I rated Song Sung Blue (2025) 9/10 #IMDb Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson are Lightning and Thunder, a Neil Diamond tribute act. I didn’t know anything about the true story - it’s really well acted by all and the songs are great. Really enjoyable. The best thing I’ve seen with Jim Belushi in it!

I rated A Grand Day Out (1989) 7/10 #IMDb Wallace and Gromit’s first adventure takes them to the moon in search of cheese. The look of Wallace is a little weird if you’ve seen any other of their films, but the attention to detail and the looks of long-suffering Gromit are great.

I rated Evita (1996) 5/10 #IMDb Madonna is Eva Perón of Argentina. The film looks great but Andrew Lloyd Webber’s songs haven’t aged well. It has one great song and the rest are all pretty rubbish. And you’ll need to read Eva Perón’s Wikipedia to really know what’s going on. And Jimmy Nail is in it.

I rated A Man Called Otto (2022) 8/10 #IMDb Tom Hanks is a right grump as Otto, the man on the street who keeps everything in place. It’s a strong dark comedy with a well-drawn and fun supporting cast. Very enjoyable

My film overview of 2025:

Here we go! It's the end of year movie round up of 2025! I've been much more pro-active with going to the cinema this year and have watched 92 films (a number of which were streamed). Films are named in alphabetical order within their score groups: 9 (my favourites): A Complete Unknown F1 1/7

I rated Anaconda (2025) 5/10 #IMDb Childhood friends Jack Black and Paul Rudd travel to the Amazon to film a remake of Anaconda. There’s a few laughs to be had (most of which are in the trailer unfortunately), and Jack Black is very watchable. Bit of fun that’ll be forgotten about in a week.

Writing some of the TLMaths Further Maths Core Pure Part 2 textbook today, on the exotic Red Funnel ferry! #MathsToday #ALevelMaths

I rated Elf (2003) 6/10 #IMDb I finally got around to watching Elf for the first time. Will Ferrell crashes through his scenes as Buddy and it’s very enjoyable watching James Caan get actually annoyed with him. An easy watch but not one of my Xmas faves.

I’ve always wanted to try one of these Scantron machines. Where’s Santa when you need him?

I rated Frankenstein (2025) 8/10 #IMDb Guillermo Del Toro’s rendition of the classic tale is a grand and bloody affair that doesn’t hold back on crunch. It’s definitely up there with the 1931 version and the Cushing/Lee Curse of Frankenstein. Del Toro’s best is still Pan’s Labyrinth though.

I rated The Salt Path (2024) 5/10 #IMDb Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs lose their home and go for a walk. Leaving aside whether all of the story is actually true or not, the film itself is quite tedious and all of the interactions they have with other characters feel unlikely.

I rated Troll 2 (2025) 5/10 #IMDb More monster mashing in Norway as another Troll gets woken up hell-bent on destroying Trondheim. Cheesy sequel set in some beautiful wintery locales. There’s a couple of smiles to be had but the light-hearted bits very much take you out of the action.

I rated The Great Flood (2025) 4/10 #IMDb High concept Korean disaster movie where the waters are rising fast and a mother and son must climb their apartment building to safety. When the twist arrives halfway through, it sucks all the air (and my caring) out of the back-of-a-napkin plot.

I rated Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) 7/10 #IMDb Papyrus 3. The scale and visuals are truly impressive and the 3D worked very well. The film clocks in at over 3 hours and to its credit is very character-focused. But story-wise it is just too similar to the last film and doesn’t offer any twists.

Even better, come work with *me* 😁 Seriously Barton is an amazing place to work.

I rated Fackham Hall (2025) 6/10 #IMDb Spoofs are quite rare these days, and this one does Downton Abbey. The gags are thick and fast, which it needs, but while not all hit this is a better effort at Airplane-style humour than the recent Naked Gun remake. Bit of fun.

