As one might have imagined, Men in Black 3 stormed to the top of the UK Box Office last week, knocking The Dictator down into second and pushing The Avengers into third. Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom came in a very credible seventh and perhaps most impressively, Iron Sky, despite only its very limited release, made it in at number ten!

This week though there’s one new release which towers above all others. After weeks, nay months of anticipation, the big day is finally here. Miley Cyrus’s LOL comes to a theater near you…….ROFL (as the kids would say).  Other than that, there’s just the small matter of  Sir Ridley Scott’s return to the land of Sci-Fi with Prometheus, which I believe has the odd trailer available online if you search hard enough, and Rupert Sanders’ Snow White and the Huntsman.

Both of these movies will be doing a fair bit of business this weekend and Prometheus especially will be attracting a major share of the box office. The hype machine surrounding the movie has been steadily ramping up as the release day beckons and I’m sure there’s plenty of us who couldn’t resist going to see it on opening day.

Also out this week is Ken Loach’s new comedy  The Angel’s Share, the aforementioned Miley Cyrus vehicle LOL and the one we’ve all been waiting for, Top Cat- The Movie.

If you want to check to see if any of these films are playing near you, you can visit Find Any Film and they’ll be able to help.

 

Prometheus *Pick of the Week*

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Finally, after months of trailers, trailers and somehow even more trailers, the Sci-Fi event of the year is finally upon us.  Ridley Scott’s return to the Alien universe, though it’s not technically a direct prequel, but at the same time…sort of is, has had many of us gripped from the first brilliantly put together teaser which just oozed foreboding tension. The general plot is thus, a group of scientists discover strange star map and deduce that life on Earth was actually created by a superior alien race. They thus head out into space funded by the Weyland corporation to find these forerunners to humanity. Naturally, it doesn’t all go according to plan.

Truth be told, early reviews haven’t been as impressive as perhaps many of us thought. There has been a spattering of 4 stars, but the vast majority are 3 at highest. Maybe it’s suffered somewhat from the weight of expectation, but I’m sure many of use will be flocking to the cinemas this weekend to decide for ourselves.

Tracey Ladd says:

Prometheus is my most anticipated film of the year but unfortunately we here in the States don’t get it until June 8th.  Regardless I’ll be there with bells on to welcome Ridley Scott back to the sci-fi genre.

Jon Lyus adds:

You’ll find a lot of people being harsh on Prometheus, I know that I was in my review, however there is a lot to enjoy in the film. Alien fans will love it, those expecting something more than a sci-fi monster movie will be sorely disappointed though. Fassbender is a lot of fun, perhaps the best thing in the whole film. My advice is, as usual, if you’re interested go and see it, just don’t expect it to blow you away.

You can read Jon Lyus’ review here and our extensive coverage here, including all the interviews from last night’s premiere here.

Snow White and the Huntsman

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The week’s other major release sees Hollywood visit one of the Brothers Grimm’s famous fairy tales for the second time this year. After the light-hearted tomfoolery of Mirror, Mirror, this is very much a far darker spin on the story.  Kristen Stewart stars as Snow White, re-imagined here as a sword-swinging revolutionary, who spearheads a revolt against the tyrannical rule of Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) alongside her childhood love, a rugged huntsman (he of titular fame) and several dwarves played by an array of brilliant British actors including Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins, Toby Jones, Eddie Marsan, Ray Winstone and Nick Frost. Reviews have all been fairly average thus far, but very few have criticized it strongly. It would appear to be a fairly unanimous 3/5 type of movie.

Tracey Ladd says:

As little as I care for Kristen Stewart, I’m actually really looking forward to Snow White and the Huntsman.  When I saw the first trailer for it, I’ll admit I was expecting something ridiculous, but instead was a bit surprised at what I saw.  It looks dark and gritty, which is right up my alley.

Adam Lowes says:

Snow White and the Huntsman is quite appealing, owing largely to the fantastic bunch of character actors the makers have cast in the dwarf roles.

You can read Ben Mortimer’s review here.

