Tales from the screening room

Project: XBox Live

2011-12-13T01:47:00.000-08:00

OK so get this a few weeks ago a recieve an email asking me to be a part of a new initative for XBox Live. They have just launched a new dashboard for XBox live users & they want me to help talk about it! Well this was all very good and sounds really great, however there was one minor problem. Im a sold out Playstation kinda guy and I don't actually own a XBox...

Well that doesn't matter as I am being supplied with one for what I am now calling Project: XBox Live. So people check back here over the next 8 weeks as I meet XBox, experience all the new features with Live over the coming weeks and probably a few surprises. I have a feeling this is going to be enormous fun!

TO BE CONTINUED...

It Was The Best Of Times, It Was The Worst Of Times (Part II)

2010-12-28T07:30:00.000-08:00

Over the next few weeks as 2010 comes to a close we will be looking at the best & worst of 2010 and then taking a look at what we believe to be the movies to look out for in 2011. So this week we continue by running down what we had the pleasure of viewing to bring you the latest reviews. We give you...

Screen One's Best Movies of 2010

10. How To Train Your Dragon

Would have been the best CGi animatred movie of the year if it hadn't been for those pesky toys!! (But more on them later..). How to Train Your Dragon was up against some strong competition this year (Despicable Me, Megamind), but managed with some truly outstanding 3D to soar above the rest of the competition. The tale of Hiccup a small Viking boy who isn't living up to expectations, who discovers a injured Dragon and befriends it. The film manages to pull no punches even in it's ending (Hiccup loses his leg) and was sheer entertainment.

9. Piranha 3D

Dumb, Stupid movie that actually isn't great. But it knows it and is brilliant fun, despite it's crassness. Featuring Elisabeth Shue as the best female horror figure since Ellen Ripley as she battles students at Spring Break and hundreds of Prehistoric Piranha's as they chomp and devour their way through Lake Victoria. Some inspired deaths and the prescence of Kelly Brook as a porn star add up to one enormous explotation flick that delivers better than any of Rodriguez's Grindhouse movies of late. Just set your brain to cruise mode and enjoy.

8. Tron: Legacy

28 years after the cult bockbuster that changed the way computers were used in filmamking hit the big screen, finally the sequel arrives with the hero of the first (Jeff Bridges) Flynn, traped inside the Grid and his son Sam comes looking for him. Now with the much advanced technology, 3D is introduced in a similar way to the use of colour in The Wizard of Oz. The effects are nothing short of stunning to look at. The story flags a little in the middle when theres maybe a little too much exposition, but this IS the sequel those of us who remember 1982 have waited for. Well worth the wait Tron returns with a promise of more!

7. Kick Ass

Unlike Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Kick Ass managed to live up to the comic book fandom hype. A brilliantly written and directed movie of a guy called Dave (Aaron Johnson) who decides to become a Superhero called Kick Ass. Unfortunately, his name doesn't refer to the beatings he delivers to the bad guys, more the one's he recieves. Featring a strong cast (Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Mark Strong & Chloe Grace Moretz) and a sharp considered script by Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn (Who also directs). This delivered a boost to the much flagging action & Superhero genres and forced any filmmakers to reconsider how they delivered what we see on the big screen. Shocking, hilarious but puire class, Kick Ass is a film you should actively seek out.

6. Buried

2 Hours of watching a man in a coffin, just talking into a mobile phone and waving a flashlight around sounds like it equates to watching paint dry right? Wrong. Not when the guy stuck in the coffin is Ryan Reynolds. It what is a tense couple of hours of the tension is slowly racked up and his plight gets more and more desperate the film delivers on so many levels. With a brilliant sting in the tail, this is a brilliant tale of one mans fight for survival. Reynolds should be considered for an Oscar nomination for this performance, but that is probably unlikely, this is a film that demands to be watched. Probably more so after the Green Lantern clutters up our screens in 2011.

5. The Disappearance of Alice Creed

In 2010 you couldn't go too far without seeing a movie without Gemma Arteton it seemed. Consistantly great throughout the year, this was by far her standout performance (Not including her theatre performances). Alice Creed was a taught British kidnap thriller directed by J Blakeson and featuring on 3 actors (Arteton, Martin Compston and Eddie Marsan) This is another film that doesn't need to rely on big effects and CGi, just a real sense of foreboding terror. Arteton as Creed is put through the mill somewhat, stripped, blindfolded and chained to a bed, she manages to use her sense of survival to make her eventual escape, but even by the time the end is in sight you are not sure of her outcome. Sublime movie making.

4. Black Dynamite

Despite being released in 2009 in the US, here in the UK we finally got to see Black Dynamite and well worth the wait it was too. 2010 was not a great year for comedies on the whole, but Black Dynamite brought his Super Bad self to the screen to save the year for the genre. Micheal Jai White here gives us what can best be described as his love letter to the Blaxplotation flicks of the 70's. Featuring enough crowd pleasing moments as well as film that critics would enjoy, this delivered on all levels. After a slow first 10 minutes, the film finds it's feet with aplomb and delivers some of the funniest & most quotable lines in cinema this year.

3. Inception

Many people wondered what Chris Nolan would deliver after the Tour De Force thatw as The Dark Knight. While all the rumours were rife on who the next Batman villan would be, Nolan went about his business crafting a supremely superior sci fi thriller. Leonardo DiCaprio delivers again as Domonic Cobb a new breed of master criminal, who steal things directly from your mind. he along with his partner Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are presented with the job to end all jobs and despite the dangers it produces and the fact it's never been done before take the job. The film much like the jobs 'Inception' is multi layered and complex, but Chris Nolan who is fast becoming the director of his generation presents a totally believable world with multi faceted characters with inter weaving stories that climax in a finale that would look amazing in a Bond movie. The films cliffhanger alone is worth the price of admission. Awesome.

2. The Social Network

The choice between the top two films of the year was so razor thin, it was almost a joint first. However David Fincher's incredible Social Network was just about pipped at the post. The film itself though was nothing short of unmissable. Despite being pretty much a biopic of the Facebook creator and antagonist Mark Zuckerberg, the film delivers as a intricate personal drama as the story of how the Facebook monster was created. Featuring stand out performances from Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake (Yes, the pop star), Andrew Garfiled and Armie Hammer (Who plays both of the Winklevoss twins) and assured direction from Fincher, this was utterly compelling viewing despite on paper looking rather bland.

And the top film (in our humble opinion) for 2010 is....

1. Toy Story 3

The Toys were indeed back in town. After another lengthy abscence, Pixar decided to dust off Woody, Buzz and the gang for the 3D generation. What a comeback it was too. The story was touching, exciting and always humourous, it quite simply had it all. The added 3D was not a gimmick for reaping in more money at the box office either as the Pixar team pioneered the use of this tool to add another dimension (Literally) to the story telling process. Featuring one of the most genuinely edge of seat finales as the toys plunge towards their doom in a furnace, it was exceptional on every level. Pixar amanged to outdo themselves with the final moments of the film as well. Many had a tear in their eye during 'that'montage in Up, but Toy Story reduced grown men to tears as they relived the final moments they had with their toys as they come to that point in their lives where they have to grow up. Well almost... This is the film that you absolutely cannot miss. If you haven't yet seen it, the question has to be why?

Once again it's time to add some honourable mentions that we were at pains to leave out, but they just missed our top 10 for 2010:

Up In The Air - George Clooney on fine form here as a Corporate Downsizer, who himslef gets downsized. Brilliantly funny and touching.

Precious - This was the hardest one to leave out simply on the (Oscar winning) Performance from comedienne Mo'Nique. Brutal, but uplifting this was Dangerous Minds on Heroin.

The Other Guys - The other standout comedy of the year featuring Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson in a cop buddy comedy.

The American - George again, but this time in a euro spy thriller, that said little and delivered much.

The Girl Who Trilogy - First part stunning, second and third great but not brilliant. It was hard to class these apart as they all pull into one film, excellent performances from the cast and we will be seeing them in American movies verys shortly.

