2007 – a movie preview

A small selection of some of the potential highlights of the coming twelve months – by no means an exhaustive selection, but ones we’re looking forward to…

eta 12th January – The Last King of Scotland – at last a proper release for the film everyone raved about at the London Film Festival back in November. Forest Whitaker does Idi Amin in a tale of dictatorship and disillusionment, based on the prize-winning novel by journalist Giles Foden.

eta 26th January – Blood Diamond – Leonardo DiCaprio makes another bid for an Oscar as diamond smuggler teaming up with Djimon Hounsou’s poor local in a bid for a rare pink diamond amidst civil war-torn Sierra Leone. Political, topical – and coming out over here just a month before the Oscars…

eta 16th February – Hot Fuzz – Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg team up once more after the success of Shawn of the Dead and superb sitcom Spaced, this time with a spoof cop movie. Set in rural Somerset… How could this be anything other than genius?

eta 23rd February – The Good Shepherd – This Robert De Niro-directed tale of the birth of the CIA, with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie (as well as Bob himself), looks set to be packed with political intrigue – much of which may well be relevant to our own times…

eta 23rd February – Letters From Iwo Jima – The second part of Clint Eastwood’s World War Two epic, this time the Japanese side of the story. By all accounts a far better film than Flags of Our Fathers, the American side of the tale that’s currently on release.

eta 9th March – The Good German – Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney team up yet again, this time for a noirish tale of intrigue set at the close of World War Two, with Tobey Maguire and Cate Blanchett in support. Initial reports from the other side of the Atlantic are that it’s not as good as it should be, but we still can’t wait to see for ourselves.

eta 30th March – 300 – Another overly stylised adaptation of a Frank Miller comic book after the success of Sin City, this time set in Ancient Greece (well, Sparta, to be precise). Looks like it should be visually stunning, but will it hold up as a film?

eta 27th April – Takeshis’ –  Japanese icon “Beat” Takeshi Kitano does his own version of Being John Malkovich as, playing himself, he happens across a lookalike. For fans of the cult actor, this could be something rather special, especially as it shows a side of the guy rarely seen outside of his Japanese TV appearances.

eta 4th May – Spider-Man 3 – Spidey goes evil (or does he?), so looks to build on the success of the first two in this top-notch franchise with yet another darker turn. Top stuff – especially for comics geeks who know who/what Venom is…

eta 25th May – Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End – Finally, a decnt conclusion to Dead Man’s Chest. Hopefully… Either way, another chance to see Johnny Depp do his thing, so hurrah!

eta 8th June – Ocean’s Thirteen – Yes, we know what you’re thinking – Ocean’s Twelve was horrendous. The good thing is, everyone involved seems to have realised, and have promised that this next outing is going to be the film the last one should have been. With Al Pacino added to the already star-studded cast, let’s hope they get it right this time…

eta 29th June – Shrek the Third – the team are all back, and what more could you want? Bound to be a crowd-pleaser.

eta 13th July – Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix –  The films have been getting progressively better as the series has progressed, though whether new director David Yates – best known for his TV work, including the tip-top political drama State of Play – will be able to continue the trend is anyone’s guess…

eta 27th July – Transformers – Yes, a live-action version of that 80s toy classic. Giant robots beating each other up for two hours? How could you not be interested? Oh, yes – it’s directed by Michael Bay, the man responsible for the likes of The Island and Pearl Harbor… But even so – giant robots!

eta 27th July – The Simpsons Movie –  Eighteen years after the funny yellow family hit the small screen, they finally make it to the big. Will they make the transition though? Fingers crossed, eh?

eta 3rd August – The Bourne Ultimatum –  The third in the insanely good spy series looks all set to be just as good as the last two, with Paul Greengrass returning as director and Matt Damon set to do his thing once again as the amnesiac spook still trying to uncover his murky past.

eta 26th October – The Golden Age –  Nine years on, a sequel to director Shekhar Kapur’s magnificent historical biopic Elizabeth, reuniting much of the original cast to explore the relationship of an older Queen Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchett) and the adventurous hero/pirate Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen). Should be superb.

eta 9th November – American Gangster – Sir Ridley Scott teams up once again with Russell Crowe, with Denzel Washington also in the mix, in this 1970s-set drug-running thriller. Could be an overdue return to form for Scott after recent lacklustre outings.

eta 30th November – Beowulf – Ray Winstone stars in this epic version of the Dark Age classic, adapted by comic book favourite Neil Gaiman, and with a pretty damned impressive supporting cast. Potentially a new (one film) Lord of the Rings…

eta ? – The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford – Brad Pitt stars as near-legendary gunslinger Jesse James in this much-anticipated second feature from Andrew Dominik, who brought us 2000’s compelling (if occasionally horrifying) Chopper.

