Nic Cage does his frowny acting as Will Gerard; a man who has it all and is, therefore, definitely about to lose it. We meet Will and wife Laura (January Jones) on the night of their anniversary (they must be happy); Will gives her a lovely necklace (they must be super happy) and they dance their no-troubles away in a jazzy club in a post-Katrina New Orleans (happiness in the face of adversity?). The next day Will goes off to teach underprivileged kids about Shakespeare cos that’s the kind of man he is, Laura goes off to her lovely cello rehearsal because that’s the kind of woman she is and Guy Pearce hasn’t turned up yet because he’s the bad one and we don’t need any insights into the kind of man he is. Essentially, it’s all going well; the kind of well things go in a Nic Cage film before, out of nowhere, all the Bad Shit goes down. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, Bad Shit goes down.

Will is called to hospital after Laura is attacked and raped in her car, and whilst numbly waiting for the police to show up he’s propositioned by an elegant stranger. An elegant, sinister kind of stranger that promises Will he and his organisation can deliver the kind of justice the police are unable to provide. Justice that involves a violent, secret death and absolutely no consequences, probably. Shaken, horrified, vulnerable and full of Nic Rage, Will eventually agrees to Simon’s (we told you) offer, and is almost instantaneously informed of the rapist’s untimely demise. Satiated, if a little shaken, Will is left with one warning – that at some point he himself may be called upon to do a favour. A phonecall, a delivery, something like that. Except, obviously, it won’t be anything like that. It isn’t long before Nic’s number is up and he’s given his task: to commit a murder himself. And despite his lukewarm protestations, it soon becomes clear that Simon’s the kind of guy who expects you do what he says.

The central premise of Justice – that when the police fail it’s up to the citizens to defend their city – is a perfectly solid one, though it has to be said that Guy Pearce doles out the offers we can’t refuse with significantly less charisma than Brando. In fact, the first third of Justice zips by with relative speed and intrigue, but soon begins to falter under the weight of its own set-up. Hinting at moles within every organisation, links with the police, newspapers – an entire, powerful underworld of justice-bringers, it simply doesn’t give itself the time to build a slick air of paranoia (see Fight Club), but neither does it bring enough action to batter its way through its plot-holes (a la Expendables). Instead, it’s forced to resort to ridiculous, half-hearted set pieces and hurried tidying away of loose ends in order to gambol towards a fairly stupid conclusion (spoiler: if in doubt, end with Massive Shooting).

January Jones does very little except look a bit sad (you may remember this from her characters in ANYTHING AT ALL), and though Nic certainly tries a bit harder than he does in Trespass, you can’t shake the feeling that behind his tortured, why-god-why-me eyes you can see the golden glint of yet another easy pay cheque. At the end of the day, it’s another Nic Cage film, and if you want to watch another Nic Cage film where Nic Cage goes hard in a post-Katrina New Orleans, you could do worse than watching Bad Lieutenant. Wait, which one were we talking about?

Well this first one appears to be a big stone head. Hi, Mr Stonehead!

This second one has some real people in it who appear to be – hey look! It’s Mr Stonehead again! He’s everywhere these days. And there’s Charlize and Idris chilling on the deck of the Prometheus. Wouldn’t they make a handsome couple? (Come to think of it, why are these genius space travellers all so physically attractive?) There’s a nice, incredibly vague quote from Ridley Scott on the side there – “fans of the original Alien will definitely notice some things”. God, why don’t you just RUIN it for us, Ridley?

And here’s Noomi, Michael and Logan hanging around looking like their heads have been stuck on. That’s weird. Those lights in their neck bits must make their necks hot. And is that blonde hair on Fassy? Someone’s been using the Sun-In!

These are kind of cool, we think. They look a bit photoshopped and don’t really give much away, and we’d like to see photos of the other peeps, like Patrick Wilson and Rafe Spall. But we admit it, we’re excited. The film is due for release next June.

The film centres around Sally (Madison), a lonely little girl who has been sent by her mother to live with her father Alex the architect (Pearce) and his girlfriend Kim (Holmes) in their newly renovated mansion. Childish curiosity along with whispered encouragements from mysterious voices leads Sally to reveal a hidden basement within the house (conveniently missed by an expert architect?!). Further investigation exposes the area as the workroom of a famous artist, Blackwood, who once resided in the house before vanishing without a trace. Sally is immediately drawn to an ash chute in the centre of the darkened room, from which untrustworthy utterances plead her to come and play with them. And she complies. Man, kids can be dumb.

