Government Defends Extortionate Train Fare Rise

Yesterday the Government backed the decision undertaken by train companies to raise the average train fare by an average of 6000%.  Rupert Clamflesh-Jones, Conservative MP for Doncaster East-West and Assistant Under-Secretary to the Assistant Under-Secretary to the Shadow-Shadow Transport Minister, said in a press conference that the move was "Good for Britain as it allows the upper-classes to spend more time in Gentlemens clubs, drinking 100 year old Port, smoking big fuck-off cigars, ogling at gyrating women in gold bikini's and laughing uproariously at the lower classes".  After an aide whispered in Mr Clamflesh-Jones' ear, he retracted the statement by mumbling something about trains, planes and 'that fat Canadian bloke'.

Rupert Clamflesh-Jones speaking yesterday.  Well, some cnut anyway.

When asked if the fare rises were justifiable considering that Britain already had the highest train fares in the World, Clamflesh-Jones replied, "We are committed to making Britain at the fore-front of everything and this is just another manifesto promise that this Government has delivered upon.  Strengthening Britains position as the pioneer of expensive public transportation services merely shows how great the Great in Great Britain really is and that's really really really great."

What we are expecting now that fares have gone up

So, that's good then.  This reporter, after buying a monthly season ticket to York from Doncaster for the princely sum of £280, can see where all that extra money is going after taking 3 and a half hours to travel the 30 miles or so.  We are obviously paying for the pleasure of standing in over-crowded, cold, windy, noisy carriages, waiting on over-crowded, cold, windy platforms for trains that turn up when they feel like it and when they do, being treated like cattle herded onto the abbatoir fast-track.  It's nice to know that all the money us commuters are paying for tickets goes towards those free meals given out in First Class, served under diamond chandeliers on Meerkat-fur carpets while us mere mortals in 'standard' class have to make do with Botulism Betty and her range of ultra-expensive 'snacks', 'sandwiches' and 'drinks' from that infernal trolley served under a flickering strip light on stained, worn-out industrial floor-covering. (*)

The 16.03 Doncaster to Mexborough

(* All fucking true, unfortunately).

Doncaster Rovers to sign Brazilian Superstar in January

Rumoured to be heading to the Keepmoat in January are legends such as Zinedine Zidane, Pele and some bloke seen kicking a ball round in the park by by assistant scout for Rovers, Sir George Lazenby.  

Sir George explains: "We have been in talks with Zidane and Pele and they are both interested in a move to Sunny Donny.  We're not too bothered they are retired as we feel they both can offer a high-level of competitiveness to a stilted Championship campaign.  Pele in particular is keen to try out his range of penile enhancement products on the local population."

Pele in particular, is keen to ply his trade in Doncaster

"John Grimes on the other hand is someone who was seen playing in Sandall Park park with his young kids and we were incredibly impressed by the way he managed to score forty-three goals against his opponents.  We immediately signed him against strong interest from some top Premiership teams.  He will be a strong asset to Doncaster Rovers' strikeforce in the crucial run-in to the season.  With that kind of attacking prowess, we feel confidant we can climb out of the bottom three in the table.  Who knows, we could still qualify for the Champions League," said Sir George with a wink.

Rovers' new defensive formation leaves a lot to be desired.

Doncaster Denies Dead Dictator is living locally

Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council yesterday denied that the death of Kim Jong-il was an elaborate stunt and that he was now living in a small flat in Hexthorpe.  Director of Town Twinning, Andrew Twonk, described the claim as 'ludicrous' but when pressed, he admitted that 'he couldn't go into specific details about any particular case'.

Kim Jong-il seen yesterday at Doncaster Train Station

Doncaster was twinned with Pyongyang in 2008, a controversial arrangement that saw delegates from both towns visiting each other in a kind of 'pen-pal swap' scheme.  It was widely reported at the time that the North Korean contingent were singularly 'unimpressed' by the living conditions here in the borough.  They left soon after, departing with armfuls of fake designer-label jeans, a box of cheese and bean pasties from Greggs and an ominous warning that Doncaster 'would get it, right soon an' all'.