Finally we come to the movies that while not being top 10 movies, we really enjoyed even though we shouldn't have. This year there was two!

Guilty Pleasure of 2010 - Furry Vengance & Burlesque Both of these films delivered nothing short of enjoyment despite being films we should have hated. Furry Vengance brought Brendan Fraser back to his days of George of the Jungle and Airheads. Some fine and funny slapstick, although the kids probably will enjoy it more. Burlesque was two parts Cabaret and one part Coyote Ugly, but great fun. The cast isn't fantastic but the song and dance numbers and the entire look of the production just made it great fun.

The final part of our 2010 trilogy will look at what we are most looking forward to in 2011.

Please take the time to check out the main website HERE and please join in and comment on our forums HERE. You can also follow us on Twitter & Facebook. Until next time thanks for reading.

It Was The Best Of Times, It Was The Worst Of Times (Part I)

2010-12-18T07:11:00.000-08:00

Over the next few weeks as 2010 comes to a close we will be looking at the best & worst of 2010 and then taking a look at what we believe to be the movies to look out for in 2011. So this week we begin by running down what we really did not enjoy having to endure to bring you the latest reviews. We give you...

Screen One's Worst 10 movies of 2010.

10. Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

There's always one movie that will split audiences and there are others that are contentious, well this falls into the latter category. Scott Pilgrim despite being widely loved by the masses, especially the movie geeks and the majority of the movie press, we found it to be an arduous movie that was tough to stomach for it's entire run time.

It's main failing in in our view is that of the lead man, namely Micheal Cera. It quickly became obvious that Cera can only really do drippy, geeky weakling as evidenced in Juno (Which he was pretty good). Then after a few of these types of role he tried his hand at 'edgy' in Youth Gone Wild, where it quickly became apparent that he couldn't do anti hero, just arrogant in a offensive way. Thats what you get in Pilgrim too, Cera has little or no Chemistry with any of the other cast and all the little computer game in jokes became very tired after the first 20 minutes. Not a popular choice but we give you Scott Pilgrim as one to avoid.

9. Dinner For Schmucks

Now this was an easy choice and on any other year probably would have been a lot higher up the chart, however this poor excuse for a 'comedy' starring the usually reliable Paul Rudd and Steve Carrell, what you ended up with was a crass unfunny mess that really should have never seen the light of day.

It also featured Zach Galifianakis who much like Ricky Gervais is turning quickly into a unfunny one trick pony (Great in The Hangover this not so much). Hopefully this horrid excuse for a comedy movie will be forgotten quickly.

8. The Killer Inside Me

Early we mentioned films that split audiences and critics alike, well here is a fine example. The Killer Inside Me was a novel by Jim Thompson that many considered unfilmable. Well, Micheal Winterbottom took a crack at it and while, it looks fabulous and the acting is top notch, the film itself is one nasty little movie that borders on the misogynistic.

Featuring what feels like unending scenes of violence towards women, namely Jessica Alba & Kate Hudson. Having to endure a ten minute scene of Jessica Alba being beaten to a pulp by Casey Affleck's Lou Ford is stomach churning throughout. While it's not your regular Worst film, it's definetly not a enjoyable watch. Nasty.

7. MacGruber

Very rarely does a film based on ten minute Saturday Night Live sketch turn out to make a great film. The only ones thus far that have worked are The Blues Brothers and Waynes World. Well a new addition to the SNL movie crossover failures is Macgruber. The original idea of the Macgruber sketches were that in a parody of McGuyver, each week we would see Will Forte's Macgruber try and defuse a bomb, however something would destract him and he would fail. Now here it's expanded to him hunting down one of his mortal enemies Dieter Von Cunth (Yes thats the level of foul mouthed humour to be expected here.) and working it's way to a big showdown an hour and forty minutes later with a bomb that needs defusing.

Unfunny, featuring cameos from a group of WWE Wresters including The Big Show and Chris Jericho, this is yet another comedy misfire that leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth once the end credits have rolled.

6. Resident Evil: Afterlife

The other failed genre would be the computer game movie conversion. However this is the fourth installement of the Resident Evil Series, so there seems to be an audience for this. Or maybe it's just people thinking 'Surely this one can't be as bad as the last one?' and are cunnigly tricked into seeing it and the real horror is the realisation that you have been duped once more into shelling out your hard earned cash for a ticket.

Well this time we have the added bonus that they have added 3D to the proceedings! Wow! Now we can have loads of zombies and end of level bosses weilding large hammers popping out of the screen at us! Yeah exactly, nothing new to be seen here, except for fans of the video game series when other characters yet to be included in the series appear! It's likely that we will be seeing yet another chapter before too soon as everyone going to see this has ensured semi decent box office = another sequel!

5. Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland directed by Tim Burton in 3D? Sounds like licence to print money right? It even has his longtime muse Johnny Depp in it. In fact the cast was excellent. It features all of Burtons amazing visuals. However he messes with the story and overdoes the entire film to construct one of the most boring renditions of a classic story that puts nearly the entire audience to sleep. Too trippy for the younger members and just plain too weird for everyone else.

The proceedings seem to never end, the cast other than Mrs. Burton a.k.a Helena Bonham Carter are woefully miscast. Much like Burtons reimagining of Planet of the Apes, its an overblown mess. Unfortunately it was given a huge amount of hype coming in which didn't help it. This was a film to endure rather than just watch.

4. Vampires Suck

Every year one of these paraody movies ends up in just about everyones worst top 10 counts. If it's not Date, Dance, Superhero etc. etc. Movie then it's Meet The Spartans. This year we had the delightful Vampires Suck grace our screens. Jumping on the huge success of the Twilight Movies and True Blood, we get a bunch of current pop culture references such as Lady GaGa and Black Eyed Peas jokes along with a group of unkowns mugging to cameras and knowing winks.

I pleaded with people after Meet The Spartans and I will do it again. Please stop going to see these movies. They keep getting made because you keep going to see them. Please stop. Then maybe we can get through a year without anymore of this bile.

3. Skyline

Skyline. Came out of nowhere and had the honour of absolutley no press screenings. There's your first warning sign. But still we headed into the cinema to go and watch this sci fi cinema classic that would rival Independance Day. Once again we were lied to folks. A film made on a meagre budget and almost entirely happens from one room. Featuring what could have been an interesting concept and actually does has some decent creature effects is ruined by the Strause Brothers leaving the film without an ending and some implausible set pieces. (Yes i'm aware the entire story is implausible, but within the realms of the actual movie itself there are some very starnge things going on that don't make any sense and not just the script.)

Here's an example of its stupidity. Despite seeing one of their colleagues crushed to death by one of the aliens, they proceed to try and escape outside. They run from one side of the aprtment complex to another one which is a seperate building. Now they get cut off and run inside for cover and run up several flights of stairs to find themselves back in theior original penthouse suite?!?! I'm sorry but what? Continuity error doesn't even half cover it. Then the US forces let of a Nuclear missile into the belly of the main alien spaceship which doesn't work, however they then deploy despite the oncoming fallout, US Marines to the rooftop with Bazooka's which seemingly do more damage than a Nuke? Then as mentioned earlier, the film doesn't actually have an ending, it just stops. It's like the film makers even got bored and just left it. Awful, plain awful.

2. Sex & The City 2

This summer we had the Football (Soccer to our american cousins) World Cup in South Africa. As usual English hopes were high with yet another 'Golden Generation' of footballers to go and obviously walk over all the opposition and walk away with what is rightfully ours. We even had a 'easy' group that we should have waltzed through. Well as usual we basically capitulated and failed even more miserably than we usually do.

Then to add pain to the heartbreak Sex & The City 2 is released. So now with no excuse all the countries men are dragged to see the second movie offering of the successful TV series. Unfortunately the film turns out to be a turgid, waste of space movie that borders on racist at times and totally inept writing at others. With no discernable story, for some weak reason or other, the girls goto Abu Dhabi where they insult everyone including the audience. For all their dream endings they got at the end of the first film turn out to not be dreams you see but nightmares. So for the next two and a half hours we have to put up with their whinging to only discover at the end, that actually they did get their dream endings, it just wasnt what they were expecting... Whatever. This is poor writing at it's worst. A shameless cash in, that ruins the memories of what was a brilliantly written TV Series. What's more there's a third installment coming! This time they are on their way to the UK for some more high Jinks! Oh how we can hardly wait. Not.

