X-Men: First Class tops the UK box office

UK box office top ten and analysis for the weekend of Friday 4th - Sunday 6th June 2011...



The latest installment in Fox's X-Men franchise debuts in first place at the UK box office, but a weekend haul of £5.4m has to be considered less than 'First Class' considering that the figure - which includes over £2m from two days of preview screenings - is just over half the £10.4m opening enjoyed by The Hangover Part II. Discounting previews it's the weakest opening for the franchise but nevertheless, it's good enough to put X-Men: First Class in pole position as Todd Phillips' comedy sequel slips down to second place with another £3.8m, while Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides also falls one spot to third and remains the highest earner in the top ten with a cumulative gross of £26.7m.



Along with X-Men: First Class, there are another three newcomers in the chart this week, the highest of which is the 3D concert movie JLS: Eyes Wide Open, which debuts in fifth (one place behind family comedy Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules), with acclaimed racing documentary Senna and Bollywood comedy Ready opening in seventh and eighth respectively. Meanwhile, heading towards the foot of the chart is animated comedy Rio (down to places to eighth) and Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist (down four two ninth), but the biggest drop of the week is reserved for Thor, which plummets to the bottom of the chart after finishing up in fourth last time out.



Number one this time last year: Sex and the City 2

Pos.	Film	Weekend Gross	Week	Total UK Gross
1	X-Men: First Class	£5,438,386	1	£5,438,386
2	The Hangover Part II	£3,826,158	2	£21,055,272
3	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	£2,144,179	3	£26,693,930
4	Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules	£645,196	2	£3,622,991
5	JLS: Eyes Wide Open	£463,914	1	£463,914
6	Senna	£375,173	1	£375,173
7	Ready	£236,868	1	£236,868
8	Rio	£94,127	8	£12,890,750
9	Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist	£77,874	7	£18,368,657
10	Thor	£59,994	6	£13,849,095

Incoming...



DreamWorks Animation sequel Kung Fu Panda 2 (cert. PG) will likely flying kick its way to the top of the box office this coming Friday and features an all-star voice cast including Jack Black, Seth Rogan, Angelina Jolie, Gary Oldman, Jackie Chan, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu, Michelle Yeoh and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Meanwhile other films looking to make an impact include dance flick Honey 2 (cert. PG), thriller Point Blank (cert. 15) and horror Mother's Day (cert. 18).

U.K. Box Office Archive

BBFC refuse to classify The Human Centipede II

The British Board of Film Classification has decided to refuse a certificate to horror sequel The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) from director Tom Six, effectively banning the film from release here in the UK. According to the BBFC, the film - a follow-up to last year's controversial shocker The Human Centipede (First Sequence) - may fall foul of the Obscene Publications Act and "poses a real, as opposed to a fanciful, risk that harm is likely to be caused to potential viewers".

In a statement released by the BBFC, the film was focussed on the "sexual arousal of the central character at both the idea and the spectacle of the total degradation, humiliation, mutilation, torture and murder of his naked victims" and that "there is little attempt to portray any of the victims in the film as anything other than objects to be brutalised, degraded and mutilated for the amusement and arousal of the central character, as well as for the pleasure of the audience".

It's nice to see that the BBFC know what's best for us viewers and we can only thank them for taking this step to protect us from potential harm. Joking aside, unless the 'victims' were actually brutalised, degraded and mutilated for the purposes of making the film, I can't see what the problem is and I'd quite like to know what qualifies the BBFC to decide what is suitable and unsuitable for me to watch - as a responsible adult, I'm sure I can make that decision for myself.

Read the BBFC's patter here.

The Week in Spandex - X-Men: First Class, Captain America, The Dark Knight Rises and more...

Our weekly round-up of all the big talking points from the world of movie superheroes...



The big news is of course the release of Matthew Vaughn's Cold War-era mutant prequel X-Men: First Class, which I have to say I found to be a little over-rated. Don't get me wrong, it's enjoyable, but in my opinion it really doesn't justify all the hype that's been coming its way this past week (you can check out my full review here). Nevertheless, Vaughn's done a good job setting things up for the next two installments in the 'First Class Trilogy', which I'm sure will be announced once the opening weekend figures come in for this first outing, while James McAvoy has been discussing a potential sequel over at Hero Complex.



Anyway, a whole raft of clips and TV spots have made their way online this past week to further promote the release of First Class (I'm sure by now someone could do a pretty good job of editing the whole film together from these), along with a couple of interesting bits and pieces including a three-part roundtable interview with Matthew Vaughn at ObsessedWithFilm, a video interview with screenwriter Jane Goldman at IGN and an insight into the VFX process courtesy of Rhythm & Hues which you can read over at Comicus (scroll down for the English version). Finally, Vaughn and January Jones have also been answering fan questions over on the Facebook X-Perts Q&A (and no, they didn't answer that one).



