About Niall

The proverbial man lost in La Mancha. Sports aficionado and all-round scoundrel. Über-geek to boot. I run the movie website Scannain.com and can usually be found twittering away as @niallxmurphy.

Play it again Sam at Screen Cinema

After an exhausting vote Screen Cinema, D’Olier St., Dublin 2 has finally unveiled the winner of its viewers choice poll ‘Play it again, Sam’, which allowed cinema-goers the chance to vote their favourite classic back onto the big screen. The choices ranged from cult classics like Troll 2, through proper old-school movies like The Great Dictator, Casablanca and Gone With the Wind, right up to modern greats like The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Two winners were selected, the beloved children’s classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and Audrey Hepburn’s star turn as Holly Golightly in Blake Edwards’ classic comedy Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Willy Wonka will be shown in a special one off screening June 14th at 8.30pm, with Breakfast at Tiffany’s enjoying a week long run starting July 16th. Tickets will be available for Willy Wonka from June 7th, from the box-office at Screen Cinema. Team Screen plan … There’s more

Ever wanted to hear Gandalf sing the Fresh Prince theme?

Well now you can! Random trawling of the internet has uncovered this exotic gem, of a young man with an uncanny ability to mimic Sir Ian McKellan reciting the lyrics to the theme of Will Smith’s infamous TV series The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. This is simply beyond hyperbole. He does get a few of the lines wrong, but I forgive him.

Bollywood is coming to Dublin

Bollywood is coming to Dublin with the capital set to host the first Indian Film Festival. The festival is scheduled to run from June 25th to 28th and will open with a gala screening of renowned Indian director Prakash Jha’s latest film Raajneeti, at Swan Cinemas in Rathmines. The opening festivities will feature a charity gala dinner, at which the Indian Ambassador to Ireland, P.S. Raghavan and Bollywood star Gul Panag will be in attendance. The festival will also feature seminars from writer and expert of Indian cinema Atul Tiawari. The subject of these seminars will include Indian film history and a special on Slumdog Millionaire. The festival hopes to foster and encourage local Irish film-makers to work with Indian film-makers, for the advancement of both film cultures. Tickets for the festival can be purchased from the box office of Swan Cinemas. For more on the festival check out the … There’s more

Robin Hood - A Review

Robin Hood is one of those enduring characters of English legend. His cunning, his daring, his leadership and friendship and of course his love affair with the fair Maid Marion is a story that has survived retelling for hundreds of years. Such a story and such a man is ideal for Hollywood film-makers in search of inspiration and so there have been countless movies and TV series’ charting his exploits and those of his Merry Men. That brings us to yet another big-screen version brought to us this time by the men responsible for Gladiator. So then more men in trees with bows and arrows and ill-fitting tights? Not entirely, this Robin is definitely a horse of a different colour.

Rugby Seven’s comes to Kinsale this Bank Holiday weekend

Do you like rugby? Are you free this weekend? Can you get to Cork? If you’ve answered yes to the questions above then you’re in for a treat, as this May Bank Holiday weekend the rebel county plays host to Ireland’s foremost rugby sevens competition, the 2010 Heineken Kinsale Seven’s.

Couch Potato – DVDs Out This Week

Rightio! Couch Potato is back like the proverbial bad penny (I know you’ve missed it), and is just as jam-packed full of shiny disc wonder as it’s always been. This glorious sunny weather just can’t last and when it inevitably ends it’s nice to know that there’s something good on TV that you can tune into, without resorting to Fair City.

The Avengers assemble for Joss Whedon

So Joss Whedon is going to be directing The Avengers…that should make me happy right? I mean here is creator of two of my favourite shows (Buffy and Firefly) getting the chance to helm a mega-budget blockbuster movie. Not only that, but it’s a comic-book movie, an area Whedon is infinitely familiar with having penned a number of acclaimed stories for iconic characters such as the X-Men and Runaways. The talent alone, Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Chris Evan’s Captain America and Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury should assure success at the box-office, but the pressure will be on Whedon to assemble these into a coherent and accessible movie, and despite his obvious ability I’m a little unsure.

Seriously cool - New interactive trailer for Iron Man 2

Ramping up the anticipation level for a summer release? Well look no further than Paramount Pictures and Marvel whose new interactive trailer for Iron Man 2 sets a new bar for killer marketing. This new interactive trailer contains certain highlights from the original feature trailer and allows you to click on embedded hotspots in order to learn more about specific parts of the film, including the suit itself, the Expo and more. This is shaping up to be one of the movies of the decade. Cannot wait!

Somebody call for a Doctor?

I’m a huge Doctor Who fan, and while the last trailer for the upcoming Steven Moffat and Matt Smith led season left me a little underwhelmed this new clip has made just that little bit more excited. Showing what is reported to be the opening 43 seconds of the first episode it sees an out of control Tardis hurtling towards London. The countdown to next Saturday begins right now!

Ná cúig Scannán Éireannach gur fearr liom

An chéad, mé leithscéal as mo caighdeán Gaeilge. Nach bhfuil mé scríofa sa sean-teanga ó mo Ardteistiméireacht, agus fiú ansin nach raibh mé ag maith é. D’iarr mé mo láithreán gréasáin Scannáin.com, mar sin tá sé sábháilte a rá go maith liom scannáin. Is maith liom go bhfuil Éire ar stair mhaith de scannán a dhéanamh. Seo iad mo cúig scannán Éireannach is fearr.

Green Zone - Review

Matt Damon + Paul Greengrass + Action = Great films + Box office gold. Matt Damon + Paul Greengrass + Action + Iraq? Well that could be a little more tricky. By and large Iraq war movies have failed miserably at the box office, this despite the fact that most have been really rather good. Take The Hurt Locker for example, it won 6 Oscars, including Best Picture, yet barely recouped its $11 million budget in the States. With Green Zone Universal is banking on the Damon/Greengrass connection pulling in the punters and has deliberately toned down the Iraq references in it’s advertising campaign. So it’ll be interesting to see how it fares. So what’s it like when Bourne goes to Baghdad?

Shutter Island - Review

Shutter Island, the oft-delayed Martin Scorsese adaptation of the best-selling Denis Lehane book finally hits Irish cinema screens on March 12th. Usually these kind of release date changes result from studio unease at something that took place during production, be it unsatisfactory effects or the commonly cited “creative differences”. In this instance it would appear that these usual reasons were not at fault, for Scorsese brings us a vision that is so close to a Hitchcockian murder-mystery as to make you believe Alfred himself had a hand in its creation.

Online video presents The Streamy Awards

Yesterday saw the release of the nominees for the second annual Streamys. For those of you unfamiliar with the awards they celebrate the best in online television and videos. Last year saw some high profile shows, such as personal fave Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, awarded for their greatness and this year is no different. If for no other reason the award nominees are worth checking out for the sheer calibre of online television that you may have missed. I’m a big fan of The Guild myself. The awards ceremony takes place on April 11th, 2010 and the full list of nominees is listed below (with thanks to Streamys).