This sort of thing can rapidly turn into a vanity project, so I will have to watch my step a little. Laudable as it is to try to bring to people’s attention some splendid films which they may not have seen, it can swiftly deteriorate into, “oh gosh, you haven’t seen Cube: Zero, what kind of film fan do you call yourself?”.

So the criterion here is not obscurity, nor necessarily five-star classic status, rather this is an effort at a simple introduction to a handful of rarely seen and perhaps under-appreciated films that you might want to catch when and where you can. I’ve tried to mix up the genres a little and so hopefully everyone can find something they will like.

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1. A Better Tomorrow (1986) – Dir. John Woo

John Woo has been responsible for some of the most acclaimed and satisfying action films to ever see the light of day. Hard Boiled and Face/Off are very different propositions, but no less splendid for it. Before he made The Killer and long before he moved to Hollywood and all but lost his mojo, Woo gave the world Chow Yun Fat with a gun in each hand and A Better Tomorrow, arguably the best film on his CV, if not as balletic in its violence as Hard Boiled, or as sky-high in its conception as Face/Off. It’s certainly better than Hard Target and Mission: Impossible 2.

A Better Tomorrow finds Chow Yun Fat as a gangster, trying to mend his ways and reconnect with his policeman brother, though the path is a difficult one. It gives us the (now) trademark flourishes of a Woo set-piece, lots of guns, quite a lot of slow-motion, operatic themes, seemingly limitless ammunition and piles of dead bodies. As noted above, it is not as much of an adrenaline rush as some of Woo’s later output, but the characterisation is better, the performances more affecting and the denouement more satisfying. Catch it if you can.

2. Scarlet Street (1945) – Dir. Fritz Lang

This one really was a match made in heaven. A film noir, featuring a lead actor (Edward G. Robinson) who was tailor made for the genre (and has given us splendid iterations on both sides of the law in films like Key Largo, Little Caesar and Double Indemnity) and a director brilliant at exploring shadows, both photographically and thematically (The Big Heat, M, Metropolis). It must be admitted that this is a pretty obscure film, relatively unheralded in the oeuvre of Robinson or Lang, but it is no less worth tracking down for it. I caught it on the big screen during an extremely limited re-release back around the turn of the millennium and I am so very glad that I did.

The story sees Robinson as Christopher Cross (Chris-Cross?), a mild-mannered gentleman in the throes of a mid-life crisis who meets and befriends a young woman, whose fiance gets her to help try to con Cross out of a perceived fortune.

Unusually for Robinson, who tended to play characters with plenty of wit, nous and guile, he presents us here with a sad-sack of a man, downbeat, simple and gullible. He is easily duped, but wholly lacks the intellectual or emotional equipment to recover and we are left with a conclusion of devastating finality and bleakness. Fritz Lang is clearly entirely at home with the themes, character arcs and dour colour palate and perhaps the idea of a female character leading someone to their unwitting downfall resonated with him from one of the key elements of Metropolis.

The screenplay is by Dudley Nichols, who also gave us the scripts for Stagecoach, Bringing Up Baby and The Tin Star and is suitably economic and clinical, but in the end it is Robinson’s performance and his plight that most gets under the skin. Affecting and powerful. If you have the time, the whole film is embedded below:-

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The Coppola family and their relations are some of the most well-known people working in Hollywood. Francis Ford Coppola, five-time Academy Award winner, is of course well-known for bringing us The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. His daughter, Sofia Coppola, won an Oscar for her 2003 film, Lost In Translation. And recently his son, Roman Coppola, has returned to the director’s chair to bring us A Glimpse Inside The Mind Of Charles Swan III, which he’s scripted himself.

Charles Swan already has attached to the project Charlie Sheen in the leading role, with Jason Schwartzman (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World; and incidentally, he’s Sofia and Roman’s cousin), Aubrey Plaza (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World), and Kathryn Winnick (TV’s Bones) supporting.

Variety report that that supporting cast has got even better, with Bill Murray (Lost In Translation), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World), and Patricia Arquette (TV’s Medium) now coming on board too.

“Sheen stars as the title character, a successful graphic designer whose fame, money and charm have made him irresistible to women. When his girlfriend breaks up with him, his life swirls into a downward spiral of doubt, confusion and reflection. Through delirious fantasies involving his many failed romances, he begins the hard road of self-evaluation to come to terms with life without her.”

Essentially, this is going to be awesome. Murray already has a history with working with the Coppola family, earning himself an Oscar nomination for Roman’s sister’s Lost In Translation, and he’s worked with Roman  before, with Roman having written Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited and the upcoming Moonrise Kingdom. Not to mention Roman taking additional and second unit director credits on Lost In Translation, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, and The Darjeeling Limited.