The film contains all the classic Del Toro ingredients of a potentially terrifying film; a young victim, a twisted fairytale, a small cast, complete with imaginatively creepy monsters. Unfortunately the elements just didn’t mix well together, and everything ends up getting burnt in the oven (metaphor speak for ‘the film was too damn long’). Whilst the creatures seem rather sinister at first, they are exposed far too early, stripping away the powerful fear of the unknown. However, I can appreciate the chilling history behind their existence, and their menacing motives, but after all the over exposure they seemed more of a nuisance than a threat.

The beginning is promisingly eerie, gifting the audience with a snippet of background through a scene in which Blackwood offers a dish of teeth to the ominous voices in the ash chute before being sucked in himself. The set-up for the rest of the film is pretty predictable; new family move into the house, weird stuff starts happening.

The main problem rests with Sally – try as I might, I just couldn’t bring myself to like her. Which in turn, makes it difficult to care for her safety, and consequently the fear you should feel for her diminishes. The young character Ofelia in Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth managed to do some rather silly things, but her courage invoked empathy, and let’s face it – shit was going down in her world. In comparison, Sally’s world just doesn’t seem bleak enough to warrant her desire to unleash hellish creations into her home. Nixey blames this act on naive childish innocence or curiosity, which doesn’t seem very believable considering her normal behaviour. For example, she appears to possess sharp intellectual insight into her mother’s true intentions, stating “She gave me to dad”; implying Sally realised that her mother objectified her. This knowledge makes her moment of weakness seem recklessly foolish rather than forgivable.

The other characters are also missing that crucial likeability factor. Pearce is puzzlingly blasé as the workaholic father; even if all this nastiness is in Sally’s mind, surely this would cause reason for concern? This establishes a weak relationship between the pair. In fact, the most emotional connection is between Sally and Kim, which begins quite badly (due to the little madam’s attitude) but develops into something closer like mother and daughter. This dramatic change occurs thanks to Kim’s willingness to trust, and the hints that she endured a traumatic childhood, allowing her to sympathise with Sally on a level that Alex cannot comprehend.

The writers rely on this relationship to be the pinnacle of the film – without a strong bond between the two, the tragic finale loses all its impact. Sadly, this happened to be the case. I think a bit more back-story of Kim’s character, and more screen time of her bonding with Sally would have created a deeply moving climax. All these issues culminated in a rather flat effect. If, like me, you are a Del Toro fan, then expect to be grimly disappointed by his latest creation. It’s not a bad attempt of horror, and it’s more imaginative than your standard haunted house flick, but Del Toro’s standards are usually set so much higher.

#10 – Shutter Island

Aha, bet you weren’t expecting this! Sure, it’s a relative newbie to the genre, but it’s a damn goody too! Meet U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels, as depicted by the increasingly better-with-age Leonardo DiCaprio. He’s busy investigating the disappearance of a murderess in a hospital for the criminally insane; with huge walls, intense security, an island setting and the added obstacle of a hurricane, the case seems almost impossible to solve. And as Teddy throws himself into his work, he begins to doubt his own sanity. Memories that were never his, flashbacks to a past long forgotten and seeing things that aren’t really there… this movie doesn’t just mess with time, it messes with your head too!

#9 – High Fidelity

A love story from a guy’s point of view is always intriguing, but when that guy is music-obsessed Rob (John Cusack) it becomes a definite must-see. He’s just broken up with his girlfriend and, rather than move on, he’s decided to dwell on the past. I can identify with that. In fact, he compiles a list of his Top 5 break-ups. A little like your very own desert island list of despair! Where a single song can transport you back in time, or one word can cause Rob to disappear into a world of fantasy, this fun flick gives time games the indie-cool edge that inspired the (slightly weaker) 500 Days Of Summer.

