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Review: The 5-Year Engagement

  By Sean | July 6, 2012 – 3:03 pm | Featured Post, Movies & TV
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The opening of this film is where many other rom-coms would often be finishing things up: at the wonderfully awkward yet heartfelt proposal scene, with a few laughs here and there, but the prime focus being on the romance. This pretty much sets the tone for Nicholas Stoller and Jason Segel’s newest collaboration, after proving themselves a formidable duo with the hilarious Forgetting Sarah Marshall and last year’s glorious Muppets revival. You may have heard this film described as the movie that turns the whole concept of the romantic-comedy on it’s head. While it’s not exactly a game-changer, it’s an incredibly refreshing take on the genre, and in my opinion definitely the most ‘realistic’ of these type of films I’ve seen since 500 Days of Summer. The 5 Year Engagement focuses on the extremely rocky road that couple Tom (Jason Segel) and Violet (Emily Blunt) take on their way … There’s more →

Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

  By Micheál Murphy | June 29, 2012 – 7:47 pm | Featured Post, Movies & TV, The Culch
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Perhaps the best way to start is to tell you to block the last decade of Spider-Man movies from your mind and treat The Amazing Spider-Man as it is, a complete revamp of the Spider-Man franchise. In 2005, Christopher Nolan started a new wave of films with Batman Begins, where the story is as important, if not more important, than the superhero and his trials. We get strong characterisation, drama and a full story and this theme has run into the reincarnation of Marvel’s most famous superhero, as directed by Marc Webb (And I can’t not say something about how awesomely apt his surname is!). If anyone has heard of Spider-Man, they know the story of his origins. Peter Parker, a high school student who lives with his aunt and uncle, gets bitten by radioactive spider and develops super powers. This awkward teenager gains the ability to crawl up walls, … There’s more →

Meh. Oh look, more subpar Tim Burton.

  By Darren Byrne | June 28, 2012 – 3:19 pm | Featured Post, Movies & TV
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I just watched the trailer for Tim Burton’s latest movie, continuing his never-ending pursuit to remake, rework, reimagine, rejuventate, revive, rejig and redo every movie ever made. At least this time he’s not tearing down the pillars of my youth (Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Instead, this time he’s revisiting (just when I thought I’d run out of ‘re-’ words) one of his own stories. Frankenweenie is a black-and-white stop motion-animated remake of Burton’s 1984 short film of the same name, his take on Mary Shelley’s classic, Frankenstein. In the film, a boy named Victor loses his dog and uses the power of science to bring it back to life. As with all Burton movies in the last decade, it could be fun, it could be a waste of time. He’s just so hit and miss. In the last ten years, the only original tales Burton has … There’s more →

Interview: Nouvelle Vague, the awesomest covers band

  By Andy Gaffney | June 28, 2012 – 12:51 pm | Featured Post, Music, The Culch
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Nouvelle Vague are the effortlessly cool cover band who you wish could soundtrack every party you have ever had. Hailing from France, the new wave obsessed band have taken songs such as Ever Fallen in Love? and Blister in the Sun and made them their own. This Galway Arts Festival sees the band make a very welcome return to the city when play Chic Week, so using this an excuse to make myself look in any way cool I spoke to singer Liset Alea about Galway, recording their first original album, breakfasts and serving her cotton candy on stage. I can’t believe I get to start an interview by asking this but where are you right now, Paris or Miami? Because you live in both, right? I’m living in Paris right now, but I’m living out of my suitcase. Sometimes it gets opened to do laundry but then it goes … There’s more →

Euro 2012, The Grand Social, Dublin City Fm and The Scoop

  By Culch.ie | June 5, 2012 – 1:53 pm | Events
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Yeah blah, blaggedy, blerk it’s football. Well ? It’s a little more than that and I can legally get away with it because this post contains a pic of Eric Lalor, involves a radio station and a cracking music venue. Story Rory ? Dublin City fm have teamed up with The SCOOP foundation and The Grand Social venue on Liffey Street and for the duration of the Euro 2012 not only will they be showing ALL of the games live in the Grand Social from 4.30pm each day….. there’s also this going on: They’ll have live music in between games as well as competitions & prizes. How do you do The Scoop charity bit ? Easy, chalky, cheezy peezy – You can contribute to the SCOOP foundation by buying a burger and a pint for €5.00….. what a deal. Almost a whopper ! There will be special events on the … There’s more →

Comedy: Vultures in the Digital Comedy Lab

  By Anto | May 29, 2012 – 10:51 am | Comedy
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Not actual vultures in a comedy lab of course! Those birds aren’t known for their sense of humour, more their picking at corpses. No, we’re talking about Vultures PI! We’ve mentioned the online comedy series before but the lads are in a competition you see. Digital Comedy Lab, created by Beactive Media, is a comedy incubation programme for film projects and puts Vultures in competition with five other Irish production companies who are battling it out to make a feature film. The winning entry gets announced at the Cannes Film Festival at the end of May and will receive €50,000 to make a mockumentary feature before the end of this year. What can you do to help? Simply watch this:

Free Gig: Street Perfomers World Championship 2012 Launch

  By Culch.ie | May 24, 2012 – 12:25 pm | The Culch
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DUBLIN 2: Top of Grafton Street, outside St.Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre Friday May 25th @ 1pm ‘Professional freak’ and daredevil The Lizardman is one of this year’s 16 finalists of the Street Performance World Championship and will launch the festival this Friday by performing a free street show at 1pm at the top of Grafton Street, outside St.Stephen’s Green. Straight from the presser, with a few mild edits………. Also known as Erik Sprague, The Lizardman is one of the most iconic street performers worldwide and even has his own lifesize statue in Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Having sent over 700 hours getting tattooed with the estimated cost /value close to $250,000, he also has his tongue split to mimic that of a reptile’s, subdermal implants above his eyes to form horned ridges and four of his teeth have been filed into sharp fangs. He will perform some of his … There’s more →