Murray’s work on Anderson’s films means he’s also worked alongside Schwartzman on more than one occasion too, and Winstead’s work on Scott Pilgrim vs. The World means she’ll now be joining her Scott Pilgrim co-stars, Schwartzman and Plaza, for Roman Coppola’s new film.

I always love it when actors, directors, and writers frequently collaborate together, and this project is shaping up nicely to be a kind of Wes Anderson-esque film, which is perfect, since Roman’s been working with him for years. I’m a big Wes Anderson fan, and I have a feeling that I’m going to be a big Roman Coppola fan too. Production has already begun out in Los Angeles, and I cannot wait to see how it all comes together on the big screen. It’s going to be brilliant.

Also, on a fairly unrelated note, for anyone interested, the Coppola/Schwartzman family also includes none other than Nicolas Cage himself, born Nicolas Coppola, who is Francis Ford Coppola’s nephew, making him Sofia, Roman, and Jason’s cousin. Cage changed his name early in his career so as not to have people think he was getting famous solely because of his family ties, which is a fact I’ve always loved.

When Charlie Sheen was very publically fired earlier in the year, all eyes were on Two and a Half Men to see what would happen next. Could the show really go on without Charlie Sheen?

The answer, as the first episode of season nine demonstrates with confidence, is a resounding, ‘Damn right, it can!’ With Ashton Kutcher replacing Sheen’s presence in the form of newly-introduced character, Walden Schmidt, its future is already looking secure straight off the bat.

The opening to the ninth season of the show, entitled ‘Nice To Meet You, Walden Schmidt’, begins with Charlie’s funeral, after having fallen in front of a Metro train in Paris, making it a closed-casket service with no need to show us a body, and thus readily and immediately moving forwards following Sheen’s expulsion from the show. A group of ex-girlfriend mourners attending the service lament the parting gifts they’d received from Charlie from a number of trysts more than the death of the man himself, and only his brother Alan (Jon Cryer) seems to be genuinely sad to see him go.

I personally thought the first half of the show spent a little too much time attacking Charlie’s memory more than anything, and as such, some of the jokes fell a little flat in my mind. But its second half, when Ashton Kutcher’s Walden Schmidt comes in, was absolutely terrific. Schmidt’s entrance into the show was perfect, an excellently timed comedic introduction to his character with a nice set-piece to boot. Ordinarily, I’m not a huge fan of physical comedy, but this was a good one.

Schmidt and Alan find themselves in mutual sadness – Schmidt having been dumped by his girlfriend earlier that day – and so they head out to drown their sorrows at the nearby bar. It’s here where things start to fall into place, and we see how Schmidt’s going to be incorporated into the show in Charlie’s role. Alan had been on the brink of moving back in with his mother, unable to afford to live in Charlie’s house that is the staple of the show, and it naturally transpires that Schmidt has more money than Alan can talk about without stuttering with joy.

It’s a neat way of wrapping up the problem of introducing the third of the three male lead characters into the show fairly seamlessly, and the writers and creators have done well to make it happen with such a sense of ease. Alan and Walden’s chemistry is immediately as affable and enjoyable as watching Two and a Half Men with Sheen, and the show has clearly had no trouble at all in finding its feet after what could have been a fatal decision to fire Sheen this year.

Schmidt is already filling Charlie’s shoes nicely, with his charm easily coming across in this first episode, which has a number of entertaining pixelated moments of nudity in just the first twenty minutes of the season. If you have twenty minutes to spare, and you’ve ever been a fan of Two and a Half Men, I highly recommend that you take the time to meet Walden Schmidt yourself. You’re going to love him.

Almost 30 million people tuned in over in the States to watch the season premiere, the highest rating yet for the show, and it will be interesting to see the percentage that stick with it in the coming weeks as the season progresses.

The first episode is available to download now via iTunes, and each episode will be up the day after it airs in the States. Check back in to catch up on my review of the season, episode-by-episode. It should be a lot of fun.

****~ (4/5)

Alan (Jon Cryer), a broke chiropractor, lives with his brother Charlie (Charlie Sheen), a hedonistic, narcissistic, wealthy, jingle composer. Alan’s son Jake (Angus T Jones) stays over at the weekends (he’s the half) and we flit between shenanigans involving Charlie’s boozing and whoring and Alan’s fairly pathetic attempts at, well, most stuff.

*****

It is difficult to review this, or anything else involving Charlie Sheen, without considering his relatively recent meltdown (or whatever one might call what happened to him earlier in the year). He blew his top at Chuck Lorre, the producer and creator of this show, he fussed about his salary (c. $2m per episode), he consumed a lot of drink, he admitted to what seems to be a fairly lively coke habit and he made much of his tiger blood and winning. He embarked on a tour, hung out with shapely women and got sacked from this show.