This would have won hands down if it was not for...

1. The Last Airbender

And here we have it. Quite simply the worst thing to grace our cinema screens all year. Horrendous. M.Night Shalyman has outdone himself this time. The Village and The Happening were ten levels of awful, but this takes the realms of bad to a whole new universe of awful. Featuring some of the most ridiculous lines ever to be uttered in a movie 'When we discovered you were a bender, we knew this day would come..' and sets that looked like they were made out of cardboard, Airbender is filmaking at its worst. The film is so bad it gives Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space a run for it's money!

The 3D is so terrible that you can take your glasses off at any point and not actually notice the difference. The film is set up with sequels in mind. On this basis we can only pray that they don't. Or if they do, get Chris Nolan to script and direct it. Thats the only thing that will save this. But on second thoughts, please don't. Just let it die like it deserves too. We cannot put across just how bad this film is and if you read this and decide not to watch the film, then that is one soul we have managed to save.

So there's our top ten and next week we will be publishing our top films of 2010 as it's always good to end the year on a high note. But before we end this column for now, here are a few other films that narrowly missed this top 10:

Saw 3D - Waste of 3D for a film that could have capitalized and made a cracking series of death traps come to life. Thank goodness it's the last one of the series.

Cyrus - Billed as a comedy, actually a mumblecore movie, that is a waste of decent talent.

Grown Ups - It was this or Dinner for Schmucks. Adam Sandler and friends go off on holiday to make a laugh a minute movie. They fail badly.

Killers - Ashton Kutcher, how does this guy get films made?

Devil - M. Night again, fortuntely he's only on writing duties this time, but still terrible.

The A Team - Rips the soul from a much loved TV series from the 80's and Sharlto Copley & Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson aside, woefully miscast awful attempt at reinventing a classic.

Thanks for taking the time to read our latest column. If you have any comments or feedback then please let us know via the official Screen One Forum

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Send In The Clowns

2010-11-02T02:48:00.000-07:00

With Christmas Present lists being fast drawn up and the movie and entertainment companies rolling out their big hitters for Christmas to get your hard earned cash, there is one section that always rolls out several releases for the festive period, namely the Comedy DVDs.

What you have here is a plethora of stand up DVDs of which dependant on your style of comedy may be very hit or miss, so we here at Screen One have taken it upon oursleves to get a bunch of them and go throught them to help you may be choose what suits you. From Jimmy Carr to the Big Yin have a browse through and see what may be on its way to a Christmas stocking near you soon.

With the comedy big hitters in Lee Evans & Michael McIntyre are not releasing and new material for DVDs (Both have complete discologies out) the field is wide open for some new contenders to get their share of the comedy pie.

Jimmy Carr - Making People Laugh

Jimmy Carr, presenter of 8 out of 10 cats releases his latest offering which was taken from his tour earlier in the year and this particular concert in Glasgow. Rather than monologuing style, Jimmy prefers to tell straight jokes such as:

‘When I was a kid I wanted a tattoo, but my parents said I had to get it done somewhere where it didn’t matter. So I had it done in Hull'

'Liverpool is the only place where JD Sports has it's only Eveningwear section'

and the such like. In fact a lot of Jimmy's style is actually borderline racist at best as he takes the opening portion of his show taking pot shots at the Scottish and individual members of the audience. But then if your a fan of Jimmy, then there's something to like here. He's certainly not the worst pick of the litter, but is nowhere near the top either.

Clown Rating: **

Rhod Gilbert - The Cat That Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst

Rhod Gilbert is an enigma when it comes to stand up. He comes from this new wave of AYM comedy (Angry Young Man), which in his case is done in a self depreciating manner. His entire routine sets up one big joke which is rolled into the routine very early on and while venting his anger at buying sofas and wachine machines is pretty funny if the truth be told. He manages to revolve the story around a fan stalker he has who turns up at every gig he does with a present which represents the tour he is doing, hence the title of this tour so he could finally lay waste to the stalker.

Having never encountered Gilbert or his stand up before, despite the angry shouting style he is pleasantly self depreciating and his observations are spot on, if a little middle of the road, but he winds (Himself) up into a crescendo with the big payoff. If you've not tried Rhod before, here's not a bad place to start.

Clown Rating: ****

Jethro - I Told It My Way

Jethro is one of the Old School stand ups who was at his peak back in the 80's when there was the likes of Bernard Manning, Roy Chubby Brown and Jim Davidson doing the rounds. Jethro was seen as the slightly less naughty option. A very twee style of the innocent country bumpkin that uses bad language, this is taken from many stops on his tour around the country. He also like Carr is a more Joke telling style which features such simple classics as:

'Why do divers fall backwards? Because if they fell forwards they'd still be in the boat'

The crowds that he pulls pale in comparrison to some of the big hitters on show here as they tend to be filmed from small theatres rather than the Lodon stages or stadium venues that you see some of the others in. It doesn't make him any less funny however. Probably one for the older audience (as in your dad or granddad) as to be honest Jethro's stle is still in the 80's.

Clown Rating: *** WIN A COPY OF THE JETHRO DVD BOXSET HERE

Ricky Gervais - Science

Ricky Gervais. Still despite a couple of awful attempts at cracking Hollywood is the flavour of the month. Packing out stadiums and arenas worldwide, the Gervais bandwagon rolls onto DVD with his latest acerbic offering Science.

Basically Mr Gervais is living out the persona of his character David Brent on stage doing stand up. He is the comedy equivalent of Marmite. You are either going to love him or hate him and we fall down on the side of hating him here. Hi smug grin and trite jokes which are 'comically' aimed at the public, but you know that Gervais actually not elling the jokes but imparting his personal mantra. Ego stroking and downright unfunny. I think this DVD raised a smile once throughout the entire 90 minutes.

That said though there are obviously legions of Gervais fans and they are sure to lap this up with everything else he does. However one day people will realise that a career built on a 30 second 'silly dance' doesn't mean he's actually any good. Which while that may be overharsh he's not the worst of this years offerings....

Clown Rating: *

Frankie Boyle - If I Could Reach Out Through Your TV And Strangle You I Would.

Not very often would we discourage anyone from getting a DVD, but this has to be the exception to the rule. Frankie Boyle takes 'comedy' to an all new low level of humour. No-one or anything is safe. For the sake of decency I will not be reprinting any of his 'jokes' in this section, but his is another show that like Jimmy Carr where he opens with insulting the audience. However this is not just banter this is quite simply nasty. Most of his barbs refer to his fans being Paedo's for the most part and the fun continues.

Throughout his monologue he takes pot shots at people and his audience are seen to be rolling around at his brilliant humour. Unfortunately I didn't get it. I found it in poor taste at best and certainly didn't laugh once. If it wasn't for the fact that I was reviewing this DVD I would have turned it off inside of the first 15 minutes.

Frankie says of his material that he doesn't care as this is his last ever stand up tour so he can do and say whatever the f*** he wants. Well thanks for that Frankie and thank goodness we won't be seeing anymore of this highly offensive drivel.

Clown Rating: ZERO

Russell Howard - Good News Best of Series 1

Well this one is kind of a cheat. It's not strictly a stand up DVD. It's Russell Howards BBC Three TV Series Good News, a best of compilation which features him doing his routines during the programme.

While it's centred on current events, becuase it's a best of the events are in the past and some of the jokes may sail over the causal audiences heads, especially if they are not up to date with current affairs in 2009 early 2010.

Very light hearted and also very funny. Howards amicable style comes across like he is your best mate or cool brother. His quips are spot on without being to outrageous. Still not one for all the family although obviously coming from a TV show the delivery is very watered down, also maybe not cutting edge enough for others, but he's definetly one to watch for the future.

