Ladies and Gents, set your status to "moist anticipation," cultivate those stomach-fluttery butterflies, and start thinking of some health hiccups you can turn into sickies; there's seven, just SEVEN days to go until the amazing Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival kicks off! Unlike Cannes, and Venice, and those other high profile film festivals you hear about, the beauty of the London Film Festival is that it's a public film festival. So you, yes,......

Our weekly roundup of film reviews returns, courtesy of James Bryan… This week, Stallone takes us back to a simpler age in Rambo, Jack Black goes pretend low budget in Be Kind Rewind, Bono gets his ego blasted out in 3D in U2-3D and Norah Jones stops singing to make her acting debut in My Blueberry Nights. What option does a faded Eighties action hero really have other than one last trip to his......

Our weekly roundup of film reviews returns, courtesy of James Bryan… After the giddy heights of last week’s reviews and the orgy of stars that it resulted in, normal service is resumed this week. We have cancer comedy The Bucket List, global action franchise to be Jumper, and a few others all reminding you that you should really be seeing last week’s releases instead. The Bucket List stars Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson as......

Londonist may know nothing and care even less about London Fashion Week, but that won't stop us cartwheeling down the nearest catwalk and devouring garms and gimcracks galore like fickle fashionistas on fascistic diets tearing each others' hair extensions at a Primark opening. The Times has offered a handy cut out and keep (for lunch, perhaps, paper being low in calories) guide to 18 trends for London Fashion Week. Sadly one of those trends......

Our weekly roundup of film reviews returns, courtesy of James Bryan… Ladies and Gentleman, this is a once in a lifetime event, a week of movies the like of which we may never see again with hardened critics graciously bestowing stars upon worthy films. Let’s not even introduce them; let’s go straight to the reviews. Feel the critical love wash over you. We have to start with There Will Be Blood, a new film......

Our weekly roundup of film reviews returns, courtesy of James Bryan… As we wallow in the truly miserable news that Aliens Vs Predator made more money at the box office last week than No Country for Old Men, we sigh and turn our attentions to this week’s offerings. The three biggest releases this week are all stamped with Oscar. We’ve got Johnny Depp singing in Cockney and slicing throats in Sweeney Todd, Tommy Lee......

It's been a bad few weeks for the Spice Girls: they released the worst selling Children In Need single ever (to put this into perspective, let's remember that Martine McCutcheon once had a Children In Need single. Martine McCutcheon), appeared in terrible Tesco adverts, played to half full shows in America and Baby Spice sprained her little baby ankle on stage. However, little Emma Bunton ingested her weight in painkillers, soldiered on and appeared......

Our weekly roundup of film reviews continues, courtesy of James Bryan… This week Kidman plays with her monkey in The Golden Compass, The Rock gets confused in Southland Tales, a famous person gets shot in The Killing of John Lennon and Donal MacIntyre cuddles up to some naughty people in A Very British Gangster. Ever since The Golden Compass was announced, devotees of Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy have been nervously waiting to......

Our weekly roundup of film reviews continues, courtesy of James Bryan… This week Brad Pitt’s latest (with a title so long it shouldn’t be allowed) The Assassination of Jesse James etc, the alternate realities of The Nines, Vince Vaughn slumming it in Fred Claus, the video game adaptation Hitman, Kenneth Branagh directs The Magic Flute and a re-release for the classic All About Eve. If you get annoyed with trailers that give the plot......

Our weekly roundup of film reviews continues, courtesy of James Bryan… This week Michael Caine and Jude Law give it some Pinter in Sleuth, Wes Anderson delivers his latest quirky offering in The Darjeeling Limited, Christian Bale eats maggots in Rescue Dawn and Blade Runner gets polished up in a new release. Sleuth should be a masterpiece, a quartet of talent coming together to intimidate us all into how it’s done. We’ve got national......

After an extended holiday, Saturday Cinema Summary is back, courtesy of James Bryan... This week Ridley Scott makes a bid to join the hallowed greats of gangster films with American Gangster, the naked pixelated form of Angelina Jolie drips in gold in Beowulf and Brick Lane gets the film treatment. American Gangster seems to have all the ingredients of an instant classic, even the title smacks of definitive greatness. Throw in the setting of......

Living thousands of miles away from the White House doesn't mean you can't have a say in who's going to be living there come 2009. According to a report in The Times, London-based Americans have raised 40% of a $1 million overseas war chest for the candidates in next year's presidential election. Thus far, Barack Obama sits top of the class, with £36,000 solicited from Britain since June. His Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has......

Soho streets were brought to a terrifying standstill yesterday afternoon when "a very hot and sharp smell" and a cloud of acrid smoke provoked chemical attack panic with police sealing off the area and closing roads. The Ambulance Service dispatched a Hazardous Area Response Team Unit as Firefighters with breathing apparatus broke down the doors of the Thai Cottage restaurant. However, as The Times reported, Soon after 7pm on Monday they emerged from the......

Almost time for the London Film Festival again! This year the event is opened by David Cronenberg's London-set Eastern Promises - Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen following up A History of Violence with this violent tale of Russian organised crime, penned by Steve Dirty Pretty Things Knight. One to watch for sure. Closing the festival is the new Wes Anderson movie, The Darjeeling Limited. In between there are some 180+ feature films and 133 shorts,......

If you've just landed a last minute date for tomorrow and were wondering where to take them to impress them with your urbanity, sensitivity, culture, quirkiness and cool then we've got something for you. Wilton's Music Hall (old, delapidated, threatened Victorian icon) is hosting Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire (atonal, landmark song cycle) by Transition_projects (contemporary, experimental arm of resident opera company) and a world premiere by young composer Ryan Wigglesworth (cutting edge kudos), featuring a......

