New Potter pictures appear online

by Andy Gibbons

With the trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows due to debut online today, USA Today have managed to get their hands on a bunch of new stills below from the eagerly-awaited two part adventure. I’ve posted a couple below but head over to the US papers website (click on their name above) to view all nine.

When In Rome review

by Andy Gibbons

What is it?

Director Mark Steven Johnson’s first foray back behind the camera since 2007‘s truly risible Ghost Rider.

Beth (Kristen Bell) is a high-flying, career-orientated New York City gal whose previously traumatic love life has left her a bit down on romance. But when her sister announces a whirlwind wedding in Rome, Beth crosses the Atlantic to The Eternal City to do her sisterly duties. At said wedding she meets charming sports reporter Nick (Josh Duhamel) and decides to give love a go only to find him smooching an amorous local. One drunken escapade later, which sees Beth ‘liberate’ coins from the fountain of love, an ancient curse leaves her the object of some unwanted attention from the men whose cash she swiped. Meanwhile Nick is keen to prove he’s worth a second chance.

What’s good?

Performance wise, Danny De Vito stands out as one of Beth’s love struck suitors – he manages to act everyone off the screen despite a limited role – and Kristen Schaal is pretty fun as the waitress at a too-cool-for-school New York restaurant. And Rome always looks stunning on screen although most of what we see is limited between Beth’s arrival at the airport and the church hosting her sister’s wedding.

What’s bad?

The whole thing just feels a bit flat. With Beth’s unlikely Romeos (a motley crew consisting of De Vito, Jon Heder, Will Arnett and Dax Shepard – such a lucky girl!) getting a bit too much screen time, it’s hard for her relationship with Nick to fully blossom and there are times when she’s not an especially sympathetic character which makes it hard to care. Bell and Duhamel are fine but they’re no Bogart and Bacall and when any film tags a montage of the cast dancing over the final credits, then you know you’re in trouble.

So basically…..

This is the kind of movie that would have starred Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock if it had been made six of seven years ago so if that’s the kind of film you would have gone to see, then When In Rome should suit you (and anyone else keen to escape the World Cup) just fine. But for anyone else, it’s just another pretty forgettable piece of romcom fluff.

When In Rome is in UK cinemas from June 25^th.

The curse of Jonah Hex?

by Andy Gibbons

Given the way Toy Story 3 dominated the US box office chart over the weekend (I would describe an opening weekend of just over $110 million as pretty dominating), it’s perhaps understandable that the abject failure of another big budget summer hope has gone largely overlooked. Until now.

At the same time that people were flocking to catch up with Woody and the gang, very few could be bothered with the big screen debut of comic book outlaw Jonah Hex. The all-action western, which features a decent cast including Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, John Malkovich and Michael Fassbender, bagged a paltry $5.4 million during its first three days in cinemas across the pond and only just managed to crack the Top 10, opening in seventh spot behind the likes of Get Him To The Greek, Prince Of Persia and Shrek Forever After (which has been out in the US for over a month!).

Before Jonah Hex was released, it had a bit of a buzz about it – the comic book on which its based is suitably cultish and the on-set pictures of Megan looking foxy as tart with a heart Lilah certainly got pulses racing. Even the trailer showed promise. So who’s to blame? Well there were rumours of a troubled production and a period of reshoots earlier this year seem to lend some weight to that. It’s also fair to say that the critics weren’t kind; the film currently has a 14% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes with various reviews calling the movie inane, sloppily edited, painfully awkward and unintentionally funny, the most chopped up, stitched together Frankenstein job in recent memory and bracingly inept. As we all know though, critics only have limited influence so I can only guess that, when faced with the behemoth that is Toy Story 3, no one else can even come close (even though The Karate Kid added $30 million to it’s account over the same weekend).

At the moment Jonah Hex is due to open here on September 3rd with it’s only real competition that week coming from new Steve Carell / Paul Rudd comedy Dinner For Schmucks – whether or not Warner Bros. get behind it or let Jonah ride quietly off into the sunset though remains to be seen.

Ben Barnes talks Dawn Treader – MSN exclusive

by Andy Gibbons

Now I know it’s not really the done thing to doorstep actors to talk about their upcoming projects but when I saw Ben Barnes (aka Prince Caspian) wandering down the road round the corner from my house this morning, I couldn’t not take the opportunity to quiz him very briefly about the upcoming third film in the Narnia series, The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader. Graciously he didn’t have a problem with me interviewing him in the middle of the street and here’s what we discussed….

With the trailer for The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader debuting this week the buzz has really started, it promises to be a big Christmas release….

Yeah, I hope it is. Personally I’m quite excited that it’s going to be 3D. It’s my favourite of the seven books, I think it’s one of the best stories and it’s got some good human characters as well – I think Eustace, who Will Poulter plays brilliantly, is a really funny character. It’s got a lot of the fun magical stuff of the first ones and I’ve got some fun action stuff which is cool. It’s going to be good I think.

We saw our first glimpse of footage this week with the trailer (you can watch it below) but we don’t see much of you in it. Have you seen it and how do you think it reflects the film?

I have seen it and I think they’ve done the right thing in trying to show the scope of it and trying to show the different things in it. Obviously I was the focus of the marketing campaign of the middle film so it’s probably not very sensible to do the same thing again.

So is there less pressure on your shoulders this time round?

Yeah, I’m off the hook a bit on this one.

You’ve got a new director in Michael Apted – what’s he brought to the movie?

