Football: England's National Side Has A Flat Track Bully Problem.

Kane had limited service and impact in Italy's simple 3-1 win at the
Under 21 European Championship.

'Never getting my hopes up again. Could barely have been better coming into the tournament and now this. Sod it all. I am officially a converted England cynic.'

Me

Sorry. Watching England's Under 21 side go down 3-1 to Italy's Under 21's in a game England had to win was a harder, more depressing watch then maybe it should have been. Two years of steady pass and move progress including wins against Germany and Portugal in the build up to the European Under 21 Championships yes, but England's bottom of the group placing shouldn't have been a surprise. It's tradition, many would say; England have not defeated their expectations for what feels like a fairly long time. 

Good Films People Might Have Missed This Year 2: Voices

The thing about black comedy, a genre that has interested me for some time now, is that it's black! Sorry, I briefly got sucked back in time to an episode of Red Dwarf; a sci-fi film series from the 1990s that was neither Black Comedy or has anything to do with this review. 

So anyway, the thing about Black Comedy is that it walks a razor edge; the subject matter it touches on might be grim, and nasty and ultimately brutal, yet in the same breath it tries to make humour of these things. It's ballsy or stupid, or both or neither. It is most definitely not for everyone. Did I mention that Voices, Directed by Marjane Satrapi (Of previous Persepolis fame) and featuring Ryan Reynolds, is a black comedy? I should probably mention that soon. Moving on from the odd start to this article lets actually talk Voices; In which Jerry, a severely mentally ill man with a 'talking' cat and dog tries to find love and happiness only for it to all go horribly wrong in exactly the ways you might expect from looking at this poster for the film to the right.

Euphoric Addiction: League Of Legends, Hearthstone And The Free-To-Play Model

'...If you take adderal/coke/meth/speed/MDMA you will get this shining bright euphoria... self confidence... However, you will owe these drugs what they gave to you... You will feel like shit.'

Gaming is several parts fun and one part addiction; lets get right to the truth of that. It is far from alone in this however. In a way we tolerate various states of addiction in our first world countries. People drive to places five minutes away because they don't want to or have the time to walk, people shove all their dirty dishes in the dishwasher rather then get out a sponge and some fairy liquid. People drink and smoke and cheat in search of that 'better' state, where life is easier, more fun, and we feel more alive. Satan explains it quite well! (Thanks Southpark!)

Arguably, society is made up of addictions we we do or do not accept. If for example, it came to a choice between all of our technological advancements and eventually, the livelihood of the world, which would we choose? And how many people would sink into a depression if all this amazing technology were to suddenly be lost? How many people would feel lesser without internet, games, TV, cars, and the other things that sustain us in their own little ways? 

So yes games are addictive. Mostly it's not a bad thing at all; the very best movies in life are the ones we can't tear ourselves away from and the same applies to many games. Addiction grabs all gamers in some way or another. And it maybe is this realisation among other things that has lead to the rise of 'Free-To-Play' (FTP) games; a genre that in it's very name is a lie. A person can pick up one of these games for nothing and play for a while in relative peace; but elements of the game are locked away, behind a paywall you remove with money. If Free-To-Play were a building, it would be like a Shopping Mall; biggish, lots to explore, but lots of tangible, fun elements hard to reach or even beyond reach without money. 

Good Movies People Might Have Missed This Year 1: Shaun The Sheep The Movie

Roughly five or six months from now, award chatter for Oscars and Baftas and Academy things will start. There will be speculation and hype driving movies toward nominations or awards, or certain actors being shuffled up to a pantheon. Real movies like any biopic you could care to mention will be released just in time to be nominated or to be canned as award-bait or whatever they call it, and really it's a load of balls isn't it?

A (possibly flawed) glance over the awards indicates that the majority of the heavy hitters were released around that December window - the Stephen Hawking biopic, Imitation Game, Birdman, Boyhood (no, I didn't get it) and many more. Even Whiplash, released to Sundance film festival on the 16 January 2014, wasn't released until October of the same year, which was close enough to award season for people to talk of Oscars for JK Simmonds (who played the mad scientist type Jazz teacher) along with everyone else 

My complaint I suppose isn't that these films aren't good (Whiplash in particular is fabulous) but simply the idea that films released around Autumn/Winter time stand a better chance of getting awards where really good films from the rest of the year stand a diminished chance. Which is a massive shame because films like Ex Machina may well be completely unremembered. And this pleb thinks that Shaun The Sheep Movie will suffer the same exclusion, which is a massive shame, because in said plebs opinion this film is worthy of an award because it is just really, really, really good. 

How Well Could Petr Cech Do At Arsenal?

Petr Cech, 33, is departing for pastures new, in what could be the biggest deal of
the summer.

In a move that should really be the shock of the summer but isn’t for a variety of reasons, Chelsea’s second goalkeeper Petr Cech, now the positively middling age of 33 is on the verge of sealing a transfer to ‘neighbourhood friends’ Arsenal, who are in turn sending their own first goalkeeper David Ospina to find Champions League football at Turkish side Fenerbache. In what is essentially a goalkeeper swap the first keeper for the fourth ranked nation in the world makes way for a Chelsea stalwart. John Terry says he can win Arsenal 10 to 15 points next season; Craig Hope of Daily Mail-dom says he could be the ‘Van Persie to Man United’ of summer signings. Certainly it looks to be a fantastic signing if it goes through. But then, this is Arsenal we are talking about.