She Stoops stands up very, very high indeed February 2, 2012 Theatre SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER Olivier Theatre at The National **** OLIVER Goldsmith’s famous play is a good old-fashioned romp. Cases of mistaken identity abound, incriminating snippets of conversation are overheard, priceless jewels are misplaced. Summarising the labyrinthine plot, which twists and writhes for two and a half hours, would take pages. Suffice it to [...]
Tate bites off more than it can chew February 2, 2012 Art MIGRATIONS Tate Britain *** MIGRATIONS is not a user-friendly exhibit – abstract and vague from the get-go (what is the plural of migration when applied to art, exactly?), I walked in feeling out of my depth. But once inside, Migrations comes into its own – or at least, it tries to. London has always [...]
Polanski’s superbly tense social hell February 2, 2012 Film CARNAGE Cert: 15 **** When Roman Polanski directs a discussion between two tense couples about a playground dispute, you know it’s not going to turn out well. Bleak and biting, Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly and Christopher Waltz are unable to stop the discussion escalating to intense proportions. As the façade of [...]
House prices fell again in January, Nationwide says February 1, 2012 HOUSE prices declined in January and barely registered any growth over the last year, according to figures out yesterday from Nationwide. Prices fell 0.2 per cent last month, repeating December’s fall and taking the 12-month growth rate down from one per cent to 0.6 per cent. Average prices now stand at £162,228, from £161,211 in [...]
The thinking man’s games February 1, 2012 Last year saw a host of games that pushed the boundaries of what the genre can achieve. New techniques give almost cinematic animation quality and video game acting is no-longer the refuge of Z-list talent. Titles like LA Noire and Skyrim were vast in their scope and brilliant in their execution, proving that games are [...]
THREE OF THE BEST February 1, 2012 SUPERBROTHERS: SWORD AND SWORCERRY Sword and Sworcery (sic) is a point and click with a difference. This ever-so-clever Canadian game is part homage to point-and-clicks of yesteryear, part musical social experiment. Most of the puzzles are sound-based, with the player having to respond to the beautifully crafted soundtrack. The game will often prompt you to [...]
BlackBerry tops handset sales… sort of February 1, 2012 So, the biggest selling phone of last year was the… BlackBerry. It’s been a mixed year for… Wait… What? BlackBerry? Seriously? After a year that has seen global blackouts and gigantic writedowns – culminating in its co-chief executives stepping down last month – RIM has come out with a tub-thumping statement claiming to be the [...]
House prices fall February 1, 2012 House prices fell by 0.2 per cent in January compared with the previous month, according to the Nationwide. The building society, the first to report on January’s prices, valued the average home at £162,228. The annual rate of house price growth slowed to 0.6 per cent in January, from one per cent in December, according [...]
Meet the enchanting new Peugeot January 31, 2012 Hybrid cars have been on sale in Europe for a while now. Toyota, Honda, VW and even Porsche all sell hybrid versions of their cars that improve on fuel economy by supplementing their petrol engines with electric motors. Until now, such cars have made the most sense for North America or other regions that don’t [...]
CAR TALK January 31, 2012 BMW GIVES THE X6 A FACELIFT BMW has released the first pictures of its facelifted X6. The Sports Activity Coupé has a new revived face with a more pronounced kidney grille, higher fog lights and adaptive LED headlamps. Available with five engine choices, the xDrive30d is the most frugal and can be fitted with BMW’s [...]