The Apprentice - Episode 6

It finally happened, Noorul Choudhury was the 6th person to be fired by Sir Alan Sugar. Lets face it, it's the one that's been long over due. Having said that, had Noorul not been brought back to the boardroom, Sandhursts finest, Ben would surely have gone!

The task this week was to sell ten items of varying values. Philip was PM on his team and ignored Lorraine the entire day as she tried to tell him that a rug he said was worthless could actually be worth a lot more. She was right, but some how Philip managed to pull a sale out of thin air by selling the rug to a passer by on the street!

Our friend Noorul tried to sell a skeleton to a student, but rather than trying to negoiate high, Noorul was once again struck by his silence disease and Ben had to step in and close the deal at £60. In the end, Ben and his team were the losers and Ben bought Noorul and Debra back to the boardroom. Ben is a nasty pice of work and is all mouth. He seems to lack commonsense and all he does is shout above everyone in the boardroom. Debra is another gobby one and I really don't like her, she even had the audacity to shout at Nick Hewer! Finally we saw some spark from Noorul as he went down fighting, but alas it was too little too late.

Ben is a little arrogant prick, he needs to be shot, but I doubt he's going to go anytime soon, I found Debra to be overly aggressive and all she does is moan. Yasmina is annoying but she seems to get the job done whilst Philip is capable but not all that he makes himself out to be. Mona in my opinion is hanging on by the skin of her teeth, she's toast as soon as her team loses. Right now, James, Lorraine and Kate are all likeable with Kate looking to be the front runner.

Quick Update

OK I've been meaning to update this blog but haven't got round to it, so I'm going try and sum up my recent viewing in this post.

I just completed season 2 and 3 of the US Office, absolute quality. Mike Scott beats David Brent hands down. OK I have to admit Scott's character lacks the realism of Brent but he makes up for it with his zany ways. Who would have thought at the start of Season 3 Micheal would actually hook up with Jan? I feel a bit sorry for Karen, she is way hotter than Pam (although Pam has a better personality) and she gets dumped by Jim having followed him all the way to Scranton. The Dwight vs Andy storyline has been hilarious, but it was pretty obvious Dwight would end up reclaiming his spot as Micheal's right hand man.

Just started watching season two of Bones and I have to be honest, I'm not enjoying it as much as the first season. The cases seem as interesting and gruesome as ever but something just isn't clicking. The addition of Camille isn't necessarily a bad thing, but how many strong willed women does a show need?

I still haven't watched the final four epsiodes of season one of Reaper. But if rumours are to be believed, it won't be coming back for a 3rd series so I don't need to hurry on this one!

I've been trying to get in to the UK version of Life on Mars but I'm struggling. The concept is great, a modern day policeman stuck in the 70's but I'm still not feeling it. Maybe it's because I have no recollection of the 70's?

I saw one episode of Horne and Corden and I have to be honest, it was pretty crap. Looks like the pairs' agent is trying to cash in on them as much as he can before they crash and burn.

Battle in Seattle

Whilst travelling back from Dubai I was flicking through the list of in flight movies when I came across the name Battle in Seattle. I'd never heard of it but the name had me intruiged and when I saw the cast featured Woody Harrelson, Michelle Rodriguez, Andre Benjamin, Ray Liotta and Charlize Theron I decided to hit the play button.

The film centres on the five days in Novemeber 1999 when the World Trade Organisation held it's meeting in Seattle. Protesters from around the globe descended in to the city and as expected things got violent pretty quickly. The story follows a group of protesters (Benjamin, Jennifer Carpenter, Rodriguez, Martin Henderson) and their bid to make a difference, meanwhile on the other side the mayor of Seattle (Liotta) desperately tries to keep the demonstrations from turn ugly and a police officer (Harrelson) has to deal with the fallout of the riots when his pregnant wife (Theron) has a misccariage during the chaos of the riots.

I was pleasantly surprised with this film, having never heard of it despite it's brilliant cast, this film was very enjoyable. There was plenty of information about the WTO and it's history (although how much of it was true I don't know!) and the story was engaging enough to keep me interested right until the end. A decent fell well worth a watch.

