If film posters spoke the truth: 300

With thanks to Worth 1000.com

The man who would be Thor and Wolverine 2 updates

Above is a pic of the man who has been cast as Thor, well he looks the part but will he play the part? Saying that I always thought Thor was the weakest of the Avengers; after the realism set up in the Iron Man films will Thor’s divine story line fit in?

Another piece of news is that Wolverine 2 is definitely a go, using the comic arc of Logan’s time in Japan. Producer Laura Shuler Donnar has announced that Christopher McQuarrie has been brought on to help with the screenplay. Great news, this is the man behind The Usual Suspects!

Is it just me, or is 2001: A Space Odyssey painfully slow?

Now before a lot of film buffs get in a big strop, I’m not saying that Stanley Kubricks Sci Fi Epic is a bad film. I watched it only for the second time yesterday and this time was struck by how terribly slow moving it is! I’m not denying that it’s a beautiful shot film with the music to match; there is also no denying how groundbreaking it was. I did however find myself wanting to fast-forward through some of the long drawn out sequences that whilst accompanied by brilliant music, do start to get a bit tedious. All of this in a film that’s around 2 and half hours long!

All I’m saying is that repeat viewings do it no favours…

I went, I saw, I was not as scared as before (A Green Lantern Pic!)

Saw The Woman in Black last night for the second time, it is a brilliant theatre production and has been used as part of the drama GCSE syllabus for god knows how many years! That’s how I’ve seen it twice, accept that time it was very frightening! This time not so much, still a great play and very jumpy not to mention superbly acted! I have just grown up and become immune I suppose, though I still imagined that “wasted face” coming at me when we left.

No picture of the play though, just what looks like a genuine photo of Ryan Reynolds in full Green Lantern garb, exciting huh!?

Ridley Scott is Red Riding Remaking

Just in case the title didn’t spell it out for you; Ridley Scott is set to direct the Channel 4 Drama trilogy “Red Riding”. I have even seen the series yet but I really want to, it looked brilliant and it some real acting talent in it!

Another dose of the rage virus

Seem as I watched the first one two days ago, I felt it right to watch the sequel. Weeks’ happily is everything a sequel should be bigger and faster, it develops the mythology so cleverly set up in the first film. It shows you; by shoving a mass of people together, what the initial outbreak might have been like, even using some of days’ dialogue to set up the scene where the boy is climbing over the bodies (brilliant!).

It follows the idea of character, this time focusing on what the event has done and is still doing to a family. It doesn’t explore it as well as Days but that’s simply because of the scale of the film, it’s bigger so draws your attention to other things. That’s about the only criticism for a film that is at some points more visceral and disturbing than the first one (just look at the scene where the parents and reunited!) it does this still without glorifying it. It’s also refreshing again to see more of deserted London; I imagine it feels a lot like when American people watch their cities being destroyed. There are places you recognize (at one point the infected run right past where i used to work!) this makes to feel more real for people living there.

Some great acting, especially from Steve Carlyle, who spends half the film infected! He plays the role with real conviction, though this is the man who played Begbie in trainspotting. The kids were convincing but I would imagine that would have something to do with how real some of the infected were! Yes there’s Americans in it but we can forgive them as most of them go out heroically in flames (literally!).

From the makers of hit TV show LOST comes...

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There and back again on three legs

So after much thought about today’s entry I have decided to do it about two pieces of news instead of Monsters Inc, as brilliant as it is I didn’t watch all of it last night as I brought it for my boys and would like to do it justice. Moving on then to some Hobbit news...

Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf to those who have lived in a cave the last 10 years!), has told empire and channel 4 that he has received the script for The Hobbit, apart from screeching like an excited school girl this is great news! He also said a few encouraging things about the production about how the new Director is brilliant and that most of the cast are returning, though he had nothing to say on the Bilbo front in regards to who will be playing him.

