With his final foray with The Twilight Saga on the horizon, Robert Pattinson looks to be setting up a fine post-Twilight career for himself, leading Bel Ami next month and David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis later this year.

Admittedly, Bel Ami at least will be coming before the curtain opens on Breaking Day – Part 2 in November, but with filming finished on the film, Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are both looking on top form to continue with successful careers beyond the franchise’s conclusion.

We’ve now got ten minutes’ worth of clips to share with you from Bel Ami co-directed by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod, who look to be making a promising directorial debut with this, with Rachel Bennette also making her writing debut, based on the 19th century novel of the same name by Guy de Maupassant.

“Bel Ami is the story of Georges Duroy (Pattinson), who travels through 1890s Paris, from cockroach ridden garrets to opulent salons, using his wits and powers of seduction to rise from poverty to wealth, from a prostitute’s embrace to passionate trysts with wealthy beauties, in a world where politics and media jostle for influence, where sex is power and celebrity an obsession.”

Along with Pattinson, the film has an impressive supporting cast headed up by Uma Thurman, Kristen Scott Thomas, and Christina Ricci, seen one-to-one with Pattinson at the end of these clips. If you’re interested in the movie already, this will no doubt only spur your excitement for its release next month.

Bel Ami will be with us here in the UK on 9th March, a week after its release in the US on the 2nd. You can catch up on all the rest of our coverage for the film here, including the first teaser trailer we caught just before Christmas. And for now, here are those ten minutes of clips with which to dip your toe in the water.

Source: The Playlist.

Here’s the new UK poster for Robert Pattinson’s Bel Ami. The poster is pretty boring and doesn’t to what we’ve seen from the film but does feature the man from everyone’s favourite vampire movie, Twilight!

The film is helmed by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod and as well as Pattinson stars Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Christina Ricci, and the fabulous Colm Meaney who I will always remember as Chief O’Brien in Star Trek: The Next Generation or the fighting guy in Far Away!

Bel Ami is the story of Georges Duroy (Pattinson), who travels through 1890s Paris, from cockroach ridden garrets to opulent salons, using his wits and powers of seduction to rise from poverty to wealth, from a prostitute’s embrace to passionate trysts with wealthy beauties, in a world where politics and media jostle for influence, where sex is power and celebrity an obsession.

Source: LoveFilm

How do you make the prospect of an Oliver Stone movie even more anticipated than just having the director on board? Give it an incredible cast.

That’s exactly what’s happened with Stone’s upcoming film, Savages, which is due to be released in the autumn this year. Co-written by acclaimed best-selling crime novelist Don Winslow and Shane Salerno, adapting Winslow’s own novel, the film has a fantastic cast that includes Benicio del Toro, Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson, Taylor Kitsch, John Travlota, Uma Thurman, Emile Hirsch, Joel David Moore, and Salma Hayek.

The Playlist have got the first look at the film, and in just one still, you get a sense that this is going to be awesome.

“Blake Lively plays the gal pal of two Laguna Beach drug dealers (Aaron Johnson and Taylor Kitsch) who is kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel who wants to move in on their turf. Del Toro plays the cartel enforcer with Uma Thurman as Lively’s Mom, Salma Hayek as the leader of the cartel, John Travolta as a burnt-out DEA agent, the recently Oscar-nominated Demian Bichir as a double-crossing attorney who represents Hayek’s cartel, Joel David Moore as a computer nerd and Emile Hirsch  in an unnamed role.”

In this first image, we see Lively after she’s been kidnapped, looking a little worse for wear, with del Toro clearly making her feel right at home, blowing smoke into her face.

There isn’t a person on this cast that I don’t love, and as you can imagine, I can’t wait for this to come out. The premise sounds brilliant, and you can’t go wrong with a director like Stone going behind the camera for this. The man has three Oscars to his name, as well as a further four nominations, and here’s to hoping that he’ll have another huge success on his hands towards the end of the year. Savages will be with us on 28^th September, which means we have another eight months of anticipation before we can see it on the big screen. I can’t wait. For now, here’s the great first look at the film. As usual, click to enlarge.

Robert Pattinson may have been at Comic Con promoting Twilight: Breaking Dawn yesterday (watch the footage here) but tonight it’s all about his new movie, Bel Ami which has just had it’s first trailer released. You might remember we put up some images for the movie a little while ago and now, Protagonist Pictures have released this first trailer.

The film is helmed by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod and as well as Pattinson stars Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Christina Ricci, and the fabulous Colm Meaney who I will always remember as Chief O’Brien in Star Trek: The Next Generation or the fighting guy in Far Away!

Bel Ami is the story of Georges Duroy (Pattinson), who travels through 1890s Paris, from cockroach ridden garrets to opulent salons, using his wits and powers of seduction to rise from poverty to wealth, from a prostitute’s embrace to passionate trysts with wealthy beauties, in a world where politics and media jostle for influence, where sex is power and celebrity an obsession.

