Benedict Cumberbatch proves a superb villain in The Hollow Crown's Richard III

THE GUARDIAN
Michael Billington
@billicritic
Saturday 21 May 2016 18.10 EDT

 The camera is a close bosom friend … Benedict Cumberbatch as Richard III. Photograph: Robert Viglasky/BBC/Carnival Film & Television Ltd


Richard III brings the BBC’s Hollow Crown cycle to a fine climax. It also confirms that Benedict Cumberbatch is a highly physical, as well as a natural Shakespearean, actor. Watching him wrestle his way into his clothes in the opening soliloquy, I was reminded of his superb performance as the creature in the National Theatre’s Frankenstein. On stage, we witnessed the tortured birth of a monster; here we see Richard acquiring a new identity as he gets laboriously dressed.



Cumberbatch starts with two great advantages. The previous episode enabled him to lay the ground for Richard’s throne-hungry mania. Like Olivier in the film of Richard III, he also uses the camera as a close bosom friend. Having wooed Phoebe Fox’s Lady Anne – an episode that here takes place in a forest glade – he confides to the camera, and thereby to us, his rasping astonishment at her pliability.

In fact, Cumberbatch takes us stage by stage through Richard’s systematic progress to power. The dominant image of the production is of Cumberbatch’s index finger tapping a chessboard, as he works out how to remove the pieces that stand between him and the crown. But it is a mark of Shakespeare’s progress that the dramatist also allows us to see inside Richard’s soul: Cumberbatch is especially good in the eve-of-battle soliloquy, where a character who might simply be a murdering monster pathetically realises “there is no creature loves me”.

Although Cumberbatch dominates the screen, this is far from a one-man show. Judi Dench brings all her clarity of speech and matchless sincerity to Richard’s mother, who views her son with undisguised horror: when she asks “What comfortable hour canst thou name / That ever graced me in thy company?” you totally believe her. Sophie Okonedo’s Queen Margaret stalks the action, right up to the climactic battle, like a vengeful ghost. Keeley Hawes turns Queen Elizabeth into a helpless pawn in Richard’s power games. Anyone who has seen the previous episodes will also understand – in a way that is tricky when the play is seen in isolation – just what the women are talking about when they catalogue Richard’s endless crimes.

READ MORE: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2016/may/21/benedict-cumberbatch-the-hollow-crown-richard-iii

Gone Girl, review: Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike excel in David Fincher film

THE INDEPENDENT
GEOFFREY MACNAB  Author Biography   Monday 22 September 2014



David Fincher’s Gone Girl (which opens the New York Film Festival later this week) is an immensely slippery, deceptive affair - and that’s what makes it so pleasurable. It’s a story in which the manipulation of the main characters by one another is matched by that of the audience by the filmmakers. The rug is continually being pulled from under our feet.

Early on, Fincher seems to be offering us a hardboiled thriller about a husband, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck), suspected of murdering his wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike). Like Cary Grant in Suspicion or Laurence Olivier in Rebecca, he’s a charming man who may have a very dark side. As the film progresses, the Hitchcock touches are combined with wildly melodramatic flourishes and some very funny, very caustic satirical sideswipes at the American media’s prurient obsession with sex, marriage, death and celebrity.

Affleck and Pike excel as the happily (or not so happily) married couple. As Nick, Affleck gets to reprise his likeable, American everyman routine while also portraying someone with a sleazy and possibly murderous side.

English actress Pike, playing an over-achieving Ivy League woman, gives the performance of her screen career so far - one, that more than a decade after her appearance in the James Bond movie Die Another Day (2002), looks set to establish her as an international star. She captures her character’s Martha Stewart-like perfectionism and romantic notions about love as well as her relentless drive. She’s a complicated and contradictory personality. “Complicated is code for bitch,” one character acidly notes of her.


READ THE COMPLETE REVIEW HERE: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/gone-girl-review-ben-affleck-and-rosamund-pike-excel-in-david-finchers-film-9747775.html

Benedict Cumberbatch Brings His Sherlock Persona To The Brainy, Brilliant The Imitation Game

CINEMA BLEND
BY SEAN O'CONNELL 2014-09-07 19:30:50



Morten Tydlum’s The Imitation Game is a first-rate biopic, a thrilling espionage game that’s beautifully crafted and acted. To speak the film’s language – one of codes cracked by mathematicians – the movie equates. It’s also every bit as touching, tragic and romantic as it is intelligent and compelling. And yes, for those who keep track of these annual marathons, it is (or should be) an Oscar contender. Picture, director, screenplay, supporting actress and actor all seem to be in play.

Particularly Best Actor – yes, "Cumberbitches" – for Benedict Cumberbatch's calculated, lean, strong and confident portrayal of brilliant mathematician Alan Turing, who is recruited by the British government during time of war to help decipher Enigma, the machine the Germans use to encode their messages. To crack Enigma might mean to drastically shorten the war. But there is a lot more happening in The Imitation Game then the war effort.

