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Netflix to Sink "Titanic" and Dozens of Other Movies on January 1

In just a few days, Netflix will reportedly purge around 90 movies and TV shows from its streaming library. Without a time machine, it would be impossible to watch all of them between now and then, though there are some notable flicks worth queuing up while you still have the chance. James Cameron’s 1997 movie “Titanic” is one them.

“Titanic” is the second-highest grossing film of all time behind “Avatar,” and fourth-highest if adjusted for inflation (“Gone with the Wind” takes top honors in the latter category). It grossed over $2.18 billion at the box office and claimed the top spot in ticket sales for 12 years until “Avatar” overtook pole position with $2.78 billion.

Mr. Bean
If you haven’t experience the comedy of Mr. Bean, do yourself a favor and catch it on Netflix while you still can.

Only a handful of TV shows are set to expire on January 1, 2014, including “Dark Shadows,” (original from late 1960s), “Saturday Night Live The 2000s,” “Mr. Bean,” “The Kids in the Hall,” and “Perfect 10 Model Boxing” (Volume 1).

The list of movies is much more extensive and includes cult classics like “Killer Klowns From Outer Space” and “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.” It’s a mix of older and newer films, everything from “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and the original “True Grit” from 1969, to “As Good as It Gets” and “50 First Dates.”

Check out the full list at Reddit and start filling up your queue.

Swedish man sentenced to pay more than $650000 for sharing movie online

A 28-year-old man convicted of sharing hundreds of movies online has to pay 4.3 million Swedish kronor (US$658,000) in civil damages for sharing one of them, the Västmanlands District Court ruled Tuesday.

The sum must be paid to Nordisk Film, a developer, producer and distributor of films, for “Beck, Levande begravd,” (“Beck, Buried Alive”), a movie in a series about a Swedish police detective, said senior public prosecutor Henrik Rasmusson Wednesday. As is customary in Sweden, the defendant’s name was withheld from the public.

The man shared the movie via the defunct file-sharing community Swebits, a platform that was not unlike the Pirate Bay, said Rasmusson. In contrast with the Pirate Bay though, Swebits was a closed community with approximately 40,000 members that was used to share mainly Swedish content, he said.

In total, Nordisk Film sought more than 7 million Swedish kronor in damages. The company asked for 5.5 million kronor because that was the amount the defendant would have had to pay if he wanted a license to distribute the movie in the way he did, Rasmusson said. The court found that demand too high and the amount was split in half, he added.

An extra 1.55 million kronor was awarded for other damages such as lost profits, market disruption and damages to the reputation of Nordisk Film, Rasmusson said.

The man was also convicted of sharing a total of 517 movies, including “Beck, Levande begravd,” on Swebits in the criminal portion of the case, Rasmusson said. For those offenses the court sentenced him to 160 hours of community service with probation, he added.

Movie industry insiders decided to pursue civil damages for only one of the movies involved in the criminal case for several reasons, noted Henrik Pontén of the Rights Alliance, which represents media in infringement cases. It is very expensive to prove exact damages in court, and meanwhile, the damages for the one movie were high enough to send a message, he noted.

Meanwhile, when deciding a sentence for crimes like this a very important factor is whether the defendant gained personally from his actions, Rasmusson said.

When the four men behind the Pirate Bay were found guilty in 2009 in a similar case for example, the court ordered them to pay around 30 million Swedish kronor (US$3.6 million at the time) in damages for several rights infringements. The defendants were each initially sentenced to one year in prison.

In the Pirate Bay case however, the defendants had a commercial interest in file sharing, while in the Swebits case, the man who committed the crime did so without personal gain even though he was involved in administrating the site, Rasmussen noted. The man did it just to be “someone in the community,” Rasmusson added.

The case can be appealed within three weeks. The defendant’s lawyer, Max Ahlström, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Nordisk Film. Rasmusson said he will not appeal because he is satisfied with the sentence.

Loek is Amsterdam Correspondent and covers online privacy, intellectual property, open-source and online payment issues for the IDG News Service. Follow him on Twitter at @loekessers or email tips and comments to loek_essers@idg.com

Box Office (Specialty): ‘Her’ Scores Weekend’s Top Theater Average

Spike Jonze’s critically acclaimed Her — starring Joaquin Phoenix in an attention-grabbing performance — opened to pleasing numbers at the domestic box office, scoring the best theater average of the weekend as it rolled out in six theaters.