Also stepping up the publicity this week ahead of a July release is Marvel Studios' Captain America: The First Avenger, which debuted three new promo images - featuring Chris Evans as Cap, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter and Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull - along with a few TV spots, one of which featured snippets of new footage. Meanwhile TFA storyboard artist Martin Asbury updated his website with some of his work from the film, which could possibly contain a few spoilers but really is worth checking out. Oh, and while we're on the subject of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, expect The Avengers to have quite a presence at the Licensing International Expo (which runs from June 14th-16th in Las Vegas), with ComingSoon.net delivering a sneak preview of a promo poster for the upcoming superhero ensemble.



Along with The Avengers, another big movie expecting to make a splash at the Licensing Expo is Christopher Nolan's final Batman feature The Dark Knight Rises, with Batman-News.com speculating that it could play host to the reveal of the latest Bat-vehicle in much the same way that the Batpod debuted back in 2007 (oh, and a couple of purported viral videos have sprung up on Youtube, most likely fakes but you can take a look here if you haven’t seen them already).



Wrapping up the best of the rest...



...After confirmation earlier this week that Sony will be taking The Amazing Spider-Man to Comic-Con, there's been talk from directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor that Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance will be the next superhero flick to follow suit...



...New Daredevil director David Slade has been busy on Twitter recently, teasing an announcement on the upcoming reboot while confirming that he was never attached to the proposed Justice League of America movie, nor a potential reboot of The Shadow...



...Green Lantern's arrival in cinemas is now less than two weeks away and Warner Bros. have recently debuted a new website entitled Green Lantern Creator, which features some new shots of the alien characters and gives fans the opportunity to create their own member of the Green Lantern Corps...



...CosmicBookNews have posted an article that gathers together all of the Man of Steel rumours that have been doing the rounds lately, while original Superman director Richard Donner took part in a interesting interview with Hero Complex to promote the release of Superman: The Motion Picture Anthology Blu-ray box set that arrives on June 13th...



...Another DC superhero who looks set to be coming to the big screen is Hawkman, with BleedingCool reporting that the proposed film is "part Indiana Jones / The Da Vinci Code, part Ghost". Head over to the site to read the full logline that's doing the rounds...



...For anyone out there still remotely interested in NBC's Wonder Woman pilot, iFanboy posted an in-depth review which also features some previously unseen images, including what looks to be a shot of Wonder Woman's plane...



......And finally, while it doesn't really have anything to do with movies, DC Comics have announced plans to relaunch all of their titles with new #1s, which one can only assume to be the major announcement that was scheduled for this month's Hero Complex Film Festival.

Gary Collinson

Short Film Showcase - Cashback (2004)

Cashback, 2004.

Written and Directed by Sean Ellis.
Starring Sean Biggerstaff, Emilia Fox, Stuary Goodwin, Michael Dixon and Michael Lambourne.

Cashback centres on an aspiring art student, Ben (Sean Biggerstaff), who spends his nights working the graveyard shift at his local 24 hour supermarket. While his co-workers all have their own methods of wasting time as the clock ticks down on their shift, Ben has his own unique technique for fending off boredom by imagining that time stands still, giving him the freedom to explore his creative side.

Although Cashback received some criticism towards its excessive nudity, the short went on to win 14 awards including Best Narrative Short at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival, while it was also nominated for the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film in March 2006, losing out to Martin McDonagh's Six Shooter. Cashback also went on to inspire the full-length feature of the same name, which premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival before receiving theatrical runs in the UK and North America.


Click here to view more short films and public domain features.

DVD Giveaway - The Halfway House

June 20th sees the release of the Ealing Studios ghost story The Halfway House on DVD, and to celebrate Flickering Myth have three copies to give away to our readers courtesy of Optimum Releasing.

Read on for the full synopsis and details of how to enter...

"The Halfway House is an enjoyable mystery tale of a group of strangers driven to take shelter at a remote Welsh Inn during a storm. Each has a personal problem to hide, but they are soon brought together by unsettling events perhaps precipitated by their hosts, the enigmatic innkeepers. Starring Mervyn Johns and real-life daughter Glynis, The Halfway House was written by Anghus McPhail (Whisky Galore!, It Always Rains on Sunday), Diana Morgan (Went the Day Well?, Pink String and Sealing Wax) and T.E.B. Clarke (Passport to Pimlico, The Titfield Thunderbolt) from the stage play by Denis Ogden."

To be in with a chance of winning all you need to do is drop us an email with your contact details, the subject heading "HALFWAY", and an answer to the following question...

The Halfway House director Basil Dearden won a BAFTA Award in 1960 for which of his films?

