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Emma Thompson Attacks Hollywood Pressure On Female Actors To Be Thin


Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson has spoken out about the “evil” pressures that Hollywood puts on actresses to lose weight and stay thin on movies, revealing she almost quit Brideshead Revisited because another female star was asked to do so.

The 57 year old star made the comments during an interview with Swedish chat show ‘Skavlan’ earlier this week, when another guest brought up the subject in an interview. She didn’t reveal the name of the actress who was the subject of the request by the producers of Brideshead, but confirmed that she did confront them over it, and that she threatened to walk.

Emma ThompsonEmma Thompson spoke about the pressure female actors are under to be thin

Continue reading: Emma Thompson Attacks Hollywood Pressure On Female Actors To Be Thin

Beauty And The Beast Review

Excellent

This remake of Disney's 1991 classic is remarkably faithful, using present-day digital animation effects to give the story a photo-realistic sheen. The addition of more songs makes it feel much more like a big movie musical. And the use of real actors adds quite a lot of detail and subtext in the character interaction. But basically, this is still the same romantic fairy tale: lovely to look as it makes the audience swoon and sigh.

It's set in a French village, where Belle (Emma Watson) is looked at with suspicion by her neighbours for her empowered-female ways, reading books, expressing her opinions and running the farm where she lives with her single dad Maurice (Kevin Kline). It's no wonder that the vain soldier Gaston (Luke Evans) pursues her, since she's the only girl who isn't chasing him. Then one day Maurice and Belle have a fateful encounter with a castle hidden in a deep woods under a curse. Imprisoned by its beastly master (Dan Stevens), Belle befriends the staff, who have been transformed into household objects like a lampstand (Ewan McGregor), clock (Ian McKellen), teapot (Emma Thompson), harpsichord (Stanley Tucci) and feather duster (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). All of them conspire to help Belle fall in love with the Beast, which would break the spell.

Director Bill Condon (who made Dreamgirls and the final Twilight movies) makes the most of the live-action cast, allowing them to stir all kinds of undercurrents into their roles, which adds weight and interest to the rather predictable storyline. The film still looks largely animated thanks to an extensive use of digital backgrounds and characters, but the actors add an earthy tone that breaks the surface, bringing in some more textured emotions and sharper humour. The whole cast is excellent, with particular scene-stealing energy coming from Evans and Josh Gad (as his super-faithful sidekick LeFou), who are both funny and villainous at the same time. And Kline is also a standout for a surprisingly thoughtful performance.

Continue reading: Beauty And The Beast Review

Emma Thompson Won't Be Reprising Love Actually Role As It's "Too Sad And Too Soon"


Emma Thompson Alan Rickman

It might be 14 years since the original romantic comedy, Love Actually, hit our screens but for some actors the death of one of the film’s pivotal stars has meant this year's reprisal has come "too soon".

The hit film is due to get a long-awaited sequel for Comic Relief this year but Emma Thompson won’t be taking part after the death of her on-screen husband, Alan Rickman, last year.

Emma ThompsonEmma Thompson won't be reprising her Love Actually role without Alan Rickman

Continue reading: Emma Thompson Won't Be Reprising Love Actually Role As It's "Too Sad And Too Soon"

'Love Actually' Mini-Sequel Will Not Include A Tribute To Alan Rickman


Alan Rickman Emma Thompson Richard Curtis Liam Neeson Love Actually

Love Actually director Richard Curtis has confirmed that the upcoming mini-sequel for Red Nose Day will not feature a tribute to the late Alan Rickman.

Rickman died aged 69 in January of last year, after a short, private battle with pancreatic cancer.

In the original 2003 film Rickman starred as a married man, tempted by his young, attractive co-worker, who he eventually buys an expensive necklace for as a Christmas present.