Next piece of news will probably mean nothing to a lot of people but Alex Proyas, Director of this year’s Nic Cage disaster movie “ Knowing” , is set to direct a film based upon BBC classic sci-fi series Tripods, will have to mention this to my brother. This is not related to The War of the Worlds at all, in case you were wondering.

28,28,28,28,28,28,28...

Seconds, minutes, hours you see where I’m going with this. Watched it last night at 3 in the morning when I couldn’t sleep. Though it’s not so scary anymore it still has the uncanny ability of making me feel ill, strange!? It’s a brilliant film and one the best horror films of the last decade, I personally would say of all time. It captures the seclusion for the last left alive scenario perfectly and in London as well, a city so bereft of natural disasters and periodical Hollywood destructions!

It did away with a lot of horror clichés and focused on the human drama of the situation, a route that made the film so much more effective than your usual hack n slash, torture porn gorefest. It cleverly distanced itself from the obvious comparisons to Romero’s undead by using a virus, that infects people with pure blind rage; scary! All of the cast play their parts sublime but it’s the directing that sets 28 days late proving that Danny Boyle is one of the most versatile Directors out there.

Still waiting for news on 28 months later, well it was announced in April this year that they were going ahead with it then Fox Atomic, the company behind it collapsed. This could be good news though as the film will most likely fall to Fox themselves to do, which means more money and more hype.

Pegg and Tennat dig up dead bodies!

Seem as I didn’t watch anything last night it’s another short update, this one to tell you about a film called “Burke and Hare”. In which David Tennant and Simon Pegg play the lead roles in a period comedy about grave digging, Sounds like fun to me...

just some set pics...

just some rather good photos from the sets of two of next years big guns, clash of the titans and of course iron man 2.

10 thing I hate about you: a review

Question: What do you get if you cross an early comedy by one of the greatest writers in English literature with one of the most berated of all cinema genres. What looks like just another teen comedy is actually a very clever use of Shakespeare’s basic premise. Some great break out performances with a good script you may end up falling in love with it, oh how I love thee, let me count the ways…

A story very much on the same lines as Shakespeare’s play, our main character Cameron (Gordon-Levitt) is at his new high school. He meets the love of his life Bianca (Oleynik) but unfortunately her father has a new rule; Bianca cant date until her sister dates. Bianca’s sister happens to be the resident bunny boiler Kat played by the ever-charming Julia Stiles, Cameron’s idea is to pay someone to take Kat out so that he can take out Bianca. In steps Heath Ledger and by god did he know how to make an entrance.

10 Things was Ledgers first Hollywood movie and like most Australian hunks that are picked from obscurity he was an instant hit, going on to star with fellow countryman Mel Gibson in the Patriot. That’s another story, what of his performance as Patrick Verona the school bad boy that likes to wave his hand over Bunsen burners. Well apart from the accent that is explained away in the characters past he is really good, this charming roughish character was perfect for Ledger. The dance at the schools stadium is the stand out point as he sings and runs from the police, classic.

It’s not the destination; the inevitable and predictable ending that makes teen movies like this a guilty pleasure. It is the journey, the jokes that come in between and the memorable characters; the same can be said for any decent teen movie. 10 things is no different, in fact its probably one of the best examples. Almost every character is memorable in their own way and the script is very witty, although the language used by some of the kids seems a little out of place with words like vapid, Tempestuous and Miscreants. Incredibly well spoken American teens these may be but certainly enjoyable to watch.

It is the emphasis on character that makes this film so pleasing; everyone involved despite how minor is funny. From the Head teacher writing her sexy novel to the over protective father, all of them are funny and fit in so well. So despite being just another teen movie, 10 things is actually very funny and worth watching if you haven’t already. What’s this a teen movie with a little more depth than the usual crap we see? Your just to good to be true, can’t take my eyes off of you.

Jim Carrey: Man of many talents

Perhaps it’s just me but the number 23 was almost Jim Carrey’s 23rd film, almost being the operative word as I look for a way of tying the number into this entry. Watched it last night and enjoyed it, Jim Carrey still continues to surprise me and still continues to mature with his performances. Is he aging like a fine wine or a piece of cheese left in the fridge? This is an important question. He was known for his zany out there performances, with his rubber face and weird physical movements but then came the Truman Show. It showed us all what he was capable of, his performance was astoundingly effective and emotional and this from a man who has escaped from a Rhinos backside!