Clown Rating: ***

Billy Connolly - Live in London 2010

The past master returns to the London part of his tour for another run at Stand Up. Billy has become known for many other things over recent years including Comic Relief and streaking through Picadilly Circus, but here he gets back to what he's best at here, which is performing in front of a live audience.

Billy though comes across rather weathered and delivers a set that is akin to Victo Meldrew. With his his stories of dealing with modern technology, his children and dealing with waning popularity to rock concerts. He does come across quite bumbling at times and forgets his train of thought more than once. Despite this though Billy's stand up is always worth watching, although it's not a patch on arguably his greatest moment which was Live at The Royal Albert Hall in 1987. That is a stand up comedian at the peak of his powers and that still stands up to this day.

Clown Rating: ***

Joan Rivers - A Piece Of Work

Joan Rivers is again like Billy Connolly one of the best ever Stand Ups in the business, here though we get a year in the life of Joan (The year of her 75th Birthday no less) and we get to see how she is dealing with not being in the spotlight so much in the Twilight years of her career (Although don't tell her I said that!). Featuring her putting together her touring show for the UK and select moments of her current stand up routine it is a facinating glimpse into the world of a comedy master.

From her office where she has simply thousands of jokes filed away like a libriarian in draws to her discussing the fact that her diary is not as full as it once was. Then she gets a chance to shine once more with her winning the US version of The Apprentice but even she realises that this moment in the spotlight won't last. The only worry is that despite some very colourful dialogue this DVD has been released as E i.e. unrated, so be careful before getting this for your nan as it still has the ability to shock. But the irrepressible Joan Rivers lives on here and in some style. Essential.

Clown Rating: *****

So overall here there is somethign for everyone this Christmas and we haven't covered everyone here either as there also releases for Jason Mamford, Lee Mack, Tim Vine, Stephen K. Amos, John Bishop & Peter Kay.

We couldn't cover everything and didn't have enough space to, but we would recommend that out of the rather large pile of humour bombs that get Joan Rivers, Rhod Gilbert & Peter Kay's offerings. Avoid at all costs however Frankie Boyles effort unless you enjoy being offended.

So there you have it. We hope that this is helpful to you if you choose to try for something new and funny this holiday season. We will be bvack with another column soon but until then don't forget to check out the Website, Forum and Follow us on Factebook and Twitter (Links Below). Until next time thanks for reading!

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Watching In A Winter Wonderland

2010-11-02T02:22:00.000-07:00

With the clocks going back and the Dark evenings decended that can mean only one thing, Winter is upon us... So with that in mind and with the Winter Holiday Season approaching we here at Screen One have decided to do another countdown to the films that might be worth seeing or that are creating the most excitement here.

10. Burlesque Release Date: 17th December - While this may not be the best of film making and this also happens to look like Coyote Ugly polished up under a modern moniker, it still holds some interest with Christina Aguilera playing opposite Cher (all career parallels are entirely coincidental Im sure) and looks to have a spicy soundtrack as well.

Mostlikely however it may turn out to be another Coyote Ugly, but not quite as good, but we can hope beyond hope that it actually turns out to be good.

Target Audience: Teen Females and pubescent boys.

9. The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader Release date: 9th December - After Disney dropped the Narnia movies after Prince Caspian didn't do as well as they hoped, Fox came in for the save and now we have the next part of the Chronicles. The books don't exactly come across very cinematically from this point in and there will be more character changes as the story movies on, however from the early footage from the trailers, this looks to be at least as good as the previous movies and has made them to look quite action packed. Will be a good early Christmas Holiday movie for the family to watch.

Target Audience: Family, Pre Teen.

8. Monsters Release Date: 3rd December - Not really a seasonal movie as this is a pyschological thriller about aliens in New Mexico, early buzz has been very good for this British Movie, the trailer racks up the tension quite nicely without revealing too much. Marketed as a shocker, will likely please the more adult crowd who don't want to watch Holiday Inn or White Christmas for the 100th time.

Target Audience: Young Adults

7. 127 Hours Release Date: 7th January 2011 - Danny Boyles latest movie debuted at the London Film Festival here in the UK but does not get it's full release until January 2011. The early reports of how horrific it is are a little exaggerated and the reports of people fainting 10 minutes in are a bit ridiculous. Yes some scenes are grisly and hard to watch, but the entire film is compelling and also a true story of a young adventurer who gets stuck while out on his own trapped with a rock on his arm. His only chance of survival is to sever his own arm!

An amazing performance from James Franco in the central role and will surely be rating high come awards season. 127 hours comes highly recommended, but be careful not to eat Christmas leftovers before going to watch it.
Target Audience: Adults, Adventurers and Gore Hounds.

6. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest Release Date: 25th November - 2010 Will likely be remembered for the year of The Girl Who... in both the cinema and in print as Stieg Larsson's books become even more popular and with the Hollywood redux due for late next year this looks set to run and run. Anyway here we have the final part of the Swedish version of the trilogy.

For now at least (There have been other books discovered that may or may not get published), this is the end of the story of Lisbeth Salander and her ongoing quest to clear her name. The series thus far has been a taught tightly wound set of stories that carefully unwind as the story continues. Again early word is good, this expands on the last film (...Played With Fire) and is actually a better movie overall.

Target Audience: Fans of the books, Murder/Mystery lovers

5. Meet the Parents: Little Fockers Release Date: 22nd December - Right on the cusp of Christmas comes the returning cast with Jessica Alba, Laura Dern & Harvey Keitel for the third helping of Meet The Parents. This time Ben Stiller as Gaylord Focker is struggling to cope with the arrival of twins. Queue lots of prat falls, grandparent jokes, more pratfalls and groins getting hit with all kinds of implements in a painfull way.

So far this series has been very, very funny. Hopefully the series can continue this trend with more cringeworthy humour for all the (Older) family.

Target Audience: Older families, Teens, Anyone with Children

4. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part I Release Date: 19th November - And so it begins the final movie comes to us in two parts. The first has had the 3D tag dropped as Warner Bros. weren't happy with the quality of the conversion of the film (It wasn't filmed in 3D). However Part II will be and that does beg the question if Part I will get a re-release in 3 D next year (TO rake in even more money?).

Likely to be one of the top earners at the end of the year, not a lot has been seen of this yet as it as usual has been kept closely under wraps. The Potter fans are already getting their scars, wands and owls at ready no doubts. Expect queues for opening week tickets followed by lots of moaning how this and that was left out of the film and how it didn't represent the books correctly etc.

Target Audience: Harry Potter Fans, Teens, Families, pretty much everyone in the world.

3. Megamind Release Date: 3rd December - Will Ferrell & Brad Pitt in a movie together at last?! Well animated anyway. Megamind has looked solid since the first trailer hit and has drawn some comparisons to Despicable Me, although this looks closer to a Superman pastiche than anything else. With what looks to be a brilliant voice cast (Ferrell, Pitt, Jonah Hill, Tina Fey and David Cross), this is odds on to be a real challenger to Potters early number 1 tops spot at the Box Office.

Hopefully it will be as funny as the trailer makes it look and there are sure to be lots of young children quoting the movie ahead of the late Christmas rush for figurines and movie tie in toys.

Target Audience: Families, Young Teens.

2. True Grit Release Date: 14th January - This promises to be one of the big early releases of 2011, in a time when usually we get saddled (No pun intended), with dreary arthouse films which are award season bait.

Joel & Ethan Coen unleash their version (It's not a remake), of the classic western which previously starred John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn. This time around we have Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin and Matt Damon in the starring roles. True Grit tells the story of Mattie Ross a 14 year old girl who hires Rooster Cogburn to get revenge for the death of her father at the hands of Tom Chaney. The early trailer caused huge internet buzz and is the one to watch at the beginning of next year. It was almost our top choice however there is one other film that stands head and shoulders above the rest. See below!

Target Audience: Western Lovers, Males of all ages, anyone with a gun!

