Paper Monitor
13:10 UK time, Friday, 8 August 2008
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
There's nothing quite as exquisitely sweet in journalism as the brutal review.
Walter Kerr represents the apotheosis of the art. His quip in response to the John van Druten play I Am a Camera - "Me no Leica" - may never be bettered.
But there are still great examples from recent years. The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw's springs to mind.
"Ritchie's new film lands on cinema-goers' collective head like a sack of wet sand. It's a metaphysical thriller that is so long and so boring that each of its minutes lasts long enough for a Test match."
The latest contender is the Sun's Ally Ross on the new Channel 4 topical comedy show, Tonightly.
He attacks "pub funny comedian" Jason Manford and "roadkill in the highlights" Andi Osho.
"[It's] part of Channel 4's Generation Next strand. So-called because that's where they'll all be working in six months time."
And.
"They are not so much a presenting team as a support network which has to keep encouraging and reassuring itself."
Ouch.
Today's Guardian also has a go at harshness with its short review for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, again from Mr Bradshaw.
"The Mummy franchise now really is dead, dead, dead. It's so dead it could win gold at the Dead Olympics, establishing a new British and Commonwealth record in the 400m decomposition event."
Almost makes Paper Monitor want to go and see it.
PS: Hats off to the 22 people who tried to guess the tune to yesterday's "dah der dah-dah etc." The first to get it right was VeerSoon who recognised the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News tune.
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