Continue reading: 'Love Actually' Mini-Sequel Will Not Include A Tribute To Alan Rickman

Beauty And The Beast Trailer


Take a closer look at the cast of 'Beauty and the Beast' in the final trailer for the forthcoming live-action Disney re-boot. Gaston loves himself more than Belle, Belle loves books more than boys, and Maurice loves his daughter more than anybody else. Meanwhile, the Beast hates everything and everyone equally, but that's about to change when Belle volunteers herself as his prisoner in exchange for her father's freedom. She has much pity for the Beast and wants to make the best out of a terrible situation, especially when he presents her with the library of her dreams. He's relying on her love to rescue him from the curse that binds him in his monstrous form, and to rescue his friends and servants from their furnitural guises. But together they have an important lesson to learn about love and companionship.

Continue: Beauty And The Beast Trailer

Beauty and the Beast Trailer


To outsiders, the castle which sits on the outskirts of a small town is just another run down building soon to be turned into ruins but the secrets the beautiful building hold are some laced in magic.

The royal prince who lives in the castle hasn't been seen for years and no one but a witch knows the truth of what happened to him. When Prince Adam was young, he was confronted by a witch seeking shelter from the weather in return for a beautiful rose. The young prince had little time for beggars and dismissed the old woman without much of a thought. As punishment for his cruel arrogance and having seen the lack of love in his heart, the witch curses the prince and his castle.

Having been turned into an unsightly beast with horns and fur much like a goat, he now spends his life in a castle along with his bewitched staff - for they suffer the same curse as their master and have been turned into household objects. The witch didn't want to just punish the thoughtless Prince, she did give him a little hope - she left him with the rose he originally turned down; if he could find true love by the time the last petal fell from the rose on his 21st birthday, he and his castle would be free from the curse.

Continue: Beauty and the Beast Trailer

Bridget Jones's Baby Review

Excellent

As it's been 12 years since the last Bridget Jones movie, expectations aren't too high for this sequel. So it's a very nice surprise that this film stands on its own as a charming and often very funny romantic comedy while rounding off the trilogy in style. The cast is terrific, and the script bristles with snappy dialogue and witty characters that lead the audience down an unpredictable route to a complicated happy ending.

On her 43rd birthday, Bridget (Renee Zellweger) is finally content with her single life. Although her romantic past continues to torment her, especially when she runs into former flame Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) at a funeral. With a corporate shake-up underway at the TV news programme she produces, presenter Miranda (Sara Solemani) suggests that Bridget needs some sex to liven up her life, whisking her off to a music festival. There she has a cute, hot encounter with the dishy Jack (Patrick Dempsey). And a week later, she rekindles her romance with Mark when she learns that his marriage has ended. So when she discovers that she's pregnant, Bridget hasn't a clue which man is the father.

This premise offers plenty of scope for both thematic meaning and awkward plot turns, and the screenplay merrily dives right into all of it, mixing some silly slapstick with darker emotions as director Sharon Maguire maintains a breezy-comical tone. This kind of balance is difficult to get right, but the film feels effortlessly engaging.

Continue reading: Bridget Jones's Baby Review

Bridget Jones's Baby Trailer


Bridget has always known how to get herself into a muddle - catastrophic muddles at that - even though she's been separated from her last love, Mark, for five years it appears their journey together hasn't come to an end as yet. 

After taking advice from one of her colleagues, Bridget decides that it's time to get back on the dating scene and after deciding that the likes of Tinder aren't for her, Bridget finds herself being set up with Jack Qwant who she sees in the news room studio. 

The pair get on remarkably well and soon find themselves spending the night together. A little fun is just what Bridget needed. When she finds herself at the christening of one of her friends little girls, her and Mark are forced to be amicable towards one another but the pair fall into old habits and Bridget and he also spend the night together. 

Continue: Bridget Jones's Baby Trailer

Beauty And The Beast - Teaser Trailer


Disney have released the new teaser trailer for the remake of the much-loved animated film Beauty and the Beast. The 2017 version of this classic Disney film is a live-action movie and it is claimed that the Disney magic will not be lost as a result, but rather preserved and made even more magical. Emma Watson stars as the protagonist, Princess Belle and Dan Stevens as the Beast.