"Pay attention," we are warned, in a Sherlock-y, Khan tone. Alan Turing has secrets. Everyone has secrets at play in The Imitation Game, from the military brass who recruit Turing to the MI6 agent (Mark Strong) who shadows his progress. But few are quite as damaging, as life-altering as Turing’s secrets can (and will) be. If you know history, you know the progressing of this story. The Imitation Game guards its reveal until the one-hour mark, so I’ll steer clear of it for now. It will be a major talking point as the film begins to roll out and play to larger audiences. For now, here’s what I’m comfortable telling you.

Turing -- much like Benedict Cumberbatch’s iconic Sherlock Holmes portrayal -- is a hyper-intelligent, internalized sociopaths with little patience for inferior folks and a laser-focus on task. The task, in this case, could save thousands of military lives and, possibly, turn the tide in a global conflict. But Turing is supposed to be part of a team, and the men he’s supposed to collaborate with (personified by Matthew Goode, Matthew Beard and Allen Leech) can’t stand his aloof arrogance.

Before you bringing in the ever-suffering John Watson, The Imitation Game dangles a bit of a bait and switch. Keira Knightley – the staple of period dramas such as this – is introduced as Joan Clarke, an equally brilliant mathematician whose gender costs her a spot on Turing code-breaking team. In a conventional film, she’d be a love interest. The Imitation Game is not a conventional film. At the moment where a normal biopic would detour into possible romance, the "Pay attention" warning come back, and takes us down a different, more sobering path

READ MORE HERE: http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Benedict-Cumberbatch-Brings-His-Sherlock-Persona-Brainy-Brilliant-Imitation-Game-67095.html

Colin Firth creates magic with Woody

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN
FILM
Magic in the Moonlight (PG)
3.5 stars
Colin Firth, Emma Stone
DIRECTOR WOODY ALLEN
REVIEW MARK NAGLAZAS



If Woody Allen had filmed his latest bonbon in black and white, as he's done on several other occasions (Manhattan, Stardust Memories, The Purple Rose of Cairo) it might be mistaken for a movie that was actually made during Hollywood's Golden Age.

Its main setting is a sumptuous spread on the Riviera, characters linger in drawing rooms and gardens engaged in witty exchanges, lovers speed along winding cliff-side roads overlooking the Mediterranean and Colin Firth plays a magician who dresses up as a Chinaman, replete with stringy moustache and pulled-back eyes.

Of course, we have seen all this tongue-in-cheek nostalgia before in Allen movies. But Magic in the Moonlight feels the most insistently old-fashioned work in memory, so much so it doesn't take too much imagination to see Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in the lead roles (it's the closest he has come to making a screwball comedy).

What Magic in the Moonlight lacks in originality - some have complained it's so familiar as to be redundant, right down to the Allen obsession with death and the meaningless of existence - it makes up for in polish, wit, a lightness of touch and, most of all, exuberant, nicely judged performances.

Where once Allen's male stars did a pale imitation of himself, more recent stand-ins are their own men, with Firth throwing off his signature stammering Englishmen to play an acid- tongued egotist and world-class misanthrope who both infuriates and charms with his every biting putdown ("Autographs are for morons," Firth's magician Stanley Crawford tells a fan of his on-stage alter-ego Wei Ling Soo).

Stanley is so disparaging of mankind's need for belief in the afterlife that he has a lucrative sideline exposing mediums as frauds, using his knowledge of chicanery to save the weak- minded from being fleeced (Harry Houdini also moonlighted as a debunker of mystics).

When Stanley is approached by an old friend to unmask a young woman named Sophie (Emma Stone), who has entranced a wealthy American widow living in the South of France by claiming to be able to communicate with her late husband, he is there in a flash, his mental tools sharpened and at the ready.

However, Sophie is no pushover. She quickly sees through Stanley's guise and eventually plucks from the air his deepest secrets - Stone has fun mimicking the melodramatic arm-waving antics of movie mediums - shaking his firm believe that nothing exists beyond the grave.

Indeed, Sophie unlocks him from the prison of his own cynicism, releasing him to more fully embrace the here and now, which he claims is the only reality we know. Of course, love blossoms in this F. Scott Fitzgerald-ish playground for the rich and famous, or something like it, as Sophie's big smile and vivacity causes Stanley to question his relationship to his more eminently suitable fiance.

It could be claimed that Firth is too old for Stone (and that Allen is revealing his own dubious fixations) but they are lovely together.

Indeed, the mismatch in ages actually feels right for the period when such disparities were commonplace.

