Tomb Raider III: The Adventures of Lara Croft

Right this may well turn out to be my last post of the year on this blog as I may not get time to squeeze another one in before the New Year so I decided to do one on another Tomb Raider game which I have been playing recently, Tomb Raider III.  So let's gear up and give this one a look....

So a bit about the plot which begins with a meteorite crashing onto Earth in Antarctica millions of years ago.  The story then moves to the present day where Lara starts off her mission in India to find the artefact, which she eventually takes from a researcher who works for the corporation RX Tech, who went insane and Lara was forced to kill.  Lara is soon then approached by Dr Willard who is the head of RX Tech and he tells Lara of the background of the stone she acquired and it is only one of four stones, which are scattered throughout the world and Lara agrees to help Willard recover all of them.  From here Lara's travels take her to other locations which include the South Pacific, London, Nevada and Antarctica but as she tries to acquire the stones she as usual faces some dangerous opposition along the way and as she nears the end of her travels another twist awaits her before she complete her quest. (Wow that was really quick!).

Tomb Raider III continued to see the franchise carry on in style as overall its a very entertaining and enjoyable game, which features even more expansive environments than the previous game in TRII.  The gameplay also has been enhanced more this time round and it sees some new moves have been added for Lara as she now has the ability to crouch, which she oftens uses to get through confined spaces and she can also sprint aswell, which can at times comes in handy when Lara has to dodge a bolder or run away from danger such as a moving spiked wall.  Another new feature move wise is the inclusion of monkey bars as Lara can now jump up and grab overhead bars or vines to traverse certain areas of the game where she can't go on foot.  Lara also can access in one level during one of the South Pacific levels a kayak, which she can use to move through some dangerous waters as in the South Pacific the rapids prove to be fatal for Lara if she happens to fall into them.  In terms of the underwater parts of the game there are also some new inclusions such as the force of water currents can push Lara in a certain direction, which forces her to try and swim her way toward the direction she needs to go in.  Underwater there is also a new danger in the form of piranha fish, which are lethal and they will swarm round Lara and kill her almost instantly if by accident or fate falls she falls into waters where they are to be found.  Lara also during the Antarctica levels has a temperature level bar which will drop quickly as she will swim in subzero temperatures and she may die if she doesn't get out of the water in time.  And in terms of the environmental hazards the game features another danger also which is quicksand and there are certain times where Lara has no choice but move through quicksand and she will at times become almost submerged by the quicksand, which will cause her oxygen level to reduce and if she is not careful she may drown but in most instances Lara can move through the quicksand to reach the surface before that happens. 

Moving onto the gameplay's combat system things are pretty much as before but there are some new additional weapons alongside the usual suspects (ha ha just reviewed that aswell!) of handguns, uzis, shotgun, harpoon and the grenade launcher, which are the desert eagle (which is the best gun in the game!) a rocket launcher and an MP-5 submachine gun.  Also an improvement to the previous game Lara has access to more pickups than before in terms of weapons, ammo and also flares, which she can find a healthy supply of throughout.  The game also gives a balanced approach in its combat of enemies as Lara will take on both animals (primarily in the earlier levels in India and South pacific) and later humans.  And of some of the new animals featured in the game there are monkeys, who curiously go from being helpful in the first India level to being suddenly hostile in the next levels!  There are also rattlesnakes and Pythons which can poison Lara, which will turn her healthbar yellow and it will gradually reduce and she will need to use a medpack to restore her health.  As for the human enemies as before you get a game boss at the end of each stage in the game for the different locations (except for Nevada).

Graphics wise Tomb Raider III for its time looks great and again the programmers have produced some really impressive looking environments for Lara to run around in and they look a bit more refined and smooth than in TRII and with the different locations of Indian, London, South Pacific, Nevada and Antarctica there is much visual variety on display.  The characters models have also slightly improved from before as Lara looks a bit little bit more defined than previously (her chest is now no longer sharp and pointed as in the original for starters and its still big!) features wise, but the models are still way off the level of what we have today in character graphics but for their time they aren't bad at all.  The game still does of course have some graphical blips such as clipping especially when Lara has killed some enemies and their bodies lie through the floor or are only half seen!  Music wise the game also features a fine score written by Nathan McCree, which does reuse some of his music from TRII but the new tracks are really good and are also quite ambient and atmospheric and again they suit the adventurous tone of the game perfectly.  Voice acting wise however the game still let's itself down a bit as the acting is pretty so-so and Judith Gibbins once again resumes her part as the voice of Lara and her performance again is a bit flat and one dimensional.

Which brings me onto the game's flaws.... are they any???  Well yeah there are some to be found, first off the game's graphics and visual design are at times a bit too discrete and in darkened areas it can be quite hard to spot items such as ammo or medpacks, which in this instances may also rely on the use of flares to light up an area.  And this also applies to certain areas in the game in dark passages where you might struggle to find where to go next and you find that you are looking for a ledge, which appears to be hidden but is just right above you only you can't see it!  The game also has done away with the visual icon of the item that Lara has picked up e.g. a medpack which was quite handy in TRII but unfortunately it is missed here as it was a good visual aid particularly dark places as to what you have just found.  Some of the game's puzzles can also be a bit obscure at times and it would take some figuring out and yeah OK I admit it I cheated the game in stages and use walkthroughs to get through it when I played it recently (I know shame on me!). 

Another criticism that could also be levelled at the game is also to do again with Lara's movement which still feels a bit sluggish in terms of the speed of her running (although the sprint does speed her up quite a bit and is a good inclusion).  This is also particularly notable when Lara has to try and make it through timed doors and she takes a wrong turn and hits against a wall she will quickly find herself to be out of time and you will need to start again.  It also causes much frustration when Lara tries to outrun bolders only to sluggishly turn a corner and find herself flattened as she couldn't turn in time to avoid it!  Another issue with the game are some of the underwater segments of the game which feature strong currents which end up pulling or pushing Lara in the opposite direction of where she needs to swim and you find yourself frantically pressing down the button to try and get Lara to move in the right direction.  This is a real pain in the arse in one or two parts of the game, especially in one of the levels in India where Lara has to swim in area where there is a strong current pulling her in the other direction and will also her pull into some spikes that are in the back wall, which will quickly kill her of course (and it took me a few goes to get past that!). 

And lastly (yes I know three paragraphs on the game's flaws!) the game also exhibits some strange behaviour with the enemies AI especially with the human baddies as some of them keep moving around in circles, this is notable in the Nevada security compound level where Lara releases some prisoners who help her overcome the security guards but they keep moving around in circles as they attack one another!  And one of the game's most annoying aspects is when armed enemies are killed they get off one last shot before they die, which will invariably take a bit off Lara's health bar if she doesn't avoid being in the line of fire right away.  And last of all in the Nevada desert level one thing that left me baffled was why was the outside of the security compound being guarded by bikers????!!  It just seems totally bizarre that some bikers from the Hell's Angels or some other outlaw motorcycle gang would be called in to guard a high security facility rather than your standard dressed security guards!  Perhaps the bikers wanted to have a go and paid off the security guards by giving them some cool crystal meth!  Its not a big deal of course but it certainly is an unusual inclusion in the game.

Anyway despite those flaws (and yes I know there are few there but then it is an older game so that is to be expected and to a large extent can be forgiven) Tomb Raider III is still a very enjoyable game and one of the most solid entries in the series.  It may be a slow burner to start with but it soon becomes a pleasure to play and like the previous two games it will keep you entertained for hours on end.

So that's it for now and if I don't manage another post tomorrow (which I might not) I will wish you all a Happy New Year and I will see you in 2015!

Bye the now.           

       

The Usual Suspects "Who is Keyser Soze???"

Right well thought I would start off by saying Merry Christmas to everyone out there and hope you all had a good one.  I didn't quite manage a post on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day so I thought I would do one today on Boxing day.  And this one is not exactly a seasonal post but it will cover the neo-noir thriller film, The Usual Suspects, which was released all the way back in 1995 (nearly 20 years ago!).  So let's give this one a look.....

So the film begins onboard a ship that is docked in San Pedro bay and a wounded man, Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne) who is approached by another man who's appearance is kept out of sight, but wears a coat and a hat and he asks Keaton if he is ready to die and takes out a gun and shoots him.  The story then cuts to a court where a cripple, Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey) who is a small-time con-artist, gives a testimonial based on his involvement in the events leading up to what appears to be a massacre onboard the ship at the beginning of the film.  Verbal then later tells the rest of the story to a Customs agent, Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) in an office in a police station.  The story is then told in flashback by Verbal, who was rounded by the New York City police along with four other men involved allegedly in a gun shipment robbery.  The other men being Michael McManus (Stephen Baldwin) a professional thief, Fred Fenster (Benecio Del Toro) who is McManus's partner, Todd Hockey (Kevin Pollak) a hijacker and also Dean Keaton who was a former corrupt police officer.  While they are being held in custody, McManus convinces the others to get back at the police by intercepting a smuggler who is escorted by corrupt cops and stealing his stash, which they carry out after their release, despsite Keaton's initial reluctance to get involved in crime again as he has tried to put that life behind him as he is now in a relationship with a lawyer, Edie Finnernan (Suzy Amis).   