8. The Incomprehensibles ‘Zooform phenomena’ was a term coined by Fortean zoologist Jonathan Downes to categorise ‘creatures’ which even cryptozoology – the study of hidden animals – dares not to investigate. These are the forms which have animal characteristics, yet are quite simply too bizarre to be flesh and blood. Take for instance the Mantis Man of London, a weird apparition that visited a ‘Jim’ on the night of January 16th 2004 as he......

Today marks the release of Taking Liberties, a documentary close to our hearts all about the erosion of civil liberties. Described by The Times as an "eloquent mugging" and as an "angry howl of protest" by Total Film, we highly recommend you go and see it - full listings here. The lovely people behind the film have given us four copies of the accompanying book - called, imaginatively enough, Taking Liberties - to give......

The Olympic video endorsing the new logo is causing epileptic fits. Things can only get better. Ken wades in, saying the video creator should 'not be paid a penny'. Change the logo petition is up to 47,404 signatories. 'Frail' granny smuggles in £1 million worth of heroin. The Times is in trouble for declaring the Bishop of Southwark 'drunk'. Image courtesy of spacekadet via the Londonist flickr group.......

The 2007 Bollywood film awards return to the UK next week, for the first time since they were originally launched here in 2000. At the glittering ceremony, Oscar-esque trinkets will be handed out for things like the 'Best Villain' ("Boo!") or 'Style Diva of the Year' ("Oooh!"). We're a bit disappointed there isn't something in there for 'Most Swish Light-Bulb-Removing-Style Bhangra Dance Routine', as we've been doggedly perfecting ours on the dancefloor of the......

OK, we put our hands up. We're guilty of talking about Banksy far too much, and even making the occasional factual error about his work. But here's a mega-blooper from the mainstream press. See this classic Banksy piece from Rosebery Avenue? It's been there for years. Yet several newspapers are proclaiming 'Banksy Strikes Again', including The Times, Metro and the Daily Mail (who have now pulled the story). They're even getting the location wrong,......

The Times is running this as an exclusive: Scores of worried parents are buying body armour for their children in a desperate attempt to keep them safe as street violence escalates. A firm that supplies stab- and bullet-proof vests to government agencies around the world has sold 60 jackets, at a cost of between £300 to £425, to concerned parents who have flooded the company with inquiries after several murders of teenagers on London......

This week, we've noticed that London's media seems to be diversifying into sundry formats. And not only that - the different organs are all bitching about one another. Time for us to wade in... The Times launched a snazzy local web presence last week called 'Cool in your Code'. The site presents polished video snippets about culture and property in your part of London. Assuming, that is, you live in Hoxton or Marylebone, as......

Funnily enough we rewatched the 1936 adaptation of HG Wells' The Shape of Things To Come over the weekend and were looking fior a way to mention it on Londonist because of the striking similarities between Everytown and here. Then we got an email informing us that a digitally restored version of the film is to open the Sci-Fi London Film Festival in May. The new version of the film is also the longest......

On Saturday The Times reported that police may have worked out who was responsible for the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko: The suspected killer was captured on cameras at Heathrow as he flew into Britain to carry out the murder. Friends of the ex-spy say that the man was a hired killer, sent by the Kremlin, who vanished hours after administering a deadly dose of radioactive polonium-210 to Litvinenko. He arrived in London on a......

This week - A Scottish doctor finds himself embroiled in Amin's Uganda (The Last King of Scotland) and Affleck is rubbish again, (Smokin' Aces). Four star ratings across the board (The Times, Guardian and Independent) for The Last King of Scotland, a film not about James VI but about Idi Amin. Bradshaw describes it as "thoroughly enjoyable, confident, dramatically satisfying". The bulk of the praise goes to Whitaker for his portrayal of Amin, Talk......

There are some words together that you just don't expect to see in The Times. Dancing cat and ninja for example. An unsigned London Ska band who created a cult internet music video featuring a dancing cat dressed as a ninja is considering legal action against Coca-Cola after accusing the soft drink giant of copying their idea in a television commercial. Seven Seconds of Love claim the advert, which aired in Argentina, resembles the animated......

More thrilling info on the silliest assassination in post-Cold War history: Apparently the very difficult-to-acquire (unless you're an evil research scientist, like in the movies), and very easy-to-trace (why not drown the fellow in Smart Water™?) Polonium 210, used to kill ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, is also extremely expensive. The Times declares the value of the Polonium used to poison Litvinenko at around $10 million. Why The Times does not give the value in......

According to an article in The Economist published in 2003 London Underground has one of the best safety records of any of the older metro systems in the world, with just one fatal accident for every 300m journeys. Posters every now and again remind us about the tally of accidental deaths that occur each year and of course there is the occasional news story of a death or the improbably mundane driver announcement that......

Looks like Ken got an early Christmas present: London Mayor Ken Livingstone has said he is delighted by figures suggesting a slump in the sale of 4x4 vehicles... "I'm delighted to see [4x4s] withering on the vines," Mr Livingstone told BBC London 94.9. The Times has a little more detail on the slump. Is this the beginning of the end for the Chelsea Tractor? As A Dodo (The obituaries you'd like to see -......

There was a strong display of British talent at the International Emmy Awards. Graham Norton was there too. The success of Brit shows has sent the Americans into a remake frenzy according to The Times: Life on Mars, the BBC time-travel drama starring John Simm about a Manchester detective who is catapulted back to the 1970s, won the best drama award. David E. Kelley, the producer behind Ally McBeal, is now writing an American......