Upcoming screenings: The Zero Theorem, Starred Up, Locke

I've got three screenings lined up for this week and they are an exciting bunch; The Zero Theorem, Starred Up and Locke. First is Terry Gilliam's The Zero Theorem. This is dystopian sci-fi from the guy who brought us Brazil and 12 Monkeys so promises to be at the very least interesting. It also stars Christoph Waltz (which guarantees a little awesomeness), Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton, Ben Whishaw, David Thewlis and Rupert Friend. It looks from the trailer like it could be weird but potentially wonderful.



Next is British prison drama Starred Up from director David Mackenzie and starring Jack O'Connell who is destined to be a big star soon. I've been watching him since his minor role in This is England through to bigger roles in the likes of Tower Block, The Liability, Harry Brown and Eden Lake. Starred Up looks like a brutal story about a violent young offender who is moved in to big boys prison. It also stars Rupert Friend (again) and the excellent Ben Mendelsohn.



Last but not least is Locke starring Tom Hardy in a car making a series of phone calls. Sounds like this could be one of those really interesting minimalist bits of cinema where the star is stuck in one location and has to entertain us with the strength of their performance and clever little story. I have soft spot for things like 127 Hours, Phone Booth and Buried so I hope this will be tense and terrific.



Any of these trailers float your boat?

Upcoming Screenings: Sunshine on Leith, Filth, How I Live Now

This week is looking a bit hectic with one premiere to attend and two preview screenings. First up on Monday I am going to interview the stars and director of Sunshine On Leith, Dexter Fletcher's new film. Then on Tuesday it's James McAvoy starring dirty cop black comedy Filth and finally on Wednesday, I'm going to a free student screening of How I Live Now from director Kevin MacDonald and starring Saoirse Ronan.

The cast in attendance at the Sunshine on Leith premiere will include Jane Horrocks, Freya Mavor, Kevin Guthrie, George Mackay, Antonia Thomas and apparently special guests The Proclaimers will also be there along with director Dexter Fletcher. Booooo no Peter Mullan though. I'll be standing in the press pen interviewing the attendees for Tastic Film so hopefully you will be able to see the videos up on the Tastic Film YouTube channel soon after. 

If this film is even half as good as Fletcher's directorial debut Wild Bill, I'll be very pleased!

Here is the trailer for Sunshine on Leith:



Then on Tuesday it's off to see the adaptation of Irvine Welsh's horrible novel Filth starring James McAvoy as a despicable copper with a tapeworm and highly dubious morals. I hated the book (from the same author as Trainspotting) but the trailer makes this look like it might actually be a bit of guilty, sick and twisted fun!



Then finally it's a young adult adaptation from awesome director Kevin MacDonald that sounds much darker than your average Twilight, Mortal Instruments or any other number of fantasy adaptations for teens. Stick with the trailer past the first 40 seconds of sunshine and laughing. When war breaks out in our recognisable reality this looks like it should get far more exciting than a bunch of CG supernatural creatures flying about the place!



Any of these take your fancy?

Iron Man 3, Bernie and 21 & Over

I have three more preview screenings lined up over the next fortnight; Iron Man 3, Bernie and 21 & Over. April is turning into a very busy month for film screenings. I already had Evil Dead, Olympus Has Fallen and The Look of Love in the bag but now I have three more to add to the list.

While I'm not the biggest comic book lover in the world; Iron Man, Batman and Hellboy are definitely my three favourite comic book characters and Robert Downey Jr has been consistently charming and funny in the last two Iron Man films. The addition of Shane Black on writing and directing duties is the biggest draw though. Shane Black has written some brilliantly witty and action packed scripts and his directorial debut with Downey Jr starring was the wonderful Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. That film made me fall almost completely in love with Downey Jr and is a huge reason for his successful comeback surely. If only it had done the same for Val Kilmer.

