The View From Lower Down

 THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS FOR COYOTE VS. ACME BUT I HAVE TRIED TO KEEP ANY MAJOR SPOILERS OUT AND ANY MAJOR TWISTS ARE ONLY THOSE INCLUDED OR HINTED AT IN AT LEAST ONE TRAILER Firstly I'll address the elephant in the room of the cancellation. This movie is based on a New Yorker article from 1990 , with the hilarious premise: What if Wile E Coyote sued the ACME Corporation for all the times they have sold him a product which has malfunctioned and endangered/harmed him? Interestingly, this was suggested as a movie over 20 years ago, but it wasn't until 2022 that some wheels finally started moving. By 2023 the movie had been filmed, animated and was ready for release but then the project was shelved by Warner Brothers CEO David Zaslav as a tax writeoff. Quiz question: How many Warner Brothers were there originally? When this was announced, the film's stars were invited to a 'funeral screening' of the movie which they thought was because it was a bad movie. Ho...

• Detective preshow • Cast introduction/Jan’s envelopes • Where is the train going? (football suggestion) • Looking for criminals      o Interesting town – capital of Mercia      o Interesting hobby - Coin collector      o Interesting gift – Lordship      o Interesting job – biomedical scientist • Introducing the suspects      o Tammy Worth, mayor of Tamworth      o Colin Collector, terrible gambler      o Lord SirKnight, Lord of Sealand      o Ed Iclescience, mad scientist • Checking their references      o Spudman      o Fifi the dog      o The King of Belgium      o The local orphanage owner • Who dies? Act 2 • Evidence • Ticket distribution • Setting up motives      o A gift              A coin    ...

VERY MINOR NO CONTEXT SPOILERS AHEAD I had a new experience recently - I went to a radio sitcom recording. Several of my friends and relatives have been to one before, but my closest experience was the Dead Ringers 25th Anniversary Tour . This show in no way resembles that and had a much smaller audience, so I will be keeping comparisons to a minimum. The word minimum  is very satisfying to type. Try it! Back to the recording. I was invited personally by the amateur stand-up comedian and comedy writer Leo Morton, whom I have known for a long time. Because of this, I have promised to give him copy approval before publishing; a courtesy not usually extended to creatives of properties reviewed on this blog. Because of this, the finished version might be over sanitised, sorry. I may have given the wrong impression when saying this was a radio recording. These episodes will not be broadcast on the radio, at least not yet. This recording was instigated by Leo's housemate Matt, another ol...

Copy approval  Radio recording  Invites Cast Full Penelope Keith The Goes Wrong Show Matt Production company (61:10) Standing Cold Opens New Year Christmas IT Crowd Animal movie £10 Dad's Army Lab Rats

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FROM S4E6 AND E9 OF THE TRAITORS (UK) Recently my Dad and I have got into watching The Traitors . Incidentally, don't comment any spoilers; we're several episodes behind (or if you do, include a warning like mine above). We didn't watch any of the previous three seasons as we didn't see the appeal (In fact, for the last three years, I have thought it was a more adult-oriented version of the CBBC show Trapped .  However, last year was the launch of the equally successful series The Celebrity Traitors , which we tuned into because it contained quite a few people we'd heard of, unlike modern series of Strictly Come Dancing . We stopped watching that a few years ago because we hadn't heard of anyone. However, I am reading Chris McCausland's biography  (not sponsored; other retailers are available), which I recommend as it's very funny. Veering off course... - Ed. Sorry. WARNING: INCOMING SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH.   Since Matty spoke...

The Godfather  Family Guy  Citizen Kane  Brooklyn 99  Video Monologue  Chekhovs gun Bleak expectations  Hot Fuzz Glass Onion  Wonka Emily Mortimer Dumbledore said calmly Unlike me go on tangent  Underline 

That's mn as in hy mn ai as in s ai d wr as in wr ist  ea as in ea t qu as in mos qu ito rh as in rh apsody u as in b u sy sth as in a sth ma mb as in bo mb o as in lem o n ps as in ps alm; Or Merry Christmas for short. I predict that because of the new scoring system, we will be left with a tie at the end of the quiz. If this happens, I have a tiebreaker ready, but in the meantime, I thought I could try to break the tie. Every weekend, I will be sending out a new clue in the style of the above words. This time though, you have to find Christmas songs.  This time, all correct answers will receive 300 points (these can be really hard), regardless of time or order, but will go down each week. The current value is written next to them. The first clue: Mbusciltough aupndh whykn - Now worth 100 points The second clue: Sthe Aknoughthi Dhei - Now worth 200 points The third clue: Leoghtghtleea Ddwroumbmbeawr Bboeigh  - Worth 300 points Good luck! Still confused? Look up g...