Source: MSN

Despite the title being a little bit too obvious a joke for it being a ‘soccer mom’ comedy, Playing The Field certainly sounds like it has a lot of potential to be good. The film is directed by Gabriele Muccino, whose credits include the Will Smith-starrers, Seven Pounds and The Pursuit of Happyness, and features an excellent cast including the likes of Gerard Butler, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Judy Greer, Jessica Biel, Dennis Quaid, and the brilliant Uma Thurman.

The first images from the film have surfaced over at The Playlist, giving us a look at  Butler, Zeta-Jones, and Greer, and though they don’t give us much of an insight into the film, they’re excellent to see all the same.

Playing the Field focuses on,

“Butler, who plays a troubled father and former pro soccer player who tries to make up for lost time by coaching his son’s team. He ends up in trouble when he gets involved with some of the local soccer moms. Biel will play Butler’s ex-wife who is engaged to be married, while Thurman will play a woman on the prowl for Butler. Zeta-Jones plays a hot newscaster, while Greer takes on the role of a lathered-up housewife.”

The film was first to be set around baseball as Butler’s son’s sport of choice, but after taking into consideration the potential to promote the film internationally, the sport was changed to soccer (or, as we crazy folk call it here, football), given its popularity across the globe.

With a UK release date scheduled for 20th April next year, we don’t have all that long to wait until it hits the big screen, and can no doubt look forward to seeing more from the film in the form of a trailer early in the new year. Without further ado, here are the first images to tie you down until then. As usual, click to enlarge.

To celebrate the release of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction on Blu-ray 17th October, Lions Gate Home Entertainment & Miramax have given us this brand new clip / featurette which comes as part of the epic six hours of extras on the new Blu-ray. To celebrate the release of Pulp Fiction (and Jackie Brown’, which boasts 3 hours of extras and ‘From Dusk ‘Till Dawn’ – On Blu-ray for the first time in the UK) we will be joining in the celebrations of ‘Tarantober’! You can pre-order your copy of the movie here.

If you’ve never seen Pulp Fiction before then quite frankly, you need to add this one to your collection. It’s a classic in it’s own right with so many quotable lines and comic sequences that when you see it, you’ll feel like you know so much already!

In this great new clip, we get to see the infamous dancing scene with Jack Rabbit Slims with narration from John Travolta who speaks about his memories of how the dance came together and how it completely memorised the production team afterwards.

A pair of low-rent hit men, Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson), are sent out to collect a stolen briefcase for their mob boss employer, Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames).  Having proven himself worthy, Wallace then entrusts Vincent to entertain his wife, Mia (Uma Thurman), while he is out of town.  Meanwhile, Wallace has paid off aging boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) to throw his next fight.  The lives of these wildly entertaining characters intertwine with unexpected and violent consequences.

Quentin Tarantino, hailed as “the most inventive filmmaker alive” (Newsday), will debut his ground-breaking film, re-mastered under the filmmaker’s direct supervision with new high definition lossless audio and 1080P video.  Containing new bonus materials that delve the film’s iconic status, the release will be packed with hours of archival content that includes numerous behind the scenes featurettes, interviews and marketing galleries.  Extras include:

• Stunning New 1080P Transfer Approved by Quentin Tarantino
• NEW 5.1 Lossless DTS-HD Master Audio™
• NEW Interviews with Cast including: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Rosanna Arquette, Eric Stoltz, Tim Roth and more
• NEW Critics’ Retrospective on the Movie’s Place in Film History
• Behind-the-Scenes Footage
• “Pulp Fiction: The Facts” Featurette
• Production Design Featurette
• Siskel & Ebert “At the Movies” – “The Tarantino Generation”
• Independent Spirit Awards Footage
• Cannes Film Festival Footage
• “The Charlie Rose Show” Tarantino Interview
• Still Galleries
• Trivia Track
• Deleted Scenes

We put up a trailer for Robert Pattinson’s new movie, Bel Ami a little while back and unfortunately, even though it was a completely clean copy, it had leaked and we were asked to remove it. I am pleased to tell you that the movie looked rather promising and I’m sure we’ll get to place it online again in the not too distant future! In the meantime, here’s a batch of new images for the movie which show Robert Pattinson with rather a lot of different women!

Bel Ami is helmed by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod and as well as Pattinson stars Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Christina Ricci, and the fabulous Colm Meaney.

Bel Ami is the story of Georges Duroy (Pattinson), who travels through 1890s Paris, from cockroach ridden garrets to opulent salons, using his wits and powers of seduction to rise from poverty to wealth, from a prostitute’s embrace to passionate trysts with wealthy beauties, in a world where politics and media jostle for influence, where sex is power and celebrity an obsession.

