Tag Archives: Film Friday

January 11, 2013 · 2:17 pm

Film Friday: Movie 43

So. This is how it usually goes. I hear about a film. Watch the trailer. I hate it and subsequently slag it off, compare it to other, better films like it and suggest you go and see something else. WELL, this Friday, my friends, is different because I’ve found Movie 43.

It may not have a catchy or descriptive title, but the film itself looks pretty good from the 2 minute 32 seconds I’ve seen of it via the trailer; which is a feat in itself when you think about oh, say, The Oranges’ trailer, which was supposed to actually make people want to spend £8 on going to see it but in reality was painful.

They’re billing Movie 43 as the ‘”most outrageous comedy ever made”, starring “some of the biggest names in Hollywood”, which I don’t disagree with at all.

It has about a million [25-ish] of these “biggest names in Hollywood” in it, including Emma Stone, Hugh Jackman, Chloe Moretz, Kate Winslet, Gerard Butler, Halle Berry, Kate Bosworth, Richard Gere, Kristen Bell and Justin Long and the guy from Saturday Night Live and Stifler and….. well, a lot of people. Stephen Merchant also pops up which is a pleasant surprise. But don’t be put off by all the ‘big names’; it looks nothing like Valentine’s Day and I can’t see Rachel Berry anywhere near the thing.

The only issue I have with the film so far is that I couldn’t spot Uma in the trailer, but maybe I wasn’t concentrating. That’s it. Really. Let’s hope Gerard Butler doesn’t feature in it too much and ruin it with his cray accent.

Want to see what I’m on about? Well you’ll have to visit the official trailer page for Movie 43 as it’s been kicked off YouTube by The Man.

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November 23, 2012 · 10:48 am

Film Friday: World War Z

Back to business. RIGHT. World War Z. Unusually, the trailer for this film, based on the book by Max Brooks, doesn’t seem to give much away, but I think it’s safe to say that the ‘Z’ might stand for zombies.

From what I can tell though, it looks a bit I Am Legend-esque but with a few more humans and one less dog. But I could be wrong. Brad could end up with an Alsatian at some point, who am I to say otherwise.

There’s the standard ‘lets escape from New York City but oh, everyone else has had the same idea at the same time’ thing that you tend to see with the ol’ zombie apocalypse films, with Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt, is there any other? Cooper doesn’t count) and his family inevitably stuck in a big traffic jam. Something seems to be ‘amiss’, a big lorry crashes(?) and they decide they have to get to ‘safety’.

From what I can gather, they then proceed to hide from zombies, make a narrow escape thanks to some form of government helicopter but then, THEN, Brad has to go back into the danger to save the day, ’cause he’s “well suited for the job”. A quick IMDB on this has now informed me that Brad’s a U.N. employee, so obviously he will be a huge help. The repetitive “tell the kids I’m coming back” line however probably means that he’s a gonner, but only time, and going to see the actual full film, will tell.

So, if you can get past the little voice in your head that keeps repeating “his hair. Brad Pitt’s hair. his hair. Why” then I think it could be a pretty good film, if you’re into that end of the world thing. Which I am currently, but who know’s what’ll happen next year, I might be all happy endings and that.

World War Z is set to be released in June 2013.

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October 5, 2012 · 10:27 am

Film Friday: The Oranges

Right, Film Friday returns in a faux blaze of glory with, The Oranges. The what? I hear you exclaim. Well, The Oranges. The beauty of me typing this so you can read it on a screen is that you can go back and re-read it again if you didn’t understand the first time.

SO. The Oranges*. I basically picked this because I’m obsessed with Blair Waldorf and her collection of coats (Leighton Meester, who incidentally stars in this film, how coincidental) and I am desperate for her to be in a GOOD film. Not excellent, not mind-blowing, just good, I beg of you. It’s all I ask.

The film’s set in West Orange, get it, and appears to be about two families who are friends and centres on Christmas/Thanks Giving time, whatever. They get together to do whatever family stuff they usually do and then they discover that the daughter in one of the families, Leighton alert, is having some form of weird affair with Hugh Laurie’s character, who is the dad of the other family. HILAR RIGHT?