Mr Twonk also denied claims that the Town Council had bought up the worlds stock of amber resin and had extracted ancient dinosaur DNA with the sole purpose of creating a prehistoric theme park populated by genetically-enhanced 'lizards of doom'.  When pressed, he admitted that 'he couldn't go into specific details about any particular research the council may be undertaking'.

Coming to a new Doncaster theme park?

Board game review: Carcassonne

What is it?
Carcassonne is an award winning table-top board game published by Rio Grande Games where 2 to 5 players lay down square tiles to build up a large map made up of roads, rivers, walled cities and fields.  By strategic placement of pieces, or meeples as they are known, points are scored for every city, road and farm that is completed.

Carcassonne is classed as a European or German-style board game.  This type of game tends to favour themes of economy over combat and there is more emphasis on skill and strategy than luck.  Also, all the players tend to remain in the game until the very end which for a family board game, is an excellent idea. 

What's in the box?

The game consists of 72 landscape tiles each measuring 1.5 inch square, 40 meeples in various colours, a score track board and a colourful, easy-to-read instruction guide.  The rules stretch to four A4 pages of large text with lots of pictures explaining various scenarios encountered within the game.  The tiles and score track are thick-stock card that will stand up to many hours of gameplay.  The pieces, or meeples, are wooden and are of a cute style, as employed by many games of this nature.

In play

Carcassonne is a very gentle game and the rules are relatively easy.  Expect to play three or four games before the rules become second nature and strategies and tactics become apparent.  When placing tiles, the features on the tile must match up against what is already on the board.  For example, a tile with part of a walled city must match up to an existing wall, roads must attach to an existing road etc.  Meeples are placed onto the various features but not where a meeple already exists.

A city is completed when the outer wall circles the city without a break.  2 points are scored for every tile making up a town so it pays to make the largest town you can.  While a meeple can't be placed in a feature that is already occupied by another player, through judicious placing of tiles, it is possible to sneak into an existing feature and to share the points.  When a town or castle is completed, the meeple is then returned to the player and that feature can't be used again.

Roads are completed when a blocking tile such as a city wall or road junction is placed at both ends.  1 point is scored for each road tile.  When the road is completed, the meeple is returned to the player and the road can't be occupied by any player for the remainder of the game.

Cloisters are completed when they are completely surrounded by tiles.  With a point per tile, a completed cloister is worth a total of 9 points.  Again, the meeple is returned to the player.

Farms are scored differently.  By placing a meeple on a field, any *completed* cities bordering the fields are worth 3 points.  These points are only scored at the end of the game so the meeple has to remain in the field for the whole duration and they aren't returned to the player.

At the end of the game, points are scored for meeples occupying incomplete features as well.  In the case of cities, this is reduced to 1 point per tile but the other features remain the same.  The game is finished when all the landscape tiles have been used up.

The stated game time is 45 minutes but in our experience, games can last up to an hour and a half.  Maybe that's our inexperience and it will improve in time?

Strengths:

• Easy rules to understand.
• Every game is different and a completed game board looks great with very colourful and detailed artwork.
• With a limited amount of meeples, there is a decent element of strategic thinking involved.  While turning over each tile is random, placing them to best effect in conjunction with your limited resources is the skill and strategy needed.
• With all players remaining in the game until the end, it's very family friendly.
• The scoring system allows games to be close and it's hard to pick out a winner until the very end.
• Encourages simple arithmetic in younger players.
• Quality components

Weaknesses:

• The farms are quite complicated to score, especially for younger players.
• It's easy to knock the tiles therefore dislodging the whole game board.  Keep your elbows together.
• Needs a large table or plenty of floor space once the map starts to grow.
• The link to Carcassonne, the REAL walled town in France is tenuous at best.  For those expecting a little history lesson in with their gaming will be short-changed in that regard.
• Takes longer than the anticipated 45 minutes.

