Leicester Square was teeming with celebrities last night at the very impressive premiere of The Amazing Spider-Man 3D. I've never seen Leicester Square that busy before and it certainly was a sight to behold. A giant red spider, lots of webs and fearless free runners greeted us as we walked down the red carpet.
When a director is hired off the back of one movie (500 Days Of Summer) you begin to wonder if he can fill the very big shoes left for him by Sam Raimi. Will he follow the path set for him by the Drag Me To Hell and Evil Dead director or will he follow his own indie love story path? He did, in fact, neither of these. Clearly, Marc Webb wanted to emulate The Dark Knight's success by making Spidey slightly darker and grittier, and for me it worked perfectly. This is by no means Spiderman 4, it is definitely a reboot in the most basic sense. Taking Spidey back to high school and re-examining his roots, his powers and the reasoning behind his views on the world. The casting of Andrew Garfield and Emma stone was spot on as their chemistry shone through from the start, and who would of thought Rhys Ifans could play an evil lizard so convincingly?! Read more
Prometheus 3D has finally landed and on the day of its official worldwide release, Digital Cinema Media treated 75 media industry contacts to an exclusive screening of one of the most anticipated film of 2012.
The screening held at the Charlotte Street Hotel on 1 June saw attendees from Carat, Innocean, Mediacom, ISBA, News International and Tesco treated to drinks, nibbles and cinema treats before watching the film everyone has been has been waiting for, talking about and dying to see since Ridley Scott announced in July 2009 that he would be returning to the groundbreaking Alien film released in 1979 and that introduced moviegoers to hypersleep, Nostromo and face huggers. Read more
Set in the South two years before the Civil War, DJANGO UNCHAINED stars Academy Award®-winner Jamie Foxx as Django, a slave whose brutal history with his former owners lands him face-to-face with German-born bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Academy Award®-winner Christoph Waltz). Schultz is on the trail of the murderous Brittle brothers, and only Django can lead him to his bounty. The unorthodox Schultz acquires Django with a promise to free him upon the capture of the Brittles – dead or alive.
Success leads Schultz to free Django, though the two men choose not to go their separate ways. Instead, Schultz seeks out the South’s most wanted criminals with Django by his side. Honing vital hunting skills, Django remains focused on one goal: finding and rescuing Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), the wife he lost to the slave trade long ago. Read more
It is still hard to believe but Mamma Mia grossed over £68m at the box office in the UK alone, proving that stage musical adaptations can be BIG business. Since then a number of musicals have been released with varying success – Footloose and the star studded Nine were notable disappointments while Fame outperformed expectations.
This summer it’s the turn of perhaps the highest profile musical release since Mamma Mia – Rock Of Ages. Since the first performance in Los Angeles in 2006 the stage show has been a huge hit around the world and has been consistently pulling in the punters since its launch in London last summer. Setting itself up as the alternative to Euro 2012, the stars seem to be aligning for a strong run at the box office, as long as the film meets the lofty expectations of fans of the stage show. Read more
At DCM we love sharing the magic of cinema and on 15 May 2012 the second screening from DCM Tuesdays did just that.
DCM Tuesdays is a monthly free film club for selected figures from the media industry and on May 15th 95 media industry contacts were treated to a jaw busting, edge of your seat screening of the critically acclaimed The Raid! Read more
If I were awarding my own top prize for best film at Cannes 2012, it would go to Jacques Audiard’s Rust And Bone. A romance between a killer whale trainer and a bare knuckle boxer may not sound like a recipe for cinematic brilliance but I found Rust And Bone’s rough edges and raw emotion a good deal more affecting than clinical precision of the Palme d’Or winning Amour.
Marion Cotillard plays Stéphanie, a trainer of Orcas at Marineworld on the Cote d’Azur. After a tragic accident at work(which I won’t reveal here), Stéphanie strikes up a friendship with the brutish but charming boxer, Alain (Matthias Schoenaerts). His charismatic insouciance is a good fit for Stephanie’s predicament and as they spend more and more time together, their relationship develops into something more serious. Read more
On the final Sunday of the festival, Michael Haneke’s film was the winner of the coveted main prize – The Palme d’Or and it’s not difficult to see why it was the choice of the jury. It is also Haneke’s second golden palm in three years (after 2009’s The White Ribbon), a spectacular achievement for one of Europe’s most singular film-makers.