Congratulations! Most of you correctly guessed that this year's theme  CNSN NTS NLY Was CONSONANTS ONLY  The quiz starts tomorrow, and every week day a clue will be sent that is the name of a Christmas movie with the vowels removed. For anyone who watches Only Connect, this is the same rules as the final round of that show. WARNING: RULE CHANGE ALERT! In previous years, the scoring system has been that the first team to answer correctly will score 150 points, the second correct answer will score 140 points and so on. However, due to popular demand, the points system has been adjusted and this time points will be awarded based on time.  Any correct answers submitted 11:00-11:29 will score 150 points; correct answers submitted 11:30-11:59 will score 140 points and so on. I am aware that this might lead to a tie at the end of the quiz, but fear not, I have planned a tiebreaker round for the eventuality. Have any questions about the new scoring system? Email me at xmasmoviequ...

These are the final scores for this year's quiz; thank you to everyone who participated and see you in November! Raring to Snow - 4900 Points The Three Wise Platypuses - 440 0 points Bless Our Souls - 3750 points Correct Horse Battery Staple - 2900 points Katzen Kittens - 2900 points The Rookies - 2150 Points Santa's Little Helpers - 2290 points Merry Berry   - 1540 points Eastside Avengers - 1000 points The Muppet Christmas Cab-Ride - 1090 points Christmas Cracker - 900 points Whimsical Witterings -  50 Points

 Happy December! Of course, you know what that means - Merry Christmas! The bad news is, the quiz has already started. The good news is, you can still sign up, although you may find it harder to catch up. The first day you sign up, you may receive the clue late, but your  score will be adjusted to reflect this (eg, if I send you the first clue at 13:00, you can get the maximum points by answering before 13:29). You will not be sent clues from previous days to catch up, sorry. By the following day, I should be able to get you on the clue list at the normal time See below instructions on how to sign up WARNING: THE RULES THIS YEAR ARE A BIT WORDY, SO SKIP TO THE BOTTOM PARAGRAPH IF YOU WANT A TL;DR This year, the theme (chosen by last year’s winner Raring to Snow ) is: CONSONANTS O NLY Full explanation of what that means here . If you can, email  xmasmoviequiz@gmail.com , saying you want to join the quiz and including your team name. Of course, the usual rules apply when su...

Bit of a different one today, straying away from the brand a bit  You don't post often enough to have a brand - You  Picture  Seriously, that's how you sound. I was listening to Close to you by The Carpenters recently and was struck by the bizarre nature of the lyrics: Why do birds, suddenly appear, Every time, you are near Just like me, they long to be, Close to you  If birds suddenly appear , chances are   that they were already there anyway; hiding in the trees or something.  Also, the song is probably referring to more romantic birds such as robins or doves, but let's face it, in the real world it would probably be pigeons. But pigeons are genetically indistinguishable from doves - You I know, but that undermines my point. It was then pointed out to me that birds don't suddenly appear; that's stars ! And that raises its own problem, namely that stars can't suddenly appear. There are two possible issues, depending on the context of when the song is b...

Finally, a Mischief Comedy show with a short name! I'm still going to shorten it to CAS though, because laziness. Unlike my previous Mischief reviews, this review will try to steer clear of spoilers, at least major ones in context. Fair warning though, I will be spoiling some of the major physical gags, although not the context in which they appear.  Access - With this being The View From Lower Down, we can't have a review without first discussing the accessibility of the theatre. The access to the theatre is fine; it just involves going in through a different entrance with a long internal ramp which would scare some wheelchair users, but I know the best thing is to only allow one wheelchair on at a time. It could probably take more, but that makes it less scary. Once into the auditorium, the accessible seats were inside a box, which I'm convinced made us look like Statler and Waldorf, but my brother wasn't convinced. Unfortunately, we didn't get anyone from outside...

Short name Access Screensaver Opening scene - similar but not the same Police Squad Character names Bond? Rope gag AccessAble Lots of colours  Physical gags - Australia Remember the spy? More double crosses than a Union Jack factory

I was recently watching a load of Wired videos about chess (don't ask me why; I'm not sure myself) Have you heard of Anarchy Chess? It was an event on Reddit in which users were allowed to vote on the next move in a game of chess, legal or not .  The game started simple with a move which in traditional chess is considered pointless as it offers no tactical advantage, however in this case involved White taking their own pawn. However, things quickly escalated as Black decided they wanted another Queen, which gave them a huge advantage until White's next move, when they decided that actually, the queen should be theirs. Unfortunately, this means that White has to draw 2 cards. As you can see, Anarchy Chess got unhinged very quickly. You can see the full progression of the game below: This post is not about Anarchy Chess. This post is about Chaos Chess. Chaos Chess is similar to Anarchy Chess in that it's nothing like Anarchy Chess The main reason that Chaos Chess is on th...