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50. Roy Keane rant, August 15
Who is this softly spoken Irishman, and what has he done with Roy Keane? That was what we wondered last season, as Sunderland were promoted and the red mist stubbornly refused to descend on football’s Mr Angry. Happily, the season was just one game young when the Keane of old returned with an entertaining rant about WAG culture causing him to miss out on transfer targets: “These so-called big stars are people we are supposed to be looking up to. Well, they are weak and soft. If they don’t want to come because their wife wants to go shopping in London, it’s a sad state of affairs”. He ended the season with a nicely volcanic tirade, as well, threatening to sack half his squad for not trying at Bolton Wanderers because they’d secured survival the week before.
49. Spurs chat with Juande Ramos, August 17
What are the chances? Spurs representatives visit Seville, probably for a meeting regarding a new variety for the team’s half-time oranges, and who should be at their hotel but Ramos, the Seville manager and one of the most sought-after coaches in Europe. Thus did speculation about the future of Martin Jol, the most successful Spurs boss in recent times, begin – and it was only mid-August. That’s what losing to Sunderland will do for you.
48. Antonio Puerta dies, August 28
We look to sport as an escape from reality and a celebration of youth and energy - so, the death in August of Antonio Puerta, the 22-year-old Seville defender, was especially shocking. Puerta, whose partner was heavily pregnant, died several days after suffering a heart attack during a match. This tragedy instigated a debate in British football as to whether the fast pace of the modern game was dangerous. More players died during the season, including Motherwell’s Phil O’Donnell. Clive Clarke, of Leicester City, suffered heart failure during a Carling Cup tie just a couple of days after Puerta’s collapse but survived.

timesonline.co.uk

Matt Edwards went to Edinburgh, and he watched lots and lots of films. Lots. And lots.
The Dead By Dawn horror film festival took place this past weekend and consisted of a variety of features and shorts. I went for the first time this year, lured to Edinburgh under the promise a truly memorable long weekend.
I was accompanied by Mrs. Matt, a nearly qualified student nurse. I asked her for a quote on each film, which I’ve included here to give you an idea of what someone slightly less nerdy than me might make of these films. It’s probably fair that I mention that I elicited these quotes at four in the morning by shouting at her until she said something I felt I could use.
These trivialities aside, lets get to what really makes any festival; the films.
The festival opened with Outpost, a war-themed Brit horror about a small team of soldiers who end up in a haunted bunker under the constant threat of attack from ’something’ in the surrounding areas. The film features some decent action, a fantastic animated sequence and some interesting ideas. That said, it’s quite slow to get going, the story is a little muddled and we aren’t really offered a great deal of character development. I would also question whether Nazi zombies is something that needs to be played straight.
Mrs Matt: "It was too slow and they faffed about too much. There wasn’t enough action, but when there was action it only lasted for 2 minutes and then they just went back to faffing about again. Who was the guy from Spaced in it?"
Double bill of the first two entries of Argento’s Three Mothers Trilogy (the concluding part of the trilogy was shown later in the festival). It’s hard to imagine a better experience watching Suspiria than on a big screen with a booming soundtrack. The print of Inferno was apparently new and looked spectacular. Great fun.

denofgeek.com

Out this week is the Academy Award winner, “No Country For Old Men.” Josh Brolin stars as Llewelyn Moss who discovers a case of $2 million in the middle of the desert with no witnesses. He soon hits the road with the stolen cash only to soon discover that he is being pursued by an ex-special-ops agent by the name of Chigurh (Javier Bardem) who knows what he did. And so begins the cat and mouse game between the two. Wherever Moss goes, the relentless Chigurh is not far behind, determined to take the money for his own and killing anyone who gets in his way.
Tommy Lee Jones also stars as the Sheriff Bell who gets wind of the situation between the two men and throws himself in the middle, hoping to put an end to the chase before more casualties occur.
Being the Best Picture Academy Award winner of 2008, this is one you will want to check out. On top of that, Javier Bardem won the Best Supporting Actor nod for his role as the relentless psycho, so expect quite the performance from him. The film itself is made quite nicely. Shot out in the West with many desert scenes, it fits well with the story at hand and makes a nice backdrop. It’s not the most action-packed film you will see, but it’s tense. The entire two hours almost feels like a slow boiling that finally comes to a head. So rest in knowing that even though it’s not fast moving, it will keep you entertained through the entire story. This is mostly due to the intriguing and suspenseful hide and seek game between Moss and Chigurh that leaves you feeling excited, yet a little uneasy.

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It takes a daring filmmaker to remake his own movie, but Michael Haneke (Cache) is up for the challenge. The Austrian director, who made waves with the original Funny Games a decade ago, now brings us an English-language version of his own film — remade shot-for-shot, a cineaste’s delight! Naomi Watts and Tim Roth star as the unsuspecting couple whose vacation turns deadly when two strangers (Brady Corbet and Michael Pitt) trap them and their young son in their own home, playing sadistic games with their lives.
Haneke’s original film garnered critical acclaim for its brutal cleverness — a compelling meditation on the nature of violence and voyeurism, breaking the conventions of filmmaking and storytelling left and right. And yet (spoiler alert!) it revealed little on-screen violence, assigning the viewer instead with the task of conjuring violent images in the mind. For added film school extra credit, the mindful moviegoer will notice the use of direct address; when’s the last time a horror movie villain asked the audience if they want the good guys to win?
For his English-language Games, Haneke has selected a spot-on cast; Naomi Watts plays Anne, a wife and mother at the mercy of two killers (whose tearful desperation already makes for one of the year’s best posters), Tim Roth is Anne’s husband, George, and Devon Gearheart is their young son, Georgie. As the two impossibly polite killers, Brady Corbet (24) and Michael Pitt (Murder By Numbers, Hedwig and the Angry Inch) exude a detached intensity that are instantly off-putting. Pitt, always excellent in outsider roles, imparts a particularly menacing glee as the leader of the warped duo.

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