A) Dead of Night B) Sapphire

The competition closes at 5pm on Sunday June 19th. UK entrants only please.

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DVD Giveaway - Java Head and Tiger Bay

June 20th sees the release of the Anna May Wong double-bill of 1934's Java Head and Tiger Bay on DVD, and to celebrate Flickering Myth have three copies to give away to our readers courtesy of Optimum Releasing.

The first Asian American movie star to become an international star, Anna May Wong's career spanned over four decades, starting in Technicolor’s first two-strip color movie, The Toll of the Sea (1922) and was chosen by Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. to be in The Thief of Bagdad (1924), and co-starred with Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express (1932).

Read on for the full synopsis and details of how to enter...

"JAVA HEAD: The port city of Bristol, England, in the 1800s is home to Java Head, a sailing ship line company. The owner has two sons. One, a handsome seafarer, is in love with a local girl, but cannot marry her due to a long-running feud between their fathers. After a lengthy voyage, he returns with a very exotic, noble Chinese wife, which scandalizes the conservative town. His other son, a "landlubber", seeks to convert to steamships, to the disgust of his father. Even worse, he is secretly dealing in contraband."

"TIGER BAY: A young Englishman abroad, Michael, visits the local low-life spot of Tiger Bay to test his assertion that the spirit of human romance survives even in the most unpromising of circumstances. He intervenes when a local criminal protection racketeer targets a Chinese nightclub, and falls in love with the owner's young English foster-sister. But Olaf's gang have only just started their campaign against Lui Chang, the cultured, elegant woman who owns the premises... and she is determined not to be intimidated or driven out of business under any circumstances..."

To be in with a chance of winning all you need to do is drop us an email with your contact details, the subject heading "ANNA", and an answer to the following question...

Anna May Wong made her final feature film appearance alongside Lana Turner in...

A) Portrait in Black B) Imitation of Life

The competition closes at 5pm on Sunday June 19th. UK entrants only please.

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Movie Review - X-Men: First Class (2011)

X-Men: First Class, 2011.



Directed by Matthew Vaughn.

Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, January Jones, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Lucas Till, Zoë Kravitz, Álex González, Caleb Landry Jones, Jason Flemyng, Oliver Platt and Ray Wise.





SYNOPSIS:



In their efforts to prevent Armageddon, a grave rift emerges between close friends Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) that will ultimately pave the way for war between the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants.





Matthew Vaughn made quite an impression last year with the hugely entertaining Kick-Ass and now he looks to breathe new life into the X-Men franchise with X-Men: First Class, a 1960s-set prequel that arrives in cinemas on the back of a sea of glowing reviews. Now it’s fair to say that the publicity campaign for First Class didn’t get off to the best of starts but Fox seemed to pull things round with some pretty impressive trailers, and with all the hype the film has been generating this past week I was full of anticipation for something extra special. Sadly, that’s not quite what I ended up with and if I'm being brutally honest, I can't see what all the fuss is about.



Now before anyone jumps on my back, I’m not saying that First Class is a bad film. Far from it. It’s a vast improvement over the utterly lacklustre X-Men Origins: Wolverine and any fears I’d had over the casting choices (James McAvoy, I’m talking to you) were completely misplaced. In fact, the whole cast are solid, there’s plenty of exciting action set-pieces, just the right amount of humour and a decent enough story. And, given the insane turnaround time, Matthew Vaughn and company have pulled off a remarkable achievement. But man, there's been so much Kleenex shed over First Class this week that I guess all those masturbatory reviews really had me hoping for that little bit more.



First Class begins in exactly the same fashion as Bryan Singer’s opening installment did, with a young Erik Lensherr discovering his powers of magnetism in the horrific confines of a Nazi concentration camp. After witnessing the brutal murder of his mother at the hands of Klaus Schmidt, a.k.a. Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), the adult Erik (Michael Fassbender) devotes his life to avenging her death. This brings him into contact with Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), a telepathic mutant working with C.I.A. agent Moira MacTaggart to prevent Shaw from conspiring to start a nuclear war between the United States and Russia. The pair soon spark up a friendship as they work together to create a team capable of combating the energy-absorbing Shaw and his villainous crew of super-powered mutants, only for their conflicting ideologies to ultimately put them at odds with one another.



The main problem for me with X-Men: First Class is that, much like Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand, the filmmakers have tried to cram as much as possible into the script and not only does this cause the film to skip from one place to the next for much of its running time, but it also leaves quite a few of the characters sorely underdeveloped. Apart from Professor X, Magneto, Shaw, Emma Frost (January Jones) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), the remaining mutants don’t get too much of a look in. While it’s Magneto’s story that drives the film (with Fassbender delivering a fine performance), it is a shame that we didn’t get to see more of the eponymous ‘first class’, especially with characters such as Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) having so much potential to explore.