READ MORE HERE: https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entertainment/movies/a/24862863/firth-creates-magic-with-woody/

Colin Firth: Movie review: ‘Magic in the Moonlight’ is a good Woody Allen film

SAULT STE. MARIE
Posted Aug. 1, 2014 @ 2:01 am
By Ed Symkus



Woody Allen has often spoken about his drawer full of movie ideas, some of them hastily written down, that he visits now and then when the prolific director feels that it’s time to write and direct another one. Though many of his most ardent fans were saying that his best days are behind him, that his last great film was “Husbands and Wives” two decades ago, it’s always such a great surprise when something the caliber of last year’s resoundingly acclaimed “Blue Jasmine” pops up. (Personal note: I’d also put 1999’s “Sweet and Lowdown” right up there with the strong stuff.)

And though “Magic in the Moonlight” mostly pales next to “Blue Jasmine” – except for Colin Firth’s terrific performance – I can still comfortably recommend it as good, if not great, Woody Allen.

It’s a period piece about the timeless subject of fraud. In 1928 Berlin, a Chinese magician named Wei Ling Soo astonishes audiences with his impossible stage illusions. Of course, all magicians are committing fraud, but it’s the sort of deception that audiences enjoy. Wei Ling Soo takes it a step further, in that he’s actually a Brit named Stanley (Colin Firth) posing, in heavy costuming and makeup, as a Chinese magician. When his magician pal Howard Burkan (Simon McBurney) asks him for a favor – to prove that an American woman claiming to be a psychic is a total fake – he agrees to take on the task, gallantly but tiredly saying, “OK, I’ll expose yet another fraudulent spiritualist.”

But Sophie (Emma Stone) who travels the world under the guidance of her no-nonsense show biz mom (Marcia Gay Harden), is pretty darn good at what she does. When Stanley, who doesn’t reveal his true identity as a prestidigitator, attends a séance at the lavish home where the widowed Grace (Jacki Weaver) – accompanied by her dimwit, ukulele-strumming son Brice (Hamish Linklater) – wants to speak with her dead husband Harry, Stanley is impressed that Sophie seems to be able to know absolutely unknowable things. Sophie calls what she does “miracles.” Stanley admits that they’re “bewildering feats, but not possible.”

He also believes that Grace and Brice are perfect marks, and can see that Brice is smitten with Sophie. But though he can’t figure out how she does what she does, he remains a non-believer because, he says, “I’m rational.”


Read more: http://www.sooeveningnews.com/article/20140801/News/140809977#ixzz39C9jzyb6

SXSW Review: 'Frank,' Starring Michael Fassbender Wearing a Giant Fake Head, Totally Rocks

TOH
BY BETH HANNA
MARCH 11, 2014 12:53 PM

Michael Fassbender and Domhnall Gleeson in 'Frank'

In Lenny Abrahamson’s lovely film ‘Frank,’ Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) is a would-be musician who works an office job by day. It’s possible he doesn’t have a lot of talent.

He struggles with trite lyrics in his head and with equally trite tunes on his keyboard. One day he happens to be on the beach at the right moment (“right” being relative, mind you) when the keyboardist for an eccentric pop band is attempting to drown himself. Thus Jon is invited to become the new keyboardist. He heads up to a bucolic Irish cottage to help record a new album with the band, which includes Don (Scoot McNairy), Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and the mysterious if affable Frank (Michael Fassbender), who wears a gigantic, smiley helmet-mask over his face and apparently never takes it off.

What seems like the opportunity of a lifetime turns out to be much different than that, as Jon discovers that one or more members in the band may have legitimate problems. This is where Abrahamson’s film pushes beyond the typical band-movie tropes and becomes a moving portrait of artistic passion on the verge of madness and complete dysfunctionality. It’s also very funny, sometimes in a light-hearted way, and often in a darker way.

As Jon slowly realizes his bandmates are bonkers, he’s also busily at work attempting to transition them from obscurity to internet fame. He tweets about their progress on the album (his Twitter followers slowing going up), he posts videos on YouTube, and eventually nabs an invite for them to play at -- dun da DUN -- the South by Southwest Festival.

What I found fascinating is the connection Abrahamson draws between our internet age of audience engagement and the means by which bands, films, whatever attempt to draw attention and a fanbase. We live in a highly distracted culture that often necessitates gimmicks and stunts to attract followers, page hits, video views, what have you. Frank’s gigantic helmet would indeed seem like a stunt, as do a number of other things that play out in the film. But is it? Or is it the elephant in the room suggesting something much more concerning going on?


READ MORE HERE: http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/frank-review-sxsw-michael-fassbender-lenny-abrahamson

Benedict Cumberbatch: A cracking crew, brilliant baddie, storming script and virtuoso visuals prove that Star Trek knows how... to boldly grow (MAIL ON LINE)

Star Trek Into Darkness
Cert: 12A,    Time: 2hrs 15min    5/5

It was way back in 1966, some two-thirds of a perfectly decent lifetime ago, that the first series of Star Trek aired, with Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise setting off on what was only ever supposed to be a five-year mission.