And then, of course, in 2008 we have Tim Burton’s Sweeny Todd,  Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo IV, comic book adaptation Iron Man and the next Bond film to look forward to, amongst others.

So then, what are you looking forward to the most?

Review: Night at the Museum

UK release date: 26th December

Ben Stiller heads a cast of A-list comedy actors that ranges from the likes of Mickey Rooney and Dick Van Dyke to Robin Williams in this raucous romp through history. Stiller plays the patsy once again as night watchman Larry Daley, who has to run for his life when an ancient curse causes the exhibits in a museum of natural history to come to life at sundown.

Stiller does a sterling job here and there’s a witty use of visual effects such as when Larry is terrorised by a T rex skeleton or when he tries to negotiate peace between a miniature Old West gunslinger (an uncredited Owen Wilson) and an equally tiny Roman general (Steve Coogan). Meanwhile, Ricky Gervais pops up as an officious museum director who’s not a million miles away from David Brent.

Director Shawn Levy is not always in control of his storyline as he desperately tries to string various subplots together through Larry’s faltering relationship with his son (Jake Cherry). Fortunately, there are enough exciting stunts and larger-than-life performances to provide entertainment for kids and old relics alike.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate PG
Running time 108mins

Review by Stella Papamichael

Review: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

UK release date: 26th December

Novelist Patrick Süskind’s so-called “unfilmable” story of obsession and murder in 18th-century France gets a ravishing big-screen adaptation courtesy of Run Lola Run director Tom Tykwer. An offbeat and sensuous adult fairy tale, it revolves around a chilling turn by Ben Whishaw (Enduring Love) as the Parisian perfumer’s apprentice, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. Born with an exceptional sense of smell, Grenouille becomes monstrously fixated on preserving the aroma of young women — particularly the only daughter of merchant Antoine Richis (a poignant Alan Rickman). The tragic horror that unfolds has a seductive quality reminiscent of German Expressionist cinema, which gives Grenouille’s crimes and motivations a darkly romantic edge. But it’s the extraordinary visuals and evocative soundtrack that are the movie’s greatest strengths, re-creating a pungent era so vividly that every frame conjures up mental fragrances. This really is a mesmerising experience, though the faithfulness to the source material makes the film excessively long and occasionally sluggish.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 147mins

Review by Sloan Freer

Review: It’s a Boy/Girl Thing

UK release date: 26th December

In this likeable addition to the body-swap comedy genre, rising young stars Kevin Zegers (Transamerica, the Air Bud franchise) and Samaire Armstrong (TV’s The OC) play chalk-and-cheese next-door neighbours and sworn enemies, who get an unexpected taste of each other’s lives when a magical Aztec statue causes them to exchange bodies. They then set out to destroy each other’s high-school reputations — he’s the star quarterback with the cheerleader girlfriend, she’s the bookworm heading for a top college.

This role-reverse romantic comedy may not be original, but it’s engagingly done and there are charming performances from the two leads. Watch out, too, for the feature film debut of X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne as Zegers’s mum.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 12A
Running time 94mins

Review by David Aldridge

Review: Flags of Our Fathers

UK release date: 22nd December

Joe Rosenthal’s iconic photograph of US servicemen raising the Stars and Stripes above the Pacific island of Iwo Jima is the starting point for Clint Eastwood’s Second World War epic. Part war movie, part deconstruction of heroism, it follows three of the group — Marines Rene Gagnon and Ira Hayes (Jesse Bradford, Adam Beach), and Navy corpsman “Doc” Bradley (Ryan Phillippe) — as they’re sent home to bolster the fundraising effort. While these men struggle to cope with post-traumatic stress and their reluctant status as heroes, Eastwood reveals the complex interaction of war, propaganda and real lives behind the famous image.

