A little bit of nothing at all...

Ok so this is a little late, these usually go up on Sunday night. Well I’m afraid I was just to damn tired after a weekend of leaving do’s, unintended reunions, the 80’s, some Goths and some very short shorts! Of course I’ve had a lot of time to get some film viewing in, I brought some dvd’s midweek one of them is Cashback (one of my first ever screenings and reviews) I love this movie, such an unexpected gem.

Cashback is about an art student when after a hard break-up begins to suffer from insomnia, he decides to use this extra time in a night shift at a local Sainsburys. Whilst here he comes up with a rather imaginative way of dealing with the boredom. Enough about that film though, like I said I did write a review for it and you can check it out on my usual site or click on the link to the right.

Another film I watched this week was yet another I had reviewed before, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. As with Cashback you can check out the review to your right, it must be said that the Narnia films are taking a long time to hit the right audience. The Lord of the Rings happily appealed to everyone, with Narnia it’s very much the same problem that Harry Potter had, the first few instalments were just aimed at children. Now also like the Potter franchise, Narna is getting darker but still not there just yet.

Now for a film I hadn’t seen, I watched the Black Dahlia during the week, a murder mystery about the still unsolved murder of an aspiring actress in Hollywood. The film works quite well and is directed like a classic thriller, what do you expect from the great Brian De Palma? The performances are just as good; Aaron Eckhart and Josh Hartnett play the brooding boxers turned cops very well and as usual Scarlet Johanssen sizzles on screen. It can be a little hard to follow so make sure you concentrate though and much like “From Hell” it does ruin the mystery of the whole murder that is such a bad idea but still worth seeing.

Well I have some gardening to do and a feature on Wolverine and the Xmen to write so I have to go. Take care , keep reading and watching.

I watch the watchmen.... finally!

So in what has been a hectic week I finally got to see the Watchmen, it was as predicted and impressed me greatly. In the way it was filmed and the way the film was presented, Watchmen was very close to the original material. Some fans might be upset that Zack Snyder had to cut out an entire plot line to make the ending work but consider The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson and the other writers had to be ruthless with the books as they were just to long. The films that came out in the end captured the feel of the books perfectly, capturing the most important theme of friendship and indeed fellowship that is so lacking in today’s society.

Anyway, as I was saying Watchmen was as good as I expected it to be. It was refreshing to see another comic book movie made just for adults. I mean it’s not bad that comic book movies are mainly aimed at kids and families but that does mean that some of the older generation who were reading comics long before they hit the big screen were waiting for a more mature approach. Another film I saw this week was Thank You for Smoking, this inside look into the tobacco industry is insightful and actually a lot of fun to watch. Some great performances create sympathy for the devil but don’t worry you wont find yourself wanting to light up.

Like I said it’s been a busy week, I have also seen the fist hour of the duchess but best not talk about it, I don’t have much patience for Kiera Knightly and I like I said I did only see an hour. I did on the other hand see the whole of How to Lose Friends and Alienate people, now I’m a huge Simon Pegg fan so anything with him in I am bound to like. This film was a bit different as it feels like the first big Hollywood outing for Mr Pegg, with star trek coming out this year it seems the British star has stamped his mark. Lets just hope he doesn’t lose sight of what made him so big in the first place. The film was funny enough, nowhere near as good as his other work, probably due to the script written by someone else.

Some news for you now before I get off, the long touted Green Lantern movie looks to have a leading man, in Chris Pine who you can see as Captain James .T Kirk the summer.

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/13603/chris-pine-is-the-green-lantern-maybe/

Nothing else really worth mentioning, although bringing up Star Trek again, he premieres is going to be in a Sydney Opera Playhouse, interesting ah - Maybe not. Ok that’s it for this week, please keep reading and watching.

A tribute to a true original

It’s far to early to be up writing this but I cant do it this evening as I’m finally going to see watchmen, due to a little dramatic dog issue I didn’t get to go midweek but come hell or high water I’m there this evening! More about that next week when I have seen it, A week spent looking for looking after my boys, looking for work and playing games has left it a pretty barren week for films.

I did get a chance to see Factory Girl, the story of Edie Sedgwick; One of the “it” girls of her time and Andy Warhol favourite for a few years. It was very good just for the two lead performances, I have never been a big fan of Siena Miller but she embodies “Warhols superstar” so well. To see what I mean just watch the film and then search Edie Sedgwick on youtube, its an almost perfect a tribute to her. Guy Pearce also plays Andy Warhol superbly, I have for a long time though that quite eccentric characters like Warhol were quite easy to imitate but Andy Warhols mannerisms were subtle, his false confidence hides layers if insecurities and Mr Pearce take it all on, in what has to be one of my favourite of his performances.

Shot in a way you think Warhol would have appreciated the film is a tribute to Edie Sedgwick and her tragic life, fully deserving of the best comments. Moving on I don’t have much else to write about, I would like to take this chance to apologize for any bad grammar errors. I am currently going through a bit of a purge of all my bad habits due to getting a warning shot from one of my regular editors. So some old films are going to get reviewed as practice, which will be fun and I’m going to get a test for Dyslexia, oh the joy!

