MSN Movies UK - Blog
Prince of Persia pays state visit to UK
by Andy Gibbons
You can’t help but have noticed that London has become the capital of Persia this week as the cast and crew of swords and sandals video game epic Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time have been in town to promote the movie.
Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Sir Ben Kingsley, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Mike Newell and Jordan Mechner, the man who created the original game, have all been camped out in a posh West End hotel talking to an endless stream of international media about the film which opens here on May 21st. Jake even went one further by taking his life in his hands and appearing on Jonathan Ross’s Friday night chat show although he did get to stir fry Wossy’s shiny new iPad.
Disney also took over Westfield Shopping Centre to stage the biggest premiere the UK has ever seen- ah, the perfect blend of cinematic excess and overt consumerism. But with all this promotional work going on, it least it did give me the chance to get up close and personal with some of the costumes and props used in the film including the actual dagger which holds the mystical Sands of Time – click on the images below for a bigger version.
The good news is that the movie’s actually pretty decent (I’ll give you a full review nearer release as well as various video interviews) and the really good news is that it’s not been retrospectively kitted out with some shoddy 3D in a shameless attempt to squeeze more money from the cinema going public – yes Clash Of The Titans, I am looking at you!
Four Lions review
by Andy Gibbons
What is it?
Acclaimed satirist Chris Morris’s black comedy about a British born gang of would-be Muslim martyrs trying to carry out their plan to bring chaos and fear to the UK, sacrificing themselves in the process.
Lead by family man Omar (Riz Ahmed), we follow the ‘Lions’ as they try to get the blessing of Al Qaeda, decide on a target, stockpile homemade explosives and carry out their attack… which is no mean feat considering Omar’s ‘cell’ includes a blow-hard white Islamic convert (Nigel Lindsay), a shy and retiring odd man out (Adeel Akhtar) and a man so devoid of smarts (Kayvan Novak), he makes Mr. Bean look like Stephen Hawking.
What’s good?
Ahmed stands out as a man who truly believes in his path while Novak is heart-breaking as the Lennie Small to Omar’s George Milton. And Lindsay also catches the eye with a blunderbuss of a performance as someone who, you get the feeling, doesn’t really understand the cause, he just wants some aggro. The laugh out loud jokes come thick and fast (highlights include a reference to Mini Babybells and an exploding crow) while Morris’s dedication to see this through to the final credits is admirable. The CCTV of the final four preparing for their attack is eerily reminiscent of the 7/7 bombers on their way to London.
What’s bad?
The final act feels that little bit too long as the plan starts to go awry while Julia Davis’s cameo as a rather confused neighbour feels a bit unnecessary.
So basically…..
Morris has never been backward in coming forward and he takes no prisoners when it comes to exposing the hypocrisy of fundamentalism and the more literal interpretations of religious teachings. But this is also a touching and poignant story about a group of guys who you could just as easily imagine playing footy or having a pint together rather than plotting mass murder in the name of Allah. Be prepared to laugh but also be prepared to question and think. Could we have found the Life of Brian for the 21st Century?
4/5
We talk Psych:9 and Furry Vengeance
by Andy Gibbons
With some major new movies opening this week such as Hot Tub Time Machine, Four Lions, A Nightmare On Elm Street and the truly awful The Back-Up Plan, I thought it might be worth highlighting a couple of the smaller releases that might otherwise get overlooked.
Up first is Psych:9, director Andrew Shortell’s tense psychological thriller / horror. 90210’s Sara Foster stars as troubled woman who takes a night shift pushing paper at a creepy disused hospital and, as you can probably guess, weird things start to happen. To get the low down on the movie, you can watch MSN’s exclusive interview by clicking on Sara’s picture below.
And next was teen star Matt Prokop, who fans know best as High School Musical 3: Senior Year’s Jimmie Zara. He was in town to talk about his role as Brendan Fraser’s rebellious son in man vs. nature comedy Furry Vengeance. You can see him talking about Brendan, spoilt raccoons and the movie’s environmental message by clicking on the still below.
Die Hard again… and again… and again
by Andy Gibbons
Oh come on, how many bad days can one man have? Of course I’m talking about the news that screenwriter Skip Woods (Hitman, Swordfish) is in talks with Fox about taking a crack at bringing wise-cracking super cop John McClane back to the big screen for a fifth outing. Did the execs at Fox not see Die Hard 4? It was hardly vintage McClane and I’m sorry to say it but at 55, I’m not sure Bruce Willis can carry a high-octane action movie any more.