Conclusion

Carcassonne is a fun game for all the family to play and easy to understand.  The artwork is well done, of a high-quality and is a lovely-looking game to boot.  I would say it appeals to all age groups and anyone from the age of 7 upwards would enjoy playing.  It obviously takes a few games to understand fully the game mechanics, develop strategies and know the best options for your followers but it's all good fun.  Carcassonne is highly recommended and a good introduction to alternative board games if you've only ever experienced Scrabble or Monopoly before.

Board game review: Carcassonne Princess and the Dragon

What is it?

Carcassonne Princess and The Dragon is an expansion set for the Carcassonne board game, a clever tile-laying game where 2-5 players build up a map of roads, fields and cities by connecting tiles together to form bigger features.  By strategically placing followers, or meeples as they are known, onto these landscape features, victory points are scored.  The bigger the landscape feature, the more points are scored.

Who will enjoy this game?

Obviously, this is an expansion and as such, the original game is required before-hand.  Carcassonne, the board game in general, is very much geared towards a fun, family-orientated game and the rules are relatively easy to pick up.  Euro or German style games such as Carcassonne place the emphasis and theme towards economy and area control as opposed to combat and luck.  Players tend not to be eliminated, rather they stay in the game until the end, allowing for a high level of player interaction.  More importantly, family members aren't left out because they've been knocked out of the game early. 

What's in the box?

The Princess and The Dragon expansion contains a number of new landscape tiles with various features pertaining to the expansion on them, a wooden Princess piece, a wooden Dragon piece and an A5 double-sided sheet of rules.  As with all Rio Grande games, the components themselves are of a very high quality.  The tiles are printed on very thick card and stand up well to repeated play.  The wooden pieces are in the typical meeple style and are also thick and chunky.

How do you play it?

The Princess and The Dragon expansion adds an element of fantasy to the normally grounded-in-history Carcassonne game.  This is not a bad thing but could put off the more traditional games players.  There are several new game mechanics added to the original game with this expansion, namely the Dragon that moves around the map, removing meeples back to their respective owners and the Princess, who provides shelter from the Dragons fiery breath.

The Dragon starts the game on a volcano tile.  If another volcano tile is drawn by a player, it will immediately fly to wherever that tile is placed.  If a tile with a movement icon is drawn, the dragon will move around the board, throwing meeples back to their respective owners. 

There is a restriction on its movement however. It can only move 6 squares, horizontally or vertically only and it can't revisit a square it has already occupied on this movement.  Each square it moves, the responsibility for the move transfers to each player in turn until it can't move anymore.  Any meeples it encounters are returned to their respective owners.  Moving the dragon around is fun and calls for a little forward thinking when it comes to your turn to move it.  You can try and steer it into a cul-de-sac, away from your own players or move it towards your opposition. 

The Princess acts as a protector for a player as the Dragon can't move onto a tile occupied by the Princess.  Players can take control of the Princess at the start of their turn.  An extra point is accrued for the player who is being guarded by the Princess at the start of his or her turn.

To counter-act the effect of removing meeples from incomplete landscape features, there is also a portal tile that allows a player to place a meeple onto any previously incomplete and uninhabited feature, a significant rule change over the original game.  In addition, there are Princess tiles that allow a player to kick an opposing knight out of an incomplete city. 

Does it work?

In play, the Princess and The Dragon expansion calls for new strategical thinking and ramps up the tension, especially when the dragon is moving round the board, closing in on ones unprotected meeples.  The deliberate placing of a volcano tile near an opposing players settlement is also good fun. 

A drawback was remembering to score the extra point on each turn for possession of the Princess piece.  Trying to remember even to claim the Princess piece is a feat in itself.  While there is a small element of luck in the base Carcassonne game, especially when trying to draw just the right-shaped tile to complete a large city for example, in this expansion, if you don't draw any portal or Princess tiles, you're almost out of the running, meaning luck seems to play a bigger part than it originally does.