No release date as yet but we’ll keep you posted.

Source: MovieLine

Catherine Zeta-Jones (The Terminal) and Judy Greer (The Village) have been added to the cast of football comedy Playing The Field.

Zeta-Jones and Greer will star opposite Gerard Butler (300), Uma Thurman (Kill Bill), Jessica Biel (The Illusionist) and Dennis Quaid (Pandorum).

A former professional athlete (Butler) with a weak past tries to redeem himself by coaching his son’s soccer team, only to find himself unable to resist when in scoring position with his players’ restless and gorgeous mums.

Gabriel Muccino (Seven Pounds) is attached to direct from a screenplay by Robbie Fox (So I Married an Axe Murderer) and Stuart Blumberg (The Kids Are All Right).

Production is expected to begin later this year.

Source: 24 Frames

Uma Thurman (Kill Bill) and Jessica Biel (The A-Team) have signed on to star in Playing The Field.

Thurman and Biel will star opposite Gerard Butler (Law Abiding Citizen) in the Robbie Fox-scripted sports film.

Playing The Field centers on a troubled father and former semi-pro soccer player (Butler), who tries to make up for lost time by coaching his son’s team.

Thurman has been cast as a woman on the prowl for Butler’s character, while Biel will play Butler’s ex-wife.

Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness) is attached to direct, with filming expected to begin next month.

Source: Variety

Magnolia Pictures have released the debut trailer for Ceremony.

Ceremony is writer/director Max Winkler’s directorial debut and stars Uma Thurman, Michael Angarano, Lee Pace, Rebecca Mader, Reece Thompson and Brooke Bloom.

The film premiered at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival to rave reviews, and will hit US cinemas on April 8.

Sam Davis (Angarano) convinces his former best friend to spend a weekend with him to rekindle their friendship at an elegant beachside estate owned by a famous documentary filmmaker (Pace). But it soon becomes clear that Sam is secretly infatuated with the filmmaker’s fiancee, Zoe (Thurman), and that his true intention is to thwart their impending nuptials. As Sam’s plan begins to unravel, he is forced to realize how complicated love and friendship can be.

Watch the trailer below:

Source: Apple

Magnolia Pictures, via Cinematical, have unveiled a dreamy debut poster for indie drama Ceremony.

Ceremony is writer/director Max Winkler’s directorial debut and stars Uma Thurman (Kill Bill), Lee Pace (The Fall), Michael Angarano (Almost Famous) and Rebecca Mader (The Men Who Stare at Goats).

An obsessed young man (Angarano) tries to re-ignite the romantic spark with his older ex-lover (Thurman) and prevent her marriage to another man (Pace).

Ceremony premiered at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival to positive reviews, and will be released in the US on April 8.

Check out the poster below:

With Twilight entering its, ahem, twilight Robert Pattinson’s future career will no doubt be of great interest to the millions of die hard fans of the vampire series, and these new pictures from Bel Ami should sate the desire to see more of Mr P.

As well as starring alongside Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz in Water for Elephants, Pattinson will play Georges Duroy in an adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s Bel Ami, adapted by Rachel Bennette and directed by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod.

This will be Donellan and Ormerod’s feature debut after extensive work in the theatre and a short film The Big Fish in 1992, and they have drawn together an impressive cast including Kristin Scott Thomas, Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman, Colm Meaney and Philip Glenister. The film is currently in post production with no release dates set so far, but these pics look very promising.

The Playlist pointed us thiswaywards.

Uma Thurman’s got a new movie coming out, it’s called Ceremony and it premiered up at TIFF over this past week.

Jason Reitman (Up in the Air) is an executive producer on the film so hopefully with his guidance Ceremony will actually be somewhat decent.

Max Winkler, the writer and director of Ceremony, is making his feature film debut and so far the buzz on his work has been rather positive after his world premiere screening at the festival.

Ceremony stars Michael Angarano, Uma Thurman, Reece Thompson, Lee Pace, and Jake Johnson and there’s a newly released clip for the movie below.

Here is a brief synopsis via the TIFF website:

Along with his unwilling best friend, a young guy looks to crash the wedding of an older woman with whom he’s infatuated.

After waxing poetic about my love for The Expendables, and quite frankly, all things action yesterday I got to thinking about all of the different conventions that take place.  After searching the Internet I found loads of different cons.  Anime, Sci-Fi, Comic, Horror and more specifically, Star Trek and Twilight related conventions.  I’ve been to two of the former and none of the latter…thank goodness.  I can’t leave out mentioning the big daddy of cons, Comic Con.  Sadly I haven’t had the opportunity to attend, but next year is going to be the year.

