Review: Pan’s Labyrinth

UK release date: 24th November

In a superlative companion piece to 2001’s The Devil’s Backbone, director Guillermo del Toro uses his extraordinarily rich and detailed visual style to weave entrancing metaphorical fantasy horror through political allegory with stunning brilliance.

In 1944, in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) seeks refuge in a mysterious maze to escape the harsh realities of her life. There, satyr Pan (Doug Jones) sets her three perilous tasks. These mirror her soul-destroying existence and help her to cope with the perversions of innocence that fascism represents in this dark fable for adults.

Superbly acted (Sergi Lopez terrifies as the wicked stepfather who is one of Franco’s torturers), vividly beautiful (the fairy-tale landscapes are exquisite), and uniquely imaginative (a magical and sinister buffet sequence is astonishing), del Toro’s mesmerising phantasmagoria packs a real emotional punch. Coupled with Javier Navarrete’s glorious score, this grim spin on Alice in Wonderland is del Toro’s finest work to date.

Radio Times rating:

*****

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 119mins

Review by Alan Jones

News: Guillermo del Toro

The Mexican horror maestro has outdone himself with this week’s Pan’s Labyrinth
, the Golden Palm-nominated adult fairy tale which should be a shoe-in for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars, at the very least. For his next project, though, he will be returning to Hollywood for a sequel to his interesting (if flawed) 2004 comic book adaptation Hellboy. Hellboy 2: The Golden Army will see the return of the big red crime-fighting demon, as played by the heavily made-up Ron Perlman, along with the object of his affection, Selma Blair.

Set for release in 2008, if you can’t wait that long, try to track down the made for TV cartoon spin-offs Hellboy: Sword of Storms and Hellboy: Blood and Iron – del Toro may only have acted as Consultant Producer, but pretty much all the stars of the first film – Perlman, Blair and even the top-notch John Hurt – have lent their voices to the two feature-length animations.

After Hellboy 2, del Toro seems to be set to return to Spain and the impact of the Spanish Civil War, the setting for both Pan’s Labyrinth and 2001’s The Devil’s Backbone, for 1990s-set 3993, described by del Toro as

“a movie that, if I do it, would close the trilogy of Spanish Civil War movies, because it’s about a character in 1993 who believes that civil war is a thing of the past. And something from 1939 comes to life and proves that it’s not — that it’s pretty much alive.”

Sounds interesting, at least, should it happen – but if it does, don’t expect it to arrive much before 2009.

News: Doug Jones

The name may not be familiar, and neither’s the face, Doug Jones seeming to specialise in roles that involve vast amounts of make-up. In this week’s Pan’s Labyrinth he’s covered in latex as the decidedly odd-looking Faun, and in director Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy he was again hidden under rubber as the blue fish-like Abe – a role to which he will be returning for Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, as well as doing vocal duties for the character on the animated TV movies Hellboy: Sword of Storms and Hellboy: Blood and Iron.

Away from del Toro, Jones’ next big movie role will be in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer – as the titualar metalic wave-rider himself. Although, of course, as any true comics buff knows, the Silver Surfer doesn’t ride waves, but is instead the herald of the god-like, planet-eating alien Galactus, zipping about the universe on his surfboard looking for fresh globes for his master’s lunch. Which is, of course, far more sensible than someone made of metal trying to stay afloat on the sea…

Review: Hollywoodland

UK release date: 24th November

Though it has all the hallmarks of a film noir — a gumshoe, a mysterious death and not one but two femmes fatales — Hollywoodland doesn’t quite fit the genre bill. Instead, it’s more a poignant love letter to the glory days of Tinseltown, personified by George Reeves (Ben Affleck), a struggling bit-part player who found fame in the 1950s as TV’s Superman.

The film takes liberties with the facts of Reeves’s life, starting with his apparent suicide in 1959 and telling his story in flashback through the eyes of private eye Louis Simo (Adrien Brody), who is hired by Reeves’s mother to look into her son’s death. Simo uncovers three possible alternatives, all hinged on Reeves’s involvement with a rich, powerful and married woman (Diane Lane).