Just a sort of an outside eye and a very human touch really. I think he was as anxious as any of us going in to it. When we first met and spoke he told me how anxious he was about the scale of it but I think he did a great job and I think it’s going to have an interesting flavour to it. Saying that I haven’t seen it yet.

This is the first Narnia film without Disney behind it (Twentieth Century Fox partnered up with Walden Media after Disney dropped the franchise) – did that affect production at all?

Fox were very hands on during the whole process which was completely expected and understandable. It’s nice that, in a way, to have someone who really cares about it – not that Disney didn’t, it was obviously very precious to them too – but in terms of people going to see them film, apart from the logo at the beginning I don’t think it’s going to make a huge amount of difference.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is due in cinemas on December 10th 2010.

Toy Story 3 opens big across the pond

by Andy Gibbons

Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich has just announced via his Twitter that the third part of the animated series has proved popular during its first day in cinemas across the pond yesterday.

“Thanks to all of you who helped Toy Story 3 bring in $41 million yesterday! Biggest animated film opening day EVER” he revealed.

Given those numbers, insiders are claiming that the movie could earn as much as $120 million during its opening weekend, which isn’t bad given that Pixar’s previous opening weekend record was $70 million, held by Finding Nemo back in 2003.

Macgruber’s gonna get ya…

He’s the only American hero who has earned the rank of Green Beret, Navy SEAL and Army Ranger. And he just left the MSN Offices. Seriously! Look he even brought his own doll…

Macgruber’s out this Friday. Here’s a trailer.

Got a problem? Odds against you? Call Russell Crowe’

by Andy Gibbons

Given the barrage of derision that greeted his ‘Nottingham’ accent in Robin Hood, you’d have thought that Russell Crowe would have been keen to avoid any roles that may have required a UK-based tilt for the forseeable future. But according to the Los Angeles Times, the artist formally known as Russ Le Roq is going to head up a big screen version of small screen ‘80s TV hit The Equalizer.

The show starred Brit abroad Edward Woodward as Robert McCall, a former secret agent who looked to atone for his previous misdemeanours by serving as a vigilante on the mean streets of New York. Russell is set to slip into McCall’s finely tailored suits for the movie although it’s not clear if this modern-day reworking will retain the character’s UK roots – maybe they should play it safe and have McCall as a retired Aussie agent?

Rumours of an Equalizer movie have been doing the rounds for years now and maybe it’s best that the groundwork on this had already been done as, after The A-Team’s poor showing at the US box office, studio bosses may be reluctant to green light many more TV adaptations.

Return of The Smurfs

By Ed Holden

USA Today has unveiled our first look at the Smurfs movie today. Trailer will be on the net this Thursday.

Toy Story 3 review

by Andy Gibbons

Alright, I know it isn’t out here for over a month but, with Toy Story 3 opening in the US this week, the review embargo has now been lifted and I can’t wait any longer to tell you what I think of it. I’ve tried to keep things as spoiler free as possible so here we go….

What is it?

The third (and final?) part of Pixar’s flagship franchise in which aging Cowboy doll Woody must face up to the fact that his beloved Andy is growing up and moving on.

Set the best part of a decade after Toy Story 2, it’s obvious that the years haven’t been kind to Woody, Buzz and their friends – those who haven’t been given away or sold at yard sales lie abandoned and seemingly forgotten in a trunk in Andy’s room. And to make matters worse, the toys sense that the end is very much nigh as their teenage owner starts to pack for college. But just as it seems they’re all set for an eternity in the attic, a mistake sees the toys donated to Sunnyside Daycare centre where a lifetime of being played with is all but guaranteed. But it soon becomes apparent that the kids in the Caterpillar Room aren’t as loving as Andy while some of the other Sunnyside toys are less cuddly than they first appear…

What’s good?

Just about everything. As well as most of the characters we know and love from the first two films, there’s a whole host of newbies to enjoy here from the plush and soft Sunnyside veteran Lotso (voiced by Ned Beatty) to the vain and wonderful Ken (Michael Keaton), whose blossoming relationship with Barbie is a joy to watch. And the older characters certainly get their moments in the sun too – Hamm is as dry and off the bone than ever and Spanish Buzz’s dancing provides a nice distraction. But the real triumph here is the heart that comes across both in the story and production – you can feel the passion the folks at Pixar have for their work and that certainly helps give things a real emotional depth.

What’s bad?

I guess the only real problem here is that given the film’s 100 mins or so running time, some of the characters get fairly short shrift such as Timothy Dalton’s Germanic thesp Mr. Pricklepants. Also, and this could either be a good or bad thing depending on your point of view point, Toy Story 3 can get rather dark at times – Sunnyside’s enforcer Big Baby and the all-action finale may be a bit much for very young viewers.

So basically…..

There must have been a huge amount of pressure on director Lee Unkrich’s shoulders to keep the Toy Story series on top of its game and fortunately he’s done Pixar proud. He’s interwoven an exciting host of new characters with an, at times, epic adventure but manages to never lose sight of what is at the core of these films – the relationship between Woody and Andy. I’d be lying if I said a little tear didn’t creep out towards the end of the film and you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be moved during the final ten minutes. It may have been 11 years between Toy Story 2 and 3 but it’s certainly been worth the wait.

Toy Story 3 is in UK cinemas from July 19^th.

“Hey Cam, hey Tom. Wanna cash in on the World Cup?”

“Yeah we should totally do some kind of CGI viral video thing!”