So for the franchise still to be capable of producing films as good as Star Trek Into Darkness is hugely impressive.

For this turns out to be the picture when the latest Enterprise line-up – Chris Pine as Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, Karl Urban as Dr McCoy and Zoe Saldana as Lieutenant Uhura – come properly of age.


But the real winner here is Benedict Cumberbatch. Having been garlanded with praise for his performance as a modern-day Sherlock Holmes on British television, it must have been galling to see Robert Downey Jr making the 19th Century version his own in the billion-dollar world of films.

Star Trek Into Darkness finally gives the talented Cumberbatch the chance to show Hollywood what he can do on the big screen, and, boy, does he seize it with both hands.

He’s instantly one of the great British baddies: not just reliant on steely-eyed menace – something that Cumberbatch can probably do in his sleep – but a genuinely intimidating physical presence too.
Now that’s seriously clever acting, in what turns out to be an outstandingly good Star Trek film.



Read more:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/event/article-2321331/Star-Trek-Into-Darkness-A-cracking-crew-brilliant-baddie-storming-script-virtuoso-visuals-prove-Star-Trek-knows--boldly-grow.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Benedict Cumberbatch: 'Star Trek Into Darkness': The Early Reviews Are In! Australian critics are calling the sci-fi sequel a "fun ride." By Kevin P. Sullivan (@KPSull) (MTV)

"Star Trek Into Darkness" may not hit U.S. theaters until May 17, but the potential blockbuster's massive international press tour means that journalists in countries like Australia get an early look at the J.J. Abrams-directed sequel. A few outlets down-under posted reviews and since this is the internet, those reactions have spread wide. Fans are getting an early taste of what to expect.

The early reviews of "Star Trek Into Darkness" range from lukewarm to positive with comparisons to what worked in Abrams' 2009 reboot. "It's a riveting action-adventure in space, complete with interpersonal relationships. The bro-mance between Kirk and Spock is in full force here. Grown men cry. And yes, it looks like a J.J. Abrams film," writes David Farrier from 3 News. "There's the lens flare, and the camera tracking a crashing spaceship might as well be a bigger version of the plane from the 'Lost' pilot. Smoke billows and it all feels very real, like you could reach out and touch it."

One aspect of the film that has everyone in agreement is the effectiveness of Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of the villainous John Harrison. "Cumberbatch himself has never been better. While he's proven his ability at volatile emotional-detachment with his role in 'Sherlock,' he is, here, a true snake; an expressionless, sliver of a man whose mask only slips when he lunges for his prey," IGN's Lucy O'Brien writes in her review. "The Enterprise crew look trivial against him, their uniforms retro and goofy against his men's magazine sleekness. Even Spock, quite the regal figure, looks small next to him."


READ MORE: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1706248/star-trek-into-darkness-early-reviews.jhtml

The Hobbit: an expected masterpiece in a distracting frame (THE ONE RING)

DECEMBER 4, 2012 at 10:13 AM
BY CALISURI   -

‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘ is a fulfilling and entertaining adventure that is sure to please most Middle-earth enthusiasts.  Filled with direct book-to-screen moments and some unique new additions, the film stands as a strong first installment of a three-year adventure. If you think of it as a fine art masterpiece in a beautiful museum, it can sit proudly next to its LOTR siblings. Well, sorta. You see, someone chose an overly busy frame with bright colors and fancy patterns that distracts from the essential content. Luckily, in your experience, you can easily swap out the frame.

As you’ll read later, this reviewer suggests this may be the wisest course first-up.

As an adaptation and expansion on Tolkien’s 75-year-old children literature classic — emphasis on children — this film is more fantastic and at times more ‘cartoony’ than its trilogy predecessor. A quick example… while in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring we see the four Hobbits trying to escape Farmer Maggot and falling down a long slope with nothing but a broken carrot, in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey we see the Company of Thorin falling down a 1000-foot crevasse (multiple times) and simply dusting themselves off.

That theme permeates the film. The ‘bad guys’ are not quite horrible monstrosities that cause death and destruction but instead are similar to villains in an episode of the A-Team. You know, where no matter how many times they shoot at our heroes, they never actually hit their mark. It ultimately makes for exciting confrontations, but no real concern the heroes will meet their doom. Some who are not familiar with the childish nature of The Hobbit might find this a bit odd when they compare the drama to the LOTR films.

The acting by the core cast was astoundingly good. Martin Freeman IS Bilbo Baggins and as expected delivers an amazing performance with true emotion, humor and feeling. Ian McKellen is a less serious version of his LOTR-self and in many ways a lot more likable. His sense of humor comes across more in the performance and it is very endearing. Richard Armitage delivers a dead-on performance of Thorin. For those of us who know what the future holds for Thorin, I can clearly state the casting was perfect. Andy Serkis returns as Gollum and provides yet another amazing performance. ‘Riddles in the Dark’ will be one of your favorite scenes – guaranteed!