Her: Film ReviewThe Past: Cannes ReviewInside Llewyn Davis: Cannes ReviewPersonal Tailor (Shi Ren Ding Zhi): Film ReviewDhoom 3: Film Review

Debuting on Wednesday, the awards contender posted a five-day debut of $361,473 for a screen average of $60,246. For the three-day weekend, the film took in $257,815 for a location average of $42,969.

Warner Bros. is opting for a slow rollout over the year-end holidays in order to build buzz before launching Her nationwide in January. The film stars Phoenix as a heartbroken writer who commences a relationship with the voice (Scarlett Johansson) on his computer operating system. Amy Adams and Rooney Mara also star.

Among other new offerings, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s The Past did solid business in its U.S. debut despite being eliminated last week as a contender for the Oscar for best foreign-language film (The Past was Iran’s official entry). It is nominated for a Golden Globe for best foreign film.

BOX OFFICE: ‘Hobbit 2’ Beats ‘Anchorman 2’ With $31.5 Million, Crosses $400 Million Globally

Released domestically by Sony Pictures Classics, The Past grossed $30,942 from three theaters for a location average of $10,314. Last year, Farhadi’s A Separation became the first Iranian film to take home the Oscar for best foreign-language film. A Separation opened higher than The Past did in late December 2012, grossing $59,481 from three theaters for a location average of $19,827.

Among holdovers, Inside Llewyn Davis, from Joel and Ethan Coen, crossed the $2 million mark as it upped its theater count to 148 locations in its third weekend. The pic, from CBS Films, grossed $1.1 million to come in No. 12. It has now earned $2.1 million domestically.

Stephen Frears‘ Philomena came in just ahead of Llewyn Davis, grossing $1.2 million from 738 locations for a domestic cume of $13.3 million.

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom approached $300,000 in U.S. ticket sales, grossing $28,472 from four theaters for a location average of $7,118 and domestic total of $292,234. The film expands nationwide Christmas Day.

Elsewhere, Bollywood title Dhoom 3 and Chinese film Personal Trainer made headlines in their limited U.S. release.

Dhoom 3 took in $3.3 million from 236 theaters, becoming the biggest U.S. opening of all time for a Bollywood film and benefiting from a strong Imax run. The movie, which is opening day-and-date in India and 12 other countries, came in No. 9 and posted a screen average of $14,004, the second best of the weekend after Her.

Personal Tailor, from popular Chinese director Feng Xiaogang, likewise scored one of the strongest averages of the weekend in the U.S., opening to $104,000 from nine theaters for a location average of $11,556 (China Lion Group is distributing the film domestically).

Its U.S. launch coincided with a record-breaking opening in China, where Personal Tailor took in $15 million (152 million yuan) in its first two days. This makes it the fastest 2D movie to reach 100 million yuan, breaking the record set by Journey to the West last year.

Penned by novelist and longtime Feng collaborator Wang Shuo, Personal Tailor is a return to comedy for Feng, the genre in which he earned his popularity with movies like Big Shot’s Funeral and Cellphone.

Hollywood comes to the North as Batman star Tom Hardy and fiancee Charlotte …

Hollywood comes to the North as Batman star Tom Hardy and fiancee Charlotte Riley visit Butterwick Hospice in Stockton

Exclusive By Graeme Hetherington

Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley meet Bethany Weatherill, 11, and Play Nurse Sam Clarkson Pics: Sarah Caldecott

IT’S not every day that the North-East is touched by Hollywood stardom.

So when two A-list movie stars dropped in on a local hospice it certainly made for a Christmas to remember.

Film star Tom Hardy and his fiancee, the actress Charlotte Riley, spent more than an hour meeting and chatting with patients and staff when they called in at the Butterwick House Children’s Hospice in Stockton, Teesside to hand over a cheque for £24,000.

The London-born star of Batman – The Dark Knight Rises and science fiction thriller Inception, 36, raised the money when he took part in an expedition in Siberia with Miss Riley’s uncle, Peter Riley, who has been involved with the Hospice from the outset.

The couple, who met on the set of Wuthering Heights, enjoyed a tour of the hospice and met with 11-year-old patient Bethany Weatherill while in the region for a family Christmas.