The narrative follows Belle on her quest to find her father who has been captured and imprisoned in the Beasts castle, on arriving at the castle she finds herself becoming imprisoned as well. In order to free her father she agrees to stay in the Beasts castle as his prisoner. After spending time with the Beast she starts to see beyond his frightening exterior and into his kind heart and soul, which leads her to start falling in love with him.

However Belle soon finds herself caught in the middle between the two men who want her, the Beast and Gaston and it is in this climatic end that leads her to confess her love for one of them, but which one she chooses, you'll have to watch and see.

Angry Farmer Sprays Manure At Emma Thompson And Greenpeace Protestors On Proposed Fracking Site


Emma Thompson Sophie Thompson

An angry farmer has sprayed raw sewage Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson and her sister Sophie after they violated a court injunction protecting a proposed fracking site in Lancashire.

The 57 year old actress and her younger sibling joined in with a Greenpeace protest near Fylde, Lancashire on Wednesday afternoon (April 27th) against the controversial energy extraction process known as fracking, and filmed a ‘Great British Bake Off’ parody short while baking renewable energy-themed cakes in a bespoke kitchen powered by solar panels underneath a marquee.

Emma ThompsonEmma Thompson took part in the Greenpeace anti-fracking protest in Fylde, Lancashire today

Continue reading: Angry Farmer Sprays Manure At Emma Thompson And Greenpeace Protestors On Proposed Fracking Site

Bridget Jones's Baby Trailer


After battling the dating scene and finally finding love with Mark Darcy, Bridget Jones is ready to take her relationship to the next stage - well, sort of. After years of thinking that Mark was all she wanted, she realises that their relationship isn't as close as it once was and decides to call it a day.

Back where she started, Bridget decides that the men in her life are just distractions, now it's time to get fully involved in her work and climb to the position she's always wanted. As things start to fall into place for Bridget, soon her love life begins to pick up speed too.

A fleeting meeting with Mr Darcy leads to the pair reuniting - temporarily at least - whilst Bridget is also being wooed by a smooth American called Jack, a man who doesn't have Darcy's prim and proper ways but is just as charming. Playing the field doesn't work out quite as easily as Bridget hoped as she falls pregnant. Now all she must do is find out which partner she wants to be with and more importantly, who the father is.

Continue: Bridget Jones's Baby Trailer

Deleted Scenes From 'Love Actually' Reveals Heartbreaking Storyline Cut From Final Film


Emma Thompson Richard Curtis

Christmas must be soon approaching if we’re talking about Love Actually again. Richard Curtis’ 2003 rom-com has become a Christmas staple over the past decade and has been responsible for more than a few tears over a festive turkey. But a recently rediscovered deleted scene from the film has revealed another heartbreaking storyline which failed to make the final cut.

Emma thompsonEmma Thompson stars in Love Actually.

The storyline involves a stern headmistress, played by Anne Reid, who returns home from work to care for her terminally ill partner Geraldine, played by Frances de la Tour. The two were linked to the wider plot in the film through Emma Thompson's character, whose son was a pupil at Reid's school.

Continue reading: Deleted Scenes From 'Love Actually' Reveals Heartbreaking Storyline Cut From Final Film

Effie Gray: Does It Take Victorian Repression Too Far?


Dakota Fanning Emma Thompson Tom Sturridge David Suchet Greg Wise Robbie Coltrane Derek Jacobi

Critics have been divided about the latest British period drama to hit cinemas. Effie Gray is based on a notorious true scandal from the mid-19th century, and most reviews have commented that the buttoned-up approach leaves the film feeling more than a little dull.

'Effie Gray' poster
Dakota Fanning stars in 'Effie Gray'

Indeed, for a film about a torrid love triangle, the movie only barely hints that there's any sex going on beyond lots of aching glances. Director Richard Laxton was clearly channelling Victorian timidity about these things, but there are spicier hints laced through Emma Thompson's script and the layered performances of the strong cast, including Dakota Fanning, Greg Wise, Tom Sturridge, Julie Walters, David Suchet, Derek Jacobi and Thompson herself.

Continue reading: Effie Gray: Does It Take Victorian Repression Too Far?

