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Mildred Pierce is a new miniseries fresh from HBO in America and shown on Sky Atlantic to prove that America is capable at making a good period drama too, though with less Hugh Bonneville.

Mother of two, Mildred Pierce, played by lovely Kate Winslet, is swiftly left by her husband. Having to fund herself she goes looking for work… and then she finds it. Yes, this is most certainly the first episode; not a huge amount of excitement but plenty of establishing of plot, era and character.

Everything looks great, almost cinematic if not playing in the wrong aspect ratio on my decrepit TV set, and the acting is top-notch… just not a lot happens. Luckily with the quality of production in Mildred Pierce you will most likely look past a lacklustre start with the hope of a more riveting continuing series.

Mildred Pierce airs on Sky Atlantic tonight, 25th June at 9pm.

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16th September 1927 – 23rd June 2011

“The only mountain that I would still like to climb: I’d like to break 85.”

So many films out today it’s all a bit too much. If you make it to the end I will be impressed. Don’t forgot to enter our competition, there are DVDs at stake!

Bridesmaids
Kristen Wiig leads a brilliant female heavy cast in a comedy that puts The Hangover in its place. I presume.

Countdown To Zero
Documentary about the escalating nuclear arms race. Try not to freak out.

Incendies
Oscar-nominated French Canadian films about a pair of twins searching for their family history in the Middle East.

Talihina Sky: The Story of Kings of Leon
It’s a documentary about the Kings of Leon you idiot. Something to see while pretending you didn’t want to go to Glastonbury anyway.

World of the Dead: The Zombie Diaries (limited release)
Sequel to a British zombie film and nothing to do with either Land of the Dead or Diary of the Dead by George A. Romero.

Cutter’s Way (limited release)
Classic independent dramatic film starring a 1981 version of Jeff Bridges. Not showing anywhere near you.

Akira (limited release)
Classic anime as old as me. Not one for the kids unless they can handle sex and violence.

The First Grader (limited release)
In Kenya, an 84-year-old former freedom fighter fights for his right to party education.

Viva Riva! (limited release)
The synopsis on IMDb is too long and confusing for me. Figure it out for yourself. One thing I can deduce is that this is a drama.

Ghosted (limited release)
It’s a UK prison drama! Erm… Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Love’s Kitchen (limited release)
Chef loses a wife, opens a restaurant and falls in love with a food critic. I just saved you your Saturday afternoon.

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You read that right, we’re having our debut competition! We have two copies of Miracle at St Anna on DVD to give away. Miracle at St Anna the latest film from Spike Lee (Inside Man, Malcolm X, Do the Right Thing), a big budget war epic about American soldiers serving in Italy during the Second World War. Three more words for you; Joseph Gordon Levitt.

There’s no question to insult your intelligence with. Just give us your name and email (we promise to do nothing sinister with it) and we’ll pick two winners using the power of Excel’s random number generator on Monday morning. UK entrants only please.

Competition closes at Midnight on Sunday 26th June 2011 and the DVD is released on 27th June.

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Footloose is one of my all time favourite films. The synopsis is so ridiculous as to be sublime and Bacon was never better. When the stage musical began I went along and quite enjoyed myself so news of a film musical wasn’t completely unwelcome. Then they lost Zac Efron as lead… and then Thomas Dekker too and it all started to feel a bit desperate.

Now we have this poster:

And this trailer:

But it all just leaves me cold. The film needs a bit more:

And a little more:

At least they kept the original logo and we don’t have any more:

But seriously, a musical afraid to show any singing in its trailer and a film that thinks it can best Kevin Bacon angry dancing in a barn has a lot to prove on opening night.

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