Reviews is a place where you are invited to submit reviews for publishing on thisisUll.com. Reviews can be on any subject; movies, theatre, books, and can have images or links included. Send your review in to contributions@thisisull.com More    Reviews Home.    Page 1.    Page 2.    Page 3.    Page 4. For the index by Author to all Reviews click here.

Reviews, Films - Saw By Steve Rudd
	As if there isn't enough sick and twisted violence out there in the real world as it is, there are hordes of film-makers that feel that violence is the essential ingredient to make a winning movie. To make their movie as violent as possible often seems their aim, Read more...

Reviews, Books - Travels in a Strange State by Josie Dew Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	A man called Jonathan Raban once said, The only way to travel is to travel alone. It opens you up to the world. It puts you in the way of luck and chance. With such a sentiment Josie Dew whole-heartedly agrees, as do I. This fantastically written book Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Confessions Of A Hull City Supporter at Hull Truck By Nicholas Boldock
	There must be few examples of award-winning playwrights penning an entire play to celebrate a football team winning promotion, even if that promotion took 19 long years to arrive. After Hull City won promotion from Division 3 last term, local writer Alan Plater Read more...

Reviews, Books - Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	All of us take pride and pleasure in the fact that we are unique, but I'm afraid that when all is said and done the police are right: it all comes down to fingerprints. Which, I presume, means that Sedaris (who is both a highly respected playwright and author) really Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Hard Shoulder by Chris Petit By Steve Rudd
	Focusing on how a fresh-out-of-prison man copes and slowly re-adjusts to life on the outside, The Hard Shoulder is an exceptional novel - and primarily enthralling for being both a thriller and poignant drama. O'Grady is the man who has been released from prison Read more...

Reviews, Books - Running With The Moon by Jonny Bealby By Steve Rudd
	I was the pebble in the catapult, pulled back to breaking point, about to be sent hurtling towards whatever destiny had in store. Total freedom. At that moment I wouldn't have changed places with anyone. That's how Jonny Bealby felt upon arriving in Africa with his friend Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Confessions Of A Hull City Supporter at Hull Truck By Nick Quantrill
	Written by Hull City fanatic, Alan Plater, and with male characters played by actors from Hull, it would be easy to write this play off as being a parochial Fever Pitch. Whilst it's definitely a home banker, the structure of the play holds enough laughs to get a result away from home. Read more...

Reviews, Books - David Bowie: Theatre of Music by Robert Matthew-Walker By Steve Rudd
	Although this book was published way back in 1985, it still provides a fascinating insight into David's personal life and his music up to such a point in time, giving a summary of the circumstances around his birth and childhood before naturally progressing onto how he first became interested Read more...

Reviews, Books - A Cold Day In Paradise by Steve Hamilton, By Steve Rudd
	Steve Hamilton's incredibly exciting writing vibrantly blasts out of much the same gun-toting gauntlet as Joe R Lansdale's writing, despite the fact that both these American action-thriller novelists couldn't really live farther apart from the other. Lansdale lives and sets Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Goodbye People by Gavin Lambert, By Steve Rudd
	Loneliness doesn't consist of not having friends. Loneliness has nothing to do with that! It's being unable to express your deepest feelings and most private thoughts. This novel is one of my favourite pieces of fiction, with the author Lambert's fresh writing style zestfully spurting in Read more...

Reviews, Books - Cold In July by Joe R. Lansdale, By Steve Rudd
	This Texan author is surely one of the hottest 'action-thriller' writers of his generation. An expert in martial arts himself, his stories are always graced with superb plots and graphically violent action set-pieces that he describes so well I would have thought movie producers in Hollywood Read more...

Reviews, Books - Big Sur by Jack Kerouac By Steve Rudd
	It's the little things that count. On my deathbed I could be remembering that creek day and forgetting the day MGM bought my book. Another classic novel from Beat-generation master Kerouac, Big Sur brings the reader up to speed on how the writer Read more...

Reviews, Books - Hemingway's Chair by Michael Palin By Steve Rudd
	Bearing in mind that Michael Palin has literally travelled around the world and back (and them some), you'd think that his debut novel might be, well, a little more exciting! But far from setting it in hot-&-bothered LA or in and amongst the manic metropolis of Tokyo, Read more...