As I said earlier, X-Men: First Class is infinitely better than Gavin Hood’s previous effort and a worthy installment in the X-Men franchise, but it’s not as good as X2: X-Men United (or Kick-Ass, for that matter) and I can’t say I enjoyed it any more than I did Thor. Matthew Vaughn has been peddling the ‘Batman Begins’ line as to his inspiration for the film, and he’s probably right in that the sequel could be so much better. I’ll certainly be back for it, although next time I won’t bother reading any of the early reviews.

Gary Collinson



Movie Review Archive

Sky viewers vote Helena Bonham Carter as Hollywood's top actress

Despite losing out to The Fighter's Melissa Leo in the race for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar at the Academy Awards, BAFTA-winner Helena Bonham Carter has been named as the most powerful actress in Hollywood in a poll conducted by Sky Movies HD as part of their 'Women in Film' season.

Collecting 10.8% of the public vote, The King's Speech actress takes pole position ahead of Natalie Portman (8.3%) and Helen Mirren (8.1%), with Hollywood A-listers and Oscar-winners Angelina Jolie (6.4%) and Julia Roberts (5.8%) rounding out the top five. Other names to make the list include rom-com favourite Jennifer Aniston, two-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep and Oscar host Anne Hathaway, who presumably finds herself included due to her recent casting in The Dark Knight Rises.

Take a look at the full list of results...

1. Helena Bonham Carter (10.8%)
2. Natalie Portman (8.3%)
3. Helen Mirren (8.1%)
4. Angelina Jolie (6.4%)
5. Julia Roberts (5.8%)
6. Jennifer Aniston (4.8%)
7. Meryl Streep (4.5%)
8. Cameron Diaz (4.3%)
9. Drew Barrymore (3.9%)
10. Anne Hathaway (3.5%)

Others (39.6%)

Running until 13th March, Sky Movies Showcase HD’s Women In Film Season is celebrating films by some of the movie industry’s best female directors and leading ladies, including Thelma & Louise, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, It's Complicated, Erin Brockovich and Cleopatra amongst many others.

BAFTA to pay tribute to acclaimed James Bond production designer Ken Adam

On Monday 4th April the British Academy of Film and Television Arts will pay tribute to BAFTA and Academy Award-winning production designer Sir Ken Adam with a belated 90th birthday celebration at a ceremony at London's Royal Institute of British Architects. In a career spanning over five decades, Sir Ken has received five Oscar and nine BAFTA nominations and was responsible for defining the look of the early James Bond films (including Dr. No, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds are Forever, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker), while he also created one of cinema's most iconic images, designing the War Room from Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.

In celebration of his career - which also includes credits on the likes of Barry Lyndon, The Ipcress Files, The Madness of King George and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - BAFTA will explore Sir Ken's extraordinary body of work, with tributes from colleagues such as Steven Berkoff, Nicholas Meyer, Roger Moore, Lewis Gilbert, Anouk Aimee and Guy Hendrix Dyas.

BAFTA’s immediate past Chairman, David Parfitt, said: “I am delighted that BAFTA is paying Tribute to Ken who is a great artist and one of cinema’s truly brilliant creative minds. I had the great privilege of working with Ken on The Madness of King George for which he won his second Oscar. His sketches of sets are regarded as works of art in their own right and I’m very proud that a couple of them (copies I’m afraid!) hang on my walls at home. Ken has inspired generations of other artists and his influence goes well beyond the reach of most production design for the big screen.”

Supported by The Albert R. Broccoli and Dana Broccoli Foundation, the event marks BAFTA's annual film tribute, which honours individuals who have made a truly outstanding contribution to the industry, with past recipients including Ray Harryhausen, Douglas Slocombe and Nicolas Roeg. The evening begins at 6.30pm in the Jarvis Hall at the Royal Institute of British Architects (London W1B), with public tickets now available through BAFTA's official website priced at £13.

Keeley Hazell comedy Venus and the Sun set for premiere

If you cast your mind back to November you may recall we posted a news piece about an upcoming British short entitled Venus and the Sun, a comic retelling of the Venus and Adonis myth described as "a mix of live-action and animation that celebrates the power of stories and explores themes of vanity, identity and societies obsession with image".

Directed by Adam Randall (Hooded, Easier Ways to Make a Living) and produced by Andy Brunskill (Tamara Drewe, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Men Who Stare at Goats), Venus and the Sun marks the first foray into acting for page 3 beauty Keeley Hazell, who stars alongside comedian Will Smith (The Thick of It) and Ukweli Roach (StreetDance 3D).

Now completed, Venus and the Sun is gearing up for its premiere on Thursday night (10th March) at the Rich Mix cinema in Shoreditch and will also be available via download and DVD from the official site, and the short is also set to be released as the first ever film iPhone app, which you can download from iTunes.