As with most (if not all) of the Carcassonne expansion packs, they can be combined with other expansions in the range to create one great big mega mega large game.  Just make sure you have the floor space.

Conclusion

Saying all that, it's still a fun addition to the series, my ten year old daughter in particular loves it.  The rule for the extra point seems to be one rule too far but is quite easily ignored.  It does extend the game time from 60 minutes to around 90, mainly because of the extra tiles and occasional rule lookup.  It's a worthy addition to an excellent board-game series.

Priced around £15 and published by Rio Grande Games, The Princess and The Dragon can be bought at any good board-game stockist.  The Carcassonne board game series contains elements of arithmetic, strategic and forward thinking and good old gamesmanship.

IPod Classic 160gb review

What is it?

The Apple iPod Classic 160gb is a personal music player and the sixth generation iPod to be released by Apple.  This model also represents the last in the line for the iPod Classic, a venerable product that proved to be a massive winner for Apple, helping revive their fortunes.

This is a review of the 160gb version.

What's in the box?

Apple are very miserly in their packaging and the iPod Classic is no exception.  The box was merely a small plastic case, only ever-so slightly larger than a packet of cigarettes.  Inside were a few (heavily) folded crib sheets, a pair of the ubiquitous white headphones (that aren't very good) and a USB connector lead.  Don't forget the actual iPod Classic though.  This 6th generation model was named the 'Classic' to distinguish it from the iPod 'Touch' that had just been released.  All previous models were simply called the 'iPod'.

The front of the iPad Classic has an anodized , dark grey metal surface as opposed to the 5th generations shiny gloss finish.  The edges are now slightly bevilled on the front AND back meaning it sits in the hand nicely.  Its dimensions are 10.3cm x 6.18cm x 1.5cm and weighs 140g.  It's hard to believe there is 160gb of storage inside, on a 1.5 inch hard disc drive.

The display screen is covered in Apples scratch-resistant glass and measures 2.5 inches across, taking up half of the space with a resolution of 320x240 pixels equating to 163 pixels per inch.  The other half is the Click Wheel, a touch-sensitive input mechanism that allows the user to interact with the device.  On the top of the iPod is a lock-switch and a socket for a 3,5mm headphone jack and along the bottom is the standard dock connector to allow connection to a computer or docking station.  Interestingly, the headphone socket also doubles as a microphone socket.

Getting started

The iPod Classic is a pure-bred music player and as such, needs some way of getting music onto it.  It doesn't have Wi-Fi, nor access to the Internet so it's a connection to a PC / Mac or nothing I'm afraid.

iTunes is my music organiser of choice.  I have used it for years and will continue to do so.  I am aware that there is other music and media organiser software available, even some that will sync with Apple products but iTunes is what I use. 

Plugging in the iPod Classic with iTunes running and the device is automatically recognised, prompting for registration.  If you already have an iTunes Store account, you can use that as the basis for registering so there's not much to it. 

Once registration is complete (or skipped, up to you), iTunes will then ask you to sync your music.  How much and what you sync is left up to the user which I found to be most useful as I don't necessarily sync my entire collection.  However, upgrading from 30gb to 160gb has meant oodles more space so I just clicked on 'Sync All'.  It takes a while as it's uploading quite a lot of 'giggage' via those little white Firewire cables.  Be patient.

The Interface

Items on menus are chosen by rotating the thumb (or finger) around the Click Wheel and pressing the central button (or Select).  To go back to the previous menu, press the Menu button at the top of the click wheel.  Note: the wheel doesn't actualy move as it is touch-sensitive and registers where the thumb is on the wheel.

While listening to music, rotating the Click Wheel increases the volume.  Pressing the middle button switches to song progress mode and here, rotating the click wheel will move the current position in the song forwards or backwards.

The left, right and button sections of the Click Wheel have the standard music controls and will skip onto the next or previous songs and pause or play.

