Showing posts with label Ethan Hawke. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ethan Hawke. Show all posts

Saturday, 1 September 2012

You won't believe your ears (Out this week - 31/08/12)

I'm making it official. This is the worst weekend of the year so far, filled with dull unimaginative studio fodder and below average foreign language imports. If it wasn't for British independent cinema I'd probably write a stern letter of complaint. Perhaps even more bizarrely I'm plumping for an inverse horror movie as the top pick, anyone taking up my recommendation will have the opportunity to watch Toby Jones watch a grisly Giallo movie whilst cutting up vegetables, sounds odd but the trailer is deliciously suspenseful. The runs like a gay film of the week is Berberian Sound Studio.



Last week I massively overestimated the popularity of TV celebrity character Keith Lemmon and failed to take into account the largely absent reviews and bus-side advertising. It didn't flop like a fat man on a diving board achieving the highest gross for a newly released movie, but it did struggle to make much of an impact on the top ten, with Pixar's Brave still at the top of the charts. This weekend I suspect Total Recall will just about manage to scrape it's way to the top, but I won't be surprised if The Watch pips it to the post.

Berberian Sound Studio

Toby Jones, whose probably the most underutilised Great British actor working today, gets a moment in the sunshine (or is that moonlight) in this spooky British thriller about a stuffy foley artist creating the sound effects and ADR work on an Italian splatter fest. You don't see the film, but you do see the affect it has on poor Toby's sanity and the odd watermelon.

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Read on for forgotten moments, a classic genre mash-up and two Alien comedies as well as all the trailers for this weeks releases.




It's certainly cut like a horror movie, well worth the journey to see it.

Cockneys vs Zombies



Clearly the most bonkers film of the week is this Brit horror comedy about a group of East End caricatures and the residents of a Nursing home taking on the undead. I laughed at Richard Briers outrunning a zombie on a zimmerframe so there's certainly potential here.

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Joker



So if you watch just one inter-galactic comedy this weekend it should probably be this Hindi movie starring superstar Akshay Kumar. Set in the fictional republic of Paglapur, a village on the border of India and Pakistan that no-one wanted during the partition, facing tough economic times they invent the story of a full-scale Alien invasion to boost tourism. Only maybe it's not as fictional as they originally thought.

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Myth of the American Sleepover



David Robert Mitchell's slowburn youth picture has a good pedigree from the festival circuit, and indeed the wistful remembrance of the summers of our youth looks interesting and will no doubt stir up all of our repressed or half-imagined tales of our late teens, however will need to be more than that to really find an audience.

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[Rec]3 Genesis



I thought this parallel story to the first 2 Rec movies had already come out, but it turns out it was just previewing back in May. Anyway the zombies (?) have invaded a wedding reception and the found footage meme gets lost halfway through. Probably not as groundbreaking as the first of these Spanish creature features it'll still have a few fans.

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Total Recall



It's interesting how Philip K. Dick's "We can Remember it for your Wholesale" has, on both adapatations, perfectly encapsulated the action cinema world around it, so the 1990 Shwarzenegger version was bright, bloody and subversive, but now with Colin Farell is visually stunning, violent without consequences and scripted by committee. Still it gets a point for not casting Ethan Hawke.

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The Watch



It's earned a reputation as being one of the unluckiest movies of the year, with unfortunate connections to global news events, however that doesn't make the movie good and judging by the trailer and the appalling US take this just isn't good enough. I have a message for Richard Ayolade and Jonah Hill - you're better than this rubbish find a decent project to work with. Thank you.

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Yuma



Polish true life crime thriller where the titular youth rises from a petty criminal, shoplifting trainees, to the most feared and powerful bank robbers in the Eastern bloc. Expect early 90's bling aplenty, and the occasional throwback song choice.

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Few Best Men



If you thought The Hangover was a little too reserved then this UK/Aussie collaboration starring a few British TV stars and Olivia Newton-John, and featuring a plethora of jokes about sex, drugs and stag do shenanigans might be for you. Probably not for the rest of us.

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Mr. Marumakan



Two of this weeks releases, both minor output from the subcontinent, are so low key they don't even have IMDb pages. This Malayalam entry is the first, a seriocomic fantasy about business corruption and nepotism. Not playing in many cinemas.