What is interesting is that although the real-life Charlie now seems to be a lot like the onscreen Charlie, the onscreen Charlie is a lot happier, a lot more care-free, a comic rather than tragic figure. But enough of the psycho-analysis, what’s the show like, given that this is Charlie’s last season? Well, I had not seen a single episode, or indeed second of Two And A Half Men before embarking on my viewing of the sixteen episodes of season 8. My first thought was, how on earth has this lasted so long? It seemed smutty, puerile, obvious and unimaginative. Even without having sat through the previous seven seasons, it seemed clear where each scenario was headed and I wondered why audiences had stuck with it.

But then something funny happened. It started to grow on me. Sure, it remained crude, vulgar and crass and of course in a show like this no-one really has a meaningful character arc of any description, but I did at least warm to the scenarios and crack the occasional smile at the hi-jinks they got into. Alan and Charlie are of course the classic comedy duo – the uptight dweeb and the anarchic, cool, funny guy – and although it is played very broadly and superficially, they are presented as essentially good, likeable characters. Jake remains a bit-player throughout the season, never really given any room to shine, which is a shame, but well-judged and very funny cameos from Jane Lynch, Ryan Stiles and Judd Nelson help break up the at times repetitive and derivative interplay between the leads.

The season opener is a pretty bland stand-alone, but after that a series of plots lines are introduced which play out over a number of episodes, which proves much more satisfying. Most enjoyable are the episodes that involve Alan’s developing relationship with Lyndsey, the mother of one of Jake’s class-mates. It is one of those situations that is not milked to death, but is allowed to become at times desperately painful and embarrassing, but also very funny and enjoyable. The season seems to end awfully abruptly with the collapse of Alan’s Ponzi scheme and the various loose ends of Charlie’s relationship with his stalker will have to be brushed aside for the new Ashton Kutcher-starring season 9 without so much as a “here’s what happened”. But that’s what happens when your star starts winning.

If you already know and love this show, I’m sure you’re already planning to pick this up. If you’ve never tried it, there are worse ways to spend an evening and if you can look past the crude tone and content, you might find much to laugh at.  You can get hold of Two And A Half Men Season 8 right now at LoveFilm.

***~~ (3/5)

Nothing to do with movies but hey, it’s topical and Sheen has appeared in movies but….

I was one of those people who was overjoyed to hear that Big Brother would be ending on UK TV last year on Channel 4. With viewing figures plummeting and the novelty wearing off, it was time for the show to die. Then yesterday morning, I see on the BBC website that Channel 5 has format of the rights to the show from Endemol.

Apparently they have paid £200m for a two year deal! Craziness! It doesn’t end there however as The Guardian is reporting that Charlie Sheen is in the fold to appear. I think I’d put this down to a rumour though as looking a little deeper into it, it seems that this news came from the Daily Star Sunday via Channel 5′s owner Richard Desmond who said:

“Charlie Sheen would receive a ‘big money offer’ to appear.”

Well of course he would! Madonna would also be offered a lot of money to appear but that doesn’t mean she will!

Big Brother will be hitting Channel 5 in September with this celebrity special.I guess now I have even more reason to never tune in!

With the cast and crew of The Hangover 2 having made a moral stand against Mel Gibson’s planned cameo for the film, the latest piece of casting news is something of a surprise: yesterday the chaps at SlashFilm, Badass Digest and a number of other sources were reporting that Todd Philips and co were looking to secure the talents of the media’s current crazy man du jour; Mr. Charlie Sheen.

Seemingly there seems to be bad crazy and good crazy and in the eyes of the Hangover crew Gibson is the former and Sheen is the latter.
Sheen of course had a cameo in Phillips’ last film Due Date cropping up at the end of the film in the Two and a Half Men segment. Now that show has been canned as a result of Sheen’s erratic public behaviour he’s open for employment opportunities and beings as he’s worked with Phillips previously it kinda makes sense.

I have to say that I wasn’t entirely comfortable with this news and I say that as a fan of The Hangover and of some of Sheen’s previous works, I mean c’mon who doesn’t like Major League and Men at Work? There’s a strong sense that they’re looking to cash in on Sheen’s current high profile following some amusing / disturbing (depending on your perspective) talk show appearances and exploiting someone who appears to be quite troubled at present.

Other factors on why this is a bad idea is that they found a suitable replacement for Gibson previously and the film has, from what I understand, wrapped and is in post production as they prepare the film for its release in May at which point there’s no telling whether the public at large will still view Sheen with the same levels of amusement when the film is released.

However, since the news broke Ace Showbiz have reported that Phillips has come out and denied the rumour stating that it’s “100% untrue.”

