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Some members of the cast took the title of '21 Jump Street' very literally
February 24 // The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (12A) See review on page 42. // Black Gold (12A) (Dir: Jean Jacques Annaud, 130 mins) Qatar’s first international co-production, this expensive 30s-set oil conflict epic was clearly intended to inspire David Lean comparisons. But advance word from film festivals was not good, it missed out on all anticipated awards nominations, and it has failed to secure a US release. Antonio Banderas stars. // Blood Car (18) See review on page 43. // One for the Money (12A) (Dir: Julie Ann Robinson, 91 mins) Action-comedy with Katherine Heigl as an unemployed woman who joins her cousin’s bail bond business, only to find that she has a romantic history with the first offender she’s sent to track down. // Rampart (15) See review on page 43. // Safe House (15) See feature on page 39 and review on page 44. // Red Dog (PG) See review on page 43.
March 2 // Carancho (TBA) See review on page 44.
// STILL
SHOWING // // The Artist (PG) (Dir: Michel Hazanavicius, 100 mins) Allconquering silent dog movie, with able human support. HHHHH // Carnage (15) (Dir: Roman Polanski, 80 mins) Best vomiting scene outside a grossout movie in Polanski’s forensic dissection of middle-class ‘civility’. HHHHH // A Dangerous Method (15) (Dir: David Cronenberg, 100 mins) Cronenberg’s unexpectedly dull Freud flick: all talk and not enough spanking. HHHHH // The Descendants (15) (Dir: Alexander Payne, 115 mins) A refreshingly unsmug George Clooney
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// Hunky Dory (15) (Dir: Marc Evans, 110 mins) Set in pre-punk 1976 Swansea, Welsh director Marc Evans’ nostalgic drama stars Minnie Driver as an idealistic schoolteacher facing indifference from pupils and hostility from colleagues as she attempts to stage a trendy modern version of ‘The Tempest’. Soundtrack includes David Bowie, Nick Drake and ELO. // Michael (18) See review on page 45. // Project X (18) (Dir: Nima Nourizadeh, 88 mins) Produced by the director of ‘The Hangover’ and featuring a cast of newcomers selected through a US talent search, this teen comedy is essentially ‘Facebook Party Disaster - The Movie’. // This Means War (12A) (Dir: McG, 98 mins) Tom Hardy and Chris Pine are top CIA agents who find they’re both going out with Reese Witherspoon. To resolve this unfortunate situation, they make use of all the high-tech toys at their disposal to blow stuff up, with - you guessed it! - ‘hilarious consequences’. Postponed from last month. // Wanderlust (15) (Dir: David Wain, 98 mins) Recently downsized Manhattan yuppie couple Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd join a hippy free love commune with - stop me if you’ve heard this before - ‘hilarious consequences’.
March 9
shines in Alexander Payne’s belated follow-up to ‘Sideways’. HHHHH // Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (12A) (Dir: Steven Daldry, 129 mins) Tom Hanks stars in ‘Billy Elliot’ director Steven Daldry’s grotesque, nauseating, manipulative and inevitably Oscar-nominated 9/11 flick. HHHHH // Ghost Rider 3D: Spirit of Vengeance (12A) (Dir: Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor, 95 mins) Old flaming skull is back for further silliness in faddy 3D. // Jack and Jill (PG) (Dir: Denis Dugan, 91 mins) Adam Sandler in drag. Nobody laughs. HHHHH // Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (PG) (Dir: Brad Peyton, 94 mins) Hollywood mugs Jules Verne for an enjoyably silly sequel. // Martha Marcy May Marlene (15) (Dir: Sean Durkin, 102 mins) Elizabeth
Olsen and John Hawkes shine in US cult escapee drama. HHHHH // A Monster in Paris (U) (Dir: Bibo Bergeron, 90 mins) Kiddie animation about a giant singing flea. // The Muppets (U) (Dir: James Bobin, 110 mins) Our felt friends from yesteryear make a comeback that’s even more entertaining than we dared hope. HHHHH // Puss in Boots 3D (U) (Dir: Chris Miller, 90 mins) Enjoyable box office chart-topping origin tale from the ‘Shrek’ franchise, tracing the fairytale past of Antonio Banderas’s seductive swordsfeline. HHHHH // Stars Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace 3D (U) (Dir: George Lucas, 136 mins) It’s what the world’s been waiting for: Jar Jar Binks in 3D! HHHHH // The Vow (12A) (Dir: Michael Sucsy, 104 mins) Forgettable amnesia
// Cleanskin (15) (Dir: Hadi Hajaig, 108 mins) Undercover agent Sean Bean adjusts his expression to ‘grim and determined’ as he sets out to whup the asses of an Islamist terrorist cell plotting atrocities on the streets of London. // Trishna (15) See review on page 45.
March 16 // 21 Jump Street (15) (Dir: Phil Lord & Chris Miller, 109 mins) Yes, it’s the ‘80s TV show that launched Johnny Depp’s career reworked as a raunchy buddy comedy for Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, who play a pair of cops going undercover in a US high school. Curiously, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller have a background in animation. Their previous film was ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’. // Contraband (15) See review on page 45. // The Devil Inside (15) See review on page 44. // In Darkness (15) See review on page 46.
// We Bought a Zoo (PG) See review on page 46. // Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (15) See review on page 46.
March 23 // Act of Valor (TBA) (Dir: Mike McCoy & Scott Waugh) The loudly trumpeted USP of this Macho Action Nonsense is that it casts real US Navy Seals in a story built around actual events. That the directors got access to so much military hardware suggests it will be in no way critical of Uncle Sam’s most gung-ho terrorist slayers. // The Kid with a Bike (12A) (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 87 mins) Belgium’s much-feted brothers glum return with a reportedly cheerier-than-usual drama about an abandoned 11year-old boy who’s adopted by a hairdresser.
March 28 // The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists 3D! (TBA) See feature on pages 26-27 and review on page 42.
romance with Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams. // War Horse (12A) (Dir: Steven Spielberg, 146 mins) You want schmaltz with your WWI? Spielberg whisks us from radiant Devonland to grim No Man’s Land with his sweeping horsey weepie, based on Michael Morpurgo’s bestseller. HHHHH // The Woman in Black (12A) (Dir: James Watkins, 95 mins) Hogwarts graduate Daniel Radcliffe applies for membership of the Guild of GrownUp Actors in Hammer’s new version of the Susan Hill ghostie story. // The Woman in the Fifth (15) (Dir: Pawel Pawlikowski, 84 mins) Kristin Scott Thomas and Ethan Hawke star in a dull and dreary meditation on paranoia and madness, filled with laboured symbolism. HHHHH
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2/22/2012 3:54:34 PM