With the fourth installment in Wes Craven’s Scream saga due next year, it seemed that this franchise – like its protagonist, Sidney Prescott – would not be one easily killed off. And now it appears that its life has been prolonged even more, with the director openly admitting that screenwriter, Kevin Williamson, launched this latest film with a second trilogy in mind.
23 years after his Oscar-winning film Wall Street inspired a generation of high-rollers and corporate raiders, Oliver Stone has reunited with Michael Douglas to bring us the next chapter in the life of legendary greenmailer Gordon Gekko – this time crossing swords with Shia LaBeouf and Carey Mulligan. It’s perfectly adequate when judged on its own merits, but as a follow-up to its extraordinary predecessor it leaves much to be desired.
Whenever you head to the cinema these days, there’s always an advert asking audiences to be vigilant against video pirates: making sure anyone with a camcorder can’t buckle their swash.The one thread that runs between them all is an emphasis on the value of the ‘cinematic experience’. Pirates, we’re told, are a threat to that experience. Well certainly those big hats must be blocking somebody’s view. But however much we cinema-goers care, or don’t, about internet piracy, we do all care about having a good Saturday night at the movies, whatever picture we see. But how connected, really, are those two things? Is internet piracy really the biggest threat to our cinematic experience, and if not, what else is?
Join the resistance as the critically acclaimed sci-fi TV show V: The Complete Series comes to DVD on Monday 18th October We have 3 copies of V Season 1 on DVD to give away! Competition ends 9 November 2010.
Revenge Japanese style, American psychos, sharks, cannibal girls and a Finnish nightmare before Christmas – it can only be Film4 FrightFest’s Halloween all-nighter event – taking place this year at the Empire Cinema 2, Leicester Square on Saturday October 30, 2010.
Christopher Nolan’s untitled follow up to The Dark Knight has been drawing headlines with the news that shooting is set to begin in Louisiana in April. The common supposition for the location choice is that Warner Bros. very much enjoyed the tax breaks they got when shooting Green Lantern there earlier this year. But could there be another, more reptilian, reason?
Long ago, no one wanted pirates on land. All they did was cause trouble, stealing your silver and seducing your girlfriend. So who, in the name of the Jolly Roger, allowed a pirate into a primary school? Captain Jack Sparrow can claim he was invited all he wants, but I know his plan. To entice all the school children into joining his pirate crew so that he can become the greatest plunderer on the Seven Seas.
Police, Adjective is the latest in what we Brits would call “Romanian New Wave Cinema”. However, director Corneliu Porumboiu would dismiss us in true Eastern European fashion, perhaps by waving a shawl in our face and spitting “ptooey” at the phrase, which he calls “problematic”. Regardless of genre, Police, Adjective (winner of the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival) is the antithesis of a cop film, replacing running about with batons with endless trudging round Eastern Europe in the same old jumper.
With its cast including Paul Walker, Hayden Christensen and Chris “Rihanna’s ex” Brown, Takers was never overly likely to make audiences think too hard. Given its title because its anti-heroes like to take things (told you it wasn’t a thinker), the plot follows a gang of bank robbers as they plan a $30 million heist, unaware that a hard-boiled detective is closing in on them, determined to crack the case. What results is a dodgy pastiche of crime films everywhere – fun in places, but ultimately brainless.
Sally Hawkins can’t help but melt hearts in Made In Dagenham, a forgivably fluffy account of the women’s Ford strikes in 1968. Mixing fact and fiction with a dollop British good humour, its an uplifting yarn that restores your faith in the human capacity for justice. Well, the women-human capacity, anyway.
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