#8 – The Matrix

You want a headmesser of a movie? You can’t go wrong with The Matrix, as Keanu Reeves is quick to find out. This one doesn’t just play games with time, it wipes out the concept completely. That’s right; our everyday lives are just dreams programmed into our brains by alien controllers. And, once you break out of the Matrix, you can even bend time to your will. Remember the cool scene where Keanu stops the bullets with his mind? That’s the one. Or, aptly, he’s The One. Watch it, be baffled by it, but do not try to understand it. Ever. There’s rumours that somebody tried to once and found their brain pouring from their nose.

#7 – Crash

Set over a single day, this award-winning movie follows several interweaving tales as the people of Los Angeles go about their (traumatic) daily lives. Specialising in the ‘ripple’ effect, we can watch how one person’s actions directly affect someone else’s life. Or, to put it more eloquently: “in L.A., nobody touches you. We’re always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.” Deep stuff.

#6 – Groundhog Day

Meet Bill Murray. And again. And again. Because, oh yes, Bill is living the same day over and over again! At first, it’s kind of fun. He can use it to his advantage, even! But, as time wearies on by, he realises that being stuck in a world where he watches everybody do the same thing again and again is a terribly lonely (and annoying) place to be. Cue a vast number of surprisingly inventive suicide attempts, none of which quite cut the mustard. I love this film mainly because I adore Murray’s self-deprecating humour, but watching him try to come to terms with the impending doom of repetition is absolutely unforgettable.

#5 – Spirited Away

Everybody loves a touch of animation, right? Well, when it’s as beautiful as this movie, you’d be crazy not to. Chihuro is your typical little girl… which basically means that she’s a sulky little so and so with some big opinions about the world. But that all has to change when her parents are transformed into pigs and locked up in a creepy hotel stockyard. Oh yes. Pigs. Why the hell not, eh? If this isn’t confusing enough, the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning. In short, the plot has been fashioned in a circle. It will never end and it will never begin. It just always is. Does that mean that the events in the film never happen? Were they a dream, or a mental projection of Chihuro… or has she become trapped in a crease in time? Throw in some faceless spirits, witches and gods and you have definitely got something to keep your mind working long after the credits roll.

#4 – Memento

This film has such a lovely name, putting one in mind of an airy-fairy rom-com. Couldn’t be any further from the truth, if I’m honest. Leonard (Guy Pearce) suffers from short-term memory loss. The last thing he remembers is the murder of his wife (I told you it wouldn’t be pretty!). But how can he catch a killer when he can’t form any new memories? Tattoos and excessive note taking, that’s how. Two stories run towards each other, working backwards and forwards through time, revealing a little more of the crime with every scene and finally meeting for an outstanding climax. Some memories might just be best left forgotten…

#3 – Sliding Doors

Do you ever spend your life wondering ‘what if’? Then this is the movie for you. Gwyneth Paltrow’s life rests, unbeknownst to her, on whether or not she catches a train. Her love life and her future happiness are utterly dependent on choosing the right path… but we just won’t know which this is until the very last scene. Parallel timelines, two nifty hairstyles and some excellent performances from all make this an enjoyable way to really make the most of that ‘two sides to every story’ theory.

#2 – Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

If you could wipe your ex from your memories, would you? Don’t just blurt out a yes, I want you to think ab… oh, never mind. Jim Carrey opts to do wipe the wildly vivacious Kate Winslet from his mind after a particularly horrible break-up, throwing the doors of his mind open to a shuffle card of memories. And yet, as he watches each argument and romantic moment fade away to nothingness, he suddenly realises that he doesn’t want to lose his Clementine forever. Is it too late to stop the process? Can he hide her deep within the recesses of his mind? And, if two people are destined to be together, will love find a way? It sounds mushy, but it really isn’t, I promise. The concept is a bit out there, the wit is deliciously dry and the constant muddling overload of non-linear memories means that we never quite know if we’re at the beginning or the end of things. The ultimate romantic film for people who hate romance.

#1 – Pulp Fiction

As IF I could play time games and not mention Tarantino’s masterpiece! Stocked up with gratuitous violence, plenty of dark comedy and utterly sardonic characters, this film depicts four interwoven stories of seemingly unrelated characters. You might know the outcome before you know the origin, or you might see things through the eyes of one character and then have this image completely skewered by the outlook of another. Get the facts before you get the fiction, or vice versa. Plus, you get Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, John Travolta AND Uma Thurman! You couldn’t ask for a better line-up than that. And, with a bit of obligatory hip-shimmying from Travolta, this is without a doubt one of those movies you have to see before you die.