Come and work with me! app.vacancy-filler.co.uk/salescrm/Car... Barton Peveril Sixth Form College is in Eastleigh, near Southampton. We have over 1100 students studying A-Level Maths across both year groups. If you have any questions, please drop me a message! #ALevelMaths

Professional scepticism is the disciplined habit of slowing down unscrupulous optimism before it does damage. Before rolling out the next shiny policy, ask: - What problem are we solving? - What would show this is wrong? - What will we stop doing if it fails? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

RIP to Rob Reiner and his wife. Horrific news.

Come and work with me! app.vacancy-filler.co.uk/salescrm/Car... Barton Peveril Sixth Form College is in Eastleigh, near Southampton. We have over 1100 students studying A-Level Maths across both year groups. If you have any questions, please drop me a message!

I rated Last Breath (2025) 5/10 #IMDb Based on a true story, during a storm in the North Sea, a trio of divers fixing a pipeline on the sea floor encounter difficulties. For a film set mainly underwater, Last Breath is very dry. There’s little character development and it’s all just a bit boring.

I rated Code 3 (2025) 7/10 #IMDb Rainn Wilson stars as a veteran paramedic at the end of his tether on a 24 hour shift. It has quite challenging tonal shifts between comedy and depressing drama, and is successful in showing the grim reality of the job.

I rated Downtime (1995) 5/10 #IMDb 6 years after Doctor Who ended, this spin-off has the Brigadier facing off against Yeti. It very much feels like late 80s Who with little exposition (unlike today’s) and a creeping sense of dread. It zips along but sadly the production values and acting are weak.

I rated The Family Plan 2 (2025) 4/10 #IMDb Unnecessary sequel sees Mark Wahlberg takes his fam on holiday to Europe where they must outwit Kit Harington. It’s essentially Nobody 2 without the violence or humour. I feel like this plot has been made 100 times already. Utter meh.

I rated Wicked: For Good (2025) 5/10 #IMDb Part 1 was too slow, part 2 has to stuff large amounts of plot, including the whole of the original Wizard of Oz, into a tight space. Unfortunately the 1939 story doesn’t gel perfectly. The songs are weak and Michelle Yeoh is rubbish. Looks good though!

I rated Death of a Unicorn (2025) 5/10 #IMDb Paul Rudd accidentally hits a unicorn while driving to meet wealthy client Richard E. Grant. It’s not really funny or scary and just sports a larger budget than other, better horror-comedy creature-features. See Tremors.

I rated Zootropolis 2 (2025) 7/10 #IMDb The bunny & fox police duo Hopps & Wilde must crack another case. It’s pretty good fun - there’s a great Shining sequence - but it doesn’t break any boundaries. A few kids in the cinema were very bored by the end - it’s a little too long for the younguns.

I rated Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) 10/10 #IMDb Stanley Kramer’s fictionalised version of the Judges’ Trial in 1947 is pitch perfect, exploring guilt and blame in Germany after the Holocaust. Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Maximilian Schell and Judy Garland are all fantastic.

It’s the annual tradition of bringing out AQA’s January 2012 Integration by Substitution question! Adapted slightly to ask for the exact value. I’ve used it every year since my students at the time sat the paper #ALevelMaths

I rated Nuremberg (2025) 7/10 #IMDb This take on the Trials focuses on psychiatrist Rami Malek as he forms a bond with Russell Crowe’s Hermann Göring. It’s an interesting exploration but I found Malek’s performance OTT and off-putting. Crowe is excellent. Watch Judgement at Nuremberg instead.

I rated Nuremberg (2000) 7/10 #IMDb Alec Baldwin is the lead prosecutor with Brian Cox’s Hermann Göring and other remaining Nazi officials on trial. It’s a solid 3 hour TV mini series but it lacks any of the punch of Stanley Kramer’s Judgment at Nuremberg. Brian Cox is the standout.

I have drawn a line under my GCSE Maths videos. I completed all of Number and Algebra for both Foundation and Higher, across 862 videos and 68+ hours. It took me 3 years to make them all but I've sadly decided to end it there. Hopefully they are useful! #GCSEMaths www.tlmaths.com/home/gcse-ma...

