You think the dead we loved truly ever leave us? You think that we don’t recall them more clearly in times of great trouble?
As said by the wise and benevolent Professor Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), the third of the series, and my favourite. You can find another example of Dumbledore’s knowledge here, and my tour of Harry Potter Studios here.
As a gift from my good friend Tosha, I had tickets for the Wimbledon tour. As regulars of the blog will know, I am a big tennis fan. I’ve quoted numerous legends like Arthur Ashe and Chris Evert to current stars like Andy Murray and Juan Martin del Potro and been to the 02 to see the ATP World Tour Finals numerous times. I’ve read Andre Agassi’s autobiography Open, Fred Perry’s biography The Last Champion, Levels of the Game by sports writer John McPhee and Break Point by tennis journalist Kevin Mitchell.
As long as there have been big-screen budgets, there have been big screen flops. And when a film does bomb at the box office, it leads to all kinds of consequences for the studio, cast, crew, the franchise and even the genre itself. How many of the recent films below can you recognise? Any you feel don’t deserve to be on that list?
Film 1
Film 2
Film 3
Film 4
Film 5
Film 6
Film 7
Film 8
Film 9
Film 10
Film 11
Film 12
Answers below
Bob Birch: You want the convention to be a circus.
Francis Underwood: Oh, Bob, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed or not, but politics is no longer just theatre, it’s show business. So let’s put on the best show in town.
Larry Pine and Kevin Spacey in the political TV drama House of Cards (2013 – ). Set in the White House, it centres around the ruthlessly ambitious power couple of Francis and Claire Underwood. I’m currently on series 4 so no spoilers please if you’re ahead of me.
I took many photos of my time in the Lake District. It really is a beautiful place. This is of the area’s most famous place, Lake Windermere.
It’s been four years since I published this post and started it all. After a further 3,000 posts, and 19,506 comments later, I wanted to thank you for helping to make this blog what it is.
Actually Homer, that’s just one. See, each push-up includes both an up part and a down part.
Lenny (Harry Shearer) in the hugely influential and long-running cartoon The Simpsons (1989 – ). You can find more wit relating to the hilarious Homer, here, here and here.(Photo credit: The War of the Simpsons)
Ripley’s Believe It or Not! is an American franchise that deals in bizarre events and strange and unusual facts. It was founded by Robert Ripley in 1918 with a sports cartoon in the New York Globe. It soon sounded expanded to include items from other areas and then onto different formats like radio, television and books. Continuing that expansion have been the exhibitions first in the US, before countries like Mexico, Canada, India and Australia. And of course the UK. It was about time I saw the one in Piccadilly Circus, London.
Don’t waste your time, or time will waste you
Taken from the song Knights of Cydonia from English band Muse, from their fourth studio album Black Holes and Revelations (2006).
Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today.
Phil Connors (Bill Murray) in the fantasy-comedy Groundhog Day (1993). Though coolly received by critics at the time, the story of a weatherman in a small town who keeps living the same day has gone on to be a much loved film. The term Groundhog Day has also become a common phrase, with the film itself entering the prestigious United States Film Registry in 2006.