After the robbery they takes the goods to McManus's contact, Redfoot (Peter Greene) who tells them of another potential opportunity to make money in a smuggling operation.  The men pull off the robbery but afterward they discover the shipment was cocaine and not jewelry.  The men angrily confront Redfoot, who tells them he was given the job by a lawyer who works for someone unknown.  Later on the men are approached by the lawyer, Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite) who says he works for the criminal mastermind, Keyser Soze and he tells them that they at some time or another stolen goods that belonged to Soze, but they were unaware of this and as such Soze wants them to do a job which involve destroying a large consigment of cocaine on a ship worth 91 million dollars, which will see a group of Argentinians sell the drugs to a Hungarian gang.  Kobayashi also warns them however that if they do not carry out this task then their friends and families will be killed.  Fenster then bails out from the group but is killed as a result and the other men are given an address sent by Kobayashi where they can find his body, where they bury him.  Afterward they decide to kill Kobayashi and to take him hostage at his office but Kobayashi reveals that he is currently working with Edie on legal matters, and she will be killed if they do not complete the job, so with no choice the men decided to go ahead with the job.  And this leads into the film's climax onboard the ship where the men get more than they bargained for and it eventually leads into the film's final plot twist.....

There is not much doubt that The Usual Suspects is something of a modern classic in itself and it remains a highly entertaining thriller that keeps the initial viewer guessing till the very end of the true identity of the film's main unseen antagonist, Keyser Soze.  Even though it was actually Bryan Singer's third film, it was the one that brought him to the fore as a director in the public eye and it kick started his career in Hollywood.  Singer himself came up with the idea for the film's title from a column he read in Spy magazine called "The Usual Suspects" which Singer thought would be a good title for the film (the line itself was originally taken from the classic film Casablanca).  The film also has a great script, which was written by Christopher McQuarrie, who formerly worked at a detective agency and he used his knowledge of working in that role in his depiction of the criminals and law enforcement in the film.  The character Keyser Soze was also based on the real life events of a criminal, John List, who was an accountant from New Jersey who killed his family and disappeared, changing his identity and Singer also said the name came from one Singer's former bosses named Kayser Sume, but he changed the surname to Soze, which is Turkish and the translation is "talk too much".  So overall its a very cleverly put together film.

Getting onto the performances section of the review, they are all great and a top cast would be needed to do the film's script justice, which they sure do.  Starting with Kevin Spacey, who won an Academy Award for his performance as Verbal Kint, and is great in his role as the somewhat ambiguous character that he is.  Spacey has various highlights in the film such as the scene during the police lineup (where they actors are cracking up for real in this scene!) where they are giving a card which has the words on it "hand me the keys you fucking cocksucker" and Spacey as Kint says it last and he says it in quite a sinister way "hand me the keys you fucking cocksucker!".  Spacey as Kint appears to be a weak and fairly mild mannered character but there is always an underlying sense of authority to the way he talks.  Spacey does have some fun moments in the film such as the scene where he drinks  a cup of coffee at the police station and he says to Dave Kujan "Back when I picking beans in Guatemala, we used to make fresh coffee, right off the trees I mean.  That was good.  This is shit, but hey I'm in a police station!".  Then there is the scene where Verbal meets with Keaton at Keaton's apartment, who grabs Verbal and punches him in the gut, but apologises afterward and Verbal painfully limps and sits down on the stair of his living room and says "I'll probably shit blood tonight!".  Another good scene is where Verbal explains to Kujan who Keyser Soze was and he says "He is supposed to be Turkish.  Some say his father was German.  Nobody believed he was real.  Nobody ever saw him or knew anybody that worked directly for him, but to hear Kobayashi tell it, anybody could have worked for Soze.  You never knew.  That was his power.  The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.  And like that, poof!  He's gone!".  And then there is the scene where Verbal says to Kujan "Keaton always said "I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of him".  Well I believe in God and the only thing that scares me is Keyser Soze".  And later where Verbal pleads with Kujan to believe him as to why he didn't shoot Soze at the harbour when he saw him from afar and Verbal says "It was Keyser Soze, Agent Kujan, I mean the devil himself!  How do you shoot the devil in the back???  What if you miss??".

Gabriel Byrne is also great in his part as the former corrupt cop, Dean Keaton, who tries but fails to go straight and he lured back into the criminal world by Verabl and the others.  Byrne also has some great moments in the film such as the scene where he is questioned by the police at the start of the film and he says to the officers interrogating him "Now you charge me with this shit, and I'll beat it!  OK?!".  Then there is the scene where Keaton searches the docked ship near the end of the film and he meets with McManus and angrily tells him there is no coke onboard the ship "There's no coke!" and McManus doesn't believe him and Keaton again says "I told you, you dumb fuck there's no coke onboard!  I looked everywhere!  THERE IS NO FUCKING COKE!!".  Another good scene is where Keaton and the other men are in the holding cell and as McManus tries to get the other men interested in his plan to get back at the cops, Keaton says to him "Why don't you just shut up?  I don't want to hear anything you have to say, and I don't want anything to do with any of you.  Pardon me for saying this, but as far as I'm concerned you can all go to hell".  And then there is scene later on in the film where the men find Fenster's dead body and Keaton says to the others "You want payback?  You wanna run?  I don't care!  I'm not doing this for Fenster, I'm not doing it for you....I'm doing it for me.  I'm gonna finish this thing!  This Kobayashi bastard is not gonna stand on me!" as he starts to dig his hands into the sand to create a hole to bury Fenster's body and the others start to join him.

Chazz Palminteri also provides a fine performance as the customs agent Dave Kujan, who has been investigating Dean Keaton and questions Verbal at a police station.  Palminteri's hightlights include the scene where Kujan tells Verbal about Keaton and his track record for police corruption and "Dean Keaton was dead.  Did you know that?  He died in a fire two years ago during the investigation into the murder of a witness who was going to testify against him.  Two people watched Dean Keaton walk into a warehouse he owned just before it blew up.  They said he went in to check a leaking gas main.  It blew up and took all of Dean Keaton with it.  Within three months of the explosion, the two witnesses, they were dead.  One killed himself in his car, the other fell down an open elevator shaft".  Then there is the scecne where Kujan grows angry at Verbal for not telling him what he wants and he angry pushes him and as Verbal says he's got immunity, Kujan says "Not from me!  You get no immunity from me you piece of shit!  Every criminal I have put in prison, every cop that owes me a favour, every creep and scumbag that walks the streets for a living will know the name of Verbal Kint.  Now you talk to me, or that precious immunity they seem to grant you won't be worth the paper the contract on your life is printed on!".  And last of all there is the scene just before the end of the film where after Verbal has been released, Kujan sits apparently content about what he has learned from Verbal.  But as Kujan sits with a coffee cup in his hand, something catches his eye on the office's busy billboard, which causes him to drop his coffee cup, which smashes into pieces and he races out the office being hit by a revelation which reveals the film's twist.

Getting onto the other performances, Stephen Baldwin is pretty good in his role as McManus, who is a bit of a loose canon and one of the five men in the lineup.  Baldwin also some good moments in the film such as the lineup scene where he provides a funny momeny where he delivers the line he has been given in a comical manner as he yells like he comic bad guy "GIVE ME THE FUCKIN KEYS YOU COCKSUCKA MOTHERFUCKAA!!".  Another good moment for Baldwin is the scene where the men find Fenster's body and he tells Hockney, whom doesn't get on with McManus to help bury him and he says "Dig, you fuck!".  And in the same scene Hockey tells McManus to go fuck himself and McMaus says to Hockney "He was my friend and together we did more jobs and made more money than you ever could dream so FUCK YOU!!!  Cos now its payback!".  Then there is the scene where the men are in the holding cell and McManus teases Keaton about his relationship with Edie Finnernan, who is a lawyer and he says "What kind of retainer are you givin her?".  And lastly there is the scene where onboard the ship, McManus has some of the drug gang in his sights on a sniper rifle and he quietly says "Oooo McDonald had a farm, ee i ee i o.  And on that farm he shot some guys!  Badda boom badda bing bing boom!".

Kevin Pollak is also pretty good in his role as the sarcy and smart-assed Hockeny, who Verbal at one point describes in his narration as "the one guy who could not give a fuck about anybody!".  And Pollak also some good scenes in the film and his first scene is a good introduction where the cops come for Hockney at a garage where he works, and Hockey in the scene slowly reaches down for a rag to wipe his face and the cops nervously aims their guns at him yelling no to move, and Hockney says "Are you sure you brought enough guys???".  Pollak also has another good moment in the holding cell where Hockney asks "I wanna know who's the gimp?" as he refers to Verbal, who sits quietly and he says "What about it Pretzel man, what's your story?" and Keaton tells him his name is Verbal Kint.  And as Verbal says "Roger, people say I talk too much" Hockney quips "yeah I was just about to tell you to shut up!".  Pollak notably in the film also had a bit of onscreen and offscreen tension with Stephen Baldwin (who is a bit of an arsehole anyway in real life!) and there a few scenes where we see it, such as the scene where Hockney is annoyed at McManus holding out on them meeting with his contact, and Hockey angrily looks at McManus and says "You wanna dance??!".  And finally one of Pollak's funniest moments comes in the scene where Hockney is questioned by the police and he says to one of them "I'm gonna have your badge, cocksucker!" and one of them asks him what happens if he doesn another turn in the joint, Hockney replies "Fuck your father in the shower and have a snack?!  You gonna charge me dickhead?".

And the last few cast members I will mention are firstly Benecio Del Toro, who is at times hilarious in his role as the eccentric Fenster.  Del Toro sprouts a pretty funny hairdo and wears some outlandish styled suits and he get's some of the film's funniest moments and he also affects a pretty unusual accent.  And this is best put to use in the lineup scene where Fenster has to say the same line as the other men, but because of his accent, he is told by one of the officers to speak "In English!" and he says the line again "Hand me the keys you cocksucker, what the fuck?!".  Another funny moment from Del Toro is where Fenster is questioned by the cops and as he says he doesn't know anything about a stolen truck, they say that McManus told them a different story and Fenster says "Oh yeah, is that the one about the hooker with dysentery?!" and also he says to the cops how "He'll flip ya, flip ya for real!". 

