Having installed Firefox 1.0 PR recently on Windows and Linux, I have to say how much I’m impressed by it. I think it’s finally ready for the masses. It automatically, and sensibly, imports various pieces of data from existing browsers (history, bookmarks, etc), and has a completely uncluttered interface.

The sensible approach to updates surprised even me. Firefox checks whether it or any extensions have been updated in the background, and displays a small icon next to the throbber when changes have been made. The actual updating process is a simple click-through dialogue, making having the newest versions of everything trivially easy.

Then there are the extensions themselves. Old favourites like Mouse Gestures and tab browser extensions still appear, while new extensions like FoxyTunes are proving to be very handy.

Let me just emphasise that: FoxyTunes is incredibly handy! It integrates with most music players (Winamp and iTunes included) to provide controls inside the browser. I can’t imagine being without it in a browser now.

Finally a release to recommend to non-technical friends.

After having the martial arts aspects of Hero trumpeted, and knowing there was a strong cast (Jet Li and Tony Leung et al), it was with some doubt that I went into the film; it couldn’t possibly be as good as people said.

One word: beautiful.

Truly a film that uses the medium to its fullest potential. Care has gone into every leaf, the colour of every rock, the splashes of water, and the wardrobe. It is not just the still imagery that is stunning, the kinetic effects are also perfect; water, the breeze, limbs. Harmonious.

That’s not to say the film is without faults. The story was somewhat lacking and the fight on water scene did nothing but be silly (yes, it’s ballet, but a poor one).

Those weaknesses do not remove from the visual splendour of the film, and the enjoyment derived simply by watching.

Surprisingly, Dodgeball is amusing. It is dumb but, as with many Ben Stiller films, that is entirely the point. All the usual plot features can be expected: the main character learns an important life lesson, the losers become winners, the guy gets the girl, and some rather tasteless jokes.

The mark for these sorts of film can largely be determined by how many memorable lines and moments there are (I’m sure that we can all still remember the best ones from There’s Something About Mary). This has enough to make it amusing. That’ll do for me.

The Terminal is bad. Very bad. Tom Hanks is pitiful, the story has become generic Hollywood tripe (despite being an interesting premise), and Zeta Jones plays one of the least developed characters of modern times (“Hi! I’m simply here to move the plot on very slightly”).

Utterly without merit.

In a move that will shock all right-minded cinema goers, Tom Cruise is bearable in the movie Collateral. More than that: he’s actually pretty damn good. Playing the confident straight forward killer seems to be a role that he was made to play, pulling it off with a degree of style that gets you on his side.

The film itself is the tale of a fairly ordinary cab driver who, upon accepting an all night fare from Cruise, begins becoming more and more unstable as events unfold.

Tightly shot, well paced and Hollywood dialogue at a minimum, Collateral is a very pleasant piece of cinema. Kudos.