Charlie Sheen’s recent troubles are well documented and it seems that he is keen to put as much as possible of it behind him by returning to a comedy role from earlier, less complicated times. For the unitiated, Major League told the tale of a hapless Cleveland Indians baseball team and their desperate quest to turn around their season and finish with a winning record. It starred Sheen, Tom Berenger, Wesley Snipes, Corbin Bernsen and Rene Russo and for my money, was hugely enjoyable.

Major League 2 and Major League: Back to the Minors followed, though Sheen seems to feel that the threequel should be disregarded and any new film be treated as a true “Major League 3″. His exact words were apparently that Back to the Minors was “an abortion” and shouldn’t be considered as an official franchise entry. Not mincing his words there then.

All we have at the moment is that Sheen would like to make a new Major League film if it were greenlit, though there is no indication at the moment of any desire to make a new franchise entry. Whether Sheen will get to play “Wild Thing” again, only time will tell.

Source: TMZ, via Hollywood Reporter.

For those of you who had forgotten that a remake of cult 80’s Ruskies US home invasion action flick Red Dawn was on the way (I know I did), Latino Review has posted the first image and the film’s logo. As this is an MGM production, it’s probably safe to assume that a release date is around the corner too given that, financially speaking, the company is back on track.

This time around the gang of ragtag teenagers have to fight off the Chinese who invade their homeland. Not sure why they would go to the trouble of launching a military attack in this day and age when they could probably just as easily purchase the required nuclear weaponry, but there you go.

Filling the boots of the original cast members (a typically 80’s bratpack-y ensemble which included the late Patrick Swayze, his Dirty Dancing sweetheart Jennifer Grey and Charlie Sheen) are Thor himself Chris Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Josh Peck, Adrianne Palicki and Isabel Lucas.

The film is directed by veteran stuntman Dan Bradley, whose experience on the likes of Crank and the last two Bourne pictures should at least guarantee some decent bangs for bucks.

Another former 80’s big screen box office star (now at home on the TV screen) could be joining the sequel to this summer’s surprise money-making action flick, The Expendables.

Charlie Sheen (who judging from recent reports, appears to have enough demons to keep Buffy in employment for decades to come) has been mentioned as possibly playing the part of a has-been CIA operative who joins the gang on the hunt for villain (rumoured to be played by Bruce Willis). Sylvester Stallone has obviously been drawn to casting Sheen after remembering his award-worthy turn as reckless hotshot Lt. Dale Hawkins in seminal 80’s action classic Navy Seals.

The actor is apparently due to reprise his role in the third sequel to another 80’s favourite, Major League, when Two and a Half Men finishes filming for the season.

What next? The second instalment of buddy cop flick The Rookie, where Sheen has to bust original co-star Clint Eastwood out of a retirement home to crack one last case?

Watch this space.

News courtesy of Comic Book Movie

For six seasons, womanising Charlie Harper, his anal retentive failure of a brother Alan, and Alan’s problem child son Jake have entertained us with a selection of pee, fart and masturbation jokes. In every man’s life, however, the time comes to grow up. At the end of season six, Charlie had hooked up with the woman of his dreams, and popped the question. Does season seven, then, see the drunken playboy reformed?

The biggest problem that faces any sitcom that extend beyond three or four seasons is that of development. There is only so long that the same dynamics, relationships and personality traits can carry a show before it becomes repetitive. In the past we’ve seen comedy shows like Friends and Fraser forced to bring foreshadowed relationships to fruition. With Two and a Half men, the title is the sum of its principal cast, so whilst the sentiment is the same, they’ve had to ship the characters in.

Maybe this is why the relationship between Charlie and fiance Chelsea just doesn’t sit right. Without the years of character development and story arch behind the character, Chelsea comes across as very much the interloper that Alan must feel she is. Appearing out of the blue, she has captured the central character’s heart. A difficult sell for any series, but when it is serial shagger Charlie Harper, you can’t help but feel it would take someone special to tie him down. The biggest problem with the opening third of Two and a Half Men is that Chelsea isn’t it, or at least doesn’t come across as such.

For someone with the history of Charlie, the woman he finally falls for has to have a certain spark, and unfortunatley Chelsea not only lacks this, she doesn’t even come across as a particularly charismatic or even likeable character. This makes it hard to easily accept Charlie’s new outlook on life. The caring, committed Charlie is like a neutered dog. Robbed of his potency, half of the joke of the entire series is lost. Whilst this could be a good opportunity to freshen up the show, and use their relationship as a way to explore different life issues, it ends up being an avenue for slightly different puerile humour.

