The DigitalXpress

Every bizarre bit of Transformers movie lore that Bumblebee retcons out of existence Travis Knight’s Bumblebee, a soft reboot of Michael Bay’s Transformers franchise, dares to imagine a world where you can tell the Autobots and Decepticons apart. Set 20 years before the series’ first entry, the movie also imagines the arrival of the Autobots on Earth in 1987, as opposed to 2007, the year the first film takes place. The choice rewrites much of the series’ mythology — but at what cost? While Bumblebee finally makes the action coherent, and grounds the story in a real and relatable human perspective, the new setting erases the increasingly ridiculous alternate history of Earth devised over the course of Bay’s five blockbusters. In this version, Bumblebee is the first Autobot to arrive to our planet, while two pursuing Decepticons not only make first contact with mankind, but team up with the government to capture the rogue soldier (which ... leads to the creation of the inte...

The Accidental Prime Minister movie review: Anupam Kher delivers an appalling performance. 1 star The Accidental Prime Minister movie review: All is unsubtle, everyone’s a lookalike in this film and yet manage to outperform the man in the lead -- Anupam Kher who stars as former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.   The Accidental Prime Minister Director: Vijay Ratnakar Gutte Cast: Anupam Kher, Akshaye Khanna Rating: 1/5 I’ve been thinking about a film called Ramgarh Ke Sholay. Made in 1991, it was a tacky, no-budget parody inspired by The Three Amigos, where Amjad Khan, gamely reprising his role as Gabbar Singh from the classic Sholay, was surrounded by various Hindi movie lookalikes — from a duplicate Dev Anand to an artificial Anil Kapoor — as they tried to save the titular village. Vijay Ratnakar Gutte’s heavily publicised new film, The Accidental Prime Minister, based on the book by Manmohan Singh’s former media advisor Sanjaya Baru, feels rather improbably like that Shola...

'The Simpsons', 'Star Trek': When Stephen Hawking Charmed The Telly A Legendary Mind Stephen Hawking, a prolific theoretical physicist, would have celebrated his 77th birthday today. The cosmologist and author of 'A Brief History Of Time', who was diagnosed with motor neuron disease at 21, spent his life trying to resolve the mysteries of the universe. However, while Professor Hawking, who passed away on March 14 last year, was busy deciphering the basics of black holes and tackled time travel, he enjoyed a brief, small-screen career as well. Here's a round-up of 5 times when Professor Hawking made an appearance on TV shows.  Star Trek: The Next Generation' 'Star Trek' fans fondly called Hawking 'Trekkie'. In 1993, he starred in the season six finale of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'. On the show, Hawking was shown playing a game of poker against scientists like Albert Einstein and Sir I...

Sydney wakes up to cool change after constant heatwave Sydneysiders have enjoyed a much cooler night’s sleep after the mercury plummeted dramatically yesterday afternoon following a constant span of sweltering days since the end of last year. Temperatures at Mascot cooled by 11 degrees in 10 minutes at 12pm, with other sites experiencing similar drops. Observatory Hill dropped by five degrees in 15 minutes at the same time. The change occurred later out west, with Penrith and Richmond plunging by seven and six degrees respectively after 3pm. Earlier northwesterly winds and sunshine caused the city to rapidly heat to the mid-to-high thirties. In the Illawarra region to the south, a severe thunderstorm brought a wet start for Kiama, with rainfall reaching 65mm – the highest 24-hour total since November 2017. Rain and easing wind conditions have allowed crews to get the upper hand on several bushfires burning across New South Wales. A fire threatening a com...

Queen Elizabeth II Is Not Dead, But A Viral Death Hoax Had Social Media Saying #RIPQueenElizabeth The Queen of England has been a frequent target for viral fake reports. Queen Elizabeth II is not dead, despite what you may have read on social media. This weekend, a viral death hoax took hold on social media, claiming that the British monarch had passed away. As Hollywood Life noted, the hoax was boosted by a fake cover of a CNN article and by people sharing a #RIPQueenElizabeth hashtag on Twitter. As the report noted, the trend appeared to come from a viral prediction from a Reddit user that the Queen would pass away on January 5. Many users took to sharing the hashtag as a joke, but some people thought it was real. “Queen Elizabeth was a great queen of England, through good times and bad, and with her passing comes a time of mourning for the whole world. #ripqueenelizabeth,” one person wrote. This is far from the first time that Queen Elizabeth has been the target of a viral d...

Huawei Mate 20 Pro may come in two new colour options; Here are the details Originally launched in October 2018, Huawei Mate 20 Pro is currently offered in five colours of Emerald Green, Midnight Blue, Pink Gold, Twilight and Black. The new colours will take this number to seven, but this is ye tot clarified if these new colours would be for limited editions or would be permanent additions. Chinese technology firm Huawei is rumoured to be launching two new colour variants for Mate 20 Pro smartphone. According to leaks found on a Chinese social networking website, Huawei may bring New Year Red and Comet Blue colours soon, but it is not clear when it would be available to customers. The company is yet to officially confirm the launch date of the new colour variants. Originally launched in October 2018, Huawei Mate 20 Pro is currently offered in five colours of Emerald Green, Midnight Blue, Pink Gold, Twilight and Black. The new colours will take this number to seven, but this i...