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Mugamoodi



The Tamil option is surprisingly under-advertised given that it appears to be a straight up superhero movie, with Batman inspired costuming (admittedly I'm talking Schumacher's version). I'll certainly keep an eye out on how this performs over the weekend.

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The Possession



It's the Jewish exorcist! The trailer is surprisingly effective in putting the chills and thrills of this demon (or dibbuk) horror front and centre, but it's still derivative and devoid of depth according to the reviews. Best not bothered with.

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Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends: Blue Mountain Mystery



It's only out today in a selection of cinemas, and at barely 70 minutes long this Thomas adventure is really just an extended TV show. It might keep the kids entertained, but the sun is out so there's probably better things to do with the last weekend before school's go back.

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And finally last weekend I missed the tiny release of

Tim and Eric Billion Dollar Movie



Well it was only on at the Prince Charles for 2 nights so you can't really blame me. It's clearly aimed at the fans of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim's Awesome show, with it's surreal sketch comedy and celebrity cameos (hello Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly and Zach Gallifiankis) and the plot of a meglamaniac Robert Loggia funding the billion dollar enterprise seems to be just an excuse to let the duo do their shtick.

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Read More...

Saturday, 18 February 2012

Trying to make sense of it all (Out this week - 17/02/12)

Now the more observant among you will have noticed that I haven't posted a review this week. Worse than that I didn't even make it to my local multiplex. This is almost exclusively because I am completely and utterly broke, currently being between projects which is no laughing matter I can tell you. So whilst I would love to regale you with my thoughts on Viggo and Michael tussling with psychological concepts in A Dangerous Mind that will have to wait - I will try and catch it this week, somehow, and give you my thoughts over the coming days. Of course I'm now at least one week behind, luckily the top film this week is such a complex case I'm happy to give it a bit of time before I see it - in fact waiting until it's DVD release later in the year might give me the opportunity to see it outside of the conflicting poor reviews/oscar nod pressures facing me - but let's not shy away from the fact that whilst there are 14 releases competing for our attention the RLAG film of the week goes to Extremely Loud and Incredible Close.



Last week, much to my surprise, Daniel Radcliffe proved he can open a film (on this side of the pond at least) and Woman in Black cruised to the top of the box office chart, significantly ahead of my puppet based prediction. This week I do expect he'll stay there but sniffing at his heels will be Nicolas Cage in leather vehicle Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.


Extremely Loud and Incredible Close



It's bathos a-plenty in this second trailer for Stephen Daldry's adaptation of the acclaimed Jonathan Safran Foer novel about a boy with borderline Asperger's coping with his fathers death in the September 11 terrorist attack. It doesn't look subtle, but two Academy Award nominations (Best picture and Max von Sydow) convince me there must be something worth seeing here.

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Woman in the Fifth



That's the fifth Arrondissement of Paris, in case you wondered, and the woman in question is Kristin Scott Thomas, always ready to help a struggling writer like Ethan Hawke to breakthrough the writer's block with lashings of sex and maybe a mystery plot or two.

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Hadewijch



Interestingly this low-key French picture from Bruno Dumont turned up in quite a few top ten lists last year, including John Waters! Essentially a parable about the dangers of blind faith and religious fervour Hadewijch is a novice Nun, who after getting kicked out of the order for over expressing her love for Jesus finds herself drawn to a group of Muslim extremists. Might make a strange and rewarding double bill with Extremely Loud.

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Ekk Dewana Tha



Fluffy looking Hindi romance that looks bland enough but apparently has a Romeo and Juliet like twist as she is from a strict orthodox Christian family. It'll work out alright in the end I expect.

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Fetih 1453



Turkish film about the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the collapse of the Byzantine civilization. Whilst some of the special effects look ropey this is the sort of historic epic they make very well in Turkey, could be worth a look for the costumes alone.

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Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance



The sequel nobody wanted for the superhero nobody cares about. Hey ho. At least the combination of Crank directors Neveldine and Taylor with an out of control Nicolas Cage performance seems like a match made in heaven.

