Happy Birthday to
Clint Eastwood
79 today
The multi-hypenate Eastwood passes another birthday and still doesn't seem to be slowing down at all. His 2009 film, possibly titled The Human Factor, will focus on Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) and his efforts to unite South Africa following his election. It's hard to imagine that it won't be a successful film, even if I doubt Eastwood will fully convey the post-apartheid mindset or make good rugby. Of course, I'll still be there on opening night.
Sunday, 31 May 2009
Clint Eastwood
Saturday, 30 May 2009
Film News (30/05/09)
We have had slow news weeks before but this one really takes the biscuit. And although it looks like Stephen Daldry's The Hellfire Club and the Mad Max 4 movie are one step closer to being made on IMBD, they shall be ignored as there has been no press release or anything.
Wichita
After months of speculation from Tom Cruise and James Mangold about what their collective next films would be it seems they have decided to work with each other on the spy romance, Wichita. Also starring Cameron Diaz, Cruise will play an international spy who keps bumping into Diaz (presumably on his weekends off).
Whether this means we won't be seeing Juliet, The Materese Circle or Mangold's life assurance drama remains to be seen, although it would be shame if all these projects were shelved, or postponed indefinitely.
And really that was all the news I had.
Box Office News
Release Date News
Frozen River - Minor change in the release date for Melissa Leo's oscar nommed role smuggling illegal immigrants into the US. Back a week to 17 July 2009 when it will open opposite
Crossing Over - which is another tale about illegal immigration, although this time it's more in the Crash/Traffic mode of multi storylines which all converge. Ray Liotta and Harrison Ford will be sleazy and stoic respectively on 17 July.
The Soloist - it's had a middling review and box office success Stateside, so they've shifted Joe Wright's true life story of schizophrenic cellist (Jami Foxx). Now out on 25 September 2009.
Where the Wild Things Are - Last month I was really excited because the release date for this children's classic adaptation had moved forward, so naturally it's bounced back to the original date of 11 December 2009.
Dear John - Are you fed up of watching films that might be good? Well worry no more. Lasse Hallstrom directs, from a novel by Nicolas Sparks, and starring Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum. Expect some serious attempts to pull your heartstrings on 5 February 2010.
Alice in Wonderland - Tim Burton's all star retelling of Lewis Carroll's nonsense novel shifts a week, just to confuse us. I'm surprise it won't be opening on a Tuesday and only playing backwards. See it on 12 March 2010.
Finally I won't be reporting a release date for the fascinating typtrich Tokyo!, even though it's done reasonably well in the US ($341k so far) and been massive in France ($513k), as it opened directly to DVD this week. If I get a chance to see it I'll let you all know what I think.
Box Office Report
The UK box office continues to be as predictable as ever (on animation, one Zac Efron, a Rom-Com and 2 big effects/testosterone heavy hits - although no puppies in April were good enough), including the fact that I correctly identified the top film for April, although perhaps even more predicatable I haven't actually seen any of the films in the top 5. By the way, Wolverine is a tough one to put in, as it opened on the Wednesday 29 April or the weekend starting of 1 May. I have included it here as I'd rather it ame second than potentially beating Star Trek during next months face off (sneaky, eh?).
1. Monsters vs. Aliens
2. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
3. Fast & Furious
4. 17 Again
5. The Boat that Rocked
Michael J Pollard
Happy Birthday to
Michael J. Pollard
70 today
Best known for ratting on Bonnie and Clyde as C.W. Moss in the the 1967 film, the most interesting thing I can find about Pollard is his middle initial was just made up and doesn't stand for anything.
Friday, 29 May 2009
Lifelong Yearning
We've opened!
The premier performance of Lifelong Yearning was a tremendous success. The audience were rolling in the aisles, and joined in at the appropriate bits (one woman nearly pounced on the stage when I asked her out!). Right now I'm at that half way great high for doing a show(well) vs. incredible tired feeling, so I'll just be doing this post then off to bed. 
What made it especially good news was that we very nearly sold out, and with the good word of mouth I'm expecting there should be pretty full houses here in the Midlands part of the run.
All this is a way of saying: get your tickets now. And here's how you can get them:
Tour venues and dates:
Kidderminster Rose
Chester Road North
Kidderminster
DY10 2RX
Friday 29th & Saturday 30th May, 7:30pm
box: 01562 743 745
Highbury Theatre
Sheffield Rd
Sutton Coldfield
B73 5HD
Friday 5th & Saturday 6th June 7:30pm
box: 0121 373 2761
Oldbury Rep Theatre
3 Spring Walk
Oldbury
B69 4SP
Friday 19th & Saturday 20th June, 7:30pm
box: 0121 552 2761
Barons Court Theatre,
Curtain's Up Pub
28a Comeragh Road
London
W14 9HR
Tuesday 23rd - Sunday 28th June 7:45pm, and a Saturday matinee at 2:30pm
Box: 020 8932 4747
Out this week (29/05/09)
Box Office wise it could be any one of 4 films taking the top spot this week, including the Jonas Brothers tour video (not previewed), and it'ss be interesting to see how Drag me to Hell, Obsessed and 12 Rounds perform. For me though there can only be one winner - Sam Raimi wants my soul in hell and I'm not going to disappoint. (Obviously I'd rather recommend Lifelong Yearning, but I'm not sure that would be in the spirit of this column.)
