Seriously funny comedy movies aren’t exactly two a penny, so when one arrives it’s to be welcomed with open arms. 21 Jump Street, out on March 16th, is a seriously funny film and deserves to be ranked alongside Superbad as one of the best high school comedies of recent years. Directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller have made a riotous comedy that although scattershot in its approach hits the bullseye far more than it misses and delivers a handful of hilarious set pieces.
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum play the newly graduated cops who due to their youthful appearance, are sent undercover at a high school to prevent the spread of new synthetic drug HFS (try to work out what it stands for, tip – first word is ‘holy’). Much hilarity inevitably ensues but unlike other recent 80s comedy remakes such as The Dukes of Hazzard, this feels remarkably fresh and exciting. Read more
Emulating the performance of War Horse in January, The Woman In Black managed to top the weekend’s box office for the third successive weekend. The period chiller grossed a further £2.4m taking its cume to £14.6m, which far outstrips the total gross of recent hit films involving the supernatural including all Paranormal Activity films (Paranormal Activity 2 being the most successful with £11m) and Insidious (£7.1m). It now lies second behind The King’s Speech (£45.7m) in the list of distributor Momentum’s most successful releases.
The weekend’s highest new entry was The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, in second place with £2.2m. Very much aimed at the more mature audience this opening comfortably beat the similarly aimed Ladies In Lavender (£423k), Mrs Henderson Presents (£752k) and Last Orders (£101k). It will have to perform spectacularly though to beat Calendar Girls’ total gross of £20.4m. Read more
A black and white French silent film with no big name stars that had somehow become known as the ‘safe’ choice won five awards at the 84th Academy Awards last night. The Artist won the award for best picture, Michel Hazanavicius picked up the best director prize, while Jean Dujardin won the best actor award. It also won for Ludovic Bource’s score and best costume design. The film tied for most awards with another film in thrall to the silent era of film-making, Martin Scorsese’s Hugo 3D. Predominantly filmed here in the UK at Shepperton Studios, Hugo collected five major technical awards including best cinematography (Robert Richardson).
Although George Clooney missed out on the best actor statuette to Jean Dujardin, The Descendants won the award for best adapted screenplay and Woody Allen won his fourth Oscar for best original screenplay for Midnight In Paris. As is his usual stance he was not in person to collect it. Read more
This weeks film schedule updates:
Fun Size now opens 31 October 2012 Read more
Hunger Games fans have been treated this week with the release of three new motion posters. In an interesting marketing move, the posters show off products that you can buy in the imaginary future-world of Panem (or at least the affluent Capitol). Hmm we are not too sure that skyliner will take off, are you?
Featuring on the posters are Lenny Kravitz’ (Cinna) Katniss's stylist in The Hunger Games, Stanley Tucci (Caesar Flickerman) the Captiol's favourite television host, and Wes Bentley (Seneca Crane) the Head Game maker. Read more
Cinema sales house DCM has bolstered its sales and marketing team with the appointment of Joe Evea to the newly created role of business development director.
Evea is currently head of creative and business development at Bauer Media, where he has worked for eight years. Read more
On a strong weekend, the top two from last weekend managed to hold on to the top two spots and both managed to improve on last weekend’s performance. The last time this happened was January 2010 with Avatar and Sherlock Holmes at one and two and this time it’s The Woman In Black and The Muppets. There was very little to separate them but a further £3.5m for The Woman In Black, an 11% increase from last weekend, saw it come out on top and it now has ten day gross of £10.5m. The Muppets had to be content with £3.4m, a 29% improvement on last weekend, and a ten day gross of £10.7m.
The highest new entry was comic-book sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance in third place with £1.3m. Despite being lower than the original Ghost Rider’s opening weekend (£1.9m), it’s the highest opening weekend for a Nicolas Cage starring film since Kick-Ass (£3.9m). In fourth place was Star Wars: Episode 1 3D with £1.1m to take its cume total to £4.1m. For the second weekend in a row, the top 5 all grossed over £1m with Journey 2: The Mysterious Island rounding out the top 5 with £1.1m. Read more
This weeks film schedule updates:
The Devil Inside now opens 16 March 2012 Read more
As we walk up the red carpet the screams get louder and louder; unfortunately we realise early on this isn’t for us but for a certain George Clooney who is working his fans into a high pitched frenzy. The celeb spotting doesn't stop there, this years 65th British Academy Film Awards was one big celeb-fest.
From Brad Pitt to Meryl Streep and everything in-between this was one of the most impressive BAFTA’s to date. Despite the freezing conditions, the women paraded in their finery (with some carrying it off better than others) while the men looked as dashing as ever (take a bow Mr Fassbender!). Read more
It’s Super Bowl season again and 2012’s ad break extravaganza was far from disappointing. A handful of new trailers for some of 2012's most anticipated films were featured during the Patriots Vs Giants championship game, providing the Hollywood studios with the perfect opportunity to show off their big cinematic offerings for the year ahead.
Below we've compiled a list of the featured trailers for your viewing pleasure! Read more
In selected cinemas this Friday is Don’t Think, a new film documenting The Chemical Brothers’ famously hypnotic live show. Shot during one continuous live performance at Fuji Rock festival in Japan, Don’t Think is one of the few films to successfully capture the dance music concert experience. Featuring the psychedelic visuals that are an integral part of their live shows, intercut with shots of the duo twiddling knobs and triggering samples and fantastically honest close-ups of members of the crowd, the film does a terrific job of giving the viewer an experience akin to being at one of their shows. Key to the sensory bombardment that the film provides is the razor-sharp editing.
With hundreds of almost imperceptible edits in a single song, Editor, Mark Whelan gave some background to our film specialist, Tom Linay, into what it’s been like living and breathing Don’t Think for the past six months. Read more
This weeks film schedule updates:
This Means War now opens 02 March 2012 Read more
