Never Let Me Go - Directed by Mark Mark Romanek, screenplay by Alex Garland.

“None of you will do anything except live the life … set out for you & sometime around your third donation your short life will be complete…”

Never Let Me Go is a modern day tragedy with a subtle sci-fi twist based on an award winning book by Kazuo Ishiguro. It’s about a girl called Kathy H & her two classmates, their time in a sheltered boarding school & their time together afterwards. There is something not quite right about their lives compared to other children which is hinted at throughout the story.

The trailer is a delight to behold. The music gives what looks to be a typical English romance film an unsettling feeling. In fact the film looks like it’s going to be pretty heavy & depressing but emotionally engaging none the less! The Never Let Me Go trailer music is from the ‘Door In The Floor’ soundtrack by Peter Vronsky.

This, films like Inception & TV series like Lost are bringing sci-fi to the masses. But they need to be labelled as such so people understand that the genre isn’t just about spaceships & dragons. Unfortunately books like Never Let Me Go, Harry Potter and The Man In The High Castle are often classed as fiction because their authors or publishers are scared of the stigma of the sci-fi genre.

The Trailer

I’m quite a big fan of Snyder, specially after his visually wow-ful big screen creation of The Watchmen; compromising none (or very little) on the graphic violence and multi-layered storyline… I think I actually preferred the ending in the rather, rather than Alan Moore’s graphic novel.

And so here’s the first trailer for this latest, to be released in March 2011.

You should be excited because:

• It has hot girls in it
• It has samurai in it
• It has giant trolls with mini-guns in it
• It has exploding Nazi blimps in it
• It has massive fire-breathing dragons in it

Have a look-see

or grown men smashing eighteen shades of shit out of each other’s faces [Fight Club] has now turned his significantly macabre talents to… Facebook. Like… WTF?

The film charts the inception (I actually saw Inception last night – it was amazing) of the world’s most powerful social networking platform in the halls of Harvard through the bickering and lawsuits and up to the eventual millionaire-ness of creator Mark Zuckerberg, played by eveyone’s favourite geeky actor who isn’t starring in the up-coming Scott Pilgrim film (or Jesse Eisenberg to his friends).

I take it by the choral version of Radiohead’s Creep in the trailer, Zukerberg may not be portrayed as being ‘all that’, nor can I see there being too many MEGALOLs. Should be interesting though.

The Trailer

[LIKE] or [DISLIKE]?

or is it the millions of viewers, who, even when they’re gifted super-amazing tele-visual delights – decide not to watch, or to watch something else, or to go out and be sociable or something. DAMN THEM.

I’m annoyed because I recently discovered something wonderful; a flower in the barren wasteland of comedy lameness and canned laughter. That something is Party Down, probably the most immediately lovable and genuinely funny shows I’ve seen in aaaages… so good, oh course, it needed to be cancelled immediately after I discovered it.

So, for the uninitiated, Party Down was a rather ace comedy show from John Enbom, Dan Etheridge, Paul Rudd (you might know them) in a similar vein to The Office or Curb Your Enthusiasm, yet with likable characters and (slightly) less painful situational funnies. It stars Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Jane Lynch and the rather palatable Lizzy Caplan about a bunch of struggling actor / writer / comedian types who take on catering jobs to pay their way while they dream of stardom, which may or may not come.

So, I salute you, Party Down, and who knows? Maybe if it gets a cult following they’ll commission a movie or something? It worked out well for Firefly after their show was cancelled, they hit the big screen with the marvellous Serenity which deservedly made £800 billion and quickly got the show commissioned for another 17 excellent series and… this never happened. DAMN THEM.

Enter Inception, Mr. Nolan’s next film, once a production shrouded in mystery and shadows (I prefer my films like this) with a doom-filled dirge of a soundtrack over highly stylised visuals of men in suits eerily floating down corridors, glasses of water exasperatingly empting themselves, and lower half of Manhattan(?) folding over onto itself – it made no sense, and that’s quite exciting to me.

Following conventional studio wisdom, the final trailer to be released before the full film simply HAS to give you the plot, or at least let you understand who the characters are (it stars Leonardo DiCaprio, by the way) so here goes. Mr. DiCaprio is a man who has lost his wife? Wants her back? (yawn) but is also a kind of secret agent type who steals things from people’s dreams (ooh!) so, there we go. It’s got Joseph Gordon-Levitt in it too, which is always a good move.

Check it out below:

So whatdoya think? Have your say below:

Kick-Ass

This is another one, just like The Watchmen, that I’ve been looking forward to since I first heard of its catapult from the colourful page to the big screen. I respect both director Matthew Vaughn and star Aaron Johnson for their filmy prowess AND their ability to snag famous girlfriends (go look them up if you’re interested) – but I was more excited because of the premise of taking a thoroughly worn story (disaffected everyman/boy decides to shun the social norms and become a vigilante hero to fight crime) and spinning the story with both a sense of reality (Kick-Ass gets his ass kicked, a lot, and at times, horrifically) with a highly stylised super-slick not-quite-real-but-certainly-amazing action sequences (Hit Girl and Big Daddy).