Two and a Half Men does not have the ambition or sophistication of the aforementioned Fraser. When Charlie has a Colonoscopy, it is used not as a way to explore mortality, or facing the loss of true love when you have spent so long looking for it, but as five minute gag when he uses the procedure as an excuse not to spend time with Chelsea’s family.

This probably sounds overly harsh. The foundation of the show, the pee, fart and masturbation jokes are still there, and are still funny. The strength of the show is in the dysfunctional relationship between Charlie and hapless brother Alan, and it is the character moments and banter between these two that are the best parts of the show. Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer are very good at what they do, and bounce off of each other wonderfully. Angus T Jones as Jake does a decent job of a very one-note character, having lost his second note with the weight that has been jettisoned over the last few seasons. Thankfully, the character has reached such an age that the eating jokes have found a ready replacement with the inevitable dating jokes. Yes, the tubby little kid from season one has become a hormonal teenager, and with two male role models with relationship histories at either end of the pole, it looks like being a bumpy ride.

As the season progresses, and Charlies forthcoming nuptials become inevitably uncertain, the season begins to lose its way. We witness a wedding, a couple of arrests, and more than a few break-ups. Having lost its purpose, season seven meanders somewhat to the end, with the highpoint of the climax the introduction of a new love interest for Alan. Courtney Thorne-Smith’s Lyndsey, a poster child for bad mothers, is a breath of fresh air. Outrageously dismissive of her son’s emotional wellbeing, a great performance by Thorne-Smith shows that it is possible to introduce new female characters, with personality, successfully.

A strange season really. Beginning with great purpose, but fizzling out towards the end storywise, the bedrock of laughs is nevertheless still there, and Two and a Half Men continues to be one of the best conventional sitcoms on television. With Charlie Sheen’s continued involvement looking increasingly unlikely with each subsequent season, it could well be that Two and a Half Men’s days will soon be numbered. No bad thing really. It is a very entertaining show, but without the great ambition of a show like Fraser, it is hard to see how the same contained little world of Charlie, Alan and Jake can continue to exist in its current form. With Jake now coming of age, if it isn’t careful the show could find itself being rename Three Men before the plug is pulled. And as we’ve seen so many times, a spin-off can only ever shame its parent show. (That last line would have been so much more effective if i hadn’t used Fraser as an example several times…)

Two and a Half Men – Season 7 is out now.

Bazmann

It’s not too long now until we can accompany Oliver Stone on his return to his old haunt with Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and tonight there’s a new clip showing three of the film’s main stars locking horns.

Josh Brolin and Michael Douglas face off while Wall St newboy Shia LeBeouf looks on like a terrified otter watching a crocodile and a buffalo scrap over the carcass of a trampled wildebeest.

We reviewed the film when it came to Cannes this year, and Stone’s film is due out in cinemas across the world in the next month.

In the meantime, here’s the clip,

We’re still annoyed that Oliver Stone’s return to Wall Street was delayed from its original May release date, but October 8th isn’t too far away and we’ve now got a new poster to make those summer months fly by.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is the latest in a long line of franchise revisitings, and like the recent Kingdom of the Crystal Skull returning to the world of the iconic 80s film is a far better use of time and money than a straight up reboot or remake.

We were lucky enough to be able to see Wall Street: Money Never Sleep when it premiered at Cannes last month and you can read our review here and there are a number of trailers and clips here. Personally I can’t wait to see Michael Douglas back on Wall Street and you can bet Oliver Stone has a lot to say about the nature of greed in the 21st century.

Here’s the new poster, which is a German one, and it has two big faces on it. Ominous, eh?

This pretty picture came all the way from FilmOFilia.

Arguably the most hotly anticipated film of the year will finally land on British shores in September of this year- pushed back no doubt to keep it fresh in the minds of the important few come awards season, but thanks to the organisers of the Cannes film festival, I have been able to see it this morning. And I have come away a happy man.

While all of the pre-release talk has been about the return of Gordon Gekko, and how Michael Douglas will be able to translate the cult appeal of a character who was so perfectly of his time into sustained appeal into and beyond the sequel, his is a performance of relative restraint. There are the inevitable lines which will turn into essential quotables, and you get the sense at one point that the script is trying a little too hard to shoe-horn them in, but he remains an emminently impressive character, even in his supposed decline. Douglas manages a good performance, but has a far diminished role than he enjoyed in the first film, and I think the character prospers precisely because of it. His chemistry with other characters, predominantly Shia Labeouf’s Jacob Moore is still mesmorising, and their relationship often hits the heights of Gordon’s relationship with Charlie Sheen’s Bud Fox in the first film.