If Fox want to bring one of their key characters to the big screen in a ‘having a bad day / country in peril’ type scenario, then they should focus of Jack Bauer’s big screen bow and get the 24 movie right rather than wheeling Bruce and his grubby vest out once again.
Bank Holiday horrors
by Andy Gibbons
Bank Holidays, love ‘em or hate ‘em they certainly throw up some fascinating movie viewing. Highlights of yesterday’s public holiday across the main terrestrial TV channels included the disappointing Antz, the even more disappointing Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and ‘80s extravaganzas Ghostbusters II and Cocoon – wow, what a choice! Suddenly the snooker was looking almost bearable.
Given that the vast majority of households can now rent Hollywood blockbusters through their digital TV providers just a few months after their cinematic runs, could it be that the BBC, ITV and the like are facing their filmic Waterloo? I mean how is Antz (twelve years old and counting) meant to win an audience when, at the click of a button, you can access titles such as An Education, The Men Who Stare At Goats, Me And Orson Welles or Zombieland? Mind you if you look close enough, you can always find a little treat hidden away – BBC2 were meant to show the oft over looked Ae Fond Kiss at 12.30pm. But then the snooker over ran and they cancelled it.
However watching Cocoon got me to thinking, if it were to be remade today (not that I’m advocating a remake!), who would you want playing the rejuvenated OAPs? I’ll give you Jack Nicholson as the randy Joe (played by Hume Cronyn in the original, third from left below) but over to you for the rest….
A Nightmare on Remake Street?
by Andy Gibbons
Ok, it’s time to address a thorny issue – that of remakes and specifically Platinum Dunes’ (the production company spearheaded by Michael Bay) reworking of some classic horror movies. Last night Warner Bros. screened PD’s latest update – their ‘re-imagining’ of Wes Craven’s seminal 1984 slasher flick A Nightmare On Elm Street and to describe it as ‘by-the-numbers’ is doing it a favour. Sure Jackie Earle Haley (below) is pretty disturbing as razor-fingered dream monster Freddy Krueger and there is blood by the bucket load but it’s in no way as scary or groundbreaking as the original which, as far as I’m concerned, is a real shame.
Let me start by saying that from a business point of view, I can totally understand why Bay and his partners Brad Fuller and Andrew Form are in the remake market – it turns out they make a tidy profit on every movie that roles off their production line. Set against pretty low budgets (their 2003 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake cost around $10 million to make and earned more than ten times that at the box office while 2005’s The Amityville Horror ended up some $90 million in the black), the rewards are handsome because there’s an audience hungry for horror who are keen to fill up the multiplexes on every opening weekend. It’s also kind of ingenious in a Dick Dastardly kind of way – you have all these teenagers who’ve heard about these ‘classic’ movies from back in the day but what are the chances any of them will ever sit down at home with a DVD and watch a film older than they are? So instead hire a few actors the audience may have heard of, give the movie a contemporary soundtrack (which will earn more money through CD sales and downloads) and throw some CGI splatter at the screen and bingo – maximum output for minimal input. You can almost hear Muttley’s throaty laugh as Bay and co. count the cash that A Nightmare On Elm Street will inevitably bring in.
Now while I guess you almost admire the business acumen here, the biggest worry for me is the lack of originality and creativity. We live in a digital age where CGI makes anything possible on screen for a relatively low cost. You want Freddy to pull someone backwards through a mirror into his dream world? No problem. But back in 1984 Wes Craven didn’t have these toys at his disposal – he had to get creative to earn his shocks and that was part of the charm. I know it’s easy to say that we’re now in 2010 so we should be using whatever technology is available to make better films and I really wouldn’t mind if better films were being produced but frankly they’re not. How about the guys at Platinum Dunes put some of their ill-gotten gains to good use and give truly original up-and-coming horror directors like Adam Green (Hatchet), Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow) or Lee Demabre (Smash Cut) the chance to develop something which would give us all a fright?
The highs and lows of movie blogging
Well what a diverse day yesterday turned out to be – talk about experiencing the highs and lows of the job….