Pete Postlethwaite who provides a good performance as Soze's lawyer, Kobayashi, and Pete adopts a rather bizzare Indian sounding accent for the role, which makes his character unique in itself.  Pete's scenes in the film are also excellent particularly in his first scene where he explains to the men their unknown involvement in having stolen from Soze in the past.  And he says to the men "That you did not know you have stolen from Mr Soze is the only reason you are still alive.  He feels you owe him.  You will repay your debt".  And later as McManus prepares to shoot Kobayashi, the lawyer tells them he is working with Edie Finernan, Keaton's girlfriend, and in no uncertain terms that basically they have no choice but to do the job.  "Get some rest gentlemen.  If I see you or any of your friends before then, Miss Finnernan will find herself the victim of a most gruesome violation before she dies.  As will your father, Mr Hockney, and your Uncle Randall in Arizona, Mr Kint.  I might only castrate Mr McManus's nephew, David.  Do I make myself clear??".  Nice fella. 

And last of all is Peter Greene who provides a good cameo as Redfoot, McManus's contact and he get's two great lines, the first being when McManus angrily confronts Redfoot by throwing a stolen pack of drugs at him "What am I supposed to do with that?!" say McManus and Redfoot says "I dunno.  Feed it to the gimp!" and he throws it at Verbal (the line itself is a neat reference to Greene's own character from Pulp Fiction, Z, the redneck biker who says "bring out the gimp!").  And near the end of the scene when McManus says to Redfoot "If you try anything else and I'm gonna kill you!" and Redfoot says "Such a tough guy, McManus.  Why don't you do me a favour: get the fuck off my dick!" and he pings his cigarette at McManus's eye! 

Finally moving onto Bryan Singer, who does a stellar job here with the film and he paces it out to perfection as at just over 1 hour and 40 minutes it is as tight as a drum.  Singer also handles the film's suspense effortlessly well and keeps you guessing as to what is really going on as the film approach's its end.  And last of all I will mention John Ottman's music score which is very good and is also quite suspenseful and atmospheric in places.  Ottman also was the film's editor and he regularly collaborates with Singer as Singer's main composer.

As for flaws..... well The Usual Suspects doesn't really have many worth niggling over as its perfectly paced, very well acted and it has a great script which is well thought and doesn't have too many glaring flaws.  The only thing I would say is that Verbal's character is a bit annoying as he appears to be a bit too meek, yet you must know there is something up with this guy and if you think about it why would Keyser Soze bother sparing this guy, who was the weakest link of the group of men???  And that's where the film's twist becomes a bit more apparent but to be fair only really after you have seen it once.  Verbal's reference to the Keyser Soze as the devil is also a bit cheesy in a way and it remains one of the film's very few cheesy lines where Verbal pleads with Kujan to listen to him as to why he didn't shoot Soze and he says "I mean it was Keyzer Soze, the devil himself!".  And in the end the film leaves Keyser Soze as a character as being open to interpretation and who is to say whom he really is?  Is the ending of the film really what has happened?  Well it would appear so but who knows as in the press and even Kevin Spacey and other actors have mused that Keyser Soze isn't necessarily who he is shown to be at the end of the film and just maybe the man seen on the ship in the dock could have been someone else working on behalf of Soze also.  You might aswell ask who is the real Stig on Top Gear when it could be a number of people!  Anyways let's not get too deep into that one as you might aswell except the identity of Keyser Soze at the end of the film as it is shown.

So that's it for my look at The Usual Suspects, which is still an excellent crime thriller to this very day and is still worth a watch if you haven't seen it in a while (or if not at all, get on to it!).

And I will be back soon with another post.

Bye for now.  Merry Christmas!  
      

2014 The Apprentice Finale: Tights vs Online Marketing

Right so here we are have arrived at the final episode of The Apprentice, which sees the last two standing, Mark and Bianca go head to head for the right to become Lord Sugar's business partner.  So let's see how it went.....

So the final task was for the two finalists two launch their business by creating a video for it and also do a presentation in front of industry experts.  Both candidates were helped by some of the former candidates in the process, which saw Mark's team consist of Sanjay, Felipe, James and Sarah (who was picked last as the leftover!) and Bianca's team, which comprised of Daniel, Katie, Felipe and Lauren.  Mark's business, a digital marketing business intended to help smaller businesses grow and he named his business "Climb online" however Sarah in Mark's team was dubious of the name as the way it read in the design was "climbonline" as all one word (which they changed anyway).  Mark also decided to offer a personalised service to business which would help make his business stand out in what is a very crowded market.  Mark once again showed that he was very nervous about the event and struggled to get his lines right while filming his promo video for the business and he also kept fluffing his speech in rehearsal, which threatened that his pitch could be a disaster.    

Bianca's company was to create high quality ladies tights and hosiery of various skin tones and named her business "True skin" and as they were designed to be a premium high quality product, Bianca wanted to sell them for £25 each.  However the market research done by her team confirmed that the price was too high and the packaging was a bit bland, but regardless of this Bianca chose to go ahead with her plan, although she did bump the price down to £20.  Bianca also made an arugably poor managerial decision by telling three of her team, Daniel, Felipe and Lauren to head back to the house while she and Katie worked on the video for her presentation, as Bianca didn't want too many opinions.  Lord Sugar's advisor, Nick Hewer, also criticised Bianca for making a poor managerial decision by not listening to the market research.

As for the night of the pitches, Bianca went on first and delivered an excellent pitch to the industry experts who seemed quite impressed with her plan, although they did express their concern over the cost of the product and her lack of manufacturing experience.  Mark despite an early sign of nerves also delivered a very good pitch to the experts and showed his excellent knowledge of the industry, which impressed many of the experts in the crowd.  One negative however for Mark was the choice of entertainment arranged by Solomon and James, which was quite cringeworthy as it was two men dressed in orange and blue material, which covered their faces, they both mimed climbing a ladder, which even saw Lord Sugar almost bury his head in his hands!

In the boardroom Lord Sugar questioned both Mark and Bianca once more on their business and although he thought Bianca's plan was a good idea and could prove not only to fill a gap in the market and very lucrative he also realised that Bianca had no experience in the manufacturing process involved and as such was relcutant to want to "hold her hand" throughout the process of initialising the business.  Bianca however expressed that this wouldn't be a problem as she knew the manufacturers that she needed to meet with and Lord Sugar could purely carry out his advisory role.  Mark's business was also commended by the fact that he already had experience in that field but Lord Sugar was concerned that digital marketing is already very crowded business and also that Mark would need to pay staff to be employed to go out to meet with other businesses.  After this Lord Sugar summed up and then he made his decision and he decided to hire Mark as he felt his business plan was the more solid of the two given Mark's experience, which saw him become Lord Sugar's new business partner.

Well to be honest I'm not entirely sure I agree with Lord Sugar's decision to hire Mark, even though he is a very capable candidate and he knows his business very well, but I just felt on a personal level he was a bit too cocky, who off and on in the process used some strategic tactics to play candidates off each other to his advantage.  Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh as the process itself is all about competition and Mark at the end of the day was excellent at dealing with competition and even eventually saw off his main rival, Daniel, before claiming the big prize.  And to be fair Mark did present his business well at the presentation and managed to get through it without any major stumbles (and just one minor cough at the start!).  And I think even though Lord Sugar said he saw Mark's plan as a bit of a gamble, it was the devil in him that made him want to go with Mark's business plan instead, I just felt he was playing it safe by going with the guy who was already established in a business he already works in.  Regardless though Mark has done very well to come through as the winner of this year's show and there is no doubt he is a solid credible winner. 

As for Bianca well I was a bit disappointed that she didn't win it as her business plan actually appeared to be the more edgier of the two and it would have been interesting to see Lord Sugar "get into tights" as one of his advisors, Mike Souter said in the previous interviews episode (well not literally of course!).  Bianca also pitched very well to the experts and answered all the questions put to her with a real sense of confidence.  The only mistakes I think Bianca made were to price her product as high as she did as quite a few of the experts (and even Sarah who was on Mark's team) said they wouldn't pay more than £6 for a pair of tights!  Bianca was willing in the boardroom to cut her prices and make the product accessible to either the mass market or the high end market, but in the end it was Lord Sugar's reluctance to want to hold Bianca's hand through the process required for manufacturing that put him off.  But I think Bianca's plan certainly was something different than Mark's and had indentified, and I hate to use this phrase, a gap in the market.  Although Bianca was actually criticised in the press for having allegedly stolen this idea from a disabled business gradate she had met at a networking event last year, who demanded in the press that Lord Sugar fire Bianca.  Whether or not this a true or not who knows?  Perhaps it is just another attention seeker, but then again its not the first time we have heard of someone stealing another's person's idea.  Regardless of all that though I think Bianca did really well throughout the process and deserved to be in the final.

Right so that's it for my look at The Apprentice 2014 and given that this was the show's 10th anniversary series, it was a very entertaining one with some fun moments, even if it was a bit gimmicky with the multiple firings early on, having 20 candidates instead of 16 (I hope they don't do that next year).  It also had an entertaining rivalry between Mark and Daniel, which escalated as the show went on and both men had even gave credit to one another that they may not have gotten so far through the process if they didn't clash.  The 10th series is also notable as its the last one to feature Nick Hewer who has decided not to come back next year so no doubt someone will step in to fill his shoes.  Nick's various stern expressions and dry and sardonic wit were a staple (another cliche sorry!) of the show, even if he did sound quite patronising half the time he often provided some amusement in the show and no doubt his presence will feel missed next year by quite a few (if not many!).  