Miss Riley, 31, who was born in Grindon, near Stockton and stars with Tom Cruise in the upcoming movie Edge of Tomorrow, said: “It must be really difficult for the families of the people and children who stay at the Hospice as they are all seriously ill, but they must take some consolation from the fact the all the staff are always really happy, friendly and devoted.

“People often take hospices for granted so it was the least that we could do to come visit the centre and see for ourselves what it offers for its patients.”

The glamorous couple were more than happy to spend time chatting and having their photographs taken and were both impressed with the commitment and devotion of the staff.

Mr Hardy said: “I had no idea what facilities were available at the Hospice so it was fantastic to come and visit. The work they do is amazing and we just wanted to come and give a little back to them all.

“I did the expedition in Siberia with Charlotte’s uncle, Peter, and it is inspiring to see the work the staff do all year round. I think anything that can raise awareness of hospices around the country is really worthwhile as they help and support families when they need it the most and that is invaluable to them.”

During the visit, they were shown the sensory room, pool facilities and care rooms.

Miss Riley said: “The sensory room was amazing, it seemed so relaxing and you could see what joy people would get out of it.”

Hospice chief executive Graham Leggatt-Chidgey was delighted that the couple took time out of their festive holiday to visit.

He said: “It was really good of them to visit and to see what we do here. The way they spent so much time with the staff and children was fantastic – they brought a smile to everybody’s face.

“What a lovely couple they are and we were delighted they enjoyed the tour around the hospice.”

For more details on Butterwick Hospice and the work it does visit www.butterwick.org.uk or follow on Twitter @Butterwickhos

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47 Ronin: Film Review

The eagerness of the major studios to cozy up to Asian markets yields awkward results in 47 Ronin, a lumpy 3D epic from Universal that fuses Japanese historical legend with generic CGI-heavy action fantasy. While the reported $175 million budget is evident in the handsome production values of Carl Rinsch‘s ambitious first feature, it falls short on character definition, emotional involvement, narrative drive and originality, with a protagonist played by Keanu Reeves who often gets bumped to the sidelines. Following its soft start in Japan, the English-language film may prove too Hollywood for Eastern audiences and too Asian to crack the American commercial mainstream.

Box Office: ’47 Ronin’ Sees Disappointing Start in JapanThe Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: Film ReviewAmerican Hustle: Film ReviewSaving Mr. Banks: London ReviewThe Wolf of Wall Street: Film ReviewThe Secret Life of Walter Mitty: New York Film Festival ReviewAnchorman 2: The Legend Continues: Film ReviewAugust: Osage County: Toronto ReviewHer: Film Review

As we hear in reams of opening voiceover, the saga of the 47 ronin dates back to early 18th century feudal Japan. The disenfranchised samurai avenged the disgrace and death of their master, Lord Asano, by killing Kira, the villain responsible for his dishonor, in direct defiance of the ruling Shogun’s orders to refrain from retaliation. Their quest of loyalty and sacrifice would cost them their lives, either in battle or in enforced ritual suicide as punishment for their transgression. Numerous accounts of the tragedy, many of them elaborately fictionalized, have been produced for theater, opera, film and television over the years, including screen versions by Kenji Mizoguchi and Kon Ichikawa.

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Arguably the biggest problem with this retelling is the conflicted impulses of the hybrid screenplay by Chris Morgan (a regular on the Fast Furious franchise) and Hossein Amini (whose recent work has included Drive and Snow White and the Huntsman). It strives to be respectful of source material deeply embedded in Japanese popular culture, while at the same time juicing up the story for Western audiences raised on action Blockbusters, videogames and broad-strokes melodrama.

Given the inscrutable nature of the samurai code, the key concession to international sensibilities is the introduction of a fictional outsider to find redemption on a hero’s journey in which he leads the stoical warriors to victory. That would be Kai (Reeves), scorned as a “half-breed” (just like the Cher song), believed to have been raised in the forest by demons. Rescued by Lord Asano (Min Tanaka) as a boy, Kai grows up deeply devoted to the feudal leader, sharing a secret love with Asano’s beautiful daughter Mika (Ko Shibasaki).

Kai’s most excellent swordsmanship is demonstrated in a frenetic hunt scene that seems lifted out of The Croods, during which he saves a resentful samurai by slaying a blurry CGI creature with six eyes and lethal antlers.