The Screen

In song mode, the iPod Classic shows a fair degree of information on its colour display.  It shows the current track along with the artist and track number within the currently selected album.  There is a progress bar at the bottom showing progress within the track which switches to volume when the Click-Wheel is rotated.  There is also a picture of the album should it be available within iTunes.

Along the top are the standard battery level indicators and time.

Menu's and Music

Over the old model, the menus have been given a revamp and now appear much clearer and smarter, taking advantage of the higher pixel count in the screen.  There is also the addition of Cover Flow where album artwork is shown in a smooth and snazzy movable image carousel.  As mentioned, moving up and down menus and lists of songs is easy, simply rotating the Click Wheel.

Music can be selected by song, artist, album, genre, compilation as well as searching by word.  Playlists can be created in iTunes and will automatically be synced, accessible from the Music menu.  You can also create an 'On-The-Go' playlist by holding down the Select button (the one in the centre of the wheel) while listening to a song and it will be added to a 'On-The-Go' playlist.  Like any other music player, MP3's or CD's (or whatever), it has a shuffle facility where random songs are playeed.

Apple recently introduced a new feature into iTunes called 'Genius' that groups together songs it thinks you will like based on your listening and purchasing habits.  In practice, it's a bit of a hit and miss affair unless you only ever listen to one genre of music.  But, if like me, you fancy a bit of hardcore thrash metal alongside your funky house or dub-step, it's never going to find a happy medium.

Apps

There *are* apps available for the iPod Classic and it has to be said, they tend to be pretty poor games based around the Click-Wheel.  It comes with 3 as standard: iPod Quiz, Klondike and Vortex.  iPod Quiz is based on the music on your iPad, Klondike is a card game and Vortex is like the old arcade game, Gyruss.  They're *ok* but's that about as fas as I'll go.  They can only be classed as a diversion, at most.  In my mind, the iPod Classic is not a machine to be running lots of apps on.

Sound
The supplied, obligatory headphones with the iPod are notoriously bad.  The sound quality is average at best and worse, for me anyway, they let out a lot of noise as my work colleagues will testify.  All they can hear is that awful tinny thud-thud sound of drums.  I'm going to get a dustbin in the head one of these days, just you wait and see.

The EQ can be changed to suit the playback device and there are numerous presets from Dance to Small Speakers to Spoken Word.  While there is no fine tuning of the settings, there is a little graphical display of the preset so at least there's a vague idea of what it should sound like.  I find the EQ settings don't make a massive amount of difference but then, my headphones are not exactly expensive.

Playing through a loud-speaker such as a speaker dock or auxilliary input on a bigger amp, it all sounds good enough to me.  I'm no expert in sound but I can make out bass drums, middle range guitars and the top range beeps and whistles.  I suppose it's all down to the speakers you're playing it out of but mine all seem fine where I've played it through a small portable speaker dock, a ghetto-blaster kind of thing, a big hi-fi, a car stereo and even a guitar amp.

Video and Photos

It also plays video, surprisingly enough, as well as displaying photos.  The screen is rather small though and while miles better quality than those little Casio handheld TV's all the range in the late 80's, it's still a strain to watch.  There is an optional extra (of course you have to pay for it, it's Apple!) that allows the video to be output to a TV via RGB input sockets.  Viewed in that way and with all its hard-disc space, you could see it as a reasonable portable video player. 

Settings

Here, you can change which items appear in the main or music menus along with other more mundane stuff like the backlit brightness and whether the Click Wheel makes a little 'clicking' noise.  You can find out how much space there is left on the hard drive too.

Battery Life

Battery life is excellent.  The claimed operating time between charges is 40 hours and I would have to concur.  My old iPod 5th Generation had slowly lost its charge over the 4 years I owned it and would only last a few hours in the morning before a recharge was necessary. 

No such worries here.  I listen to music pretty much all day at work and it will happily go all week between charges.  At 7 hours a day for 5 days, that's pretty much up to 36 hours as stated by Apple.  Recharging takes up to 4 hours for a completely full charge or about 2 hours for the fast-charge up to 80%.