You can watch a clip from Venus and the Sun here.

DVD Review - Damned by Dawn (2009)

Damned by Dawn, 2009.



Directed by Brett Anstey.

Starring Renee Willner, Bridget Neval, Dawn Klinberg, Taryn Eva, Danny Alder, Mark Taylor and Peter Stratford.





SYNOPSIS:



In a remote country farmhouse a family interrupt the grieving rituals of a banshee, who then summons an army of the undead to unleash her fury.





Australian horror has enjoyed a resurgence of sorts over the past decade, with highlights such as zombie comedy Undead (2003) and the international box office hit Wolf Creek (2005) paving the way for a slew of genre efforts including the likes of Black Water (2007), Rogue (2007), Storm Warning (2007) and Daybreakers (2009). Of course, in such circumstances it’s inevitable that quality will soon begin to diminish, and that’s probably never been as evident as it is with writer-director Brett Anstey’s debut feature Damned by Dawn, a low-budget tale about an aggrieved banshee out for the blood of a family in a secluded country home.



After receiving a mysterious package from her dying grandmother, Claire (Renne Willner) and her boyfriend Paul (Danny Alder) travel into the misty (and I mean misty) depths of the Australian countryside to her family’s farmhouse. Here we meet Claire’s father Bill (Peter Stratford) and sister Jen (Taryn Eva), who have been caring for the terminally ill Nana (Dawn Klinberg), an elderly Irish woman so close to death’s door that she could pass for the older sister of Zelda from Terrorhawks.



Nana tells of a spirit – the “lady of sorrows” – who is set to lead her on her journey into the afterlife, a process that must not be interrupted at any costs. Sure enough the family are awoken during the night by the shrieks of the crying banshee and despite Nana’s warnings Claire intervenes, which I suppose is fair enough considering a crazy-looking lady dressed in white with bleeding eye sockets has turned up to take her poor old Nan away. However, the banshee doesn’t see it that way and in her fury she cries out to the spirits of the forest – a handful of poorly-realised floating CGI skeletons – who soon set about to punish the family for Claire’s transgression by damning them all before dawn.



The main problem I have with Damned by Dawn is the way that the film has been marketed. “Sick of waiting for Evil Dead 4?” it states, “Check out Damned by Dawn.” That’s a bit like saying “Sick of waiting for The Hobbit? Check out The Last Airbender”. Sure, they may skirt around a similar genre and Anstey is obviously influenced by Sam Raimi’s visual style, but that’s really where the comparisons end, especially in terms of quality. For a start, Damned by Dawn has very few (intentional) moments of comedy, while the film lacks any sort of protagonist worth caring about, never mind one as cool as Ash. Anstey’s debut pales in comparison to Raimi’s The Evil Dead in every possible department, and advertising it in such a way is only going to leave viewers sorely disappointed.



Perhaps I’m being a little harsh condemning the film based upon its marketing blurb, but there really isn’t all that much to recommend. If you look at Damned by Dawn for what it is – a low-budget b-movie throwback – then it delivers pretty much what you’d expect. The script and plot are second-rate, the acting ropey (of the entire cast only Eva, Stratford and Bridget Neval as the banshee are particularly convincing) and the CGI amateurish, but horror fans may still find the odd piece of enjoyment from a handful of suspenseful moments, a couple of gory death sequences and some decent make-up work. It’s below average, but fans will have no doubt sat through worse.

Damned by Dawn is released today on DVD.



Gary Collinson



Movie Review Archive

Rango takes the UK box office crown ahead of The Adjustment Bureau and Unknown

UK box office top ten and analysis for the weekend of Friday 4th - Sunday 6th March 2011.



Three newcomers occupy the top positions in the UK chart this week, although none can really be said to have set the box office alight with their debuts. Leading the way is Gore Verbinski's CG-animated Western Rango, which of course features the voice talents of Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp. Rango banks £1.6m to take the crown, with Matt Damon narrowly fending off competition from Liam Neeson as Philip K. Dick adaptation The Adjustment Bureau takes second place ahead of Unknown.



Turning to the familiar faces, Simon Pegg / Nick Frost comedy Paul slips two places to fourth but adds another £1.1m to its haul, while Tom Hooper's Academy Award-winner The King's Speech climbs one place to fifth of the back of its Oscar success, a feat also matched by True Grit and West is West in eighth and ninth respectively. The King's Speech is yet to fall below seven figures during its nine week run although that streak looks to be in jeopardy next time out.



Less fortunate is the sci-fi actioner I Am Number Four, which falls four places to seventh, while last week's top film Gnomeo and Juliet manages to go one better as it slips five spots to finish sixth in its fourth weekend. However, the steepest decline is reserved for Yogi Bear, with the live-action/CG hybrid plummeting six places to prop up the chart in tenth.



