Meet The Team

Richard Lowe - Technical Editor & Reviewer

Since dancing in the aisle aged four to a rerun of Mary Poppins, I have been in love with the movies and spend possibly an unhealthy amount of time at the cinema or watching DVD's. Before you get the impression that I am a sun-starved square eyed hermit, allow me to defend myself. When not watching movies or working at my formless city job like a Dilbert, I like to travel the world, exploring new cultures, trying new foods and meeting new people.

As well as all of the above I like to read quite a bit and like to listen to wide a range of music. I play squash and badminton and am a member of my local rowing club. I have been described as moderately eccentric which I take as a compliment. Sanity after all is the playground of the unimaginative or unadventurous.

When it comes to the movies I generally like most types of films with the possible exception of sickly sweet romance stories or tales of domestic strife and violence. If pressed to name five of my favourite films they would have to be, in no particular order, Blade Runner, The Godfather, The Blues Brothers, LOTR and Where Eagles Dare.

Melanie Dayasena - Editor and Reviewer

As a successful journalist Mel spends her days writing for a prestigious shipping press magazine, travelling the world and interviewing industry leaders. Outside of work she enjoys music, shopping and dancing. A real pop queen, Mel loves to shop, sing karaoke and dance the night away with her friends.

She is a huge fan of Justin Trouser-snake, travelling, visiting orangutans and drinking strawberry smoothies.

As a professional journalist, Mel is not merely a reviewer but is the editor of Share My Popcorn. Mel likes to watch romantic comedies, action and adventure, comedy and in some instances science fiction movies.

Luke Brennand - Reviewer

Luke is a recent graduate from Queen Mary, University of London where he studied English and History. Later he studied at Harlow and attained pre-entry Newspaper journalism exams.

After laying low in a job at Woolworths for six and a half years Luke has finally quit to find himself a real job and tackle the world of journalism.

Luke is tall, thin and ginger he enjoys swimming, playing badminton and earning a living from pub quiz prizes. He plans to get a job soon, “really!” and lists his favourite films as Aliens, The Empire Strikes Back and LA Confidential.

As well as the above, Luke is also interested in reading, history, reading about history and architecture.

Tom Seaman - Reviewer

Tom is a recent addition to the team hailing from the wonderful seaside town of Bognor Regis. He works for a fishing magazine that gives him frequent trips around the world looking at carp and snapper.

When not navigating the frantic world of fishing Tom is a keen cricketer and when not playing cricket himself he enjoys watching it on the box and munching some strawberries, or anything that he can actually, you see Tom is also a bit of a Gastronome.

Currently off somewhere so I can't ask him for his favourite movies straight away but considering he has just give 'Daywatch' and 'The Counterfeiters' five stars each, I think they'll do for a start.

Abigail Murphy - Reviewer

Abi is a recent addition to the share my popcorn team and will pretty much go and see anything! The more random the better - they make far easier reviews to write... She particularly loves off the wall ones and films that aren't what you expect.

Favourite films? Shawshank Redemption, Pan's Labyrinth, Usual Suspects, All About my Mother, films that make you laugh and cry in the same minute, real people, real stories mixed in with fantastical mind bending stuff and hilarity, oooh and a bit of action and romance thrown in too. So you see, that covers pretty much everything.

Her day job is working for an interactive agency producing flash games for learning and training purposes and her previous life was working in a myriad of jobs at the BBC. Media is definitely her passion.

Lalith Vipulananthan - Reviewer

It is difficult to describe Lal as he defies classification, in itself an admirable quality. Lal is employed as a computer programmer and spends his spare time leaping from hobby to hobby at a furious pace. Lal is a very busy person and tracking his movements is sometimes harder than trying to hunt the Predator in the jungles of South America. Curiously in common with the Predator, Lal has wild hair but that is hardly relevant here.

In his spare time, Lal enjoys badminton, learning to speak Japanese, going to metal gigs and socialising with his numerous circles of friends. Everyone has a specialist subject and in Lal's case it must be Japan and the Japanese culture. Bearing this in mind it is not surprising who reviewed "Lost in Translation" and "Zatoichi".

Lal is one of our guest reviewers and will be writing reviews for some of the more obscure movies that are worthy of popcorn attention.

• Strong Language
  
  Please do not use excessive swearing in a your reviews. You can use swear words but we would ask that if you do, please state at the beginning of the review 'STRONG LANGUAGE'. We can then incorporate that info into our database so that parental controls stop the kiddies from reading rude words (pathetic I know but we need to start off with a good rep).
• Spoilers
  
  Please refrain from divulging too much of the story or indeed any important twists or developments that may ruin a reader's enjoyment of the film.
• Hate
  
  Some films are awful, truly dire and devoid of originality or merit. It is all too easy to cut into these films with scathing comments about bad dialogue or poor effects. We would kindly ask that you do not utterly rip the film to pieces. We are not saying you must only say nice things about the films you review, just be mindful of how fay you criticise a movie.

Ratings

As you may have seen, we rate the movies reviewed out of a possible five stars dependant on the reviewer's enjoyment of the film. Ideally the rating is based on how well the reviewer feels the movie entertains its target audience.





A total failure, devoid of any merit, and worthy of being burnt as a sacrifice to the gods as forgiveness for even watching it, for example (The Mexican)





Below expectation but with some small amount of merit. Typically a film not worth watching twice, that you wouldn't really recommend to your friends and that you hope will be blotted from your memory with a few good drinks, for example (The Sin Eater)





A film that is as good as expected but no better than that. A film where you are happily entertained but the film did not invoke any real lasting effect on you and is easily forgotten, for example (Mission Impossible 2)





A film that was better than expected and you would recommend to your friends. This is a good film and worth going to the cinema to see. A movie that is very entertaining and hits the spot! for example (Spider-Man 2)





A very good film that far exceeds your expectations and is worthy of merit. Something you would think about for days after while twisting a friends arm to get them to watch it, for example (Shrek)





A film that makes cinema history and is so good that it burns itself into you head and heart and you become a devout fan ready to attack any heretic who makes even a neutral remark let alone a negative one, for example (The Godfather)