Author Archives: Darren Byrne

About Darren Byrne

Blogger, writer, movie buff, amateur dramatist and all round nice guy. When I'm not spouting about on Culch.ie, I can be found Tweeting inanities @DarrenByrne or @Culch_ie. I am the admin behind Culch.ie and if you want to contact me for anything, drop me a mail.

A Good Day to avoid Die Hard

  By Darren Byrne | February 18, 2013 - 9:35 pm | Featured Post, Movies & TV, The Culch
1 Comment
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This will be short. The film was so poor, it doesn’t deserve many words. However, I do feel the need to warn you off it. Bruce Willis’s latest visit to John McClane’s insane life is A Good Day to Die Hard. Presumably they couldn’t fit Sam Jackson or Justin Long into the budget, so this time McClane is joined by his son, poorly acted by Jai Courtney. There is no plot. No really, I looked and couldn’t find one. I did however find plenty of explosions and car chases and explosions and fire and jumping through CG windows and explosions. There was also a shed load of awful dialogue. If McClane said “I’m on vacation” one more time, I was going to hurl my overpriced Maltesers at the oversized IMAX screen. Life of Pi belongs in IMAX, The Dark Knight Rises belongs in IMAX, Prometheus, The Hobbit, Ghost Protocol, they … There’s more →

Competition: NYE Dublin – This is what you should be doing

  By Darren Byrne | December 11, 2012 - 12:00 pm | Featured Post, Festivals, Gigs, Music, The Culch
1 Comment
NYE Dublin Festival 2011 concert

I am mad about New Year (far more than Christmas itself). I buy into the symbolism of it – out with the old and in with the new. So, I love to mark each one differently. This year, now that I’ve returned to city centre living, I’m embracing the New Year in Dublin. NYE Dublin, Dublin’s New Year’s Festival, marks the start of The Gathering Ireland 2013! To celebrate, we’re offering 5 pairs of tickets to the NYE Dublin Countdown Concert, featuring the delicious Imelda May and the brilliant Bell X1. Dublin’s New Year Festival is even bigger this year and now that I’m living in city centre, there will be no better place than Dublin’s city centre streets to celebrate the arrival of 2013. Even Lonely Planet has named Dublin as one of the Top 5 places in the world to spend New Year, so you don’t want to … There’s more →

Competition Closed: Jack L and The 27 Club

  By Darren Byrne | November 28, 2012 - 12:53 pm | Competitions, Featured Post, Gigs, Music, Site News
2 Comments
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*** Congratualtions to Laura Carroll *** *** who has won a pair of tickets to tonight’s show *** I‘ve said it many times before and I’m sure I’ll repeat it again and again – Jack L is incredible. He is my favourite Irish singer and I could listen to him forever. In his latest show, The 27 Club, the work of iconic artists such as Janis Joplin, The Doors, Robert Johnson, The Rolling Stones, Amy Winehouse, Echo & The Bunnymen, Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana are interpreted. Few musicians set out to become legends, even fewer succeed. Yet by any standard musicians like Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Cobain are legendary. Each left behind a lasting musical legacy, with songs that freeze forever a moment in time, speak for a generation, or simply give voice to the grief and grace of the human heart. In so many ways … There’s more →

What do you think of Mumford & Sons’ new song I Will Wait?

  By Darren Byrne | September 13, 2012 - 1:00 pm | Featured Post, Music, The Culch
1 Comment
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It’s more of what we’ve come to expect from the band, but that’s no bad thing. Looking forward to hearing their new album, Babel, which is released on the 24th September. Here’s Mumford and Sons’ I Will Wait, shot two weeks ago, during the band’s two sold-out shows at the Red Rocks natural amphitheatre in Colorado.  

New Dr Who Trailer! New Dr Who Trailer! New Dr Who Trailer! :)

  By Darren Byrne | August 2, 2012 - 11:22 am | Featured Post, The Culch, TV
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The seventh series (of the revived Doctor Who) begins in the autumn, but the first episode, Asylum of the Daleks, is due to premiere at the BFI London later this month, (I’d love to go over for it). What do you think of the new trailer? I CANNOT WAIT!!! Also, check out this cool new desktop background:

Late to the game – My first week on Netflix

  By Darren Byrne | July 17, 2012 - 3:34 pm | Featured Post, The Culch, TV
3 Comments
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There was a big interwebby brouhaha when Netflix launched in Ireland in January. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t particularly interested at the time. No one was raving about it. Many people said that the price was great (at just €6.99 a month, that seems a fair comment), but that the content was seriously lacking. The range of movies was very limited and the TV shows that were available were far from up-to-date. I gave it a miss. Six months later There’s more →

No Doubt are back and they’ve brought the 90s with them

  By Darren Byrne | July 17, 2012 - 2:53 pm | Music, Music Videos, The Culch
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I was a huge fan of No Doubt from the second I received their debut album, Tragic Kingdom, as a Christmas present in 1995. Today, they release the video for their first single in nine years. The Grammy Award-winning rock group release Settle Down, the first single from their new album Push and Shove, which is released on September 21st. There’s more →