Anyway so that's it for now and (update on 24.12!) I don't think I will manage another post before Christmas so I will say hope you have a Happy Christmas just now! 

Until the next one bye for now and Merry Xmas to ya's.   

The Apprentice 2014: The Semi-Final interviews

Right we are now at my favourite stage of The Apprentice, which sees the 10th series hit its penultimate episode, the semi final stage where the five remaning candidates present their business plans to four of Lord Sugar's most trusted advisors where they are put under a series of intensive and gruelling interviews.  So let's see who came out on top in the interviews and the boardroom....

So with the final five, Mark, Daniel, Bianca, Roisin and Solomon in search of a place in the final they next had to present their business plans, as I mentioned to Lord Sugar's four advisors who are the ruthless and no-nonsense Claude Litner, the cool Mike Souter, the decidely stern Claudine Collins and the former Apprentice winner of series 8, Ricky Martin.  Ricky was a bit of a surprise inclusion but it was revealed that Margaret Mountford chose not to come back to the show as an advisor, and Ricky got alot of criticism as a result as many viewers felt that he lacked the experience to be one of the advisors (which is a bit unfair).  So the five candidates had to undergo a series of tough interviews from each of the four advisors which proved to be a very trying process for them.

Starting with Mark, who's business plan was to start up his own digital marketing company, actually appeared the most nervous going into the interviews actually performed pretty well despite a slow start with Ricky, who accused him of being deceitful on his CV as he felt he was lying about being a sales manager of a company where he had only worked for two years and was the manager there for less than a year.  Mark also managed the nigh impossible also by impressing Claude who often delights in tearing candidates to shreads and ripping them a new one in his interviews and even at one stage smiled and said to Mark that he gave a "very good answer".  It was also noted that while Mark had the poorest track record in the series for losing tasks, he also sold the most out of any candidate.

Next up Daniel didn't fare quite as well as his business plan came under fire for being poorly concieved and thought out as Daniel proposed to offer an online party/events planning website where the user can book everything they need from tables, chairs, drinks, bookings for hotels, venues etc and  Claude dismissed his plan as being ridiculous.  Daniel did however receive some recognition from some of the advisors, particularly Claudine, as he appeared to have grown throughout the process as a person and learned more about himself than the others did.  However Mike Souter was less than impressed with Daniel as he recognised how poor his sales figures were in comparison to Mark's, who he pointed out had consistently outsold him throughout the process (I wonder if Mark slipped Mike a few quid to say that on his behalf!).

Roisin despite being one of the show's strongest candidates, really let herself down with her business plan as the advisors all thought her plan to launch a healthy readymeal business to the consumer markets was far too ambitious as she had aspirations to "go global" which was quickly dismissed as being ludicrous.  It was also revealed that Roisin had not done proper research either into her business and was also not aware of the fact that the special ingredient that she planned to use, which she thought is not being used in any other readymeal product on the market, but Mike quickly proved her wrong by producing two readymeals, one of which featured that very igredient, leaving Roisin somewhat speechless.  Roisin also was criticised for her numbers aswell, given that she is an accountant, yet given her aspirations to think big, Claude pointed out to her given the projections in her plan she would run out of money after a month!

Bianca next, her business plan was to make hosieries and she generally did quite well in her interviews as her plan seemed to be quite credible and seemed to find a gap in the market (and often used cliche in the show!).  But Bianca was criticised however by one of the advisors Claudine (Claude and Claudine, funny eh??!) who thought that she exhibited very little personality and that she used her professionalism as a mask, which left Bianca very upset and emotional.  And during her interview with Ricky she broke down in tears as she expressed her concerns over how she felt her character had come into question and she felt very upset by that.

And last of all but not least was Solomon, who's business plan, which actually the purpose of escapes me but it was something to do with an ideas giving service for students.  Anyway, Solomon did not fair that well in his interviews even though some of the interviews appeared to admire his youth enthusiasm, but overall he was though to be somewhat niave as well.  This was especially apparent in his business plan, which consisted of only 8 pages and most of those pages had nothing but drawings of his company logo!  And to say this didn't go down well with Claude was something of an understatement as despite giving Solomon false hopes by praising the simple and effective layout of his CV, he then lambasted the poor lad for his business plan which he called "a bloody disgrace!" and was so appalled by it he demanded Solomon to leave the room (which rattled Solomon so much he tried to leave the room the wrong way!) without interviewing him any further.

After the interviews were finished Lord Sugar then met with his advisors who gave their opinions on the candidates and from there he brought them back in to decide their fate and who would reach the final.  Lord Sugar quickly decided to fire Solomon first as he recognised that he was somewhat immature and that his business plan was far from realistic and more based on youthful naivety.  Next up Lord Sugar turned his attentions to Roisin as he expressed his disappointment in her plan and he recognised that her complete lack of experience of the readymeal business was her downfall not to mention that her numbers didn't stack up and was against the idea of her going to banks to get further credit, so with regret, Roisin was fired.

After this Lord Sugar had a tough decision to make as he was down the final three with Mark, Daniel and Bianca.  Lord Sugar seemed interested and intruiged by Bianca's hosieries business plan and recognised it had potential, whereas he also thought that Mark had a credible business plan based on a business he was already in based in digital marketing, but he also noted that so many other people are doing digital marketing, which meant it was nothing new on offer.  However as for Daniel well it was finally the end of the road as Lord Sugar felt his business plan was the weakest of the three, but he did give Daniel some credit for having learned and changed his attitude throughout the process and wished him well for the future, which saw the final two candidates, Mark and Bianca all set to fight to become Lord Sugar's new business partner.

Well there was no doubt that this was a very entertaining episode and while there were not too many dramatic revelations the interviews did provide some good fun moments, such as where Mike Souter put Roisin on the spot and displayed two readymeal items to her that were already on the market doing what she was proposing to do in her plan.  There were also another fun moment where Mike wanted Solomon to give him an example of the types of applications he had created for mobile technology, but each one was basically an example of a hotel, or a bed or some other amenity!  But my favourite part was seeing Claude berate poor Solomon for his business plan, which was a rather childish attempt at trying to put together a plan that would have looked more at home as a school homework project!  And Claude's bemusement was priceless where he set up an eager Solomon to take a massive fall after having praise for his CV and even said that it "filled me with pleasure, as its very mature, well written and there's no boasts or brags about how great a salesman you are" before he got to the business plan and said "frankly, its a bloody disgrace!" and he told him to leave which left Solomon both terrified and embarrassed.  And Solomon even tried to appease Claude over his plan who quickly berated him again and said "Two bloody pages of sailboats!  Pictures of bloody sailboats!  What do you think you are coming here for?!  You're taking the piss!" and he then chastised Solomon for taking a wrong turn in trying to find the exit as Claude said sharply "That's not the way out!".

So that's it the Apprentice final is set and its between Mark and Bianca, both of whom are very capable candidates to be Lord Sugar's business partner.  So who is most likely to win???  Well Mark on paper would appear to be the favourite but for me I think Bianca might just win this one as her business plan just appears to be a bit more edgy and interesting to Lord Sugar than Mark's (at least that's what he intimated in the boardroom).  Bianca did come under fire for appearing to have little personality and having a more professional facade during the interviews, but I think she is a very credible candidate and she definitely deserves her place in the final.  And I also remember Bianca's pitch in New York for the "Big Dawg" soft drink where she came across very well and as being quite engaging so I think she should do well in the final with her presentation and if she repeats that standard it might just tip the balance in her favour.   

Mark on the other is onto a pretty safe bet with his digital marketing business but Lord Sugar recognised how its already a very crowded market and there so many companies doing it.  Mark also was noted for choking last week during a big sales pitch and in the preview for the final episode we see Mark is at it again as he appears to start his presentation nervously coughing in front of a whole room of business people not to mention Lord Sugar!  I also feel that Mark has always believed a little too much in his own legend and he even teased Bianca in the car back to the house after the boardroom as he said to her "God!  I can't wait to win this!  I wouldn't like to be in your shoes, Bianca!".  There is no doubt whilst the guy is a credible and talented salesman and a good overall candidate, he is still a bit of a dick!  However I might be wrong and we will just need to wait and see who will come Lord Sugar's new business partner. 

As for the others well I was quite surprised that Roisin didn't make it to the final as she really has been a very solid candidate throughout, but in the end I guess it really does come down to how well their business plans stack up and unfortunately for Roisin her plan just didn't, so the hopes of Ireland getting two winners in a row for the Apprentice didn't happen this year.  Daniel on the other hand well I'm not too surprised that he was let go but I always thought he would probably get 3rd place and ultimately in the battle between Mark vs Daniel, Mark finally won.  To be fair to Daniel he did exhibit signs of growth and maturity as the process went on even though he still peppered his CV with lies and delusion (one example was that Daniel claimed that he received an award for salesmen of the year back in 2009 when he worked with one firm and Mike Souter called them up and they said he never won an award the whole time he worked for them!).  As for Solomon well it wasn't much of a surprise that he wouldn't become Lord Sugar's business partner as despite his enthusiasm and keeness, which helped him throughout the process, he showed a lack of maturity and naivety with his less than impressive business plan.  And its hard to say if Solomon would have made it as far as the final five if he hadn't been in the winning team so often, perhaps he might have, but who knows?  Regardless though Solomon did really well to get into the final five and no doubt he will go on to make a success for himself.

Anyway so that's it for now and I will be back soon with yet another post and I will do one on the outcome of who won The Apprentice final.

