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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.

City of Ember

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Harry Treadaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Murray, Mackenzie Crook, Liz Smith, Martin Landau. Directed by Gil Kenan, adapted from the book by Jeanne Duprau. Story: A subterranean city confronts its doom. Running Time: 1hr 35 minutes. UK certificate PG, US certificate PG.

As kiddie adventures go, you could do worse than City of Ember. Or better.

It's a bit of a bandwagon movie, this one. Watching the trailer will smack hard of The Golden Compass, Narnia and any of a number of effects-laden adventures - it's even a bit Goonies-ish, if you look hard enough. The titular City of Ember is an underground world, made by our own descendants after we'd pissed the overland world up the wall too much to make it habitable (ah - it's one of those storylines). Over the years, the truth of the overland world was lost, until a little girl finds a mysterious key ... and you can write the rest yourselves. Except you'd do a rather better job of making it plausible.

The special effects are pretty nice in places, but everything else is rather ordinary. Tim Robbins never was that great, and Bill Murray isn't stretched in a one-dimensional king-of-the-city role. The kids try very hard, particularly the unpronounceable Saoirse Ronan (familiar from Atonement) but they're still kids - which will either be a positive or negative for you. I'm not really sure who it's aimed at - it's rather dense for a kids' movie, but far too flimsy for the adults. Early teen, perhaps, if you can prise them off their PSPs for long enough. Is it still PSPs these days? PlaySpace, iBox, whatever it is.

City of Ember suffices as a stop-gap until the next big-hitter comes along, but don't go out of your way to catch it. Pretty much all the animated movies (Bolt, Wall-E, Kung Fu Panda are better.

I enjoyed this film: 3/5

I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: 3/5

Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 0/5

To enjoy this film: be a wide-eyed early teen.

City of Ember was released in the UK on 10th October 2008.