I Goggle’d, Yahoo’d and Bing’d my way through researching all of these different cons,  and I couldn’t find a single con devoted strictly to action movies.   Our writer Craig brought to my attention that there is something in North Carolina called ActionFest and that looks pretty darn cool.  However that looks more like a festival and less like an actual con.   Regardless, anything that Chuck Norris shows up to has to be awesome.

Think about it how great would it be to attend Action Con!  My Action Con would include screenings of some of the films I mentioned in my previous post, panels with upcoming action movie cast and crew complete with Q & A, and of course, the showroom with vendors galore all tied somehow to all things action.

I understand that a lot of movies are now being featured at Comic Con.  I followed the endless tweets about what was happening as it was happening.  Comic Con shines a spotlight on all different genres.  Comics (obviously), Film, Television etc.  I want Action Con to be nothing but action, and action movie related.  Show me the cars, weapons, stunts, behind the scene footage, props, and most importantly, the people who show up dressed to the hilt as their favorite characters.  I’m action-geeking out over the thought of something so grand.

Just think of all the actors that might turn up at such an event.  Of course since The Expendables got me started on this whole thing, that whole cast would need to be there.  Of course the new legion of action stars would show up.  Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Sam Worthington etc. But what if Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damme showed up? Don’t forget about Chuck Norris, Michael Dudikoff, Jeff Speakman, and Thomas Ian Griffith.  There are also the female action stars.  Linda Hamilton, Sigourney Weaver, Angelina Jolie,  maybe even Uma Thurman.  See??  You’re thinking about how full of awesome it would be aren’t you?  Why isn’t this a reality?

So does anyone know how to get one of these things started? I just might have to look into it because this needs to become a bona fide event!  You can bet you’d see me pulling up in my Ripley cosplay complete with functioning power loader.

If you know of any such event, let me know.  I’d be interested in finding out where and when they are.

The IMDb250. A list of the top 250 films as ranked by the users of the biggest internet movie site on the web. It is based upon the ratings provided by the users of the Internet Movie Database, which number into the millions. As such, it’s a perfect representation of the opinions of the movie masses, and arguably the most comprehensive ranking system on the Internet.

It’s because of this that we at HeyUGuys (and in this case we is myself and Barry) have decided to set ourselves a project. To watch and review all 250 movies on the list. We’ve frozen the list as of January 1st of this year, find it here. It’s not as simple as it sounds, we are watching them all in one year, 125 each.

This is our 22nd update and my next five films watched for the project. I had a few double bills this week starting with Magnolia that I watched directly after Boogie Nights (which unfortunately doesn’t feature on our IMDb List) which got me in the mood for Paul Thomas Anderson’s brilliant movie, I then did the Kill Bill fims back to back which was the most amount of fun and finished off with a Woody Allen Double bill that was enjoyable but a very similar experience when watching them so closely after one another, but that didn’t ruin the enjoyment of such well crafted comedy movies.

No. 211 – Magnolia (1999) – Rating 8.0

Epic Genius from Paul Thomas Anderson, from it’s wonderful start with the tales of coincidences and happenings, then the superb one take tracking shot introducing us to a bunch of characters to its bonkers conclusion with raining frogs, Magnolia is a jaw dropping and wonderful film.

In a nut shell:- Magnolia spans a day in the life of a group of residents in San Fernando Valley in California with lonely policeman Jim Kurring (John C. Reilly) who falls for a drug user Claudia (Melora Walters), who in turn has issues with her father and quiz-show host Jimmy Gator(Philip Baker Hall) whose show ‘What Do Kids Know?’ has genius child star Stanley (Jeremy Blackman) going for a record number of wins whilst former star of the show ‘Quiz Kid’ Donnie Smith (W.H. Macy) craves love, money and braces as nurse Phil (Philip Seymour Hoffman) tends to a dying television tycoon and founder of the ‘What Do Kids Know’ show Earl Partridge (Jason Robards) whose young wife Linda (Julianne Moore) agonizes over their relationship and his condition as Nurse Phil, on Earl’s request, tries to find his exiled son Frank T.J. Mackey (Tom Cruise) who teaches ‘‘Seduce and Destroy’’ classes to men.

The plot expands on these characters and their situations to build a fascinating intertwining story and the performances are, without exception, superb with Tom Cruise delivering an outstanding performance as T.J. Mackey and fully deserving of his Oscar nomination for his role. But overall the film’s genius lies in Paul Thomas Anderson’s brilliant directing forging a truly addictive movie which weaves the stories together so easily letting us bond with each character enough so they aren’t one dimensional and all offer something solid to the brilliant to Magnolia, Anderson also uses Aimee Mann’s songs to wonderful effect particularly when each character sings a line from her amazing song ‘Save Me’ that builds up to the Froggy finale.