READ MORE AT THE ONE RING.NET.: http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2012/12/04/66330-the-hobbit-an-expected-masterpiece-in-a-distracting-frame/

Review: Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren are simply stellar in 'Hitchcock' THE MOVIE CAN'T QUITE LIVE UP TO THE PERFORMANCES By Gregory Ellwood FRIDAY, NOV 2, 2012 4:32 AM (HIT FIX)

HOLLYWOOD – There have been many movies about the history of the movie industry, but it’s surprising it took this long for someone to bring the life of Alfred Hitchcock to the big screen.  The legendary filmmaker captained an impressive list of classic films including “Vertigo,” “North by Northwest,” “The 39 Steps,” “The Lady Vanishes” and “Dial M for Murder” among others.  And with his TV series “Alfred Hitchcock Presents…” he became one of the most recognizable directors and celebrities of the 1950’s.  His biggest hit, however, was one of his latter films, 1960’s “Psycho.”  Hitchcock’s obsession with making that “horror” film sets the stage for Sacha Gervasi’s  “Hitchcock,” which opened the 2012 AFI Film Fest Thursday night.

Coming off the success of “Northwest,” the picture finds Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) seemingly bored and uninterested in the numerous projects Hollywood is throwing his way.  That all changes, however, when he learns about Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein (an almost unrecognizable Michael Wincott) who has stunned authorities by digging his mother up from the grave and murdering and then mutilating a number of young women.  The crimes inspired Robert Bloch to write the fiction novel “Psycho,” although at the time he claimed he didn’t realize how close his book about the off-kilter Norman Bates was to Gein’s own story.  Unfortunately for the famous filmmaker, Paramount Pictures – a studio that he owes one more film to – has no interest in funding “Psycho.” So, Hitchcock decides in order to feel creative again he'll mortgage his house and use his own savings to fund the $800,000 picture.

READ MORE:http://www.hitfix.com/awards-campaign/review-anthony-hopkins-and-helen-mirren-are-simply-stellar-in-hitchcock

Anna Karenina - a review by FRONT ROW REVIEWS

(ANOTHER SPECIAL MENTION FOR MATTHEW MACFADYEN)

Casting wise, Knightly is wonderful as Karenina. She continues to play the pouty, dainty woman but from film to film, the women that she plays grow in strength, and even (if you permit me the pleasure), she has a slight tinge of Greta Garbo (who herself played Karenina) about herself where she can illustrate everything she is thinking through her eyes and her mouth – rather than having to say everything. She is the perfect example of fetishistic scopophilia, as theorised by Laura Mulvey. Parts of Knightly’s face becomes so entranced with emotions, that the audience concentrates solely on her lips, her eyes, her cheeks and they represent the rest of her body. Jude Law plays an interesting role within the film because we are so busy concentrating on the growing relationship of Anna and Vronsky, that we don’t really take the time to notice the angst and fire growing within her husband, Alexei. He tries, at first to forgive her, her misgivings but as she continues to pull away, he continues to fight until the end and Law is a constant reminder of this throughout the film.

The reminder of the cast is filled with recognisable faces (many of whom fill me with a smile whenever I see them), those we have become accustomed to the period drama including Ruth Wilson, Michelle Dockery, Olivia Williams and Matthew Macfadyen (who plays Oblonsky, Anna’s brother with such comic conviction, it’s a welcome return to the big screen).

Here comes the grouch part of my review – the one major casting issue I had was Aaron Johnson as Count Vronsky. Bearing in mind that he had to play the love rival to the older looking Law, Johnson looks like he has just come away from the set of Skins, with a very bad go at trying to grow facial hair. Usually, I am a big fan of him, rewatching Nowhere Boy and Kick Ass with excitement but in this film, he felt like a bad choice. It just seems like a bigger, more mature actor was needed for the role where he was needing to be sensual, but instead he just felt like a bad schoolboy teasing the girls around him. Furthermore, it felt a bit uncomfortable watching Johnson and Knightly kiss, not for their age gap but for the time they have spent in the eyes of the audience (the latter being around much longer) and therefore, I felt this lost some of the capacity for drama and scandal, which it could have otherwise gained with another actor.