Number one this time last year: Alice in Wonderland

Pos.	Film	Weekend Gross	Week
1	Rango	£1,638,613	1
2	The Adjustment Bureau	£1,395,715	1
3	Unknown	£1,356,345	1
4	Paul	£1,109,766	3
5	The King's Speech	£1,076,381	9
6	Gnomeo and Juliet	£842,278	4
7	I Am Number Four	£498,822	2
8	True Grit	£463,320	4
9	West is West	£452,076	2
10	Yogi Bear	£435,564	4

Incoming...



Turning to the new releases this coming Friday, sci-fi and action fans need look no further than Battle: Los Angeles (cert. 12A), which sees a platoon of Marines fighting alien invaders in downtown L.A. If it's laughs you're after then the Farrelly brothers' new comedy Hall Pass (cert. 15) could be worth a shot, while Hammer Films' new thriller The Resident (cert. 15) will look to send chills down the spine. Meanwhile on the drama front there's a choice between The Company Men (cert. TBC) starring Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper and Tommy Lee Jones, and Fair Game (cert. 12A), which is headlined by Sean Penn and Naomi Watts.

U.K. Box Office Archive

DVD Giveaway - The Arbor - NOW CLOSED

British artist and filmmaker Clio Barnard's acclaimed documentary The Arbor is released on DVD and Blu-ray this coming Monday, 14th March, and to celebrate the lovely people at Verve Pictures have kindly supplied three copies of the DVD to give away to our readers.



The Arbor, which tells the powerful true story of Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar (The Arbor, Rita, Sue and Bob Too) and her daughter Lorraine, was been nominated for a host of awards this past year including the BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer (Clio Barnard and producer Tracy O'Riordan), while Barnard was the recipient of the Douglas Hickox Award at the British Independent Film Awards.



Take a look at the synopsis and trailer...

Andrea Dunbar died tragically at the age of 29 in 1990, leaving ten year old Lorraine with bitter childhood memories. The Arbor catches up with Lorraine in the present day, also aged 29, ostracised from her mother’s family and in prison undergoing rehab. Re-introduced to her mother’s plays and letters, the film follows Lorraine’s personal journey as she reflects on her own life and begins to understand the struggles her mother faced. Through interviews with other members of the Dunbar family, we see a contrasting view of Andrea, in particular from Lorraine’s younger sister Lisa, who idolises Andrea to this day.



Barnard, who was the deserved winner of The Best New Documentary Film Maker at the Tribecca Film Festival earlier this year, recorded audio interviews with Lorraine Dunbar, other members of the Dunbar family and residents from the Buttershaw Estate over a period of two years. These interviews were edited to form an audio ‘screenplay,’ which forms the basis of the film as actors lip-synch to the voices of the interviewees. This footage was intercut with extensive archive clips as well as extracts from Andrea’s first stage play, The Arbor, filmed as a live outdoor performance on the Buttershaw Estate, to an audience of its residents. The excellent cast includes Manjinder Virk, Neil Dudgeon, Monica Dolan, Danny Webb, Christine Bottomley, Kathryn Pogson, Natalie Gavin, Jonathan Jaynes and Jimi Mistry.

Sorry, this giveaway has now ended.



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You can pre-order The Arbor at VivaVerve.com.

Innocent puts out the call to budding filmmakers for their Mini Movies Competition

Fancy yourself as the next Christopher Nolan, Zack Snyder or Joss Whedon? Think you have what it takes to tackle the superhero genre? Well, you mightn't get your hands on the Batman franchise just yet but everyone has to start somewhere, so why not check out the latest competition from innocent drinks, who have been running a new marketing campaign here in the UK featuring a superhero smoothie who 'saves the peckish', and now they want you to helm the sequel!

If you're a budding filmmaker and want to be in with a chance of bagging a rather fantastic prize of £5000 cash, two tickets to the London Film Festival and your own film broadcast on prime-time television, the Innocent Mini Movies Competition could be your ticket to success. Check out the details...

Shoot a 30 second mini movie where our innocent caped superhero saves the day. It could be anything from rescuing someone from a boring meeting to saving a kitten from a burning tree - the more imaginative the better. To help you on your way to a mini masterpiece, we’ve created some downloadable film kits and ‘how to’ guides, which are available on the website.

Upload your mini superhero sequel to Youtube by 17th April. Our panel of expert judges - including Ben Wheatley (our ad director), Dan Germain (creative director at innocent) and Uri Fruchtman (owner and executive producer of Ealing Studios) and Tim O'Kennedy (Chief Exec of the D&AD)– will then narrow down all the videos to the top 5. The good 'ol public will then vote for their winner, who will get their film screened on prime-time TV, £5000 in cash and 2 tickets to the London Film Festival.

