Movieblaze

Starring:Russell Crowe, Ban Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, Jeff Daniels

Director:Kevin Macdonald

Writer(s):Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy

Cinemtography:Rodriego Pereto

Original Score:Alex Heffes

Running Time:127 Mins.

To say State of Play had a troubled road to the screen would be an understatement, initially set to star Fight Clubteam Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, it was hampered with a script written just prior to the writers strike, due to this Pitt dropped out citing issues with said script. Norton then followed suit as a delay in shooting meant his scheduling did not permit for his involvement. Leaving the producers high and dry, thankfully Russell Crowe came aboard to save the day, followed by Ben Affleck in the Norton role. Two none more different actors as replacements, I think you would agree.

With a history this troubled you would be right to be dubious, however Russell Crowe is undoubtedly a better actor than Pitt and as such we should be blessed that he replaced him. Bigger than ever crow is back to his best, all the usual journalist cliches are present and correct, the hard drinking, the scruffy misdemeanour, the devil may care attitude and the crusade for justice, by any means, these things though are all surface, beyond this lies a subtle and nuanced turn.

It is performances like Crowe’s here, as reporter Cal, that go unnoticed at awards season, because they are not real people and are far from grand-standing. I’d tip my hat to him for turning in one of the best and most accomplished turns of the year.

Sadly the same can’t be said of the starry support cast, Helen Mirren does very little other than say “tosser” a lot, which is fine because shes British, and a woman! Rachel McAdams holds her own against Crowe but is given very little to do other than play modern to Crowe’s doing things the old way. The only other stand out is a late and all too brief role for Jason Bateman, predictably very good Bateman gives a very serious film some lightness when it is needed, that’s not to say he can’t act his socks off like everyone else, just that he has the character to match.

And then there is Affleck,while he has seen his star on the rise, again, lately withHollywoodland and particularly in directing the outstanding Gone Baby Gone,he is very subtle here, to the point where he will barely register on considering the film afterwards. This is no bad thing, for the role of the senator was potentially a showy one, something which Affleck resists in doing. In contrast to this Macdonalds diretcion IS suitably showy, bringing the frantic pace here as he did in The Last King of Scotland. But for all that is good something is lacking, and despite a twist at the end it all seems rather predictable.

VERDICT

State of Play holds its own as a thriller akin to All The Presidents Men, if not in that standard for its flaws. Crowes performance alone makes this the film it is, just a shame it’s not better.

Starring:Zac Efron, Leslie Mann, Matthew Perry, Thomas Lennon

Director: Burr Steers

Writer:Jason Filardi

Cinematography:Tim Suhrstedt

Original Score: Rolfe Kent

Running Time:102 Mins.

Prior to seeing 17 Again you must understand one thing, you fall into the target audience only if you are a teenage girl pre-16 and adore a certain Mr. Efron. Example, witness the opening scene, a topless, toned up Mike O’ Connoll’s (Efron) shoots hoops all alone on a basketball court. This is as we are informed 1989…

Shoot forwards to the ‘present day’ and we have Matthew Perry, bloated and quite frankly as far from how Zac Efron will look in 18 years time as you could get, but thats the point you see, he decided to marry his pregnant teenage girlfriend rather than pursue his dream of being a pro basketball star. His kids don’t care for him, his wife has now left him and he has lost his job, lifes’ not so great for this guy who had a once rosy future. Then he meets a ‘magical janitor’ falls off a bridge on a typically rainy night to be transformed into…yes you guessed it, 17 year old…again!

So far so Big, and to sum up 17 Again you need only take a bit of Big and a whole lot of Back to the Future without the sci fi element, and just add in some of that Ephron charm/smugness depending on your view of his ‘talents’. While not a fan myself I did find myself enjoying it and finding him adept at the body swap humour, playing Dad as a tennager, regardless of the actor there is comedy to be mined from the situation, at a push I would say he comes off as likeable for the first time thus far and is helped no end by best friend Thomas Lennon, as a rich uber-geek.

In fact the combination of Lennon’s nerdish humour and Ephron’s smug charm that keep 17 Again out of simple rehash ignonymy, channeling an young Michael J. Fox doesn’t hurt Efron and there could well be an even bigger and less annoying person waiting to break out above the idolisation of 13 year old girls. Ineveitably the film veers from mildly amusing to cringeworthy, but as O’ Connoll’s children befriend their ‘father’ unknowingly the laughs begin to flow a bit thicker with as many hits as misses, much humour (albeit in a creepy way!) is derived from seeing O’  Connoll’s daughter attempt to seduce him whilst he in turn tries to win back his wife, the mother of his supposed new best friend. Sounds complex…it really isn’t! 

As you would expect everything is a little too happily ever after, and if it doesn’t quite have the cheese of a Disney film (thank god!) there are a fair share of ‘yuck’ moments, if Ephron wants to avoid being typecast and move away from this kind of lowbrow antertainment he needs to aim a tad higher as there may just be more than a smug grin in there waiting to get out.

