Lawless is one of those movies that just seems to have all the right ingredients. Firstly, the director, John Hillcoat, has nothing but good form, having previously brought us the intense neo-western The Proposition and the unrelentingly, none-more-bleak The Road.
Secondly, it has The Proposition scribe and bona fide musical legend, Nick Cave, on scriptwriting duties. Finally though, it has a stellar cast which includes Guy Pearce, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain and Shia LaBeouf.
The pitch for Lockout, a film about probably included the phrase "Escape from New York meets Demolition Man... IN SPACE!".
Lockout never tries to hide away from the fact that this film harks back to the dumb, high concept action movies of the Eighties, and it certainly has a lot in common with them. A plot that can be described in terms of other movies, action set (prodominantly) in a single location, a sardonic anti-hero, a British villain (in this case two brothers giving the Scottish a bad name, with Joseph Gilgun on scene-stealing form), and some CGI graphics that would not look out of place in an Eighties computer game. Yes, that last part was not meant to be a compliment.
Let's break this down, shall we? In 2011 we saw Jessica Chastain star in The Debt, Take Shelter, Coriolanus, The Tree of Life, The Help and Texas Killing Fields.
This year alone she is working on Lawless (the non-Terrance Malick version), Madagascar 3, an untitled Terrance Malick movie and Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty (AKA The Kill Bin Laden movie), to name a few. Jessica Chastain just can't be stopped.
Could Charlie Kaufman be planning a sequel to Adaptation? The Kaufman/Spike Jonze masterwork started life as a sincere attempt to adapt The Orchid Thief into a movie but, instead, evolved into a meta-film about the artistic process. Kaufman has now been hired to adapt another novel, and it's part of the ever popular young adult fiction trend.
The Fast/Furious series are, to my mind, one of the high points of guilty pleasure blockbuster entertainment. They are loud and silly but do so with pride, it wasn't until Justin Lin joined the franchise with Tokyo Drift that they started to become genuinely good movies. The franchise briefly stalled with Fast And Furious, but quickly shifted back in top gear with the excellent Fast Five.
Now that marketing for The Avengers/Avengers Assemble is winding down and marketing for The Dark Knight Rises has yet to really begin, it's time for G.I. Joe: Retaliation to sneak in get some awareness going.
The first full trailer for David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis has been released this week, and if you were blown away from the 30 minute teaser last month then you will be blown away from what you are to see here.
While the Germans had the amazing compound noun Wirtschaftswunder the Italians stole the English word for their post-war economic growth: ‘Il Boom’. Vittorio de Sica’s 1963 neo-realist black comedy is released for the first time on DVD.
Giovanni (Alberto Sordi, the Best of Enemies) has been living far beyond his means when he tries to impress friends and family as one of the boom’s nouveau riche. Becoming a joke amongst his colleagues and with no one willing to invest in either his business deals or scams Giovanni’s overbearing step-father separates him from his wife (Gianna Maria Canale, I Vampire) and young son. Considering suicide Giovanni is approached by Mrs Bausetti, the wife of a building magnate who had lost the sight of an eye in an industrial accident. In return for one of his eyes the Bausetti’s will give Giovanni enough money to get him out of his slump.
Based on Paul Torday's best selling novel, this film tells a literal "fish out of water" story as fisheries expert Dr Alfred Jones and financial consultant Harriet Chetwolde-Talbot are tasked by a Shiekh to introduce salmon fishing to the Yemen, which is not known for its natural abundance of water.
Francis Lawrence has received an official offer from Lionsgate this afternoon as their first choice to direct The Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire.
