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25 / 07 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the eleventh race in Germany are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Hungary next weekend on 1st August.

11 / 07 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Bulgaria are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Finland on THURSDAY 29th July (a day earlier than usual!).

11 / 07 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the tenth race in Silverstone are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Hockenheim on 25th July.

27 / 06 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the ninth race in Valencia are in, including the penalties for the naughty boys driving too fast. Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Silverstone on 11th July.

13 / 06 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the eighth race in Canada are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Valencia on 27th June.

30 / 05 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Portugal are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Bulgaria on 9th July.

30 / 05 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the exciting seventh race in Turkey are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Canada on 13th June.

16 / 05 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The Monaco scores have been updated to reflect Michael Schumacher's ridiculous penalty for daring to overtake a Ferrari. Check the updated results, see how your team did or enter a new team.

16 / 05 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the sixth race in Monaco are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Turkey on 30th May.

10 / 05 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the fifth race in Barcelona are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Monaco on 16th May.

10 / 05 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally New Zealand are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Portugal on 28th May.

19 / 04 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Turkey are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is New Zealand on 7th May.

18 / 04 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the fourth race in China are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Barcelona on 9th May.

06 / 04 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The JWRC driver lineup has been released, so you can make your selection before teams are frozen for Turkey on the night of 15th April. If you don't pick anyone, you'll get Aaron Burkart by default.

05 / 04 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the third race in Malaysia are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is China on 18th April.

03 / 04 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Jordan are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Turkey on 14th April.

29 / 03 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the second race in Melbourne are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Malaysia THIS WEEKEND on 4th April.

14 / 03 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the first race in Bahrain are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Australia on 28th March.

09 / 03 / 2010
Fantasy F1! Yes, there's a brand new Fantasy Formula One game! Check the rules or enter your team by Friday night to qualify for the first race in Bahrain!

08 / 03 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Mexico are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Jordan on 1st April.

17 / 02 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The points awarded for a win have changed in the real WRC, so we've reflected the changes in our scoring too. Check the rules to see the details. Next rally is Mexico on 5th March, teams will be frozen at midnight on the night of Thursday 4th March.

16 / 02 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Sweden are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team.

31 / 01 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The new rally season is upon us - 2010 Fantasy Rally is now open! Check the rules or pick a team ready for the start on 12th Feb.

25 / 10 / 2009
Fantasy Rally: All previous years' Fantasy Rally results are online - Check the 2009 season.

02 / 08 / 2009
Reviews: Sorry, there won't be any more movie reviews for the foreseeable future. Events have overtaken me. Catch up on reviews you may have missed.

18 / 08 / 2005
Sudoku! Have a go at the online Sudoku game.

Bad Santa

Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Lauren Graham, Bernie Mac, John Ritter, Brett Kelly. Directed by Terry Zwigoff.

Story: An arsey alcoholic Santa rips off department stores every Christmas.

Running Time: 1hr 31 minutes.

Certificate 15.

What's the perfect antidote to the spate of sickly, vomit-inducing, happy-clappy Christmas movies that are just about to hit our cinema screens? How about a story where the mall Santa is actually a melancholic alcoholic who can't stand kids and only does the job so he can rob the place on Christmas Eve? That should do the trick.

Bill Murray would be the obvious choice for this role, and in fact he was the first choice, but pulled out to make Lost in Translation. Billy Bob Thornton makes a suitable substitute, as he glowers and growls his way through the endless line of slobbering kids, swearing at them and causing havoc through being mullered all day. Chaperoning and trying to kick him into shape is his dwarfish sidekick Tony Cox who, amusingly, was an Ewok in Return of the Jedi. Despite being a grumpy slob, Billy Bob Claus still manages to pull the birds, the most significant of which is Lauren Graham, a bartender with a Santa fixation. Bernie Mac is the malevolent head of security at the mall, with John Ritter (TV's Hooperman) delivering a wonderfully snivelling store manager.

So Bad Santa is the perfect antidote to Christmas saccharin then? Well, no, not really. The trouble is, this is Hollywood, so big bad Bob has to go and meet a fat kid (Brett Kelly) and ... well, you can guess the rest. The foul-mouthed Santa routine becomes old hat pretty quickly, but fortunately there is enough novelty and good cinematography to keep the viewer entertained nonetheless. The Coen brothers are credited as executive producers and it looks to me as if there is a little Coen DNA here and there, which helps to keep a feeling of freshness and innovation.

Bad Santa then, is an adequate black comedy with enough to please the majority, but will not be featuring in many people's highlights of the year. Putting grumpy people in a fluffy situation is a tried and tested formula and this in itself generates enough humour to warrant your going to see it - just bear in mind it isn't a British film, so it isn't as sugar-free as it claims. And they say f**k a LOT.

I enjoyed this film: 3/5

I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: 4/5

Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 4/5 "F**k me Santa!", dwarf jokes, alcoholism, car chase, Santa behaving badly - it's got everything naughty except nudity.

To enjoy this film you should be: Scroogey and/or cynical.