2.5 out of 5

Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Wrestling

I actually sat through the whole of this season (8 epsiodes) in about 4 days. The concept was pretty simple, 10 'celebrities' compete against each other to become the CCW Champion. In each episode the celebs are taught 3 moves, they practice them with their trainers Nasty Boy Brian Nobbs and Brutus 'The Barber' Beefcake and at the end of the day they put on a match in front of a live audience. At the end of the evening, the judges, Hulk Hogan, Jimmy Hart and Eric Bischoff, eliminate one celeb.

I have no idea where they dragged the celebs from but they were really scraping the barrel with this lot! The line up consisted of:

Nikki Ziering - Erm... still trying to work out who she is!
Tiffany - Apparently an 80's pop icon!
Frank Stallone - Famous for being the brother of Sylvester
Dennis Rodman - Surprisingly, someone who is actually famous!
Erin Murphy - Tabitha from Bewitched! That was on like a million years ago! Has she had surgery done, she's aged very well for someone who is ancient!
Dustin Diamond - Double D, famous for being Screech back in the day in Saved by the Bell, now famous for being a douche!
Trischelle Cannatella - Apparently she's a reaality star, the best looking of the girls, so she was alright with me!
Butterbean - The guy who knocked Bart Gunn out in WWF back in the day!
Todd Bridges - Wow if you thought Tabitha from Bewitched and Tiffany from the 80's was bad, they managed to drag Willis from out under some rock!
Danny Bonaduce - He's apparently a child star and a radio show host. I like to call him Danny Bona-douche bag!

The first few shows were obviously a little weak as the celebs were still learning the moves. Both Brian Nobbs and Brutus Beefcake came across as really good teachers and really knew their stuff. It was obvious from the start that celebs like Tiffany, Erin and Frank just weren't cut out for the show and they were quickly dispatched with Hulk's "You're a jabroni (sp?) get out of my ring" still ringing in their ears. A pretty lame catchphrase from the Hulkster in my opinion!

I thought Trischelle was by far the best female performer and she proved it by outlasting all the girls and some of the guys too. Her downfall was the hardcore match where she was afraid to take chairshots. Although Butterbean played the part of the big man well (duh! of course he played it well, he's massive!) but personally I thought he was some what overrated by the judges. Dustin Diamond obviously had some passion for the sport and it showed in the way he worked the crowd. But unfortuantely his facial expressions just reminded me of Screech rather than a bad ass wrestling heel! Danny Bona-douchebag is a mad man! The ill feeling between he and Dustin Diamond made for a great hardcore match including one spot where DD tossed Danny through a wall and what did Danny do? He got up and smashed through another part of the same wall! Having said that, Bona-douchebag was a little too cocky, he thought he knew the game too well and his arrogance was his ultimate downfall.

The final was fought between Todd Bridges and Dennis Rodman. The crowd was always red hot for 'Rodzilla' but he seemed to wuss out of a lot of stuff in training. Todd was a high flier who seemed to have a good grasp of the more advanced moves and was generally pretty solid in the ring. He seemed to get the heel psychology down to a tee too. Some of Rodman's colleagues complained that Rodzilla worked too stiff and that he was hurting them but it didn't seem to worry the judges too much as he was crowned the first ever Celebrity Championship Wrestling Champion!

Personally I wasn't too happy with Rodman's win. Bridges was by far the better candidate and the better all round wrestler. What's worseis the fact that everyone who watched WCW back in the 90's will know that Hogan and Rodman are good friends and the two tagged together at WCW pay per view. Sounds like a fix to me!

I enjoyed this and the show has the potential for another season if they could improve their line up a little more. The show format was well done with different types of matches every week that stopped it becoming repetitive and the special guest appearances added more scope to the show. If there is a series 2 I'll probably tune in.

The Office UK vs The Office US

When I heard there was an American version of the Office being produced, I was pretty underwhelmed. The UK version was legendary, Ricky Gervais's potrayal of David Brent was flawless and to think someone else was about to attempt the same character seemed to be suicidal. I'd never heard of Steve Carell until I watched 40 Year Old Virgin and after seeing that I was intruiged as to how he would do as David's reincarnation as Micheal Scott.

It turned out I had very little to worry about, although the US Office stays true to the UK version in style and content, there are slight changes to the format which makes it different. The US version focuses on a lot more characters where as the UK Office was dominated by David Brent and the romance between Tim and Dawn.