Until the next one see you later.       

    

The Apprentice 2014: Puddings and dumplings

Right well its time for another post on the latest episode of The Apprentice, now in its tenth series, this post will cover episode 10, with just two weeks to go we really are getting down to the business end of the process with only seven candidates left.  So without further delay let's have a look at this week's episode.....

So in this episode the two teams, Tenacity and Summit were given the task by Lord Sugar to come up with a brand of premium puddings and pitch them to different companies and the team who came up with the most orders will win.  So Roisin was picked by Lord Sugar to lead Summit, as he said the task would reflect her business plan as she wants to go into the readymeal business and he picked Katie to lead team Tenacity as she was proposing a business plan to open and run a restaurant.  In Tenacity, Sanjay was moved over and he quickly expressed once in the team how pleased he was to be rid of Bianca (as the two of them didn't seem to get on) and Katie decided that she would take care of the flavouring for the puddings, whereas Mark and Sanjay did the branding, which they called "A trifle different".  The team's flavour samples didn't go down too well with the companies as whilst they liked two of the flavours, they didn't like the third which had too much saffron in it and the packaging was pretty bland.  This was further compounded by the fact that Katie's pitch was rather bland aswell and Mark, despite raving about his abilities as a salesman, struggled badly during his pitch as he got nervous and kept coughing throughout it.  In team Summit, Roisin came up with the idea of doing a cheescake that had a tea theme to it and they called it "Teapot".  Daniel had been moved over to Summit at the behest of Lord Sugar and he actually finally proved his worth in the pitches as even though Roisin had a word with him about not wanting him to contribute to the pitching, he decided to ignore that and stepped in during second and third pitches, much to Roisin displeasure, but they went down well with the companies.  Despite any issues that they had as a team, the companies seemed to like their idea for "Teapot" and felt that it was marketable.  

Back in the boardroom the two teams found out that the result of their product and pitches but it was Summit that came out on top as they received more orders of 25,500 whereas Tenacity only received 13,500 units.  This meant that with Summit's victory that the four team members, Roisin, Bianca, Solomon and Daniel had all made it into the final five and their treat was to enjoy some macaroons and martinis on an expensive yacht. 

As for Tenacity they headed back into the boardroom where Lord Sugar criticised Katie for showing a lack of knowledge of the flavours for the puddings and one of them was deemed as "inedible" by one of the companies which had saffron in it.  Mark and Sanjay also came under fire for producing such bland and dull labeling for the product, which contributed to it be less marketable than the other teams.  Lord Sugar however was most concerned by the lack of Katie's knowledge yet she wanted to start a restaurant business, but he also recognised that she most likely wouldn't make a good enough return for him to invest his money in her, so with regret, Lord Sugar fired Katie.  Next up Lord Sugar turned his attentions to Sanjay as he was also concerned about where there would be any profit in his business plan and wouldn't make sufficient money either, so he fired Sanjay.  As for Mark, Lord Sugar did recognise that Mark's business plan involving digital marketing sales had the potential to make money so he gave him one more chance to stay in the process, completing the final five line-up.

Well it has to be said in terms of their business plans that I had to agree with Lord Sugar's decision to fire Sanjay and Katie as Katie clearly couldn't show that in running one restaurant that she could make enough money for her business to be investable enough and Sanjay clearly didn't have enough understanding of the fitness market which he intended to go into and how he could make enough money out of the business either.  So in a way it was a good thing that they talked about their plans before they had a chance to get into the final five as they most likely would have been dismissed out the door by Lord Sugar's advisors. 

But one thing I didn't like, well two actually, were first of all Lord Sugar's ignorance toward Katie as he accused her of having no knowledge about the restaurant business and she carried on saying she had been working in restaurants in the different posts since she was 15.  And this prompted Lord Sugar to sarcastically say "well I have been to MacDonalds but that's doesn't mean I know anything about their infrastructure!" which shows he has a general lack of understanding about certain things himself, which he masks up by being rather ignorant and making these sorts of comments.  And we see this all too often from him that he tells the candidates how useless they can be in certain situations yet I would like to see how he would deal with those situations if he was flung into them himself!  So in a way Lord Sugar really has a rather blinkered approach to business and there are definitely times where he is too quick to dismiss candidates without all the proper facts at hand either.  And secondly I didn't like the way one of the Lord Sugar's aides, Karren Brady (who followed team Tenacity around) stirred the pot in the boardroom by saying to Sanjay how he slagged off Bianca by saying how glad he was to see the back of her after he was moved over to Tenacity, which caused some unecessary embarrassment and tension in the boardroom, leaving Sanjay embarrassed and Bianca bemused.  So I just thought it was inappropriate of Karren to do that to make such sly barbed comments as I think if there is to be a time for such things and that wasn't one of them.  So in my opinion whilst the candidates all have their foibles, Lord Sugar and his advisors are hardly perfect themselves either!

So that's the final five set and next week is my favourite stage of the series where the five remaining candidates present their business plans to four of Lord Sugar's advisors, who put them through some gruelling interviews and the advisors will include the scary Claude Litner and the surprise inclusion of series 8's winner, Ricky Martin.  So no doubt they will all come under fire from them so it should be fun no doubt and it will be interesting to see who will come out on top.  

Well that's it for now and I'll be bacckkkkk sometime soon!  

L.A. Confidential "Hush! Hush!"

Rrrrright so this is a revisitation of one of my previous posts (again!) which I have expanded to add further material and it is on one of my favourite films, L.A. Confidential.  So let's load up and give this one a look....and PLOT SPOILERS are ahead.

The film begins on Christmas Eve 1952, where the hot headed, thuggish police officer Wendell "Bud" White (Russell Crowe) stops a violent domestic dispute between a married couple, Bud himself has a thing for not tolerating women beaters.  After that, Bud and his partner Dick Stensland (Graham Beckel) go back to the police station, where six Mexican suspects are brought into the station who apparently attacked two of the station's officers.  In a vengeful mood, Stensland goes down to the cells and beats up on one of the Mexicans, and before you know the whole place erupts into a riot, with the press labelling the riot as "Bloody Christmas".  In the aftermath of the event, Bud refuses to testify against his partner Stensland, and is suspended from duty, meanwhile one of the officers Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) who was witness to the attacks, is more than happy to testify against Stensland the other officers who attacked the Mexicans.  At his insistance, in order to play ball, Exley requests that he be made detective lieutenant, something which his late father Preston Exley once held the mantel of.  However in snitching against the other officers, Exley soon makes himself very unpopluar with the other officers.  But the police captain Dudley Smith (James Cromwell) re-instates Bud, and uses him in his scheme as one of his muscle men to beat up and intimidate any criminals who try to make a name for themselves in LA.

But things take a dramatic turn when Bud's ex-partner Stensland, is found murdered in a coffee shop, the Nite Owl, with some other people, among them was a female associate of the millionaire, Pierce Patchett (David Strathairn).  The LA police dept then arranges a full man-hunt to try and catch the killers, and soon find three young black men as prime suspects for killings.  On interrogating the men, Exley finds out they actually are holding a young Mexican woman hostage in a house, who has been raped and beaten.  On the scene of the crime, Bud sneaks into the house and kills the black man in the house.  Later on the young suspects escape the station, but Exley soon tracks them down and kills them, which finally garners him some respect from his fellow officers at the station.  But something doesn't sit right with Exley about the negros being the killers, as he investigates further, he receives help from local cop celebrity Sergeant Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) who has a sideline in acting as a technical advisor on the show Badge of Honor, as well providing some hot press collars for local sleazy journalist Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito) who writes and publishes for the Hush-Hush tabloid magazine.  Likewise Bud also thinks something is strange about the suspect negro youths, and also investigates, meanwhile he dates Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger) who is a movie star look-a-like of Veronica Lake.

Bud after enquiring about the Nite Owl case to one of the forensic staff, finds out one of the victims was a Susan Lefferts (the young girl from earlier in the film, with a bandage on her nose sitting in Patchett's car).  Bud goes to Susan's mother's house and inquires about her, and she finds out that Stensland was her boyfriend, on looking around the house, Bud notices a foul smell, which he tracks to under the house, where he finds the remains of Buzz Meeks, Stensland's former partner.  Exley soon follows Bud's tail and he too goes to Mrs Lefferts house where he finds the body, which he takes to the pathology lab to get ID'd.  Exley working with Vincennes, tails Bud's movements, as they spy on him from Lynn's house, as we see them both together.  Shortly after Exley goes to meet Lynn to confront her, believing that Patchett has her seeing Bud, but she denies this and instead seduces Exley, as the pair of them have sex, we see Sid Hudgens outside the window, taking pictures to frame him.  Around this time, Vincennes goes to Dudley's house and tells him about an old case involving Dick Stensland and Buzz Meeks (by now his remains have been ID'd by the coroner), when without warning Dudley shoots Vincennes in the heart, he then leans in and asks him "do you have a valediction, boyo?" to which Vincennes quietly gasps "Rollo Tomasi" and then dies (a name that Exley told him earlier, which was a made-up name he gave to the man who killed his father, Preston Exley).  The next day Dudley let's slip this name to Exley to follow it up, who pretends he doesn't know anything about it, but then realises that Dudley was behind everything to do with the Nite Owl murders.  And after Dudley questions Sid Hudgens, with Bud, Bud learns of Lynn's liaison with Exley from Sid, and angrily confronts him back at the station, but Exley convinces Bud that Dudley is behind everything and they decide to put aside their differences and work together to try and bring Dudley down and end the corruption in the LAPD.

