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Latest News

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.

13 / 11 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from F1 race 18 at Abu Dhabi are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Only one race to go - the final race is Brazil in two weeks on 27th November.

30 / 10 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from F1 race 17 at India are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Only two races to go - next race is Abu Dhabi in two weeks on 13th November.

24 / 10 / 2011
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally Spain are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. The next and FINAL rally of the year is Wales Rally GB on 10th November. Entries close on the night of WEDNESDAY 9th November (a day earlier than usual).

16 / 10 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from F1 race 16 at South Korea are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is India in two weeks on 30th October.

09 / 10 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from F1 race 15 at Suzuka are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is South Korea next weekend on 16th October.

02 / 10 / 2011
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally France are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Spain on 20th October.

25 / 09 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from F1 race 14 at Singapore are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Suzuka in two weeks on 9th October.

11 / 09 / 2011
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally Australia are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is France on 29th September.

11 / 09 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from F1 race 13 at Monza are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Singapore in two weeks on 25th September.

28 / 08 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from F1 race 12 at Spa are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Monza in two weeks on 11th September.

21 / 08 / 2011
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally Germany are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Australia on 8th September.

01 / 08 / 2011
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally Finland are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Germany on 18th August.

31 / 07 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from F1 race 11 at Hungary are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Spa in a month on 28th August.

24 / 07 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from F1 race 10 at the Nurburgring are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Hungary next weekend on 31st July.

10 / 07 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from F1 race 9 at Silverstone are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Nurburgring in 2 weeks on 24th July.

26 / 06 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from F1 race 8 in Valencia are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Silverstone in 2 weeks on 10th July.

19 / 06 / 2011
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally Acropolis are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Finland on 28th July.

12 / 06 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from F1 race 7 in Canada are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Valencia in 2 weeks on 26th June.

30 / 05 / 2011
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally Argentina are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Greece on 16th June.

29 / 05 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from F1 race 6 in Monaco are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Canada in 2 weeks on 12th June.

22 / 05 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from F1 race 5 in Barcelona are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Monaco next weekend on 29th May.

08 / 05 / 2011
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally Sardinia are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Argentina on 26th May.

08 / 05 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from the fourth F1 race of 2011 in Turkey are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Barcelona on 22nd May.

17 / 04 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from the thrilling third F1 race of 2011 in China are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Turkey on 8th May.

16 / 04 / 2011
Fantasy Rally:
The results from the rather shortened Rally Jordan are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Sardinia on 5th May.

10 / 04 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from Malaysia have been updated to reflect the penalties applied to Hamilton and Alonso. Of course, being a Ferrari, Alonso's didn't actually make any difference.

10 / 04 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from the second F1 race of 2011 in Malaysia are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is China on 17th April.

28 / 03 / 2011
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 Jordan on 14th April.

27 / 03 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from Australia have been updated to reflect the disqualification of the Saubers.

27 / 03 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The results from the first F1 race in Melbourne are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Malaysia on 10th April.

14 / 03 / 2011
Fantasy F1:
The 2011 Fantasy F1 season is finally open for entries! Pick your team now as the first race is on 27th March!

07 / 03 / 2011
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally Mexico are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Portugal on 24th March.

14 / 02 / 2011
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally Sweden are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Mexico on 3rd March.

06 / 02 / 2011
Fantasy Rally:
At last! The 2011 Fantasy Rally season is open for entries! Pick your team now as the first rally starts on Thursday!

14 / 11 / 2010
Fantasy Rally:
The results from the final round, Wales Rally GB, are in! Check the results or see how your team did in the final standings.

14 / 11 / 2010
Fantasy F1:
The results from the final race at Abu Dhabi are in! Check the results or see how your team did. Please come back and play again next year!

07 / 11 / 2010
Fantasy F1:
The results from the eighteenth and penultimate race at Brazil are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. The final race is Abu Dhabi next week on 14th November.

03 / 10 / 2010
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally Spain are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next and final rally is Wales Rally GB on 12th November.

24 / 10 / 2010
Fantasy F1:
The results from the seventeenth race at South Korea are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Brazil in two weeks on 7th November.

10 / 10 / 2010
Fantasy F1:
The results from the sixteenth race at Suzuka are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Korea in two weeks on 24th October.

03 / 10 / 2010
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally France are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Spain on 22nd October.

26 / 09 / 2010
Fantasy F1:
The results from the fifteenth race in Singapore are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Suzuka in two weeks on 10th October.