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ID: A



Danish thriller in part influenced by TV's "The Killing" - or at least it's cinematic release is - wherein an amnesiac wakes up in a river with only a shoe and a satchel containing loads of cash and a gun as clues to her identity. Is she connected to the assassination of a prominent politician? What do you think...

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Mothers



Obscure elliptic Macedonia art-house release that mixes narrative and documentary styles over three storylines including a fake report of a flasher and a film-making crew in a deserted village.

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Simple Life



No it's not the big screen version of that Ritchie/Hilton reality TV programme instead it's a meditative Hong Kong feature about the shifting relationship between a 40 something year-old and his elderly amah following her debilitating stroke.

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Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2



Just for half term, this kiddywink aimed movie opened during the weekdays in order to make a few bucks before it's majority income from DVD sales. It's bright, I'll give it that.

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Kadhalil Sodhappuvathu Eppadi



There are three Bollywood releases sneaking out this week with very limited releases and not much background information on the web. First up is this Tamil picture, as you can see there's an IMDB page but no content. From the trailer I can only imagine it's a high school set romance.

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Muppozhudhum Un Karpanaigal



Next up is another Tamil movie, which doesn't even have anything on IMDb. Frankly I was amazed to find a trailer. This too looks like a romance, only the chap in questions turns out to be an assassin. Great falling into bed shot in the trailer, mind.

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Older than America



Proving not all the bad films are coming from India this week is this dreadful looking horror junk about the interface between the Catholic church and Native Americans. I expect the bad guys are really neither side but an unseen extra cult of nuts.

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Pata nahi rabb kehdeyan rangan ch raazi



Finally there's this Punjabi release, with one of the longest titles I can remember, with a globe trotting romantic theme culminating in a Valentine's day proposal. (Sorry, spoilers.)

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Read More...

Thursday, 3 March 2011

New York, I Love You

2009. Dir: Various. Starring: Natalie Portman, Ethan Hawke, Chris Cooper, Cloris Leachman and Julie Christie. ●●●○○



It's difficult to review a collection of shorts like New York, I Love You, do you review each of the shorts as individual pieces, or try to assess the whole collection as a single entity? Luckily we have a template as this is a follow up to the critically acclaimed 2006 film Paris, Je T'Aime which presented a number of Gallic themed romances. Unfortunately New York doesn't live up to the high standards of his European predecessor.



The premise is relatively simple, 10 renowned directors (including Mira Nair and Brett Ratner) take a geographical area of the Big Apple and portray a love affair which somehow encapsulates the feel and atmosphere of the region whilst being linked by a mysterious French girl filming segments of life with her video camera. One of the main issues of the project is that none of the films seems to be uniquely presenting a way of life in the city, they're all stories that could easily be transplanted to an alternative zip code.

Three of the shorts stood out of the pack as worth watching.

Mira Nair is an old hand at the short film format, having worked on 8 and the 9/11 memorial collection. Here the chaste romance between Hasidic bride to be Natalie Portman and Jain divorcee Irfan Khan as they barter over diamond prices, cleverly highlighting the differences and ties between them over their irreconcilable faiths is fascinating and beautifully played.

Ethan Hawke, Maggie Q, Chris Cooper and Robin Wright have two very different conversations about hooking up with strangers in the city, with pull the rug under our feet consequences (alas the first meeting was rather ruined in the trailer) which blindside the audience in a surprising yet shocking way, and both involve the female taking charge of the sexual nature of their conversations reversing the usual gender expectations. Yvan Attal takes a lo-fi hand held approach to the direction allowing the actors room to breathe. Hawke himself probably takes the performance crown for the piece for this section and for his delightfully funny miming in the linking segments.

The final section, and the only one with a real sense of place, is Joshua Marston's Coney Island set two hander with Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman alternatively hilariously bickering and touchingly quiet as they walk to the seafront. The dialogue between them clearly illustrates the nature of their relationship and the underlying love between them. It's one of the few scenes that offers contrast and a lightness of touch missing from most of the other films.

Other scenes, such as the ponderous Shekhar Kapur segment (wasting John Hurt and Julie Christie) and the overtricksy opener with Andy Garcia and Hayden Christiansen (directed by Jiang Wen), are best avoided but as with all collections there's an unfortunate inconsistency in quality which combined with the drabness of the collection makes this tough to recommend.