It all works because the balance of humour and peril and action is worked brilliantly and is in turn, completely immersing and mesmerising experience. One of the most flat-out enjoyable and possibly, best – films I’ve seen in years. If it doesn’t achieve complete mainstream success, it will more than certainly achieve an untouchable cult status.

Shutter Island

I’ve never felt the need to bone Scorsese the way many critics and fanboys have, but he’s undoubtedly a director of the very highest calibre… and although I’ve never felt the need to bone Leonardo DiCaprio the way many pubescent young ladies did through the 90s, I have become a fan through his performances in films such as The Aviator, The Departed and Revolutionary Road.

Boning aside, I was looking forward to Shutter Island – as ostensibly it was Scorsese does Haunted House! Whatever will be bring to this, a most shoddy horror sub-genre? The answer was… well, nothing as it’s not actually a Haunted House film at all. In fact, I thought it was pretty dire for the first 130mins, then the twist is twisted, and everything seemed to make sense – or at least excuse – the rest of the film. I’m unsure if it was Scorsese’s intention to make it quite as crap for the first half, but I like to think so.

I Love You Phillip Morris

I was a concerned that the butt (forgive the pun) of the jokes in this Jim Carrey film would consist of tasteless jibes at homosexuality and homosexual culture, but turned out to be a far more sensitive and often, quite touching film with plenty laughs, hotpants and the occasional bit of sodomy thrown in. The story involves the escapades of an adopted closet-homosexual (Carrey) deciding to come out to the world after being rejected by his newly found birth-mother and being involved in a nasty car crash and uses his quite considerable brain-powers to con supermarkets, corporations and the governments out of millions of dollars, and eventually prison. It’s definitely one of Carrey’s best performances, as he manages to be both the rubbery faced idiot of old, and the more serious actor-man of films such as the sublime Eternal Sunshine.

Green Zone

Although my favourite Bourne film was the one that Paul Greengrass didn’t direct, he still made two of three supremely amazing thrillers starring the formally not particularly amazing Matt Damon. Both Greengrass and Damon have since risen to amazing status a few times over, and Green Zone – a story of an American soldier searching in vain for WMD in an invaded Iraq on the brink of civil war – had the potential to be super-fantastic. And, for the most part, Green Zone is completely spot-on excellent, intelligently written, an electric pace, well acted, not overly homoerotic… but comes unstuck somewhat at the end when, after a thrilling chase sequence with crazy-shaky-cams (a Greengrass special) the film ends with quite a forced and all too ‘neat’ ending to an extremely messy political situation which is still very much a mess. For the record, I still got more out of it than The Hurt Locker.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

This one came out of nowhere for me, not having read the books or having very little knowledge of their existence, I was unaware of author Stieg Larsson and his ‘millenium trilogy’ or that he sadly died before their publishing – but I’m certainly a sucker for an intelligent thriller, 5 star ratings, or a female lead with tattoos – so this one sounded interesting. It’s also along with Kick Ass, one of the best films I can remember seeing of late. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is in turns brutal, ingenious and beautiful, and can’t help make you wonder why Hollywood isn’t making films as good as these? Is it because they treat their audience as idiots – give ‘em explosions, give ‘em big named bland actors! give ‘em all the clichés you can think of! But don’t try anything that requires a few brain cells… too risky’ – probably. This is the first part of the already filmed trilogy, so sign me up for the rest of them.

Kick-Ass

I’m excited because:
Look at it! It looks amazing! Just look at it!

Green Zone

I’m excited because:
It’s directed by Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon’s in it. That’s worked pretty well so far.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

I’m excited because:
It’s getting ace reviews, and there’s a massive shortage of genuinely great cliché-free thrillers. This might just be that.

I Love You Phillip Morris

I’m excited because:
It’s Jim Carey getting to merge both his limb-flailing funny and his serious acting chops-ness.

Shutter Island

I’m excited because:
I’ve grown to respect Leonardo DiCaprio’s acting-ness, particularly when working under Martin Scorsese. Which is exactly what’s happening here.

Our general lethargy or creative-crestfallenness is clearly not shared with Director, Producer, Co-Screenwriter Jim Groom and his merry bunch of independent filmmakers, who’ve spent 11 long, and frequently painful years creating Room 36; a no-stars, no-budget, sets-made-of-cardboard-style British noir thriller with its tongue lodged firmly within its cheek.

Unlike big-selling films like The Blair Witch Project or more recently Paranormal Activity, Room 36′s shoe-string budget isn’t shielded with a convenient plot-device (we’re spared another ‘discovered footage’ fable), instead its lack of funds – and occasional lack of competence – is used to expound the film’s own brand of surrealism – the plot itself revolves around an assassin’s political target being mistaken for a rather hairy and freely-flatulent man’s escort for the evening, in a hotel where the staff listen in on your phone calls, peep through your keyhole and cockroaches the size of a bad-man’s fist scuttle around unreservedly.