Men, Women & Children Trailer


One group of very different people - including popular high school teens and their less popular peers, and a married couple struggling in their relationship - is explored in a telling story of how social media has taken over various areas of people's lives. From love lives and infidelities to body image, the world of social networking has become a hub for public scrutiny and lack of privacy as the world flock to the net in order to gain acceptance and admiration, to meet potential partners, become famous, or even bully each other. 'Men, Women & Children' looks at the dangerous rise in the sharing of sexually explicit content, cyberbullying and other disastrous effects that the web has had on the Western world.

Continue: Men, Women & Children Trailer

Getting To Know 'Saving Mr. Banks' Through Disney's Long-Time Composer, Richard Sherman


Tom Hanks Emma Thompson Jason Schwartzman

While Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson head up the posters and marketing for Saving Mr. Banks with their turns as Walt Disney and P.L Travers; the roles of Jason Schwartzman and B.J. Novak as Richard and Robert Sherman – composers during Disney’s pomp – are just as pertinent and significant to the story of Mary Poppins’ journey from page to screen.

Saving Mr BanksTravers herself wasn't a big fan of made up words

The brothers, who are now separating following Robert’s death, were responsible for the most-loved, iconic music in movie history, including ‘Trust in Me’ from ‘The Jungle Book,’ ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ from… you guess it; the theme tune for ‘Winnie The Pooh,’ and ‘Bedknobs & Broomsticks’.

Continue reading: Getting To Know 'Saving Mr. Banks' Through Disney's Long-Time Composer, Richard Sherman

Review Roundup: Critics Enchanted By The Emotion And Depth Of 'Saving Mr. Banks'


Emma Thompson Tom Hanks

John Lee Hancock’s Saving Mr. Banks is a biographical dramedy, centering on Walt Disney’s life and the creation of Mary Poppins and starring Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson – in short, it is practically the perfect storm for critical success. Both the story and the performances are praised throughout the internet and critics are already pegging this for an Oscar nod, or several.

Saving Mr. Banks Still
Critics are practically in awe of the charming biopic.

A particular favorite is Emma Thompson’s performance as author PL Travers – the original creator of the Mary Poppins character. As Travers, Thompson is sharp, snippy, but still relatable in her passion to protect the essence of Mary Poppins. As The Guardian’s Mark Kermode puts it, Thompson is “sheer perfection in the complex role of "Mrs PL", never allowing the author to descend into crotchety caricature, constantly suggesting a strain of melancholia behind the biting, control-freaky hautiness.”

Continue reading: Review Roundup: Critics Enchanted By The Emotion And Depth Of 'Saving Mr. Banks'

A Week In Movies: More High-Profile Releases, Trailers For Muscle-Man Movies, And A New Life Of Jesus


Disney Emma Thompson Tom Hanks Kellan Lutz Brendan Fraser Diogo Morgado

Frozen 2013

In the wake of last week's Catching Fire fever, new releases this week are a little more low key. Thanksgiving audiences in America will be choosing between Disney's acclaimed new animated film Frozen and Spike Lee's much more adult remake of the 2003 Korean thriller Oldboy. 

Meanwhile in the UK moviegoers will get a taste of Thanksgiving in the wacky animated romp Free Birds, plus a chance to savour the awards-buzz on Saving Mr Banks, about Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) trying to coerce PL Travers (Emma Thompson) into signing over the rights to her book Mary Poppins. Read our Saving Mr. Banks review here.

Continue reading: A Week In Movies: More High-Profile Releases, Trailers For Muscle-Man Movies, And A New Life Of Jesus

Emma Thompson Steals The Plaudits From Under Hanks' Nose In Saving Mr. Banks - Reviews


Emma Thompson Tom Hanks

When news of Saving Mr. Banks was announced, the words on everybody’s lips were: ‘Tom Hanks is playing Walt Disney. Cool’. But, as details of the film emerged, the characters of P.L Travers emerged as the more interesting angle. And so it has proved now the critics have taken a look.