So what of the film itself? It’s predominantly a two hander between an elderly married couple, who have to confront the wife’s deteriorating health and facing her inevitable death. It’s no spoiler to say she dies, it’s made clear in the very opening scene. The next two hours detail how the situation affects them both in very different ways. Read more
Ben Wheatley’s Kill List was one of the most striking British films of 2011. A dark, lean hitman film which takes a wild turn two thirds of the way in, it deserved all the plaudits that came its way and heralded the arrival of a notable new talent in Wheatley. Less than a year after that film’s release the follow up is upon us and features a not dissimilar brand of pitch black comedy and violence. Although with leading comedy production house Big Talk behind this one, it’s no surprise that the comic elements are much stronger in Sightseers.
Alice Owen and Steve Oram play Tina and Chris, a relatively new couple, who decide to take their first holiday together. What starts out as a peaceful and promising sojourn around some of the delights of the UK countryside, including Keswick Pencil Museum and Ribblehead Viaduct, quickly turns into a violent killing spree as Chris’ homicidal tendencies are teased out by the behaviour of his fellow tourists. Read more
Of all the films on this list The Sapphires sticks out like a sore thumb. An unashamed and genuine crowd-pleaser, the film has already been picked up for UK distribution by Harvey Weinstein who has proclaimed it ‘this year’s The Artist’. Talk is that it’s planned for a January release, much like The Artist, and I wouldn’t bet against it making a similar splash at the box office.
The story is based on true events surrounding an aboriginal girl group who, facing prejudice in their home country, find themselves touring Vietnam during the war entertaining the American troops. The story may rely heavily on cliché but the performances are uniformly winning and the laughs come regularly. The main source of the humour is Irish comedian Chris O’Dowd, who puts in a sensational performance as the band’s put upon manager. Read more
In 1999, Danish director Thomas Vinterberg announced himself as a major talent with the devastating family drama Festen. Adhering to the strict code of Dogme 95, the film eschewed the use of such unnecessary tools as lighting and special effects in favour or story and raw, emotional storytelling. The film was a tour-de-force and many predicted a long and much vaunted career lay ahead for Vinterberg, much like his compatriot Lars Von Trier. It’s taken him thirteen years to produce a film of comparable quality but The Hunt is comfortably Vinterberg’s best film since Festen.
Mads Mikkelsen plays Lucas, a kind, good natured primary school teacher who is extremely popular amongst his students and contemporaries. This all changes when an accusation is made against by one of his young students. We, the audience, know the accusation to be false but it doesn’t take long before Mikkelsen’s life is slowly unravelling and he’s being assaulted in the local supermarket. Read more
It’s quite possible to argue that a person’s response to the film adaptation of On The Road will depend entirely on their reaction to the revered book upon which it’s based. Not being a fan of Kerouac’s autobiographical opus, the film had to do a lot to win me over and whilst it doesn’t eradicate many of the issues I had with the book, I was pleasantly surprised with much of the adaptation.
It helps that the casting is very strong, with Garrett Hedlund as Dean Moriarty replicating the highs of Friday Night Lights as opposed to the lows of Tron: Legacy. Sam Riley is perfectly fine as Sal Paradise and Kristen Stewart manages the right balance between naivety and vulnerability. The strong supporting cast is rounded out by Kirsten Dunst, Amy Adams and a scene-stealing Viggo Mortensen. Read more
Brad Pitt is becoming something of a Cannes veteran with Inglourious Basterds in competition in 2009 and The Tree Of Life picking up the Palme d’Or last year. He was back again this year, once again teaming up with Kiwi director Andrew Dominik (The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford). Killing Them Softly is a dark, gritty crime drama with a strong political undercurrent.
Pitt plays Jackie Cogan, a mob enforcer, who is called in when a poker game is held up and cleaned out by a couple of deadbeat criminals. Pitt’s job is to find the perpertrators and bring them to justice mob style. It’s brutal, violent and being very dialogue heavy, requires concentration from the viewer. As seemed to be often the case at this Cannes, the performances were first rate from the whole cast with Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn particular stand-outs as the weaselly robbers. Read more
