Amish: The World’s Squarest Teenagers- Sundays @ 8pm Channel 4- 8 out of 10

If there is one thing the Daily Mail has taught me, it's that people who are different to me are to be distrusted, stigmatised and are to be very fearful of because they may well cause some new kind of cancer. Of course, this is complete bollocks but that's the world we live in, negative influences are an awful lot more powerful than positive ones.

Which is a shame really because really, deep down, we are all very similar, something very much proven by Amish: The World's Squarest Teenagers.

Despite being marketed as a "look at the people that are different to us and laugh at them for it" kinda show, it really is much more than that. It is on Channel 4 remember, not BBC3 although there are elements of the 'point-and-patronise' style of documentary making so favoured by the Beeb's downmarket third channel.

The show centres on taking five young people from an Amish community, those folk with barns and awesome facial hair, out of their comfort zone each week, living with British teenagers from different social groups and seeing how they react and interact, like a good old fashioned social experiment.

In the first episode, the five young Amish (they're not teenagers, one is 23 for Gord's sake) stay with a group of teenagers in South London from Black and Asian backgrounds. They go off to a park to play rounders, they go shopping, they talk about how people get stabbed and shot near their homes, all nice wholesome, Christian stuff.

However, for a group of young people who have never encountered crime, violence, sex before marriage, single mothers and all of London's pleasures, the Amish kids take it remarkably in their stride, showing a very high level of maturity. To their credit, the British yoofs are very similar with their respect towards Amish beliefs.

No scene demonstrates this more than when one of the British teenagers, a young female Muslim, takes them to a mosque for the first time and rather than feeling threatened by it , the Amish are curious and recognise the similarities between the two faiths not the differences. But hah! They don't know who John Lennon was so let us laugh on them!

On a serious note, this documentary provides a welcome contrast to the stereotypical picture of today's teenagers painted by the tabloids, showing them as mature human beings, more than capable of interacting with those different to them and respecting their beliefs, hobbies and way of life. Bravo!

All in all, for the Amish folk, it's all very similar to a middle class, British person's gap year experience, only they tie it into the Amish tradition of Rumspringa which sounds like a German heavy metal festival. Anywho, the concepts are basically the same; it's all about finding yourself, cha?

Overall, Amish: The World's Squarest Teenagers continues the fine tradition of Channel 4 documentaries that are genuinely interesting, thoughtful, measured, sensitive and, yes, entertaining from which the BBC should take a number of notes, primarily "1. This is how it should be done!!!" Although, the forthcoming episode looks far more of a challenge for the Amish however, with a very different British teenage lifestyle- the white, indie, hippie, cross over cunts with all their booze, weed and stupid curly hair.

Toy Story 3D- (U) - 6 out of 10

Looking back, wasn't everything always when you were younger? Sweets and chocolate tasted better with the added bonus of not having to worry about the effect they have on your teeth and body shape. The summers lasted longer, were sunnier, full of endless hours down the park and no burdens of money bringing one down. You could accidentally brush another person's chest/ arse region/ genital region without the cheeks reddening, awkwardly mumbling sorry and not being able to look them in the eye for two weeks or so. Simpler times.

And of course, films were always better, full of innocence and colour and fun and silly characters and happy endings. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, wasn't it lovely? But alas, age is nothing but a cynicism-creating device where you come out on the other side all gnarled and cynical.

So we come to Toy Story 3 (or 3D if you really must insist). Way back in my own youth, the original Toy Story was the first ever film I saw at the cinema and thus has a very special place in my heart. I loved it and still do to this day. But this new film just feels like a horrible, exploitative piece of bastardisation.

Firstly, it may just be my age showing, but this new offering seemed largely devoid of jokes, apart from the occasional zinging one liner from Hamm (still my favourite character), the extended Spanish Buzz gag and the Ken-Barbie interactions. The one thing animated films need to survive is both jokes for kids and subtler ones that adults will get but Toy Story 3 lacks this.

Secondly, the storyline (solid but not spectacular) took at least half of the film to get going, whilst at times lacked a coherency where it appeared the writers were working ad hoc, not thinking things through, which is unacceptable after having over a decade to produce the film.

Lastly, the gimmick of 3D. So many films since Avatar have jumped on the 3D bandwagon to make a few more pounds at the box office and very few have been worth the additional two quid entrance. They have been largely shot in 3D at last minute so huge swathes of the movie is not done properly and adds nothing to the experience. Toy Story 3D is another example of this where the 3D effect was only noticeable every so often and only to show the distance between characters in a scene, hardly Avatar's sweeping 3D landscapes. Note to film makers, spend less on 3D effect and more on your writers.

