June 2008 Archives

ANYONE who enjoyed the Stephen King / Frank Darabont combination in The Shawshank Redemption will be excited by news of our competition in today's Birmingham Mail.

We have 150 free tickets to give away from 6pm tonight for an exclusive preview screening of The Mist (15) on Monday evening next week.

This will give you the chance to see the film before anyone else as it doesn't go on general release till Friday, July 4.

Read all about the competition in today's paper, follow the instructions on line... and good luck!

It's also going to be one of the busiest weekends of the year in cinemas with Prince Caspian (PG) and Wanted (18) both opening.

Two diverse movies, but both well worth catching as you'll see if you read my reviews in today's paper.

And don't forget Female Agents (15) which will be showing only at Cineworld Broad Street.

KEIRA Knightley and Sienna Miller share a bath in the new wartime drama The Edge of Love (15).

What could possibly be more exciting than that?

Find out in our review in the Mail on Friday, when the BBC film about Dylan Thomas and two women in his life will be opening at Broad Street Cineworld, Empire Great Park and Dudley Showcase.

AFTER losing Anthony Minghella at 54 and Sydney Pollack at 73, it's a terrible shame that special effects genius Stan Winston should also have now died at just 62.

What a blow for Hollywood to have lost three giants so young.

I saw the new Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian film today - ready for our review in the Birmingham Mail on June 27 - and the effects in that are often excellent.

Nothing to do with Stan, as such.

But nobody working in this field today could fail to have been influenced by his special effects work in movies like Aliens, Predator and Iron Man and make-up in Terminators 2 & 3.

Probably the last time we'll see his work directly is with Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, due out in 2009 with Christian Bale as John Conner.

The director is set to be 'McG' whose two Charlie's Angels movies were so bad you wonder how he deserves such a gig.

SAW a new film called The Ruins (18) today which will be reviewed in the Mail this Friday when it opens.

It's set on a Mayan site of archaeological interest in Mexico where things most definitely aren't what they seem.

The characters' determination to survive against the odds will leave some viewers dripping with a cold sweat.

And there's one moment where the whole cinema will be screaming 'Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!'

Just thought you'd like to know!

I BUMPED into a friend of mine in town today - and he took me to task over my review of The Incredible Hulk yesterday.

'How could you give that three stars?' he said. 'It was awful'.

Sorry, Ian - but I reckon I got it just about right.

Yes, the script isn't very good. And, yes, there are problems, with scaling. But it will be perfectly watchable for many (our main definition of three stars) and at least it doesn't feel butt-achingly long like Ang Lee's 138-minute version five years ago.

My What's On colleague Andy Coleman is a big fan of comics - he's still learning to read long words despite having an unnatural affinity for Welsh Wales - and he was urging me to give the film FOUR stars! (Steady on, mate).

And Roz Laws, who probably wouldn't be seen dead with the The Beano in her paws, is going to give The Incredible Hulk four stars in tomorrow's edition of our Sunday Mercury sister paper.

Some nationals I've seen have awarded Hulk two stars, so I reckon I'm just about in the right place.

Not too high for those who hate it, not too low for those who'll love it... and bang on the mark for those who want to see a bit of nonsense.

As for Ian, I've suggested he uses his £11.99 per month Cineworld Unlimited card to see how long he can suffer The Happening for.

That will definitely make The Incredible Hulk seem like it's worth three stars.

And give him a good idea of what I have to suffer. Cherry pickers can have too much of a good thing!

M NIGHT Shyamalan's new movie The Happening (15) is opening across the West Midlands tonight.

It's great news for people who love terrible movies.

As for the thousands of film fans who want to see some quality and be entertained, it's a night that can only end in a crushing disappointment.

Just imagine.

Lots of young couples are going to be spending hours getting themselves dolled up, going for a meal, queuing for tickets, queuing for treats, sitting through the ads, trailers and all those messages to keep your lips zipped.

And then The Happening will begin. Sort of. If it ever reaches first gear, it's soon in reverse plummeting down its own shaft like a lift full of coal.

There's a really good snippet early on where people are throwing themselves off buildings. But that's in the trailer anyway.

By the end of the film, this single scene will sum up how many people will be feeling... that they've lost the will to live.

The trailer, of course, tells us that The Happening has been made by the director of The Sixth Sense. What it doesn't suggest is that he must not have one after all otherwise he'd have known to toss the script in the bin ready to avoid some of the worst reviews in history.

The Bruce Willis thriller was a great movie. But it was almost a decade ago.

The Happening is just another turkey from a man who'll soon be in danger of taking Bernard Matthews' crown.

You pays your money and takes your choice, but do read my review in tonight's Birmingham Mail before parting with your hard-earned dosh to watch this tosh.

I'd rather go into a trance and stand still outside for 90 minutes than sit through The Happening again.

If you've seen a worse film recently, let me know. It could become a cult classic.

* PS. The film of the week this week is French and showing only at Broad Street Cineworld. It's called Priceless and stars the lovely Audrey Tautou (Amelie).