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Latest News

13 / 05 / 2012
Fantasy F1:
The results from the fifth F1 race at Barcelona are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Monaco in two weeks on 27th May - cutoff for team edits is midnight GMT on Friday 25th.

30 / 04 / 2012
Fantasy Rally:
Results from Rally Argentina are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. The next rally is in Greece and starts on 25th May. Cutoff for edits is midnight GMT on Thursday 24th May.

23 / 04 / 2012
Fantasy Rally:
Jari-Matti Latvala has been injured, so he is being replaced by Dani Sordo for Rally Argentina. If you have Latvala on your team, you'll automatically score for Sordo instead. Cutoff for edits for this weekend's rally is midnight GMT on Thursday 26th April.

22 / 04 / 2012
Fantasy F1:
The results from the fourth F1 race at Bahrain are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Barcelona in three weeks on 13th May - cutoff for team edits is midnight GMT on Friday 11th.

15 / 04 / 2012
Fantasy F1:
Now we have a few races under our belt, the weightings have been changed to reflect the early season performances - see the the league page to see what changed.

15 / 04 / 2012
Fantasy F1:
The results from the third F1 race at China are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is (probably) Bahrain next weekend on 22nd April - cutoff for team edits is midnight GMT on Friday 20th.

02 / 04 / 2012
Fantasy Rally:
The results have been updated to reflect Mikko Hirvonen's exclusion from Rally Portugal.

01 / 04 / 2012
Fantasy Rally:
Results from Rally Portugal are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. The next rally is in Argentina and starts on 27th April. Cutoff for edits is midnight GMT on Thursday 26th April.

28 / 03 / 2012
Fantasy Rally:
Last call to pick a WRC Academy driver! Teams will be locked from midnight GMT on Thursday night - if you haven't picked one by then, you'll get Christopher Duplessis by default.

25 / 03 / 2012
Fantasy F1:
The results from the second F1 race at Malaysia are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is China in 3 weeks on 15th April - cutoff for team edits is midnight GMT on Friday 13th.

18 / 03 / 2012
Fantasy F1:
The results from the first F1 race at Australia are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Malaysia this coming weekend - cutoff for team edits is midnight GMT Friday.

15 / 03 / 2012
Fantasy F1:
LAST DAY! Teams entered after midnight GMT tonight won't count for Melbourne - this is your last chance!

13 / 03 / 2012
Fantasy Rally:
Results from Rally Mexico are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. The next rally is in Portugal and starts on 29th March. Remember to pick your Academy driver before then! Anyone who doesn't pick an Academy driver will by default get the first guy on the list - Christopher Duplessis.

05 / 03 / 2012
Fantasy F1:
It's here! The 2012 Fantasy F1 championship is open for entries! Read the rules or dive straight in and Pick your team. You can change your mind as often as you like until midnight GMT on Thursday 15th March when teams will be frozen for the first race.

23 / 02 / 2012
Fantasy Rally:
The Mexico entry list has arrived and is available on the rally page.

14 / 02 / 2012
Fantasy Rally:
Due to Mini's recent hoo-ha, if you have Mini as your WRC team, you will score for the Mini Portugal team instead (currently Araujo/Nobre) from Mexico onwards.

13 / 02 / 2012
Fantasy Rally:
Teams are open for editing again, though the entry list for Mexico isn't yet available.

12 / 02 / 2012
Fantasy Rally:
Results from Rally Sweden are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. The next rally is in Mexico and starts on 8th March. Teams will reopen for editing on Monday.

23 / 01 / 2012
Fantasy Rally:
Teams are now open for editing again. Ogier and Mikkelsen are entered into Sweden in S2000 cars, but they're not eligible for the SWRC championship. You can choose them as WRC drivers for Sweden if you want.

22 / 01 / 2012
Fantasy Rally:
Results from the Monte are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. The second rally is in Sweden and starts on 9th Feb. Teams will be frozen at midnight GMT on the night of Thursday 9th Feb.

18 / 01 / 2012
Fantasy Rally:
Rally teams are now frozen for the Monte. You can still pick a team and it will start scoring from Sweden on 9th Feb.

11 / 01 / 2012
Fantasy Rally:
The 2012 Fantasy Rally season is now open for entries! Read the rules or dive straight in and pick a team. You can change your team as often as you like so you may as well create one now in case you forget later. Cutoff for the first race in Monte Carlo is midnight GMT on the night of TUESDAY 17th January.

27 / 11 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from the final F1 race at Brazil are in and the championship has been decided! Check the results or see how your team did. First race of 2012 is Australia on 18th March. Entries for the new season will open a week or two before that date.

14 / 11 / 2011
Fantasy Rally:
Shock rally drama! Martin Semerad was excluded from the PWRC, so our results change too, which gives us a new champion! Check the results or see how your team did.

13 / 11 / 2011
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally GB are in and the season is over! Check the results or see how your team did. The 2012 season will be open for entries in early 2012 in time for Monte Carlo on 17th January.

 

Firewall

Firewall

Cast: Harrison Ford, Paul Bettany, Virginia Madsen, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Robert Patrick, Alan Arkin, Robert Forster.

Directed by Richard Loncraine.

Story: A security expert's family is kidnapped to make him break into his own bank.

Running Time: 1hr 45 minutes.

UK Certificate 12A.

 

Firewall is a professionally made action thriller with a computery flavour that fortunately doesn't get in the way too much. Those expecting a Backdraft sequel will be disappointed - Firewall is a kidnap/heist movie, and a pretty good one at that.

Harrison Ford and Virginia Madsen, discovering the horrors of Deal Or No Deal. Paul Bettany (Wimbledon, Master and Commander) plays a ruthless techno-criminal, bent on stealing a fortune from Harrison Ford's bank. Ford manages the soft security at the bank, so he's an ideal target. His family is kidnapped and our Han Solo needs all his wits about him to save his family and the bank's money, all without scratching up the Millennium Falcon too much. Harrison Ford's getting a bit long in the tooth for jumpy around roles, so it's nice to see him stumbling and wheezing in the few moments where he exerts himself. If the fourth Indiana Jones movie comes off, it's going to need the same kind of approach to save face. As for Firewall, the story hangs together well - there are a few small gaps, but they're just details that haven't been shared with us rather than being plot holes. There are also ways that the characters could have got out of their predicament, but you can't blame them for not thinking of them - they're pretty resourceful as it is!

Paul Bettany, thanking his lucky stars that Jennifer Connelly likes redheads. Paul Bettany isn't the ideal choice for a baddie, and I can't help thinking that the casters could have done better - although he's fine, he doesn't really make the most of the opportunity. Harrison Ford plays the same character he always does and the kids are particularly good. Some of the technical aspects are a little bemusing - he rings the central office for them to give him a list of account numbers, which he then can't read on the screen because it shoots off the top, requiring some ingenuity on his part to capture the information. Why this might be, we are not told. Why can't this high powered security chap get customers' account numbers from his desktop? And even if he does have to call central office, why can't they provide the information in a readable format? I'm sure the writer knows the answers to these questions, but he didn't tell us, so we're left a little confused.

Firewall isn't perfect, and it's not significant enough to warrant a must-see rating - however it's likely to entertain everyone and does everything competently enough to be recommendable. It's the movie you enjoy when you go to the cinema without checking the schedules first.

I enjoyed this film: 4/5

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

Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 1/5 - surprisingly little to get worked up over.

To enjoy this film you should: not make a special trip.

 

Firewall was released in the UK on 31st March.