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Latest News

09 / 09 / 2010
Fantasy Rally:
Results from Rally Japan will be delayed - expect to see them around Wednesday-ish.

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.

 

Syriana

Syriana

Cast: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Mark Strong, Christopher Plummer, Christopher Plummer, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Cooper, Nicky Henson, Amanda Peet, William Hurt.

Written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, adapted from the book "See No Evil" by Robert Baer.

Story: Oily politics.

Running Time: 1hr 55 minutes.

UK Certificate 15.

 

Syriana is a heavy political thriller with plenty of talent and very keen critical appraise. Pity it's as boring as the Littlewoods catalogue.

Matt Damon inquires as to the origin of the pooey smell on the back seat. I know, I know, I'm a critic, I'm supposed to like this kind of thing. However, if you've only read the mainstream press reviews then you'll be under the impression that this is a movie for everyone that happens to be about politics. It's not. It's only for people who are interested in politics and can read the business section of the newspaper without nodding off. For those people, there is a huge amount to recommend in Syriana, as there is a deep and complex plot with many intriguing threads to follow and a series of excellent performances from world class actors. I, however, watched the first 20 minutes and suddenly realised I didn't have a clue who any of the characters were and what was going on. This is, I admit, my own fault. The movie started quickly and I wasn't paying enough attention - where you would normally expect to be able to settle in at your own pace, Syriana gets cracking from the opening scene and if you don't listen carefully you'll be left behind.

George Clooney discovers the power of the Faal. The density of the plot is a natural consequence of being a political book converted to a movie, and it's a problem. While obviously fictitious movies such as Lucky Number Slevin get away with it by virtue of their "pretend" nature, Syriana is basically true in its premises, so the viewer is encouraged to think about the issues raised. You can't do that here, or you'll miss important details. For this reason, I recommend Syriana more for a DVD viewing rather than a cinema visit, though you'll need a big TV as the subtitles are ridiculously small. That's fine for a 20-foot screen, but on a 20-inch you'd have to sit with your nose pressed to the cathode.

Syriana will only appeal to a relatively small section of the population. Consider it as Date Movie in negative and you won't be far wrong. It's undoubtedly a very good movie - but I don't rate a movie's quality, I rate how much I think you'll enjoy it. And unless you follow world politics, you won't.

I enjoyed this film: 2/5

I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: 3/5 - but a clear 5/5 if you're into this kind of thing.

Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 1/5 - there's one gruesome torture scene and a couple of explosions, the rest is talkie talkie talkie.

To enjoy this film you should be: interested by politics.

 

Syriana is released in the UK on 3rd March.

 

Your comments

The comments printed here are not necessarily the views of Forwardcharm!

 

Oh dear - Gaghan may have succeeded with Traffic, but he fails here. Sterotypical badies, ideological goodies and unnecessary characters such as Chris Cooper's alcoholic father - all thrown into the pot and stirred with a hand held camera. Add in a bunch of Brits such as Mark Strong and Nicky Henson with dodgy yank accents and round off with the unanswered question of what George Clooney was up to in that Shogun offroader at the end of the film.
Mark Piper