Reviews, Films - Catwoman UK Movie Premiere at Leicester Square, London Tuesday 3rd August By Steve Rudd
	Ok, close your eyes, listen carefully and think hard. Where on earth can you see - and potentially - meet the likes of Halle Berry, Sharon Stone, Benjamin Bratt, Will Smith and David Hasselhoff (no, seriously!) in the space of just two days? I'll give you a clue if you haven't sussed it out already and Read more...

Reviews, Books - Roads by Larry McMurtry By Steve Rudd
	Better known for his novel writing than his travel writing, Texan man McMurtry's most famous works include the epic Western story of Lonesome Dove, and the tear-jerking Terms Of Endearment and The Evening Star. For much of his life he's been a keen collector of books Read more...

Reviews, Books - Silk Dreams, Troubled Road by Jonny Bealby, By Steve Rudd
	The third and final travel book in a fascinating and most exhilarating trilogy, this epic account follows Jonny across the mountains of heaven on the Old Silk Road, from Kashgar to the Caspian Sea. Or thereabouts, given that the horses on which Jonny and 'friend' travel are often beset Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Up 'n' Under at Hull Truck Theatre with Cast Interview 23/07/2004 By Andy Dykes
	John Godber's play 'Up 'n' Under' has enjoyed widespread success for twenty years. So it's obvious that the story, although I have to admit I don't really know it, does not need to be reviewed. So I realise that if this report is going to be of any worth at all, tonight I need to review the performance. Read more...

Reviews, Books - Ash Wednesday by Ethan Hawke By Steve Rudd
	The definition of grace is the ability to accept change. I needed to start calculating my masculinity not by the amount of pussy I could grab, or how many girls I could bang, but by how true I could be with one girl. How infrequently I could lie. How often I could show up when I was needed. Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Up 'n' Under at Hull Truck Theatre By Nicholas Boldock
	Once upon a time, there was a young boy called James Crossley. James liked to play sport and did a lot of exercise. He bought himself some weights and trained hard until he became big and beefy. When James grew up he grew his hair all silly so that he looked like a blond spaniel. Then he became famous Read more...

Reviews, Events - Renegade Writers; A Review of Sorts By Alexander Porter
	First off, this is not an objective review, having never been to a performance by this motley crew before I had expected a bunch of pretensions twenty something spouting angst, instead I got a pirate, an extremely pleasant surprise, second only to finding an entire packet of fags at three in the Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Up 'n' Under with Talkback at Hull Truck Theatre By Elsie Creek
	So, it's twenty years ago that John Godber showcased this, his first play for Spring Street Theatre, for which he won the Laurence Olivier Comedy of the Year Award. There has been a lot of water under the bridge since then, as we were reminded in the post-show talkback with director and cast. Both Hull Truck Read more...

Reviews, TV - Big Brother Exposed By Lee Cassanell
	If Kittens revolution had been supported by the rest of the housemates this years Big Brother could have been one of the greatest television shows of all time. Unfortunately, due to the anaemic sailor persona and an amazing lack of charisma, the bi-sexual Che Guevara never quite managed too inspire Read more...

Reviews, Opera - Gilbert & Sullivan The Mikado at Middleton Hall, Hull University By Nicholas Boldock
	Dagger Lane Operatic Society are old hands when it comes to Gilbert & Sullivan. - in fact, they've been performing their operettas for 20 years now. Way back in 1984 their inaugural production was HMS Pinafore. This year, for their twentieth anniversary show, it was the most celebrated Gilbert & Sullivan Read more...

Reviews, Books - Lovely Green Eyes By Arnost Lustig By Steve Rudd
	This is truly an extraordinary novel, written by a man who survived the horrors of Auschwitz, and who lived in fact to tell his tale. Bizarrely though, this isn't so much his tale as a girl's story.. a 15-year-old girl called Hanka who lies about being a Jew to survive, and who becomes a prostitute in due course. Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - The Blockheads New Writing Festival Hull Truck Thursday June 24th Review by Jane Foster.
	Special Guest Reviewers Bernard Manning - Hilarious original Northern comedian Tony Blair - The Prime Minister, not Lionel's brother you prancing thespians you Thora Hird - Thoroughly nice old lady who's drop scones are the envy of, well.. other old ladies An idealistic young teacher ( Kelly Hardy ) tries to Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Up n Under Hull Truck Theatre 17th July By Nick Quantrill
	This special production of Up N Under is being staged to celebrate twenty years of John Godber productions at Hull Truck. As Godber's Olivier Award winner it's only right this should be the chosen play as well as it being an opportunity to reclaim its reputation back after the sheer awfulness of the film it spawned. It's truly Read more...