An incredible film and one of my favourite all time movies and in my opinion not as watchable as Boogie Nights but very dam close. Check out the brilliant opening to get you in the mood.

No. 134 – Kill Bill Vol 1 (2003) – Rating 8.2

Tarantino returned after a six year hiatus since the release of Jackie Brown to make the superb Kill Bill and dam was it a wondrous return to movie making from one of the greatest directors of all time.

Kill Bill is Tarantino’s tribute to so many genre’s like the Shaw Brothers martial art movies, Japanese Samurai, westerns, Kung Fu and Manga comics that was considered too long by Miramax so it was cut into two parts and whether that is right or wrong is a personal choice, I could easily have watched the four hour film at the cinema but I can understand as they equally make two fine movies as the pacing is so different from Volume 1 and Volume 2.
Kill Bill stars Uma Thurman as the Bride who after being kicked about and shot in the head by Bill and her former colleagues/assassins (the Deadly Viper Assassin Squad) awakens from her coma to find a metal plate in her head and a baby no longer in her belly so she starts to plan a revenge that will take her to each of her former friends and kill them one by one finishing with Bill. Simple.

The story is fantastic and stylistically told in the typical Tarantino Non-Linear way with Volume one dealing with The Brides recuperation from her coma and her fights with No.2 on he Death List Five, Vernita Green ‘Copper Head’ (Vivica A Fox) and No.1 on the list, O-Ren-Ishii ‘Cottonmouth’ (Lucy Lui) with their fight at the House of Blue leaves turning into one of the finest and goriest fights seen in years and one that delivers enjoyment, excitement and wonderment in abundance but what else would you expect from the mind of Tarantino and the choreography of Yeun Woo-Ping. What’s great is we never see Bill throughout the first Volume and only hear his voice and it adds a wonderful menace and anticipation to seeing the second part.

The sub plot of The Bride getting a samurai sword from Hattori Hanzo played by the legend Sonny Chiba is a wonderful moment as to is the inclusion of Gordon Lui who played Johnny Mo the leader of O-Ren-Ishii’s army of body guards who get slaughtered in the House of Blue Leaves in the movies most memorable scene which all kicks off with the Brides fight with the excellent sadistic Gogo Yubari played by Chiaki Kuriyama from Battle Royal fame completes a wonderful cast.

The dialogue is not at your typical quotable Tarantino level but Kill Bill hints at a fun side and complete personal enjoyment to Tarantino’s directing which blossoms further in his later films of Death Proof and Inglorious Basterds which makes Quentin Tarantino easily one of the most satisfying directors of this generation to watch. Kill Bill gave me one of the most enjoyable films on the list so far, it’s just pure fun, incredibly cool especially if you get the references to his previous films or to the genre’s that he is showing so much love for and of course a fabulous soundtrack that always accompanies his films that show off each scene to its full potential. Mixed in with the amazing film is an incredibly well animated back story to O-Ren-Ishii and how her parents were murdered and she became a ruthless killer, It’s so good I wanted to see 2 hours of it and that it was made by the legendary Production I.G company of Ghost in Shell, Patlabor and specifically Blood: Last Vampire that The Kill Bill sequence takes its style from, its just a wonderful moment of the film.

Kill Bill is all kinds of awesome and will always be a favorite of mine that will always catch my eye when scrolling through the TV guide or browsing by DVD collection, love it, will always love it and if you haven’t seen it you will love it too.

Check out the Full Uncut and in colour House of Blue Leaves fight below: BEWARE contains a whole lot of BLOOD

No. 205 – Kill Bill 2 (2004) – Rating 8.0

Kill Bill Volume 2 split opinions, maybe because people wanted more of the same from Volume 1 but people do forget that Kill Bill was intended to be one film and so repeating the action beautifully shown previously would have been a mistake in a one movie film which is why we have a more story and character driven second part which for me adds so much to the Kill Bill story.

So what we get in Volume 2 is a back story of The Brides training with Pei Mei, the events that led to the wedding day massacre, her encounters with two more on her Death List Five being Budd and Elle, her hunt and final showdown with Bill and the reveal of the Brides name is Beatrix Kiddo. All parts of Volume 2 offer something uniquely Tarantino and again show his fondness and appreciation for classic martial art movies, especially with the Brides Training with Pei Mei as the character is a reoccurring legend in a few classic old kung fu movies and brought to life wonderfully by Gordon Lui (Johnny Mo in Vol 1) who Bill takes Beatrix to for training but we come across that story line later after she hunts down the next name on her list, Budd ‘Sidewinder’(Michael Madsen) who gets the better of her, sticks her in a coffin and buries her which is where we come back to her training with Pei Mei who we find teaches her how to punch through wood at short distances (How many people at least tried it when they got home!?) it’s very cool and we also learn why Elle Driver wears an eye patch due to betraying Pei Mei.