To help you get on your way, innocent have kindly supplied us with ten 'mini film kits', which include a smoothie bottle, superhero cape and random selection of props to get you on your way. If you'd like to grab one of the kits, well you're too late I'm afraid as the giveaway closed on Monday 14th March ay 6pm.


Visit the innocent Youtube channel for more information and guidelines for your mini masterpiece.


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DVD Giveaway - Arrivederci Millwall and The Football Factory - NOW CLOSED

March 21st sees the long-overdue DVD release of 1992's hard-hitting football hooligan flick Arrivederci Millwall, which is arriving in stores as part of a double-pack alongside a film it went on to inspire, The football Factory. To celebrate, we've got our hands on three copies of the set to give away to our readers courtesy of the fine folk at Vertigo Films.

Adapted by Nick Perry from his award-winning play of the same name, Arrivederci Millwall follows the exploits of an unofficial Task Force of English football hooligans as they prepare to invade Spain for the 1982 World Cup. Check out the trailer here.

Meanwhile Nick Love's The football Factory is a study of middle England, football violence and male culture. Based on John King's cult novel, the film stars Danny Dyer as a young hooligan who finds himself on the wrong side of the head of a rival firm.

To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is drop us an email with your contact details and the subject heading "ARRIVEDERCI MILLWALL" before 6pm on Sunday, March 20th (UK entrants only, please).

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You can pre-order the Arrivederci Millwall / The football Factory DVD here.

The Week in Spandex - Kal-El gets his Ma as The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers' plots are revealed?

Presenting our weekly round-up of the biggest news stories from the world of movie superheroes…

We’ve quite a bit of catching up to do after skipping our round-up last week to present our 3rd annual Superhero Showdown; the past fortnight has seen plenty of gossip and developments, including movement on the supporting cast for Superman: Man of Steel, possible plotlines for both The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers, some new X-Men: First Class posters, a great shot of the Red Skull from Captain America: The First Avenger and bits and pieces on everything from Thor to Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. So, without further ado (well, maybe just a brief spoiler warning), let’s get the catch-up underway…

Casting rumours have been heating up on Zack Snyder’s Superman: Man of Steel since it was first revealed that British actor Henry Cavill would be donning the red cape for the Christopher Nolan-produced reboot. Midweek brought the first official announcement since Cavill’s casting with the news that Academy Award-nominee Diane Lane (Unfaithful) has secured the role of Kal-El’s ‘Ma’, Martha Kent. This had been preceded by rumours that Kevin Costner was a “person of interest” for Jonathan Kent, and while there’s yet to be confirmation, it looks as if the Kent family will be complete before too long.

Martha Kent is presumably one of the three female roles that were mentioned a few weeks back, with another said to be Ursa, the villainous right-hand-woman of fan favourite General Zod. According to Variety competition for the part has been whittled down to either Alice Eve (She’s Out of My League) or Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds) now that Rosamund Pike (Barney’s Version) has signed up for sword and sandals remake Wrath of the Titans. Other names banded about - presumably for Lois Lane, unless Snyder goes all Smallville with his origin story - include Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes), Malin Akerman (Watchmen), Jessica Biel (The A-Team) and Olivia Wilde (Tron: Legacy).

Although Snyder had previously denied that General Zod would appear as the villain, THR also reported last weekend that Viggo Mortensen is currently first choice to step into the role made famous by Terrence Stamp in Superman II. Mortensen’s involvement is far from confirmed however, particularly as he’s in final negotiations to join Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron in Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman, and has also long been linked with a return to Middle-Earth to reprise his role as Aragorn for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. Elsewhere, there’s also been talk that Daniel Day-Lewis could be in contention for an as-yet-unspecified-but-no-doubt-evil role.

Turning now to Christopher Nolan’s other project and the director has confirmed to MTV what pretty much everyone suspected anyway… The Dark Knight Rises will be his last Batman movie: “We're very much excited about really finishing a trilogy and giving a conclusion to our story. And that's what we're doing.” So, there we have it from the horse’s mouth, although you could argue that finishing the trilogy is not the same as finishing up with the Batman universe, and I’m sure that Warner Bros. will do their utmost to tempt Nolan back if and when The Dark Knight Rises storms the box office next July. Will they succeed? I’d wager no.

Elsewhere in Gotham City, Anne Hathaway was talking to Oprah earlier in the week when she referred to her character in The Dark Knight Rises as ‘Catwoman’, rather than the official line of ‘Selina Kyle’. First cinematographer Wally Pfister, now the actress herself. I guess the secret’s out then and, if the recent ‘scoop’ from Badass Digest is to be believed, Catwoman will be an ally of Christian Bale’s Dark Knight who teams up to fight against Talia al Ghul’s League of Shadows and her enforcer love-interest Bane (Tom Hardy). Quite the mixed tag-team match-up but nothing new really as fan speculation has been going down these lines for quite some time and, with Marion Cotillard on board, Talia is certainly looking like a strong possibility. Finally, Batman on Film also received word on possible new toys for Bruce, including an "aerial Bat-Vehicle" of some kind.

