Indy Choice: Best of the new films
Whether you want to take a trip to the cinema or save those pennies and stay
at home with a DVD, here's a selection of the best films for you to watch
this weekend.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:48:23 +0100 Ridley Scott: 'I'm doing pretty good, if you think about it'
The epitome of self-made success, Ridley Scott is talking about his career.
And, as you might expect from the 72-year-old director, he's not one to hold
back. "Alien is a landmark," he says of the film that launched his
Hollywood career. "One of the really good science-fiction films. Then
Blade Runner's pretty good, too!" He reaches the 1985, Tom
Cruise-starring Legend, a monumental flop at the time. "That I thought
was [a landmark] but I jumped the gun and simply started doing fantasy 25
years too soon. But it's a pretty good movie."
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:17:37 +0100 
Schnabel's true romance inspires tale of love across cultural divide
The real-life romance behind the film could not have better advertised its subject matter: a Jewish American film director and son of a Zionist mother meets a Palestinian woman at an art exhibition, falls in love, reads about her traumatic childhood under Israeli occupation and brings her moving story to the screen.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:16:25 +0100 Depardieu vs Binoche: feud that's got France flummoxed
The French actress Juliette Binoche, known for her sweetness on and off screen, has gently savaged the actor Gιrard Depardieu for publicly questioning her talent. In an interview with an Austrian magazine, Mr Depardieu last week attacked the Oscar-winning Ms Binoche as "an absolute nothing".
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:16:11 +0100 Jonah Hex (15)
Josh Brolin stars as a bounty hunter bent on revenging the murder of his wife
and child by a renegade warmonger (John Malkovich) in the aftermath of the
Civil War.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:58 +0100 Cherry Tree Lane (18)
Paul Andrew Williams set the bar so high with his scalding debut London to
Brighton (2006) that whatever followed was almost bound to be a comedown,
and his second film, black comedy The Cottage, duly fizzled.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:58 +0100 DVD: Kick-Ass (15)
"A putz in pantyhose," is how Mark Strong's wise-guy crook, Frank
D'Amico, describes Kick-Ass, a crime-buster in a green wetsuit (snapped up
for $99 on the internet) and yellow rubber gloves.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:58 +0100 The Last Exorcism (15)
Faux-documentary about a personable but fraudulent Southern preacher (Patrick
Fabian) who makes a living from the "exorcisms" he performs for
his gullible flock.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:53 +0100 Splintered (18)
There's a mysterious beast on the loose in North Wales, which is why troubled
teen Sophie (Holly Weston) has persuaded a bunch of mates to join her on a
trip deep into the woods.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:33 +0100 Screen Talk: Blood money
For the first time, Hollywood is admitting that it pays to be long in the
tooth ? but only if you're a vampire. Bloodsuckers are big business, worth
an estimated $7bn across all entertainment, since Twilight hit the big
screen two years ago.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:32 +0100 How did all that movie talent crash?
Lame family comedy" was how The Independent's Anthony Quinn described
Marmaduke, Hollywood's latest child-friendly caper. Other reviewers have
been less kind: "It's suitable for kids, but only as a punishment";
"the human performances are utterly dismal"; "better than
Cats & Dogs, but praise hardly comes much lower". The star of this
stinker is Owen Wilson, the new go-to man for appalling comedies (see Marley &
Me and Drillbit Taylor). But the cerebral, droll Wilson once co-wrote, with
the director Wes Anderson (Wilson's childhood friend), the exquisite oddball
whimsy Rushmore (1999) and the energetic Bottle Rocket (1996).
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:32 +0100 Why Did I Get Married Too? (12A)
Tyler Perry's comedy-drama about a group of black middle-class American
friends on vacation in a fancy Bahamas retreat splits right down the middle,
the first half comedy, the second half drama.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:31 +0100 The Switch (12A), Certified Copy (12A) (2/5, 2/5)
The Switch is one of those pantomime-horse movies in which the front half
seems not to have any acquaintance with the back half. It's even got two
directors, which could explain its lack of co-ordination. The front half,
comprising the first 40 minutes or so, is an above-average romantic comedy
that springs on its comic feet and delivers a few good jabs. Jennifer
Aniston ? still a likeable comedienne, still searching for a decent movie ?
plays Kassie, a fortyish New York single woman who's decided to take the
plunge and have a baby by artificial insemination. She explains this to her
longtime best friend Wally (Jason Bateman), who's so buttoned-up and
neurotic that he's never been able to confess his love to her.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:27 +0100 DVD: While The City Sleeps (PG)
This was released into cinemas at the same time as Sex and the City 2. While
the latter was crucified by critics, the former was met with a so-so
reception.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:26 +0100 22 Bullets (18)
Jean Reno is the saving grace of this violent gangland thriller, based on
real-life events described in Franz-Olivier's book L'Immortel.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:20 +0100 Maker of 'The Last Exorcism', Eli Roth, talks budget movies and selling sex
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:17 +0100 Soulboy (15)
Film of the week, by a distance, is this charmer about provincial youth in
1974. Joe (Martin Compston), frustrated by the pinched horizons of
Stoke-on-Trent and his delivery-van job, falteringly finds his groove when
he ventures (by bus, of course) to the legendary Wigan Casino, home to
Northern Soul and its ecstatic bendy-bodied dance moves.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:12 +0100 DVD: I Am Love (15)
Under the blanket of refined repression, food is everything in the culinary
wonderland of I Am Love.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:04 +0100 Dinner For Schmucks (12A)
Francis Veber's 1998 Le Dξner de Cons was no great shakes, but it looks almost
classy next to this atrocious remake.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:03 +0100 DVD: While The City Sleeps (PG)
This was released into cinemas at the same time as Sex and the City 2. While
the latter was crucified by critics, the former was met with a so-so
reception.
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:02 +0100 
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