LATEST ADDITIONS

This fourth screen take on Stephen King's first best-seller (don't tell us you forgot about 1999's The Rage: Carrie 2 and 2002's TV movie?) still finds it almost impossible to escape from the shadow of Brian De Palma's original 1976 adaptation. While the storyline has been updated to bring cyber-bullying into the mix, otherwise it's business as usual, with the exact same story beats being played out yet again.

Did Neil Armstrong take ‘one giant leap for mankind’ when he stepped onto the lunar surface or were the Apollo missions, as the conspiracy theorists would like us to believe, nothing but a ‘giant’ hoax? Using dubious scientific evidence, they first of all argued that a trip to the moon would have been impossible due to the effects of deadly cosmic radiation, before attacking the photographs from the lunar surface as clever fakes. But whether the moon missions were real or not, the public began to lose interest anyway, angry about the tremendous amount of money being spent on space exploration. 

The public perception of a brand is a curious thing. JBL is one of the most venerable outfits in the market and has an extensive range, including lush high-end models such as the Everest flagship. Yet in the UK it has a rather low profile, one that is largely influenced by its compact speakers and desktop audio biz.

Flicking through one of the Sunday broadsheets earlier this year I came across a piece by the paper's TV critic, taking a pop at HBO's fantasy show Game of Thrones. With my own opinion being so far opposed to that of the writer, I was actually rather intrigued by the prospect of reading what I assumed would be a thoughtful and intelligent critique of the hit show. How wrong I was.