Before I describe the whole film as I love it so much, Elle kills Budd for Beatrix’s Hanzo Sword and then Beatrix has an awesome fight with Elle which ends in a way that must be setting up a reference to Zatoichi with Elle becoming a blind Samurai in a sequel, Lets hope so as long as they bring in Beat Takeshi in some role! The wonderful ending comes all too soon where Beatrix comes face to face with Bill played by the legend David Carradine and her daughter she presumed dead and with a phenomenally cool face off with Bill including a brilliant Superhero speech about superman concluding with the outrageous ‘Five point palm exploding heart technique’ from Beatrix.

Apologies for the randomness of the review, I had such a blast remembering all the fun parts, acting and cool little moments in Kill Bill I just rambled on, So conclude….Again another superbly made from Tarantino, supremely acted by everyone and incredibly entertaining from start to finish, Kill Bill should be classed as one film but both definitely deserve to be here as individual movies too.

No. 132 – Annie Hall (1977) – Rating 8.2

Annie Hall is the first of my Woody Allen double feature and one of the first films I ever saw of his many years ago and is easily one of his funniest and accessible films he’s made. Woody Allen pretty much always play the same character and like Charlie Chaplin’s ‘the Tramp’ it’s hard to get bored of him as he is likable, funny entertaining and in Annie Hall it doesn’t come much funnier.

Annie Hall was the film that denied Star Wars from getting the Oscar it deserved back in 1978 and after watching it again my head understands why but my heart never will. Looking back at his failed relationship with Annie Hall (Diane Keaton), Alvy Singer (Allen) looks back at his relationship with her and also reflecting at his life, relationships and his attempt to get Annie Hall back.

Allen really is at his best in this film, breaking the forth wall to speak to the audience about things that annoy him like pretentious people talking in queues or asking questions about relationships and doing random questioning with couples walking down the street asking what they see in each other which adds an original comedic look at how relationships work and most ring true. There are some hilarious moments like when Alvy and Annie first met where Annie takes him back to her apartment in a death defying car journey and when they get there they talk for hours and in one moment their real thoughts are shown as subtitles as they chat intellectually which is a real joy.

The two characters bond and fall in love but their careers and their maturity differ as time passes with Annie becoming a successful singer and with LA calling her they eventually split as Alvy refuses to leave for the city of LA from the city he loves, Alvy soon realizes that he still loves Annie and heads to LA to convince her to return with him to New York but fails so he returns home to write a play about their relationship where he eventually wins her back.

Annie Hall is a brilliant comedy full of clever takes and anecdotes on relationships full of real characters and some great lines that keep coming throughout the entire film. There is one brilliant cameo by Christopher Walken who plays Annie’s brother Duane who confesses with complete straight sincerity to Alvy his desire whilst driving to turn into oncoming traffic and witness the destruction and sound of it all after which Duane is asked to drive Alvy and Annie to the airport, it’s one of the funniest moments of the film watching Alvy sit nervously in the car watching Duane. The film overall is clearly a semi autobiographical film and one of Allen’s finest movies, it’s clever, funny, well directed, intelligent, honest and entirely entertaining which is something very hard to come across these days as gross out humour, intelligent comedy and predicable story lines seem to dominate the comedy genre so if you fancy something unique and different try Annie Hall a true masterpiece of “Rom-Com” that offers so much with what seems so little effort.

Check out the brilliant opening below.

No. 216 – Manhattan (1979) – Rating 8.0

There will be arguments lasting a lifetime as to what film is Woody Allen’s best, with the brilliant Annie Hall and Manhattan the only films from Allen on the IMDb250 list it’s very likely these two will be most peoples pick, personally I’ve always had a soft spot for Sleeper but out of Manhattan and Annie Hall I think Manhattan just scrapes it as it’s Woody Allen’s finest achievement as a director although a little too similar to Annie Hall for my liking.

Allen plays comedy TV show Writer Isaac whose having a relationship with a 17-year-old girl (Mariel Hemingway) after his latest marriage fell apart when his wife left him for another woman. His ex wife (Meryl Streep) is writing a tell-all book which causes great anxiety that his personal life will be exposed including the accidental running over of his wife’s lesbian lover. His best friend and a married man Yale is a married man having an affair with Mary (Diane Keaton) who decides to break off the affair and stick to his wife pushing Mary on Isaac instead who is having doubts of his high school girl relationship claiming “I’m older than her father, can you believe that? I’m dating a girl, wherein, I can beat up her father”.

Isaac is then involved with two different relationships, one with an almost mid life crisis choice of an adoring teenager and one with a mature intellectual more suited to his own personality and so Isaac has to choose the one who can offer him the love he so desires in the city that he loves.
Having watched the film directly after Annie Hall and writing these reviews about a month after seeing them I’m finding it hard to distinguish between the two as their topics of relationships and the lead character being the quick talking funny little guy with glasses being very similar and I’m sure a few identical jokes appeared in both films and if it wasn’t for the different filming styles then maybe I wouldn’t have been so positive of Manhattan.

