Transformers. More than meets the eye, as the old saying goes. The simple fact is, the classic 1980s cartoon series never had much depth going for it, even when it was at its most pure. It was merely one of a wave of cartoons designed to sell toys to kids. The only difference between now and then is that we’re able to have a heck of a lot more realism in what happens on screen. So as the new Transformers film series heads to its third, and hopefully final, cinematic outing, the question we have to ask ourselves is - was Michael Bay’s efforts here worth it? Was this a bold new cinematic adventure, or merely a messy tribute to nostalgia? Honestly, while it’s great hearing Peter Cullen back as Optimus Prime, the movie is just plain boring.

I think that I am starting to turn into a bit of a grumpy old man, really. For weeks now I’ve been hearing about this amazingly funny movie, Bridesmaids, and was very eager to go and see it. I’d heard about how many great jokes were in it, and how wonderful the characters and central plot was. Having now seen the movie, I honestly don’t feel as though the hype matched the reality. While there were certainly some good jokes in it, they were few and far between - the film focussed on the wrong aspects of “nervous comedy”, and not enough on the more interesting dramatic material that the central character was going through. So am I right or wrong? Have a read on to find out my reasons for feeling the way that I do about this movie.

Apple recently opened the curtain on the latest developments in its operating system world, and while I am no big fan of Apple by any stretch of the imagination, whenever they make an announcement I try to follow what is said. This is mostly to see what Microsoft’s biggest competitor is up to, but also because of how much industry-wide influence Apple have (for better or for worse, you can decide). Their annual WWDC is usually where the next generation iPhone is announced, and while there was no iPhone 5 announcement this year (latest rumours suggest that will be coming in September), a visibly ill Steve Jobs took to the stage to unveil the latest version of Mac OS X, code named Lion, along with iOS 5 and their latest attempt at a cloud computer service, iCloud (replacing the disaster that was MobileMe). So was what they announced as revolutionary and magical as indicated?

The 2009 film The Hangover was one of that year’s best comedy films. It was an interesting premise that, while lumbered with a stupid resolution, explored some excellent comic concepts. The film worked particularly well because of the brilliant main cast assembled for the film. So given all of this, it was a bit of a no-brainer that a sequel would come a few years later. Well, it has - the Wolf Pack are back again, and this time the setting for their forgotten night of stupidity and antics is Bangkok. Along the way they’ll get a tattoo, find a drug-dealing monkey, and very quickly realise that sometimes doing the same thing over again is never a good idea. This was also a particularly obvious point to the audience, as The Hangover Part II is a rare sequel - one that sets out of perfectly mimic the format, structure, and heck even plot of the original installment. Hence why it’s so boring.

Super 8 is one of those movies that I have been thoroughly looking forward to for quite some time. Quite aside from the teaser trailers and regular pre-release hype, there was one single element that got me hooked on wanting to see this movie - the interactive teaser trailer present in Valve’s recent game release Portal 2. The moment I was able to wander around about 5 minutes of the film’s setting and plot I was definitely interested in seeing where this sucker was going to go. So it was with great excitement that earlier today I popped along to my local Event Cinema, grabbed myself a Gold Class seat, ordered a pizza and some beer, and sat back and watched the latest cinematic output from JJ Abrams. So, was it actually as good as I had hoped it would be? Absolutely it was - in fact, in some ways it was better than I could have ever hoped it to be. Read on to find out precisely why!

Anyone who is a regular reader of The Sunday Talk knows that I am a big fan of the theatre. I love the intimacy on offer, the way in which it can generate emotion in a way that cinema or television cannot. This is particularly true of thriller theatre, something that is quite rare to come across. I am not entirely sure why, as it seems like the theatre is a natural home of such frights. So it was with great delight that the other day I popped along to the Brisbane Arts Theatre to see their production of The Woman in Black. I had been assured during the week on ABC Brisbane radio that it was a super scary production, and contained a few “Oh, f*ck…” moments as well. So did it live up to the ABC’s hype? Sadly, not at all - while the potential was there, it was completely wasted by a Director that clearly didn’t seem to want to scare the audience all that much, with many opportunities missed.

I don’t own an XBox 360, although it is on my bucket list of things to buy. Furthermore, while I have heard of the Fable series of games, because of my lack of an XBox I’ve never played one. So when I heard that the series was coming to Windows Phone 7, I thought this might be a nice way to get in on the action. With Fable Coin Golf it’s apparently part of the Fable universe, but isn’t the same type of game as found on the XBox 360. It’s actually quite a fun little physics game (what other kind is there?) which is more akin to an obstacle course / golf game than anything else. Which is fun to play, and is great for the mobile nature of a smartphone. The graphics are kind of cool, with the difficulty setting on the game actually being quite suitable for a little casual fun.

Well, the latest series of Doctor Who has finished airing on ABC1 here in Australia, and as such I thought it was an appropriate time to reflect back on the latest batch of episodes, and see if they really stood up to scrutiny. Were these the best episodes yet produced, or were they not as enjoyable as “the good old days” when Russell T Davies and David Tennant were the big names attached to the show? I think somehow the correct answer lies somewhere in the middle. This latest series had some very enjoyable moments, and at times for me was the best series since the 2nd series in 2006. But at the same time I have to admit that there were some major elements that did disappoint me and made me wonder if perhaps the show’s best years weren’t already behind it, and that maybe, just maybe, the show needed another rest for a few years? Either way, read on for ep-by-ep reflections!