At the end of the day, the hook of Wall Street, and indeed the hook of the sequel is all based upon charming characters. The Gekko is a necessarily restrained figure, but the flashes of brilliant charm, and those occasionally heavy hitting one-liners (“A Fisherman always recognises a fisherman from a distance”) still offer an intriguingly murky shroud over his true motives and continues his legend even as he appears on screen. It is Brolin who takes up the mantle of charming villain in Gekko’s absence, and it is he who steals a march in the quotable stakes when he is asked directly what his number is (how much it would take for him to retire, essentially) and responds with an irresistible “More”, teamed with the kind of roguishly charming wink that would floor even the most unsympathetic of viewers.

Brolin’s performance deserves a lot of credit, and I think will get it when the film hits screens for real later in the year. He looks great, taylored to within an inch of his life, and does remarkably well to imply an underlying malice that you can only ever guess at throughout the first third of the film (even despite the accusations levelled at him) and a volatility that never fully reaches the surface without ever becoming the pantomime villain. There is far more implied of his inner fire (when he is accused of various crimes, or when Jacob beats him in a contest of machoism) than is ever explicated. Most impressively of all, Brolin’s Bretton James emerges from Gekko’s overbearing villainous shadow with panache, and commands the screen admirably whenever he enters it.

Shia LaBeouf continues his quest to become a likeable, but never fully accomplished leading man and shows his one truly great skill- for explosive flashes of emotion- in a role where all he can really expect from the audience in terms of reaction is their empathy. The character of Jacob is rather unfortunately depicted as naive and ideallistic, though he shows, again in flashes, an intellectual brilliance and business accumen that allows him to comfortably swim the sharks, though he is somewhat overshadowed by Gordon Gekko, and the inevitable affinity that any audience member who had the pleasure of seeing the first installment will have for him. Regardless of his crimes, Gekko will always be the kind of anti-hero that we route for, which muddies the waters somewhat for how we feel about Jacob.

Elsewhere, Susan Sarandon and Frank Langella are never really given much screen time, but both are good. Langella plays the broken man perfectly- he is the unfortunate product of a “game” that has no position or time for him any more- and combined with Sarandon’s “toxic debt” personification, forms the basis on which Jacob’s essentially good character is built.

One aspect of the film that really appealed to me when I first heard of its inception, was the narrative strand that gave Gekko a deeper humanity than was even hinted at in the first film in the shape of a promised reconciliation with his estranged daughter Winnie, played by Carey Mulligan. I wasn’t disappointed: Douglas and Mulligan commanded a near irresistible on-screen chemistry, both bearing the visible emotional scars of Gekko’s past with aplomb. Mulligan’s performance is the second high-point behind Brolin, and again the powers that be in awards circles probably wont be too far away from her name when the time comes. She is undoubtedly the emotional centre of the film, though her position as moral heart is not as obviously clear (which gives her the extra intrigue), and her relationships with both Gekko and Jacob are incredibly compelling, based on the chemistry that comes so easily to Mulligan.

I wont offer too many plot spoilers, as it would cheapening to do so, but the story is compelling enough to make sure that Money Never Sleeps never becomes just a vehicle for excellent character studies, which part of me suspected it might. Nor is the movie just a vehicle for the return of Gordon Gekko. The economic disintergration that forms the backdrop for the plot offers Oliver Stone the opportunity to prove that he can still spin a good yarn, while offering a stinging politicised commentary on the culpability of Wall Street and the large American banking firms in the downturn. And Stone is never better than when he has both motive and narrative at his disposal. Cruciallyfor the success of the film, the politicised commentary is given only as much exposure as the human relationships within the narrative, with the motif of the way fathers influence their children, and the destructive influence that absent fathers (with the consequent search for a replacement) can cause playing a particularly intriguing role in the wider narrative.

Inevitably, the press after will attempt to further Stone’s commentary on capitalism and the economic climate, and I can only hope that the director employs a little more self-restraint than in the aftermath of JFK. He is probably in danger of becoming a caricature- the politicised malcontent director who believes his own theories to be gospel- when in reality his appeal is because he is an accomplished director who offers topics for debate as well as being able to entertain those viewers who dont particularly want to take the debate home with them from the cinema.

The one low-point of the film is the music. While the score generally is great (when it is incidental or mood building), the choice of actual songs that pepper the film are pretty terrible and detract focus from the visuals, which is cardinal sin number one for any music department on a project like this. The most unwelcome of all was the inclusion of a slightly pacier, bass-heavy version of David Byrne’s “Lazy”, which felt terribly out of place.

In contrast to the music, the visuals are stunning. Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto almost pulls off a Woody Allen style coup of writing a visual love letter to New York, with his long sweeping shots of the city looking beautiful throughout. The one shot of Zurich that made it to the final film is also particularly good-looking, but it is definitely the presentation of Wall Street itself that Prieto and Stone deserve greatest praise for, making the district as important a visual component (or character even) as it is an essential narrative identity in the film and also the wider economic environment it comments on.