Emma ThompsonEmma Thompson as P.L Travers in Saving Mr. Banks

Perhaps it’s because Travers’ story isn’t particularly well known; not everyone was aware of the trouble she faced when Disney weighed in on her book, with a view to turning it into – as it became – one of the biggest films of all time. Either way, Thompson as Travers is the focus as Saving Mr. Banks hurtled towards a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Continue reading: Emma Thompson Steals The Plaudits From Under Hanks' Nose In Saving Mr. Banks - Reviews

Saving Mr. Banks Review


Excellent

This true story only barely avoids becoming sloppily sentimental, thanks to a solid cast and a final act that generates honest emotion. Awash with the Disney spirit, the film breaks free of the marketing machine to recount events that are lively and often very funny, but also manage to be sharply moving. It's the kind of crowd-pleaser that deserves to do well both at the box office and in awards ceremonies.

Set in 1961, it's the story of how Walt Disney (Hanks) finally lures PL Travers (Thompson) to Hollywood to woo her into signing over the film rights to Mary Poppins after some 20 years of pestering. She is equally determined to protect her creation, which is very close to her heart. But she agrees to work with the screenwriter (Whitford) and composers (Schwartzman and Novak) as long as she has veto power. Her demands are crazy ("I don't want the colour red anywhere in the movie!"), but everyone tries to win her over. Eventually Walt realises that he needs to find out exactly why Mary Poppins is so important to her. And that the story is more about Mary's affect on the family's father, Mr Banks, than the children.

Indeed, in parallel flashbacks we see Travers' childhood in rural 1906 Australia, where she lives as a young girl (Buckley) with her lively father (Farrell) and shattered mother (Wilson). Her dad's alcoholism is the driving force of these scenes, which feel like a completely separate film intercut with sunny 1960s Hollywood. But they add weight to Thompson's remarkably detailed performance, which is marvellously withering and hilarious, and also subtly emotional. Her interaction with the buoyant Hanks is sharp and jagged, and the film's nicest scenes are between Travers and her driver, sensitively played by Giamatti.

Continue reading: Saving Mr. Banks Review

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - Tom Hanks In Saving Mr. Banks [Trailer + Pictures]


Tom Hanks Emma Thompson Walt Disney Paul Giamatti Jason Schwartzman

The long-awaited Walt Disney film, featuring Tom Hanks as the controversial man himself, is getting closer and closer, and we’ve got some stills of Hanks in action as well as his co-stars, Emma Thompson, B.J Novak and Jason Schwartzman.

Tom Hanks Saving Mr. BanksTom Hanks as the controversial Walt Disney

Saving Mr. Banks, which is to be showcased at Disney's annual D23 Expo, follows the story of Mary Poppins’ journey from page to screen as Author P.L. Travers travels from London to Hollywood to see her novel change in front of her eyes. She didn’t want Disney to do whey they did with her creation; wasn’t what she had planned.

Continue reading: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - Tom Hanks In Saving Mr. Banks [Trailer + Pictures]

Saving Mr. Banks Trailer


P.L. Travers was an Australian author who, in the early sixties, went into negotiations with Walt Disney over the rights of her novels surrounding the character Mary Poppins. It was eventually released on the big screen and won five Oscars, though its production was not without its conflicts. Travers' initial aversion to Hollywood didn't help matters, and she was unnerved by the idea that Disney might turn her beloved character into a prancing, dancing, twinkling fairy godmother. However, when Disney began to understand that Mary Poppins' place in the story was less about the children and more about their father - and, in effect, her own father on whom she based him on - the pair began to bond better and Travers was finally willing to unleash her story onto the world.

'Saving Mr. Banks' is the story of how 'Mary Poppins' was put to film in 1964 by Walt Disney, thirty years after P.L. Travers began writing about her. It is about the conflicts between Travers and Disney and Travers own struggles with her personal life when we discover just how true to life the story really was. It has been directed by John Lee Hancock ('Snow White and the Huntsman', 'A Perfect World', 'The Blind Side') and written by Kelly Marcel ('Terra Nova') and Sue Smith ('My Brother Jack', 'Peaches') and it is set to hit UK cinemas on January 17th 2014.

