September 2008 Archives

SIMON Pegg's eagerly-anticipated new film How to Lose Friends & Alienate People is to have a charity premiere in Birmingham tonight in aid of Cure Leukaemia.

It has been organised by movie mogul Gary Smith, the Harborne-based CEO of Intandem which has produced the comedy.

Based on the bestselling memoir by Toby Young and co-starring Kirsten Dunst, Gillian Anderson, Megan Fox and Jeff Bridges, the film was mostly shot in London doubling up as New York.

Gary says: "This film has been three years in the making so we were looking at Simon Pegg before Hot Fuzz and Run Fatboy Run had come out.

"One of my friends would have died from leukaemia without a lucky, early diagnosis. We want to have fun with the premiere for a serious cause."

How To Lose Friends & Alienate people will be released on October 3, but you can see it first at Cineworld Broad Street at 6.30pm for 7.30pm tonight followed by drinks at Gatecrasher.

Tickets are £30 each. Call 0121 627 5858 for details.

Don't miss Friday's Birmingham Mail for our review of the film and an interview with Gary.

NEW serial killer thriller Righteous Kill is currently out in Midlands' cinemas.

It is notable for being only the second time that screen legends Robert De Niro and Al Pacino have been on screen together.

The first film which saw them sharing scenes was Heat, released in the UK in February 1996.

Click on the extended link below to read my January 1996 interview with director Michael Mann who told me how he'd persuaded them to work together.

And what it was like to be the man charged with trying to get the best out of them...

SO SORRY to learn of the death of the irreplaceable Paul Newman. He was 83.

He was, quite simply, one of the all-time greats.

Blessed with incredible blue eyes, a great voice and the looks of a Tom Cruise or a Brad Pitt, he was a better actor than both of them put together.

And he was a gentleman, too, receiving the honorary 1994 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for the way he selflessly did so much for others.

Of his extraordinarily-strong, 50-year showbiz marriage to the actress Joanne Woodward, he was quoted in the Radio Times on June 24, 1971 as saying: 'Why fool around with hamburger when you can have steak at home'.

In The Observer on March 11, 1984, he was then quoted as adding: 'That doesn't always mean it's tender'.

His career spanned more than half a century and included such heights as Cool Hand Luke, The Hustler, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid.

It all began on TV and he was on screen in some 50 movies right up to Road to Perdition (2002), for which he deservedly won a best supporting actor Oscar.

This is the film which, I exclusively reported on Page 3 of the Birmingham Mail at the time of release, also co-starred a bottle of the then Birmingham-made HP sauce, thanks to director Sam Mendes' love of the stuff on his bacon butties!

Newman couldn't complain about Mendes' HP favouritism, as Road to Perdition was set long before he'd become a world-famous sauce maker himself!

My wife has a degree in film and she's very upset at his passing, having also seen so many of his films in cinemas even though that meant, in the days before she met me, she often ended up going alone simply to satisfy her passion for movies, movies, movies.

Such was the draw of the man.

And yet, a bit like the great Sir Bobby Charlton in football management, Newman didn't make much of his directing career.

But he was nominated for ten Oscars in total (more than either De Niro or Pacino who are currently wasting their time together in Righteous Kill) but he won only once, for The Color Of Money (1986) in 1987.

Even when he decided that Road to Perdition was a fitting point to call time on his career in front of the camera, he still had the energy to put in some fine work on Walking on the Moon 3D and Cars - as the voice of Doc Hudson in the beautiful-looking, but overlong Pixar animation, he was the best thing in it.

Toy Story director John Lasseter did him proud in 2006 and we should all be profoundly thankful for the decades of incredible memories.

Expect an avalanche of Newman's great movies on TV very soon.

He's certainly earned the right to rest in peace in the meantime.

SORRY folks! But blame those people at Entertainment Film Distributors for the fact that the Birmingham Mail couldn't bring you a review today of the new Ed Harris western, APPALOOSA (15).

This company simply doesn't like showing critics its films in advance (and sometimes with good reason!).

But, fear not!

I've just been out to see Appaloosa anyway so you can read the official Birmingham Mail review today after all.

Simply click on the extension below and away you go...

HIGH School Musical 3: Senior Year is set to open in UK Cinemas on October 22.