Competition Closed: The Iveagh Garden Concerts with Rufus, Mike and Lisa

  By Darren Byrne | July 12, 2012 - 8:32 pm | Competitions, Featured Post, Music, Site News
27 Comments
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Well, this lot almost slipped past my radar. How did that happen? Did you know that there are three frickin’ awesome gigs lined up for The Iveagh Gardens next week? Wanna win some tickets to see Rufus Wainwright, The Waterboys or Lisa Hannigan? Then keep reading… Rufus Wainwright begins the Iveagh Gardens Nights on Wednesday evening. I have been a huge fan of Wainwright since I first heard his version of Hallelujah for the Shrek soundtrack. Now, I know purists will scoff at me for saying that, but I’ve since dived into his full back catalogue. In fact, his newest album, Out of the Game is fantastic. It will be an evening of stories, drama, humour and some brilliant music. He kicks off at 9pm on Wednesday 18th July with support from Krystle Warren. Tickets €44.05 (a strange number) including booking fee are available from Ticketmaster. Mike Scott’s Waterboys hit … There’s more →

Free Music (And it’s pretty damn good)

  By Darren Byrne | July 11, 2012 - 10:45 am | Music, The Culch
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I‘ll have to hold myself back here. I’m itching to make some crude joke about getting the clap. I failed. The Clap is a Dublin based rock band made up of brothers, Cathal, Dara & Donal Melinn on piano, guitar and drums respectively, Daniel Knowles on bass and Simon Moore on vocals. Rock music has been the driving force for the Melinn brothers for years and despite the occasional sibling bust-up, they happily spend hours writing and rehearsing until each song has been thoroughly arranged. The lads sent me (and I’m sure a million others) an email. They’re trying to get their name out by offering free music to one and all. And while this isn’t the first time I’ve recieved an email like this, this is one of the rare times that I really like the music. The Clap’s cabaret-/jazz- rock sound is very cool. Sure, it’s raw and … There’s more →

Soundtrack Review: Ted is Easy Listening Cheese

  By Darren Byrne | July 10, 2012 - 11:24 am | Featured Post, Movies & TV, Soundtracks
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In complete contrast to the edgy, outrageous, controversial fare we experience in the movie itself, Ted‘s soundtrack is a mix of a gentle (and sometimes amusing) score from Composer Walter Murphy and a selection of easy listening tunes and cheesy classics. In the live action/CG-animated comedy, Seth MacFarlane tells the story of John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg), a grown man who must deal with the cherished teddy bear who came to life as the result of a childhood wish…and has refused to leave his side ever since. I’m not going to let this become a review of the movie itself (I’ll pop that post up closer to the release date), but I’ll openly admit that Seth MacFarlane has made possibly the funniest film I’ve ever seen. So, I was understandably looking forward to the soundtrack. In fairness, I was looking forward to the iPhone app, the t-shirt, the poster, the mug, … There’s more →

Meh. Oh look, more subpar Tim Burton.

  By Darren Byrne | June 28, 2012 - 3:19 pm | Featured Post, Movies & TV
3 Comments
FRANKENWEENIE

I just watched the trailer for Tim Burton’s latest movie, continuing his never-ending pursuit to remake, rework, reimagine, rejuventate, revive, rejig and redo every movie ever made. At least this time he’s not tearing down the pillars of my youth (Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Instead, this time he’s revisiting (just when I thought I’d run out of ‘re-’ words) one of his own stories. Frankenweenie is a black-and-white stop motion-animated remake of Burton’s 1984 short film of the same name, his take on Mary Shelley’s classic, Frankenstein. In the film, a boy named Victor loses his dog and uses the power of science to bring it back to life. As with all Burton movies in the last decade, it could be fun, it could be a waste of time. He’s just so hit and miss. In the last ten years, the only original tales Burton has … There’s more →

Competition Closed: The amazing Dionne Warwick in Vicar Street this Thursday night

  By Darren Byrne | May 23, 2012 - 1:49 pm | Competitions, Gigs, Music, Site News
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*** Competition Closed *** *** Winners: Caroline Kelly, Lisa Byrne and Stephen Lynch *** Say A Little Prayer, Walk On By, A House Is Not A Home, Deja Vu, Is This The Way To San Jose, I’ll Never Fall in Love Again…the woman is an absolute legend. I can’t wait to see her. Why don’t you join me? Culch.ie is giving away three pairs of tickets to see Dionne Warwick in Vicar Street tomorrow, Thursday 24th May. The five-time Grammy Award winning music legend is a cornerstone of American pop music and culture. Warwick’s career, which currently celebrates 50 years, has established her as an international music icon. She has earned more than sixty charted hit songs and sold over 100 million records across the world. The show will be a wonderful celebration of the music and life of a pop legend, a musical icon. Tickets for this concert are … There’s more →

Competition Closed: Jeff-fah-fah Dunham in the O2 Dublin

  By Darren Byrne | May 1, 2012 - 11:40 am | Competitions, Featured Post, The Culch
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  *** Competition Closed – Winners will be notified shortly *** *** Congratulations to Colin, Gary, Dave and Caroline *** I am a huge fan of Jeff Dunham. Yes, like everyone else, I fell in love with that cookie little go-getter, Achmed the Dead Terrorist, long before I knew that Jeff Dunham likes to stick his hand up a variety of characters, but he has grown to become one of my all time favourite comedians. I love his Comedy Central specials, I own the DVDs and I even have an Achmed doll. Yeah, I’m that guy. So…I was thrilled to hear he’ll be in the O2 Dublin this Saturday on his Controlled Chaos tour with all of his usual friends Walter, Bubba J, Achmed, Peanut and José the Jalapeño on a Steeeek and a few more besides. I can’t wait. If you fancy joining us on Saturday, I have a … There’s more →