I did my A-Levels back in 2002-2004. I did AQA and I remember doing a Mathematical Methods paper, that kind of had bridging algebra that wasn't quite P1 mixed with a little stats (kind of a hybrid paper). Does anyone have any of these past papers scanned and remember how it fit into #ALevelMaths?

Fare thee well. Happy Retirement to David Coverdale after a 50+ year career! youtu.be/GNTRgkd4gB0?... #DeepPurple #Whitesnake

❤️ Love this ❤️ @mathforge.org has done what I’ve never been organised enough to do myself, and catalogued every #geometrypuzzle I’ve ever posted on social media. It looks amazing!

I rated Sovereign (2025) 7/10 #IMDb Nick Offerman is an anti-government extremist who travels with his son spreading his Sovereign Citizen message. Based on a true story, it’s a well-acted piece with some good support from Dennis Quaid.

Got it! It looks great, even more useful than the first book.

I rated The Running Man (1987) 6/10 #IMDb Arnie is forced to compete in a battle to the death in a dystopian gladiatorial TV game show. The ideas are good but the majority of the gladiator bits look really dated. Richard Dawson is excellent but Yaphet Kotto is severely underused. Watch Rollerball

I rated Predator: Badlands (2025) 7/10 #IMDb A young Predator must navigate a planet where essentially everything is out to kill you. It’s a good-looking and entertaining entry to the franchise from the makers of the great Prey. Some of the close-up action shots I found quite difficult to follow.

I rated Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025) 8/10 #IMDb Bruce battles depression while recording the Nebraska album. Rather than a career retrospective, the film focuses on one period of Springsteen’s career and all the characters have time to breathe. Very well acted by all.

It’s the annual TLMaths Halloween Special! TLMaths Halloween VIII youtu.be/z36OWYtW5jA Have a spooky day!

I rated Street Smart (1987) 7/10 #IMDb Journalist Christopher Reeve fabricates an article about a pimp and people mistakenly think it’s about real-life pimp Morgan Freeman. Very well-acted, particularly Freeman (who got his first Oscar nom) and Kathy Baker, but quite depressing throughout

I've been reading up a bit on the British Mathematical Olympiads, and two things have amused me: 1) The BMO2 was known as "FIST" until 1991, when, presumably, someone realised it wasn't a great name for an exam 😅 2) The early past papers (1972 onwards) were just sort of bashed out on a typewriter

I rated Late Shift (2025) 8/10 #IMDb Over the course of one shift, Leonie Benesch is a nurse working in an understaffed hospital who must juggle families, doctors, nurses, and of course patients - including an angry patient who wants his tea. A really well-made stress-inducing Swiss film.

I rated A House of Dynamite (2025) 8/10 #IMDb A single ICBM is heading to Chicago. Kathryn Bigelow directs a realistic portrayal of a nuclear strike on the US, played out from three linked viewpoints. The first section has the most impact, but overall it is well acted and pretty tense.

I rated Star Trek: Section 31 (2025) 3/10 #IMDb Michelle Yeoh is Emperor Georgiou who we first met in Discovery, enlisted by Section 31 to deal with a large bomb. As a big Star Trek fan, this spin-off is really bad. And even if I wasn’t a ST fan, in of itself it’s poorly written and looks naff.

I rated Tornado (2025) 7/10 #IMDb A Japanese puppeteer’s daughter is chased across the hills of the British Isles in 1790 by an incredibly grumpy Tim Roth and his troupe of bandits. It’s pretty much all on location and looks like a pretty grim shoot, though filmed well. Keeps itself to 90 mins ✅

I rated John Candy: I Like Me (2025) 8/10 #IMDb A great documentary about John Candy. Interviews with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, Tom Hanks, Catherine O’Hara, and his family. I didn’t know much about his Second City days before the movies. A “Grand” man as Aykroyd says.

I rated The Twits (2025) 4/10 #IMDb Johnny Vegas and Margo Martindale are The Twits. The animation is good but Roald Dahl’s classic 100ish page book, 28 font, has been chopped and changed and stretched to 100 minutes. It’s too long and the less said about the ending the better. Just read the book.