With all this DC talk you’d be forgiven for thinking Warner Bros. has a monopoly on 2012 but Marvel Studios will of course fire back with their own superhero epic The Avengers from director Joss Whedon. Although the film isn’t due to start shooting until April, word came this past week that a teaser trailer has already been shot and could debut alongside this year’s Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, while LatinoReview dropped some possible info on the villains. Specifically, that the main bad guy will be Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who uses the cosmic cube from The First Avenger to summon the Skrulls to invade earth and square off against the likes of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner).

While we're on the subject of The Avengers, Captain America director Joe Johnston gave an interesting interview to InsideMovies earlier in the week, which also included an exclusive first look at Hugo Weaving's Johann Schmidt in all his Red Skull glory. Everything about The First Avenger is looking pretty great at the moment and I'm expecting good things from the first trailer, which is said to be arriving any day now.

Meanwhile two new posters have debuted for Thor over at IGN, one of which is a character banner featuring Thor, Odin (Anthony Hopkins), Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and Heimdall (Idris Elba), and the other, well it's an overly red one-sheet featuring the Mighty one himself.

Other recent bits and bobs that caught the eye…

…Nicolas Cage spoke to FEARnet about Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, revealing that the upcoming superhero sequel will see him portraying Johnny Blaze and Ghost Rider as separate entities after the stunt daredevil undergoes an exorcism…

…An unsubstantiated Wikipedia edit suggested Marvel had regained the rights to Daredevil after Fox cooled interest in their recently announced reboot. Given the lack of fanfare around such a major reacquisition you should probably flag this one for deletion…

...Matthew Vaughn’s upcoming 60s-set prequel X-Men: First Class received a couple of new character posters featuring Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender), while Empire debuted a new image featuring Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) and Emma Frost (January Jones) of the Hellfire Club in their swinging secret lair…

...In an interview with Empire, Ryan Reynolds discussed his costume for the upcoming superhero flick Green Lantern, while ComicBookMovie posted a couple of new images taken from Empire’s feature (they aren’t that exciting, believe me)...

...Staying with Reynolds, he also had a few words about the proposed Deadpool movie stating that the X-Men Origins: Wolverine spin-off / reboot is “still in the works”. Robert Rodriguez is said to be attached to direct from a script from Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Zombieland), although scheduling could prove tricky with Reynolds also contracted to Green Lantern 2...

...Elizabeth Hurley and Cary Elwes have signed up for David E. Kelley's Wonder Woman pilot starring Friday Night Lights' Adrianne Palicki as the Amazon Princess, and will be joined in the cast by Tracie Thoms (Death Proof) and Pedro Pascal (The Adjustment Bureau)...

...Details were revealed on the forthcoming arena spectacular Batman Live, which kicks off its world tour here in the UK in July and will tell the story of Dick Grayson's origins as The Boy Wonder...

…And finally we got our first look at Marvel Entertainment’s new X-Men anime via a brief Japanese teaser trailer (which does look rather ‘anime-y’, doesn’t it?). The upcoming half-hour series set to be joined by Blade, Iron Man and Wolverine later this year. Check it out...


Gary Collinson

Short Film Showcase - The Big Shave (1967)

The Big Shave a.k.a. Viet '67, 1967.

Written, Directed, Produced & Edited by Martin Scorsese.
Starring Peter Bernuth.

For his final project as a student of New York University's film school, Martin Scorsese produced the six-minute short The Big Shave as an anti-Vietnam piece for an "Angry Arts Against The War" demonstration. Dialogue-free and employing only a single location and character, Scorsese took a simple premise and crafted an accomplished and unsettling piece that is said to be a comment on the self-destructive nature of U.S. intervention in Vietnam.

Set to the musical styling of Bunny Berigan and his jazz classic I Can't Get Started, The Big Shave sees a young man (Peter Bernauth) enter a bathroom and begin shaving, only to repeat the action over, mutilating his face into a bloody mess. Scorsese makes great use of the stark contrast in colour between the deep red blood and the pristine whiteness of the bathroom, and utilises inventive editing techniques such as repeat cuts to enhance the graphic imagery.

The success of The Big Shave paved the way for Scorsese to move into feature filmmaking by completing a project that had began in 1965 as a student film entitled Bring on the Dancing Girls, which went through a number of changes before being issued in 1968 under the title Who's That Knocking at My Door.


For more on Martin Scorsese check out our latest filmmaker profile Understanding Scorsese.

Click here to view more short films and public domain features.