You're - still - a toy! (Out this week - 23/07/2010)

Pixar do it again, the annual tradition of opening a movie to critical acclaim and box-office domination continues for another year. You have to wonder what they put on their cornflakes. It's quite a good week for counter-programming too with three other films that could have sneaked a film of the week mention if it wasn't so competitive. Nevertheless the crown inevitably goes to Toy Story 3.



Baaria

Golden Globe nominated Italian film following generations of a Sicilian family through births, marriages and deaths, through the rise and fall of Fascism the mob and the communist party, and all via the eyes of a Shepherd's Son.

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City Island

Andy Garcia wants to be an actor - it's a little late for that I hear you say - but no jokes his character wants to leave the nine to five and tread the boards in this New York serio-comedy. Also starring Julianna Margulies as his suspicious wife and Alan Arkin as his acting coach.

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Ivul

Bizarre looking French fable about a boy who exiles himself following a brush with incest. Avant-garde touches make this inaccessible to most of the cinema-going crowd.

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Jaspar, Penguin Explorer

Pleasant untesting animation aimed at the very young. Originally in German the trailer makes Pingu look like Bertrand Russell. See it if you dare.

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Khatta Meetha

Bollywood expose uncovering the corruption and brutality in the road building industry (no, really). The ubiquitous Akshay Kumar stars.

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Rebound

Catherine Zeta-Jones happily pigeonholes herself as a cougar (no doubt proving her acting worth) by going for a much younger man in Nanny Justin Bartha. They make a cute couple in the trailer.

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Splice

Vincenzo Natali latest sci-fi offering melds creature feature prosphetics with modern ethical dilemmas as married biologists Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley make a 'baby'.

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Thillalangadi

The trailer has it all, comic sidekicks, easy to copy dance routines and kick-ass car chases. Nothing that could pass for a plot though.

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Toy Story 3

The Toy Story movies are now receiving accolades as the best film trilogy of all time now that the third feature has kept the ball in the air. Expect Tom Hanks and Tim Allen as Woody and Buzz to remain centre stage but with hilarious new characters voiced by Michael Keaton, Ned Beatty and Timothy Dalton to stealing some scenes. Female toys include Joan Cusack and Whoopi Goldberg.

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