READ MORE: http://www.frontrowreviews.co.uk/reviews/anna-karenina-review/18704

Ewan McGregor: 'Shallow Grave' review: a beautifully filmed thriller that keeps you guessing Chris Sawin Houston Movie Examiner (EXAMINER)

Danny Boyle has come a long way in his rather lengthy filmmaking career. He gained a cult-like following with fan favorites "Trainspotting" and "28 Days Later," "Slumdog Millionaire" won him an Oscar, and "127 Hours" was pretty outstanding but was perhaps blown up more than it should have been. It was a film called “Sunshine,” a personal favorite, about a team of astronauts sent on a mission to re-ignite the sun that really made this critic keep a keen eye on everything Boyle put his fingers on. Before all of that though, Danny Boyle made his debut as a director with a little thriller called "Shallow Grave."

READ MORE:  http://www.examiner.com/review/shallow-grave-review-a-beautifully-filmed-thriller-that-keeps-you-guessing

'Prometheus' best sci-fi since 'The Matrix' By Kameron McBride Published: Sunday, June 10, 2012 (DN ON LINE)

The long, strange march toward the opening of “Prometheus” has ended. After months exhaustive advertising and speculation, director Ridley Scott has released his first science-fiction film in more than 30 years. The result is a film that raises the broad questions of “where did we come from?” and “why were we created?”

The film balances its heady, intellectual brand of sci–fi well with the spectacular visuals of the film. “Prometheus” is a very memorable film that aims high and hits its mark, astonishing viewers even from the very first scene.

The film’s opening sequence feels like what would happen if Terrence Malick and Lars von Trier ever teamed up to make a short film. The shots are simply gorgeous as we lead with establishing shots of a planet — perhaps a very young Earth — until we eventually follow a cloaked figure standing next to a waterfall. The cloaked figure then removes his rope and drinks from a canister he brought with him. This leads to the figure decomposing before our eyes and crashing into river below the waterfall.

It’s hard to tell exactly what this all means, my thought was we were witnessing the birth of life on Earth, though I’m sure there are dozens of theories attempting to break down what it means.

We move on to follow two scientists who discover drawings across the planet that are identical, yet were drawn thousands of years apart. This leads them to explore a desolate planet that they believe holds the secret to the creation of life on Earth. A crew is assembled and the trillion–dollar budget is backed by the Weyland Corporation.

The crew arrive and begin to explore the planet, finding what could be our origin, but also stumbling upon what could be our destruction.

“Prometheus” has a great story, but also boasts a strong cast and spectacular visuals to boot.


READ MORE:http://www.bsudailynews.com/features/kamera-obscura-prometheus-best-sci-fi-since-the-matrix-1.2743705


 

Snow White and the Huntsman: Film Review 2:40 AM PDT 5/31/2012 by Todd McCarthy (THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER)

The Bottom Line

Strikingly designed and cast makeover of the children's tale into a straight-line, romance-free action odyssey.

A bold rethinking of a familiar old story and striking design elements are undercut by a draggy mid-section and undeveloped characters in Snow White and the Huntsman. After the campy family farce of Mirror, Mirror, this second revisionist take of the year on the 19th century fairy tale strides out deadly serious and in full armor, not to mention with more costume changes for Charlize Theron than a Lady Gaga concert. Designed to appeal to teen and young adult girls and guys, this muscular PG-13-rated action adventure conspicuously lacks romance but should get a good box office ride on the shoulders of stars Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth.

The teeing up is dramatic, to say the least, giving a swift and dire account of the malevolent usurpation of the throne of a rugged waterfront kingdom by Ravenna (Theron), a stunning blonde who infiltrates from enemy territory, bewitches the widowed monarch and dispatches him on their wedding night. The king's daughter is kept prisoner in a high tower until her maturity, at which point the queen's mirror, in this case a giant golden plate that morphs into a molten statue, informs her that the status of fairest in the land has shifted to Snow White (Stewart), who represents the queen's greatest threat as well as her salvation.

Opens: June 1 (Universal)
Production: Roth Films
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Sam Claflin, Sam Spruell, Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone, Nick Frost, Toby Jones, Eddie Marsan, Johnny Harris, Brian Gleeson, Vincent Regan, Lily Cole
Director: Rupert Sanders
Screenwriters: Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock, Hossein Amini, screen story by Evan Daugherty
Producers: Joe Roth, Sam Mercer
Executive producers: Palak Patel, Gloria Borders
Director of photography: Greig Fraser
Production designer: Dominic Watkins
Costume designer: Colleen Atwood
Editors: Conrad Buff, Neil Smith
Music: James Newton Howard
Visual effects supervisors: Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brensan
PG-13 rating, 128 minutes

READ MORE:  http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/snow-white-huntsman-film-review-331207

Review: Superb acting makes a trip to the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel worthwhile Interwoven tales of British seniors in India has a happy moral By Katherine Monk, Postmedia News (VANCOUVER SUN)

Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Starring: Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel and Maggie Smith

Directed by John Madden

Parental advisory: coarse language

Running time: 124 minutes

Rating: Three stars out of five

VANCOUVER — Romance sits at the very heart of Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and not just the kissy-kissy kind.