L.A. Confidential is without any doubt a great film, and one of the best films of the 1990s.  Curtis Hanson who after directing some fairly pedestrian thrillers such as The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and The River Wild, really established himself as a filmmaker here.  The film itself is of course based on the same titled novel by James Elroy, and the book features many more characters and detail which isn't in the film, but what the film presents is surely a great representation of the book.  And its the characters in L.A. Confidential that make this film work so well, and if you look at it, there actually isn't a morally decent character in the film, everyone is essentially a sleazeball in one way or another, but they are all something of a dichotomy as well.  Exley, may appear to be a stand-up cop with integrity, who refuses to get his hands dirty with planting evidence or beating up suspects, however he does ruthelessly rat on members of the police force, in order to further his own career.  Bud on the other hand, appears to be as Exley puts it a "mindless thug" but he does have another side to him, as ultimately he wants to be a detective also working cases, but his temper and violent streak threaten to alienate him from the audience at times, but behind it all he is a somewhat sensitive guy with a troubled past and has a thing for punishing women beaters as a result of his own mother being beaten to death by his alcoholic father when he was younger.  Jack Vincennes is also corrupt character in that he gladly takes money from Sid Hudgens, the local Hush Hush magazine reporter, as he sets up arrests and the suspects get unwanted publicity in Sid's mag, but again behind that, Jack starts to feel guilty about his activities and questions himself as the film goes on.

The film also has several excellent supporting characters, particularly Dudley Smith, as the slight yet intimidating police captain who has another agenda, while he looks after the men under his command, he also ironically has a line in corruption and tampering with evidence as well as police brutality.  And Pierce Patchett, the mysterious millionaire, who while he hosts high class sex parties, and makes pornographic films, he has ambitions beyond that to invest in freeway construction.  And there's Lynn Bracken, meanwhile she isn't the most interesting character in the film, she is also another one who is wishing to escape from her sleazy lifestyle, as a wannabe film actress, who is engaging in Patchett's sexual enterpises.

Overall the film's performances are great, particularly the three main leads are very strong, with Guy Pearce, who prior to this was in Priscilla, The Queen of the Desert, as a transvestite and playing Mike from Neighbours, playing the part of the ice cool Exley to perfection.  Pearce has many highlights in the film and the first one that comes to mind is the scene where Exley meets with Vincennes and tells him of "Rollo Tomasi" and says "Rollo Tomasi was a purse snatcher, and he shot my father six times and got away clean.  I didn't even know who he was.  I just made up the name to give him some personality.  Rollo Tomasi was the reason I became a cop, I wanted to catch the guys who thought they could get away with it.  But somewhere along the way I lost sight of that.  It was supposed to be about justice."  And another one of Guy's best scenes is where Dudley asks him if he has heard of a known associate which alarms him but in a way in which he tries not to show it, and in this moment we see Guy give a very subtle reaction with his eyes.  Its a very subtle and deft moment in his performance.  Another good scene from Pearce is where Exley interrogates the negro youths about the Nite Owl murders in the interrogation rooms and he slyly turns the PA speakers on in the other rooms for the other youths so they can hear what the one Exely is interrogating is saying.  And Pearce has a good line in the scene where he says to one of the youths, Ray, "You know, Ray, I'm talking about the gas chamber and you haven't even asked me what this is about.  You've got a big "guilty" sign around your neck!".  Then there is the scene where Exley confronts Bud after Bud has rescued the rape victim and Exley asks Bud "How do you think it will look in your report?!" and Bud says it will look like justice, and Exely sharply replies "You don't know the meaning of the word you ignorant bastard!".  Another good scene is where Exley goes with Vincennes to question Johnny Stampanato, Mickey Cohen's right hand man, who is on a date with Lana Turner.  But Exley thinks that she is just a hooker cut to look like Lana Turner and he says to Stampanato "Since when do two-bit hoods and hookers give out autographs?!" and he says "A hooker cut to look like Lana Turner, is still a hooker!  She just looks like Lana Turner" but Vincennes tells Exley that she really is Lana Turner, who angrily throws a drink in Exley's face.  And then there is the scene where Bud out of rage nearly kills Exley when he learns that he slept with Lynn and Exley tells him that (PLOT SPOILER!) Dudley was behind it all.  And Exley says to Bud "If we are going to work this out we need to work together" and Bud looks surprised as he says to him "Why are you doing this?  The Nite Owl made you, now you wanna tear all that down?" and Exley replies "With a wrecking ball!  You wanna help me swing it?".     

Russell Crowe, is also excellent as the explosive Bud White, two thirds heavy, one third sensitive, and he provides some of the film's highlights with Bud's brutal and volatile behaviour as well as some of the film's best dialogue.  And Crowe's various highlights in the film include his opening scene where he interrupts a domestic dispute between a couple and he pulls down their Christmas decorations outside to break it up.  And as the burly man steps out and asks who he is, Bud replies "The ghost of Christmas past.  Why don't you dance with a man for a change?" before he beats him up and cuffs him and says "You'll be out in a year, I'll get cosy with your parole officer.  You touch her again and I'll have you violated on a kiddie raper beef!" and he grabs the man's head and says "You know what they do to kiddie rapers up in Quentin!".  Then there is the scene where Exley interrogates the black youths about the Nite Owl murders, but it comes to light that they are holding a girl some place who they have raped and assaulted.  And this leads to Bud losing his rag and barging in on the interrogation and grabbing the youth, Ray and taking out his gun and removing five of the bullets and jams it into Ray's mouth shouting "One in six!  Where is the girl?!" and he pulls the trigger again yelling "WHERE IS THE GIRL????!!!!" before a terrified Ray tells him.  And then there is the scene afterward where Bud argues with Exley over the nature of his rescuing the rape victim.  And Bud angrily says to Exley "Why don't you give your career a rest and go after criminals for a change instead of cops!" and as Exley asks him what it will look like Bud says "It will look like justice!  That's what the man got.  Justice!".  And Exely taunts him by saying about Bud's ex-partner Stensland "Stensland got what he deserved and so will you!" which prompts Bud to go apeshit and charge at Exley but he is restrained by about six police officers!  Then there is the scene where Bud questions Johnny Stamapanto in a bar about what he knows of the former disgraced cop, Buzz Meeks, but he isn't too forthcoming, so Bud grabs Johnny by his nuts and says to him "What do I get if I give you your balls back, you wop cocksucker?!".  Another good scene for Crowe is of course when Bud confronts Exley over the photos of him and Lynn and he nearly chokes Exley with one of the photos and then after Exley convinces that Dudley was behind it all, Bud let's Exley go and grabs a chair and yells loudly as he hurls it through the window!  And lastly I will mention the scene where Exley and Bud pay a visit to the D.A. Ellis Loew (Ron Rifkin) who Exley questions but doesn't get far with him, so Bud interrupts Loew in the toilet and violently grabs his head and shoves it down the toilet before letting him up he says "Now I know you think your the A-number one hotshot, but here's the juice...if I take you out, there will be 10 more lawyers to take your place tomorrow.  They won't come on the bus that's all!" before he pulls up Loew and then dangles him outside his office window until Loew gives in and spills the beans.     

Kevin Spacey who is usually superb, certainly doesn't let the side down, and provides some great moments as Vincennes, one of his best being when Exley asks him "why did you become a cop?" to which Vincennes looks lost for an answer and quietly says "I don't remember".  Then there is the scene where he sits pondering in a bar what to do about going through with Sid Hutchins scam to screw over the young actor whom was disgraced at the start of the film by Hutchins.  And in the scene Vincennes in the bar, looks at himself in the mirror, clearly unhappy with his situation, he then goes to the hotel where the actor and the DA are supposed to be only to find the actor is lying dead in a pool of blood.  Spacey has another great scene where Vincennes talks to Exley at the court where they both are going to testify against some of the police officers involved in the prison riot at the start of the film.  And in the scene Vincennes says to Exley "Come on you're playing an angle here, college boy, so you don't have to hobnob with rank and file cops who are gonna hate your guts for snitching!" and he continues "Well if they are going to make you detective, watch out!" and then "Oh and Bud White will fuck you for this if it takes him the rest of his life!".  And then there is the scene where Exley and Vincennes go to the hotel room where the young negros are staying and they arrest them alongside two of Dudley's men who beat up some of the youths, and Vincennes turns to Exley and says "So, how does it feel getting out of the office?!".  In the scene Exley also forgets to bring his glasses just before they go and arrest the youths and Vincennes says to him "You're kidding!  Well just don't shoot me!".  And Spacey's last scene in the film is one of his best where Vincennes meets with Dudley at his home and Vincennes tells Dudley of the investigations into an old case involving Stensland and Buzz Meeks, but Dudley surprises him and shoots Vincennes in the chest.  And Vincennes with his dying breath is asked if he has a valediction by Dudley and Vincennes quietly says "Rollo Tomasi!" before he gives a short laugh and then dies and there is no one better at doing dead acting than Spacey here, as his stillness is incredible.    

