Latest News

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.

The Forbidden Kingdom

Cast: Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Michael Angarano, Yifei Liu, Collin Chou. Directed by Rob Minkoff. Story: Kung fu kid visits fantasy fighty world. Running Time: 1hr 53 minutes. UK Certificate 12A.

Oh my god, it's a movie of that Monkey TV series from the 70s!

Well, it is and it isn't. "The Monkey King," is clearly the same character, and the kid from the real world (Michael Angarano from Sky High) who gets sucked into their fantasy world is called Tripitikas (in Monkey the monk was Tripitaka), but in reality they're both just adapted from the same epic Eastern story "Journey to the West". Jet Li is the cheeky simian monarch, and he's absolutely superb at it - gone are the days when he just stared woodenly throughout a movie, he's an accomplished performer nowadays. Jackie Chan joins in as a fighter spookily similar to his 1978 Drunken Master and he can still hoik his 54 year old bones around like a mere slip of a lad.

Unfortunately they've used the silly flying technique born in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and perpetuated through Hero, Curse of the Golden Flower and so on. It really is crap. I'm quite happy with the axiom that these characters can leap about like fleas, but when they're dangling from a wire it doesn't look like they're leaping about like fleas, it looks like they're dangling from a wire. It simply doesn't work.

Plot-wise there's nothing new. The story feels very 80s - you'll be reminded of The Karate Kid more than once and there are no surprises to be had anywhere along the way. There's one laugh-out-loud moment (when Jackie Chan tries to make it rain) and the special effects and backdrops are all very pretty. It's an unashamed old-school martial arts adventure with some modern tricks thrown in, and it achieves everything it sets out to do. It's just not very ambitious in that respect.

The Forbidden Kingdom takes you back to the days of watching Monkey on telly and looking forward to seeing The Goonies and The Golden Child at the cinema. It's harmless fun, you could do a lot worse.

I enjoyed this film: 3/5

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

Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 3/5 - there's a fight every couple of minutes but they're a bit silly.

To enjoy this film you should be: nostalgic about the 80s.