Some news for you to digest, the first on set photo from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is up…

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00022629.html

Another first set photo, this time from Iron Man 2 (for Roston)

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=53600

Finally some news for Transformers fans, Michael Bay is seeking the vocal talents of one Frank Welker. For people not in the know, he voiced Megatron on the original cartoon, anyway click bellow for more…

http://www.shootfortheedit.com/forum/showthread.php?p=67588#post67588
Right that’s it for now, I’m off to clear up and make breakfast take care, keep reading and watching.

A fish out of water and into a busy frying pan

What a busy week I have had, let me put my life into context for you. This Monday just gone I was in the Orchid room of the Dorchester hotel, I was awaiting the arrival of the stars of this months new release Marley and Me. Feeling rather out of depth at one of these things, my new Dictaphone poised on the table at the front and my notepad and pen at the ready. That morning I was trying to unblock a toilet and keep my boys from killing each other as they war over a train set. I was lucky enough to meet another freelancer, a lady named Gillian, she was quite funny but incredibly cynical and at one point during the questioning showed me a note saying “they have to be the dullest people alive”, I mean it may be me being naïve but actors like these two probably find press conferences quite tedious compared to their normal day to day life?



I found them both quite pleasant, Jennifer Anniston taking every question by the throat and talking for America, Whilst Owen Wilson sat back clearly at ease answering only when asked and adding sly but funny little quips throughout. On reflection seeing Owen Wilson in the flesh has somewhat ruined my appreciation of him as an actor, as he seems to just play himself in every movie. Now the press conference is under in embargo till the movie is out so I cant post anything that was said but I will of course post the link to my article so you can read more.


In regards to movies I have seen 5 this week, the first I suppose could be called another dog based comedy, but the dog is used more as a rather embarrassing plot device, The film is called sleeping dogs. It’s a film about keeping something to oneself basically either that or a lesson about how giving dogs fellatio is a bad idea and “experimenting at college” is no excuse for such lewd behaviour. It had its funny moments but you do have to keep reminding yourself that your watching a film about a girl blowing a dog, it just isn’t right; Directed like cheap porn doesn’t help.

I also watched all 3 Xmen films as part of a Xmen feature I’m writing but more on that when it’s done, I will say that the second one is still the best and the third one just gets worse on repeat viewings! The last film was Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I thought I would like this and I did, being a big fan of Judd Apatow and Russell Brand I couldn’t see what could go wrong. Mr Brand may as well have been playing himself really; there was no need to create a pop star persona.

On a final note but hopefully not the last time I write about it, me and one of my friends have decided to join forces and create a production company to write, film and produce short films. The birth of be warned productions is here, more of that as and when it happens. So on that note its goodbye for this week, I’m seeing Watchmen on Wednesday (love orange Wednesdays), can’t bloomin wait, so keep watching and reading.

Nervous? Me? Never!

I’m sitting here, thinking a few things. Where do I find more jobs? What is that smell emanating from my boys nappy? What will Owen Wilson and Jennifer Anniston be like in the flesh and will I get a question in? If so what do I ask them? Yes that’s right I’m home due to having a boss with less than 2 brain cells, spending some more time with my boys which is never a bad thing, of course that’s till Oscar decides to climb over my head whilst I’m typing (he just did). This afternoon I’m off to the Dorchester Hotel to be at the press conference for Marley and Me, I think they invited me because I’m about one of only two critics who liked the movie! Still it’s rather exciting, it’s my first press conference and the first (hopefully not the last) time I’ll meet some real movie stars and I say meet, more sort of see across a crowded room.



Enough about that, I’ll talk about it more next week and there will be a full article about it on my usual site, which of course I’ll post. In regards to movies this week not much really, I’m still watching the x files but I did watch Premonition. A Sandra Bullock movie where the title reveals pretty much all you need to know. There wasn’t anything particularly wrong with it. It was just quite boring, I gather from the plot and the script that it’s meant to be a supernatural thriller but it works at being neither. Instead due to a rather unconvincing performance as a housewife by the rather hit or miss Bullock, that’s it though this rather un eventful film is full of scenes which should be suspenseful but it fails to hit the nail on the head.

Now a bit of news for you, JJ Abrams has spoken a bit about a cloverfield sequel, its all rather exciting I didn’t think too much of it when I first watched it but it grew on me. Its more the whole mythology that went into it and the investigating on the Internet that feels really rewarding every time you find something new, that makes it so great. Anyway Abrams said and I Qoute;

"We're actually working on an idea right now.... We have an idea that we thought was pretty cool that we're playing with, which means there will be something that's connected to 'Cloverfield,' but I hope it happens sooner than later because the idea is pretty sweet."

It sounds good to me; I don’t really care what they do as long as we get some more answers. Well I’m going to leave you with a suggestion, go and see watchmen next week its going to be brilliant! Well I think it will anyway and I cant bloomin wait! So keep watching and reading please, bye.