Also that Superbowl spot for Iron Man 3 that just featured a bunch of people falling out of a plane with Iron Man deciding what to do next was pure marketing genius. THAT's how to get me interested in a film (without showing me too much of the story)! I hope Kingsley is as epic as he looks! Here is the Superbowl spot if you haven't seen it, plus the full trailer:





Bernie re-teams director Richard Linklater with Jack Black after the success of School of Rock. I'm looking forward to seeing this as I've got a lot of love for Linklater and it looks pretty quirky, fun and with an interesting and slightly different role for Black than normal. Still, it's really just filler until Before Midnight gets here! I sure hope that nice Mr Matthew McConaughey is playing a slightly more pleasant character than in Killer Joe though! Check out the trailer below:



Finally there is 21 & Over which looks pretty funny but I wouldn't be surprised if all the best bits are in the trailer. I guess it could potentially be this generation's Ferris Bueller. Or it could just be a horrible mess full of crass stereotyping. I want to hope its as fun as the trailer looks in places. Check it out:



Any of these take your fancy?

Upcoming Screenings: Evil Dead, Olympus Has Fallen, The Look of Love

Over the next three Mondays I have three screenings I'm very excited for; the Evil Dead remake, Die Hard in the White House Part 1 Olympus Has Fallen and Steve Coogan in The Look of Love.

Evil Dead should be a nightmare for fans of the original trilogy but with the likes of Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell producing this remake, this was looking good from the start. Juno and Young Adult fans will be pleased to note Diablo Cody is on writing duties and anyone who has seen the trailer will immediately be able to tell if this film is for them or not. The red band trailer below is certainly not for the squeamish. It looks absolutely mental, keeping a similar if perhaps slightly more serious tone to the original and whizzing tracking shots through the menacing woods still intact. Here is my review of Evil Dead at Filmoria. Check out the trailer:



Olympus Has Fallen is the first of two Die Hards in the White House of this year with Roland Emmerich's White House Down to follow later.This one has Gerard Butler as the one man army out to save Aaron Eckhart as his President. Next up by the way if you haven't already heard is Channing Tatum protecting President Jamie Foxx if that pairing takes your fancy. Either way, both of these sound like the ultimate movies for my 10-16 year old self. If no one dives in front of the Commander in Chief, saving them from a bullet while yelling NOOOOOOOOOOOO Mr Presideeeeeeeeeeeeeent, then I'll be sorely disappointed. Even Air Force One had a pilot throwing his plane in the way of a missile to save President Harrison Ford's own plane. I hope this is fun, check out the trailer:



A fortnight on Monday, I will be seeing Brit flick biopic The Look of Love starring Steve Coogan as controversial sleezebag entrepreneur Paul Raymond. It's got a pretty cool cast and is directed by Michael Winterbottom so could be good but it's probably the least of these three I'm looking forward to. Here's the trailer:



Any of these take your fancy?

Weekend Screenings: The Lords of Salem, Trance, The Liability

I've got three wonderful screenings lined up this weekend; two for Filmoria and one just for me (though I may end up reviewing it for Filmoria too). Rob Zombie's new horror The Lords of Salem stars his good old wife Sheri Moon Zombie again and looks far more interesting than his other films so far, particularly those last two Halloween remakes. From the trailer below, it looks very atmospheric and almost like it is going for a slightly more mature style than his earlier films. Less all out gore and brutality and more of a focus on a single female character who may or may not be going crazy perhaps? Perhaps it's even fair to say The Lords of Salem looks like Rob Zombie has been studying the likes of Dario Argento and Roman Polanski. Perhaps.



Trance is Danny Boyle's first film since 127 Hours. Danny Boyle is one of my favourite directors for three reasons: Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and 127 Hours. He may have been busy with a theatre version of Frankenstein and the small matter of the London Olympics Opening Ceremony (which I have still yet to see as I was on honeymoon in Costa Rica), but he is back with a great cast, a very interesting and trippy, twisty sounding premise and one of my favourite actors Vincent Cassell. I literally cannot wait to see this film. Though Boyle has had the odd misfire, I think this looks like a good one. My Danny Boyle Retrospective is going up on Filmoria tomorrow so please check it out. I've been going through his entire back catalogue which has mostly been a pleasure.



I'm not sure what to think about this next one. The Liability is a British hit man thriller. It's got a great cast with Tim Roth, Peter Mullan and Jack O'Connell and despite the silly macho voice over in this trailer, looks like quite a bit of fun potentially. I'll watch Tim Roth in anything and Jack O'Connell is bound to be a very big star eventually. He was great in Tower Block and is already set for bigger things with the upcoming 300 prequel.



Any of these films take your fancy?