A multi-threaded tapestry of narratives unwinding in India, this new feature from Oscar winner John Madden features an all-star cast of proven veterans preparing for the final exit.

The most sympathetic of them all is our de facto narrator, Evelyn Greenslade (Judi Dench) — a recent widow struggling to deal with the loss of her spouse, but also the looming loss of her home. It seems her hubby didn't tell her about the finances. He overspent, and now she has nothing.

When we meet Evelyn, she's trying to explain to the death of her husband to a call centre operator in India. Frustrated, she hangs up, but the dimensions of her loss are becoming all too clear.

Having been frozen in time, and a marriage, Evelyn feels like she's walking out of a time capsule as she attempts to reinsert herself into the stream — but it's all going so fast, and she's become fearful of change.

Surrounding Evelyn are a host of other retirees looking to enjoy themselves, including a noted judge (Tom Wilkinson), a henpecked husband (Bill Nighy), and a retired housekeeper (Maggie Smith).

Madden gives each scenario a few establishing scenes to provide a sense of character, but by the time everyone ends up on a plane to India, we know we're looking at a Big Chill for the golden-ager set.

Seeking to escape the grey, everydayness of England — as well as the high cost of adult home care – the motley crew of cranky Brits end up at the dilapidated Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

A sprawling and rather seductive palace that's clearly seen better days, the Marigold is home to star-crossed lover, Sonny (Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire), a kid who's fallen in love with a woman who, apparently, doesn't pass the caste test.

Like half the characters in this film, Sonny is a true romantic who puts love above all else, including the hotel and the standard conveniences his uptight and emotionally corseted guests expect.



Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Review+Superb+acting+makes+trip+Best+Exotic+Marigold+Hotel+worthwhile/6599968/story.html#ixzz1ufTmJeoJ

Hugh Grant - Hugh Grant Bags Another Winner With 'The Pirates! Band Of Misfits' 26 April 2012 12:40 (CONTACT MUSIC)

Hugh Grant said that he would be rarely recognisable both in appearance and voice in Sony Pictures animated swashbuckler 'The Pirates! Band Of Misfits.' However, one thing that is instantly familiar with the English actor is the slew of good reviews that another of his films has gotten.

Playing the voice of The Pirate Captain in the film, Grant and the film's bosses can be relieved that the movie's gotten excellent praise from critics. "A script that consistently finds fresh outlets for its running gags makes for a sufficiently rollicking pleasure cruise from Britain's Aardman Animations..." said The Village Voice, whilst Film 4 commented "A funny, thoroughly enjoyable and oddly subversive film: at a time when Cgi reigns in family films and Elizabeth Windsor celebrates a jubilee, here's a film where puppets battle a fiendish regal villain." Time Out meanwhile said "A brilliant mish-mash of styles and genres, crammed with ideas and intelligence and carried off with a sense of rebellious fun and breathtaking invention not seen since, well, 'The Wrong Trousers'. Glorious."


READ MORE:  http://www.contactmusic.com/news/hugh-grant-bags-another-winner-with-the-pirates-band-of-misfits_1323093

Tom Hiddleston, Rachel Weisz: The Deep Blue Sea: movie review (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR)

By Andy Klein /
March 23, 2012

A director’s touch and precision acting give life to 'The Deep Blue Sea.'

"The Deep Blue Sea" opens with Sam­uel Barber's beautiful Vio­lin Concerto, the sound of a ticking clock, and the on-screen legend "London, Around 1950." It's night, and the camera tracks very slowly along a shabby street before tilting up to a third-floor window where we see Hester Collyer (Rachel Weisz).

We enter the apartment and watch her calmly prepare to kill herself, by both taking pills and turning on the gas. It's the suicide equivalent of wearing a belt and suspenders.

Once we get to know her better and learn the circumstances leading to her current actions, this apparent surfeit of caution seems out of character: In matters of love, romance, and sex, she has thrown caution to the wind. As the camera smoothly follows her around the room and her mind wanders to some brief flashbacks, the film is more concerned with setting a tragic/romantic mood than giving us a lot of detail.

The 10-minute opening sequence is shot almost like a silent movie, with no more than a line or two spoken.


READ MORE:  http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2012/0323/The-Deep-Blue-Sea-movie-review

Cleanskin Movie Review (IRISHTIMES.COM)

Clearskin Directed by Hadi Hajaig. Starring Sean Bean, Abhin Galeya, Charlotte Rampling, James Fox, Peter Polycarpou 16 cert, general release, 108 min

Hajaig wants to make the British Parallax View and he’s halfway there.

By the third act we’re aware that no one in the world of black ops and terrorism cells can be trusted. (Who new?) In common with TV’s Spooks and current critical wow Homeland , Hajaig’s script incorporates sneaky nods to recent political scandals and conspiracies.

