TV REVIEW – Men Of A Certain Age

By Marty Mulrooney

MenOfACertainAge

I am a big fan of comedian Ray Romano and have been for a number of years. Everybody Loves Raymond never aired a dud episode in my eyes: everything shown felt like it could happen, even if it was completely over the top. In fact, most episodes had a line or a scene where 99% of the people I know would say “that happened to me!” There is also a running joke on my girlfriend’s side of the family that I am exactly like Ray is in the show. (Lovable maybe? Bah, who am I kidding!) So yeah, I loved Everybody Loves Raymond and felt pretty sad when it finished.

So when I heard that Ray Romano was returning to our TV screens 4 years later, in a drama… I didn’t know what to expect. The title, Men Of A Certain Age, conjured up really bad images of men in their 40’s acting like college wildchilds, before learning a lesson about growing old gracefully. Just goes to show, never judge a book by its cover… and never judge a TV show by its name!

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under Television

GAME REVIEW – Tales Of Monkey Island: Chapter 5 ‘Rise Of The Pirate God’ (Season Finale)

By Marty Mulrooney

MonkeyIsland105 2009-12-09 23-15-06-36

Chapter 4 of Tales Of Monkey Island was awarded Alternative Magazine Online’s first ever perfect 10 score last month, finishing on a cliff-hanger that blew many fans old and new completely away.

My main worry initially was that the season final would not be able to hold this momentum through to its conclusion, although I also noted in my review for Chapter 4 that I had the upmost faith that Telltale were up to the challenge. Thank god I was right. Rise Of The Pirate God dials that 10 up to 11 with admirable ease.

Continue reading →

7 Comments

Filed under Games

GAME REVIEW – Assassin’s Creed 2 (Xbox 360)

By Duncan Voice

AC2-Cover

It’s not often that I’ll take offence to an advert, being the fairly laid back fellow that I am, but after a first game that transcended even listening-to-your-Dad-drone-on-about-airplanes levels of boredom I was quite taken aback by the TV advertisement for Assassins Creed 2. It carries itself with a swagger, an air of arrogance much like it’s lead character Cesc Fabregas, erm sorry I mean Ezio Auditore de Firenze. He swans about, performing his murderous duties whilst the advert screams at you various accolades about it being ‘Action Game of the Year!’ and ‘9/10’, all the while having the gall to play the awesome Genesis by Justice during proceedings. So by all means, if you’re going to sing about it from the rooftops, it had better be good!

1 Comment

Filed under Games

MUSIC REVIEW – Christmas With The Rat Pack Live! Monday 7th December 2009, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

By Marty Mulrooney

rat-pack-x-mas

As a huge fan of music from long before my time, I was thrilled to be able to see the Olivier Award nominated official Rat Pack act (all the way from Las Vegas apparently!), performing a special Christmas show last night in my hometown of Liverpool (they are doing a full tour of the UK at the moment, including London’s West End). But as always with tribute shows, I asked myself a loaded question as I took my seat: can such shows and their participants ever step from beneath the mighty shadow their  idols have cast down upon them?

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Music