Hopefully by the time we get to Shanghai, I love you some of those issues will be resolved.

Read More...

Saturday, 6 November 2010

Ethan Hawke


Happy Birthday to

Ethan Hawke

40 today


I feel sorry for Ethan, he always seems to be the second best thing about everything he does. Not as good as Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, or Denzel Washington in Training Day, or Vienna at night in Before Sunrise. Need I go on?

Read More...

Wednesday, 16 June 2010

Brooklyn's Finest

2009. Dir: Antoine Fuqua. Starring: Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes and Vincent D'Onofrio. ●●●○○



Solidly gripping Brooklyn's Finest is a clear film de Antoine Fuqua displaying all the macho posturing, bling and shots of the sun that you expect from him. However it comes short of the sum of it's parts and the chain of coincidences seems forced and - just a little - incoherent.

We start with three convenient cliched cop characters; a disolusioned alcoholic bobby-on-the-beat about to retire (Gere), a family man being dragged into corruption to have a chance to support his brood (Hawke) and an undercover agent who's so far in his loyalties are in question (Cheadle). By using these familiar settings Fuqua is trying to both shortcut the introduction to these stereotypes and introduce an overriding operatic arch to their variations.



That it doesn't work is perhaps because whilst we know every beat of the characters he still feels the need to introduce routin and charcter for the first half of the film, thereby rushing the drag toward the climax. In this way we believe the motivations of the lead trio because they tell us that it's so and not because we've organically come to understand their feelings.

Of the three storylines the one that suffers the most is loner Richard Gere who doesn't quite have the gravitas to fill the role, and we are left slightly confused as to why after dodging the police work for many years he gets involved with the final crescendo of violence. Don Cheadle does an excellent job in his third, ably matched by Wesley Snipes as the drug dealer he can't allow himself to betray.

But it's Ethan Hawke who does the best in his role, reunited with his Training Day director, essentially playing the moment between when that character tips into Denzel Washington's and lets the desperation and catholic guilt flow through him. There's a very nicely shot scene in a confessional (it's in the trailer and works better in context) with Hawke railing against God's impotence.

Brian F O'Byrne (Million Dollar Baby, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead) is also convincing as Hawke's conscience, a fellow drugs officer trying to keep him on the straight and narrow.

You'll notice we've only mentioned the male actors, this is because Fuqua can only direct women in how they are connected to the men, as wives and whores. Even Ellen Barkin as Cheadle FBI superior is really just a man with a skirt, with every edge of femininity erased from her - either by the job or by the screenwriters. The message of this is clear; out on the streets women either need rescuing or protecting or they're not really women.

The technical aspects are fine, and Fuqua is obviously comfortable with the hip hop and drug ridden streets that he invokes with the movie.

Overall I would say this picture over does the exposition and rushes into the climax, it's fairly watchable but definitely worth waiting until it comes out on DVD for a beer and a pizza on a quiet Friday night.

Read More...

Sunday, 4 April 2010

Out These Weeks (19/03/10 - 02/04/10)

Yes, I have been away, which means I have missed out on previewing a good three weeks of films (whther that's three weeks of good films is perhaps more relevant). To tell you the truth I have been deliberately lazy with this. I could have popped into an internet cafe during both of the last couple of weekends, but I just couldn't face it. The overall quality of releases has been so poor I haven't wanted to make the effort to make it to a cinema. Nevertheless I feel I must catch up and tell you my picks for the film of the week, so in reverse order:

Released on 02 April 2010:

Kick-Ass



Released on 26 March 2010:

The Blind Side



Released on 19 March 2010:

I Love You, Philip Morris



Read on for the film synopsis' which I will try to kep within one sentence - now there's a challenge.



02 April 2010

Arjunan Kadhali

Hindi love film.

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City of War

Or the story of John Rabe who ensured the survival of 250,000 Chinese peasants during the Japanese attack on Nanking in 1937-8.

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Clash of the Titans

On of Antiquities more exciting tales adapted again for the big screen with Perseus slaying Medusa and the Kraken. Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Pete Postlethwaite turn up as Shiny Gods playing with us mortals.

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Double Take

Rare documentary making it onto my list, as Alfred Hitchcock's obsession with doubles is deconstructions through clips and some fake reconstructions.