VERDICT

17 Again is pleasantly amusing. Hardly a rave response, but Efron manages to offset his usual smug mugging against a glimmer of charm, helped no end by Thomas Lennon’s geeky input which is seemingly there to hold the interest of anyone who isnt a teenage girl.

Well, well, well – Wall Street 2 just got a lot more interesting, with the news that Oliver Stone, who directed the original movie in 1987, is in talks to direct, while Shia LaBeouf is in negotiations to star alongside Michael Douglas, who will reprise his Oscar-winning role as financial Machiavelli, Gordon Gekko.

Douglas, of course, has been on board the movie, which will focus on Gekko as he comes to terms with an increasingly perilous financial market, overloaded and exploded by years of abuse by stockbrokers who bought into his mantra, ‘greed is good’. But Stone’s involvement in his first direct sequel somehow lends the project an extra edge of authenticity.

LaBeouf – who insisted at yesterday’s Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen junket that he was currently out-of-work, the cheeky scamp – will play a young trader who, presumably, gets taken under Gekko’s malevolent wing, a la Charlie Sheen in the original.

Allan Loeb has written the script for the 20th Century Fox movie, which was once known as Money Never Sleeps. At the moment, Wall Street 2 seems to be the way they’re going.

Of course, they say that you should never go back, especially to the scene of your greatest triumph, but here’s hoping that the old Stone/Douglas team can rework their old magic.

Danny Huston – currently attracting boos and hisses as the villainous Stryker in X-Men Origins: Wolverine – has become the latest actor to join the eclectic cast of Louis Leterrier’s remake of Clash Of The Titans. The 46 year-old, who specialises in baddies and slimy bureaucrats, will play the Greek God of the Sea, Poseidon, in the big-budget adventure movie, which started filming in London on Monday.

Jack Gwilim played the same role in the 1981 original, but we can only presume that Poseidon, who controls the deadly Kraken and has it off with the minging Medusa, has a larger role this time – hence Huston’s involvement.

Huston joins a bulging cast, including Sam Worthington as Perseus, Gemma Arterton as Io, Liam Neeson as Zeus, Ralph Fiennes as Hades, and Dirk Kuyt on the right wing. Alexa Davalos, Jason Flemyng, and Mads Mikkelsen round out the cast of a movie that could be utterly, utterly bonkers but brilliant. Fingers crossed.

Russell Brand’s bid for world domination may have hit a snag, with today’s news that the hedge-haired Brit comedian has agreed to star in a remake of, erm, Drop Dead Fred.

Yes, that Drop Dead Fred – the Rik Mayall atrocity from 1991, in which the Bottom star played Phoebe Cates’ anarchic imaginary best friend. Awful in a way that only Tom Green fans could begin to recognise and appreciate, it’s somehow garnered something of a cult following over the years, enough to make Universal feel that a Brand-led remake might be just the ticket.

Dennis McNicholas, one of the writers on the upcoming Will Ferrell comedy, Land Of The Lost, will write the script for the movie, which will focus more on the world of imaginary friends, with Brand, as you’d expect, taking on the Mayall role. Let’s hope he’s nowhere near as annoying.

I’m a little torn by this. Always having pops at Hollywood for remaking great movies, so you’d think that I’d welcome news that they’re remaking a clunker – after all, the only way for Drop Dead Fred has to be up, particularly with the increasingly hot (in filmic terms!) Brand, who has Forgetting Sarah Marshall semi-sequel, Get Him To The Greek, and the remake of Arthur on his plate, leading the way. Right?

Marc Platt, producer of Wanted and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, is producing for Universal. And that is a good sign…

Starring (the voices of):Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Kiefer Sutherland, Will Arnett, Rainn Wilson, Paul Rudd

Director: Rob Letterman, Conrad Vernon

Writers: Maya Forbes, Conrad Vernon

Cinematography: N/A

Original Score:Henry Jackman

Running Time:94 Mins.

Since the minor blip (critically if not at the Box Office) of Shrek the Third, Dreamworks have been getting their act together ever since providing both children and adults alike with some real gems in the animation stakes, last years Kung Fu Panda was a major high point and in my eyes the best film they have made bettering even Shrek 1 & 2 by avoiding those damn pop culture references that severely date a film. Followed up by Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa, which was a huge improvement on the underwhelming original.

Now Dreamworks enter the 3D arena with Monsters vs. Aliens which only serves to show two things, one that animation can be as hilarious as any live action comedy (much like Kung Fu Panda), and two that the 3D phenomenon might just be living up to its promise of making cinema a truly emersive experience.

Unlike Disney’s first major 3D effort, Bolt, Monsters vs. Aliens takes the technology and runs with it, the concept is much better suited to the technology than Bolt was, Monsters AND Aliens in 3D, an embarrassment of riches that! Sodthe dog and the hamster! Of course it does help that your monsters are voiced by Rogen, Laurie and Arnett all funny in their own right but Rogen unsurprisingly is the funniest. Rainn Wilson also impresses hugely as the Alien nemesis.