LOL

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Miley Cyrus plays Lola (her nickname is Lol…that’s right folks, this bad boy has many layers) a teenage girl dealing with the pressures of young love and the annoyance of overbearing parents. Let’s be honest, it sounds just awful. Even by the standards of American teenage comedy-dramas, this one looks pretty bad.  Let me just give you the official synopsis.

In a world connected by YouTube, iTunes and Facebook, Lola (Cyrus) and her friends navigate the peer pressures of high school romance and friendship while dodging their sometimes overbearing and confused parents. When Lola’s mom, Anne (Moore), “accidentally” reads her teenage daughter’s racy journal, she realizes just how wide their communication gap has grown. Through hilarious and heartfelt moments between mother and daughter, LOL is a fresh coming-of-age story for modern times.

If that sounds like your kind of thing, then you’re no doubt in for a treat. However I have a funny feeling the words hilarious and heartfelt in the final few sentences may be ever so slightly wide of the mark.

Top Cat the Movie

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This new Top Cat movie is actually a Mexican production which has fared pretty darn well in its native land and across Latin America. Maybe something is lost in the translation but the English dubbed version which has hit US and UK theaters has been universally panned. The plot sees TC and his gang of criminal cats (let’s not beat around the bush they are an organised gang of vagabond thieves) face a new police chief called Strickland who proves far more of a match for TC’s  schemes than poor old Officer Dibble. Queue much capering and hilarity. Young kids may enjoy it but judging by the savage reviews, I don’t see it setting the cinematic world alight.

You can read Lisa Giles-Keddie’s review here.

The Angels’ Share

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The Angels’ Share is the latest movie from the legendary Ken Loach. The staunchly socialist director has had a run of quality movies out in recent years, in particular 2006’s The Wind That Shakes the Barley and 2009’s Looking for Eric. Here he brings us a bittersweet comedy about a young troublemaker called Robbie who, upon the birth of his baby boy and after narrowly avoiding a prison sentence, vows to turn over a new leaf and go straight. After being introduced to the world of whiskey distilling, he and some like-minded souls who are also struggling to find work because of their criminal records, see the world of whiskey distilling as an unexpected route to a brighter future.

This looks like an enjoyable uplifting British comedy and one well worth seeking out.

You can read Stefan Pape’s review here and our interviews with the director, screenwriter and actors here.

The Turin Horse

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Not one for the masses this one, but an interesting curio nonetheless. It’s probably best I leave the description to the official site’s blurb:

InTurin, on the third of January in 1889, Friedrich Nietzsche steps out of the door of Number Six Via Carlo Alberto – perhaps to take a stroll, perhaps to go by the post office to collect his mail.
Not far from him, or indeed very removed from him, a cabman is having trouble with his stubborn horse. Despite all his urging, the horse refuses to move, whereupon the cabman – Giuseppe? Carlo? Ettore? – loses his patience and takes his whip to it.
Nietzsche comes up to the throng and puts an end to the brutal scene of the cabman, who by then is foaming with rage. The solidly built and full-moustached Nietzsche suddenly jumps up to the cab and throws his arms around the horse’s neck, sobbing. His neighbour takes him home, where he lies still and silent for two days on a divan until he mutters the obligatory last words: Mutter, ich bin dumm, and lives for another ten years, gentle and demented, in the care of his mother and sisters. Of the horse, we know nothing.

As his self-declared last film, renowned Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr (Satantango, Werckmeister Harmonies has collaborated again with his co-author, writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai on the screenplay of THE TURIN HORSE. This work is also committed to Tarr’s ‘re-modernist cinema’ that seeks to capture the rhythm of life in real time and to raise a sharp awareness of the moment.

You can read Steven Neish’s review here.

Death Watch

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French director Bertrand Tavernier’s 1980 English language  Sci-Fi movie gets a cinematic re-released this week and much like The Turin Horse, it’s an interesting piece of work that cinephiles may well want to track down. The story is set in a world where disease has been all but banished. A chap called Roddy (Harvey Keitel) who has a camera implanted in his brain is  hired by a TV producer to film a documentary revolving around a terminally ill woman. The footage is shot without her knowledge and then is run on hit TV show ‘Death Watch’. An obscure and forgotten gem which may be a bit of a treat for Sci-Fi fans.