And what of the release date shift for awards season? Well, they did the right thing. Josh Brolin is terrific, and smart money is on him walking away with a few Best Supporting nods at least, with the distinct possibility that Carey Mulligan might join him on the nominations list. And with the Best Film list swollen to include ten choices, Id throw my weight behind Money Never Sleeps running it close. Though possibly not a cert (it being very early to call), the film certainly has a huge chance, and it wouldnt be an unjusitifed inclusion by any means.

Finally, a word on Charlie Sheen. His cameo is funny (though it is far more an obvious comic caricature of Sheen himself, rather than the character Bud Fox) and very welcome, but it must be utterly soul-destroying to be standing opposite a man who is your senior by some way, and actually looking terrible by proxy.

Although I still can’t get past that awful title and the casting of one of my least favourite actors, Shia Lebouf, the trailers released so far for Oliver Stone’s follow up to his 1987 film Wall Street have looked promising.

Hopefully Gordon Gekko’s return to the big screen will be a great one as he has become something of an iconic character in popular cinema and beyond.

The film receives its premiere at this years Cannes Film Festival and you will be able to follow the news on this at HeyUGuys from our Cannes Correspondent Simon Gallagher here.

Today we have two new clips from the film. The first clip features Shia Lebouf and Michael Douglas and the second Lebouf again, this time with Frank Langella.

Source: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps Trailers – Moviefone

This is a damn shame. I, and I know many of you, were looking forward to catching up with a silver haired Gordon Gekko waltzing out of prison and back onto Wall Street nearly a quarter of a decade later, to take stock of a changed world and sink his mendacious claws into another up and coming financial whizz kid.

Now it looks as though we’ll have to wait a further five months to find out if Greed is still Good, as it’s been announced that Fox has pushed the release date of the film from April 23rd to September the 24th.

Now, there could be many reasons this has happened, but I doubt there will be re-shoots as is being rumoured, nor do the other films released on those dates offer any insight as to why the move has taken place but I’m a little sad that we won’t get to join Oliver Stone revisit an old friend until the Autumn.

If you’re not sold on this revisiting just yet, have a look at the trailers here and here.

The new trailer for Oliver Stone’s return to his old haunt of Wall Street is here.

And it’s a good one, though there is a chance that if you want to go into this film without knowing too much about the plot details then this trailer gives a lot of the good stuff away.

We get to see Shia LeBeouf wearing the Charlie Sheen wide eyed/wide boy style and Oscar hopeful Carey Mulligan running the gamut of emotions and, of course, Michael Douglas steals the show.

One of the greatest, and most necessary, elements of this revisiting is the ability of Douglas and Stone to embody the sleazy avarice of Gekko and this trailer hints at a total success.

Following the debut of the first trailer to hit for Oliver Stone’s revisiting of his era-defining Wall Street yesterday RopeofSilicon pointed us the new poster for Money Never Sleeps, and it looks serious, ominous even, with a faded, gritty wash.

I’m an advocate of this type of sequel, a revisiting rather than a remake,  which returns to a set of characters who have walked the same passage of time as the audience. Oliver Stone’s original took a snapshot of a particular place at a particular time, when the Greed is Good mentality was alive in the real world as well as the projected one.

The device of Michael Douglas’s Gordon Gekko stepping out of prison and into this new world is an excellent one, and should propel the plot along nicely.

Personally, I’m really looking forward to seeing Carey Mulligan follow on from her astounding performance in last year’s An Education, Charlie Sheen II (Shia LeBeouf) will I’m sure improve on his Robotic lead turn.

You can check out the poster below.

And for a needless comparison, here’s the original poster for Wall Street.

The first trailer for Oliver Stone’s new sequel to the Wall Street classic has it’s first trailer. Michael Douglas stars in the new movie is called Wall Street: Money Never sleeps based on a line that Douglas’ character, Gordon Gekko delivers in the original movie which came out in 1987! I was the ripe old age of 7 then so I saw it a few years later.

This new trailer shows Gekko coming out of prison after a being in there for a many years. The prison guard starts to give him back his possessions, all of which are rather impressive until he pulls out the 1980′s mobile phone which isn’t so mobile in today’s standards!

Synopsis: Emerging from a lengthy prison stint, Gordon Gekko finds himself on the outside of a world he once dominated. Looking to repair his damaged relationship with his daughter, Gekko forms an alliance with her fiancé Jacob (Shia LaBeouf), and Jacob begins to see him as a father figure. But Jacob learns the hard way that Gekko – still a master manipulator and player – is after something very different from redemption.

