Pete’s Dragon Premiere Pics
Check out a gallery of pictures from the London gala premiere of new Disney adventure film Pete’s Dragon featuring Bryce Dallas Howard, Ron Howard and Georgia Lock. You can also watch exclusive Red Carpet News interviews below.
Free Fire Closes BFI London Film Festival 2016
The 60th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express® is proud to announce that this year’s Closing Night gala will be Ben Wheatley’s high-octane action thriller FREE FIRE. The film will receive its European premiere on Sunday 16 October at the Odeon Leicester Square, attended by cast and filmmakers.
Massachusetts late ‘70s. Justine (Brie Larson) has brokered a meeting in a deserted warehouse between two Irishmen (Cillian Murphy, Michael Smiley) and a gang led by Vernon (Sharlto Copley) and Ord (Armie Hammer) who are selling them a stash of guns. But when shots are fired in the handover, a heart stopping game of survival ensues.
Ben Wheatley says
“I’m very proud to be showing FREE FIRE at the BFI London Film Festival. To be the closing film is a great honour. LFF have been fantastic in supporting the films I’ve made (me and an army of 100s) and I can’t wait to show FREE FIRE to the Festival audience!”
FREE FIRE is Wheatley’s third film to be presented at the Festival, following High-Rise (2015) which screened as Festival Gala and Sightseers (2012) which screened as Laugh Gala.
BFI London Film Festival Director, Clare Stewart says:
“Ben Wheatley’s ascent as one of the UK’s most dazzling cinematic talents continues with this ballsy actioner. Dripping with blood, sweat and irony, FREE FIRE’s bravura filmmaking pays knowing tribute to the films of Sam Peckinpah and features a terrific cast who clearly relish bringing Wheatley and co-writer Amy Jump’s vivid characters to the screen. We are thrilled to be presenting the European Premiere as our Closing Night gala, ensuring that the 60th edition of the BFI London Film Festival goes out with a bang!”
Film4 and BFI present a Rook Films Production of a Ben Wheatley film. Starring Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Jack Reynor, Babou Ceesay, Enzo Cilenti, Sam Riley, Michael Smiley and Noah Taylor. STUDIOCANAL will release the film in UK and Ireland in 2017.
The 60th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express takes place from Wednesday 5 October-Sunday 16 October 2016. The opening night film is the previously announced Amma Asante’s A UNITED KINGDOM. The full Festival programme will be announced on Thursday 1 September 2016.
Festival Information & Ticket Booking
Purchase Festival tickets online at bfi.org.uk/lff, by phone from 10:00-20:30 daily at +44 (0)20 7928 3232, or visit the BFI Southbank Box Office 11:00-20:30. BFI Members’ priority booking opens 10.00, 8 September – join at bfi.org.uk/join; Public booking opens 10.00, 15 September.
Finding Dory Review
The Plot
The friendly but forgetful blue tang fish begins a search for her long-lost parents and everyone learns a few things about the real meaning of family along the way.
The Good
After famously campaigning for a sequel to the 2003 animated hit on her chat show for 10 years, Ellen DeGeneres has been rewarded with not only the sequel, but one centered entirely on her character! Finding Dory picks up one year after the events which united the forgetful fish with father and son clownfish Marlin and Nemo. This new chapter sees Dory on a quest to find her own parents and remember who she once was.
The long-awaited sequel manages to bring a host of entertaining new characters without having to rely too heavily on the ones which made the first such a hit (apart from of course the titular one…). Though a few do pop back up, they never seem too forced and are quickly discarded to make way for the newcomers. Of these newcomers is Hank, an octopus intent on escaping the Marine Life Institute where the majority of the film takes place. Desperate to take Dory’s place on a truck leaving in the morning, he teams up with her to help her find her parents with his often hilarious disguises and camouflages.
Meanwhile, outside the institute, Marlin and Nemo are trying to find a way in to find their friend and help her. With this comes one of the highlights of the film and a clear throwback to Finding Nemo’s seagulls in a pair of sealions named Fluke and Rudder voiced brilliantly by Idris Elba and Dominic West respectively.
The Bad
Unfortunately, the thirteen year wait between Finding Nemo and Finding Dory doesn’t seem to bring much new to the screen. Though the main bulk of the story takes place in a Marine Life Institute, it ultimately feels incredibly lacking in its exploration of the setting. In a post Blackfish world and with this being a Pixar film, it’s a real shame to see the potential for a heartbreaking plot not be taken advantage of fully. That’s not to say there aren’t any upsetting scenes in Finding Dory (it would be hard not to make the story of parents losing their child upsetting), it just never hits the Up style heart-breaking sequences and instead ends up a by the books film which just feels totally lacking everywhere.
The Ugly Truth
With some genuinely funny moments Finding Dory ultimately feels like it perhaps missed opportunities for more interesting or challenging story lines. Though naturally fans of the original and younger audiences will be particularly happy to simply see the lovely Blue Tang just keep swimming.
Review by Johnny Ellis
The Accountant Official Trailer
Check out the first full trailer for The Accountant, a new financial themed thriller starring Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick . Official synopsis below
Christian Wolff (Affleck) is a math savant with more affinity for numbers than people. Behind the cover of a small-town CPA office, he works as a freelance accountant for some of the world’s most dangerous criminal organizations. With the Treasury Department’s Crime Enforcement Division, run by Ray King (J.K. Simmons), starting to close in, Christian takes on a legitimate client: a state-of- the- art robotics company where an accounting clerk (Anna Kendrick) has discovered a discrepancy involving millions of dollars. But as Christian uncooks the books and gets closer to the truth, it is the body count that starts to rise.
THE ACCOUNTANT is due out in cinemas 4th November.
Stranger Things 70/80s Movie References Revealed
Netflix instant cult classic series Stranger Things was proudly inspired by the iconic science fiction and horror films of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Indeed the shows creators the Duffer Brothers originally pitched the show as basically being like a ‘very dark Amblin Entertainment movie’. For those unaware Amblin Entertainment is Steven Spielberg’s production company responsible for vintage genre favorites like Gremlins, The Goonies, Innerspace, Batteries Not Included and of course E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
Film fans that have already binge watched Stranger Days first season may have easily spotted a few well placed references and subtle nods to familiar films/scenes. But just in case you missed any here’s a brilliant video of shot by shot comparisons to point them out for you…
References to 70-80′s movies in Stranger Things from Ulysse Thevenon on Vimeo.