3 film reviews in 3 sentences: Miami Vice, Knocked Up, Little Miss Sunshine

Having signed up for a DVD-by-mail service, I really should be doing full reviews of everything I watch, in preparation for updates to the DM site.

But at 11pm on a Sunday, I thought it'd be quicker and easier for both author and reader to see if I could sum up three films in a sentence each:

Miami Vice: Michael Mann reuses the slow, duller bits from Heat - just without the contrasting action, interesting plot or notable actors - and in doing so, sucks the fun and excitement out of fast cars and cops.

Little Miss Sunshine: Really enjoyable take on the road movie, which sees an oddball family in the independent film tradition undertake an occasionally challenging and dryly funny challenge to good effect.

Knocked Up: Trades on the charms of Katherine Heigl and occasionally funny set pieces with Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd, but the script is weak in places, the supporting cast are too one-dimensional to be engaging, and it's not as accomplished as Superbad.

So Little Miss Sunshine gets recommended, in a Disposable Media 4/5 star stylie, Knocked Up gets a bearable 3/5 stars, and Miami Vice loses the Vangelis soundtrack, comedy fashion, fun, excitement, and anything else - except the 30 minutes of running time that would have increased the pace and lost extraneous lingering arty shots.

In memory of Heath Ledger

FILM & TV

Forget his upcoming part as The Joker. Forget 10 Things I Hate About You, and A Knights Tale. And Brokeback Mountain etc.

This weekend, I'll be paying tribute to Ledger with his part in a great film...

TV

Sometimes the BBC can make a good drama out of a crisis

At a time when the BBC is promising less original drama and more repeats, as well as selling off their spiritual home, I'm slightly heartened by the return of Spooks.

It might be another spy/cop/military drama, but it manages to twist things enough to be original, with interesting plot ideas. The actors are good, and they do a credible job of manipulating London to appear consistent with the plot. Can we have more, not less please BBC? If not, it'll be HBO everyone turns to...

Of course, noone can do it illegally any more because FACT have jumped on the chap responsible for the TV Links website. Which simply listed a range of programmes in a way that made finding them a little less hassle. So that's piracy stopped then? Or does it just take five minutes longer to trawl Youtube/Daily Motion etc for the links? With a few friends you can have a local TV Links of your own in an hour.

Obviously I'm not in any way promoting or facilitating breaking laws on copyright, as that would obviously be very, very bad. Even if it's because a show isn't broadcast any more, or you missed it, or you aren't going to subscribe to cable/satellite for a TV series you haven't sampled. Or because in ten years time, the entertainment industry might actually embrace the internet, rather than persecuting its enthusiasts