28 h. ago MOVIE REVIEW: Does animated life suit the titular creature in 'Predator: Killer of Killers?'

Awesome anthology takes in different time periods and eaves franchise in exciting place for the future.

Events

41 h. ago Beastly Britain by Karen R Jones review – how animals shaped British identity

A revelatory cultural history of our relationship with native wildlife, from newts doing handstands to Mrs Tiggy-WinkleWhen newts go a-wooing, sometime in the spring, their signature move is the handstand. Girl newts cluster round to watch, while the boy newts flip on to their creepily human hands and shake their tails in the air. The waggiest newt is the winner, although the actual act of love is a strictly no-contact sport. The male deposits a packet of sperm on an underwater leaf for the female to collect and insert into her own reproductive tract. The whole business is best thought of, says Karen R Jones, as a “sexually charged game of pass-the-parcel”.This kind of anthropomorphising often strikes naturalists as unscientific or even downright distasteful. But Jones is an environmental historian and her methodology allows, indeed impels, her to start from the principle that Britain’s human and animal populations are culturally entwined. Consequently, we cannot...

Politics

2 w. ago How Animals Heal Us by Jay Griffiths: Forget dogs, get a THERAPY SKUNK

We all know how invaluable animals can be for our wellbeing, but in a new book, Jay Griffiths reveals just how extraordinary animals really are.

Politics

2 w. ago Dangerous Animals review – serial killer meets shark movie in this formulaic fizzer

Jai Courtney eats up his role as the crazed captain of a tourist boat – but he can’t quite wrestle this creature feature from its straitjacketGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailFor a long time, serial killer and shark movies were separate forms of cinema; never the twain did meet. In Dangerous Animals they’ve been blended into one foul fishy stew, theoretically delivering the best of both worlds: a Wolf Creekian adventure with a creature feature twist. But, sadly, this collision of genres hasn’t resulted in any real freshness or flair, playing out with a stinky waft of the familiar.Jai Courtney gets the meatiest and most entertaining role as Tucker, the owner of a Gold Coast business that ferries thrill-seekers out into shark-infested waters, where they observe the great beasts from inside an underwater cage. After they’re hauled back on to the boat, Tucker kills them and feeds them to the sharks, while filming their grisly deaths on a camcorder for his personal collection o...

Events

2 w. ago Rachel Reeves seized her moment – whatever the future brings, Labour’s economic course is now set | Martin Kettle

The chancellor is no mere technocrat: her spending review revealed a visceral commitment to social and economic mobilityThe consensus has long been that the 2025 spending review would be a defining moment for Keir Starmer’s government. For once, the consensus proved spot-on. The government’s main priorities were set out on Wednesday in a blizzard of Commons announcements from Rachel Reeves, some economically substantive, others more for show. The upshot is that the shape of the British state, as Labour intends it, is now decided until the eve of the next election.There are further crossroads still to come, some of them major, as the years covered by the review unroll. Taxes are likely to rise, probably as soon as the autumn budget, to pay for Reeves’s big ticket boosts on Wednesday for defence, health and housing. Council tax could rise too, with possibly dramatic results. The review’s emphasis on capital spending means current spending could be squeezed again, perhaps heralding pay...

Economics

2 w. ago The Sexual Evolution by Nathan H Lents review – colourful tales of animal reproduction

From gay penguin parents to snake orgies, a biology professor looks at sexual adaptation in the animal world In 1998, Roy and Silo, a pair of male chinstrap penguins at Central Park Zoo in New York, were given an abandoned egg to incubate after zookeepers observed them performing mating rituals together. For 34 days, they took turns sitting on it. When the egg hatched, the story became a viral sensation. The New York Times celebrated “A Love That Dare Not Squeak Its Name”. Roy, Silo and their daughter Tango became the subject of a LGBTQ-friendly children’s book, And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell.Biology professor Nathan Lents remembers receiving copies of Tango as a gift when he and his husband became foster parents. Fast-forward to the present day, and Tango tops Pen America’s list of the most frequently banned picture books in the US. It was part of a high-profile lawsuit in Nassau County, Florida, and was designated for pulping by officials in...

Politics

3 w. ago 'Dangerous Animals' review: Yellowstone starlet in sharks horror up there with Jaws

Jai Courtney stars in "Dangerous Animals," a movie about sharks that also features a serial killer. The film is a worthy birthday present to "Jaws," celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer.

Events

3 w. ago Predator: Killer of Killers review – animated anthology of Arnie’s old antagonists

Forty years on from the original, the Predators are back in Viking times, samurai-era Japan and second world war US – but you can’t help think it would be better as live actionIt’s hard to imagine, back in 1987 when the first Predator film came out showcasing big Arnie’s rippling biceps, that anyone could have predicted it would spawn such a diverse array of sequel material. But here we are: 2025 brings us an animated anthology, with Predators tearing human kind a new one in Viking times, samurai-era Japan, and Florida during the second world war. This follows the excellent 2022 movie Prey and the mostly stupid Alien vs Predator from 2004, in which a lady makes friends with a Predator, which rather nullifies the scare factor.Killer of Killers opens with the Viking chapter, The Shield, set in AD841. One of the film’s better ideas is the Vikings referring to the Predator as Grendel, a reference of course to the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, in which a humanoid monster walks in darkness an...

Events