Blogs and articles from writer and film maker, James Smith

This week has been a busy one, and for me accompanied by a nasty cold and lots of herbal tea at meetings to keep me talking!  Anyway, the show must go on, as they say in entertainment, and this week I shall be reviewing Olympus Has Fallen starring Gerard Butler  Yet another action movie, but they are churning out some pretty good ones lately, so I'm looking forward to seeing it.  I'm also producing a film of my own this year; it's set in Mexico and I'll be posting news here when it goes into production.

Check out also my review of sci-fi blockbuster Oblivion

That's it for now... stay tuned!

In the UK, we're into the coldest April for decades, but the action on Style Review is continuing to hot up.  We're looking to do more automotive reviews, not something I've done a lot of in the past, but what better way to start than with a look at the superb Madza 6  Others will follow in this category, and we're aiming to give a bit more of a user insight than just tech specs.

Back on the movie theme, I'll be taking a look at sci-fi blockbuster Oblivion this week starring Tom Cruise and Olga Kurylenko  In fact, if you caught the Graham Norton show recently, Tom and Olga joined Gerard Butler in some suitably madcap conversation with Norton at the helm.  Interesting that despite the glamour and the millions that come with stardom, the hard work still has to be done on promoting movies via non-stop world tours.  Nice work if you can get it I guess, but I suspect Tom Cruise spends most of his time at airports with the amount of releases he puts out.

Incidentally, going by the clip on the Graham Norton show, Gerard Butler's new action movie Olympus Has Fallen definitely looks worth checking out, so I might have to add that one to my review list.

So, that's it for now, join me on Twitter @jsmithwriter for other updates and I'll be posting my Oblivion review real soon!

This week I decided more action is on the cards, so what better way to follow up A Good Day to Die Hard and The Last Stand than to dive into another action shred-fest with the help of Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis in GI Joe: Retaliation which is described as 'Action - Adventure - Sci-Fi'.

I thought I'd go in with an 'open mind', but looking at the plot line, cast, and movie poster, a closed mind might be just as valid.  Seriously though, it does look like a lot of fun and I shall be adorning my 3D specs to get the full brain washing experience.  The review will be posted soon.

Apart from that scheduled piece of cultural enlightenment, I shall be meeting with Style Review boss, Calvin Crane, in London to discuss some exciting new plans for the website and also continuing my ashamed self-promotion of In At The Geek End

On that subject, there are some interesting rumblings in the world of book publishing regarding the self-publishing revolution.  Previously deemed insignificant, publishers are now shifting uncomfortably in their seats, as not only is the quality of self-published material improving, many titles are more popular than traditionally published works.  I will be writing more on this subject and letting you know how my experience with In At The Geek End pans out.

Yes, it's true.  I am a geek I must confess and all is revealed in my book In At The Geek End now available on Amazon Kindle for just £0.77 and paperback.  If you have a clever or weird format, you can try Smashwords and if you can do a review (good, bad, or indifferent) on Amazon or even spread the word, that would be just great.

The book, a humorous autobiographical novel, charts a period of my life in the 80's and 90's during which I worked in the defence business on computer systems.  Despite the formal environment, the people and circumstances I found myself in were quite crazy.  I tried to escape the cocktail of madness and tedium by embarking on some wayward pursuits and business ventures - all depicted in the book in scary detail!

So, I do hope you enjoy my nerdish work of literature and be warned - there will be a sequel!

Follow me at @jsmithwriter

So after the frenzy of The Oscars with the dresses, speeches, and inevitable tears of joy, it's back to reality.  This week, amongst other things, I'm going to kick off a regular look at consumer and prosumer camcorders, starting with the Sony CX730E Full HD Flash Memory camcorder  It's a powerful beast that I've used extensively, so I'll be providing a hands-on impression.

Well I can't let Oscars week fly by without watching and reviewing a movie, so this week's outing will be a look at Flight starring Denzel Washington.  This is probably not the best film to watch on your laptop in the departure lounge or indeed as your in flight movie selection, but I'm doing neither, so no worries there!  Stay tuned to for that and also keep an eye on my Oscars Thread for news from Tinsel Town's Academy Awards!