Stroll into the Olympia on this Sunday night and it’s immediately clear that this isn’t going to be your average rock ‘n’ roll gig. The outer extremes of the stage are cluttered with the usual guitars Read more...

It’s official, Robert Downey Junior can do no wrong. It doesn’t matter what film he is in, doesn’t matter what character he plays, his films will always do exceptionally well because, well, he is the bomb - a state of affairs that Iron Man 2 shows no sign of changing. Read more...

A recent Guardian article looked at the top tips for writing fiction by a slew of famous wordsmiths. Among the wry, self-congratulatory nuggets of wisdom, the use of adverbs and metaphors got a Read more...

The Notebook. Do these two words have any effect on you? If it is overwhelming but life-affirming heartbreak coupled with a quivering bottom lip, then by all means go right ahead and subject Read more...

Looking for a no nonsense fright? You could do a lot worse than creepy low-key horror Shelter - adequate revenge for all you boyfriends forced to sit through a succession of terrible rom-coms . It seems the writer of the 2003 thriller Identity has a thing for multiple personality disorders, as the plot Read more...

In Willy Vlautin’s first novel, The Motel Life, the narrator comments that “bad luck…falls on people every day… is one of the only certain truths… is always waiting.” Accordingly, bad luck is Read more...

Ladies and gentlemen of the 1980s, there will be stop-motion animation. If that kind of thing means anything to you, then Clash Of The Titans - a meaningless title, there are no titans, it's just the gods versus Jake Sully from Avatar - may prove to be a nostalgic disappointment. Read more...

Yes folks, after years of challenging and uncompromising work, it was finally time to recognise the awesome talents of...er, Sandra Bullock. Read more...

A few weeks ago having missed breakfast (again) I was very much looking forward to lunch and I decided to pop in to that new café that’s quite oddly situated at the front of The Twisted Pepper on Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1. Read more...

When we first meet small town Texas tomboy Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page), she’s doing a bang-up job of finishing last in a regional beauty contest. As Hollywood has taught us, there’s a matriarch Read more...

“We are the bull, you are the china shop” is the clichéd introduction offered up by Belfast instrumental punk stars And So I Watch You From Afar on their MySpace. Read more...

How many of us know someone who has been involved in a car accident? Most? All? Our friend or relation isn’t always at fault; or sometimes they are, and if they’ve survived we’ll tut tut at their Read more...

I’m always very dubious of films that are surrounded by ‘hype’. I enter the cinema with dangerous high levels of excitement only to be bitterly disappointed and yes Tim Burton, I am talking about you. Read more...

From the raving word of mouth recommendations that seem to emanate from La Caverna in Temple Bar, you’d be expecting simple and authentic Italian dishes created with fresh, high-quality ingredients. Read more...

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip? Just a band, as they themselves told us on ‘Thou Shalt Kill’. Then again, so were the Beatles, Arctic Monkeys and Fugazi. Read more...

You couldn't really ask for more bang-for-your-kroner from Neils Arden Opley's adaptation of the first book in Steig Larsson's phenomenonally successful Millennium trilogy. Read more...

Sunday last found me and my shopping companion and her baby son in need of a reboot in the early afternoon, and it being Sunday we decided it best to indulge in a spot of brunch. Read more...

I love you, Jim Carrey. After six years of old flexi-face phoning in performances in dross like Yes Man and Fun With Dick & Jane, he's finally come back to us Read more...

The faces of the regular Friday night Whelans club crowd must have been a picture. Sure the band onstage were powering through the last few numbers of their set in an acceptably noisy guitar manner Read more...

You may approach Shutter Island expecting to be jumping out of your skin and cowardly hiding behind your hands for most of the screening but the truth quite the opposite in fact - you'll find yourself unable to take your eyes off the screen. Read more...

Alongside Saving Private Ryan and Platoon, Paul Greengrass' devastating recreation of the Bogside Massacre, 2002's Bloody Sunday, is a stunning masterclass in conveying the dehumanising dynamics of combat. Read more...