Doesn’t look like it, no. My prediction: Happy families enjoying turkey for the holidays. Leighton turns up from college? Awk looks between Blair and House. Family oblivious. ‘Mom’ discovers affair. Rest of family discover affair. Blair’s dad is cross at affair. Goes to punch House. Something happens to put things ‘in perspective’. Everyone forgives Blair and House, with underlying unease from the other dad. Blair and/or House breaks it off. They want different things. ‘Mom’ happy she got what she wanted in the end. The end.

So, guess what? It looks like it’s going to be another predictable, flop of a Leighton film. Yipee. That’s what I get from the trailer anyway. I could be very, very wrong and it could be class, but that’s the job of the trailer; to not give the whole plot away – which this basically does – and to actually make me want to go and see this. So we’ll never know, because I’m not spending £8 in Vue to see it. How you like them, oranges?

Do you agree or disagree? Am I being harsh[er than usual]? Do you even care? Watch the trailer below for The Oranges, which is out in December if you fancy it. Gossip Girl series one to five are all available on Amazon at the moment too, probably a wiser investment.

*Surely Orange will be all over this for those adverts they do about ‘ruining’ your film? Well I say don’t bother, it already looks pretty bad. Plus you can’t beat The Expendables 2 one you did with Robert ‘Jay from The Inbetweeners’ Crumper.

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September 7, 2012 · 10:12 am

Film Friday: Hansel and Gretel

It’s been a while I know, but Film Friday has returned and by gosh is it a good one. Well that’s what I thought when I heard about a retelling of fairytale Hansel and Gretel. Guess I was wrong.

I usually love a good fairytale remake, Snow White and the Huntsman, Sleeping Beauty, blah blah and the blah blah, so I was uncharacteristically open minded about this particular re-imagining.

Directed by Norwegian Tommy Wirkola, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters stars Gemma Arterton and Jeremy Renner as grown up versions of the fairytale siblings who, as I recall, followed a path of sweets, ate a significant amount of somebody else’s house that was made of candy sticks and then one of them got locked in an oven.

Well, they’re baaaaaack and they’re taking revenge. On witches. With guns and the like. It feels a bit Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter to me, which is never good, and Renner looks about as wooden as Little Red Riding Hood’s Grandma’s log cabin.

It’s set to open in March 2013, but I’ve done some research of your behalf and Jack the Giant Killer, the remake of Carrie, starring the little girl from Kick Ass, and Oz: The Great and Powerful are all out around that time too. So, yeah, it’s up to you.

Want to know what I’m jabbering on about? Watch the trailer below:

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August 3, 2012 · 9:54 am

Film Friday: Skyfall

After Bond’s appearance at the London 2012 opening ceremony last Friday, it seems very timely that the brand new trailer for Skyfall was released this week.

Unfortunately, the Queen doesn’t make an appearance this time – and I’m yet to decide if two Bond Girls make up for that omission – but it seems Skyfall is going to be yet another triumph for the Daniel Craig era.

The 2-minute-25-second-long preview begins with Bond plummeting to his ‘death’, shot by Bond Girl number one, Naomie Harris, under orders from Judi Dench’s M.

It seems 007 has a bit of fun being ‘dead’, drinking and trapping scorpions and the like, before resurrecting himself and his one-liners to deal with new villain, Silva, played by Javier Bardem.

From the trailer, we basically get everything you’d expect from a Bond film really, which isn’t a bad thing by a long shot. Patriotism, gadgets, an unnerving villain and Bond being, well Bond, with a lady in a shower.

Whatever you think, I’d suggest getting on board with Bond now, because as of October, 007 mania will have hit thanks to the spy reaching his 50th birthday. Many happy returns.

Skyfall is set to reach UK cinemas on 26 October 2012.

 

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June 22, 2012 · 8:44 am

Film Friday: Monsters University

I’m going to go right out there and say that absolutely every Pixar film has been incredible – one word, Up – and this Monsters Inc prequel is just the next in a long list of great movies dreamed up by the studios.

Monsters University will apparently “look at the relationship between Mike and Sulley during their days at the University of Fear – when they weren’t necessarily the best of friends”, but that’s all we’ve got on it. To be fair, that’s all I need.