Steve Carell is brilliant although his character is a lot more cartoonish and goofy where as Gervais did play it a lit more realistic. Jim and Pam are a perfect fit and they have great chemistry much like Tim and Dawn their British counterparts. But the best bit of acting has to be that of Rainn Wilson who plays Dwight Schrute the assistant to the regional manager! I never thought anyone could beat Mackenzie Crrok's Gareth Keenan but I honestly think Dwight shades it!

I've just finished watching season 1 and have moved on to season 2, both series have been very strong. The great thing is the fact that I am safe in the knowledge that the US version is still running (5 and counting!) so I won't half to worry about it ending anytime soon!

Yes Man

The most memorable part of this film was Jim Carrey getting a blow job from a grandmother. The best part of this film was the credits. The worst part of this film was from the moment I pressed the play button on my DVD player!

The Apprentice - Week 3

Here's the episode synopsis from the BBC site, my comments are below...

The candidates must come up with a completely original product that tones and flexes muscles, and they must create a distinctive poster to promote their product's unique properties. Finally, they must demonstrate their pitching skills to three industry experts in the hope of securing orders. With just a couple of days to complete their task, who has the stamina to keep going, and who will fall at the first hurdle?

Well my dark horse for the contest Maj got the boot in this episode and personally I think it was a mistake because James, as the project manager failed. He's been in the boardroom two weeks running and his time is fast running out.

As far as the products go, Phil's Body Rocka actually looked very cool and you can see why his team won. On the other hand the Empire multi gym was quite frankly sh*t, it was literally a black box with a couple of handles and a step in it. How they managed to blag 500 orders for it I will never know!

The 'race row' was quite interesting for the fact that it was Debra who took up the cause of racism when Yasmina suggested Noorul be removed from the ad campaign because they didn't want the product to look too ethnic. She had a point, although poorly made, but Debra was insulted, OK she feigned outrage more like! I think Noorul was horrified because the girls didn't find him attractive!

Debra was probably a worse leader than Yasmina last week, she just couldn't keep her gob shut and constantly interfered with other members. Having said that, she'll get to the final four I reckon and her sheer veracity will keep her from getting fired a few times. Meanwhile Lorraine continued to make quiet progress in the background and despite a few odd looks from Yasmina and Debra, she handled the pitches to the execs quite well, she's one of the very few likeable characters on the show. Meanwhile, I'm starting to like Phil a lot more, he seems to throw up some good ideas and he seems to put himself up for most tasks and usually succeeds. I had no idea that he was such good pals with Maj until I saw You're Fired. Another Tre and Simon?

Wrestlemania 25 Preview

The biggest night in the WWE year is once again upon us, Wrestlemania 25, this year from Houston Texas. There's a few intruiging matches and a few not so intruiging. Here's some quick thoughts on the card:

25 Diva Battle Royal

Quite frankly the only way this could be entertaining would be if all the Divas were naked! That isn't going to happen so as long as the match is kept fairly short it shouldn't be too pianful to watch. So far 18 divas have been confirmed from Raw, Smackdown and ECW, that leaves 7 former stars to fill the remaining spots. I'm having trouble remembering that many so I will guess Torrie Wilson, Victoria, Trish Stratus and Sunny (Tammy Sytch)will be there, not sure about the other 3 maybe Lita, Marlena and Sable maybe? My pick for the winner and new Miss Wrestlemania is Trish Stratus.

JBL vs Rey Mysterio - Intercontinental Title Match

JBL has promised to make history at WM25. I don't think beating Rey Mysterio counts as being historic and as little Rey Rey has had his ass kicked by practically everyone this year. My guess is that JBL beats Rey and retires as Intercontinental Champion.

Chris Jericho vs WWE Legends Ricky Steamboat, Superfly Jimmy Snuka & Rowdy Roddy Piper
Chris Jericho is the best thing about WWE right now, his one man war against the world has been brilliant, he's by far the best bad guy in the company right now and it's a shame he isn't involved in the title hunt. The build for this match has been great, Jericho has systematically taken the Legends to the cleaners. Unfortunately this match will most likely be the feel good bout of the night, Jericho will dish out much of the punishment only to be beaten thanks to interference from Mickey Rourke and Ric Flair.

Money in the Bank Ladder Match - Kane vs Mark Henry vs Christian vs Finlay vs MVP vs Shelton Benjamin vs CM Punk vs Kofi Kingston

I cannot understand why the hell Mark Henry and Kane are in this match when the likes of John Morrison and Carlito are still around. This year the hype has been focusing on the fact that every MITB winner has gone on to win a champiosnhip so I expect this years winner won't! The build up to this match has been a little weak and despite Kane dominating in the Battle Royal on Raw there is very little possibility that the Big Red Machine will come away victor. CM Punk is probably the only genuine main event talent but I can't see him winning it for the second year in a row so I'm putting my money on the outsider Christian to win it.