Based on a bestselling memoir by Bradley’s son, this is a technically accomplished yet ponderously worthy film that quickly abandons its probing remit to fall back on misty-eyed platitudes about war as hell and the camaraderie of soldiers under fire. Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima, which depicts events from the Japanese perspective, is due for release in February.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 131mins

Review by Jamie Russell

News: Clint Eastwood

Next up for the living legend that is Clint is the Japanese side of the Flags of Our Fathers story, Letters From Iwo Jima. Both movies have been nominated for Golden Globes, and could well see the same happen at the Oscars – especially as, by all accounts, Letters is rather better than Flags, despite being far lower budget and made entirely in Japanese. It’s due out on 23rd February.

Also out next year – and doubtless of interest to some – is the computer game version of the Eastwood classic Dirty Harry, complete with the man himself on voice duties, along with the talents of the likes of Gene Hackman and Lawrence Fishburne. It’s the first new Dirty Harry outing since the rather shoddy 1990 Nintendo Game Dirty Harry: The War Against Drugs, and the first time Clint will have played the character since the fifth (and so far final) sequel to the 1971 original, 1988’s The Dead Pool. Here’s hoping it’s not as bad as that travesty was…

News: Paul Haggis

The Oscar-winning writer/director behind the likes of Crash and Casino Royale has teamed up again with Clint Eastwood to script this week’s Flags of Our Fathers, following their previous award-winning success with Million Dollar Baby. He has two projects currently in the pipeline, both of which he will write and direct.

Set for release next year, In the Valley of Elah will tackle the difficulties faced by soldiers returning from service in Iraq, potentially reviving a genre that prompted numerous superb movies – everything from Rambo to Born on the Fourth of July – when the war veterans concerned were returning from Vietnam. Tommy Lee Jones will star as a career officer desperate to find out what has happened to his son, AWOL after serving in Iraq, aided by Charlize Theron’s detective.

After that will come Honeymoon With Harry, a “blackly comic drama” (apparently) about a man who, when his fiancee is killed two days before their wedding, decides to take her father on the honeymoon to scatter her ashes. Even though they hate each other. No actors have yet been attached – but don’t be too surprised if it ends up being renamed “Meet the Maker” and starring Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro as a slightly more morbid sequel to Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers…

News: Ryan Phillippe

Poor old Ryan hasn’t seen his career take off quite as he might have liked after his decent turn in 1999’s Cruel Intentions,with his (soon to be ex-) wife Reese Witherspoon having gained all the glory. That could all be about to change with his starring turn in this week’s Flags of Our Fathers, however – and his lack of career success is part of the reason why he got the role, as director Clint Eastwood didn’t want any big names to add to the authenticity.

Next up, he’ll be starring opposite top-notch character actor Chris Cooper in Breach, a true story tale of a young FBI man’s clashes with his boss who, it turns out, was a Soviet spy.

He’ll then be taking the lead in an as-yet untitled drama about a soldier returning from the war in Iraq who decided to take on the US government in court to prevent them from sending him back for another tour of duty.

Finally, and keeping on the political theme, he’ll also be starring in Tlatelolco: Mexico 68, alongside John Leguizamo, as an American journalist who gets caught up the 1968 student revolts, which ended in the massacre of hundreds of students by government forces. Politics being big in Hollywood at the moment, this new-found activist streak could well prove profitable for the young actor.

News: Adam Beech

The Native American star of this week’s Flags of Our Fathers has already seen a boost to his career following his portrayal of tragic iwo Jima hero Ira Hayes. There may, however, be just a touch of racial stereotyping in the casting: he’s landed a leading role as “Blue Duck” in the CBS TV Western miniseries Commanche Moon, out in the States next year, and will be appearing in another TV Western series in 2008, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

Whether his one upcoming role in which the fact that he’s got “Red Indian” blood hasn’t played a factor in his casting will buck the trend, who can say? But as it’s a remake of the rather poor 1972 zombie horror/comedy Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things, anything could happen – it could be another Shaun of the Dead, or merely another Snakes on a Plane. Let’s hope for the former, eh?

