How Sez Sees It

I thought I would review some of the things I have been passing my time with lately. I have been ill this week and I have been occupying myself with some of the following things and this is what I make of them. Mario Party 9 This game for the Wii is an interesting combination of levels, minigames and characters. Nothing is too taxing and if you have four players it is a lot of fun. Solo mode is infuriating at times as dice throws seem skewed towards the one 'com' player representing Bowser. The story is fun though as Bowser has stolen the mini stars from the night sky and you have to battle to get them back. It wiles away a few hours and is quite good fun. We bought this second hand a couple of week's ago because we felt like buying one that was compatible with the Wii that was on all the recommended lists and this was the one for the Wii that came out highest (most were for the Gamecube). Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami This book is one I keep going back to. Toru ...

Now, I am crap at remembering names so this could be interesting. Basically, from what I remember (and double checked online just now), Janet was played by Diana Vickers who was once on X Factor, Ben Freeman was Brad and he used to be on Emmerdale (but also does musical theatre like Wicked), Frank was played by a guy who was once on The Voice and he’s called Liam Tamne and the comedian Steve Punt (radio 4, works with Hugh Dennis) was the narrator. Oh yes, and Paul Cattermole from S Club 7 was Eddie/Dr Scott. The rest of the cast were theatre actors and put in amazing performances. I saw the show at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton. The staging was certainly the best I’ve seen as I have seen this show live three times. It worked better for its simplicity. Parts of the set rotate within a frame to present the illusion of different rooms within the castle. Keeping the cast numbers low also helped. There were only four phantoms and this meant they added to the show and the sta...

...and it was great! Don't worry, I am not going to give any spoilers at all. It is commonly known that some of our old favourites from the original trilogy are back (Han Solo, Leia and Luke Skywalker). There are plenty of new characters that you will grow to love over the course of the two hours as well. The studios moved to Disney a couple of years ago and that is when it was announced that Episode VII: The Force Awakens would be made. People were skeptical at first as Episode I, II and III were not the greatest films in the world. In fact, there were complaints at the time (and since then) that they totally destroyed the feel of the originals. What I liked most about The Force Awakens is that director J.J Abrams has gone back to a more traditional way of filming with as many of the props being real as possible. Eps 1-3 relied heavily on CGI whereas the original trilogy didn't have that technology so relied on as many realistic props as possible. An example in this new ...

'Star Lord'and 'that kid from Iron Man 3' join the cast of dinosaurs in the biggest and craziest installment of the Jurassic Park series yet. In this film we return to the original island, Isla Nubla, where 'Jurassic Park, was due to open 22 years ago. This was the scene of the tragic events which saw a T-Rex and group of Velociraptors terrorise Dr Grant, Dr Sadler, Richard Hammond and his grandkids (Lexi and Timmy). A new park, Jurassic World, has been built though and has been operating for about 10 years. That's the problem, people are getting used to seeing dinosaurs! Now, personally, I will always be amazed by dinosaurs, but, this is the premise of the film so let's go with it. Kids want something scarier and standard dinos won't cut it! The corporate sponsors want to make more money and so Dr Wu (remember him from Jurassic Park?) returns and is again played by BD Wong to lead a team creating new dinos. Their creation this time is the Indominus ...

Amazingly, SID (pronounced 'shido') have been around for over 10 years now! To mark the occasion they released several compilation albums before closing out the year with Outsider, their latest studio offering. The album kicks off with the electronic sounds of 'Laser', which sounds futuristic and fresh. The rest of the album has a more jazzy feel and I always imagine Las Vegas when I listen to this album. That is, except, Mao's beautiful vocals are all in Japanese. Mao has a beautiful range and his ability to hold a note is almost shocking. The bass lines are heavy throughout and glorious, once again proving Aki's exceptional skill. Aki is one bassist who is likely to change your views on all bass players as musicians. The long running joke of bass players as failed guitarists is blown out of the water by Aki. Then again, the guitarist, Shinji, ain't bad. This is an understatement. There are not many who can riff like Shinji and his solos are powerfu...

The latest album by Japanese rock band One OK Rock. I do agree with some of the critics’ comments that this is the most ‘American’ sounding of their albums to-date, but I feel they bring their own flavour and, as a result, it is a fun album full of excellent tunes and some proper anthems. Many will know the songs ‘Mighty Long Fall’ and ‘Heartache’ from the closing credits of the final two Rurouni Kenshin films. If these are the only songs you listen to though then you are missing out. As seems to be the norm now, the album opens with a thumping musical intro written by front man Taka. There isn't much of a gap between songs on this album and most feed into the next without stopping. This means the album has a fast paced feel to it and this is not a bad thing at all. This is the case right from the beginning as the intro moves into track two, ‘Take Me To The Top’. You’ll love this track by the way and you will be singing along in no time. Notable tracks include ...

A few years ago I used to write reviews of my favourite films and albums. I don't know why I stopped because I really enjoyed it. I found an old memory stick the other day and this is a review I wrote back in 2008 about William Control's first album, Hate Culture: William Control – Hate Culture This is a concept album from the front man of Aiden.  The idea being that William Control is in London and is spending the last night on earth before he commits suicide. He is going to spend it fucking and killing in London before ending his own life. The CD case has a brooding image of William Control (aka. wiL Francis from Aiden).  Dressed in 18 th century style on the cover art, you would take him for a Jack the Ripper type. Inside the cover contains so many thanks it takes a while to read them all and proves that this artist needs people and places in his life.  The pictures in the booklet set the scene that will carry on in the music, one of sex and violence.  A...