Everything about this war-set detective thriller delights, confounds and disturbs; even its ludicrous title (perhaps some poeticism was lost in translation) somehow gels with the melodrama.
Following Bradley Cooper's departure from Jane Got A Gun to complete production on American Hustle, news arrives that the Hangover star has an even more lucrative role lined up once he completes David O. Russell's political drama.
Cooper will headline American Sniper, with none other than Steven Spielberg directing. Based on the true story of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, an expert marksman who racked up the highest number of sniper kills in US military history.
The film, based on the international bestseller by Sofi Oksanen, opens with Zara, a young pink-haired woman escaping from the Russian mafia who had enslaved her as a prostitute. The dishevelled figure is found by Aliide, an elderly woman who lives in an isolated house in the Estonian forest. But Zara’s presence unlocks Aliide’s suppressed memories of the past: her love, her sister and the trauma of her life. Zara and Aliide’s stories are told through flashbacks and symbolic repetition, as we discover there are more similarities between the two women than they first thought.
Distributors Metrodome are marketing this movie alongside several European 'true' stories of war, such as Cross of Honour and Saints & Soldiers: Airborne Creed (as well as the excellent, but slightly older, Lebanon, appealing to tank enthusiasts). However Russian Director Karen Shakhnazarov's White Tiger makes no such claims to verisimilitude, erring on the side of mysticism, fanaticism and fantasy.
Brad Pitt's most iconic character in recent years is undoubtedly the Nazi-killing, tobacco-chewing Basterd in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, so it isn't too hard to believe that he is returning to that same war to kill some more Nazis, and perhaps even chew some more tobacco if we're really lucky.
About a year and a half ago, production commenced on Ben Affleck's brand new project, the disyllabically-titled 'Argo'. Ring a bell? Unless cave-dwelling and the Luddite lifestyle is your thing, then it certainly should. Based on a true story and with a wealth of talent at the luxuriantly-bearded American's disposal, the film went on to bag Best Picture at the Academy Awards last month. Here at Lost in the Multiplex, we spotted that project's potential early, and I'd like to go on record in suggesting that you keep a beady eye on George Clooney's current directorial project, The Monuments Men.
Zero Dark Thirty arrives on UK screen after creating a storm of controversy in its opening week in the U.S. over the inclusion of scenes in which members of the CIA extract important information by torturing detainees. However Kathryn Bigelow’s follow up to the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker is, according to screenwriter Mark Boal and her, a factually accurate account of the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden, and not a political film.
In the midst of sweeping awards bodies across America, becoming a strong contender for the Best Picture at next year's Oscars, Zero Dark Thirty is ramping up towards its wide-release with a riveting, final trailer.
When I was a kid, we had a board game called Escape from Colditz. Like the castle, it was virtually impregnable, consisting of an enormous complex board liberally strewn with counters and cards and tokens. It took as long to set up as it would subsequently take for me to have a tantrum when an elderly uncle quoted something as square as the “rules”. I would then depart, scattering said tokens, cards and counters, and go back to playing Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins on my Gameboy. How little I knew.
A new clip and series of images from Zero Dark Thirty were intercepted by our special ops team for your viewing pleasure.