Click Here To Read - Saving Mr. Banks - Movie Review 

Tom Hanks Walt Disney Picture - First Still From 'Saving Mr Banks'


Tom Hanks Emma Thompson Paul Giamatti Jason Schwartzman Colin Farrell

We love the Tom Hanks Walt Disney picture, it’s not quite the transformation we expected – we can still see Hanks in it – but it has certainly whetted the appetite for Saving Mr Banks: the upcoming biographical drama about the production of the popular Walt Disney film Mary Poppins.

Tom HanksHanks sports a 'tache at a portrait unveiling at Sardi's restaurant

Next to Hanks – who appears to be towing the company line, waving to fans – is a rather disgruntled Emma Thompson, who plays P.L. Travers in the film. Her struggle, which stems from Disney’s desire to adapt her novel, is a central plot point from the film. 'Saving Mr Banks' – also starring Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman and Colin Farrell - is due out on January 17.

Continue reading: Tom Hanks Walt Disney Picture - First Still From 'Saving Mr Banks'

Sandra Bullock In Talks For Jay-z And Will Smith’S ‘Annie’


Sandra Bullock Carol Burnett Quvenzhane Wallis Jay Z Will Smith Jamie Foxx Will Gluck Emma Thompson Aline Brosh McKenna

Sandra Bullock is in talks with producers of the upcoming Hollywood remake of ‘Annie,’ according to The Wrap. Rumours of Bullock’s involvement started circulating in March, although it is believed talks have since reopened with Sony and Overbrook Entertainment.

The musical, first shown on Broadway in 1977, was made into a film in 1982. Should the studio’s plans come into fruition, the actress would be playing Miss Hannigan: the abusive overseer of Annie’s orphanage. As such, Bullock will be competing with Carol Burnett’s performance.

This role would mark a change for the actress who has previously appeared as the heroine in the majority of her films including The Blind Side, The Proposal and All About Steve.

Continue reading: Sandra Bullock In Talks For Jay-z And Will Smith’S ‘Annie’

Beautiful Creatures... Ugly Box Office Results. Fantasy Drama Fails To Attract An Audience


Emma Thompson Jeremy Irons

Beautiful Creatures may boast a stellar cast, with the likes of Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons in the midst of its line-up, but that did not save it from a receiving a serious trouncing in the press and a bitterly disappointing opening weekend. The movie, which only managed to dredge up a meagre 44% on the Rotten Tomatoes review site, opened with just $7.5 million in domestic box office sales.

It seems that a smattering of quality cast members simply wasn’t enough to save Beautiful Creatures. Touted as the next Twilight, the overall look of the movie feels cheap in comparison and the story (boy moves to small Southern town, boy meets girl, boy discovers girl’s dark secrets) felt all too familiar and yawnsome. Too amateur-looking to draw in the adult crossover audience that Twilight and The Hunger Games so successfully entrapped and lacking the hype that they benefitted from so greatly, Beautiful Creatures has simply fallen through the cracks and failed to find its niche.

The top earner for the President's Day Weekend sales (and let’s not forget, it was also Valentine’s Day Weekend) was the latest Bruce Willis blockbuster, A Good Day To Die Hard, which somehow rakes in $25 million in its debut weekend, despite having received even worse reviews than Beautiful Creatures and managed only a laughable 16% score on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Continue reading: Beautiful Creatures... Ugly Box Office Results. Fantasy Drama Fails To Attract An Audience

Beautiful Creatures Reviews – Critical Response Is Mixed


Jeremy Irons Emma Thompson

The Beautiful Creatures reviews are out, and it would appear as though the supernatural drama has divided the critics. Let’s have a look.

The inevitable comparisons to Twilight are ample, and like the vampire franchise, Beautiful Creatures is set for sequel after sequel; something The Telegraph wouldn’t mind. “There's just enough here to make the inevitable sequels a not-entirely-unwelcome prospect,” they write in a review that seems positive and negative at the same time. The Los Angeles Times’ review were delighted with it, saying “The movie is an intriguing, intelligent enigma - three words not typically associated with teen romances.” Similarly, Time Magazine seemed to accept it for what it is: “Beautiful Creatures is good fun and I want to know what happens next for Lena the teenaged witch.”