Meanwhile, treacherous Lord Kira (Tadanobu Asano), of the neighboring province, and his shape-shifting sorceress advisor (Rinko Kikuchi) plot his rise to power and Lord Asano’s downfall. Kai’s warnings of witchcraft go unheeded, leaving the samurais robbed of their leader and exiled, Asano’s top-ranking deputy Oishi (Hiroyuki Sanada) imprisoned in a pit to break his spirit, and the heartbroken Mika promised in marriage to Kira. But when Oishi is released, he tracks down half-mad Kai, sold into slavery in a Dutch island freak show where he’s forced to fight monsters for spectator sport. Regrouping the ronin, they plan their attack on Kira.

Oh, and to stock up on weaponry, Kai takes them to the trippy Tengu forest, where Lord Voldemort, or actually some kind of creepy supernatural bird-man monk with no ears or nose (Togo Igawa), tests their will before handing over the blades.

Reeves plays Kai’s chronic low self-esteem, his troubled soul and his burning hunger for justice with the same permanently furrowed brow. That fits with Rinsch and the screenwriters’ prevailing solemnity and inexpressive approach to character. But while much is made of the star-crossed lover angle between Kai and gentle, personality-deprived Mika, as well as his gradual earning of the acceptance and respect of the ronin, Kai seems grafted onto the story.

STORY: ’47 Ronin’ Sees Disappointing Start in Japan

Oishi is by far the more compelling character as well as the legend’s legitimate protagonist, and Sanada gives the film’s most nuanced performance. (Speaking of bastardized Japanese archetypes, Sanada is one of two actors on board who played Emily’s samurai mentor on ABC’s archly ludicrous Revenge, along with Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who turns up here as the Shogun.) With the exception of the fat comic relief (Takato Yonemoto) and Oishi’s son (Jin Akanishi), a pretty boy-band refugee with sculpted eyebrows, the other warriors are interchangeable, giving the audience little to invest in as the stakes get raised. Not that the wooden dialogue allows them much of a chance.

On the sinister side, Asano (Thor) makes a one-note smug antagonist, while Kikuchi (best known for her Oscar-nominated turn in Babel) vamps tirelessly to diminishing effect as Kira’s vicious Lady Macbeth-like Witch. She transforms herself into a white fox or a serpentine dragon, hatches poisonous spiders, hurls fireballs and works her magic hair tendrils like Medusa by way of a Tsui Hark movie. While the CGI is uneven in terms of the creature effects and wide cityscape shots, the Witch’s shifts from shadow to smoke to sinuous floating fabric, and then back to human form, are gorgeously rendered.

The fascination with cyborgs that Rinsch showed in his high-concept futuristic commercials and his robot espionage short The Gift is evident in Kira’s armor-clad fighter giant — one of many elements that make this a mishmash of too many disharmonious influences. The director at one point was rumored to be in line for Prometheus until Ridley Scott signed on, but his long-awaited feature debut is very much a mixed bag. Some of the action sequences demonstrate bold assurance, notably the climactic clash when the ronin infiltrate Kira’s fortress. But while the buildup to that battle gathers steam, too much of the poorly paced movie either bogs down in exposition or marks time, and Rinsch displays scant interest in working with the actors to develop their characters.

A lack of faith in the material is suggested by the relentless use of Ilan Eshkeris tumescent symphonic score. Cinematographer John Mathieson does a classy job, however, bringing majesty, composure and impressive depth of field to the visuals, shot on Hungarian locations and at Shepperton Studios in England. Production designer Jan Roelfs and costumer Penny Rose clearly had lots of cash to play with, and the result is sumptuous if at times borderline suffocating, overloading on color. The use of 3D is mostly quite restrained, but perhaps inevitably seems a superfluous flourish when slapped onto a noble tale of loyalty, honor and the ancient ways of bushido.

Opens: Wednesday, Dec. 25 (Universal)

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Rinko Kikuchi, Ko Shibasaki, Min Tanaka, Jin Akanishi, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Neil Fingleton, Togo Igawa, Rick Genest, Masayoshi Haneda, Hiroshi Sogabe, Takato Yonemoto, Hiroshi Yamada, Shu Nakajima, Masayuki Deai, Yorick van Wageningen, Gedde Watanabe, Natsuki Kunimoto

Production companies: Universal Pictures, Relativity Media, Bluegrass Films

Director: Carl Rinsch

Screenwriters: Chris Morgan, Hossein Amini; screen story by Chris Morgan, Walter Hamada

Producers: Pamela Abdy, Eric McLeod

Executive producers: Scott Stuber, Chris Fenton, Walter Hamada

Director of photography: John Mathieson

Production designer: Jan Roelfs

Music: Ilan Eshkeri

Costume designer: Penny Rose

Editor: Stuart Baird

Special effects supervisor: Paul Corbould

Visual effects supervisor: Christian Manz

PG-13 rating, 119 minutes.