Drag me to Hell
Sam Raimi returns to his horror comedy roots with this tale of a loan officer cursed to be "dragged to hell". The buzz from Cannes and early reviews suggest it walks the fine line between the genres very well. Expect gags and gag reflexes galore.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●○○○○
Fermat's Room
French horror film, about a group of mathematicians invited to solve a difficult mathmatical puzzle. When they arrive, and are put into a small room to solve it, the walls start closing in and they can only be stopped through mathematical calculations. Now, I did a degree in Maths, and most of my lecturers wouldn't have gone to the next floor to solve a problem so I'm not sure about the realism, but kudos for the idea.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Fireflies in the Garden
I'm incredibly curious about this ensemble pic from Sophomore director Dennis Lee, based on Robert Frost's poem. Not least because of the tremendous sounding cast (Julia Roberts, Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson, Ryan Reynolds, Carrie-Anne Moss, Ioan Gruffudd, Hayden Panettiere!), however it looks like distributer The Works UK have really fluffed it.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●○○○○
Fugitive Pieces
Greek/Canadian co-production (with sections in Yiddish and German) about a young Jewish boy running from the Nazis and being adopted by a Greek fisherman. Not sure if it brings anything new to our understanding of the period.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Obsessed
Beyonce's Fatal Attraction for the 90's film has done well with her fan base in the US, taking over $66m in receipts, doubt it will repeat that success over here, but it's an odd week for releases so you never know. Personally I'd much rather see it if the former Destiny's Child star was reprising the Glenn Close role and not the Anne Archer one.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
12 Rounds
WWE star John Cena climbs buildings, jumps from helicopters and generally kicks ass in order to save his wife from a vengence seeking terrorists. There's a market for this sort of thing.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Thursday, 28 May 2009
Carroll Baker
Happy Birthday to
Carroll Baker
78 today
Carroll was certainly beautiful in her youth, and very talented as she proved in Baby Doll. However looks and talents aren't necessarily enough and after a few good westerns and a few bad marriages her star power waned.
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
There Will Be Blood
2007. Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson. Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciarán Hinds, Kevin J O'Connor and Dillon Freasier ●●●●●
With no sign of Everlasting Moments at cinemas in Birmingham I randomly chose PT Anderson's There Will Be Blood to review. It seems incredibly now, just 18 months later, that this film and No Country for Old Men became locked in a titanic battle for the 2007 Best Picture Oscar. In the end the Coen film took the prize, but in my opinion, the better film missed out.
The film, very loosely based on Upton Sinclair's Oil, concerns the decay of the soul of Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis), an oilman whose avarice overtakes all his other thoughts. The story follows him from mining silver alone to ending his life alone and bitter in his mansion via the adoption of a son of a deceased worker and a major struggle with a small church and it's charismatic preacher (Dano).
Of course a film which revolves around a single character requires a solid performance, which Day-Lewis delivers in spades. It's absolutely electrifying, you just can't keep your eyes off him. Every line is said with such vigour and certainty it's as if it's a documentary. Towards the end there is a tendency to waver on the line of cartoonish caricature, but thankfully Day-Lewis never crosses it.
Dano is effective as the young man of God, especially in the two key scenes he shares with Day-Lewis (the baptism and the bowling alley), but in his quieter moments he looks a little lost (the blessing of the new mine). Dillon Freasier and Russell Harvard both do fine work as the yound and adult versions of H.W. Plainview, Daniel's adopted son, I hope to see both of them build on these performances in the future, although there's nothing so far.
The cinematography by Robert Elswitt is excellent, the way natural light plays across the characters in different ways, the sun streaming through the church windows, the framing of the oilmen is beautiful and often moving. I was also struck by the movement of the camera, Anderson and Elswitt almost never let it be still, especially in the mid-shots when it often pans forward and back moving you towards or away from the action. It's a technique that often goes with the multi-character films Anderson made his name with but here it's equally effective.
Finally the score is beautiful, Johnny Greenwood's (adiohead) original pieces are compelling and the use of Brahms is overpowering.
This film is a masterpiece, if you haven't already seen it I urge you to rectify that as soon as possible.
Louis Gossett Jr.
Happy Birthday to
Louis Gossett Jr.
73 today
Best remembered for his turn as Richard Gere's Gunnery Sergeant in An Officer and a Gentleman, Gossett jr. has been showing his talents on the big and small screens for 50 years. There's a lot of dreck lined up, however I am looking forward to his ensemble part in 4Chosen, the dramatisation of the 1998 shooting of four black basketball players in North Carolina, and the subsequent legal battle for justice. Gossett is also producing.
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Trailers - Transformers
I've been resolutely avoiding puitting up trailers over the last few weeks as there is only one film in June I am looking forward to seeing (Sugar), however I will make the obligatory nod to the box office championship.
There are a cuple of big releases coming out in June; Terminator: Salvation, Year One and My Sister's Keeper should all get different crowds in, but without a doubt leading the pack will be Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. This is why:
Tranformers comes out on 19 June.
Monday, 25 May 2009
Personal News (24/05/09)
Hi there, welsome to another brief excerpt from my real world where I try to flog you tickets to see a show with me actually in it.
That's right. The rehearsals are nearly over now and the curtain will go up for Lifelong Yearning on Friday, less than a week to go. It's been a fraught week of rehearsals, as the props, set and costumes have all gone through the final checks (my first two shirts have been rejected, why oh why do I like stripes), and we've now run the play in it's entirity without stops. I know that doesn't sound like much but it's hell of a milestone in the rehearsal process.
Excepting some technical issues that still need ironing out, like when to put the kettle on and how much gin is needed, we're pretty much ready to go.
Once again I'd like to invite you all to our opening performance in Kidderminster on Friday night, tickets are selling well but there are still a few left over if you call the box office on 01562 743745.
For those of you unable to make it I will be blogging after the first night with a brief description of how I feel, for those who can come and say hi in the bar. Go on.
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