1. Tron Legacy Release Date: 17th December (Not Soon Enough) - Anyone in thier 30's will remember watching Disney Time on TV during the holidays and see the same clip over and over again of Jeff Bridges sitting at the computer while the evil MCP zaps him with a laser which reduces him to bytes and sucks him into the computer world where he partakes in the games he created in the real world and eventually rises up with a few programmes to take on the MCP and his henchman Sark. Remember? Well if you do then you are very likely to be as excited as we are about the sequel which has been filmed in IMAX 3D and promises to be a stunning sequel to an amazing film (Remember without Tron there would be no Toy Story etc.).

This time Flynn's son, Sam finds his way to the grid after his father goes missing years earlier and battles his way across the grid to find his father and face a new but familiar enemy. Recently Disney had a 'Tron Day' where they showed 23 minutes of incredible footage followed by the sounds of Daft Punk who are on soundtrack duties for the sequel. This may not rock the Cinema Box Office to it's core, but forget silly wizards, computer generated heroes and action adventure movies. Despite this top 10 and aside from True Grit, Tron Legacy is the only film you should be watching this Winter!

Target Audience: YOU!

Check Out Daft Punks Tron Soundtrack Video footage here

You can discuss all the movies and more on the Official Screen One Fourm Here

ALL FILMS WILL BE REVIEWED AT SCREEN ONE CLOSER TO THEIR RESPECTIVE RELEASE DATES. CHECK BACK HERE FOR UPDATES.

Anatomy of a Junket

2010-05-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

6th May 2010, London. Today I am on my way to the Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane for an afternoon of round table interviews with the cast and crew of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Now what is a Round Table interview? Well it's one of a few types of interview journalists get invited to do to promote a film. So this month here is a brief overview of how one of these works.
Types of Inteview

Phoner - This is a interview conducted over the phone with the 'Talent' (Actor, Actress, Producer, Director etc.), usally around 10-15 minutes and requires the right equipment to record.
Round Table - More of this in a minute, but basically you have a group of journalists (Any size group from 3 - 15) sitting around a table talking to the talent for an alloted amount of time.
1 on 1 - Usually held in a room with just you, the talent, a camera man and possibly a Publicist or Agent. This is just you face to face with the talent asking your questions direct and uninterrupted and the preferred choice of most journalists.
Press Conference - This is where you are in a large room filled with various journalists from various different places and a long table up the front where the talent sit and you put your hand up to pose questions to the panel. (Think the final press scene in Notting Hill only usually we all have seats)

So todays Prince of Persia Junket is a round table with (Deep breath) Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arteton, Sir Ben Kingsley, Director Mike Newell & Prince of Persia Creator Jordan Merchner. So on arrival at the hotel we head into the press check in where we are sent to a 'holding room' before the interviews. Now ususally you are looking at small groups of about 4 or 5 of you around a table and there's usually a few journo's milling about drinking the free water/soft drinks and eating cookies that are provided. Not today though. For today has what seems like the whole of the press fraternity from around the world. These holding rooms aren't large either, so we are all shoe horned in and sat around waiting for our time.

After various nods and hello's to fellow British Journalists who we see at the various screenings and Press Conferences, I find myself sat next to a delightful French journalist who is regaling me with stories about how crazy the Black Eyed Peas are to interview (She works for a TV Channel in France). After this brief but fun conversation my group is called for (I am on table 7 of 12), so off we go down the corridor to our room, which is a bedroom that has been converted for the interview.

Now in our group (There are 10 of us all in all), we have a truly international flavour. The countries represented are: Turkey, Malasia, Germany, Scotland, France, Finland, Italy, Myself for England, Ireland and Poland. We all make light conversation while awaiting our first guest. much of the talk is around how there has been no food around so a lot of us are hungry, which leads to joking comments about handing the film a 1 star review in punishment (With journo's though, you never know if they are indeed joking). Also where we are all from and in the midst of conversation about Gemma Arteton it is talked about whether she is dating a stuntman she met on the set of Quantam of Solace, also that she comes from my hometown (Gravesend) to which everyone suggests I should tell her. We then all fall silent as the Disney PR comes in and lets us know that first up for us is indeed Gemma.

Gemma Arteton sashays into the room like a proper film star (However I can see the local girl glint in her eye...) and sits herself down and the questioning begins. We have 20 minutes with each of the talent, which seems like a decent amount of time, but with 10 journalists all pushing to get their questions in, it's not long at all.

So the first Question that we pitched to Gemma was how was the experience of The Prince of Persia and working with Jake?

'It Was Immense' (Click for audio)

The questions about what it was like to kiss Jake were asked (Which was passed off with the usual 'It's part of the job') and then the conversation rolled around to her coming from Gravesend, at which point it is brought up I am also from Gravesend which brings an excited intake of breath from Gemma and anexcited response...

'Gravesend Massive'

Which leads me onto the question - Gemma has been in 2 Hollywood blockbusters now (Prince of Persia and Clash of the Titans), Done Bond (Quantam of Solace), been in a classic Britsh comedy staple (St.Trinnians remake), done Indie (The Disappearance of Alice Creed), recently been in Theatre (The Little Dog Laughed) so out side of winning an Oscar has her career peaked?

'There's So Much More I Can Do...'

The discussions and questions ramble on and we discuss things like whether this will be the next Pirates of the Carribean and if Gemma would do a sequel (Yes she would, in fact she'd love to do it.) So the next question was about what challenges Gemma faced during filming.

'It's called Rebounding'

Then questions around being glamourous and the legend of Gemma's 12 fingers (She had 2 removed when she was young), then the question about checking her own press ('Why do it? It's so depressing..). Then the myth of getting married to a stuntman is dispelled (He's not astuntman or Daniel Craig's stunt double, it's a private part of my life), then the recent tabloid obsession over tattoo. Then soon after a couple of more questions the PA shuffles in and winds stuff up. So thanks Gemma, you were great.

Next for us is the films star Jake Gyllenhaal. Unlike Gemma he strolls into the room dressed casually and sits down and asks for a cup of tea from his PA. The interview commences with various female journalists suddenly very alert and hanging off Jake's every word. Our Finnish friend is slightly embarrassed as she has been given a Finland scarf to hand over to Jake, but we all her and Jake to do the exchange he gracefully agrees and we try yo get him to wear the scarf to the Premiere to be held the next day. He's ready to go so we hit him with the question, 'Prince of Persia is a departure from his usual types of roles so why do this now?'

'I Loved Indiana Jones, The Goonies...'

So then the convcersation turns to the game itself which he used to play then 'I had about a 20 year break' until the script for this came along. I then got the chance to ask Jake about how you prepare for a film when all you have for reference is a video game...

'It's so weird I woke up and had a British accent..'

So the conversation rolls around to discussions on Jake's workout regime and his 'hot bod' and what a big deal it has become. So we asked about the Jake effect and his Parkour training, and the stunts on set...

'The Producers Would Flip out'

So continuing on the theme of unwanted fame I asked a question which has been being debated online on the Social Networks primarily Twitter. There is a user on Twitter going by the name of @JBGyllenhaal who was pretending to be Jake. So I asked about the hassle (He had Jonathan Ross @wossy declare he was fake) and had protected his tweets. So I directed the question to see if it was him. (It since turns out he has had his account cancelled, but he has returned with @JBGyllenhaal2)

'I Don't Twitter'

Then the discussion turns to sequels and what Jake will do after he retires from acting ('Run for Governor of California, that's what every good actor should do'), then goes onto to talk about his love of food and finishes up by talking about his family and how proud he is of his sister Maggie and the career he has made for herself in her own right.

Then as soon as he arrives the PA turns up to whisk him away, but not before a few of us get a chance to get a photo with him.

So it was next the turn of Director Mike Newell (Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince), who came into discuss how he got involved in The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. It turns out that Jerry Bruckhiemer asked him to direct the film and he loved the script. He was more surprised the Jerry knew who he was. We also find out that he knew Jake since he was young via a connection with his parents. We realise very quickly that Mike Newell can talk, and talk. But he is a great interview. He then proceeds to tell us about the pressure involved in making a Bruckhiemer production.

'Michael Khan'

Then the subject of making the film in 3-D, which a lot of big movies have been converted to recently. However Prince of Persia is not being in this format so we asked Mike why this was..