Despite the convincingly dark, smoky atmosphere to Simo’s investigation, Hollywoodland works better when it’s evoking Reeves’s heyday — a cosmetically genteel world of zoot suits and jazz bands, in which the studio system protected its investments at any price.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 125mins

Review by Damon Wise

News: Ben Affleck

Having got a fair amount of Oscar buzz for his turn as former TV Superman George Reeves in this week’s Hollywoodland, Affleck’s next step for his career revival masterplan is a turn as a mustachioed hitman in Smokin’ Aces, a comedy crime caper that could, at a push, pass as a parody of the kind of Tarantino-lite flicks (like Get Shorty) of the mid-1990s. Or it could be a genuine attempt to make that kind of film a decade after they went out of fashion… Due out in the UK in March 2007, whether it’s going to be any good or not is anyone’s guess, but the trailer can be found <a href=”http://www.smokinacesmovie.net/teaser/&#8221; target=”_blank”>here</a>.

Likely to be more promising for Affleck’s future is his planned team-up with best buddy Matt Damon – with whom he won the Oscar for Best Screenplay for Good Will Hunting all those years ago. As yet untitiled, the pair will star as a couple of lawyers who toil for fifteen years to save the life of an innocent man on death row, and is apparently based on a true story. Quite when (or if) it will see the light of day is unclear, considerin Damon’s hectic schedule these days.

Also showing potential is Gone, Baby, Gone – written, produced and directed by Affleck, and starring his younger brother, Casey, alongside Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris. Based on the <a href=”http://www.dennislehanebooks.com/books/gone/&#8221; target=”_blank”>book</a> by Dennis Lehane, the author of the book Sean Penn got his Oscar-winner Mystic River out of. Set around the kidnapping of a four-year-old girl in Boston, it looks set to be rather more serious than most of Affleck’s recent outings – and could, if he’s as good a director as he used to be a writer, prove rather good.

News: Adrien Brody

Oscar-winner Brody puts in a good turn as a noirish detective in this week’s Hollywoodland, though most of the Academy Awards buzz for this film seems to be centred around the “comeback” performance of his co-star Ben Affleck.

It could instead be the upcoming biopic of Spanish bullfighter Manuel Rodríguez Sánchez, Manolete, for which he trained in southern Spain to get the full bullfighting experience, which garners Brody his next batch of nominations. Likely to be a controversial movie for its potential to laud such a cruel sport, and coming from Menno Meyjes, the same writer/director responsible for the John Cusack-starring Hitler biopic Max, word is that the chemistry with co-star Penélope Cruz could make this one to remember on its release in Autumn 2007.

Brody will also be appearing in the experimental director Todd Haynes’ equally experimental exploration of Bob Dylan I’m Not There, alongside a ridiculously impressive cast of the likes of Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett,Charlotte Gainsbourg, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Julianne Moore. Due out next year, Dylan’s life and work is explored through seven characters representing different aspects of the man and music.

News: Bob Hoskins

Playing to type as the seemingly psychotic studio boss in this week’s Hollywoodland, Brit hero Hoskins will be cropping up on the telly in this Christmas’ all-star feature-length BBC One adaptation of The Wind in the Willows as Badger, alongside Little Britain‘s Matt Lucas as Toad, The League of Gentlemen‘s Mark Gatiss as Rat, Lee Ingleby as Mole and Imelda Staunton. He’ll also be returning to TV and period Hollywood for the 1920s-set mini-series The Englishman’s Boy, based on the book by Guy Vanderhaeghe, for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where he’ll play a movie producer desperate to hunt down a former Western star. Fingers crossed for a UK screening at some point…

In terms of the movies, Hoskins will take on a more challenging role than usual inthe low-budget Ruby Blue, as an elderly man whose friendship with an eight-year-old girl arouses all kinds of unsavoury local suspicioons when she goes missing. He will then appear alongside Sean Bean in British movie Outlaw, following a modern-day vigilante group out to right the wrongs of an unjust society, with another Brit flick, Sparkle, also due out next year, with Hoskins starring alongside The West Wing‘s Stockard Channing and Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s Anthony Head in a tale of a young Scouser who heads to London to become a rich woman’s toyboy. Perhaps most interesting, however, is Citizen Brando, about a young Tunisian boy’s search for the American Dream through the films of Marlon Brando, which Hoskins is co-producing.