It should be said the rhino was fake but Jim Carrey is anything but, picking and choosing his roles between his old style like dick and Jane and yes man or Eternal Sunshine and this little film called the number 23. Nowhere near as good as the sublime Eternal Sunshine, 23 still works but where it works the best is by showing you Jim Carrey as you would never have expected him. Being able to play two characters helps; as the character Finglerling is a brooding sexy detective, tattoos cover his shoulder and his hair is slicked back. This character gives Jim a way of exploring this type of character for the first time and whilst in some scenes he can look a bit out of place, he does look good.

The film has a very winding plot which is easy to follow but still challenging enough, the ending may not be as refreshing as you expect but the hero drags his family along for the ride which is rare in these films of obsession and paranoia. You can catch the funny man next in A Christmas Carol, the mo-cap version that promises to be very good.

The Return... of crap

Ok so got round to watching The Return, I shall describe by telling you if I had paid to see it I would have demanded my money back for the almost hour and a half of my life I wasted watching it. The funny thing is, it’s not all that bad, just completely and utterly pointless and unexciting, not to mention not scary at all; big fault in a scary film. Since Buffy I nothing but loathe Sarah Michelle Gellar, can’t stand her annoying nasal voice, though it must be said I did find her strangely attractive in cruel intentions but I defy any man who didn’t.

Enough about her, why was this film so uninspired? Well not much happens to be honest, the clever plot twists and turns do make you wonder what’s going on but I felt like I could have turned the film off at any point and would not have been bothered about finding out what happens next. It was just thoroughly boring and not scary in the slightest.

Moving swiftly on from that and never “returning” to it, we’ll go along the Sarah Michelle Gellar tangent to Buffy Creator Joss Whedon. Bouncing back from the critical bashing he got for dollhouse, he’s got another season of that coming out and several movies’ on the slate. He has a habit of making a series that quickly becomes a cult, for instance I watched Serenity and loved it. It made me watch Firefly and I loved that, can’t see why they cancelled it!? I would put a bet on Dollhouse being cancelled sooner than the fans want it to though.

http://twitter.com/WhedonFanNews

Russel Brand: The Swine!

Well this was going to be about a film called the return, which would have been apt as it is kind of my return. Instead I watched Russell Brands second stand up, Doing Life Live. It is very funny but there is something that feels very wrong about watching him. It’s not a bad thing; in fact I think it very much works in his favour. He talks about things that a lot of people think and never say and he says it in such an eloquent way; I’ve tried matching his word use in this entry!

Of course I can see why some people don’t like him, you can’t swagger around like a character out of a Chares Dickens story acting like a sex god without people thinking your arrogant. Then again it’s his persona, it’s what has made him into what he is today, and he’s unashamed about how he got there. Onto the relevance of Russell Brand on a blog about movies, he has made a few; from a little bit part in St Trinnians (awful) to stronger parts Forgetting Sarah Marshal (scene stealing), but now he has to carry a film.

His turn as pop star Aldous Snow must have impressed the studio, as they green lighted “Get Me to the Greek”. The film is about Aldous Snow as an out of control British Rock Star, trying to get to a gig on time. Not much acting involved for Brand then who has made a career out of being exactly like Aldous Snow, replacing music with comedy and presenting of course. It still looks funny and he was brilliant in Sarah Marshal, let’s hope it lives up to the hype.

Mr Brand also has a few more projects on the horizon including Shakespeare’s tempest, where he is playing Trinculo the jester. Perfect casting for Mr Brand me thinks, hopefully they stick with ye olde English! To follow what this dandy gentleman gets up to check out his twitter feed, or better still add my feed. Yes I have given in and started twittering.

http://twitter.com/Beeonfilm
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