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How to train your Dragon

Laugh out loud cartoon from Dreamworks with a nerdy viking making friends with an injured dragon which leads to a massive culture clash.

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Kakera: A Piece of our Life

Lesbian dabblings at university in this Japanese drama.

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Kick-Ass

The superhero genre gets deconstructed in this tale of a adolescent who puts on a cape to fight some bad guys, the 12 year old fould mouthed violent Hit Girl is bringing the publicity, Nicolas Cage has actually picked a decent project this time.

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Paiyaa

The usual mix of action and love story in this import. I'm sorry I can't be bothered with anything I'm not already interested in.

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Remember Me

For the Twilight fans R Pattz tries something different. I expect someone major in the plot dies horrifically hence the title. Chris Cooper and Lena Olin have supporting roles.

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Sadiyaan

Based on actual events during the partition of India and Pakistan. Still involves singing and dancing.

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Samson and Delilah

Lyrical account of a developing romance between two aboriginal teenagers. Critically lauded.

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26 March 2010

Angardi Theru

Moved back again, look through previous posts to see if I had anything interesting to say last time...

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The Blind Side

Sandra Bullock's Oscar winning performance as a uptight stinking rich white woman who adopts a homeless black teen - based on a true story. Kathy Bates co-stars.

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Cok Filim Hereketler Bunlar

Turkish version of Valentine's Day - I think it's a big screen spin-off of a popular TV series in Turkey (not completely sure).

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Hum, Tum Aur Ghost

Love story played between two people with opposing views on nearly every subject. Ho hum.

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I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

I think they call this a comedy, about a best man whose antics at the stag do are so notorious he's disinvited to the wedding.

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Lad Gaya Pecha

Man falls in love wit a ghost - not your typical love story from the sub-continent.

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Lion's Den

Brizilian Women's prison drama with no cliche left unturned as we are invited to watch children taken from their mother, guard brutality and incidental lesbianism.

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Lourdes

Medidation on the ideas of faith and miracles that follows when a paralysed atheist is cured on a pilgrimage.

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Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang

All star sequel (Emma Thompson, Ralph Fiennes, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Maggie Smith) to the hit anti-Mary Poppins children's film. The whole cast are clearly having a ball whilst keeping a stiff upper lip in the war years.

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Nightwatching

Peter Greenaway direct Martin Freeman's cock in this dramatisation of Rembrandt's life around the time he was painting The Night Watch.

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No One Knows about Persian Cats

The Persian Cats are an Iranian pop group trying to maintain their identity and the band where the idea of Western inspired music is considered sacriligious.

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Not the Messiah (He's a very Naughty Boy)

Concert film of the oratoria based on Monty Python's Life of Brian as performed in the Royal Albert Hall in 2009. Probably not as good as the orginal film.

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Perrier's Bounty

Cillian Murphy is on the run from loan shark gangster Brendan Gleason, accompanied by his coffee guzzling father Jim Broadbent and romantic interest Jodie Whittaker - better than your average gangster pic.

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Romantik Komedi

If you couldn't guess from the title it's Turkish, and if I hadn't already described another film above as the Turkish Valentine's Day I'd be using that line here - so now I'm stumped.

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Shank

No, not the gay happy slappers film which came out last year, but a completely unrelated movie about teenage gangs in a apocalptic vision of a future Britain.

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Storm

An attempt to dramatise the legalistic procedures and diplomatic pressures when trying a mass murderer through the European Courts.

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19 March 2010

Bounty Hunter

Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston both demonstrate how unfair the Hollywood system is that let's talentless shmucks like them headline. And they drag Cathy Moriaty down with them.

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Ditching

More post-apocalyptic angst, this time set in Northern Ireland.

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Dorothy

Irish suspense movie involving psychiatrists and ghosts and false allegations of child abuse.

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Happy Ever Afters

Delayed comedy about mix-ups at two weddings taking place in the same venue.

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House of the Devil

Now that irony is dead teenagers can once again babysit in scary houses and get picked on by malevolent spirits.

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I Love You, Philip Morris

Jim Carrey goes gay and falls in love with his cell mate Ewan MacGregor in this ribald comedy from the writing team behind Bad Santa.