News: Diane Lane

The actress probably still best known for either 1983’s The Outsiders or the 1989 Western TV mini-series Lonesome Dove is on good form in this week’s Hollywoodland, although the role is probably too small to see her land another Oscar nomination to add to her one for 2002’s Unfaithful.

She has a fair few more projects in the works, however, including the potentially promising action thriller Killshot, where she’ll play one half of a couple in a witness protection programme who are tracked down by hitmen Mickey Rourke and the insanely promising star of last year’s superb high school noir flick Brick, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, with additional roles for the likes of Rosario Dawson and Jackass‘ Johnny Knoxville.

Also sounding promising is Ed Harris’ directorial follow-up to his critically-acclaimed 2000 biopic Pollock. Other than Harris, who will star as well as write and direct, Lane will appear alongside Viggo Mortensen in the Western Appaloosa, based on the novel by Robert B. Parker about two friends appointed to police a small town, which is set to start filming in Autumn 2007. We need more Westerns these days – it’s amazing after the success of TV show Deadwood that more aren’t on the way.

Review: Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny

UK release date: 24th November

Jack Black’s twin careers as actor and rock musician merge in this fantastical tale of his band’s humble beginnings and the search for the demonic guitar pick that will turn them into rock gods. He’s joined in the quest by fellow Tenacious D band member Kyle Gass, and ropes in cameos from real-life rock gods Meat Loaf (as his dad), Ronnie James Dio (as his heavy metal muse) and Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters (as Satan!).

If those names mean nothing to you, then this is probably a movie to miss. But if they do, or if you’re a Jack Black fan, then this may well float your boat. It’s an over-the-top and endearingly self-indulgent slice of Spinal Tap-style self-mythologising that sadly, after a wildly funny start, rather runs out of comic steam.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 94mins

Review by David Aldridge

News: Jack Black

The tubby star of this week’s Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny has gone from second-fiddle sidekick in 2000’s High Fidelity to global superstardom in less than half a decade, so little wonder he’s making the most of it, with a whole slew of projects in the offing. Next up he’ll be seen (perhaps somewhat implausibly) as Kate Winslet’s love interest in romantic comedy The Holiday, due out on 8th December in the UK, with loads more due in the next few years.

Potentially promising is the as-yet untitled project from Noah Baumbach, writer of the superb The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and writer/director of Oscar-nominated The Squid and the Whale, which will follow a family reunion over the course of a weekend. With Baumbach in charge, it’s impossible to predict what the outcome might be.

Then will come the much-anticipated Be Kind Rewind from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry, with Black desperately trying to re-make movies from Back to the Future to The Lion King for a friend’s video store after accidentally wiping his entire stock. And talking of talking animals flicks, Black will aslo voice the lead character in the upcoming Dreamworks flick Kung Fu Panda, alongside the vocal talents of the likes of Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu, Ian McShane and Jackie Chan. He is also attached to Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright’s Them, and adaptation of the non-fiction book by journalist Jon Ronson, exploring the wacky (and sometimes downright worrying) world of conspiracy theorists. With Wright and Black on board, it’s unlikely this is going to be a straight piece of reportage, however…

Meanwhile, his semi-spoof band Tenacious D seems to be continuing with its tours and occasional gigs – so keep an eye out, and you could catch a sight of Black in the flesh…

Review: jackass number two

UK release date: 24th November

Fans of the MTV-spawned Jackass series will be delighted to hear that actor Johnny Knoxville and his daredevil pals haven’t calmed down with age. Instead, they’ve become even wilder since 2002’s feature-length Jackass: the Movie, hilariously raising the stakes for bad taste stunts and pranks with this superior and more darkly imaginative sequel.

The sick-puppy laughs come thick and fast as the adrenaline junkies combine agonising tests of human endurance with moments of utter grossness and juvenile stupidity. Whether it’s danger man Steve-O being used as live shark bait or The Ringer star Knoxville riding a giant rocket, this random procession of often life-threatening skits is a wince-inducing testament to just how far some people will go to amuse others.

Ultimately, if you didn’t get the concept before, you certainly won’t get it now, but if car-crash entertainment is your idea of fun, then this strictly adults-only film is hard to beat.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 18
Running time 92mins

Review by Slaon Freer

News: Johnny Knoxville

The man most associated with the Jackass brand has been doing a decent enough job of turning himself into a genuine film star that it’s amazing his agent still lets him take part in such dangerous antics.