Manhattan is however a great film, its story and characters are unique, interesting and entertaining and when seeing the beauty of Manhattan never looking so gorgeous when shot in its wonderful black and white style from the flawless cinematography Gordon Willis (The Godfather, Annie Hall) and the opening sound of Gershwin blaring out then it makes Manhattan one of the most visually stunning films from the IMDb250 list.

You can find Barry’s next update next week, catch you in two.

Don’t forget, you can follow our progress on Twitter at http://twitter.com/baz_mann and http://twitter.com/Gary_Phillips

Fresh off the set of Twilight: Eclipse, Robert Pattinson has managed to land himself in a movie that is directed by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod and has a great cast which includes Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Christina Ricci, Colm Meaney, Philip Glenister and Holliday Grainger.

I’ve embedded the images below which you can click to enlarge. I can’t claim to know too much about this movie but tell us what you think of Pattinson and Thurman in costume in the comments section below.

Wikipedia Info: Bel Ami is a novel published in 1885 by French author Guy de Maupassant telling the story of a journalist, Georges Duroy. The story chronicles Duroy’s corrupt rise to power from a poor ex-NCO to one of the most successful men in Paris, most of which he achieves by manipulating a series of powerful, intelligent, and wealthy mistresses.

Images from Collider.com

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a series of five books written by Rick Riordan. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is the first of the book and sets the scene for both us, the audience and for Percy himself. After the Harry Potter series, kids seem to be in need of another fix of something mysterious and wonderful and it seems that Percy Jackson is where it’s at. It’s not so big in the UK yet but after the release of the new movie with a mix of all star cast and semi-newcomers, will the films start a wave of Percy Jackson here in the UK? Hopefully my review of the film might help you decide!

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is directed by Chris Columbus. His name may not be one you’ve heard but if I tell you that he directed Mrs Doubtfire, Home Alone, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, you’ll no doubt have seen one or more of his movies. He’s also very well known for his writing. He wrote Gremlins, Young Sherlock Holmes and some movie that you might have heard of called The Goonies that inspired this very website. He really is a legend in cinema and when you see his name billed on a movie you go in expecting good things.

Here’s the brief synopsis to give you a bit more of an idea about what the movie is about:

Synopsis: Trouble-prone Percy Jackson is having problems in high school – but that’s the least of his challenges. It’s the 21st century, but the gods of Mount Olympus seem to have walked out of the pages of Percy’s Greek mythology texts and into his life. Percy has learned that his real father is Poseidon, god of the sea, which means Percy is a demigod – half human, half god. At the same time, the powerful gods on Olympus are feuding, which could launch a war enveloping our entire planet.

I went into the screening of Percy Jackson not really knowing anything about it. I’d seen the trailers and read the synopsis and production notes but that didn’t really prepare me for what I was about to see. The movie opens with a gigantic Kevin McKidd (Poseidon) walking out of the sea with a huge trident tattooed on his arm. Poseidon soon comes to meet Zeus, his brother played by Sean Bean who tells him that someone has stolen his master lightening bolt, the source of all lightning across the world and lays down a gauntlet that if he doesn’t have it returned to him a war amongst the gods would begin. Zeus believes that Poseiden’s son, Percy Jackson has stolen it – the issue is that Percy doesn’t even know that he’s a demi god (half human, half god) but he has always felt different to all the other kids at school and had a love of spending time in water.

After a series of events, Percy finds out his heritage and meets characters Chiron (Pierce Brosnan) who he thought was just his school teacher but is in fact half-horse and realises that his best friend, Grover Underwood (Brandon T. Jackson) is actually a satyr! Now, what is a satyr I hear you ask. Well, if you think back to your early high school days, you probably studied this sort of thing. I’m pretty sure I did anyway and watching this movie, I started remembering all the mythological creates that I had learnt about 16 years ago. You don’t need to know anything about Greek mythology to watch this film but I guarantee, when you come out of it, you’ll want to find out more about it. The effects that are used in this movie to create these wonderful characters are simply wonderful and very clever although after interviewing Brandon T. Jackson last week, I found out that wearing blue tights to create the effect afterwards isn’t as fun as we might think it is!

Other creatures used in the movie include the Hydra (clip here), and Medusa, played by Uma Thurman who, as you’ll see in this image, has snakes in her hair, but, whatever you do don’t look into her eyes or you’ll turn to stone! I’m not sure I’ve ever seen product placement in a film like this with the iPhone. Credit to Apple / Chris Columbus there! The CGI used to create these snakes is absolutely fantastic with the multitude of snakes attached to her having their own personality yet still being in touch with and linked to Medusa’s thoughts and persona. Massive credit to the guys who created the special effects for this movie because they are simply brilliant. Full list of cast and crew on IMDb here.

