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Rich

A Smooth $70.5 Million Opening Weekend for Twilight

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TwilightStephenie Meyer’s Twilight opened at cinemas this weekend and amassed a massive $70.5 million, smashing expectations, and making it the fourth highest opening weekend success of 2008. Exit polls showed that 75% of the audience was female, and it’s expected that many will see the movie multiple times such is the popularity and excitement which surrounds the movie adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s popular Twilight novel.

It’s a powerful amount of money for the film to have made, and having had a budget of $37 million, the film has already turned a huge profit for Summit Entertainment. It would seem that they were right to secure all future films in the series, and now that Twilight has been such a cinematic success; the future looks bright for New Moon.

Twilight now holds the crown of greatest opening weekend for a vampire film ever, biting it comfortably away from the neck of Van Helsing. Stephen Sommers won’t be too happy, Stephenie Meyer and Summit Entertainment however will be laughing all the way to the bank.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) – Official International Trailer

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December 12th is the date that Scott Derrickson’s The Day the Earth Stood Still remake will hit cinemas here in the UK. It stars Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, and John Cleese amongst others, and with its budget of roughly $80 million; this film should be something really rather special.

The film will hit IMAX screens as well as standard cinemas, so in order to get the full experience of the film I’d most definitely recommend seeing it at your nearest IMAX cinema if possible. There are only a few weeks left now until the film is here, in the mean time sink your teeth into this trailer however and see what you think.

Black Christmas

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I’ve never been a particularly big fan of Christmas, I had to wait until last year actually for my first enjoyable Christmas, and although last Christmas was most definitely well worth the wait; prior to that I’d experienced twenty terrible Christmases in my lifetime.

Last Christmas was incredibly special, I got to spend it with my soul mate and I loved every second of it. Whilst I’d never previously enjoyed a Christmas though, I’ve always been a big fan of Christmas films. I guess the reason I’ve always been such a big fan of them is because watching them was to witness Christmas as I always felt it should be. They’re magical, the occasion seems so special, and everything just seems perfect. Prior to last Christmas though, my personal experience of Christmas was that of dysfunctional families, falseness around the dinner table, and post-dinner family member tears. Not quite the idyllic Christmas joy you see in the films, that’s for sure.

Black Christmas was the film I watched today, not the original 1974 movie mind, but instead the terrible 2006 remake. I thought it’d be enjoyable, I love horror films, and remakes of popular 70s films can often be really good. This one wasn’t; Glen Morgan’s Black Christmas remake wasted away 84 minutes of my life, 84 minutes I’ll now never get back – thanks Glen. Watching Glen Morgan’s Black Christmas was almost as pleasurable as spending Christmas with my family, almost, but not quite even that good. Black Christmas provides for painful viewing, and whilst watching the film I just always felt a bit bored. It’s not as though it’s a long film, in fact at 84 minutes it’s actually pretty short; it gets old quick though, and after just ten minutes I was already waiting for the film to end and eagerly watching the timer on the DVD player tick slowly away.

With Christmas fast approaching I figured that now would be as good a time as any to watch Glen Morgan’s Black Christmas, having watched it though I just really wish I hadn’t bothered. I haven’t actually seen Bob Clark’s 1974 original, I will watch it soon though and I have no doubt whatsoever that his original telling will be far superior. Bob Clark sadly passed away in April 2007, his films live on however and he also famously directed the first two Porky’s films, and not so credibly directed Baby Geniuses 1 and 2 as well; two films seen by many as being amongst the worst movies ever made.

What I was hoping to be a fun Christmas slasher turned out to be a total waste of time, I will credit the film with one thing though; it’s a lot better than Michael Cooney’s Jack Frost so it’s certainly not the worst Christmas horror movie ever made.

Summit Entertainment Will Put to Film all Three Twilight Sequels

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TwilightSummit Entertainment has the film rights for all three of the next Stephenie Meyer novels in the Twilight series. New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn will all be put to film by Summit Entertainment, and the production company already has a writer for the next two films in the series. Melissa Rosenberg is to take on the role of screenwriter for the next two films, the first hasn’t even had its full theatrical release yet and already the Twilight film future has been decided.

The company is clearly expecting Twilight to bring in a lot of money, and given the selling power of the Stephenie Meyer novels, it’s really no surprise that they’re expecting for such success to come. The soundtrack is already selling well, and having already topped the U.S. Billboard 200; the soundtrack’s success in America is likely to be replicated all around the world when the film hits the movie theatres over the course of the next few months.

Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series is hugely popular with fans of all ages, the novels have grossed masses of money and now the film franchise is looking to do the same thing too. Summit Entertainment is definitely onto a winner with the Twilight series, and with a screenwriter picked, and film rights already purchased; Summit Entertainment is making sure all areas are well and truly covered in order to make the Twilight movie domination path run as smoothly and painlessly as possible.

