A Review of _The Player of Games_

Memoirs Of A Geisha (2006)
"A decent and beautiful film crippled by bad casting and non-native speakers forced to use English."

Lady Vengeance (2005)
"The latest film from Park Chan-wook is the final part of his revenge trilogy and is another cracking film, though less about the vengeance and more about the Jeunet."

A Bittersweet Life (2005)
"A promising revenge thriller ruined by misplaced comedy"

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
"The best film of 2005 is almost certainly The Constant Gardner, but for a film just as good, in a far different and less serious way, check out Kiss Kiss Bang Bang."

Left For Dead : UK Action Film
"Can a British crew make an action film with Hong Kong sensibilities? Watch Left for Dead and you'll see."

Unleashed (2005)
"Perseverence does pay off, as Jet Li finally makes a decent Hollywood film. In fact, so good it's up there with the mighty Fist Of Legend"

The Interpreter (2005)
"A decent thriller, featuring excellent performances from Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, but let down by a lacklustre ending."

The Algebraist - Iain M Banks
"Iain M Banks - just not as we know him"

Primer (2004)
"Excellent time travel debut from American auteur."

The Purifiers (2004)
"A low-budget Scottish kung fu film, with boring fights, bad acting and a fight in the dark involving blue glowsticks."

2046 (2004)
"Wong Kar Wai's follow up to In The Mood For Love isn't quite as accomplished, but still cements his reputation as the master of conveying mood and emotion via celluloid"

House of Flying Daggers (2004)
"Yimou's second wuxia epic is a disappointing tragedy dressed up as unintentional farce."

Series 7: The Contenders (2001)
"A violent and hilarious satire on reality TV. Not be confused with The Running Man."

Oldboy (2003)
"Chan-wook Park's ultraviolent revenge tale shits all over Kill Bill from a great height."

Hero (2002)
"Zhang Yimou moves from arthouse to martial arts with a gorgeous film about the making of China"

Versus (2000)
"Bloody but surprisingly dull Japanese zombie flick."

Casshern (2004)
"A mind-blowing SF visual feast"

My Sassy Girl (2001)
"The best romantic comedy since Amelie"

Hellboy (2004)
"Guillermo Del Toro's adaptation of Mike Mignola's anti-hero is decent but could have done with a bigger budget and more interesting action."

Kill Bill 2 (2004)
"Quentin Tarantino concludes the Kill Bill story with a turgid film that should have been about two hours shorter and a lot less painful to endure."

Last Life In The Universe (2003)
"Another slow, romance set against the backdrop of an Asian metropolis; a Thai Lost In Translation if you will."

Infernal Affairs 2 (2003)
"Infernal Affairs was an intelligent, thought-provoking, suspense-laden thriller, but sadly its prequel is none of these."

Zatoichi (2003)
"An excellent samurai action film"

Raw Spirit: In search of the perfect dram
"In Search of the Perfect Dram Iain insists on tasting them all."

Down The Bright Way - Robert Reed
"Interesting story which has a lot of common ground with Stargate SG-1"

Eternal Sunshine For The Spotless Mind (2004)
"A brilliant, unsentimental romantic comedy."

Autobiography
"© Iain Banks"

Underworld
"Vampire Movie starring Kate Beckinsale"

Blow Up
"A film by Michelangelo Antonioni starring David Hemmings and Vanessa Redgrave."

Broken Angels - Richard Morgan
"Sequel (sort-of) to Altered Carbon"

041
"© Iain Banks 1983"

Elephant - Gus van Sant, 2003
"Gus van Sant's output is almost unique amongst directors - somehow he manages to slip from the decidedly left-field films (My Own Private Idaho, his frame-by-frame remake of Psycho) into big "Hollywood" films (Good Will Hunting) and back again without any problem. Along the way, he's also directed well acclaimed middle-ground films such as To Die For, shot music videos and become a published author."

Lost In Translation
"Sofia Coppola's second effort is a slow and dreamy romance film set against the backdrop of Tokyo."

Robot Stories
"A collection of four SF tales that uses robots to explore some "deep shit" about humans."

2009: Lost Memories
"Alternate history is rarely used as the basis for films, much less in violent action films, but in 2009: Lost Memories, a Korean and Japanese co-production, the new timeline is original and well conceived."

Luminal (2003)
"A Continental art house film so stereotypically pretentious it is almost self-parody."

If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things - Jon McGregor
"This book, the first by Nottingham based author Jon McGregor won several awards, not least the Somerset Maugham prize."

Interstellar 5555
"As a concept, the premise for Interstellar 5555 sounds distinctly more 70's prog-rock than 21st century. Making an hour long animated film, soundtracked entirely by your music (no dialogue at all) would probably be the sort of thing you'd expect from 'Tales from the Topographic Oceans'-era Yes. It's not, perhaps, an idea you'd expect from French electronic dance act Daft Punk. And yet, in association with Toei animation, that's precisely what they've done. The film, made over 28 months of intensive work, is backed by music from the Discovery Album (2002). If you've seen any of the videos for the singles from that album, you've already seen parts of the Interstellar 5555."

Cypher - A second review.
"This is the latest film by Vincenzo Natali, who was the director of the low budget cult hit Cube. Indeed, in some ways it carries the theme of paranoia from that film over with it. However, the shadowy agency in Cypher isn't governmental, but corporate. Two huge firms dominate the story, and are locked in a war of subterfuge and escalating espionage."

Charlie Bell To Change Name Shock
"A proposal that Charlie Bell change his name."

quicksilver
"a worthy prequel to cryptonomicon"

Science: A History
"Want to learn about all of science, and the people involved? Do you also want to stay awake during the experience? Before Science: A History, it wasn't possible."

CrowCons
"Formal meetings by the list members have become a tradition and have been held mostly on the British Isles."

The List as Art
"Culture List member Andrew Frost converts a mailing list into Art with his bare hands"

The Natural Life Cycle of Mailing Lists
"Every list seems to go through the same cycle:"

Battle Royale II: Requiem (2003)
"Sloppy sequel to the excellent Battle Royale"

Small Press Expo 2003
"I attended the Small Press Expo 2003 to interview various creators for The City Morgue, a local magazine that I write for. While I was there, I figured that I might as well produce a review of the Expo itself. The Morgue didn't need the review and, when I tried to interest Comic Book Resources in the article, I was told that too much time had passed since the event."

_Prince of Ayodhya_
"Ramayana, Valmiki's ancient epic, has recently been rendered into a fantasy series by A.K. Banker. _Prince of Ayodhya_ is the first book in this series."

*whisper* Iain Banks *mutter* Bryan Singer *mumble* The Player Of Games
"Not so much an article, more a small item."