14 / 09 / 2010
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally Japan are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is France on 1st October.

12 / 09 / 2010
Fantasy F1:
The results from the fourteenth race in Monza are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Singapore in two weeks on 26th September.

30 / 08 / 2010
Fantasy F1:
The scores from Spa have been updated to reflect Alguersuari's 3-place penalty.

29 / 08 / 2010
Fantasy F1:
The results from the thirteenth race in Belgium are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Monza in two weeks on 12th September.

22 / 08 / 2010
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally Germany are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Japan on 10th September.

01 / 08 / 2010
Fantasy F1:
The results from the twelfth race in Hungary are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Spa in four weeks on 29th August.

01 / 08 / 2010
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally Finland are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Germany on 20th August.

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.

 

National Treasure

National Treasure Cast: Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Sean Bean, Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, Christopher Plummer. Directed by Jon Turteltaub, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

Story: Nic Cage and friends hunt for the 200 year old treasure hidden by the masons.

Running Time: 2hrs 11 minutes.

Certificate PG.

 

National Treasure is a big budget, big star Hollywood headliner. The stars would each have been paid more than you or I will be paid in our lifetimes and well-respected technicians and film-makers would have been employed at significant cost to ensure a high quality end product. With all this in mind, it seems like a spectactular oversight to give the story-writing to a 15-year old with a schoolboy's history book. Actually that's not fair. The average 15-year old who actually reads books would do much better than this.

A room full of ancient dried-out crumbly treasures - I know, let's ditch the battery operated torches and walk around with this raging inferno instead.  For feck's sake. It's an issue of approach. It's totally fine to have an action film that requires the brain to be turned off - we've all sat through and enjoyed totally preposterous movies. The problem comes when such a film tries to be clever. Yes, the way they discover a password is quite cunning (I shan't spoil it), but then as soon as this happens, it bump-starts your brain and you start thinking. Within about 5 seconds you realise why it wouldn't have actually worked and once the floodgates are open, the rest of the plot developments seem to have been copied from the back of a cereal packet. By way of an example, the second scene sees our heroes in some kind of arctic wilderness. They are looking for a buried ship, that has been encased in ice, frozen and unfrozen many times to make a "semi-solid migrating land mass that would land a ship right around here" (without, incidentally, knowing where or when it started from). They then get their metal detector out and within 20 feet it goes beep, Nic sticks a pick in the ground ONCE and clang, there it is. Not just the ship, but the NAMEPLATE of the ship conveniently showing us how sparklingly clever they are. I really am utterly sick of this kind of crap.

For a guy called Sean, he's got surprisingly long hair. Nicolas Cage is, as usual, wholly unconvincing. He always looks like he's been swigging from a scotch bottle before coming on set, which may go some way to explaining his single appropriate performance in Leaving Las Vegas. Everything since then shows no evidence whatsoever to support his astronomical fees. He is comprehensively outperformed by everyone present, in fact the supporting characters all do a very good job. Diane Kruger (Helen of Troy) is particularly sparkling and Justin Bartha makes an excellent comedy geek sidekick, ably assisted by the script which is, considering the awfulness of the story, surprisingly fresh and entertaining in parts (and a little pretentious in others). Harvey Keitel is as good as ever as the FBI chief, Jon Voight makes a good cantankerous old dad, Sean Bean is a totally convincing baddie and Christopher Plummer's introductory scene is simply scintillating. Even a tiny part by a schoolkid (Yves Michel-Beneche) is played so well that it makes Cage's amateur talent all the more pronounced. It must be sickening for the quality actors to have their film ruined by a bad central performance and a shoddy story. And the Brit-bashing is not lost on me - the baddies happen to be British in a film featuring the Declaration of Independence - I just don't care very much.

Diane Kruger and Justin Bartha try to discover the map to Nicolas Cage's missing talent. Well I'm done here. National Treasure would have appealed to me when I was ten (though it's not as raucous as Indiana Jones), but nowadays I am pickier. Every single event in the film is completely unbelievable - in fact the whole film seems to be trying remarkably hard to be Indiana Jones - and I don't mean that in a good way. However, the Indiana Jones films never seemed to take themselves too seriously, so they are a whole lot more watchable. As often happens though, I'm in the minority and everyone else seems to be able to forgive its flaws and enjoy it. So I guess I can summarise by saying:  National Treasure is terrible. You'll love it.

I enjoyed this film: 2/5

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

Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 2/5 Lots of running around and a car chase.

To enjoy this film you should: Get very drunk first.