James Cromwell, also a brilliant actor, before this was in some light hearted fluffy stuff such as Babe, arrived as a great dramatic performer, as he superbly plays the corrupt police captain, Dudley Smith.   Cromwell also has his share of great moments such as his first scene with Exley where Dudley asks after Exley's impressive test results in a police exam what line of work would Exley like to work in and Exley replies "I was thinking detective bureau".  And Dudley says to Exley "Ed, you're a political animal, you have the eye for human weakness but not the stomach" and as Exley says he is wrong, Dudley says "Would you be willing to plan corroborative evidence on a suspect you knew to be guilty, in order to ensure an indictment?  Would you be willing to beat a confession out of a suspect you knew to be guilty?  Would you be willing to shoot a hardened criminal in the back, in order to offset the chance that some lawyer...".  And Exley says no to all these questions and Dudley says "Then for the love of God, don't be a detective.  Stick to assignments where you don't have to make those kind of choices!".  Then there is the scene where Dudley meets with Vincennes and then shoots him in a surprise twist, he leans close in on the dying Vincennes and asks him "Do you have a valediction, Boyo?".  And the next day Dudley meets with Bud and asks him to come with him to the Victory motel, where they interrogate suspects and he says to Bud "You seem to be a bit of a puzzlement to me these days, Wendell and I had such great plans for your future.  You have your own extracurricular activities and so do I".  And then there is the scene where Dudley interrogates Sid Hudgens with Bud present, Dudley looks over to Bud to have him stay alert and ready to beat up Sid when needed.  And Dudley says to him "Wendell I want full and docile co-operation on every topic!" and as Dudley questions Sid some more, Bud slugs a powerful punch to Sid's gut and Dudley says one of his best lines to Sid "Reciprocity, Mr Hudgens, is the key to every relationship!".  And when Sid drops the hint that Exely slept with Lynn by mentioning blackmail photos he had taken, this prompts Bud to go nuts (again!) and uproot his interrogation seat from the floor and nearly stomp on Sid before racing off to the car and finding the photos of Lynn and Exley together.  And as Bud leaves in his car to confront Lynn, Dudley looks on from the door and says "I wouldn't trade places with Edmund Exley right now for all the whisky in Ireland!".      

Then we have Kim Basinger as the call girl, Lynn Bracken, and Kim gives a pretty decent performance in the film but it is not quite worthy the academy award she received for it, particularly when the film has so many good performers.  Still Kim does have some good moments in the film such as the scene where she first meets with Bud and she flirts with him and says "There's blood on your shirt, is that an intrical part of your job?" and Bud says yes and Lynn asks "Do you enjoy it?" and Bud says "When they deserve it" and Lynn asks "Did they deserve it today" and Bud suddenly says "I don't know".  And as Bud leaves he turns at the door and says to her "I would like to see you again" and Lynn says "Are you asking me for an appointment or a date?" and Bud all of a sudden becomes embarrassed and says "Forget I asked.  It was a mistake".  And later there is Kim's scene with Guy Pearce, where Exley confronts Lynn, who ends up seducing him and she taunts Exley by saying how good Bud is (as she is dating Bud by this time).  And Lynn says to Exley "I see Bud because I want to.  I see Bud because he can't hide the good inside him.  I see Bud because he treats me like Lynn Bracken and not some Veronica Lake look-a-like who fucks for money".  And then Exley suddenly kisses her and Lynn heatedly says to him "Fucking me and fucking Bud are not the same thing, you know!" before they get it on (with Sid outside taking snaps of them at it).  Also there is the scene near the end where Lynn having being beaten by an angry Bud for cheating on him, sits quietly at the police station when Exley arrives, who by this time has also been beaten by Bud.  And Exley asks her "Are you ok?" and she says yes and looks at him and says "Are you OK?".    

And getting to the last two, first of all there is Danny DeVito, who actually to be honest plays the film's most irritating character, Sid Hudgens, the sleazy reporter for Hush Hush magazine.  Still DeVito has some good moments in the film, such as the scene where he sets up the young actor Matt Reynolds to seduce the D.A. and Sid turns to Vincennes and says "As if the Badge of Honor, would touch that guy with a ten foot pole after he's been Hush-Hush cover boy twice in one year!".  Then there is the scene where Sid is interrogated by Dudley and he receives a few hefty punches from Dudley's man and Bud, and he tells Dudley "I have blackmail shit in my car!  Patchett got me to take pictures of this cop screwing some gorgeous slut named Lynn, who looks just like Veronica Lake!".  And after Bud attacks Sid and leaves, Sid says to Dudley "I thought you were gonna let the dumb bastard kill me!  You can uncuff me now fellas" just before Dudley puts on some leather gloves and leans over Sid, who panics and says "But you and me and Patchet, we're a team!  Dudley!" and Dudley puts his hand over Sid's mouth and says "Hush! Hush!".  And of course DeVito opens the film with Hudgens narrating the backstory regarding Mickey Cohen and his drug rackets and Hudgens finishes the intro scene as we see him sit in his office typing "When I know more readers, so will you, until then its off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush!".     

And last of all there is David Strathairn who is great in his role as Pierce Patchett, the corrupt and wealthy businessman, who runs high class sex parties as well as makes adult films using call girls dressed up as movie stars.  Strathairn also has some good moments in the film such as his scene where he meets with Bud and he says to him what he knew of Susan Lefferts, the girl who was killed in the Nite Owl massacre.  And after he answers Bud's question he says "Now I sense you are on your best behaviour but that's all I'm going to say for now.  If you persist I will meet you with my attorney".  And Patchett then says to Bud "Catch Susan's killer, Mr White and I will give you a handsome reward.  Whatever you desire!".  And later when Patchett meets with Exley and Vincennes he remains cools and quite evasive and Exley says to him "We want some answers, Patchett" and Patchett replies "Oh, we all want something!".       

Finally getting onto the director, Curtis Hanson, who does a superb job here with the film and the jump in quality between his previous efforts such as River Wild and this one is quite remarkable.  Hanson confidently handles the film's action and also ties the story nicely together along with all the plot strands involving the three lead characters as he even co-wrote the screenplay alongside Brian Helgeland.  Hanson also keeps the film moving at a brisk pace and never at any time does it flag or feel like any scenes are padded out.  And last there is the film's music score which was written by the late great Jerry Goldsmith, one of the all time great composers in American cinema.  Goldsmith's score provides the perfect mixture of sleaze, menace and moodiness to capture the time of the film and the events.  Strangely enough the score also resembles Goldsmith's score for Chinatown, in fact you could almost swear at times that's what you were listening to if you kept your eyes closed.  Overall its a great one.  

As for the L.A. Confidential's flaws..... well its actually a film that is close to perfect so there isn't any much to complain about it.  The only thing that I might say about it is that the only really irritating character in the film is Sid Hugens who's journo code-talk (if you want to call it that!) and his relentless cheery eyed, devilish optimisim becomes quite tiresome as well as the way he yaks on using terms such as "acey ducey" and "ingenuine dykes" and "I want an all hopheads cover issue, Schwartzman, Jazz musicians and all!" and how Jack Vincennes "is on the night train to the big adios!".  In fact when Hudgens gets his comeuppance you don't really have that much sympathy for him anyway, given all the dirt he has dug up on so many people throughout the film.  This does however pre-empt one of the film's best lines from one of the cops that arrives on the scene of Sid's murder, where he says "someone beat him to death, and stole a bunch of files.  Guess he dug up dirt on the wrong guy, we've got it nailed down to a thousand suspects!".  Another slight issue I have with the film is the almost telepathic link that Exley and Bud have with each other that they just happen to know something was written with the Nite Owl killings and how it was solved.  And yeah OK I buy it more for Exley as he got his doubts from when he questioned the rape victim after he wheeled her out in a wheelchair from the hospital as she lied in her statement to the police, but with Bud its more just an intuition than anything else.  So in a way there is not much basis for Bud sussing it out other than just a hunch but the two men seem to have their doubts just at the same time.  But I guess the same can be said for Jack Vincennes but the murder of the young aspiring actor was what got him thinking something was up but he didn't make the connection between the actor's death and the Nite Owl killings.  Again its a bit trivial but just an afterthought.       

However with all that put aside, L.A. Confidential is still one of the best American films in recent years and if you haven't well sort it out and go and watch it now!

So that's it for now and I will be back again sometime soon.

Adios!  

Tomb Raider II: "Don't you think you've seen enough????"

Right well here is a change of post as I thought I would do one on a video game and I have gone back into the vaults for this one as I am currently playing it, Tomb Raider II, which was the sequel to the very successful original Tomb Raider game.  So let's give this one a looksee...

The story follows Lara Croft (voiced by Judith Gibbons) who is on the search for the Dagger of Xian, which was a legendary weapon used by a former Emperor of China to command their army.  The dagger is said to turn whoever possess it into a dragon once they stab the dagger into their heart.  The emperor was then said to be have been killed when Tibetan warrior monks removed the dagger from his heart and it was then placed to rest in within the Great Wall of China.  Lara in the modern day travels to the Great wall where during her search she is attacked by a thug who says he works for the Venetian Mafia boss, Marco Bartoli, who is obssessed with the legend of the dagger.  Lara then follows and tracks Bartoli to his hideout in Venice and later an opera house where Bartoli intends to perform a heist.  Lara manages to board Bartoli's plane just before take-off but she is then discovered and knocked unconscious.  Lara eventually comes to, finding herself on an oil rig and her weapons and equipment have been removed.  Lara then works her way through the rig, regaining her weapons, she takes out several of Bartoli's men and she soon finds a captive Tibetan monk, who tells her that Bartoli is carrying out an excavation of a shipwrecked luxury ocean liner, the Maria Doria.  On arriving at the Maria Doria, Lara searches the ship and kills more of Bartoli's thugs and she eventually finds an artefact called the Seraph.  Lara then travels to Tibet and arrives at the Barkhang Monestary where she searches for five prayer wheels, which will lead to a room that will hold the Seraph.  Lara fights more of Bartoli's men and the monks also help her as well in taking them down and Lara eventually enters the catacombs where she finds a key, the Talion, which can be used to open the door which will lead to the dagger.  And Lara's travels finally take her back to China where she intends to find the dagger, but she must try and find it before Batroli does or else there could be serious repercussions for the explorer and indeed the world....

