Mark Kermode.
 

I'm conflicted.

I'm not. He's a smug twat.

There is something deeply wrong about him. I agree.

It's his look as well as his manner. He has no redeeming qualities.

Commode.

I used to like listening to his show on Radio 5, and trust his reviews, but he's started to play to the crowd too much by talking about The Exorcist or going on a (contrived) rant every five minutes.

He did loads of good mini-documentaries on banned/uncut films on Channel 4 too.

Ever heard his skiffle group?

And yet, on the radio, doing those film reviews with Simon Mayo, he's really quite good - without ever for a minute allowing you to forget that, beneath it all, he really is just a very smug prick indeed - who looks remarkably like Mark Viduka.


Yeah, that Exorcist thing got really annoying after a while. You'd think he was the only person to have seen it. I think I might've caught some of his skiffle things on Newsnight Review or something. Wasn't he in some semi-successful band once? But you're right, his documentaries are usually fairly interesting even though he tends to be the worse thing about them.

To make the show more entertaining, I suppose, Simon Mayo seems to want to turn it into an Odd Couple-like sitcom by being the 'everyman' to contrast with Mark 'the nerd' but he goes too far and becomes annoying, i.e., pretending he's never heard of films/directors which (I'm certain) he actually has. I remember Mark talking about Nick Roeg and he was interrupting him every minute going 'who?' and trying to change subject by baiting him into going on another comedy rant about The Exorcist!

Yeah they've played on The Culture Show before. I once saw them play in a pub in the Lake District, they were quite entertaining (they take it seriously, not a pastiche at all). I guess it (the skiffle-obsession) explains his hair anyway

Yeah, Mayo was up to that the other week - acting the philistine buffoon. I just checked out Kermode's bio on wikipedia and it seems his only band was that skiffle one. Weird. For some reason I thought he might've been in The Skids, or something like that. I like that he cites Local Hero as one of his favourite films.

awwww. I wanted to post that. :(

I'm going to anyways.

Commode.

i agree with blunderbuss. he is a twat of the highest order. anyone who says black hawk down is good deserves to be called a fucking cunting twat.

anyone who rates the exorcist as highly as he does is alright by me, i've been meaning to read his book about that film for years.

It's irritatingly good.

he's still a right twatbox.

you're all just jealous

of his hair?

He's 40 or something, i think he's entitled to have a cult following of some kind to play to. I love the show on Fridays even though i havent been able to afford going to the cinema much in the last few years, but hes a specialist not one of these randoms

As for the docs, there was one about A Clockwork Orange on youtube a long while ago which was terrific.

I've decided. He really is just a smug twat. And Simon Mayo is a buffoon (not that I was ever in any doubt about that bit - just thought I'd mention it).

Hurrah.

what's smug about him?