Overall, whilst still watchable as a movie, I was left with a feeling that this film could have been so much more than a lame tacking on to the outstanding achievements of the first two Toy Story films. The loss of childhood innocence indeed.

Inception- (12A)- 9 out of 10

Hype is a funny thing. No matter what the subject of said hype, England's World Cup chances, a sunny summer or your first sexual encounter, almost invariably it ends with tears, soggy sausages and frustration/disappointment (in that particular order, though in some cases all four). However, there is a reason we all still believe the hype and that is the hope that hype brings. The hope that, maybe, just maybe, the next overly hyped subject will be worth and that perhaps, just this once, we will come out of the other side of it with our faith rewarded and our hope restored until the next crushing blow that life brings, you're bus being late or something like that.

Anywho, after reading countless reviews marking inception down as THE SHIZZ and that I would be blown away, it was with some trepidation I took my seat. But some 2-and-a-half-hours later (which flew by incidentally) my hope was indeed restored until the crushing blow came (it being that my favourite takeaway was shut for the night…)

The story follows Dom Cobb (Di Caprio) who is essentially a man that goes into people's dreams to steal ideas. Oh, and he has a lot of emotional baggage. A lot. Which may or may not affect the plot of the film in a substantial way. Or maybe not at all. This is me trying to be spoiler free.

To get what he wants (spoiler free!) Cobb is offered a job by a businessman where he must plant an idea (rather than steal one) into the head of the businessman's rival's son and heir. To do this, Cobb puts together a team to travel into the head of the heir via his dreams.

What follows is a gloriously put together action-cum-Sci-Fi-cum- tortured romance film sprinkled with one-liners. The fight scenes are perfectly choreographed with echoes of The Matrix in places, the relationships between characters built steadily, plot twists coming thick and fast and enough action in amongst the intellectual aspect to keep the 14-year-olds behind me interested for a whole 140 minutes.

My two criticisms would be these. First, the film largely uses Ellen Page's character as basically a plot device. Her lines largely seem to just be questions aimed at Di Caprio's character which aim to clear up any intellectual barriers for the audience (kind of a layman's approach) and makes her character seem misplaced in the 'dream team', so to speak, that Cobb puts together, an apprentice among experts if you will.

My second criticism is the ending which, without giving too much away, at first appears to be a very good idea but on reflection seems flimsy and ultimately one twist too far.

But largely, this is a terrific film full of twists, incredible action sequences, an intriguing intellectual element, solid albeit not spectacular acting, all delivered at a steady pace that allows you to keep up. Although, as a friend of mine noted, it may now cause you to question your own dreams.

The Strange and Disturbing Tale of Raoul Moat, Sky News and Modern Morality

So there we were, myself and my girlfriend, sat in front of the TV on a Friday night with a tub of ice cream and some cider, planning to stick on a film and probably fall asleep with it on. But then, just as we were getting up to put on Sherlock Holmes, a banner popped up on the bottom of the screen over the Simpsons (we were watching Sky One). The banner said; "Raoul Moat surrounded by police. Switch to Sky News Channel 501 for more details".

"Oh," we thought "switch over just to see what's going on and then we will watch the film." An hour later, we were still watching but we managed to tear ourselves away, only looking again before going to bed at midnight. However, that hour said all that needed to be said for the state of modern morality that we all adhere to.

All the "news" consisted of was repeated shots (so to speak) of some footage caught from apparently up a tree by Sky News cameramen, showing the police negotiators and continued live footage of the barricade put up at the end of the road the incident was occurring on. Occasionally, the reporter would step in front of the camera to tell us the same information we had heard time and time again over the last week.

After a while, it became clear that all Sky News (and indeed, all the news outlets) wanted was the 'money shot' of Moat holding the shotgun to his neck. This was clear by the way the cameramen who caught the footage of the negotiating team kept panning left to where Moat was, thankfully covered by trees from the vantage point of the camera. This isn't the concern as this is the way the news operates, it wants to get the most shocking shot.

The main concern was that the vast majority of people, myself included, was just watching, hoping to see a man end his life, live on TV. There was no other reason for watching this 'news'. It was pure voyeurism and rubber-necking.

A final point, a quick look on the BBC News website offers you a video entitled "The moment gunman stand-off ends", in perhaps the most disturbing title ever. For the sake of Moat, a murderer but still a human being, don't watch it.