Upcoming Screenings: Rebellion, No, Hitchcock, The Paperboy

I have quite a few exciting screenings lined up over the next month. Next week I'm seeing both Rebellion, directed by and starring Mathieu Kassovitz and No starring Gael García Bernal, a film where 'an ad executive comes up with a campaign to defeat Augusto Pinochet in Chile's 1988 referendum.
 

I'm extremely excited about Rebellion as I love Kassovitz's La Haine and though his career has never reached those heights,on the strength of the trailer and the subject matter I have high hopes for this one. No, on the other hand is also very promising as it is the first time Chile have had a film nominated for the best foreign language Oscar.

Both of these I will be reviewing for Filmoria ahead of their releases in February. Below are the trailers:





Later in February I have managed to line up screenings of two more films so far; The Paperboy through the Total Film Screening Club and Hitchcock through ShowFilmFirst.

Judging from the amount of times I've seen the trailer for Hitchcock, I think I might be bored of this before I even get to the cinema, though it does look like it has some fun performances from Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren.

The Paperboy is from the director of Precious, Lee Daniels and is packed by a fantastic cast and looks sweaty and trashy as hell! Below are the trailers:





What do you think of these trailers? Any take your fancy?

Premium Rush Film Club Review

Thanks to this post from Scott at Front Room Cinema, I got to take part in the From The Red Carpet film club a couple of weekends ago.  Everyone that took part got two free tickets to see Premium Rush and then we all met up on Facebook on the Sunday evening to discuss the film.

It was an awesome experience for me as I'm no good at talking out loud and getting my opinions across to people when I'm having a normal conversation so getting to have a chat with others about the film through social networking was perfect.  I hope to get the opportunity to take part again some day.

From the Red Carpet have published their review of the film and there are lots of quotes from all us film clubbers in it so please have a look at the review and leave them a comment telling them to make sure they keep inviting me back.  The From the Red Carpet review is here.

I leave you with some sample quotes from the film clubbers:

‘I love Koepp’s scripts, where he takes a simple set up and milks it for all that it’s worth. Panic Room is the perfect example!’

‘Well, my first thought after watching the film was – ‘what on earth was Joseph Gordon-Levitt thinking?!’ He’s pretty much A-list these days – but this film screamed B MOVIE.’

‘I quite enjoyed this; it surprised me with its slightly skewed take on the chase movie. Shannon and Levitt were eminently watchable and although it’s not going to win any awards it was a fun way to spend an afternoon.’

'What's Your Number?' (Mark Mylod, 2011) Review and Anna Faris Q&A

Do you looooooove Rom-Coms? Do you looooooove Anna Faris? If the answer is yes to either, then you can add at least another star to this rating.

For me, rom-coms are just too damn predictable and therefore never going to get above a three star rating (unless you're talking unconventional genre spasms like 500 Days of Summer).

However taking into account I don't like rom-coms, this is the highest rating one of these films will get from me. Anna Faris is extremely likeable as ever and Chris Evans is very funny and probably a perfect specimen of man in the eyes of many an audience member.

Watch the trailer and you'll know how it ends but the journey provides the kind of rude laughs and romantic moments in iconic locations that are becoming ever more familiar in the modern rom-com.

Like the recent Friends With Benefits (not bad) and the hilarious Bridesmaids, What's Your Number? is ruder and funnier than many older rom-coms with hand-job jokes, potty-mouthed dialogue and a female character who is liberated, crude and played by a star who is definitely not too shy or vain to embarrass herself.

As Faris' character searches for the perfect man among her twenty ex-lovers, cameos from Martin Freeman and Andy Samberg maintain interest but it's Faris and Evans that provide the real laughs and chemistry.

Nothing new if you're not a rom-com fan but ticks all the boxes for the target audience and keeps the genre headed in a dirtier direction. It's out 30th September 2011.



And for the record Anna Faris attended a Q&A after the screening I was at and seemed like a lovely, humble, self-effacing lady. She was very funny and down-to-earth and a pleasure to be in the presence of.

I asked her about 'The Dictator' and working with Sacha Baron Cohen. She could not say much about the film but said that the shoot was 'wild' and that the film will offend 'everybody'. She also mentioned that there was a lot of opportunities for improvisation. So no surprises there but still great to hear her enthusiasm for the film. I can't wait!