Wonderfully offbeat film!

Masterful Movie

Crappy film

Best movie of this year hands down!

This series (2015) has shown that the X Factor has run its course, that the death knell has rung for Mr Cowell and co. and that it's time to end this misery. The nose dive in viewing figures has shown that people feel the same, it's been done to death and enough's enough.I'm not saying that there aren't great singers on the show, but it's not about them, it's about the egos of Mr Cowell and co. What gives Cheryl the right to comment on people's singing abilities when she's mimed more times then Marcel Marceau.The crying, grizzling, sob stories, 'it's my dream' thing ruins the show, they didn't have it on the U.S. series, what is the point, is it a singing competition?Plaudits for giving us Leona Lewis, the one saving grace of the show, but otherwise I'm one of the millions that have switched off. Please end it and give us a good drama on a Saturday night!! 1/10

In the dark days of 2004, England was hungry for another singing competition, and from the bowels of hell, The X Factor was conceived, if you ever wanted to see a bigger bunch of talentless, narcissistic, brain dead bunch of no hoper's then look no further, every year is worse than the last, terrible singing, horrible bickering judges, a disgusting crowd who all start screaming abuse as soon as someone says one bad thing about an act they like it is perfect car crash television for the brain dead masses who have nothing better to do on a Saturday night September through to December just in time for the dreaded Christmas number one, if you want compelling, intelligent entertainment, well you're likely to find it on DisneyKids than you are on ITV on a Saturday night. Utter RUBBISH!

I only started watching Xfactor last year, and then mostly only the auditions. This year (2010 Xfactor) was different.I was like all the other haters out there, believing it to be some stupid money-making scheme by Simon Cowell which shames terrible singers then praises slightly better singers. This year I found myself mistaken. The auditions are still the same, it's just the audience laughing at bad performances (don't get me wrong I'm not saying it's bad to laugh at some freaky old lady screaming down the microphone) but this time, when it came to the live shows, I actually liked the contenders. Not only could they sing well like I believed no-one really could on the Xfactor, most seemed to have nice personalities, only shown further on back-stage shows like Xtra factor. You can choose your favourites which would for me be the good singers with good personalities, and then choose your most hated. (Some one you just don't like the look of or a bad singer, it's your choice) and then from then it's listening to them sing and hoping your favourite stays in. It can get tedious and boring at times, I often left half-way through once my favourite act had performed, but it's much better than I expected. It may just be this year, maybe next year it'll be packed-full with boring generic singers. Either way I know I'll have to check it out at least.

Recently "Nasty" Nigel and Simon Cowell were in court because the former (nothing to do with this show) was claiming damages off the latter for stealing the idea from Pop Idol etc to make this show. Of course to the majority of us this just seemed like an easy claim because, aside from legal technicalities over whether or not you can copyright a concept, the X Factor is clearly just Pop Idol etc in slightly different clothes (but not even that different). The court case was settled behind closed doors and everything went on as normal but we the viewers were still left with a show that continues to flog a formula that seems like it will never die.The X Factor is supposedly different from Pop Stars/Idol because it is about the people as well as the music; you know – that x factor that makes stars stars. Well, at least on paper that is what it is about but taking a look at it, it looks awfully like Pop Idol crossed with Popstars (groups and solo artists), with different judges, a new presenter and a slightly different approach (we see a lot more of the training as each artist is taken under the wing of one of the judges). It has nothing really original in it and, although the artists are supposedly got individuality (x factor) they still belt out cover versions; in fact series 1 winner Brookstein (praised by Cowell for his individual sound) was very quickly dropped from the 6 album deal he won because he refused to do an album of cover versions. Anyway, so much for that idea, so for the most part this is just another clone of the same formula. The music is nice, big, professional karaoke of hits that everyone can sing along at home to but it is all very dull and depressing if you are looking for more.The training camp may allow those of us that were adolescent boys in the 1980's a chance to rekindle our lust for Sinitta but mainly the way that the groups are split up across the judges is less about training and more about allowing conflict between them. The producers have realised that it is the judges that get the headlines and inject the character into these shows so here we have it pushed and endlessly stage-managed. They do this to extremes, this year having Osbourne throw water on Walsh, with the latter saying he has quit the show, only to return after a week of free headlines in the tabloids, stirring up the viewers and upping ratings (something they can't do with the bland acts themselves). Presenter Kate Thornton can't help us because she is just as caught up in the whole thing and comes across as there is nothing more important happening in the world than the results of the public vote – and maybe for her there isn't. Even after the vote though, the judges still get their say (which made me doubt their independence since both "losers" will belong to at least one of them), cue more pantomime booing, hissing and jeering in line with the whole idea of manufactured drama.Overall this is a popular show because the formula works for a lot of people. I won't demean them on this decision but I will say that it doesn't work for me. The judges stir it up the best they can and try to get headlines for the show and conceal how bland the artists themselves are but really this is just what it has always been – a big, obvious karaoke show that gives the masses something easy and hollow to watch on a Saturday night. Hopefully it will all come to an end soon but I suspect we'll continue to get the same formula with minor twists for as long as the viewers will watch it. My only hope is that one of those twists will be the inclusion of live, hungry bears, freely roaming the backstage area.