So which movie is your favourite time muddler? Let us know by posting below…

Foster joins an already impressive cast that includes Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Michael Fassbender and Guy Pearce, and the announcement of his involvement has coincided with the first details of the plot being released. Are you ready? Here goes…

“Visionary filmmaker Ridley Scott returns to the genre he helped define, creating an original science fiction epic set in the most dangerous corners of the universe. The film takes a team of scientists and explorers on a thrilling journey that will test their physical and mental limits and strand them on a distant world, where they will discover the answers to our most profound questions and to life’s ultimate mystery.”

…Ok, so it’s not the most revealing of descriptions; but as this is one of the most hotly anticipated releases in recent memory, we can forgive Scott for keeping his cards relatively close to his chest. A release is scheduled for June 2012, so we can expect many more teasers before then.

What do you think about the addition of Foster to the cast? And more importantly, what is life’s ultimate mystery? Give us your thoughts!

The people behind Ridley Scott’s latest, which was originally hailed as a prequel to his 1979 sci-fi classic Alien (contain yourselves space geeks) but is now said to have just “strands of its DNA” running through it, whatever that means, have been forced to confirm rumours of Pearce’s involvement after someone on set leaked it out, sneaky little toerag.

So now we know that Michael Fassbender will be playing an Android (an ANDROID! Called David!), The Girl What Stuff Happens TO is in it, and now Guy Pearce is in it too!! Excited? Who knows?!? Rest in the knowledge that anything vaguely related to Alien, being made by the man who made Alien, could well be like, or even better than, Alien. If that doesn’t get your afterburners firing I don’t know what will.

Name:

Guy Pearce

Date of Birth:

5th October 1967

Place of birth:

Cambridgeshire, England

Special moves:

Acting

Films include:

Memento, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The King’s Speech

What you probably already know:

Guy Pearce is very probably the best thing ever to be produced by one of those bloody awful Australian soaps. Since breaking into the big time way back in 1994 with his deliciously camp role as Felicia in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, he has charged across our screens with reckless abandon and a marvellous eye for good roles, popping up in acclaimed pictures as diverse as Memento, The Hurt Locker and The King’s Speech, in which his performance as the playboy Prince of Wales (and briefly Edward VIII) made history as the first time an Australian had ever played a British royal onscreen.

Pearce has also turned his hand to more explicitly commercial projects, including L.A. Confidential, Rules of Engagement and (Christ help us) Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler. He has starred in biopics as both Andy Warhol (Factory Girl) and Harry Houdini (Death Defying Acts). He had a small but critically acclaimed role in The Road and, lest we forget, was all over last year’s frankly superb Animal Kingdom. We almost hope he cocks up a film sometime soon – he’s making everyone else look bad…

What you might not know:

There are enough mad facts about Guy Pearce to fill up an article all on their own. Did you know, for example, that his father was a test pilot who died when he was nine and precipitated his family’s move to Australia, at which point his mother started a deer farm? Or that his body-building led to him being crowned Mr Junior Victoria whilst a teenager? Or that he’s appeared in music videos for Silverchair and Razorlight, and that he starred in that odd Aussie western written by Nick Cave? No, you bloomin’ well didn’t.

Returning to vaguely film-based trivia, Pearce has shown quite an interest in historical dramas of all kinds – as well as The King’s Speech he played the villainous Fernand Mondego in an adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo and a Yankee lieutenant in Ravenous, a film about cannibalism during the Civil War. Obviously. He also starred in an utterly mental ‘re-imagining’ of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, which might be the closest thing he’s ever come to a poor career decision – and if that’s the worst we can come up with, things are looking pretty rosy. After all, everyone knows that films about time travel are a bare minimum of 47% awesome at all times, unless they have ‘Hot‘, ‘Tub‘ or ‘Wife‘ in the title. Bravo, Guy Pearce.

Guy Pearce quote:

“I’ve got a T-shirt that says, ‘Jesus saves,’ and the ‘s’ in ‘Jesus’ is a big dollar sign… I’ve worn it here [in America] and had people come up on the street and go, ‘You can’t wear that.’ People in Australia think it’s funny. I’m fascinated by religion. I don’t believe in God, but the thing I do believe in is that we’re all connected. Nothing like an actor with a totally incoherent view of spirituality, is there?

