News: The Rock

The hulking ex-wrestler may not have made the movie A-list, but he’s doing an OK job at landing leading roles in second-rate fare like this week’s Gridiron Gang.

Next up is another American Football-themed film, albeit one with an added touch of family drama and comedy. In The Game Plan he’ll play a star quarterback, happily living the bachelor life, who suddenly discovers he’s got a 7-year-old daughter from an old relationship. Could this be his Kindergarden Cop? If it gets a release on this side of the pond (it’s due in October in the US), maybe we’ll find out.

More hopeful is the more traditional, hugely silly-sounding action fare of Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run – the computer game version of which is already out – featuring The Rock as an over-the-top ex-fighter pilot (quite how someone his size fitted into the cockpit, ho knows) turned super-spy, complete with a gadget-laden car that can turn into a motorbike. Yes, really…

Most promising, though, is another spy film – this time the Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway-starring comedy Get Smart, due 2008 and looking to have the near-legendary Terrence Stamp as a suitably over-the-top villain. Could be fun.

News: James McAvoy

The star of this week’s tip-top The Last King of Scotland has has already completed work on Penelope, starring opposite Christina Ricci and Reese Witherspoon. From what we can tell, it sounds like a Tim Burton-esque fable with Ricci as a woman deformed by a family curse, desperately searching for love and acceptance.Coming up in the next year or so, McAvoy will continue to add to his enviable leading ladies opposite Keira Knightley in the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s bestselling Atonement, following that up with a role in the Anne Hathaway-starring Becoming Jane, about the young Jane Austen’s tragic romance with Tom Lefroy – who else but McAvoy? – the man who helped inspire her novels.

Meanwhile, although McAvoy has claimed to have little interest in big Hollywood blockbusters, it looks like his first action role could also be on the cards. Set to star opposite Morgan Freeman, McAvoy will play the son of a super-powered assassin who takes on his father’s mantle in this big screen adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic series Wanted. Shooting is set to start this month for a 2008 release – and could well see McAvoy really hit the big time.

News: James McAvoy

The 27-year-old Shameless star may remain best known for his TV work, but the next year or so could well see him hit the big time, with this week’s Starter for Ten just the first of many films in which he’ll be taking the lead, rather than the supporting turns he’s mostly had to put up with to date. Next up is The Last King of Scotland, an adaptation of the Giles Foden novel about the relationship between Mentalist Ugandan dictator Idi Amin – a top-notch Forest Whittaker – and his scottish doctor, played by McAvoy, which received rave reviews at its London Film Festival screening, and is due for a nationwide release in the second week of January. He has also already completed work on Penelope, starring opposite Christina Ricci and Reese Witherspoon, a Tim Burtonesque fable with Ricci as a woman deformed by a family curse, desperately searching for love and acceptance.

Coming up in the next year or so, McAvoy will continue to add to his enviable leading ladies opposite Keira Knightley in the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s bestselling Atonement, following that up with a role in the Anne Hathaway-starring Becoming Jane, about the young Jane Austen’s tragic romance with Tom Lefroy – who else but McAvoy? – the man who helped inspire her novels.

Meanwhile, although McAvoy has claimed to have little interest in big Hollywood blockbusters, it looks like his first action role could also be on the cards. Set to star opposite Morgan Freeman, McAvoy will play the son of a super-powered assassin who takes on his father’s mantle in this big screen adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic series Wanted. Shooting is set to start in January 2007 for a 2008 release – and could well see McAvoy really hit the big time.

Review: The Devil Wears Prada

UK Release: 5th October 2006

Meryl Streep is the boss from hell in this glossy but shallow fashion industry satire. Demonstrating that less is indeed more, she quietly steals every scene as Miranda Priestly, the formidable editor of New York style magazine Runway, who routinely destroys egos and careers with just one softly spoken put-down or withering glance. It’s a delicious, precise performance that reduces Anne Hathaway’s aspiring journalist Andy Sachs to a crudely drawn, sitcom cliché, as she goofily struggles to meet Miranda’s increasingly difficult demands after becoming her personal assistant.

Though Andy’s trials are never quite as cruel as in ex-US Vogue staffer Lauren Weisberger’s source book, they’re still as entertaining, boasting a similar exuberance to director David Frankel’s earlier project, TV’s Sex and the City. Yet for all its colourful and catty observations, the film lacks genuine bite, skimming over key emotional issues and making a morally triumphant conclusion feel like a cop-out.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate PG
Running time 109mins

Review by Sloan Freer

News: Anne Hathaway

The star of The Devil Wears Prada is doing a good job of proving herself as a serious actress as well as an adept comedienne. Following her supporting turn as one of the neglected wives of Brokeback Mountain, her next role is as 19th century novelist Jane Austen in Becoming Jane – a part she won over the likes of Kate Winslet, Natalie Portman and Keira Knightley. Part funded by the UK Film Council – which has been responsible for more misses than hits, yet sill has some quality movies like The Constant Gardener and the upcoming The Last King of Scotland to its credit – Hathaway’s co-stars will include James Cromwell, Julie Walters, Maggie Smith and rising star James McAvoy.

Review: Hoodwinked

UK release: 29th September 2006

Little Red Riding Hood gets a low-grade Shrek makeover in this cheap-looking slice of computer-generated animation. Fitfully clever rather than funny, sluggish when it should be sassy, this uses a Rashomon approach to retell the classic tale from four perspectives.

Kung fu fighting Red (voiced by a strident Anne Hathaway) remains closest to the original characters, while extreme-sports enthusiast Granny (Glenn Close), undercover reporter Big Bad Wolf (Patrick Warburton) and down-on-his-luck Woodsman (James Belushi) wander off the page. A moustached frog named Nicky Flippers (David Ogden Stiers) is the Poirot of the piece, trying to unravel the anachronistic puzzle.

Despite the occasional amusing line and non-stop references to other fairy tales, the sameness of each character’s version of events soon becomes tedious, while the bland songs, ranging between hard rock and show tunes, don’t help.

Radio Times rating:

**

UK cinema certificate U
Running time 81mins

Review by Alan Jones