My first port of call was to pop in for a chat with 90210 star Sara Foster about her upcoming horror / thriller Psych: 9 which was fair enough – the film’s not great but she was lovely and very friendly (I’ll post the video up nearer the movie’s release on May 7th) – but then I made possibly my worst call of 2010. I had some time to kill so abandoned the glorious Soho sunshine and went to a lunchtime screening of J.Lo’s new motherhood comedy The Back –Up Plan. Oh boy, what was I thinking? It made Gigli look like Citizen Kane and only further served to highlight the fact that Lopez’s once promising screen career has sunk without a trace. You’ve got to wonder where it exactly went wrong for Jen? U-Turn and Out Of Sight provided a solid foundation while The Cell was suitably innovative but then she started making wishy washy romcoms like Maid In Manhattan and The Wedding Planner before dealing her career a potentially fatal blow with Gigli (anyone remember the ‘gobble gobble’ line?) and she’s never really recovered. Don’t get me wrong, I think she’s a very capable actress but unless she either starts getting some good advice or picking better scripts it’s only a matter of time before J.Lo becomes straight-to-DVD fodder.
At least I was able to finish on a high – despite hearing some initially middling reviews, I thoroughly enjoyed Iron Man 2. I won’t bore you with the details ‘cos there are enough reviews out there already but it’s a more than worthy successor to the first film and a really solid blockbuster / popcorn adventure. It was just a shame Paramount didn’t show us a print with the ‘post credits’ scene on it. They did this with the first film too (where Nick Fury turns up to recruit Tony Stark to The Avengers Initiative) but I’m reliably informed that the surprise at the end of this latest adventure is little more than a set-up for another Avengers movie due next year.
But the best thing about yesterday was finding out that the toys are heading north of the border as Toy Story 3 is to get a Special 3D Gala screening at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival on Saturday 19 June. Now it’s fair to say that I’m somewhat of a Pixar obsessive so the chance to see TS3 more than a month before it’s official release might prove too much and I may be packing a bag and jumping on a train to Edinburgh in mid-June.
Hello, my name is Andy and I’m a film nerd….
Hello, please let me introduce myself – my name is Andy Gibbons and I’m here to give you an up close and personal look at the world of film and what’s going on within it. I’ll also be keeping you up to date with news from various junkets, press conferences and premieres as well as sneak peeks at upcoming new movies. I know, it’s a tough life and all that… I’ll be updating as often as possible but you can also follow me on Twitter @andyffgibbons.
For my first entry I was planning to bring you to date up with all the action from the Iron Man 2 press activity which was planned for the weekend and this evening in London. Scheduled to come into town to promote the comic book sequel were *deep breath* Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Mickey Rourke, Samuel L. Jackson and director Jon Faveau, all of whom were happy pencilled in to spend Saturday and Sunday holed up a posh West End hotel doing interviews with the world’s press before unveiling the movie tonight at the World Premiere at Westfield Shopping Centre. And then some unpronounceable volcano decided to blow its top and the whole trip got cancelled and hastily rearranged in Los Angeles. Our loss is obviously LA’s gain.
In fact Eyjafjallajoekull has been right pain in the unmentionables for movie journalists in the UK. Planned trips by Miley Cyrus and Demi Moore to promote The Last Song and The Joneses were also pulled, leaving fans disappointed and various broadcasters scrabbling around for material to plug their schedules and everyone devoid of any decent material. But at least Miley was nice enough to send a video message to the fans who attended the vastly scaled down The Last Song ‘premiere’ in London.
So instead I wanted to give you a look at a short trailer which should whet your appetite for an exciting summer of movies ahead. It’s bought to us by the FDA (the Film Distributor’s Association – the trade body for theatrical film distributors here in the UK) and introduced by Alex Zane and highlights 40 of the movies set to tear up the big screen this summer. It’s a great trailer and I hope you enjoy ‘cos let’s face it, with the World Cup looming and BBQ weather predicted (again!), UK cinemas are going to need all the help they can get.
Paltrow punch face
Thank you, Onion.
‘Iron Man 2’ Buzz Heats Up Over Rumors Gwyneth Paltrow Gets Punched In Face
James Cameron: Guest editor
Your MSN Movies editor for the day is James Cameron!
The big JC has invaded MSN Movies because he really likes our site! No, okay, we thought you wouldn’t believe that. He’s launching the Avatar DVD and Blu-Ray and he wants to talk about it. But still he’s our guest editor.
Jim (we get to call him Jim while he’s working here) is answering the questions you so kindly submitted here.
He’s also talking about the environment, the 3D of Avatar and his ideas on space travel.