This is a big movie trapped inside a tiny one. Tussles over British- Islamic identity are seamlessly incorporated. A boorish Middle Eastern assassin with a fondness for diabolical jumpers and Mr Bean marks an audacious and deftly handled shift between dark Borat comedy and unvarnished horror.

There’s a lovely frisson between Bean and Rampling that makes you think what James Bond and M could be. Unhappily, budgetary constraints do tell on the finished product. Cleanskin works hard with make-do joins, library music and tiny interiors but can’t quite rise above them. As for that fake headline about Spurs winning the Champions League . . . Still, we can name 10 Hollywood attempts to grapple with the war on terror that don’t work nearly as well.


Read further:  http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/theticket/2012/0309/1224313046424.html

The Raven: Movie Review (THE SUN)

By ALEX ZANE and GRANT ROLLINGS

JOHN Cusack takes on the role of author Edgar Allan Poe in this period detective story that uses the real-life mystery surrounding his death as its jumping-off point. Set in 19th Century Baltimore, the film begins with Poe's last moments before telling a fictional account of the last few days of his life. We see him team up with a young detective (Luke Evans) in an attempt to solve a series of murders that are mirroring his macabre stories

While it initially appears to be heading down the route of an enjoyably grim period-piece – especially during a delightfully gruesome death scene using Poe's The Pit And The Pendulum apparatus (a giant swinging axe with a victim strapped to a table) – this soon loses its way.

Cusack, adept at the comic potential of Poe's eccentricities, never delivers much in the way of tension, even when his sweetheart Emily (Alice Eve) becomes a target for the killer. But ultimately the problem is that James McTeigue's film inhabits a middle ground of being too morose for a crowd-pleaser in the style of Sherlock Holmes yet not dark enough for those wanting a seriously disturbing serial killer pic.

 RATING: TWO OUT OF FIVE

Read further:  http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/sftw/4181930/Alex-Zane-reviews-The-Raven-Bel-Ami-Trishna-Cleanskin-and-Payback-Season.html

Colin Firth: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy plays like a high-stakes chess game (the National)

Oliver Good   

Colin Firth stars in the spy thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, a Focus Features release directed by Tomas Alfredson.

Director: Tomas Alfredson
Starring: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy
****

If the exact number of gunshots fired in every spy movie ever made were counted, along with car chases, daring motorcycle escapes and ballroom punch-ups - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy would probably place last on all counts. The thriller makes little attempt to compete with the likes of Bond, Bourne or Mission: Impossible for glamour, or showy set pieces. Instead, it offers an embarrassment of British acting talent, incredible dramatic tension and what could be the most accurate depiction of Cold War espionage ever set to screen.

Adapted from the bestselling novel by John le Carré - himself a veteran of British intelligence - the film deals with not just the corrosive atmosphere of mistrust, but also the gloom and drudgery of the 1970s spy game. The nicotine-stained era is masterfully recreated by the Swedish director Tomas Alfredson, whose 2008 film Let The Right One In was a refreshingly bleak and nuanced twist on the vampire genre.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy stars Gary Oldman as the reserved and meticulous agent George Smiley, a role made famous by Alec Guinness in the 1979 BBC mini-series. Brought out of retirement by a government official, he learns that there is "a mole ... right at the top of the circus" - spook-speak for a Soviet double agent, embedded in a senior position in the British secret service.

Smiley begins to investigate four men: the new chief of the circus Alleline (Toby Jones), his deputy Haydon (Colin Firth), as well as their close allies Bland (Ciarán Hinds) and Estherhase (David Dencik). Meanwhile, a missing field agent (Tom Hardy) who was apparently responsible for learning about the mole in the first place but believed to have defected in Istanbul, arrives in London seeking Smiley's protection.

Like a high-stakes game of chess, long periods of quiet are broken with moves that seem subtle at first, but are revealed to have enormous consequences. As the men sit in their soundproofed conference room, we are forced to inspect every facial expression they make and ponder every word uttered. The toxic environment created by le Carré and Alfredson is the perfect arena for such a gladiatorial acting display.

When the pieces finally come together, the big reveal is as understated as one would expect from this story - something that may cause frustration for those who have worked overtime to keep up with the intricate plot. What's more, the film, with its melancholic, greying protagonist, has a somewhat cold and impersonal feel. But although there are in fact plenty of narrative rewards to be discovered in this thoroughly convincing depiction of Cold War espionage, the film's greatest achievement is its performances. Oldman is so restrained he practically whispers his lines, yet the effect can be as devastating as his most bombastic turns. Likewise the recent Oscar-winner Firth, who has moved from depicting a succession of cads to a series of far more sympathetic characters in recent years, here plays a man whose motivations are anyone's guess. When you have all that, who needs car chases?


http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/film/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy-plays-like-a-high-stakes-chess-game