'3-D'

Once again our time comes and goes and Mike Newell moves onto his next room for the next bout with Journalists. So Mike is followed by Jordan Merchner who is the brains and creator behind the game. He is obviously not used to doing press and seems more than a bit nervous and so the questions tend to centre around how he created the game and how he thinks it has turned out going to the big screen (Unfortunately the shound didn't come out very well on this interview so we can't put any in).

So Finally we get Sir Ben Kingsley who comes into the room with an aura of greatness about him and everyone in the room sits upright and ups their game as we are now faced with the prospect of a 'proper' actor (Oscar winning no less) and therefore there will be no messing around in this one.

We are caught off guard as our fears are not warranted, Ben kingsley is charming, down to earth but totally loves his profession and it comes across in his answers, so we started off by asking about being the bad guy and if he had a favorite film of his (It's like asking which is your favorite child.. You can't). He then goes onto to tlk a lot more about his children So I decided to ask about him taking on a more physical role and getting involved in the action scenes.

'Fast Dangerous Dances'

So we had Sir Ben Kingsley waxing lyrical about the film and it suddenly dawned on me that if I ever needed someone to do PR for me then I'm hiring Sir Ben as he absolutely sells the film. We came out by the end thinking that The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a sweeping Shakespearean Epic. It's not by the way, this is a Bruckhiemer film. Back to the questions and the next one up for Sir Ben is what is more challenging, playing a good character or a bad one?

'Magnificently Intelligent Gestures'

Sir Ben then tells us that he 'Starts picking colours like an artist' when choosing films and it comes from the moment he starts on the script. Then we ask 'the' question, do you prefer Ben or Sir Ben? (Penelope Cruz still emails him Sir)

'Extraordinary Emb race'

So our time is running out and we want to know how he came to have the name Ben Kingsley as it wasn't his original name.

'The Most Powerful Spice Trader In East Africa'

There is time for just one more question and as today is the day of the UK general Election he is asked about that. The answer he gives I will hear later that night exactly word for word the same on the Election coverage on BBC One as he stands next to Bruce Forsyth (Who turns to the crowd and does Nice to see you... on a live election broadcast!) about how he voted this morning.

And with thatit's all over. We have been there for the best part of 2 hours and we now all get up to leave pick up our bag of Prince of Persia goodies and then fill out an embargo form to stop us publishing any of this until now. So, here it is.

Hopefully that has given you a slightly better insight into how a Junket works, maybe in the future I will cover one of the other types but for now I'm heading off to find something new to talk about next month. See you at the movies...

Our Prince of Persia review can be found HERE . You can follow us on Twitter @Screen1ne, please follow this blog column and below is the picture we got with Jake! Until Next time.

1..2.. Freddy's Coming For You...

2010-04-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

1, 2, Freddy's coming for you...

3, 4, Lock Your Door...

5, 6, Grab a Crucifix...

7, 8, Better Stay Up Late...

9, 10, Never Sleep Again...

May 7th see's the return of one of the true horror icons. Freddy Krueger returns in the 'Re-Boot' of A Nightmare on Elm St. It was 1984 and a little known director who saw a story in the news around children dying in their sleep, coupled with a fright Wes Craven got when he was a young lad, when a drifter in a fedora peered through his window, which stuck with him especially in his nightmares until he created Freddy Kruger (reportedly named aftter a child who bullied him at school). It spawned 8 sequels and a rise in sales for Halloween for gloves with plastic claws and not for Wolverine enthusiasts either.

Freddy Krueger (Chillingly played by Robert Englund) was the stuff of nightmares, a child murderer who was burnt alive by local parents of the sleepy town of Springwood after he was acquitted on a technicality. The only problem was that Freddy may have died, but now comes back to haunt the children of his killers in their dreams. If Freddy killed them in their dreams then they also died in the real world. The only way to kill Freddy was to pull him into the real world and kill him there as he would die 'for good' if they managed it.

Freddy's first target was Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) who he repeatedly went after throughout the first & third films. Then in the sequels that spawned after these he turned his attention to the 'Last of the Elm St. children' who managed to come out on top. There was also a unsuccesful TV series entitled Freddy's Nightmares and a spin off single entitled 'Are your eady for Freddy?' which was performed by Robert Englund and 90's rappers The Fat Boys and accompanied the release of Elm St. 4.

But for now we will now we will take a look back at the films that created the horror icon Freddy Krueger..

A Nightmare on Elm St. (1984)

The film that started it all and a truly scary horror epic. Nancy Thompson is having nightmares and she soon discovers that her friends are too, only one by one they are all starting to end up dead. Nancy discovers along the way that a group of parents killed Freddy who was a child murderer after he escapes prison, however the now undead Freddy has come back to claim his last victims. Featuring John Saxon (Enter the Dragon) as nancy's father and a first feature role for future Superstar Johnny Depp, who possibly gets the most bloody death of the entire series, this was a masterclass in how to scare the living daylights out of people and make a great film at the same time.

Elm St. 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

A year later and they went from the best of the series to the worst as the story spiralled off at a tangent and dabbled in possesion, which didn't work out too well. It's now 5 years after the events of the first film and a new kid on the block moves into Elm St. Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton) is haunted by visions of Freddy before he is ultimately possesed by Freddy who continues his murderous spree through him. Jesse finally confronts the spirit of Freddy with the help of his girlfriend (Kim Meyers) before he is once again banished. This is widely considered the worst of the Elm St. movies as it is completely out of step with the rest of the films. Unless your a completist this is one to avoid.

Elm St. 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

Dream Warriors sees the final return of Nancy to the Elm St. series in this outing. The last of the Elm St. children are now in Western Hills pyschiatric ward, all suffering with reoccuring nightmares of the dream stalker. Nancy comes to the hospital as an intern and soon discovers that Freddy is the one killing them. She helps all the children discover their dream powers and take on Freddy. With the help of Dr Craig Gordon, who unwittingly comes across the spirit of Amanda Krueger and is instructed to bury Freddy's remain on hallowed ground. Afeat he achieves, but not before nancy is killed by Freddy. Dream Warriors saw the brief return of John Saxon as well as featuring a dog urinating fire and the grisliest of deaths with the human puppet, where Freddy, uses his victims veins for strings was a return to form of sorts although the warrior powers was the start of the more comic book aspects of the series to appear. It was also the film where we discover that Freddy is the 'Bastard son of a 1000 maniacs'.

Elm St. 4 The Dream Master (1988)

At this point the series drifted away from 'scary horror' and into a more 'cool horror' as Freddy by this point was more of an anti hero as the series had become increasingly popular. By now Englund had hit his stride as Krueger and was now dropping in various humuorous barbs before despatching his latest victim. This time the latest survivors from the last film led in part by Kristen return to face Freddy once again as he is unwittingly ressurected beyond the grave. Kirsten ends up passing the powers of the other (Now dead) dream warriors to Alice before Kirsten herslef becomes one of Frddy's victims. Alice then faces off against Freddy where she releases the souls that Freddy has taken and become part of his body to the point where as the souls escape, Freddy explodes. The series started to tone down te real gore and became almost like a violent horror version of Police Acdemy at this point. The effects were top notch however Freddy was now out of the shadows and his face was less disfugured and more like a well cooked pizza.

Elm St. 5 The Dream Child (1989)

The next sequel followed on from the ending of the last one and carried on with Alice as Freddy's opponent. Freddy discovering that he can't beat the Dream Master decides on achange of tack and starts to inhabit the dreams of Alice's unborn child Jacob. He is hoping to use the Child to be reborn and start a new reign of terror, however the spirit of Kruegers mother Amanda once again returns to reveal how she was raped hundreds of times and convinces jacob to use the powers that Freddy has given him against him and eventually Alice and Jacob once agin in the dream world defeat Freddy one more time. This film tried to delve into the mythos of Freddy a bit more and also saw the return to the series the original make up artist David Millar to try and get Freddy looking meaner again, it didn't work too well, but it still made a ton of money which allowed...