If there’s a weak link in the voice department it is the coupling of Rudd and Witherspoon both are bland and inject little to no emotion or funny to their characters, from Witherspoon it is no surprise, but it’s shameful that Rogen wasn’t given better to work with as the mysoginistic husband to be of Witherspoon’s Susan (dubbed Ginormica when she is blown to epic proportions through exposure to a meteor).

The plot other than the points I touched on before really do amount to little more than the title but when the laugh rate is this thick and fast it really doesn’t matter. And the action scenes, despite feeling a bit too brief at times, are eye poppingly good enhanced through the use of 3D, I can safely say it’s the first time that the third dimension has really been brought out fully, after this I find it hard to see what James Cameron has up his sleeve in the boundary pushing 3D stakes with Avatar.

Opening in space and taking us through the rocks around Saturn, rather than popping them out at us, you will feel that 3D has pulled you in for the first time. Yes, there are the inevitable things popping out at you moments, but it would be dissapointing if there weren’t a few, however by and large the former is the case, meaning the bigger the screen the better the impact. I can safely say that in Monsters vs. Aliens we have reached the evolution in cinema that was initially promised when 3D became more prominant. 

VERDICT

More than a film the 3D element makes Monsters vs. Aliensa truly original experience utitlising the technology to the full, it helps that this might just be one of the years funniest films too! So that’s the 3D experience covered, how about Monsters vs. Aliens 4D…

The teaser trailer for Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2 aka H2 is now online at here. Opening August 28th, the Halloween sequel stars Scout Taylor-Compton, Tyler Mane, Danielle Harris, Daniel Roebuck, Ezra Buzzington, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Jeffrey Daniel Phillips, Dayton Callie, Richard Brake, Matt Bush and Howard Hesseman.

As you can see Zombie has compiled another slick series of killings and lots of running around dark corridors, lets hope it’s more Devils Rejects than House of 1000 Corpses.

H2 is out in August worldwide. Odd that, you’s have thought it would be out on 31st October really!

With all the hub bub about Russell Crowe as Robin Hood, and the confusion throughout as to whether he would play Hood and the Sheriff or both as one person or one person that takes over the Sheriff’s mantle. Let that chatter be at an end for now the official website for Matthew Macfayden has confirmed that he’s been cast as The Sheriff of Nottingham: Matthew’s agent, Christian Hodell, has confirmed that he will be playing the Sheriff of Nottingham in the new Robin Hood movie.

Shooting for Matthew will occur in May and June. Don’t know who Matthew Macfayden is? He was last seen in Frost/Nixon I believe. Didn’t see Frost/Nixon? Check out Pride & Prejudice, thats him, no not Colin Firth…the other version! Anyway this is shaping up nicely and Macfayden is a welcome addtion to an already excellent cast that boasts the likes of Crowe, Cate Blanchett and William Hurt.

Though let’s be honest he will never better Alan Rickman so theres little point in trying.

Robin Hood is shooting now and will be released next Summer 2010.

Denzel Washington is in talks to star in Unstoppable, which looks set to be his fifth film with director Tony Scott. The pair already made submarine thriller Crimson Tide, revenge thriller Man On Fire, sci-fi thriller Deja Vu, and are currently working on remake heist thriller The Taking of Pelham 123. It will therefore come as no surprise to learn that Unstoppable is another thriller.

The film is loosely based on a true story, with Washington set to play a veteran engineer who, along with a young train conductor, jumps aboard an engine to chase down a runaway train carrying a load of toxic chemicals. Mark Bomback wrote the script, based on a real-life incident.

Filming is due to start in the autumn, after the release of Pelham 123 in June and after Washington finishes work on his apocalyptic next film The Book of Eli for the Hughes brothers. Let’s hope that Scott and Washington’s second train-based film in a row turns out as action-packed as its title promises.

You may remember the stonkingly ott trailer from the Grindhouse experience. Well, prepare to see a full-length version, with the news that Robert Rodriguez is finally moving ahead with his much-mooted Machete film. That’s due to start shooting in June, Rodriguez co-directing with his editor Ethan Maniquis.

The story, in case you’re in work and can’t recall the trailer, sees day labourer and ex-Federale Machete (Danny Trejo) hired to carry out an assassination, but double-crossed and left for dead. He goes on a quest for revenge against the man responsible. We can only hope that they keep the, ”This time they fucked with the wrong Mexican” tagline.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez has also finished a script for Predators, the proposed relaunch of the Predator franchise. Note the “s” on the end of that name; this isn’t a simple remake, it seems, but a take on the franchise that involves multiple dreadlocked freckly-faced polyjawed hunters. Let’s hope it is to Predator what Aliens was to Alien, and not just another disappointing Alien Vs Predator-alike mish-mash of ideas.

But before he does any of this, Rodriguez has to finish work on Nerverackers, a futuristic sci-fi thriller due out in 2010. So now that we’ve got a better idea of his dance card for the next couple of years, which are you most looking forward to?