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SEE IT

How She Move
Dir: Ian Iqbal Rashid
Starring: Rutina Wesley, Brennan Gademans, Cle Bennett, Tre Armstrong, Kevin Duhaney
***
What’s it about?
Raya Green (Wesley) is a high school student “straight outta the projects” but she is a little smarter than the average hoodrat. Studious, articulate and intelligent she is deeply passionate about dancing.

In a well worn use of plot devices Raya wants a better life for herself and in order to raise the necessary tuition funds for a place at a high falutin school she bands together with a local Step group who are about to enter an X Factor-esq competition for dancers.

Is It any good?
Whilst the acting, cinematography and photography won’t win any awards this is a visual treat when the cameras attempt to follow the incredible dance moves. Lets face it the plot is just a thinly veiled excuse for teens to engage in some seemingly back breaking dance offs which admittedly they do carry out with an intensity not seen since David LaChappelles movie Rize. The Dialogue is slightly cluncky and is delivered with a lack of authenticity that lets down an otherwise passable script.

You’ll remember this bit:
I must say I was struck by the many plot holes that pepper the paper thin plot. Judging from the amount of time that Raya’s buddies, who all happen to work in a garage, actually spend dancing instead of what they are paid to do I was surprised they could all a) Keep their jobs and b) turn a profit for the seemingly prosperous garage owner.

The sole reason this movie works is down to the sheer audaciousness of the dance routines and booming soundtrack. Spectacular, frenzied and energetic is an understatement and judging from the relatively low outlay for the film to be made and the truly spectacular stateside box office receipts I wouldn’t be surprised if a sequel is in the works as you read this.

FINE Line:
“…if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that’s a straw, you see? Watch it. And my straw reaches across the room and starts to drink your milkshake, I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!” Daniel Plainview – There Will be Blood

Bin It:
St. Trinian’s
Dir: Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson
Starring: Talulah Riley, Rupert Everett, Colin Firth and Russell Brand
*
What’s it about?
In the good ol’ days of the Empire Ealing Studio’s was once the bastion of British film making. This year to mark its triumphant return one of its tired and moth eaten franchises had the dubious honour of being remade…this is it. The all girls school is on the brink of bankruptcy and its up to the attendees to save it…all together now…Dear God no!”
Is it any good?
If it were not for my professional obligations I would have walked out of this shoddy, repugnant steaming pile of poo. Predictable, unfunny and genuinely offensive this has to be a sure contender for next years Razzies where the previous years worst movies ever created are subject to ridicule and finger pointing.
You’ll remember this bit:
For all the wrong reasons the female characters will be indelibly etched into your memory. In what has to be one of the most exploitative attempts to sexualise young adults this effort is truly shambolic. Avoid this like you would avoid a headmaster’s cane.

Reel News:

Beyonce Knowles will join Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Cedric the Entertainer and Emmanuelle Chriqui in Cadillac Records, about the 1950s music executive Leonard Chess, who discovered the likes of Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry. Knowles is playing Etta James in the film.

Hugo Weaving will join Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt in the upcoming remake of The Wolfman, which director Joe Johnston starts filming next month in London.

Fresh from the Bafta win for This is England Stephen Graham is to join the cast of Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, about the FBI agent played by Christian Bale who hunted down gangster John Dillinger Johnny Depp.

Kristin Kreuk and Chris Klein will join Rick Yune and Michael Clarke Duncan in Street Fighter, the second film based on the classic videogame about extreme fighting,the first, in 1994, starred Jean Claude Van Damme. Andrzej Bartkowiak Exit Wounds is directing.

Ellen Page will star in Drag Me To Hell, a horror film by Sam Raimi about a person who’s given a supernatural curse. Filming starts this month in Los Angeles.

Sylvester Stallone is thinking about revisiting another of his past characters, namely Gabe Walker from Cliffhanger 1993. Apparently, a sequel, called The Dam, was written in the late-90s but never managed to get into production.

One Question Interview:

Hayden Christensen star of Jumper
MM: Jumper is an incredbily physical movie. Did you end up with any cuts or bruises…or should I say did your stunt double end up with cuts and bruises?”
HC: “I split my ear open in a fight with Samuel L. Jackson’s character. Then one of my pupils hyperdilated after they put these drops in my eyes to make them go bloodshot after a fight with Jamie Bell’s character Griffin. It got stuck in the dilated position so I had to go to hospital for that.”

Roll on November!

The revolution will be televised.

Whoa! I’m nearly there folks just keep those pounds coming in. Don’t make me have to send Bob Geldoff to your house.

Other exclusive pilot episodes are also available here

What’s it about?
Following the highly successful first instalment, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis’ dusty prose are given the Hollywood treatment once again. After their adventure in the first outing, which to my mind was pretty mediocre, the Pevensie siblings are magically transported back to Narnia to do battle with a murderous king who is hell bent on usurping the titular Prince Caspian.

Is it any good?
It’s truly spectacular. Not only is it a visual treat, with lavish amounts of special effects, but the cinematography and photography are on par with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Pervensie siblings also have come to life in this follow up. Gone are the mannequin like performances that plagued the predecessor and in come a believable, charming and quite likeable family.

There are many set pieces in this that can only be described as jaw dropping. All are delivered at a pace and in a style that leaves you wondering whether the 140mins allocated to this magnificent spectacle was sufficient. It’s a tall task to ask the films intended audience to sit through well over two hours, however, this is probably why the film will be a phenomenal success on its release. You do spend a lot of time getting to know the family the pay off for your investment is a set of well drawn and thought out characters.

