Filed under: Movie News
Really? Why did Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock change from wrestling to acting? In his past films, he has smashed and crashed his way in WWE style.
Firstly, there was his tiny role in The Mummy Returns and Johnson began his light-hearted action hero career as the ruler of Egypt. And even though there was no body slam, his jilted acting suited the part fairly well.
Then came his very own ‘feature film’ with The Scorpion King where he played the frowning, sexy, bronzed character Mathayus. Another fairly fluffy film for the wrestling heavyweight.
The last film that has hit the Hollywood radar to include Johnson, was Get Smart – another corny, silly yet pretty funny flick. Johnson played the big, sexy and capable Agent 23. So when will Johnson break out of the ring (excuse the pun) and find a serious role?
Right now it seems.
After child and family friendly movies, Johnson is in talks will the producers of Faster, an edgier action movie, to star in the lead role. Here he will play an ex-con, hell bent on avenging the death of his brother. Lets just wait and see whether this action movie will need a Running Powerslam or not.
Dwayne Johnson: will he ever step out of the ring?
Filed under: Movie News
James McAvoy is breaking out of the serious movie mould and has just signed on to the lead role in the black comedy, The Details.
After appearing in historically dark flicks such as the Last King of Scotland and alongside Kiera Knightley in Atonement, a film about a raccoon invasion in his backyard may not be the change that McAvoy is looking for.
In his recent film career, the closest thing James McAvoy has gotten to a comedy is during his role in Wanted, as a gun toting assassin prodigy. Not planned as a comedy, Wanted was more hilarious for its overcooked story line and overtly sexual characters. Wanted was as corny as a backyard full of vermin.
James McAvoy, sticking to what he does best, drama.
McAvoy will work alongside Laura Linney, Elizabeth Banks and Anna Friel in The Details, which will start filming in Summer in Seattle.
Filed under: Opinion Pieces
Typically, vampires are bloodsucking, bat turning, coffin sleeping, scary monsters in capes. Even Montgomery Burns made a nice looking vampire in The Simpsons Halloween Special, with the typical bee high hive hair and blood dripping from his fangs.
But the latest vampire flick to come out of Tinseltown, Twilight, has given a new spin to the cannibal image. Not only is the vampire family vegetarian (or at least as vegetarian as a Vampire can be – they only suck the blood of animals) but also they play baseball, go to school and have lewd, very taboo relationships.
Twilight is the film version of Stephenie Meyer’s widely successful novel that has been wooing teens since 2006. Now on film the Twilight phenomenon, with Robert Pattison as the dreamy Edward Cullen, has reached fever pitch.
And when I think about it, I’m not really sure why?
Twilight is a story about Edward, a ‘good’ vampire who falls for Bella, a girl who has just moved to the dreary town of Forks. Just your simple story of boy meets girl: boy finds girl so irresistible that he wants to suck her blood. The pair become lovers, not in a physical way, and all is peachy until another vampire sets out on a hunt for Bella. The Cullen family defends her and their love is saved.
The film is brilliantly corny and overdone. It has fabulous un-dead stereotypes like the incredibly white skin of the Cullen family that forced me to shield my eyes from the glare.
These hero-come-vampires also have a fully functioning kitchen, even though they don’t cook and the patriarch of the family is the town’s best doctor. Do his patients not notice his 18th Century vibe?
And where are our leading lovers fangs? And why doesn’t he perish in the sunlight? It is these simple vampire character changes that have made the Twilight a success. It’s this corniness and the unrequited love between the ever pale, yet very good looking lead characters that make this film work.
Edward and his love Bella swing from the trees in the corny flick, Twilight.
Filed under: Movie Reviews
If Slumdog Millionaire were art, then the medium would be language, painted with emotion and culture. Any scene from this Academy Award winning film could be used as a still, and be hung in a museum. This colourful, fast paced and often gritting film juxtaposes the decay of culture in the beautiful nation of India with the rise of wealth, greed and corruption.
Jamal Malik (Dev Patal) looks out over where his slum used to be.
Set in the slums of Mumbai, Slumdog Millionaire is a rag to riches story of the uneducated Jamal Malik (Dev Patal) who goes on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and is able to answer every question correctly.
Jamal becomes an overnight sensation in India from success on the first night of the show. The cocky host Prem Kumar, played brilliantly by Anil Kapur, suspects the chai-wallah (as he has labelled Jamal) is a cheat and contacts police. After the filming, he is whisked away by the overly brutal police for interrogation and torture.
During very violent torture scenes, Jamal reveals how he knew the Millionaire answers through a biographic retelling of his life and love. The flashbacks and their relevance to the questions is a huge coincidence but necessary for the movement of the plot. Also, viewers may question the realism behind the Indian police would using electro torture on a game show contestant.
Through flashback, the audience will see a young Jamal grows up amongst incredible poverty, pollution and religious racism; his mother is killed in an anti-Muslim riot in his slum. This begins his journey alongside his troubled and often psychotic brother Salim and his lifelong love, Latika.