Money Never Sleeps also stars Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Frank Langella, Carey Mulligan, Susan Sarandon, Vanessa Ferlito and Charlie Sheen returns for a cameo.

We should be getting it on our shores 23rd April 2010.

Magazine Vanity Fair managed to bag an exclusive photo-shoot with Michael Douglas,to promote the sequel to 1987 movie Wall Street titled Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. The sequel also stars Josh Brolin, Shia LaBeouf, Susan Sarandon, Frank Langella, Carey Mulligan with a cameo from Charlie Sheen and is directed by the man who gave us the first, legendary Oliver Stone.

The new movie sees Michael Douglas’ character, Gordon Gekko released from prison back into New York where he takes

Josh Brolin, Oliver Stone, Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, and Carey Mulligan on the set of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Shia LaBeouf on as his protege and teaches him the way that Wall Street works and no doubt how best he can play the system for financial gain.

Vanity Fair also videoed the photoshoot and have been kind enough to provide  us with an embed code so that we can bring it our lovely readers. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is scheduled for release 23rd April and it’s another we’re looking forward to viewing later on this year.

Head over to Vanity Fair for the full low-down and to read the interview or check out the video footage below.

Both photos here were taken by Annie Leibovitz.

The way we watch movies is changing. In five years time, the studios believe, all our home entertainment will be delivered digitally. Apple know this, and already have a large quantity of movies available via iTunes and Apple TV.

To encourage us to try this form of media, every week iTunes offers one movie for rental at 99p, a considerable discount from the usual price of £3.50. Every week I  review the movie that has been chosen. This week, to coincide with Halloween, they’ve selected… Airplane creator David Zucker’s Scary Movie 3.

The first Scary Movie was the first proper spoof movie for a while when it was released. Opening at a time when gross-out movies had hit their prime, it was a big success. Infused with The Wayan family’s edge and relevant humour, it was a mix of old style Zucker/Abrams puns and more contemporary American Pie-style sex comedy, and was pretty funny at times.

Scary Movie 2 was unnecessary, but the big box office of the original made a follow-up inevitable. The second film also made big bucks, but the humour fell flat. The Wayan family were out, and Zucker himself, the king of this kind of comedy in the eighties, was brought in to freshen up this third instalment.

Anna Faris is back as Cindy. She is now a news reporter, and when she comes across the story of a crop circle at a farm, she gets a feeling something big is afoot. The crop circle was discovered by Charlie Sheen’s Tom, and his brother, wannabe white rapper George. George travels into the hood to participate in his first rap battle.

Meanwhile, Faris’ friend Brenda is terrified. She watched a haunted videotape a week ago. Anyone who watches the tape dies seven days later. And that’s not seven working days either. Cindy believes the crop circle and the mysterious tape are linked. She tries to warn the country via her news station, but no-one is listening.

No-one, that is, but President Harris, Leslie Nielsen. He travels to find Cindy in an attempt to discover the truth, whilst she learns an ancient lighthouse might hold a key to the mystery. With the video broadcast across the nation, can Cindy stop the evil spirits before the population of the US is murdered by this supernatural phenomenon?

Zucker was obviously brought in to work his magic on the franchise, but it’s clearly an impossible task. Scary Movie 3 is mainly a mash-up of Signs and The Ring, two mediocre movies to start with, offering barely enough material to fill a two minute You Tube short put together in someone’s basement. All the humour is either obvious, repetitive, or just not funny.

Without decent gags, the poorly conceived story (if you can call it that) is left hopelessly exposed. Good endings are notoriously difficult to write, but when you’ve already struggled (in vain) with the beginning and the middle, you’ve got no chance. The only genuinely funny material comes at the beginning during the rap battle, and to be fair Faris’ psychic nephew does get some funny lines. But when Nielsen arrives, it turns into a pseudo naked gun story, with the finale becoming an absolute farce. And not the good kind.

Charlie Sheen is a very good comedy actor, particularly suited to this kind of humour, but is given nothing to work with. The brightest spark is Anthony Anderson (Transformers 2). He is saddled with a very generic ‘token black guy’ role, but has great comic delivery, and can make the lamest lines at least sound funny. Perhaps most impressive is Faris herself. Not necessarily for her performance, but for her unwavering commitment to the role. At the climax, when all around her are losing their acting heads, she sells her part to the bitter end.

Scary Movie 3 made a lot of money, as did Scary Movie 4. The law of diminishing returns may apply to the comedy, but not to the ticket sales. And that’s the true horror. For as long as they keep flogging this dead horse, there’s clearly no shortage of people who will pay to see it.

Scary Movie 3 is available on iTunes at the discounted rental price until Midnight Monday 2nd November. It is available to buy on DVD now, as indeed are 1,2 and 4…

Bazmann