Official Role Models Trailer

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Role Models will not hit UK cinemas until January 2nd 2009, having already seen the film however I have to say that it’s one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen. From start to finish the film is excellent, pure comedy brilliance.

Paul Rudd amongst others wrote the screenplay for the film, and whilst Rudd had never before written a screenplay for a film; he certainly did a marvellous job with this one as the script is pure gold. The film shows Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott at their very best, it’s a ridiculously funny comedy film and on many occasions throughout its 99 minute run time the film had me in absolute stitches.

Ain’t It Cool News Harry Knowles even had a good word to say about Role Models, the film is brilliant and if you’re up for a laugh then I most definitely recommend seeing this one. Few films have made me laugh this hard in my lifetime, Role Models is a near perfect comedy and one which craves to be watched by all.

Here’s the trailer:

Six New Watchmen Posters

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The Zack Snyder directed superhero film Watchmen will not hit cinemas until March 2009, Warner Bros have now released six new character posters for the film however (intially with one poster sent out to each of the six websites Los Angeles Times, Access Hollywood, USA Today, WiReD, Entertainment Weekly and MTV) and this is what they’ve now come up with.

Will Watchmen be just another superhero movie, or will it be one of the best films of 2009? In March 2009 the answers will all be provided when Watchmen hits standard cinemas and IMAX also.

Watchmen will star such names as Malin Akerman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Patrick Wilson, and here are posters for the six characters of The Comedian, Silk Spectre II, Nite Owl II, Dr. Manhattan, Ozymandias, and Rorschach.

Click on the thumbnails in order to view full size images of these posters.

Official Zack & Miri Make A Porno Trailer

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Zack & Miri Make A Porno hit UK cinemas today, and just in case you haven’t yet seen it; here’s the official trailer to try and convince you to do so. The film is directed by Kevin Smith, you may well know him as Silent Bob from the Jay and Silent Bob films, and just to make the partnership complete; Jay actor Jason Mewes appears here as an actor within the film.

The main roles are played here by Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as Zack and Miriam. Zack & Miri Make A Porno is a romantic comedy with a definite difference, and if you’ve ever seen and appreciated the films of Kevin Smith in the past then there’s a very good chance you’ll enjoy this one also.

The film has an excellent comedy cast, with pretty much all those involved having appeared in some of the best films of this sort. The film is packed full of quality, it’s a very funny film, and for those that love a good silly American comedy; Zack & Miri Make A Porno is most definitely a film to watch.

Give the trailer a viewing, see what you think, and if you like what you see here then definitely go view the film at the cinema as you can expect to see plenty more of the same and to be kept well and truly entertained with a fantastic 101 minutes of film.

Body Of Lies is Coming Soon

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Body of LiesWith eight days left to go until the UK cinematic release of Body Of Lies; excitement is starting to build around this Ridley Scott directed drama. The film was originally meant to be released on October 10th, that said though it was also initially going to be called House Of Lies so everything is subject to change in the world of film.

Based on David Ignatius’s 2007 novel of the same name, Body Of Lies has received mixed reviews from the critics, but I’m still confident of the films quality. Ridley Scott is a magnificent film director, a true titan of the film world, and I’m completely confident that Body Of Lies is a film that is going to wow UK audiences when it’s released next Friday (21st November).

The film will not pass without its critics, there will be some that will knock the film and with novel adaptations this is something that is always to be expected. There will be plenty that will love the film though, takings should be strong all around the UK, and I expect that many cinemas will be filled next Friday for the film’s release.

Body Of Lies stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, so don’t forget that it’s released next Friday and make sure you do give the film a viewing at some stage as this Ridley Scott directed action/drama is sure to impress. With eight days left to run until the film’s release; that gives you plenty enough time to go read David Ignatius’s novel also, so when the film is released you can watch it with the novel in mind and make mental comparisons between the two. If reading’s not your thing then no worries, it’s not really mine either, just watch the film and I’m sure you’ll find it to be of great appeal.

The Cottage Review

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From director Paul Andrew Williams (London to Brighton), ‘The Cottage’ is a comedy horror film which originally achieved a UK cinematic release in March 2008. This dark British film stars Andy Serkis, Reece Shearsmith, and Jennifer Ellison.

Brothers David and Peter come up with a master plan in order to bag a large sum of cash between them. The plan is that they’ll kidnap the daughter of a big time gangster, hold her hostage, and demand £100,000 ransom. It all seems so simple, it doesn’t quite go according to plan however and before long everything starts to go wrong for the two brothers. As the £100,000 looks increasingly less likely to become theirs, things go from bad to worse and the brothers, along with their hostage Tracey find themselves to be in a very sticky situation indeed. This bungled kidnapping gets incredibly messy as our key protagonists find themselves fighting for their lives.