After a birthing process so painful it would make Terry Gilliam wince, it’s pleasing that Room 36 might finally get some of the recognition its long suffering filmmakers deserve

Thankfully, Room 36 has enough quirky charm to make the notable inconsistencies work. The excellent feature length ‘making of’ explains how the film ran out of funding early on, as well as experienced several technical mishaps (film processing stores burning down, etc.) and ended up on a hiatus for an impressive 10 years. As such, characters age a decade between scenes, some grow beards after being clean shaven moments ago, and some of the actors, well… died.

Room 36, Jim Groom’s first film after the minor success of ‘Revenge of Billy the Kid’ is an entertaining comedy-noir, with at least one memorable character in the randy if bootylicious Mr. ‘Dick’ Armstrong, as well as some entertaining set-pieces such as the wonderfully inept pub fight sequence, the squalid characters, locations and some pleasingly faithful noir cinematography and score.

After going through a birthing process so painful it would make Terry Gilliam wince, it’s pleasing that Room 36 finally got some of the recognition it deserves by doing a somewhat successful round in the European independent film festival circuit. Plus, the DVD domain is really where the film may really shine, as it boasts an excellent documentary which laments its colourful (or as the case is, colour-less) history, plus it has cult-film splashed all over it like its iridescent helpings of blood.

than to sit and make a audio CD (if you can remember them) that contains all your most wonderlicious musicial moments from the 12 months past.

The idea of the compilation CD is thus: with 16000GB capacity MP3 players giving more music at fingertips than you’ll live long enough to listen to, it’s important to keep it frugal and force yourself to choose only the tastiest selection that will fit on ONE solitary audio CD (80mins or less). MP3 CDs are cheating.

The idea is to create your own CD and post the track listings here, swap CDs with pals and discover new music, or maybe just display disbelief that others have left off a particular song for that band you happen to like.

Make sure all your music selections ARE actually from 2009 (just sort your WinAmp / Media Player / iTunes into ‘year’ order).

Also, only one entry per artist please, but I suppose if someone is part of two groups, then that’s fine.

My 2009 Compilation CD (under 80 mins)

1. Mew – Introducing Palace Players » listen here
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Role » listen here
3. Fever Ray – Triangle Walks » listen here
4. The xx – Islands » listen here
5. Beirut – My Wife, Lost in the Wild » listen here
6. Golden Silvers – True No.9 Blues (True Romance) » listen here
7. St. Vincent – The Party » listen here
8. Why? – Against Me » listen here
9. Blue Roses – I Am Leaving » listen here
10. Memory Tapes – Bicycle » listen here
11. Passion Pit – The Reeling » listen here
12. The Pains of Being Pure of Heart – A Teenager in Love » listen here
13. Bombay Bicycle Club – Dust on the Ground » listen here
14. Grizzly Bear – While You Wait for the Others » listen here
15. White Denim – I Start to Run » listen here
16. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career » listen here
17. Bat For Lashes – Daniel » listen here
18. Sufjan Stevens – You Are The Blood » listen here

What music have you been listening to this yeear? What’s your favourite song? Favourite album? Top 5 songs? What’s on your 2009 CD? Let me know below…

Production running waaaay longer than planned? Check. Budgets spiralling out of control? Check. Egos through the roof? Check. Director having his own personal breakdown? Check. Marlon Brando bloated and insufferable? Check. Martin Sheen mid-production heart attack? Check…

In the great book of extremely troubled film productions (and there should be one) you’d have to expect a large and significantly tasty chapter dedicated solely to 1979’s Vietnam war flick / mindfuck Apocalypse Now – which, in the humble opinion of moi, happens be the greatest film ever made. That or 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Strange then, that despite Apocalypse Now (and the extended cut Apocalypse Now: Redux) being available in all good retailers for years, the accompanying documentary Hearts of Darkness – using behind the scenes footage filmed by Eleanor Coppola (Francis’s wife) is still not available for the good British public to engorge in.

Luckily however, I’ve managed to snag myself a copy. And it is good. Who knew (the then skinny) Laurence Fishburne was just 14 when he was cast as Clean? Who knew that, in the original script Willard & Kurtz joined forces at the end to fight off a Vietcong attack? Who knew that the decapitated heads scattered around Kurtz’ stronghold were actually actors, buried up to their necks for 8 hours a day? Who knew that Marlon Brando was such an arse that despite Coppola having to juggle the vastly complex production, major script re-writes, killer typhoons and the whims of the Philippine government – Brando threatened to quit production (and keep his $1Million advance) because he was asked to delay his arrival for one week?

What interests most about filmmaking documentaries isn’t the frequently smug vox pops with the lead actors waxing lyrical about how ‘mind-blowing’ the film will be – there is none of this in Hearts – it’s rather seeing how far the filmmakers are willing to go for their vision to be fully realised, and Apocalypse Now cost Francis Ford Coppola more than just his personal Godfather-earned fortune, it almost cost him his career, his family, and his mind. And Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse is a rare treat that needs to be made less rare.