Club’s film nights set to roll in New Year

Club’s film nights set to roll in New Year in Durham

By Bruce Unwin, Chief Reporter (Durham)

Club’s film nights set to roll in New Year

THE New Year programme of rarely screened films for movie buffs begins with a modern tale of a long-formed string quartet’s dilemma at the ill-health of one of its mainstays.

A Late Quartet, set in New York, is the first fortnightly screening of Durham’s Clayport Film Club, in 2013, on Thursday, January 9.

Curtain up is 7.30pm at Clayport Library, in Millennium Square, Durham.

Annual membership is £5, with a £4, or £3 for concessions, charge per film thereafter.

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IT’S THE WEEKEND: The best Christmas films

IT’S THE WEEKEND: The best Christmas films

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CHRISTMAS is the perfect time to curl up with the family and a great seasonal movie. CARYS THOMAS takes a look at some of the best festive films.

HOME Alone has been named as the UK’s favourite Christmas film in a survey of the top 10 Christmas films.

The 1990 film, starring Macuaray Mukulin as an 8-year-old boy who is accidentally left at home for the holidays, received 12.89 per cent of the vote to be named best Christmas film. The survey was conducted by Viewsbank, the consumer survey arm of Consumer Intelligence, which asked 2,395 adults to vote for their favourite Christmas films.

David Black, of Viewsbank ,said: “Everyone loves sitting down with family and friends for some festive film watching at this time of year but it’s interesting to see what is making it onto people’s list of favourites. There are many classics on the list, stretching as far back as the 1930s, but the top 10 is just as well populated by relatively modern movies and a lot of the old classics may be virtually unknown to younger sections of society.”

In second place was Elf with 11.47 per cent, which stars Will Ferrell as a human raised in the North Pole who travels to New York to find his father.

James Plumb, director and proprietor of Mad Science Films Ltd, said: “The list from Viewsbank is great and certainly has some classics with Elf, a favourite with my four-year-old girl, and I can’t wait to introduce her to some of the others on the list, especially Home Alone.

“I’m a big fan of the Christmas-themed movies in general having directed a seasonal slasher myself, Silent Night, Bloody Night: The Homecoming. A personal favourite has got to be Scrooged with Bill Murray in the 80s facelift of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Murray’s rarely been better and placing the action in the middle of a TV studio shooting a Christmas special allows the film to comment on commercialism surrounding the holidays.

“Harder to get hold of is South Wales actor/writer Martyn Stallard’s A Christmas Carol. It’s a great low budget, 21st Century updating of the tale.”

Classics such as It’s A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street and Scrooge complete the top five. Three different versions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol made to it to the top 10 with the 1938 version, starring Reginald Owen, ranking at number eight.

The 1951 Scrooge version came in fifth place with the Muppets’ version from 1992 starring Michael Caine as the 10th most popular Christmas film.

Peter Watkins-Hughes, director and spokesperson for Brynmawr Market Hall Cinema, said: “Die Hard would be my ultimate Christmas film. What more could you want for Christmas than Bruce Willis in a Santa hat and Run DMC’s Christmas in Hollis as the soundtrack? It is probably one of the best Christmas records to get you into the festive spirit.

“Not only is it a fabulous movie full of guns and helicopters but has Alan Rickman with an incredibly dodgy German accent. It will definitely be showing this Christmas in the Watkins-Hughes household – we might even have a Die Hard marathon.”

The Snowman was named by five per cent of respondents as their favourite Christmas film, making it the most popular festive animation.

Mr Watkins-Hughes said: “I can’t believe they have Snowman on the list I would pay for that film to be withdrawn from circulation. I’m glad Elf is there – I think it is an incredibly underrated film.

“White Christmas I think it is a bit too long now and has lost a bit of its magic. Some Christmas films have a tendency to be a bit like a cheesy TV movie.”

