” being the surprise #1 next week.

Did “The Fountain” not get a UK cinema release?

Taking inflation into account, that would be around £11.2 million at 2025 prices. That may be a tad ambitious for this one, although the studio will likely be happy with how it’s done overall.

It was never going to be as good as the original trilogy (the first film is one of my favourite films ever), but to my surprise it came very close. I laughed the whole way through it, Liam Neeson does the “deadpan cop who doesn’t realise the chaos he creates around him” role very well, and does a good job of getting the tone of the original, whilst not just rehashing all the jokes from it and making it feel modern (or as modern as you can for a film that was made to spoof the type of film that hasn’t really hit cinemas for at least 40 years). If it gets a sequel I would not be disappointed, and if it leads to a revival of similar ridiculous spoof films I wouldn’t mind either (don’t think there’s been a spoof film I’ve liked since Scary Movie 4).

The Labour Party’s Homelessness Minister has resigned after she realised that her role was to prevent homelessness, not to facilitate it - BBC NewsHomelessness Minister Rushanara Ali quits over rent incre...It comes after she increased rent on a house she owns within weeks of the previous tenants' contracts ending.

Given that Trey Parker & Matt Stone made an episode about Mohammad just days after being sent death threats by Islamists, there was no way that the small issue of being sued was going to stop South Park from mercilessly satirising Donald Trump in this episode. The depiction of him a la Saddam Hussein was funny, the live action denouement less so, although the funniest had in the whole episode was Cartman not realising that an electric car doesn’t give off carbon dioxide. It’s proof that they are the most fearless satirists out there, happy to mock everyone and anyone with great aplomb.

Is there a reason why this has blown up so much in the last few weeks? I’ve been tangibly aware of the anime series for years, and by extension the game, but it seems to have infiltrated my socials to quite a large degree recently. Has it only recently been localised?

Whilst I doubt it is her intention, it would be ironic if this ended up giving additional funding to Reform and soon to be Reform-led councils, and away from Labour and Lib Dem ones.