Interest wordwide is phenomenal, given that an estimated 250 million people have seen the first two TV movies.

They've even been translated into 24 different languages.

Here in Brum, canny fans have been making advance, party-sized block-bookings for when HSM3 opens to make sure they can see it first.

But, here at the Birmingham Mail, we're going to be giving ten people the chance to see the film TWO WEEKS before it opens.

Don't miss tomorrow's Friday, September 26 edition for details of how to win a pair of tickets for the Midlands' premiere which will be held in the city on October 7.

Order your copy now. The winning tickets will be the hottest things in town!

THE cinema industry has always worked on a series of peaks and troughs.
But, just like there are times when we all need the fix of a big blockbuster like The Dark Knight, there are other weeks when film fans must wish the butter could be spread around a bit more.
This weekend, for example, features the release of Liam Neeson in the violent action thriller Taken.
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino play grizzled detectives in Righteous Kill.
Ed Harris, Jeremy Irons and Viggo Mortensen star in a rare western, Appaloosa.
Kevin Costner, Kelsey Grammer, Dennis Hopper, Nathan Lane and Stanley Tucci are all in political comedy Swing Vote.
And, if you still want more, there's David Mamet directing Chiwetel Ejiofor in Redbelt and even veteran producer Roger Corman is back, with Jason Statham starring in the Death Race remake.
That's six movies which many people would have a wide interest in.
But how many will be able to find the time to see all of them?
Several times a year I'll see half a dozen movies in a day at special events so it can be done - but those are organised without ads.
If you've never spent a day in a cinema seeing three movies back to back though, now's the weekend to give your 'mince pies' a treat just for fun.
It would certainly soon make a Cineworld Unlimited Card pay for itself.

SAW the new version of Brideshead Revisited today in good time for its opening in early October.

And, if you loved the TV series, don't hold your breath that this is going to be anything like as good.

The new film is pleasant enough to look at, but lacks pace and vigour.

It's certainly no match for The Duchess which has deserved a better box office and will be coming down in screen numbers this weekend.

So, if you want to see a top quality period movie, don't miss Keira Knightley's in favour of waiting for Emma Thompson.

Meanwhile, it was good to see Cineworld Broad Street's Screen 10 was packed with some 200 Mail readers on Sunday for our special free preview screening of the world's first all 3D computer animation, Fly Me To The Moon.

Children under eight will love it when it, too, opens next month.

Look out for our full reviews on Friday week in the Birmingham Mail.

WITH ALL of the economic doom and gloom, you might well fancy emigrating to the moon.

So let us give you an early taste of what it might be like!

Momentum's new film, Fly Me To The Moon (U) won't be released until October 3.

But we have 200 tickets to let you see it first and for free with the Birmingham Mail on Sunday, September 21.

This is the first computer-animated film that has been designed, created and produced from first frame, exclusively for the 3D experience.

And it features the voice of the famous astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

Remember, though, the weblink for entries is set to go live at 6pm on Friday night.

You will be able to apply for up to four tickets per household (please don't ask for more than you need).

Good luck.

BACK on track after my second major home computer catastrophe in three months to report that you might want to hold on to your ears when Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder opens on Friday.

The movie is stuffed full of fart gags.

Does anyone find them funny. And, if so, why?

For the record, I reckon these fart gags are actually funnier than most.

Perhaps it's because this movie has been dressed up as a Vietnam war epic - giving the fart 'genre' a second wind.

Or because School of Rock's Jack Black couldn't make anything worse than Nacho Libre, Be Kind Rewind and Margot at the Wedding.

OK THEN. Just two days to go before you can see sneak Wednesday night previews of the new Judd Apatow / Seth Rogen movie Pineapple Express.

It's the story of two stoners who go on the run fearing for their lives because one of them has dropped some waccy baccy on the floor after witnessing a murder.

Bet you can't wait.

Well, you should.

Don't see this movie at least until you've seen my review on Friday, September 12 in the Mail.

The film certainly has its moments. But Canadian star Rogen is bitten off a bit more than he can chew.

A pineapple should be fresh, sweet and juicy. Here, he seems to be eating and smoking the outside bits for nearly two hours.

And it's not a pretty sight.