Music Festival: Spirit of Folk 2012 – The Line Up

  By Peter | May 24, 2012 – 11:37 am | Festivals
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Spirit of Folk Festival Unveils Line-up and Announces Extra Night Taking place in the idyllic surroundings of Dunderry Park, Co Meath [and they are very idyllic…] from September 21st to 23rd, Spirit of Folk 2012 Ireland’s friendliest festival, as nominted by me returns again with another whopper of a line up and all things razzz-a-mataz. Wasn’t that a tv show way back when ? More to the point, I was there for year one with Messrs McGuinness and Greene. I will be back for year 2. Back to it… This year’s Spirit of Folk festival line up features some new great additions like John Spillane, The Lost Brothers, Lisa O’Neill, David Gray; I Draw Slow, Spook of the Thirteenth Lock. Other acts of note see The Hot Sprockets return; Mossy Nolan and Brian Greene’s latest favourite The Henry Girls. To accompany this feast of musical acts, there will be an … There’s more →

Competition Closed: The amazing Dionne Warwick in Vicar Street this Thursday night

  By Darren Byrne | May 23, 2012 – 1:49 pm | Competitions, Gigs, Music, Site News
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*** Competition Closed *** *** Winners: Caroline Kelly, Lisa Byrne and Stephen Lynch *** Say A Little Prayer, Walk On By, A House Is Not A Home, Deja Vu, Is This The Way To San Jose, I’ll Never Fall in Love Again…the woman is an absolute legend. I can’t wait to see her. Why don’t you join me? Culch.ie is giving away three pairs of tickets to see Dionne Warwick in Vicar Street tomorrow, Thursday 24th May. The five-time Grammy Award winning music legend is a cornerstone of American pop music and culture. Warwick’s career, which currently celebrates 50 years, has established her as an international music icon. She has earned more than sixty charted hit songs and sold over 100 million records across the world. The show will be a wonderful celebration of the music and life of a pop legend, a musical icon. Tickets for this concert are … There’s more →

Interviews: All in Good Time – Nigel Cole and Cast

  By Sue Murphy | May 11, 2012 – 3:40 pm | Movies & TV
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When you look at the poster for All in Good Time after viewing the film, you will genuinely feel that this heartwarming tale is being sold short as a comedy in its tagline. The latest film from director Nigel Cole of Saving Grace and Made in Dagenham fame, a reworking of the play written by Bill Naughton, will charm you far more than you will expect. And that twist? Yes, it’s definitely a game changer. We were lucky enough to catch up with the cast and crew last week in London ahead of their 11th of May release date. On entering the room Nigel Cole enquires, “are you going to ask me why did I decide to make a film that was a play?” Me: No. Nigel “Ah yes you have ten minutes then”. Your background was strongly grounded in documentary and current affairs, why the move into feature … There’s more →

Competition Closed: Jeff-fah-fah Dunham in the O2 Dublin

  By Darren Byrne | May 1, 2012 – 11:40 am | Competitions, Featured Post, The Culch
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*** Competition Closed – Winners will be notified shortly *** *** Congratulations to Colin, Gary, Dave and Caroline *** I am a huge fan of Jeff Dunham. Yes, like everyone else, I fell in love with that cookie little go-getter, Achmed the Dead Terrorist, long before I knew that Jeff Dunham likes to stick his hand up a variety of characters, but he has grown to become one of my all time favourite comedians. I love his Comedy Central specials, I own the DVDs and I even have an Achmed doll. Yeah, I’m that guy. So…I was thrilled to hear he’ll be in the O2 Dublin this Saturday on his Controlled Chaos tour with all of his usual friends Walter, Bubba J, Achmed, Peanut and José the Jalapeño on a Steeeek and a few more besides. I can’t wait. If you fancy joining us on Saturday, I have a … There’s more →

Mad Men Episode Reviews: A Little Kiss (5; 1)

  By willok | April 30, 2012 – 2:00 pm | Movies & TV, TV
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Mad Men returned to our shores (albeit courtesy of an imported UK channel) this week and I now find myself with a week in between to mull the complexities of the episodes. In the spirit of embracing US TV terminology, the season premiere took a moment to catch on; I felt uneasy reacquainting myself with the characters, worrying for a minute that in Season 4 the sheen might slip. I was always catching-up, courtesy of box sets and had inhaled the episodes at pace and re-watched with anyone willing to road test the series. There were never any suggestions that quality had faded – what if now that I was to watch and discover along with the rest of the baiting TV audience and find the stories were stretched, the characters exhausted. The pace seemed off in early scenes – period details are being observed, civil rights are on queue to … There’s more →

Sea Sessions 2012 Non-music, Fun bits!

  By seanear1ey | April 26, 2012 – 1:07 pm | Festivals, The Culch
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So, we’ve been looking up the treats on offer ahead of our summer trip to Bundoran, and if you thought Sea Sessions was purely the choons and the sandy sambos you were dead wrong! The festival also incorporates surf and sports events to boot and will host the UK and Ireland’s only Association of Surfing Professionals European specialty event. The more we hear about it, the more we can’t wait to get to Donegal this June to experience the likes of this stuff. Take a look, because a lot of requires advance booking. The Barefoot Wine Expression Session: 29th June–1st July Taking place during the festival weekend the ‘Barefoot Wine Expression Session with Billabong’ has €3000 worth of prizes including an 11 day sumatrian ‘Surf-cruise’ worth €2200 for best Irish Surfer. The main event will feature an event of Europe’s Top Waveriders! The event will be captured on video and posted … There’s more →