The teaser trailer looks amazing, however the only downside is that we’re going to have to wait A YEAR for it to hit screens over here. It may be a long time, but just think – the Olympics will be over, the country will have even less money left than it does now and it’ll probably be a glorious, rainy ‘summer’. At least we’ll have something to look forward to besides our all inclusive to somewhere-sunny-but-dead-cheap ville.

Monsters University is scheduled for completion 21 June 2013.

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June 15, 2012 · 10:07 am

Film Friday: Taken 2

Film fans, your prayers have been answered. The cinema gods have bestowed on us something that has the potential to be quite special; Taken 2.

That’s right, Neeson is back. And he’s still angry about the bad guys stealing his daughter. Well, not really, though I can’t imagine he’s forgotten all about it. The story’s taken a bizarre turn and involves Brian Mills (Neeson) and his wife being taken hostage! Oh, how the table’s have turned, Liam.

In an extra twist, the kidnapper is… spoiler alert Taken fans, the father of one of the THOUSANDS of people Liam Neeson killed in the first film.

Wouldn’t it be great if Mills’ daughter saved her mum and dad, like a darker version of Richie Rich but minus Culkin and with less of the big mansion with its own McDonalds? Apologies if that actually happens, I haven’t actually seen the film.

Here are some stills that have been released in the run up to release though, they’re pretty much what you’d expect and involve Mr Neeson staring wistfully into the distance looking very serious indeed.

Taken 2 is set for release in the UK on 5 October 2012.

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May 11, 2012 · 3:34 pm

Film Friday (again): Gangster Squad

Yes, yes I know I’ve already done a Film Friday. But I want to do another one. Mainly because this one involves Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, together, in the same film, again.

Ok, enough’s enough. So, Gangster Squad. If you stalk the Daily Mail’s Showbiz page on a daily basis like yours truly, then you will most probably have seen some of the stills that go along with this particular film already – think Gosling in long coats and a hat, like a blonde, less affair-prone Don Draper.

You may also have an inkling about the plot, but for the rest of you who don’t know, the official synopsis states that Gangster Squad is set in Los Angeles in 1949 and follows “ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen”, played by Sean Penn. That’s right, there are other people in the film. Did you think it’d all be brooding Ryan? Jeez:

“Mickey Cohen runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and – if he has his way – every wire bet placed west of Chicago.

“And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control.  It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop… except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.”

Take a cheeky look at the first trailer and see what you think – don’t be put off by Penn, just try and look past him:

Gangster Squad is set for release in the UK in November 2012.

Related: Sean Penn blasts Britain, again
Out today: Dark Shadows

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· 10:02 am

Film Friday: Argo

The first trailer for Warner Bros. Pictures’ and GK Films’ thriller, Argo, starring Ben Affleck, has been released.

The film follows the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979.

It’s based on a true story and chronicles the truth behind the rescue, which has apparently been hidden from the public for decades.

The basic film plot itself is pretty believable, mainly as it’s supposedly based on a true story, but I did stare blankly at my monitor when I heard what Tony Mendez’s (Affleck) plan to get the American’s out of Iran was.

It’s risky [read 'silly'] to say the least, but it probably works, because they wouldn’t have made a film about it if it didn’t. So, if you can get past that hurdle – and Ben Affleck’s beard – then it could be a fairly good watch.

Since it’s only out in October, prepare for a PR battering, as the film’s been produced by someone called George Clooney, as well as Grant Heslov and Affleck. I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ll hear of Argo.

Have a look at the trailer below:

Argo is slated for release in October 2012.

Out today: Dark Shadows

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April 13, 2012 · 10:09 am

Film Friday: Django Unchained

The first film poster for acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino’s new picture, Django Unchained, has been revealed.

The new artwork debuted on the movie’s official Twitter page on 11 April and shows two silhouetted figures walking side by side underneath a broken chain.

According to reports, the Spanish version of the poster says ‘Próximamente’ (coming soon), while the English language poster depicts a festive release date.

Django Unchained is set to star Jamie Foxx as former slave, Django, who treks across America to free his wife.

The film, which has reportedly been based on Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 picture, Django, will also feature Christoph Waltz, Kerry Washington and Leonardi DiCaprio, with Samuel L Jackson, Kurt Russell and Sacha Baron Cohen also tipped to appear.

Django Unchained will reportedly hit cinemas in January 2013.

Image: The Weinstein Company

 

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