In Use

It really is easy to use.  Once the concept of rotating the wheel and clicking forwards and backwards through the menus is understood, there's nothing else to it.

It's the little things, the details that Apple pays attention to.  Taking out the headphones will automatically pause the music.  The UI (User Interface) just seems to have the right amount of information where you need it.  Scrolling through the menus and on the right, a small summary of the menu item is displayed, showing what you can expect to find in there.  It all adds to the experience yet you hardly notice these little things are there - a by-product of great design.

While music is playing and if left unattended, the iPod Classic will switch into a kinda' sleep mode that simply shows the time in big letters and remaining battery life.  On the older model, the screen would be blank so this is a huge improvement.  There would be plenty of times where I would have to click it back into 'full battery' mode just to see the time - now I don't, it's there for me.

It's not without its faults but they are being incredibly picky.  The Click-Wheel seems to have been 'de-sensitized' since the 5th generation.  Sometimes it stubbornly refuses to move where I want it to and that was never a problem I had with the old one.  I don't know whether it's a hardware issue or whether the tiny processor inside the iPod is struggling to keep up with the new graphical demands placed upon it.  Saying that, it's not a huge problem as once I've selected an album or podcast, I'll just let it play and get on with whatever I'm doing.

I'm not convinced with the new Cover Flow aspect to the updated software.  It's nice to see the album artwork but once I've seen it, that's it, just bring on the music baby.  I'm positive Cover Flow is affecting the reaction time of the Click Wheel too, but I could be wrong.

Scrolling through long lists of songs can be a pain.  If you scroll it fast enough, the iPod will start 'jumping' from letter to letter (by design) but because of the delayed reaction time of the Click Wheel, it's actually quite hard to get it do it.

Conclusion

If there's one thing that Apple does well is giving users of their products what they need.  When it comes to a portable music player, there's a few things that need to tick the boxes:

• Portable - CHECK
• Easy to use - CHECK
• Easy to sync music - CHECK
• Lots of space for songs - CHECK
• Good battery life - CHECK

Everything else is just filler.  The iPod Touch is a different beast altogether and is more of a portable media / gaming device.  The iPod Classic is simply there to store songs and allow you to listen to them and, well, that's what it does.

The key to the iPod Classic and the main difference between a dedicated music player and a do-it-all device such as a Touch is all it needs to do is sit in the background playing music.  The Classic will happily do that for you with a minimum of fuss.  It doesn't have many frills, doesn't need to and the interface is so clean and intuitive, it's hard not to love.

And I *do* love my iPod, even more so with all that extra storage.  I've had other MP3 players, many others in fact and none, absolutely none, match up to the simplicity of my little iPod Classic.  I don't want to play games on it (even though I can) or watch videos (even though I can), I just want music, *all* my music, and the iPod gives me that. 

I don't know how long Apple will continue to make the iPod Classic.  I've already stated it's the last generation in this model range so grab it while you can.  It's upstart sibling, the iPod Touch is obviously the one making all the waves and grabbing all the sales while the Classic seems to fading away into the background.  I, for one, will be sorry to see its passing as mine, and the 5th generation previously, has been a constant companion for many years.

When I leave the house for work in a morning, my little mental checklist goes something like this: iPod, keys, sandwiches.  In that order.  And that tells you everything you need to know because I *love* sandwiches.

Movie review: Sleuth (2007)

Synopsis

Andrew Wyke is an ageing but successful writer of trashy detective novels whose younger wife has left, shacking up with Milo Tindle, an even younger, handsome actor.  Tindle visits Wyke in attempt to persuade the older man to divorce his errant wife.   Wyke, seemingly in a fit of altruism, suggests a staged robbery of his wifes expensive jewellery.  Milo can keep the jewels and he can claim on the insurance.  Everyone's a winner.  Milo reluctantly agrees and sets in motion a chain of events as the two protagonists indulge in a psychological and dangerous game of cat and mouse.

