News: Elijah Wood

The voice behind the CGI penguin star of this week’s Happy Feet really is doing a good job of maintaining a career after his success as Frodo in The Lord of the Rings. No Mark “Luke Skywalker” Hamill-style fall from the spotlight for this young actor, who has already appeared as an underwear-obsessed stalker in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a sadistic psycho in Sin City, and a violent hooligan in Green Street since he returned from his quest to Mordor.

Frodo – sorry – Wood’s next few projects are yet more deliberately eclectic, yet decidedly interesting, movies, that should once again show that there’s much more to this chap than furry feet, wide blue eyes, and a tendency to look a bit pathetic while evil ghost-like things on massive flying dragons whizz around the shop.

Though it came out in France in May this year, and is scheduled for a US release in April 2007, sadly no UK distributors seem ready to put out Paris, je t’aime – a quirkily ambitious project that counts cult favourites the Coen brothers and Gus Van Sant, Scream‘s Wes Craven, French superstar Gerard Depardieu, Children of Men‘s Alfonso Cuarón and Wong Kar-Wai’s cinematographer of choice Christopher Doyle amongst its many directors. Broken into 18 five-minute segments, each overseen by a different directorial team, Wood appears as a young American tourist in “Quartier de la Madeleine”, written and directed by Cube‘s Vincenzo Natali. Co-stars include the likes of Bob Hoskins, Steve Buscemi, Marianne Faithful, Willem Dafoe, Miranda Richardson, Juliette Binoche, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Emily Mortimer, Rufus Sewell and Natalie Portman – so quite why this has yet to hit our screens is anyone’s guess.

Wood will also be cropping up in the hugely impressive ensemble cast of former brat-pack actor turned director Emilio Estevez’s Bobby, revolving around the 1968 assassination of US presidential hopeful (and brother of the assassinated President JFK) Robert Kennedy. Due out in the UK on 26th January, the cast is padded out with the likes of Estevez’ father Martin Sheen, as well as Lawrence Fishburne, Heather Graham, Anthony Hopkins, Harry Belafonte, Helen Hunt, Joshua Jackson, Ashton Kutcher, William H Macy, Lindsay Lohan, Demi Moore, Freddy Rodriguez, Christian Slater and Sharon Stone. Nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival this year, it’s definitely one to look forward to.

As for Wood’s other projects, again they are typically diverse and interesting. He’ll voice the young dragon Spyro in the latest in the popular computer game series – alongside Brit favourite Gary Oldman – The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning, and take on the role of a young man forced in to the US army as the draft is re-introduced in the timely exploration of duty in time of war that is Day Zero. Then, due for release in 2008, he’ll play Albert Einstein in the film adaptation of comic Steve Martin’s successful play Picasso at the Lapin Agile, alongside another impressive cast that includes the likes of Martin himself, Kevin Kline, Juliette Binoche, Sienna Miller, Jason Biggs and Ryan Phillipe. Pretty soon Wood’s going to beat even Kevin Bacon for a Hollywood six degrees of separation…

Review: Open Season

UK Release: 13th October 2006

This boisterous inaugural feature from Sony Pictures Animation won’t give Pixar any sleepless nights, but it does have a simplistic appeal.

Co-directed by The Lion King film-maker Roger Allers, it’s a familiar, computer-generated eco fable in which domesticated grizzly bear Boog (voiced by Martin Lawrence) sees his pampered existence as a mountain-town tourist attraction cut short when he befriends a mischief-making deer (a fantastic Ashton Kutcher). In a hilarious set piece, the duo cause so much mess in a convenience store that Boog eventually ends up released back into the wilderness — three days before hunting season begins.

What follows is a predictable lesson about man’s destructive effects on nature, boosted by quick-fire banter, brightly coloured visuals and plenty of kiddie-pleasing scatological humour. The pace slackens in the second third, hampered by narrative clichés and some weakly stereotypical supporting characters, though it picks up with gusto for a final imaginative animal/hunter showdown.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate PG
Running time 86mins

Review by Sloan Freer

News: Ashton Kutcher

The toyboy hubby of Demi Moore is going to be hard to avoid at the multiplexes this month, cropping up in the Kevin Costner-starring The Guardian, out this week, before appearing amidst the impressive ensemble cast of actor-turned-director Emilio Estevez’s much-anticipated political drama Bobby – which debuts at the London Film Festival on the 26th – about the assassination of JFK’s brother Bobby Kennedy.

He currently has no other projects in the pipeline, taking a well-earned break after the eight months of hard physical training he did before his appearance alongside Costner in The Guardian.

Review: The Guardian

UK Release: 13th October 2006

This corny but thrilling action adventure is further proof that Kevin Costner is getting better with age. He plays Ben Randall, an ace US Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer who’s transferred to a training facility after being involved in a tragedy at sea that left his crew dead. Among the students he’s assigned is cocky Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher), a young hostshot who has the ability if not the attitude to take Randall’s crown.

If this was a western, Costner would be the old gunslinger and Kutcher the quick-draw kid who wants to take him down. Clichés aside, the film’s storm-rescue sequences are outstanding and Costner demonstrates how an action hero can age gracefully. Sure, the film is a tad too long, and the quasi-mythic elements are a bit silly. Otherwise, this is a guilty pleasure.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 12A
Running time 138mins

Review by David Aldridge