Never does ‘The Cottage’ ever seem to really get going, it paces along and is mildly amusing in parts, on the whole however the film just fails to impress and there’s a lot of time spent here merely waiting for things to happen. The jokes are few and far between, the horror aspect is often incredibly predictable, and whilst I did enjoy the film a little in places; overall I’d have to say that I wasn’t really that impressed by ‘The Cottage’. There were elements that I quite liked about the film, not enough to ever keep me completely entertained however and frequently I found myself wondering when the film was going to come to its end.

In the original Paul Andrew Williams script, hostage Tracey was meant to be a 40 year old woman; in the film Tracey is played by Jennifer Ellison however, and according to Paul Andrew Williams himself, in order to get finance for the film he was asked to cast someone young for the part. I don’t feel it would have made much difference regardless of who had have played the part of Tracey; there wasn’t much to the film really, and although Jennifer Ellison was quite weak in her role – the script didn’t really allow for any real depth of performance anyway.

The plot line is quite ropey, the jokes on the whole unfunny, and what I enjoyed most about the film was probably its brief moments of tension. Suspense was built well in parts, had me on the edge of my seat a little, really making me feel as though I was watching a ‘real’ horror movie. I feel that had the film trod a more horror based line then the film perhaps would have been more successful, the suspenseful horror parts were more enjoyable to watch than the comedy elements, and had this been the key focus of the film then ‘The Cottage’ could well have been a reasonable British horror film. As it turns out though, the film was never really too much of either, and whilst there were a few funny moments and some excellent elements of suspense; all in all there’s a lot about this film not to like and many moments where the film just doesn’t really work.

In terms of quality of cast I feel that Paul Andrew Williams did quite a good job with ‘The Cottage’. I always enjoyed watching Reece Shearsmith in the League of Gentlemen, and it was quite nice to see Andy Serkis present here also, a man probably best known by most for having played Gollum in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ films. As for Jennifer Ellison though? Well, as Paul Andrew Williams wanted her role to be played by a 40 year old we’ll ignore that one. The casting of ‘The Cottage’ wasn’t at all the films problem, more the quality of the script and the general flow of the film.

‘The Cottage’ is certainly not one of the worst films I’ve ever seen, it had its positive aspects and there were times when I did quite enjoy what was going on on-screen. On the whole the film is not great, better than some I’ve seen though and watching the film was not a complete waste of time, just not an entirely enjoyable experience. Would I watch ‘The Cottage’ again? Well, quite frankly no, that’s not to say I hated the film though, just more to the point that I found the film to be not very good.

Paul Andrew Williams is a decent director and ‘The Cottage’ is not a complete disaster, it has its merits and I know for a fact that there are some that do enjoy the film (it has a Rotten Tomatoes overall freshness percentage of 71% for instance); I’m not one of the films fans however, and stand by my point that I feel Williams would have had greater success had he made ‘The Cottage’ an all out horror film. ‘The Cottage’ has not put me off the future films of Paul Andrew Williams, merely removed my wish to ever watch this particular film again. ‘The Cottage’ has its fans, personally I don’t rate the film but if you are a fan of the comedy horror genre then by all means obtain a copy of ‘The Cottage’ on rental and see what you make of this 2008 Paul Andrew Williams directed dark comedy horror.

Rating:

Official Max Payne Trailer

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Computer games often get turned into terrible films, Max Payne is the latest game to have been given the Hollywood treatment and will hit UK cinemas this coming Friday (14th November). I’ve not yet seen the film, I’m excited to do so though, and although it’s reportedly rotten; I’d still like to see how the computer game I’ve always loved so dearly has translated to film.

Resident Evil was similarly slammed by the media when it was released in 2002, Silent Hill in 2006, and also Doom in 2005 (although admittedly for good reason on that occasion). When it comes to film adaptations of computer games it seems that there will always be many keen to criticise, computer games don’t tend to come across too well on film, and even if they do, then they still tend to pale in comparison to similar films of the sort.

Max Payne looks quite fun from the trailer, a light-hearted action film, one that’d be worth watching once but wouldn’t leave you too inclined to watch it on repeated occasions in the future. Basically; Max Payne looks to me like a good film to watch at the cinema, or to rent out when it becomes available, but probably not a film that you’re really going to want to own. That’s just my feeling from the trailer though, and obviously without watching the film in full then I can’t really comment with any real conviction.

So here’s the trailer, see what you think, and if you’ve already seen the film and have anything to say about it, then by all means let us all know what you thought in the comment box below.