Opinion

Sleuth (2007) is actually a re-make of an earlier film from 1972 which _in itself_ was a movie version of an award-winning play written by Anthony Shaffer.  In the 1972 screen version Michael Caine plays Milo, the Jude Law character and it's interesting to see him play the 'other' role of Wyke.  This 2007 version sees the screenplay written by the late great Harold Pinter and based more on the original Shaffer play than the film re-make.  This was to be Pinters last screenplay he wrote before sadly succumbing to cancer in 2008.  Direction is provided by famous actor / lovie Kenneth Branagh.

The plot *is* very Pinteresque with many of the literary signatures that that monicker implies.  Two warring parties, attempting to gain an upper hand, physically and mentally abusing one another, a struggle for territorial dominance.  Pinter and Brannagh have brought it up to date with the inclusion of new technology as plot mechanisms.  For instance, Wyke's obsession with cameras and gadgets replaces those giant mechanical toys in the original.  In fact, to call it a remake is doing the film a disservice as it's almost a complete re-imagining of the story. 

Caine and Law play their respective parts to perfection.  Caine is, well, Michael Caine and a cinematic legend (The Swarm aside).  Thanks to the razor-sharp Pinter dialogue (it should be trademarked), the two characters positively fizz off one another, verbally jousting with arid wit, ferocious put-downs and rapacious anger.  They duck and dive and circle warily, literally and figuratively, jabbing and prodding with capricious banter before launching into full-scale attacks.  Only seconds after they meet and after Milo has parked his small hatchback next to Andrews executive motor, Andrew makes a comment about the size of Milo's car.  "Oh, you've got a small car," he says. "It's not the big one," replies Tindle.  "No, the big one's mine," smirks Wyke.  Ouch.

And they continue.  Wyke constantly refers to Tindle as a hairdresser (he was a hairdresser in the 1972 film) and is constantly being corrected (he's now an actor).  This passing nod being a neat touch while demonstrating Andrews wit and candour.  Milo tells Wyke that he hasn't read of any his books, obviously an insult to a successful author.  Wykes response and in answer to Milo's Italian ancestry is, "They're a funny lot the Italians, Culture isn't really their thing."

It's a very claustrophobic film, with virtually all of the film shot inside the stately house that Wyke inhabits.  Glimpses of the outside are via the security cameras that Wyke has obsessively placed in every conceivable direction.  The house in the 2007 version is in contrast to the kitsch nouveau-rich decoration of that previous, being minimalistic and stark and gadget-laden.  A lift, a focal point of the plot, dominates the set and even this contributes to the claustrophobic air.  Kenneth Brannagh states in an interview the claustrophobia was intentional and he believed the viewer would find fascination in the power of the writing and the performance of the actors.

Polling my wife of her opinion, she described the film as 'absolutely brilliant'.  She thought the actors were superb and the unpredictable nature of the story and plot meant she was gripped.  It was a little hard to get into, she said, but it didn't take long for her to grasp the concept.  She also described it as a 'film lovers film' particularly for those who like something a little different, a little out of the ordinary and I wholeheartedly agree.

With such a small cast (only 4 actors are billed, Pinter being one in his last screen role) and limited set, it's down to the writing, direction and character performances to carry the film.  In that regard, it doesn't disappoint.  Every nuance and exclamation mark of the script is carried off with aplomb by Law and Caine and they provide tour de force performances worthy of the writing. 

Conclusion

Overall, Sleuth (2007) is an exceptional film.  It's fascinating and interesting, has a wickedly unpredictable plot, is written with zeal and vigour and the acting is first-class.  A worthy addition to Caine and Law's curriculum vitae and a fitting tribute to the wonderful Harold Pinter whose work will be missed greatly.

You will like this movie if you like well-written, character-led dramas that are a little different.
You won't like this movie if you think Transformers is too wordy.

Running time: 86 minutes.
Certificate: 15 for strong language
Directed by Kenneth Brannagh