The other main leads in the movie include Alexandra Daddario who plays Annabeth Chase, the best swordsman (woman) of all the demi-gods. She’s a little perturbed when Percy turns up as the new kid on the block but their friendship grows stronger throughout the movie as she, Percy and Grover all depart on a question find who stole the Lightning bolt so that they can return it to Zeus before the epic war erupts. From here, Percy and his friends embark on a mission to discover the true thief of the lightning bolt. The issue for them is that Hades (the devil and another Greek god played excellently by Steve Coogan with his assistant played by Rosario Dawson) is on the hunt for Percy as well as with the lightning bolt, he can overthrow his brother Zeus. Percy decides the best cause of action is to go and meet Hades in Hell and try and talk things through.

Chris Columbus is a genius of the child genre of movie as he’s able to tell a story that is both intense, adult enough for people like me to enjoy it but child-like enough that a 12 year old can come out of the cinema and ask their parents if they can go straight back in to watch it again. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is no exception. The story is clever and Columbus adds comedy to parts but also huge tension and draws you into the story. As I said earlier, the effects are amazing. Just watch this clip of the Hydra and you’ll see what I mean. Columbus saves the big cgi for one of the final scenes though and I won’t spoil it for you but the CGI is so well done.

The three main leads are very believable and if there were a sequel (which I’m sure there will be) I would go and see it. There is one scene in particular which i think the movie lost it’s focus on being a movie for kids. The cast end up in a hotel where basically they are drugged to keep them there with women surrounding Grover. I’m sure it was wonderful for him to film but is this the sort of message to be sending to kids? I’m probably being over the top and you can tell me once you’ve seen it what you thought.

All in all, Percy Jackson was a well made movie with so many Hollywood stars playing cameos, it was hard to keep up but all of them were so well cast and it was wonderful to see them in a movie where they could all have a lot of fun making. It’s also nice to know that if you want to be a Greek god, you have to be British! Roll on the sequel!

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is released this Friday 12th February.

Next week and the following, we’re going to be going rather mad on Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. Not only does it have one of the best 80s / 90s / 00s directors in Chris Columbus, it also has a steller cast whcih includes Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Sean Bean, Pierce Brosnan, Steve Coogan, Rosario Dawson, Catherine Keener, Kevin McKidd, Joe Pantoliano, Uma Thurman and Ray Winstone. These new posters tie in nicely with the previous character posters that we gave you a few weeks ago.

Next week, HeyUGuys will be taking part in a live round-table interview with the cast who will be in Athens. The following week we’ll be face to face with them to discuss the movie in even more detail and, if all goes well, we’ll be brining you the video from the press conference here in London.

In the meantime, check out these new posters below and click them to enlarge. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is released 12th February.

Synopsis: Trouble-prone teen Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out school – but that’s the least of his problems.  The gods of Mount Olympus and assorted monsters seem to have walked out of the pages of Percy’s Greek mythology texts and into his life – and they’re not happy.  Zeus’ lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.  Now, Percy and his friends must embark on a cross-country adventure to catch the true thief, save Percy’s family, and unravel a mystery more powerful than the gods themselves.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief has gone poster crazy! Last week we had 6 characters posters and today, 3 more posters have been released and they look too good not to post! I found them over at Latino Review but I’ve embedded them below (click to enlarge). We’ll hopefully be attending some interview sessions and the press conference in the next couple of weeks so hopefully lots more Percy Goodness to come. The movie stars Joe Pantoliano, Kevin McKidd, Uma Thurman, Sean Bean, Pierce Brosnan and is directed by Chris Columbus.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is out 12th February.

Yesterday I posted a new TV spot for Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and it looks like the promotion train continues today with six brand new character art posters supplied to us by Columbia Pictures via Empire and they look fantastic.

Empire make a point that the posters don’t actually reflect who each person is in the movie. E.g. Percy Jackson himself is named, ‘Son of Poseidon’ and Pierce Brosnan who plays Chiron, as ‘Guide Warrior’. When I was looking through these, I too thought it was odd that they hadn’t used the characters names as the logo for the movie is quite small in the bottom right hand corner for each image. But with the cast including Joe Pantoliano, Kevin McKidd, Uma Thurman, Sean Bean (a former bond villain) and a former Bond (!), maybe they think they don’t need to get the name of the movie out there as much?All that coupled with the fact that it’s directed by Chris Columbus, surely it’s going to be good and word of mouth will do the marketing for them? I guess time will tell.

Who knows, anyway, Percy Jackson is out 12th February. Check out the new images below.