Freddy's Dead - The Final Nightmare (1991)

The series was starting to wane by this point thus the ridiculous plot. Freddy is down to one last remaining Elm St. survivor and to continue his reign of terror he needs to leave Elm St. a feat he cannot do as he cannot cross the border. He uses the last of the Elm St. children John to find his daughter who he didn't previously know about to bring her back to Elm St. so he can posses her body and move on to new Elm St's. Standing in his way this time is Maggie who is treating John (Who lost his memory after being projected out of Elm St by Freddy) and his daughter Katherine. Using new dream techniques maggie discovers more of Freddy's past, Child Abuse, Creulty to animals, killing his wife and finally the point where the dream demons offered him eternal life. Once again Freddy is dragged out of the dream world to be laid to rest one more time (This time with a pipe bomb to the chest!). This was billed as the big blow off to the series and as such featured many cameos with stars such as Roseanne Barr, Tom Arnold, Alice Cooper and a returning Johnny Depp. If it had been the last of the series it would have been a great ending to a very profitable series however...

Wes Craven's A New Nightmare (1994)

This time the series took a slightly different tack and used a fictional reality to move the story on. Wes Craven and the returning Langenkamp, Saxon and Englund all play themselves as the spirit of the character of Freddy tries to escape into the real world. Spirit of Freddy kidnaps Heather's son as he sees her as 'Nancy' his first killer. Heather pursues SoF into the dream world where she and her son battle Freddy and put him into a furnace where the spirit is destroyed once and for all. This was a real departure and somewhat of an experiment on how Craven could twist the legend without returning to the same old and now very tired Freddy rehashes.

Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

It would be 9 more years before Robert Englund would be able to play 'ol' Pizza face' one last time. For this there had been a lot of rumours whether this would actually happen. Comic books had long been publishing 'mash ups' (Aliens Vs. Predator, Batman Vs. Superman) and many a internet forum had posed the question who would win Freddy or Jason in a battle of the horror icons. This time the story followed Freddy as he was unable to return to Springwood as the residents had now managed to supress their fear of Freddy the tool which Freddy used to return many times before. So to allow this to happen Freddy tricks Jason Vorhees into going to Springwood to create fear and panic that would allow Freddy once more to rise and take charge, however the plan backfires when after creating widespread panic, Jason refuses to stop killing the Springwood residents. Thus begins the battle between the two horror giants. By the end of the film we don't really get our answer as the last shot of the film is Jason holding Freddy'd servered head which looks to camera winks and smiles. So the debate rages on. This was a test for the studios to see if these charcters would endure over time to a new generation of movie goers. the answer was yes with a worthy $115,000,000 at the worldwide box office that a reboot of the Friday 13th franchise and now a retooling of the original Nightmare on Elm St. to be released on May 7th 2010.

The new version comes with a new Freddy this time played by Jackie Earle Haley. Fortunately the 'new' Freddy will reatain all of the originals staples such as the hat, the green and red striped jumper and of course the glove. It remains to be seen whether the film will be any good as the first critics see the film on the 29th April. Soon after that and Screen One included will unleash their thoughts on the hopefully decent reboot of what at least I think is the greatest horror icon of all time.

++EDIT++
The review is now live HERE

Welcome back Freddy and remember people...

'DON'T FALL ASLEEP!'

Whats That Coming Over The Hill?

2010-02-09T04:48:00.000-08:00

Another month, another countdown. This time we take a look at the films that are really exciting us currently for release in 2010. However, at this point we do need to point out that we cannot recommend the end product, this is a 'as it stands' now chart.

10. Kick Ass - Matthew Vaughn returns with a movie about unlikely superheroes with no powers (Sound like the underated Mystery Men?). The early trailers and buzz surrounding this is that is something to get excited about. With a multi poster campaign and censor baiting content this should be an early contender in one of the best action movies of the year.

9. The Green Hornet - The first of the superhero movies on the list, this one is causing interest as for those who remeber the old series will attest this was pretty cool. Seth Rogen aside this has been subject to various cast and crew changes, but fingers crossed the final product should be great fun.

8. Nightmare on Elm Street - Next up remakes. Or as they seem to be called these days reboots. Again initial trailers and images seem to add some weight in this being not to bad. However some of the horror reboots before it haven't been great. Still Jackie Early Haley looks sinister as the pre pizza face Freddy Kruger. The original scared the socks off an early 80's generation. Hopefully this will do the same for this generation of horror fans.

7. The A-Team - After years of re-writes and leagl wranglings the A-Team movie is on it's way after many a fan and forum discussions on who should be the various members of the team we are left with Liam Neeson as Hannibal, UFC Fighter Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson as BA Baracus, The Hangovers Bradley Cooper as Templeton 'Faceman' Peck and District 9's Sharlto Copley as 'Howling Mad' Murdoch, this is shaping up to be one of the movies of the summer already, however the tank out the back of the plane section of the teaser trailer produced howls of derision this better be good.

6. Robin Hood - Ridley Scott & Russell Crowe bring us Gladiator - The Sherwood Years. Looking in a similar vein to the aforementioned Gladiator, with the credentials of the cast and crew the men of Sherwood Forest look to have a more brutal edge and maybe the definitive version by the time the end credits roll.

5. Iron Man 2 - Remakes and now Sequels. The hugely sucessfull Iron Man returns with nearly all the original cast and crew. This time old shell head is pitted against Mickey Rourkes Whiplash, Scarlet Johanssons Black Widow, while Tony Stark has to deal in the boardroom with Sam Rockwells Justin Hammer. Another film creating a decent early buzz and the sucess of the original pretty much ensures that this one will make money no matter what.

4. Clash of the Titans - A return of the 80's classic, now remade for 3-D and with dazzling new effects. The story remains the same, with Perseus battling among othersMedusa and the Kraken. Featuring the next big thing in the shape of Sam Worthington (Avatar & Termionator Salvation) as Persues. This is deviod of the annoying mechanical owl Bubo (Great when your 6, not so great when your older.) and heavy on effects so should be great, comes with added 3-D.

5. Tron: Legacy - Another return of an age old classic, however this time it's a sequel rather than a reboot/remake. The effects look like they could be as groundbreaking now as the original was back in the 80's. Also in 3-D, Jeff Bridges returns as the head of the company he fought against in the original.

4. Shutter Island - Scorsese trys his hand at psychological horror in this Denis LeHaine novel starring his newest muse Leonardo Di Caprio. Early trailers look tense, uncomfortable and possibly pretty scary, so the master of the gangster epic and vast stories goes horror? Might very well be the most disturbing experience of 2010.

3. Green Zone - Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass reunite their Bourne team to do a film about that is based on the 2006 book Imperial Life in the Emerald City by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran which is based in Green Zone, Baghdad. More action is promised and with the Bourne films in their inventory this should be a great crowd pleaser.

2. The Expendables - The action film to get excited for in 2010. Sylvester Stallone puts together the best of the action star fraternity including Jet Li, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Eric Roberts the UFC's Randy Coture amongst others. The only two people not in there are Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damme. Looks brilliant and a throw back to the 80's actioner. This was almost number 1, but the one film that has huge expectation attached to it is....

1. Toy Story 3 - Quite simply the one we can't wait for. Woody and the gang are back one more time in 3-D, with 14 new friends including Barbie's Ken, the trailers make us want to see this now and not wait uintil July (The latest trailer can currently be found on http://www.screen-one.com) The trailers are simply amazing and this is before the addition of the 3-D. This time it's about what happens when Andy outgrows his toys and goes to University. The gang get 'donated' to a nursery where they quickly learn is a living hell and promptly decide to escape for a new life.....

So there's what is (Hopefully) goignt o be great this year. Please visit the main site or if you want ot discuss this or any movie in more detail please join the forum at:
http://forums.screen-one.com

Until next time... See you at Screen One.

The Year That Was 2009 In Film And Beyond...

2010-01-22T01:11:00.000-08:00

Well we are nearly into February now and it's long overdue that I add my thoughts comments and favorites to the movies that were released in 2009. Then what we have in store for 2010. So lets start with the films that really we could have done without...