Slumdog Millionaire has been heavily criticised in the American media for its portrayal of and its alleged ‘glorification’ of Indian poverty, pollution and the slums. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle uses the camera to highlight the mountains of plastic and dirty river water against the childish playfulness of a young Jamal. The slums are filmed with the same fast paced editing that the Indian skyscrapers are, showing no difference between the two.
There is no stand out performance in this film they are all amazing for their age. Freida Pinto as an older Latika is revered and mature, whilst Salim (Madhur Mittal) plays his gun wielding, gangsta character to a tee. Director Danny Boyle has created Jamal’s two closest loves to represent the different sides of a modern India.
Unlike many other films to appear on our screens in 2008/2009, Slumdog Millionaire has a different cultural effect. The films heroes are Muslim and are not American. This sparks a beautiful change in dynamics in the film and its genre.
Filed under: Opinion Pieces
The 2008 remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still should possibly be renamed The Day this film stood still.
Another flick where the general public (i.e. us) are berated over our existence. And that’s not to say that I do not agree with the general message of the film, but during this movie, it is drilled into the viewer like algebra in Year 9.
Keanu Reeves plays the creepy alien with a conscience in The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Day the Earth Stood Still, staring Jennifer Connelly and Keanu Reeves is about an alien vessel landing on Earth to save the planet from its destructive species, humans. The fairly peaceful alien invasion is met with American hostility, confirming the alien’s (Keanu Reeves) opinion of people.
The major messages of climate change, violence and kindness are thrust upon the viewer from the onset of the film. There are many more troughs than peaks, especially during America’s constant barrage of violence on the ‘friendly’ ETs.
The climate change and violence issue is a common one in Hollywood of late. Even animation is getting in on the message with films like Wall-e using it as a draw card for its audience. Notice the trend yourself by watching Knowing, The Day the Earth Stood Still and even Transformers to gain a Hollywood conscience.
Filed under: Movie News
The UK’s comedic phenomenon Russell Brand is set to take the lead role in a remake of the 1991 film, Drop Dead Fred. Brand is said to play Rik Mayall’s old role as the imaginary friend of Phoebe Cates, a wallflower who has recently lost her job.
Rik Mayall as Drop Dead Fred
The original Drop Dead Fred, produced by PolyGram and Working Title was heavily criticised by the media and financially unsuccessful. Empire magazine described the film as “Awful in a way that only Tom Green fans could begin to recognise and appreciate.”
Despite it’s down falls, the early 90s flick developed its own cult following, something that Universal pictures may be banking on in the remake.
The newest version is rumoured to be similar to Beetlejuice, with this version written by Dennis McNicholas whose recent works include Land of the Lost with Will Ferrell.
This will be Brand’s second Hollywood flick after his success with Forgetting Sarah Marshell, with more films including Get him to the Greek and Arthur coming up on his schedule.
Russell Brand as the latest Fred
Filed under: Movie News
Universal pictures has released the poster for Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest comedy flick, Bruno, coming to cinemas on July 10th. Cohen is bringing his gay, Austrian supermodel character to the big screen after the success of his first mockumentary, Borat.
During Bruno, Cohen openly challenges social stereotypes like homophobia and racism in the most outrageous way. Bruno has already been slammed by the American media for having gay sex scenes, including a scene where Cohen appears to have anal sex with a man on camera.
Once again, Cohen has drawn in the unsuspecting bystander and caught them on camera with his crazy character, which proves to be a winning combination for the audience.
Sacha Baron Cohen in Bruno
Zac Efron, who tantalises the screaming masses, can make a potato sack look positively delicious. But could this teen heartthrob make the Easter rom-com 17 Again shine?
Zac Efron in 17 Again
For a movie that is full of eye candy (including the several shots of a shirtless Efron playing hoops) may only please a very few, with miss cast characters, too many sappy moments and the comic highlights coming from a Star Wars nerd playing Efron’s surrogate uncle.
The movie begins with Mike (Efron) as the school basketball start in 1989 who has the promise of a college scholarship, but gives it up for his pregnant girlfriend Scarlett (Leslie Mann).
The film then jumps to 2009, with Mike now craggy Matthew Perry as a disappointed separated dad, whose children thoroughly dislike him. Perry looks incredibly tired and his jittery acting style doesn’t work for the fatherly role.
When Mike longs to be 17 again, a weathered old janitor (his ‘spirit guide’) uses the twinkle in his eye to sweep him back to his pubescent self.
Mike returns to school as the positively gorgeous son of his best friend Ned (played by Thomas Lennon), a Star Wars loving nerd who found riches after being tormented in high school.
Lennon gives the film a great comic relief, with his attempted courting of the high school principal and when they speak in their native Lord of the Rings tongue, Elvish.
The film has some big highs and lows, but is broken by large sappy moments where the camera zooms in on Efron’s concerned and pensive face. His courtship of Leslie Mann, whilst he is 17 and she is 37 is slightly creepy.
17 Again is a great film for a very, very light hearted watch and perfect for the tweeny age group. Another tick against Zac Efron’s name.