Shawn Micheals vs The Undertaker

HBK has done a stellar job keeping this feud interesting and it's good to see him playing a few mind games with Taker. These two haven't had a match at Wrestlemania so I'm expecting this one to be the show stealer. Taker is usually fed poor opposition like Khali and Kozlov so it's great to see him in there with someone the calibre of HBK. You can still be Mr Wrestlemania without winning so I predict the streak will not end here. Hopefully HBK can move on to a world title feud after this.

WWE Tag Team Unification Lumberjack Match - The Colons vs Miz & Morrison

I've not been following Smackdown very much so I'm not sure how they've built this match but they've got four men there who can go some, so we should get a decent match. I'm predicting MizMo to win here and unify the belts. No doubt there will be a free for all at the end with all the lumberjacks getting involved.

Jeff Hardy vs Matt Hardy

I'm not overly excited about this match because Jeff was flying high as a main eventer and his feud with Trtiple H had the potential to be huge. Matt was doing a solid job as the ECW champion and I fear the heel turn has cost him his best singles push. As this is an extreme rules match expect a couple of insane spots and a Jeff Hardy win to put this rivalry to rest.

John Cena vs Edge vs Big Show - World Heavyweight Championship

I'm a big fan of Edge, Big Show is OK and well I'm tired of Cena. The problem with Cena is that he's been made to look invincible and they've made him so cheesy it's ridiculous. I'd love to see Cena turn heel and go on the rampage but I fear that will never happen. Big Show has only been put in this match because Edge vs Cena has been done to death. I fully expect John Cena to win the title and Show and Edge to continue their feud over Vickie for a while longer.

Randy Orton vs Triple H - WWE Championship

I can't say I'm very excited about this, Randy is watchable but Triple H has just lost his way a bit really, I preferred him as a heel to be honest. Triple H has been made to look a bitch by Orton so I predict Hunter gets his revenge and retains his title.

The Apprentice - Episode 2

Quick thoughts on this weeks show:

Anytime anyone on the Apprentice says they are an expert in any field they inevitably end up getting fired. Whilst Yasmina stepped up to the plate (like the pun?!) despite questions from Debra it was Rocky I feared for most as he rattled off his accomplishments in the catering trade.

Yasmina, although very bossy and not allowing any input from her team members seemed to take control, her idea of Mediterranean food was simple and yet could be passed off as quite classy. The guys on the other hand decided to go with sarnies! Surely not the best way to impress a bunch of city slickers! Their Olympic theme also sounded a bit naff and when Rocky suggested the lads dress up in their Olympic clothes I could see a taxi with his name looming ominously.

And in true Apprentice tradition, we got our first cringeworthy pitch/presentation. This time Kate floundered and fluffed her way through a meeting where she admitted she had no clue and referring to Bruschetta as a cold canopy! Back in the car, the ever optimistic Debra moaned that they had already blown the task! Two weeks in and she's already annoying me.

Rocky's next blunder came when he set his team's price per head at £65. Philip looked like an idiot as he tried to pitch it to his customers having to eventually agree to £15 per head. Meanwhile Yasmina's cost cutting seemed to get pretty scary when she went crazy in Asda buying all the cheap stuff to keep her costs down. Man, if I was a customer at her place I'd think twice about the quality of her fare! Her skimping meant her team got humilated when they went to drop off their orders.

But if the girl's food looked bad, the guys came out with kids party food! I'm sure I saw doritos with bits of tomato on them! No wonder they made a loss!

In the boardroom Rocky got the boot even though it looked like James was gonna get it. For some reason Howard reckoned that Rocky should have stayed and one of the other 4 should have gone. I think SAS got it right by sacking the Rock!

Best line of the night came from Nick, when accused of walking around not doing a lot, Noorul tried to deny this fact, but Nick hit hime with "Well I watched you very carefully, In fact I made it my buisiness to watch you for sometime". That's scary!

Right now my favourite is probably Lorraine, she spotted that her team had over spent last week and this week she worked hard and tried to stay positive despite Debra the poison ivy giving up.