Argo goes platinum, and Zero Dark Thirty follows closely behind.

“Terminate with extreme prejudice”

Thank God – we can never understand what’s going on in the Middle East until she explains it.

Things are just getting worse and worse for the team behind The Hurt Locker. The Oscar front-runner is being bashed from all sides, with a war veteran today announcing that he plans to sue the team for using his life-story in their film. This comes just one day after one of their producers was banned from the Oscar ceremony for trying to sway Academy votes. Oh dear oh dear.

The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow’s thrilling and hard-hitting war drama, is a master class in sustained tension as a three-strong bomb disposal squad attached to the US Army risks life and severed limb to defuse roadside IEDs. Starring Ralph Fiennes and Anthony Mackie, it’s one of the sharpest and most intelligent films concerning the War in Iraq, but it’s in no way easy viewing.