Fan Gets Dying Wish To Watch Star Trek Film
J.J. Abrams is well known for being ultra-secretive about his work, preferring obscure teaser trailers and cryptic viral marketing campaigns to actual preview screenings. But in a delightful gesture of goodwill the popular director has made a special exception.
Having received pleas from the family of a terminally ill Trek fan to give him the chance to see the new Star Trek sequel before its long awaited cinematic release, J.J. Abrams responded by arranged a very special screening of the nearly completed film.
Star Trek Into Darkness stars Chris Pine, Karl Urban, Alice Eve and Benedict Cumberbatch. The finished film will arrive in UK cinemas on 17th May and the first review from special fan Dan is that the film is great and he ‘loved it’. Sadly Dan has since passed away. So Warp Speed Dan, Warp Speed with love.
Jay Z Doing Great Gatsby Soundtrack
The first trailer for Director Baz Luhrmann’s opulent adaptation of Scott Fitzgerald’s literary classic The Great Gatsby featured a Jay-Z song “No Church In The Wild”, not it seems the hip hop superstar may be collaborating on the musical score for the entire film.
Artist The Bullitts has tweeted news that he and Jay-Z are “working tirelessly on the score for the upcoming #CLASSIC The Great Gatsby!” with the promise that the new soundtrack is “too DOPE for words!”.
Despite the obvious enthusiasm from the Jay-Z camp, some people will already question whether or not their musical efforts will prove a comfortable match for Fitzergald’s tale of tragic love set in the roaring 1920s. But if it does prove a success it could provide interesting new territory for Jay-Z, who is already well established as a global rap superstar.
Cars Spinoff Planes Flying Into Cinemas
Following the box office success of Cars and inventively titled sequel Cars 2, Disney Animation has been working on a spin-off movie that takes the familiar approach of giving vehicles eyes and celebrity voices, then imagining the kind of adventures they might have. Only this time they’re using planes not cars, hence the equally obvious choice of title, ‘Planes’.
Despite mixed and lackluster critical reactions to the Cars franchise, it proved a moderate success at the box office and made Pixar/Disney even more on toys and tie-in merchandise. No doubt the studio will be hoping for the same lucrative results when Planes arrives in cinemas August 9th.
London Critics Circle Film Awards 2013 Nominations List
The London Critics Circle Film Awards 2013 will take place on 20th January at the BFI Southbank and has no officially released it’s list of nominations in 17 categories. The star studded event has long been a high point in the red carpet calendar and attracts a glittering line up of both British and International talent. This year’s awards are being held in partnership with Charity Missing People. Check out the full list of this year’s nominations below:
About The Critics’ Circle
Established in 1913, The Critics’ Circle is the oldest organisation of its kind in the world, with more than 400 members who work in the UK media as critics of drama, art and architecture, music, film and dance. The Film Section has more than 120 voting members working as film critics, journalists and broadcasters, and has presented its awards annually since 1980. www.criticscircle.org.uk
About Missing People
An estimated 250,000 people go missing each year in the UK. The youngest of those can face physical and sexual abuse while 1 in 4 missing adults end up sleeping rough. Missing People has a team on hand 24 hours a day, providing a confidential free lifeline when someone disappears. The charity also coordinates a UK wide search network of volunteers, community and media partners. For every £1 donated the charity delivers £2 of value, enabling the safe reconnection of 1,051 missing people last year. www.missingpeople.org.uk.
33rd LONDON CRITICS’ CIRCLE FILM AWARDS NOMINATIONS IN FULL
The Sky Movies Award: FILM OF THE YEAR
Amour (Artificial Eye)
Argo (Warners)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (StudioCanal)
Life of Pi (Fox)
The Master (Entertainment)
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
Amour (Artificial Eye)
Holy Motors (Artificial Eye)
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (New Wave)
Rust and Bone (StudioCanal)
Tabu (New Wave)
DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR
The Imposter (Picturehouse/Revolver)
London: The Modern Babylon (BFI)
Nostalgia for the Light (New Wave)
The Queen of Versailles (Dogwoof)
Searching for Sugar Man (StudioCanal)
The May Fair Hotel Award: BRITISH FILM OF THE YEAR
Berberian Sound Studio (Artificial Eye)
The Imposter (Picturehouse/Revolver)
Les Miserables (Universal)
Sightseers (StudioCanal)
Skyfall (Sony)
The Spotlight Award: ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln (Fox)
Hugh Jackman – Les Miserables (Universal)
Mads Mikkelsen – The Hunt (Arrow)
Joaquin Phoenix – The Master (Entertainment)
Jean-Louis Trintignant – Amour (Artificial Eye)
ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Jessica Chastain – Zero Dark Thirty (Universal)
Marion Cotillard – Rust and Bone (StudioCanal)
Helen Hunt – The Sessions (Fox)
Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook (Entertainment)
Emmanuelle Riva – Amour (Artificial Eye)
SUPPORTING ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Alan Arkin – Argo (Warners)
Javier Bardem – Skyfall (Sony)
Michael Fassbender – Prometheus (Fox)
Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master (Entertainment)
Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln (Fox)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Amy Adams – The Master (Entertainment)
Judi Dench – Skyfall (Sony)
Sally Field – Lincoln (Fox)
Anne Hathaway – Les Miserables (Universal)
Isabelle Huppert – Amour (Artificial Eye)
BRITISH ACTOR OF THE YEAR – In association with Cameo Productions
Daniel Craig – Skyfall (Sony)
Charlie Creed-Miles – Wild Bill (The Works/Universal)
Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln (Fox)
Toby Jones – Berberian Sound Studio (Artificial Eye)
Steve Oram – Sightseers (StudioCanal)