News: Jesse Bradford

As one of the young soldiers in this week’s Flags of Our Fathers, Bradford was cast precisely because nobody has ever heard of him. It can’t have done his career much harm, though – as well as a couple of low-budget indy flicks, he’s attached to co-star alongside Jennifer Lopez in the comedy Bridge and Tunnel. Not a bad next step for an actor whose career has yet to kick off, despite roles in the tip-top likes of King of the Hill (the Steven Soderbergh indy flick, not the unfunny cartoon sitcom), Romeo + Juliet and Hackers.

Not the usual on here

Yet how could I spot the news that Joe Barbera of Hanna-Barbera fame has died without putting up some kind of note. I mean, Tom and Jerry? Huckleberry Hound? Yogi Bear? Top Cat? The Jetsons? Johnny Quest? The Flintstones? (Even if just for what it inspired…) Scooby Doo? Space Ghost? Captain Caveman? Wacky Races? The genius of Droopy?

Time to shed a little tear – even if nothing Hana-Barbera ever produced was even close in quality to the work of the mighty Tex Avery, they still managed to keep generation upon generation of children entertained with their slapstick and light comedy. We can even forgive them the Flintstones…

Review: Deja Vu

UK release date: 15th December

Denzel Washington reteams with his Crimson Tide and Man on Fire director Tony Scott for this sci-fi thriller about manipulating the past to save lives in the future.

Washington plays Doug Carlin, a New Orleans federal agent investigating a huge bombing, who is given access to a top-secret government “time window” that lets him see into the past. He then tries to solve the crime, and also prevent it from ever happening.

The screenplay provides some provocative commentary on surveillance, home-grown terrorism and the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive strikes, but Scott is far more interested in crash, bang, wallop pyrotechnics — in particular, a freeway car chase that occurs simultaneously in both the past and the present.

This is a gloriously dumb thriller that occasionally teases with some serious themes, but doesn’t quite follow them through.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 12A
Running time 126mins

Review by Jamie Russell

News: Tony Scott

Always destined to be both Ridley’s less talented little brother and the man responsible for homoerotic 80s cheesefest Top Gun, Tony Scott’s on his typical competent form with this week’s Deja Vu. His planned remake of the 1979 cult gang warfare classic The Warriors still apparently on hold, Scott will no doubt be hoping instead to get his other planned movie, Emma’s War, off the ground. Revolving around a female aid worker in the Sudan who falls in love with a local warlord, Nicole Kidman was at one point rumoured to be interested and, with Africa seemingly popular with the Academy at the moment, with the right cast and screenplay Scott no doubt knows that this could finally bring him his Oscar.

If, of course, he can ever get it made…

News: Denzel Washington

Denzel’s not been overly busy in the film department of late, but this week’s re-teaming with Crimson Tide and Man On Fire director Tony Scott, Deja Vu, is him back at his respectable action hero best. His next looks likely to be another partnership with the Scott family – albeit big brother Ridley this time, for 1970s drug-running thriller American Gangster. Teamed up with Sir Ridley’s favourite leading man, Russell Crowe, director and stars alike will be hoping for a big hit after recent low-key disappointments.

News: Val Kilmer

Kilmer’s concerted attempts for a career revival is nothing short of startling, with this week’s Deja Vu being just one of the six films he’s been in during 2006. Most intriguing was sadly a direct-to-DVD live recording of a stage show in which he was appearing – as Moses – in The Ten Commandments: The Musical. He’s also been in Polish Western (yes, really) Summer Love, yet to get a UK release, as yet unreleased British gangster flick Played, and US mob drama 10th & Wolf (also unreleased). His career boom hasn’t been going too well so far, in other words…

He’s not been put off just yet, though, with a whole bunch more in the pipeline, from 1960s-set family drama A West Texas Children’s Story, surrealist rejected orphan revenge tale Coin Locker Babies and animated fantasy adventure Delgo (alongside the voices of the late Anne Bancroft, as well as other near-legends like Burt Reynolds and Eric Idle).

Most promising, however, are likely to be Alpha Numeric, a gangster drama in which Kilmer will star alongside Winona Ryder and Dennis Hopper, and The Dirt – assuming the rumours of his casting are true – which promises to be the story of rock group Mötley Crüe’s rise to fame. Kilmer is supposedly playing Van Halen singer David Lee Roth, alongside Chrstopher Walken as – get this – Ozzy Osbourne. Now that really WOULD rock…