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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.

 

Smokin' Aces

Smokin' Aces

Cast: Jeremy Piven, Ray Liotta, Ryan Reynolds, Andy Garcia, Ben Affleck, Alicia Keys, Jason Bateman, Peter Berg, Martin Henderson, Chris Pine, Kevin Durand, Maury Sterling, Joel Edgerton.

Directed by Joe Carnahan.

Story: Mob chaos.

Running Time: 1hr 49 minutes.

UK Certificate 18.

 

Smokin' Aces is what happens when you copy a movie without understanding why it worked in the first place. Whilst it's not a complete smokin' turd, it's more like a pair of sixes than a straight flush.

Joel Edgerton and Jeremy Piven try to discover where the stream of cards is coming from. It looks so good on paper. An A-list cast, flashy photographic style, a super-cool trailer - how can it go wrong? By making dodgy casting decisions (Ben Affleck, Alicia Keys) and by losing the viewer by making the plot inaccessible. I only saw it last night and I can't for the life of me remember what happened, plotwise. I remember what I saw, but not why it happened. I remember that everything seemed to be designed purely to get everyone in the same place at the same time so they could all blow holes in each other, and I remember the very unsatisfactory and tacked-on ending, but other than that it's one big blur. This is a big problem in a movie like this - the plot weighs substantially towards the overall enjoyment factor, so if you get it wrong, you've got a big problem that no amount of stars will overcome.

You know what they say, Alicia Keys - big hands, big cock. Although Affleck and singer Alicia Keys are largely ineffectual, the rest of the cast is actually superb. Jeremy Piven (Entourage) is perfect as the playboy magician showman, Ryan Reynolds (Just Friends, Waiting) demonstrates an unexpected ability to play the straight man and Ray Liotta and Andy Garcia ably do what they've been doing all their lives. Jason Bateman - Michael Bluth in Arrested Development - is a particular treat as a seedy lawyer, though he's tragically under-used and his subtle humour is somewhat swamped by the sledge-hammer scenery that surrounds him. The comedy moments, although mildly amusing, are too infrequent and clumsy and desperately cry out for the down-to-earth aspect so effectively used in Lock Stock and Pulp Fiction. The action sequences are much better, with some excellent cinematography and some real adrenaline-filled shootouts, and there are some nicely unexpected events to keep you on your toes. From a purely gung-ho point of view, it ticks all the right boxes, so it will please a fair amount of you. Just not everyone.

Smokin' Aces will satisfy you if you're in the right frame of mind - the base elements are covered adequately, but it fails in the finesse, which is where the giants of the genre excel. Worth a rental if you're into this sort of thing, avoid if you're not.

I enjoyed this film: 3/5

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

Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 4/5 - guns galore, one set of nameless baps, explicit narcotic abuse.

To enjoy this film you should be: satisfied by classy slo-mo shooting.

 

Smokin' Aces was released in the UK on 12th January.