What to say at a dinner party:

“Of course, Pearce’s inexorable rise to stardom really began with 1998′s Woundings, a stark and brutal portrayal of the aftermath of war. Oh, have you not seen it? I thought not.”

What not to say at a dinner party:

“I saw that Priscilla film, and I really must question whether the man’s a quare.”

Final thought:

Might he be able to save forthcoming project The Hungry Rabbit Jumps from the curse of Nic Cage’s dread interference? Only time will tell…

Anything else you think the world should know? Drop us a comment below!

Set to star as the female lead is British actress Andrea Riseborough. Best known for her roles in Made In Dagenham and Brighton Rock, Riseborough will reportedly play an ex-IRA terrorist turned informer. She joins a supporting cast of Aidan Gillen (Tommy Carcetti for those familiar with The Wire) and Gillian Anderson (yes that’s Scully).

Marsh, who rose to prominence with his stunning, Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire is reported to have said the film will be set in 90s Northern Island and will revolve around the the troubles.

The film is due to begin shooting on location in Dublin in early May.

When J’s mum dies of a heroin overdose, he heads off to live with Grandma Janine (Jacki Weaver). Don’t expect knitted tea-cosies – Janine lives with J’s three uncles, who are coincidentally pro-armed robbers in a bit of a pickle with the authorities. After fourth uncle, Baz Brown (Joel Edgerton) comes face to face with the armed police, J finds himself having to choose between family and morality at the centre of a battle between right and wrong. An exploration of fear, criminality and masculinity, this film is foreboding and real edge-of-the-seat stuff.

Frecheville is brilliant in the lead role. Seemingly dim-witted and so emotionless that if you ate his hamster you’d be hard pushed for a reaction, he is an ideal character for that tricky area in between good and bad. But don’t let his unsmiling face fool you, he can have a good cry when it’s necessary and when he does it’s so uncharacteristic it makes it all the more harrowing. Uncle Pope (Ben Mendelsohn) is the leader of the pride (yep, animal imagery – deal with it) and creates the atmosphere on which the film mostly relies. Mendelsohn’s performance is brilliantly unstable, creating the most uncertain scenes with extreme close-ups of his face showing off that uncomfortable, piercing stare.

Guy Pearce makes a belated appearance as Detective Nathan Leckie, sporting one of those rather impressive moustaches. The sort that was popular in the 80s. Really the only good guy of the film, he’s seemingly oblivious to dodgy police activity and gives a great performance as family-man and moral standpoint. Weaver is equally as impressive as his polar opposite – she likes to smooch her sons as only an oedipal mother would do and, like a souped-up version of Peggy Mitchell, won’t let anything ‘appen to ‘er kids.

You could say that little happens in Animal Kingdom, and yet it’s exhilarating. The constant feeling of anticipation, the odd bit of dark humour and the slow build up of dread and fear are good enough reasons to see it. However, if you’re looking for a bit more, the brilliantly booming score by Antony Partos is undoubtedly the sole reason this film is so unsettling. Alongside some beautiful slow-motion shots of the Aussie gangsters, the music fills the cinema creating an audible feeling of inescapable doom.

Loosely inspired by the underworld of Melbourne’s gangsters, this is a first-time big screen venture for director and writer David Michôd. I for one would keep an eye on him for the future – this film has already bagged the World Cinema Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival 2010. In short, this is a wonderful story of a cold-blooded power struggle and inevitable defeat.

By Siobhan Burke

The film is a remake of a 1970’s shocker, and will star Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce who move their family into a 19th century mansion they are restoring – only for their daughter, Sally to discover there are monsters residing there. Sally needs to convince her parents that she is not making it all up, before the creatures drag Sally and her parents into the house’s dark depths and consume them. Check out the trailer below:

On paper, it sounds like a great dark fairytale, reminiscent of Pan’s Labyrinth, but to us the teaser trailer felt more like it was promoting some cheap shocker as opposed to some dark and twisted Del Toro magic. Still, the thought of seeing Katie Holmes consumed by weird little monsters is always appealing.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is set for release January 2011