Next up, he’ll be appearing ain a small role longside Ben Affleck, Diane Lane, Mickey Rourke, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Rosario Dawson in hitman comedy caper Killshot, but it will be his film after that (assuming that rumours of his casting are true) which could finally give him his proper movie break. Based on an accalaimed series of graphic novels, Hawaiian Dick is set in a stylised 1950s version of the islands, with down-on-his luck detective Byrd trying to cope with the surprising amount of crime he finds himself surrounded by. If it goes ahead and Knoxville can pull it off, it could just see him hit the A-list…

Review: Casino Royale

UK release date: 17th November

Daniel Craig effortlessly makes James Bond his own, and the 21st movie in the series goes back to basics for this resoundingly entertaining spy adventure. GoldenEye director Martin Campbell has obviously been watching the Bourne franchise, and here he gives the superspy a gritty makeover, upping the violence content (the opening sequence, shot in grainy black and white, is particularly brutal). He also strips Bond of much of the slightly camp humour — thus no appearance from gadget-man Q.

The plot is essentially an origins story, as a rough-around-the-edges Bond gains his two zeros (the two authorised kills he needs for his infamous licence) before tackling villain Le Chiffre (a splendidly thin-lipped Mads Mikkelsen) in a game of high-stakes poker.

Craig’s humanised, more flawed interpretation of the role balances Campbell’s physical direction and co-writer Paul Haggis’s sparing wit, while Eva Green provides an alluring love interest. Apart from a chaotic and overlong last act, this is a triumphant new beginning.

Radio Times rating:

****

UK cinema certificate 12A
Running time 144mins

Review by Adam Smith

News: Daniel Craig

Unsurprisingly for an actor who’s been working in films for a fair while, and for whom the role of James Bond in this week’s Casino Royale is if anything a bit of a departure, Daniel Craig has plenty of very varied projects on the go – he won’t be one to rest on his 007 laurels.

Already completed, and due for a US release in August 2007 (though no UK date has yet been set) is sci-fi thriller The Invasion, where Craid will star opposite Nicole Kidman, who plays a psychiatrist who uncovers the cause of an alien disease that threatens to destroy the whole of mankind.  Craig and Kidman will then be reunited in the first of the adaptations of Philip Pullman’s excellent philosophical fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials, pitched as The Golden Compass after the North American edition of the novel, but likely to revert to the book’s original title, Northern Lights, for its UK release, probably in December 2007. Amusingly enough, Craig is playing the mysterious Lord Asriel – a part played by former Bond Timothy Dalton in the London stage production.

After that, Craig will take on the ultimate in evil as Satan himself in I, Lucifer, Craig’s evil one posessing the body of Ewan McGregor after a bet with God, and taking full advantage of the freedom a human body can bring.

And then, of course, there’s the as-yet untitled Bond 22. Craig is currently contracted for two more films as 007 – but quite what direction they will take is anyone’s guess – even those involved most likely don’t know yet. Rumours, however, suggest that parts of the next Craig Bond movie will be inspired by aspects of the Bond novel – though not the Roger Moore-starring film – For Your Eyes Only…

News: Judi Dench

The veteran Dame, who celebrates her 72nd birthday on 9th December, may well be the only major Bond cast member retained fromthe Brosnan years in this week’s Casino Royale, but let’s face it, she’s been a star for so long that she’d hardly be fussed even if they had decided to drop her.

Other than the next film in the series, the as-yet untitled Bond 22, she will be returning to work with Iris director Richard Eyre for Notes on a Scandal, set for release in the UK on 7th February 2007. Dench plays a teacher drawn to the new Art mistress at her school, played by the excellent Cate Blanchett, who gets swiftly entrapped in a web of illicit love, lies and deceit. She is also rumoured to be appearing in the next film from Shanghai Knights and The Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin, Fred Claus – unsurprisingly due Christmas 2007. Starring Paul Giamatti as Santa Claus and Vince Vaughan as his good-for-nothing brother Joe, it could well turn out to be a fun festive treat – though quite what part Dame judi will have in the proceedings is anyone’s guess.