BRITISH ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Emily Blunt – Looper (eOne) and Your Sister’s Sister (StudioCanal)
Judi Dench – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Fox) and Skyfall (Sony)
Alice Lowe – Sightseers (StudioCanal)
Helen Mirren – Hitchcock (Fox)
Andrea Riseborough – Shadow Dancer (Paramount)
YOUNG BRITISH PERFORMER OF THE YEAR
Samantha Barks – Les Miserables (Universal)
Fady Elsayed – My Brother the Devil (Verve)
Tom Holland – The Impossible (eOne)
Will Poulter – Wild Bill (The Works/Universal)
Jack Reynor – What Richard Did (Artificial Eye)
The American Airlines Award: DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR
Paul Thomas Anderson – The Master (Entertainment)
Kathryn Bigelow – Zero Dark Thirty (Universal)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan – Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (New Wave)
Michael Haneke – Amour (Artificial Eye)
Ang Lee – Life of Pi (Fox)
SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR
Paul Thomas Anderson – The Master (Entertainment)
Mark Boal – Zero Dark Thirty (Universal)
Michael Haneke – Amour (Artificial Eye)
Quentin Tarantino – Django Unchained (Sony)
Chris Terrio – Argo (Warners)
BREAKTHROUGH BRITISH FILM-MAKER
Ben Drew, writer/director – Ill Manors (Revolver)
Sally El Hosaini, writer/director – My Brother the Devil (Verve)
Dexter Fletcher, co-writer/director – Wild Bill (The Works/Universal)
Bart Layton, writer/director – The Imposter (Picturehouse/Revolver)
Alice Lowe & Steve Oram, writers – Sightseers (StudioCanal)
The Sky 3D Award: TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Anna Karenina – Jacqueline Durran, costumes (Universal)
Argo – William Goldenberg, film editing (Warners)
Beasts of the Southern Wild – Ben Richardson, cinematography (StudioCanal)
Berberian Sound Studio – Joakim Sundstrom & Stevie Haywood, sound design (Artificial Eye)
Holy Motors – Bernard Floch, makeup (Artificial Eye)
Life of Pi – Claudio Miranda, cinematography (Fox)
Life of Pi – Bill Westenhofer, visual effects (Fox)
The Master – Jack Fisk & David Crank, production design (Entertainment)
My Brother the Devil – David Raedeker, cinematography (Verve)
Rust and Bone – Alexandre Desplat, music (StudioCanal)
DILYS POWELL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN FILM: Sponsored by PREMIER
Helena Bonham Carter
Nb. Irish films, film-makers and performers are eligible in British categories.
Jack Reacher Review
The Plot:
In a fabulously fun take on Lee Child’s novel One Shot, Tom Cruise plays a hardened former military investigator Jack Reacher. When an ex-soldier shoots five innocent civilians in broad daylight, Reacher returns to the US to make sure the man responsible is brought to justice. However all is not as it seems…
The Good:
Whether you are a fan of the book or not, the brilliance of this film is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and that it doesn’t patronize its audience. The humour in this film is well placed and mixed in well with all the elements that make it a great action movie.
Tom Cruise makes an excellent Jack Reacher. His delivery of the lines are as dry as a desert and this creates maximum effect as the audience pinch themselves throughout asking “is this guy for real?” He fits the bill physically, despite the fact the character was supposed to be a musclebound 6ft5 in the books. His height really doesn’t seem an issue on screen and his broody loneliness and dis-engagement with the real world is apparent and clear. There is also the odd feeling of vulnerability for this vigilante which brings out a human side to the character making him far from indestructible, and in some instances, refreshingly out of his depth and control.
Rosamund Pike is an interesting choice for Helen Rodin, the DA’s daughter and lawyer who hires Reacher to be her private investigator in this case. Her take on the American accent is somewhat distracting at times, but she provides a good sparring partner for Cruise, with a calm versus the storm factor, and the undertones of a romantic involvement which are danced around but never fully played out.
Robert Duvall however, only features in the second half of the film, but brings in an old school heroism feel to the film, that he is simply magnetic in presence and hilarious in delivery. The moment he appears as gun range owner Cash, he gels instantly with Cruise and you feel taken back to Days of Thunder, you can tell they have great chemistry on screen and have remained friends off.
Another surprising casting is Werner Herzog as The Zec. If you were to paint a picture of an action hero nemesis, he would be it, blind in one eye, living in the shadows and thumbless after having to bite it off himself in order to stay alive. He is almost cartoon like in appearance, and the moment he delivers the line “I was born in Siberia…” you know not to take this film too seriously if you hadn’t figured this out before.
The film mixes the serious and the absurd brilliantly. After a tense opening ten minutes that sets the scene effectively, the film introduces the heroic figure of Jack Reacher in a playful and inventive way. It’s pure brilliance and injects a sudden sense of fun that continues throughout the rest of the film. Slap stick fights with hapless henchmen provide easy laugh out loud buffoonery. The film peaks with an all-out action packed car, gun, fist fighting final scene. It’s so outlandish you really are taken back to the classic Van Damme, Schwarzenneger films of days gone by, a fitting end to the film.
The Bad:
It’s difficult to fault Jack Reacher other than to simply acknowledge that the film doesn’t take itself seriously and audiences could be disappointed if they’re specifically looking for a gritty hard hitting drama. Jack Reacher certainly hit’s hard but only for laughs.
The Ugly Truth:
For all its ridiculousness, Jack Reacher has a knowingly silly stroke of brilliance about it, which makes all its absurdities forgivable. Jack Reacher is a very watchable action romp and fans of the original books won’t be disappointed. Action loving boys will love it and maybe girls will swoon at Tom Cruise in this new action role. The film hits cinemas on the 21st December.