The BAFTA Cymru award winner believes the new Disney hit Frozen will be a Christmas film for children to revisit.

He said: “I think Christmas films which are about the season and don’t necessarily have Santa work better. Like Home Alone – it’s a slapstick comedy, the children love that.

“We go to the cinema at Christmas to retreat and have fun.”

Films missing out on a top 10 place include Love Actually, The Grinch, Polar Express and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

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Survey names It’s A Wonderful Life as top Christmas film – what’s yours?

Survey names It’s A Wonderful Life as top Christmas film – what’s yours?

James Stewart stars in Christmas classic It’s A Wonderful Life

OLD favourite It’s A Wonderful Life has been voted the best Christmas film of all time.

The 1946 movie, starring James Stewart as suicidal George Bailey, beat the likes of Home Alone and The Muppet Christmas Carol in the poll.

It pushed Richard Curtis’s romantic comedy Love Actually, starring Colin Firth, Martine McCutcheon and Hugh Grant, into second place, followed by Will Ferrell movie Elf.

Family favourites The Muppet Christmas Carol and Home Alone took fourth and fifth place in the poll, carried out on RadioTimes.com Miracle On 34th Street and traditional Christmas films The Snowman and Scrooge also finished in the top 10.

Writing in the Radio Times, film critic Barry Norman said of It’s A Wonderful Life: “Frank Capra’s wonderful, life-enhancing film should be shown every Christmas preferably after the Queen’s Speech.

“Yes, it verges on the sentimental but never too much so. Far more it’s simply heart-warming – the grandaddy of all feel-good movies.”

What do you think is the best Christmas film ever? Vote now or if your favourite isn’t listed, tell us what it is below:

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Why You’re Better Off Exchanging a Faulty Xbox One Console In-Store

An example of a buzz kill is waking up on Christmas morning to find an Xbox One sitting under the tree, only to later discover that it doesn’t work because of a disc drive malfunction. Gamers first started complaining about the issue in November, with several YouTube videos showing the disc drive making a grinding noise when popping in a game or movie. Now that more consoles have been opened up, the issue is again making headlines, and Microsoft’s response is the same.

“The issue is affecting a very small number of Xbox One customers. We’re working directly with those affected to get a replacement console to them as soon as possible through our advance exchange program. Rest assured, we are taking care of our customers,” Microsoft told News for Shoppers.

Xbox One

That might be the case, but not every gamer is satisfied with the outcome. Microsoft’s warranty terms allow for the company to replace a defective console with a used or refurbished unit. One user says the replacement he received had a noticeable scratch running along the front of the console.

When contacting customer support, he was told the shipping carrier was to blame. The customer argued that the shipping box was intact so the scratch couldn’t have come from shipping damage, to which the support rep’s supervisor informed him that Microsoft doesn’t replace consoles for “cosmetic reasons.”

We did a little digging and found other reports of Xbox One consoles coming with scratches straight out of the box. Microsoft has been telling sites that it plans to take care of its customers, so this could very well be an isolated incident by a group of support staff who didn’t know any better. However, if your Xbox One is faulty, we suggest heading over to wherever it was purchased from and seeing if it’s an option to exchange it in-store to ensure you’re still getting a brand new model.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang revs up for 2014

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang revs up for 2014 at Brooklands Museum, Weybridge

By Christina Michaels

We love: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

A car which starred in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang will be one of the vehicles showcased at the classic vehicle event on News Year’s Day.

Brooklands Museum, in Weybridge will host this event, which is set to be the biggest classic vehicle event in the country on January 1.

Doors will open at 9am to welcome spectators eager to see what treasures have turned up.

Museum director Allan Winn said: “One of the best things about the gathering is the breadth and range of vehicles that join us. You can see Austins and Fords alongside Bentleys, Rolls-Royces and Ferraris, Routemaster buses, classic Minis and Porsches.”

The museum hopes for an even greater turn out then last year, with nearly 5,000 visitors flooding in to look at more than 1,100 classic vehicles.

The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on display at the museum is seen in the opening sequence of the movie and has been rebuilt, clearly identifying it as the Disney classic.

All those arriving in pre-1973 vehicles should enter the museum site via the Campbell Gate off Brooklands Road. Parking for spectators’ cars will be in the Heights off Wellington Way.

The museum’s other displays will be open as usual.

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