Filed under: Movie Reviews
For a film that requires little dialogue and covers a topic that should scare mankind, Pixar has created another lovable, funny and thoughtful animation, Wall-e.
Wall-e and Eve watch the sunset.
Director Andrew Stanton has created a fluid animation to suit all age groups, which has an eye opening message about friendship, love and our fragile Earth.
Wall-e is set over 700 years into the future, when the world is void of human, plant or animal life, overrun by garbage and waste. It tells a bleak tale of the hundreds of years of environmental damage done by humans, their greed and consumerism.
Surviving humans have driven themselves off their native planet and are living on a holiday ship, the Axiom. Now obese and confined to hover chairs permanently, these super-sized humans lives are now controlled by computers. The ships useless caption (Jeff Garlin) even knows nothing about his home planet, in a scene where he uses the principles of Google to look up ‘Farm.’
Back on Earth, a small dented robot named Wall-e (Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth Class), voice by Ben Burtt, zips about compacting the waste that has been left. Wall-e and his best friend, a cockroach that he has trained, roam the desolate city collecting Zippo lighters, spare parts and even a green plant that he places in a shoe.
Wall-e spends his nights alone, protected from the dust storms in his home, the back of a truck with his possessions watching “Hello Dolly.” This isn’t the only not-so-sneaky movie reference during Wall-e. Throughout the 95 minute feature film, Sigourney Weaver makes a voice cameo and hilariously there are several references to “2001 – A Space Odyssey” and “Wallace and Gromit.”
The little robots life changes when Eve (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), voice by Elissa Knight, lands on Earth sent from the Axiom. Eve is brand new, sleek and silent robot with a capacity to kill. Her directive is to seek out plant life on Earth. Wall-e finds her beautiful and they soon meet in a oddly cute display of beeps and broken English.
Wall-e unwittingly shows the now playful Eve the plant he had found earlier, she grabs it and falls silent. Her directive is now complete. Wall-e follows Eve back to the Axiom and directly to possibly danger, hundreds of light years away in a display of love and loyalty.
Through animation, Wall-e takes the doom and gloom out of real world topics that the audience is faced with daily. Wall-e doesn’t need death, violence or other Hollywood devices to shine the light on obesity, climate change and gross over-consumerism. It simply uses a friendship to intelligently and humorously prove its point.
Filed under: Movie Reviews
Burn After Reading is the latest film from the notoriously brilliant Cohen brothers, who have brought together an all star cast for this witty comic thriller.
The Cohen brothers have utilised the best of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton and Frances McDormand to create a film that pulls in four different directions at once.
Opening with a Google style map of the US, the camera moves in on the CIA HQ where we quickly meet our angry, isolated and grimacing Osbourne Cox (played by the hilarious John Malkovich). Oz is being demoted from his analyst job with the CIA for his apparent drinking problem. After a Malkovich style rant, where every syllable is properly enunciated (“you-re fuck-ing fir-er-ing me!!”), he quits.
Upon arrival home he declares to his ice queen of a wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton) that he will write his memoirs. Her dry, lack lustre reply of, “Who’d read that?” clinches the scene.
Katie is having a one sided love affair with the sex toy loving, Internetdating and married Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) and has started divorced proceedings. The federal agent, who consistently quips throughout the film, “I could get a run in,” is a pet peeve of Osbourne Cox and just another thing on his hit list.
When a CD of Cox’s seemingly explosive memoirs are found on the floor of HardBodies gym, we are introduced to the films greatest comic reliefs; Chad FeldHeimer (Brad Pitt) and Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand).
The super wannabe cool Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading
Linda is a self-obsessed wannabe, pining for a man and plastic surgery that isn’t covered by her HMO. Chad is a Lycra wearing, pepped, exercise freak, constantly bobbing about to a silent iPod beat. The two best friends believe the memoirs to be “top secret sensitive shit” as Chad so often and eloquently puts it, and try to sell it back to Oz AND the Russians.
The plot throws another spanner in the works when Linda, another serial on line dater, finds herself on a date with Harry. Both are pleasantly ignorant about the paranoia and death that they will soon cause.
The Burn plot is continually checked by scoreless scenes with CIA directives (where the film began). The boss, played by JK Simmons, is amusingly carefree about the shootings, beating and sex that plagues this small group of fools. When it is declared as “no biggie”, the audience begins to notice the Cohen brothers underlying tones.
Notable performances come from Brad Pitt, who creates a dimwitted character, blissfully ignorant of the web that his equally inept BFF Linda is weaving and from the slightly deranged George Clooney who creates a sleazy, needy and paranoid out of his dildo wielding character.
This stellar cast produces some food for thought in this typical Cohen brothers film that has a storyline lurches, quick fire editing, relatable characters and dry black humour. The attention to detail is incredible in the film, down to Brad Pitt’s red lyrca skins and the American flag bed sheets and pillow cases that Harry and Katie have sex on.
The film essentially revolves around a small group of needy and deceitful people, that all compensate by sleeping with each other (in a sense).
The Cohen brothers obvious stab at main stream America, paranoia and national knowledge is funny, dramatic and always just that little bit weird.
A Film Affair 