Worst Films of 2009

10. Where The Wild Things Are - A surprise choice? Not really this has to be the most overrated film of 2009, most of the critics lauded how great it was, but in reality it was a slow, dull film adapted from a 14 page book turned in to a sub-2 hour movie where nothing really happens, then on top of that they remove the 2 best parts of the book (The bedroom becoming the forrest and the Sea Monster), then market the film to Children despite it being aimed at adults?

9. Surrogates - Not Bruce Willis's finest hour. A drawn out experience that doesn't know whether it's an action film or social commentary.

8. Gamer - Again another film that thinks it's cleverer than it actually is.

7. Sorority Row - Out of all the teen stalk and slash movies, this came top of the pile and that's no mean feat as there were plenty of candidates.

6. 12 Rounds - Former WWE Champion John Cena got another chance after the equally appalling The Marine and continues his dominance of being out acted by a plank of wood.

5. 2012 - Never has a disaster movie been such an actual disaster. Far, far too long, painful to watch, dialoge to make you cringe and action sequences that make a James Bond film look like a true life documentary (A trainee pilot pulling off moves that the Red Arrows would be in awe of anyone?).

4. Fast & Furious - The fourth part of the series had high hopes after the original cast agreed to return, however a beyond stupid plot and very ropey effects added up to one of the biggest disappointments.

3. Knowing - For the second year in a row Nicolas Cage proves that he is a truly awful actor blessed with being able to pick the worst films. Brilliant idea, execution beyond awful.

2. Bride Wars - Rom-coms are generally hit and miss, but this film starring the usually dependable Anne Hathaway was incredibly bad, maybe more because of Kate Hudson, but this was devoid of comedy, good humour and that feel good factor that is required. Came very close to being number 1 worst, however...

1. Year One - walked away with the title of worst film of the year, with Jack Black and Michael Cera doing there best to outdo each other in the worst actor in the worst film stakes. From the moment Jack Black picks up and eats some dung you realise that this is a sign of what the film actually is. Beyond terrible and avoid at ALL costs...

Best Films of 2009

10. Zombieland - The best Zombie comedy since Shaun of the Dead, featuring cameo of the year from Bill Murray, this is unmissable.

9. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs - A brilliant year for 3-D CGi movies adn just about edges out UP and Monsters Vs. Aliens, which really should all share this spot, however Meatballs stands out due to casting excellence on the voice cast (Mr.T, Neil Patrick Harris & James Caan in particular) and creativity. Where the Wild Things are could have learned a lot from this on how to convert a classic childrens book into a brilliant film.

8. The Hangover - Simply the finest comedy of the year, featuring the second best cameo of the year (Mike Tyson) and some brilliant set pieces. Hilarious, it's like an adult American Pie (The first one)

7. District 9 - Almost the Sci Fi movie of the year, but still an essential film to watch, Peter 'Lord of the Rings' Jackson produces and gives the directorial reigns to a new director who he was going to get to direct the Halo movie until it fell through. Glad it did as this is one of the most intelligent and exciting films of the year.

6. Star Trek - Star Trek is back and given an overhaul by Lost's JJ Abram to simply amazing effect. There's enough of the old in there to keep the die hard Trekkers or Trekkies (Depending on your preference)happy. Amazing outer space effects and clever plot device to allow the new look Star Trek to (Boldly) go in whatever direction they choose. Great cast too.

5. Avatar - Quite simply the biggest movie of all time, utterly stunning 3-D and sets a whole new bench mark on how things should be done. at a bum busting 3 hours, the 3-d may be hard for some to take, but this is absolutely essential viewing. The Future of 3-D movies is here.

4. Let The Right One In - Forget Twilight, you want to see a proper Vampire film with kids, scares and gore, plus a cracking cast and script? Well here it is. Let the Right One is simply chilling and brilliant.

3. Frost/Nixon - A Tour De Force of acting masterclass from Michael Sheen and Frank Langella. Directed by Ron Howard about one of the turning points in TV History. Unmissable and edge of your seat viewing.

2. Moon - A simple premise, directed by the son of David Bowie and featuring 2 actors of which only 1 you see. Sounds a bit odd? Possibly boring? Well you'd be wrong as this is one of the most fascinating movies of the year featuring Sam Rockwell , who surely will knocking on Oscars door come March time. If you are looking for something a bit different from your usual Sci-fi blockbuster, try this you won't regret it.

1. The Wrestler - Mickey Rourke was robbed of the Oscar earlier this year for his performance in Screen One's film of the year for 2009. Gripping, heartbreaking and pretty acurate portayal of Randy 'The Ram' Robinson as a broken down, washed up wrestler looking for one more chance with both his career and his daughter. Gets down and dirty with the sometimes seedy world of the independent wrestler and thier life on the road. Stunning brilliance from evceryone involved, especially Rourke who puts in the performance of a lifetiome to make this simply brilliant and the best thing to hit the big screen in 2009.

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Also, while not fitting into either category of being exceptionally bad or good there is one film I would recommend from the 'Guilty Pleasure' file and that would have to be Escape To Witch Mountain. While it's not about to win any Oscars anytime soon, Witch Mountain manages to be a throwback style of kids adventure film from Disney, which we haven't seen in years. Much of this is down to the presence of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, who is well suited to this kind of family action movie, featuring thrills, effects, broad comedy and an exciting story. Make sure you check it out at some point.

Coming in 2010

2010 seems to be a big year in terms of action movies and sequels with a lot to look out for this year. In the action stakes you have two of the most anticipated films of the last few years in the shape of The A-Team and the Expendables. The A-Team needs no introduction really and features Liam Neeson in the role of Hannibal and the UFC's Quniton Rampage Jackson as B.A. Then there is Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables featuring a veritable whose, who of the action world. With Stallone, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Dolph Lungdren, Bruce Willis & even the Governator himself Arnold Schwarzenegger this is adding up to be a huge movie. Also, worth looking out for on the action fronts will be Kick Ass and Green Zone which are both due out soon.

On the sequels front you have Iron Man 2 featuring Mickey Rourke as Whiplash and Scarlett Johansson as Black Cat. Also the world awaits Toy Story 3(-D) as Woody and Buzz hit the big screen one more time in 3-D along with Shrek 4 or Shrek Forever After to give it, it's proper title. Then the first part of the final part of Harry Potter with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Prt 1due. Finally a blast from the past receives a long overdue sequel also in 3-D, Tron. Or Tron Legacy to be exact. Wall Street gets a sequel and so does Sex & the City.

Robin Hood returns in the shape of Russell Crowe and the sword and sandals get s dust off with several movies including Prince of Persia (Adapted form the console games), Centurion and The Eagle of the Ninth. Finally it's worth keeping an eye out for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (3-D), Precious, The Next installment of the Twilight Saga in Eclipse and the next film from The Dark Knight's Christopher Nolan Inception.

In the next edition, we will expand on some of these films and take a close look at the Top 10 Films to get Excitable about in 2010.

Today is the first day... Welcome to Screen One

2009-12-01T00:29:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the new look CPC Movies which will now forever be known as Screen One. The decision to rebrand was taken around 6 months ago and what a long process it has bee, deciding on the name, the look getting new logos created, letting everyone know, changing websites, email addresses and all the other things connected to that, picking a new logo for the project. It's been a lot of work, but fially today 1st December 2009 we can now unveil http://www.screen-one.com

We hope you like it. Please let us know what you think and if you like (Maybe even if you don't). BUt let us know, there's nothign worse than doing all this work and getting no feedback at all, it makes us think that no-one visits us!

What can you look forward too? Well hopefully, we won't deviate from CPC Movies winning formula, we will still cover films, DVD/Blu Ray, Games, Wrestling/MMA and Theatre. We will still be producing reviews, news, features, competitions and podcasts, it just means there's now going to be a lot of hard work rebranding and mopping up all the previous site into the new one.

So enjoy the new dawn of Screen One and we will see you around soon. Don't forget you can also visit the forum and comment as well: http://forums.screen-one.com