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My Last Five Girlfriends

We are treated to a parade of the last five girlfriends of our protagonist as he tries to figure what he's doing wrong. The clue's in the title.

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Old Dogs

John Travolta and Robin Williams together at last. Naturally the film is a pile of rotting flesh which no amount of cameos with Ann-Margret and Matt Dillon can save.

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Salvage

British suspense actioner as a contained is washed up in a sleepy cul-de-sac making the hitherto quiet neighbours a violent and distustful mob.

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Scouting Book for Boys

Thomas Turgoose continues to shine in this film about a teenager falling in love with his best friend as he hides her from here distructive family.

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The Spy Next Door

Or Jackie Chan babysitting in this kids comedy. Given the righ audience I expect this will do well.

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Staten Island

Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio and Seymour Cassell play a septic tank cleaner, a deaf mute and a mob boss in the titular New York suburb. I don't know which is which.

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Zonad

A rehab escapee manages to persuade a naive Irish Community that he's a visitor from outer space.

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And two films missed from 12 March 2010

The Ape

Norwegian film about a man waking up to find his entire life has been erased.

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Ay Lav Yu

Amazingly this is a Turkish film that manages to cast Steve Guttenburg and Mariel Hemingway as a visiting US coupl. I didn't even know Steve was still alive.

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Friday, 8 January 2010

Out this week (08/01/2010)

You've actually got a decent chance of seeing a film worth the ticket price this week, with 5 that look just as good, if not better, than last weeks victor (there're also 3 Bollywood releases if you fancy that). Personally I'm going to be seeing Meryl Streep (I just can't help myself) but the most interesting looking project, and therefore the film of the week, is The Road.



Daybreakers

Sometime in the not too distant future a virus will come along which turns most, but not all people, into blood thirsty vampires. Faced with a limited supply of non-vampiric humans to feast upon there is a moral dilemma of whether to farm people or create a synthetic substitute - that is before it descends into a chaotic third act, probably.

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Dulha Mil Gaya

The first of our Bollywood releases is a look at 4 different modern relationships and how the couples live their lives. Doesn't sound innovative or ground-breaking, but apparantly the lead has remarried to publicise the film.

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Exam

A mixed bunch of job candidates have to take an exam in a closed environment, only to find the sheet has no question. Naturally the candidates turn on each other in increasingly violent ways. Taut looking Brit thriller from debut director Stuart Hazeldine.

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Fireball

Have you noticed that all future set sports dramas have seen the rules relaxed so much that death is an acceptable by-product, but in reality competitive sports are getting less and less about contact? Anyway, this Thai drama sees a game where the first basket leads to a win, but that's the only rule. Immensely missable.

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It's Complicated

So, Meryl Streep used to married to Alec Baldwin, who had an affair and left her for the much younger Lake Bell. Only now he's missing what he's left behind and Alec is having an affair with Meryl. Add to this a new beau for Ms Streep in the guise of Steve Martin and we have the potential for a superb farce. We'll see.

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Mitti

Bollywood drama with a poster involving a large army and a set of four young men with their faces plastered at the top. The only plot outline I can find, which is about corrupt politicians, makes no sense in relation to the image. I don't know: See it, don't see it... Up to you.

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Pyaar Impossible

I could have sworn this came out last year... The tagline to the Hindi version of Notting Hill is 1 beauty plus 1 geek equals Pyaar Impossible, which will probably pack them in.

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The Road

It's not really my cup of tea but it's hard to argue the raw power of Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer prize winning novel The Road. Here John Hillcoat has tried to distill the sense of foreboding as the Man and the Boy move through the desolation of a post-apolcalyptic America. It's had mixed responses but you cannot take away the ambition of such an endeavour.

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Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

It's rare that Andy Serkis plays a person, let alone a historical figure as he does in this warts and all biopic of legendary punk rocker Ian Dury. It's getting some very early buzz for next years awards season so it might sitting through it.

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Treeless Mountain

Two young sisters are left to fend for themselves when their Mother goes in search of the father who abandoned them in this rich film from South Korea. It's done well on the festival circuit, winning the best film award in Dubai. Art-house certainly but well worth the trip if you want something a little different.

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