Tomb Raider II was a big success on its release back in 1997, just a year after the original game came out.  And to this day TRII really suceeds in being a thoroughly entertaining video game and to this day it still stands up very well as a game in its own right and is still one of the best entries in the series as it greatly expands on the original.  The game also saw a few updates and upgrades in both Lara's movement as well as more weapons and more enemies (mostly human enemies) for her to kill.  The game's levels are also very big and in some cases can take a couple of hours to work through (yep that's right hours!) particularly the later levels in Tibet and now the player can save the game at any time they want unlike the first game where Lara had to move onto triangles that were scattered throughout the levels.   

In terms of the gameplay TRII is largely very accessible and easy to play and Lara's movement is pretty simplistic (albeit perhaps a bit sluggish by the pacing of modern day gaming) but she has some new moves such as climbing ladders and she can perform mid-air rolls to land in the opposite direction.  Lara also has access to a variety of weapons and new weapons in addition to her dual guns, she also can use a harpoon gun, an M16 rifle, grenade launcher as well as automatic pistols.  Lara can also auto-aim as before and lock onto her enemies as and when she points at a particular one and this in itself is rarely problematic (except maybe in the Monks level).  Lara can also drive a couple of vehicles, namely a speedboat (which she uses in the Venice level) and also a snowmobile (where she drives in Tibet).  And another addition to the game is the use of flares, which Lara can light up when she is in a darkened area and the flare will naturally illuminate these areas, but they only last a relatively short time before they go out.

As for the game's graphics well for its time TRII is still an excellent looking game and while the character models are still pretty primitive and crude looking by today's standards, the game's envrionments are still pretty impressive visually speaking.  Some of the levels in particular have a great design especially the Tibetan monestary and also in Venice and given the size of the levels its quite impressive that the visuals are as good as they are for their time.  The game also has a much improved lighting system and there are some excellent shades and colours to the lighting, which is also helped by the use of the flares, which can brighten up dark passages of the game.  The game also utilises FMV (full motion video) cut scenes where we see more graphically enhanced versions of the characters and the visuals and are used to tell the back story as well as the story in between levels.

The game also has an excellent music score composed by Nathan McCree, who also worked on the first and third games in the series.  The score is largely electronic and synthesizer based and it is very effective and atmospheric as well as rather evocative of the period in terms of gaming back in the late 90s and its well worth a listen to on its own even.  As for the voice acting well this is where the game probably falls down a bit as the new voice actress for Lara Croft, Judith Gibbons is a bit underwhelming in the role as her delivery is a bit bland especially after Shelley Blond's much better performance in the original.  Although Gibbons still does provide one of the game's best lines right at the end where Lara has defeated her enemies and she is about to undress and get in the shower she turns to the camera and says "Don't you think you've seen enough?!" and she grabs her shotgun and shoots it at the screen!

As for the game's flaws...... well yes Tomb Raider II isn't perfect by any means and most of its problems probably are down to the game's somewhat sluggish movement system and if you have been away from the earlier games you may find it will take you time to get used to Lara's movements, which it has to be said are less than fluid!  In fact in the very first level in China I was finding myself become more frustrated at trying to control Lara at even trying to get her to do a simple jump onto another ledge, which would ultimately end with me slipping or missing the jump and falling back down to where I started!   And it is also all too easy for Lara to mistime her jumps and fall to her death, where she screams out and she lands and breaks her neck (with that rather horribly graphic sounding neck snap!).  The same also applies in some of the time based traps such as areas where Lara must jump over things such as big spikes, spinning wheels and not to mention floor panels that have flames on them and at any time Lara could be a victim to one of these.

The game's graphics are also a bit of a minus in some respects as the character models are of course pretty crude by today's standards and there are also several issues of graphical clipping as when some enemies are killed and lie dead (in a planked position no less!) you see them partly fall into the floor.  Then there are some characters such as the monks who can defy gravity by even walking through walls or blocks, yet somehow Lara can't do that herself!  (I think she has been cheated, or perhaps there is a hidden God mode where Lara can do all of that!).  The monks also in terms of being characters are quite helpful in the game to Lara but they can also be a bit of a pain as they can get in Lara's way when she is trying to take down enemies in the game and they get in her way as they try and kill the bad guys instead, which is particularly annoying if you are trying to go for every kill in each level only to have some Tibetan monk get there before you!  But you of course have to be careful not to kill any of the monks because if you do they will come after Lara with a vengeance and kill her instead (this took me FOREVER to figure out when I first played the game back when it was released!).   

Another issue with the game is perhaps while the levels are pretty big and expansive they are perhaps also just a bit too big and you feel you are spending quite alot of time getting from A to B just to basically retrieve a key to open a door to enter a new area.  Some of the enemies in the game can also be a pain in the ass such as the thugs in the Tibetan foothills level who are on snowmobiles as they can drive right through Lara, which makes it all too easy to kill her and she doesn't stand much of a chance if they do.  Then there is also a problem with the use of flares in the game as there plenty of darkened areas to be found in TRII and to be honest at times there just aren't enough flares at hand and Lara is reliant on the pickups from her dead foes, who only occassionally drop flares but its mostly just medpacks and ammo that they leave behind.

But that all put aside.... Tomb Raider II is still an excellent game which makes a for a lengthy and very entertaining single player game experience and it holds up very well even to this day and is well worth checking out if you haven't played it in quite a while.

And I will leave it there for now and will be back soon.

Night!         

2014 The Apprentice: Bonehead Felipe.....

Right OK time for another post on the latest episode of The Apprentice, episode 9, which sees the series now get closer and closer to the end where Lord Sugar will eventually make the decision to hire his new business partner.  So let's get on and give this a look.....

So this week's task saw both teams, Tenacity and Summit being tasked to buy a set of listed items (this has been a previous task in all the past series) and they must buy them at a discount price and the team that will win has to get all the items and spend the least money and any items they don't will incur a fine.  So the two teams were lead by Sanjay (Summit) and Daniel (Tenacity) and they both had different ways of leading the teams.  Sanjay decided to do some research to locate the items before they decided to go out and starting looking for them, whereas Daniel did little research.  Sanjay however wasted more time than he should have in trying to locate the items and he ended up randomly going to places.  Sanjay's subteam however performed better as Bianca and Solomon got their items, despite Solomon wasting time during negotiation to purchase the skeleton from a store.  Roisin also managed to secure an excellent bargain a diamond as she eventually managed to hagel it down to £50.  However due to Sanjay's disorganised dithering they ended up not securing one of the items and being late in heading back to the boardroom.

Daniel's team however where more efficient as Daniel worked with Felipe and Mark and Katie worked together to secure the items they needed.  However the specification for the skeleton on the list was not overly explicit in terms of specification, which prompted Felipe to purchase a paper anatomical skeleton, which he saw as thinking outside the box item listed was open to intepretation as far as he was concerned as to the type of skeleton required.  Mark and Katie also whilst they managed to get a length of rope for free, it was not the correct length and they did not find a way to cut it to the right length (1 metre).  Despite this Daniel's team overall worked well and he managed to change his attitude to them as he showed a more professional approach than before and they also managed to get all 10 items and back to the boardroom in time.

In the boardroom Lord Sugar had Summit immediately fined for being late and also for not securing one of the items on the list, which could have cost them the task.  Tenacity however despite having got all the items required and being back on time incurred Lord Sugar's wrath as he was totally bemused by their choice of the paper skeleton as opposed to an actual model one.  Lord Sugar then decided to fine Tenacity £310 for the item as he disallowed it, which meant that they had lost the task by £64 and it saw Summit take the win, much to their surprise, and their treat was a group trip to Silverstone where they all raced each other.

When Tenacity where brought back into the boardroom Felipe instantly came under fire for his choice of the paper skeleton and Daniel also tried to claim that Felipe had duped him, but ultimaltey it was his decision to go with it.  Mark and Katie however pleaded ignorance as they did not see the skeleton and they were later outraged when they saw what had happened.  Daniel also made the surprise decision to bring Katie back into the boardroom with Felipe, instead of Mark (despite their tense past history) as he held her responsible for the problem with the rope being the incorrect length.  Lord Sugar however decided that Katie had done well so far in the process and he decided to let her stay on, but Felipe wasn't so lucky as he thought that he had made a fatal mistake with the paper skeleton and with that Lord Sugar fired him.  Lord Sugar also decided to give Daniel one more chance as he felt that he had made some progress and lead his team well.

I have to say I'm in two minds as to if Felipe deserved to go or not as on one hand he did because the failure of the task essentially came down to him and his poor decision to go with the paper skeleton, but on the other Daniel also let him make the decision to get the paper skeleton and he surely is also to blame for the failure of the task aswell.  But in the end I think given the other candidates in the process, Felipe it has to be said wasn't the strongest of them and in the end he was sure not to win the process, however he did well to get this far and is a nice guy and it even showed that he was like the "daddy" of the group as he often made the other candidates dinner in the house!  As for Daniel well he dodged another bullet this week but he did also show some signs that he had grown in the process as he finally put aside all his squabling on this task to try and win it (or blow it out of the water as he fondly put it!).  But I think Daniel is now on borrowed time for sure and he may not make it into the final five as with seven candidates left, next week two will go as it is week 10 and week 11 is the penultimate interview stages (which has always been my favourite part of the show!) so it remains to be seen if he can hold out much longer, unless of his team wins next week, but we'll see.

Right so that's it for now and I will be back with another post sometime soon and next week's Apprentice should be fun as both teams have to come up with a brand of premium puddings, but we'll soon find out who the dumplings will be!

Until then next one bye the now!