Hollywood
The Ides of MarchMonday, 24 October 2011![]() If you were to play a game as to who should play former US President Bill Clinton in a fictionalised account of his life, then George Clooney – liberal, politically active and drop-dead gorgeous – would surely be your number-one choice. So he must... Read more... |
ContagionMonday, 17 October 2011What goes around, well, goes around in Steven Soderbergh's Contagion, which manages the dual feat of being at once scare-mongering (hypochondriacs should stay well clear) and stultifyingly dull. A variant on the we're-all-essentially-connected... Read more... |
DVD: Green LanternFriday, 14 October 2011![]() Green Lantern was meant to make Ryan Reynolds a major star, and ignite another superhero franchise. Expectations deflated so quickly on its cinema release that, if this DVD didn’t exist, it would be hard to be certain it came out at all.Warners have... Read more... |
The Greatest Movie Ever SoldWednesday, 12 October 2011![]() A movie about advertising and product placement entirely paid for by advertising and product placement? It's a Koh-i-Noor diamond of a concept, and zealous documentarian Morgan Spurlock has applied himself to his task with the efficiency of a... Read more... |
Cool Hand Luke, Aldwych TheatreTuesday, 04 October 2011![]() The human spirit won't be easily vanquished, or so we're led to believe from Cool Hand Luke, which in itself should provide succour to those trapped at this stage adaptation of the novel that inspired the movie - still with me? - in the days and... Read more... |
Crazy, Stupid, LoveThursday, 22 September 2011![]() "I'm going to help you rediscover your manhood," a self-described sexual "tomcat" called Jacob (Ryan Gosling) tells his new friend, and project, Cal (Steve Carell). And with that, the awkwardly titled Crazy, Stupid, Love sets off on its none too... Read more... |
Friends with BenefitsFriday, 09 September 2011![]() A time-tested formula gets tantalisingly tweaked in Friends with Benefits, in which Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis attempt to confine their relationship to the purely sexual without the ick factor of emotions getting in the way. Here's a Hollywood... Read more... |
Fright NightWednesday, 31 August 2011![]() After 10 minutes in the company of Fright Night’s vacuous US teens I was thinking, like Colonel Kurtz, “Kill them all!” One of the several virtues of this remake of the 1985 vampire horror-comedy is that its writer, Marti Noxon, feels the same way.... Read more... |
One DayWednesday, 24 August 2011![]() Warning to hunky French jazz pianists: beware a slim, raven-haired Englishwoman who looks like Anne Hathaway but goes by the name of Emma and will up and leave you the second her long-standing chum, Dex, crosses la Manche to extend rather more than... Read more... |
A Better LifeTuesday, 26 July 2011![]() A Better Life is Bicycle Thieves remodelled for modern LA. Vittorio De Sica’s iconic 1948 film about an Italian father and son living over a precipice of poverty sadly requires adjustment only in its details, the theft of a bicycle the father needs... Read more... |
Horrible BossesThursday, 21 July 2011![]() Wage-slave purgatory in three different flavours is the subject of Seth Gordon's comedy, as his trio of downtrodden leads decide that the only way to break free from remorseless professional abuse is by murdering their respective bosses. George... Read more... |
Glamour of the Gods: Hollywood Portraits, National Portrait GalleryWednesday, 13 July 2011![]() In the days before there were any paparazzi to catch celebrities unawares, the pictures of the stars that reached mere mortals like ourselves were carefully staged by the film studios. Establishments like MGM, Warner Bros and Paramount Pictures... Read more... |