Never has the phrase parental guidance been more relevant to anything more than it is here. It’s dark, exceptionally so.

You’ll remember this bit?
Did I mention that it’s dark? Epic battle scenes aplenty you’ll sit agahast as the family lay waste to hordes of invaders…now this is where you may have a conflict of conscience. What do I mean, well…given the spate of teenaged violence that the media has paraded on its front pages over the last six months or so, it may be particularly hard going to watch as the Pevensie’s hack and slash to wild abandon.

E.T.A: 26.06.08

So this wasn’t press screened to Journo’s before it’s release. It’s at times like these that you can always rely on your ever dependable pals to take in a movie you wouldn’t pay to see yourself. Oh come on…I’m only telling the truth. Anyway without further ado…Tori (maybe it’s time I got my own blog) Johnson’s review is below.

Well, this is the one every single (or not so single) woman has been waiting for. After a year of snatched photos of the dresses, plot speculation, rumour and hype, it’s finally here. And I couldn’t help but think, “Would it be worth the wait?”

But let’s be honest here – the plot could have been as thin as a super model, the critics could have compared it to a Ukrainian fashion show and the cinemas could have charged the price of a Yves Saint Laurent clutch (RIP) – but still we would have flocked to see it.

All any of us can hope for is an extended version of the much missed episodes, and we weren’t disappointed. The story met the friends three years after that fateful night in Paris (what was Carrie doing with that funny little Russian anyway?) and their lives had mostly moved on. Carrie is happily in love with Mr Big, and planning to move into a penthouse apartment worthy of her expanding closet; Samantha and Smith are living in a beautiful beachfront condo in LA; Charlotte is still in heaven with her very tolerant husband and her adopted Chinese daughter; and Miranda is still in exile with the gorgeous Steve and their little boy in Brooklyn.

Everyone seems happy. Carrie and Big decide to get married and there is a huge buzz around the whole ‘event’. And then everything changes. I won’t spoil the story, but Carrie’s world comes crashing down around her ears. Charlotte gives one of the best performances of the film with just one, very out of character, look, and we get to see a rare glimpse of Sarah Jessica Parker without the styling, without the makeup and without so much as a designer pump, as she portrays a woman in utter shock and devastation.

The film is a great mix of laughter and tears, giving the viewer even more insight into the lives and loves of these four women and how fragile relationships and friendships can be. The writing is wonderful and the length, although quite long, never feels drawn out. On the contrary, you didn’t want it to end.

So, as I type this, I can’t help but wonder, “Is this the best film of all time”? And the answer came loud and clear. It may not be up there with the classics of modern cinematography, but how many times are you likely to invite all your friends over to watch Gregory Peck in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’? How often did anyone say that they couldn’t wait to see the film again after watching ‘No Country for Old Men’? And where in ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest’ did you see a classic Milano Blahnik blue heal, with stunning diamante detail? Exactly.

Apologies for not posting for a while. Copy deadlines for TOUCH, TV appearances and a brand new project whoatv!

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I was a little tied up earlier this week so could not make the press screening. So I sent it girl about town Tori “I can raise a million pounds single handedly” Johnson who had this to say…

When you get offered tickets to a preview screening of a film, you automatically hope against hope for it to be one of the films you have been waiting to see for months. In my case, that film is Sex and the City. I’m a thirty-something single woman, with a career, great set of friends and a shoe and handbag collection to rival that of Bloomingdales. I’m also going to New York for my holidays this year, and, at a push, could call watching the film ‘research’…. All this goes to prove that I am most definitely not the demographic for Indiana Jones and the Wotsit of the Crystal Thingy. However, my flatmate is a lifelong Harrison Ford fan (second only to Johnny Depp) so we went.

And I’m glad I did. This film is exactly what an Indiana Jones film should be. If you were expecting the franchise to have been modernised, updated, glamorised or ‘improved’ in any way, then you will be disappointed. The film held my attention throughout with some very well choreographed set-pieces and clever comical action sequences. The film nodded more than once to the previous films (in one part, less of a nod and more of a full convulsion!), but, however tenuous or contrived, it all seemed to work.

The first few scenes made humour out of our aging action hero, but once the film got going, Indy was the man he always was and could be seen flying through the action just as energetically as ever he did. Although, the focus was most definitely on Shia Le Boef who took on the role of young buck beautifully, despite having all the hallmarks of being a bit annoying at the beginning, with his James Dean swagger and DA hairstyle. Without giving anything away, the scene with the monkeys and the vines could have gone horribly wrong, but seemed to work within the setting of unbelievable, fast paced action – think Pirates of the Caribbean meets the Mummy Returns!

John Hurt was fantastic and Ray Winston gave his usual cockney cheeky-chappie performance, no more no less, exactly what was needed. However, the award for best character has to go to Cate Blanchette’s [sorry - can't remember name], who’s sinister, mind-reading, Russian villain was perfectly performed, and almost had you rooting for her at the end.

Thirteen year old boys won’t be disappointed either, there is the obligatory scene with swarms of killer creepy crawlies and plenty of danger to overcome on the way to an epic CGI conclusion!

All in all, very much worth the price of a ticket. Ignore the negative press, this film ticks all the boxes and is destined to become a much loved Christmas Day movie of the future. Oh, and Harrison seems to have usurped Johnny Depp. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled!