Silicon Valley Official HBO Trailer

Check out the first full length trailer for Silicon Valley, the new HBO TV series from writer/director Mike Judge. Judge is best known as the creative force behind long running animated series King of The Hill and Beavis and Butt-head, as well as cult classic movie Office Space.

The new comedy series which has its US television premiere on 6th April is based around a group of variously awkward but ambitious tech nerds working in the infamous ‘Silicon Valley’. Apparently facing the enviable dilemma of whether to sell their great idea for $10 million or set up their own company with billion dollar dreams.

Full trailer below:

A New York Winter’s Tale Review

The Plot:
A good hearted burglar strikes up an unlikely and miraculous romance with a beautiful heiress in New York in 1914, but a demonic gangster and the devil himself are determined to put a stop to their love. However, a hundred years later their love continues to change the world and inspire genuine miracles.

The Good:

Downtown Abbey star Jessica Brown Findlay has a luminous aristocratic beauty and delicate dramatic delivery that fits perfectly with the role of a terminally ill heiress. The young actress works hard to carry the demanding responsibility of both narrating the film and serving as it’s most ethereal figure. Her charms help soften some of the film’s more awkward and heavy handed dialogue at the very least.

Colin Farrell plays comfortably to type as a roguish orphan thief instantly transformed by the discovery of true love. His handsome face and soft Irish accent go some way to overcoming a questionable haircut and unashamedly fantastical script. He clearly strains to inject actual emotion into an implausible tale burdened with flying cgi horses and religious themed melodramatics.

Russell Crowe also lends a little credibility to far-fetched proceedings by making his demonic gangster Pearly Soames at least effectively menacing. It’s a typically snarling and brutish performance from the bullish Australian actor. Likewise Will Smith proves an unlikely but welcome distraction in a cameo as Lucifer himself.

The film’s most valuable and consistent redeeming feature is actually a memorable musical score from master composer Hans Zimmer. A haunting and elegant soundtrack helps rescue the film from a script that oscillates wildly between randomness and predictability. Giving the film a far more convincing romantic tone and atmosphere than it would otherwise have been capable of. Music is repeatedly the film’s saving grace, pun intended.

The Bad:

Writer Akiva Goldsman has a deeply schizophrenic CV that glitter with great work like a time to kill, a beautiful mind and fringe; but is equally tarnished by being culpable for batman & robin or practical magic. With Winter’s Tale he makes an inauspicious directorial debut, that demonstrates technical ability but lacks a script to match its lush cinematography. In truth the bestselling book which inspires the film fails to transfer its literary magic to screen.

The film struggles often to tread an awkward balance between grounded period drama and outlandish fantasy. Even the characters themselves seem confusingly unaware of just how the film’s more supernatural elements are supposed to integrate into what would have been an otherwise straightforward romantic drama. The film often takes literal and metaphorical leaps into the absurd that ask an awful lot of an audience. Perhaps the original book was able to more delicately integrate the two worlds.

The film has two death scenes which are particularly overplayed and unconvincing. It’s especially unfortunate that the film ironically regards these two embarrassing moments as its most pivotal and profound plot points.

The Ugly Truth:

Winter’s Tale has likeable leads and a wonderful soundtrack, but that can’t entirely disguise a script that fails to be as emotionally profound as it clearly aspires to be.

Check out Red Carpet interviews below from the London Premiere:

Alien Themed Nostromo Fashion Week Show

Check out a gallery of images from the Fashion Week runway show form designer Leyre Valiente inspired by Ridley Scott’s sci-fi  classic Alien. The shapes and patterns of NOSTROMO, as well as the materials, are inspired by the spacesuits (work of Moebius), structures and interiors of ships, as well as the anatomy of the creatures and textures that appear both in the Alien saga films and in the work of the artist H. R. Giger.

Quilted fabric and simile neoprene create structured outerwear, mikado combines with technological organza which creates plastic glazes, and the skin is pierced and pembossed to give life to the dermis of the alien along with pleated satin. A collection of futuristic lines that mingle with biological textures to use from morning to night. The collection of jewelry is the result, once again, of the Leyre Valiente collaboration with sculptor Imanol Quero (IQ by Imanol Quero).

The scenery of the show has been made by dP ANDROMEDA, with the collaboration of Imanol Quero as author of the alien eggs. Because nothing says high-fashion more than a pulsating space egg containing a terrifying face-hugger….

Check out the surprisingly chic collection below:

British Academy Film Awards 2014 Interviews

Check out full coverage of this years’s EE British Academy Film Awards 2014 including backstage interviews wit winners including Cate Blanchett, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Dame Helen Mirren, Will Poulter, David O. Russell, Steve Coogan, Steve McQueen and Brad Pitt. 

Ride Along Review

The Plot:

A computer game obsessed high-school security guard with dreams of being a real life hero spends a day on the streets with a genuinely tough Atlanta cop, in a bid to prove himself worthy of marrying his sister. The mismatched team bicker their way through an adventure that sees them inadvertently caught up in the plans of a mysterious local crime lord.

The Good:

Ice Cube has a stern scowl and surly voice that makes playing a perpetually angry inner-city detective easy work. Likewise comedian Kevin Hart makes the most of his tiny body and big grin to play an overly optimistic wimp. It’s comfortable typecasting for both leads that plays to their respective strengths.

The film never makes the mistake of taking itself seriously and is at its best when acknowledging its own ridiculousness. Ice Cube shooting an occasional bemused expression right down the barrel of the camera is actually more genuinely amusing than much of the scripted comedy. Although Hart deserves some credit for enthusiastically getting shot, beaten and otherwise abused in the search for humiliating laughs.

The film also manages to offer a few familiar faces in supporting roles. The presences of people like John Leguizamo and Lawrence Fishburne adds production value, albeit with limited screen time.

Overall Ride Along occasionally hits its stride with slightly better lines and mostly physical comedy. These flashes of entertainment keep the whole ride just about watchable without ever coming close to being memorable.

The Bad:

Ride Along is heavily reliant on a very simple comedic formula. It’s yet another mismatched buddy comedy, offering a typically contrived excuse for throwing two opposites into the same cop car. Producing mixed results at best it rarely stretches itself beyond a comfort zone that offers few original ideas.

Kevin Hart has a significant American fan base, but to a largely uninitiated international audience he will likely prove an acquired taste. You may find yourself quickly sympathising with Ice Cube’s frustration at Hart’s character’s irritating antics. It’s a performance that blatantly mistakes constant noise and physical ineptitude for likeability or underdog charm. In truth only Hart’s diminutive stature prevents his shrill persona from proving entirely unlikeable.

Ice Cube is undoubtedly well practiced at distributing an endless stream of grumpy one-liners while wearing a permanent frown. However it’s a one note performance that felt better suited for his supporting turn in 21 Jump Street than as one of this film’s joint leads.

The Ugly Truth:

Ride Along is an uncomplicated journey that should mostly please its target audience with a mix of silly slapstick and overly familiar genre clichés. It might not be entirely original, but neither is it ever entirely unwatchable. Existing fans of Ice Cube and Hart may find it more enjoyable than most. However, a recently announced sequel will certainly need to find a lot more to offer a wider audience.

Check out our recent interview with Kevin Hart below talking about his stand up movie, Grudge Match and Ride Along: