Project X

So I mentioned in the previous post that I also went to see Project X last week. I would’ve written about it sooner but I was so excited to write about 21 Jump Street that I seemed to have over-looked it. But don’t worry, I’m rectifying this now!

Again I seemed to have managed to avoid finding out loads about the film before I went to go and see it – usually I watch all the trailers and ruin it for myself by looking it up on Wikipedia! Project X sounded to me like some sort of sci-fi movie but nope, it was about a group of geeks that want to throw the biggest and best party to become popular. Nothing new there, but when it started I was confused for a bit – it is all filmed in that home-movie camcorder style fashion. I just found it weird because I’m so used to that style being used for horror films but after a while I didn’t even notice. It made the film a bit different from the traditional teen movie and made you feel like you were there.

The main cast weren’t any famous actors I recognised either, which I suppose was good because it added to the fact that I didn’t really know what to expect from it – but after the first few jokes I decided I really liked it. There’s a few funny lines from the over-confident cocky friend of the main character Thomas and also from the geeky side-kick. If you were to compare it to 21 Jump Street in terms of comedy and laugh-out-loud moments, I would probably go for the latter. But that’s not to say that Project X wasn’t amusing, because I thought it was quite funny – kind of like a high-school style version of The Hangover (funnily enough it is directed by the same director).

So what did Rotten Tomatoes think of the film? With a mere 26% rating, the overall review goes:

“Unoriginal, unfunny, and all-around unattractive, Project X mines the depths of the teen movie and found-footage genres for 87 minutes of predictably mean-spirited debauchery”

Hmm, doesn’t seem to agree with me then! However it does say that 70% of the audience liked it, so don’t let it put you off going to see it if you want to. As the film progressed the plot did get more and more ridiculous which made it funnier. I did leave the cinema wishing that I was throwing a party though – if that was the point in the film then they definitely achieved it. Bring on summer! I’ll leave you with the trailer for it, and be sure to look up cinema times while it is still out – enjoy!

The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists

David Tennant seems to be quite active in the movie scene right now – which I am quite pleased about! This is from his previous film “The Decoy Bride” released earlier this month to this new animated comedy called “The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists” which is directed by Peter Lord (the same guy who made Chicken Run/Wallace and Gromit!). It is a movie adaptation of The Pirates! book series, the plot focussing on the main character ‘Pirate Captain’ who sets out on an adventure to win the Pirate of the Year award – trying to beat his competitors Black Bellamy and Cutlass Liz. David Tennant plays Charles Darwin whom the characters team up with, with other famous names being part of the project as well, with the likes of Hugh Grant (starring as the Pirate Captain), Salma Hayek and Martin Freeman.

Tennant expressed his enthusiasm for his role in the film and said:

“I don’t even know how long I was working on it, certainly over a year, maybe even two years. It was a long process that the actors would just revisit every now and again… It was clearly a laborious and fastidious process, but it is so exciting to be any contributing factor to that.”

The film looks set to be a good family flick, with it being screened in 3D as well (well, what isn’t in 3D nowadays?), here’s the trailer if you fancy a sneak peek at the movie:

If you want to find out more, visit the film’s website here – although I did find it quite hard to navigate on my rubbish computer… maybe save it for when you have access to a computer that isn’t as slow as mine! You won’t have to wait long to find out whether the long production of the film was worth it – The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists is due to be released on the 28th of March 2012 in the UK.

The End of Glasgow Film Festival

So I started this blog with a post of the Glasgow Film Festival, and thought I’d do one to sum up the end of the Festival since I haven’t mentioned it since then. It was on from the 16th February to the 26th of February – overall there has been positive response to this year’s festival – reports from the Glasgow Film Festival Website say that ticket sales were well up from last year, and with sales being up 40% in the last 3 years. Co-director Allan Hunter said:

Cinemas have been buzzing, the number of sell-out screenings has risen and both audiences and critics have really embraced all the diverse elements of the Festival programme.

Examples of these mentioned sell-out screenings were Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy, and the UK premieres of The Decoy Bride starring the lovely David Tennant and The Raid, directed by Gareth Evans. The “fest within the fest” Channel4’s FrightFest was also a popular event for attendees as always. The other featured festivals such as the Glasgow Youth Film Festival and Glasgow Short Film Festival – the latter featured a competition which is a first for the event – the winner was Will Anderson for The Making of Longbird, who won a cash prize sponsored by Glasgow’s own “The Wee Curry Shop.”

Something that I just came across as well was a Gene Kelly flash mob that was performed at Glasgow Airport just before the festival kicked off – it was one of the ways the event  this year paid tribute to Gene Kelly – it has received over 10 thousand views now. You can watch it here (I love a good flashmob!):

In addition to this, throughout the festival they screened selected Gene Kelly musicals. I’m sure there will be even more to look forward to next year, with the 2013 Glasgow Film Festival running from the 14th-24th of February. Leave a comment if you attended this year’s festival and if there’s anything in particular you enjoyed!

Glasgow, the new Hollywood?

Last year we saw Glasgow being used as the home for movie sets, from Brad Pitt’s upcoming zombie film World War Z to a Bollywood film featuring Slumdog Millionaire star Anil Kapoor. I just thought I’d do a blog on the other film that was recorded here – Cloud Atlas, seeing as it’s due for release later on this year, around October time. The streets of Glasgow were changed to look like San Francisco hills while they made the film adaptation of the book by David Mitchell, funnily enough called ‘Cloud Atlas‘. The story isn’t the classic beginning, middle, end narrative but 6 different stories set over various time periods and places which are all connected (sorry that’s a bit vague, I haven’t actually read the book).

The new film will feature Oscar-winning Halle Berry, along with many other familiar faces like Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Susan Sarandon and Jim Broadbent of Harry Potter, Moulin Rouge and Bridget Jones’ Diary fame. It is also co-directed by Tom Tykwer and the Wachowski brothers that are most famous for The Matrix movies. Feel free to check out the film’s IMDB page for the full cast list and details!

More of Halle Berry on set in Glasgow, rocking a wig

Halle Berry, on set

Tom Hanks

Believe it not, this is Hugh Grant!

Familiar faces among the Cloud Atlas cast

Cloud Atlas

It’s so exciting when there’s something big like this Hollywood production in town, for instance apparently lots of people descended on the city when Brad Pitt was in town filming World War Z, with an appearance from Angelina Jolie too. However there was criticism that it made people’s journeys much longer with all the traffic and disruption caused for the filming. Despite differing opinions though, Glasgow becoming a new favourite place favoured by Hollywood directors to film means extra money for the economy – according to the Guardian, an extra £150 million has been made from filmmaking in the city in the last decade. Not bad.

On a side note, recently in Edinburgh, James McAvoy was also spotted filming outside one of my friends’ workplace – The Christmas Shop near the Grassmarket for any of you that want to know. All the stars seem to be avoiding wherever I am! Anyway, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion – is all this good for Glasgow’s economy and publicity? Or would you rather they take it somewhere else?

Safe House

Last night was Wednesday. I am on the mobile network Orange. Wednesdays + Orange = Orange Wednesdays. So what better time to visit the cinema? Me and my flatmates were in the mood  for a good action film to go and see, and this one did not disappoint.

Featuring Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington, it is a story about a notorious criminal Tobin Frost (Washington) who is finally taken to a CIA operated safe house after years of evasion, but the person responsible for the ‘house’ Matt Weston (Reynolds) finds himself having to go on the run with the fugitive after the safe house is broken into.

Personally I thought the movie was great, there were lots of moments where I was hiding behind my hands and gripping onto the person next to me (don’t worry, I did know them) through the fight scenes and chase scenes. There were also quite a few “jumpy” moments where you’d get taken off guard and get a bit of a fright. However sometimes the camera shots and cinematography made it hard to see what was happening, and I did find the story quite hard to follow and nothing really original.

But that’s just my opinion, here are what other people thought of the movie:

“Though Safe House is anchored by strong performances from Washington and Reynolds, they’re let down by a thin script and choppily edited action sequences that betray the film’s unfortunate lack of imagination.”

– RottenTomatoes.com

“It … shows how much can be done with a business-as-usual CIA-thriller script when it’s bolstered by effective acting and expert direction.”

– Mark Adams, The Daily Mirror

“For his debut film in English, Daniel Espinosa pulls off a great looking action thriller which is sadly let down by a script that falls apart towards the end.”

– Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman

So some good and bad points from reviews, but really, if you are in the mood for seeing a bit of punching, shooting and a hell of a lot of chasing then you should definitely go and see this movie. Plus the main characters are easy on the eye.

The Oscars

Okay so, although this is not strictly Scottish movie news, I think The Oscars is pretty relevant as one of the biggest awards ceremonies like, ever. It was the 84th Academy Awards last night (26th February), and there were some big expectations for Martin Scorsese’s ‘Hugo‘ and the very popular ‘The Artist‘, with 11 nominations and 10 nominations respectively. Both films did incredibly well – they both ended up with 5 Oscars each.

“The Artist is a wonderful, charming valentine to the birth of movies.”

– Jon Voight, Actor.

The Artist won ‘Best Picture’ which made it the first silent movie to win an Oscar since the very first Academy awards in 1929. Just goes to show that everything comes back into fashion at some point! (This is the excuse I use for owning too many clothes.) It also picked up awards for ‘Best Costume’, ‘Best Original Score’, ‘Best Actor’ for Jean Dujardin and ‘Best Director’ for Michel Hazanavicius.

The video above shows some highlights from the awards, with Meryl Streep gaining her 3rd Oscar for her role as Margaret Thatcher in ‘The Iron Lady‘, and the emotional speech from Octavia Spencer when she won Best Supporting actress for ‘The Help.’ This years event even saw Christopher Plummer win ‘Best Supporting Actor’ at 82 years old, making him the oldest Oscar winner to date. The other big winner ‘Hugo’ excelled in technical categories like Cinematogaphy and Visual Effects. Have a look at the BBC’s full list of winners here.

My all-time favourite part of the Oscars is definitely the Red Carpet and seeing what everyone is wearing (see below) and it might sound stupid but I like it when it cuts to the audience. It’s just literally full of everyone who is anyone in the film business, and seeing their reactions to the winners is great too. Oh, and sorry for the over-use of the word ‘Best’ in this blog… but it is an Oscars post after all. I’ll leave you with the Oscars official website – it’s worth a visit.

Jean Dujardin winning ‘Best Actor’.

Octavia Spencer, looking amazing in her dress.

Meryl Streep, seeming dressed as an Oscar herself.

Ellie Kemper rocking the ‘Sequinned Mermaid’ look – I love it.

Gwyneth Paltrow all in white.

Cameron Diaz’s dress is gorgeous. And she is looking so muscular!

The Glasgow Film Festival

This weekend is where it is at for the Glasgow Film Scene – The Glasgow Film Festival is up and running! Opening its seventh year, it will be on from the 16th of February until the 26th of February 2012 and features 16 different locations across the city, one even being a swimming pool!

Glasgow Film Festival Trailer

There was even a programme of free events for those cinema lovers that have the bank account balance of a student (like myself!) which unfortunately ended today with a screening based on the designer Vivienne Westwood called Vivienne Westwood: Do It Yourself. Not only were there free screenings but also opportunities to learn more about the movie world with masterclasses and guest speakers.

This weekend features screenings for Film4’s Frightfest – perfect for those who love horror! If you are a fan of the whole “authentic DIY camera footage” movie then there is a screening of Evidence tomorrow at 11:00, which from the description sounds a lot like the Blair Witch Project. On a lighter note, there is also the Music and Film Festival screening movies this weekend. This Sunday they will be showing the 1920’s version of “The Phantom of the Opera” at Pollokshaws Burgh Hall. If you want to see the full range of what’s available, head over to The Glasgow Film Fest website.
Unfortunately I am not about this weekend in Glasgow to enjoy the festival, but for those of you that are interested you can still get your tickets for screenings this weekend. They even offer £1 off tickets for those of you keen beans with Unlimited Cineworld cards! There is a box office in that massive Cineworld (you cannot miss it) on Renfrew Street where you can purchase tickets, and another on Rose Street. You can purchase tickets over the phone and also online – for further details on buying tickets, click this link here.