Continue reading: Beautiful Creatures Reviews – Critical Response Is Mixed

Beautiful Creatures Review


Very Good

While this package has all of the key marketing elements to reach the Twilight audience, the film itself is rather a lot more fun, made with some wit and intelligence, plus a cast that's happy to chomp on the scenery. Based on a four-novel series, this film actually has more in common with True Blood than Twilight, with its Deep South setting and the clash between religious fundamentalism and supernatural beings.

At the centre is Ethan (Ehrehreich), a 16-year-old who is bristling against the isolation of his small South Carolina town. His recently deceased mother instilled in him a love of books banned by the town's hyper-religious leaders, and the local librarian Amma (Davis) helps keep his interest alive. As a result, he's more open than the other teens when Lena (Englert) arrives at school. But she's shunned because her Uncle Macon (Irons) is the town's pariah, a landowner whom everyone thinks is a devil worshipper. Actually, the whole family are casters, people with special powers that are designated good or evil on their 16th birthday. 

The plot stirs up some suspense as Lena's big day of reckoning approaches. She's terrified that she'll go over to the dark side like her man-eating cousin (Rossum) or, worse still, her spectral mother, who does her mischief by inhabiting the body of the town's most pious housewife Mrs Lincoln (Thompson). This of course gives Thompson two insane characters to play at the same time, and she has a ball with it. As does Irons with the shadowy, snaky Macon. And at the centre, Ehrenreich and Englert both show considerable promise, with their strikingly non-Hollywood good looks and a depth of character that makes the film more engaging than we expect.

Continue reading: Beautiful Creatures Review

New Beautiful Creatures Preview Dissects Fate And Our Control Over It (Trailer)


Alice Englert Jeremy Irons Emma Thompson

The latest trailer for fantasy film Beautiful Creatures offers an insight into the narrative's tale of fate and how much of it can be controlled. The story focuses on a young witch - they use the term Caster - called Lena who feels self-conscious at all the attention she receives in the normal world for her magic powers. So what better thing to do than move to a small conservative town in the backwaters of America? They're sure to take to someone so different there. Here she meets someone she falls in love with, of course. And they're also a 'mortal' (one of us, basically) so you can be sure that won't go down too well with her fellow Casters. 

Watch the trailer for Beautiful Creatures.

 

Continue reading: New Beautiful Creatures Preview Dissects Fate And Our Control Over It (Trailer)

Beautiful Creatures Trailer


Lena Duchannes is a Caster whose family has plenty of dark power between them, but rather than feeling empowered, Lena just wishes she can be mortal so she wouldn't have to hide and people wouldn't talk about her all the time. When she moves to the small and somewhat conservative town of Gatlin, South Carolina, she finds herself an outcast but is soon noticed by her school mate Ethan Wate who is enchanted by her and the excitement her arrival brings to this ordinary, unmoving town. However, their relationship is compromised by the fact that Lena only has a matter of days left before she is subjected to the Claiming; a process that will decide whether she will turn to the Light or the Dark side of magic. While her uncle does everything in her power to make sure she is claimed to the Light, the all-powerful Sarafine is convinced that she will have great magical supremacy which would better be served in the Dark. 

'Beautiful Creatures' is the story of just how much love can conquer and, equally, the devastation it brings. It has been adapted to screen by Oscar nominated director and screenwriter Richard LaGravenese ('P.S. I Love You', 'The Mirror Has Two Faces') from the book of the same name by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. The fantasy romance will be released in time for Valentine's Day on February 13th 2013.

Director: Richard LaGravenese

Continue: Beautiful Creatures Trailer

Brave Review


Excellent
Pixar continues pushing boundaries with this lavishly animated Scottish adventure, which centres on an involving mother-daughter relationship. The characters are wonderfully vivid, even if the film never quite achieves the transcendence of its nearest Pixar relative, Ratatouille.

In the 10th century highlands, Princess Merida (voiced by Macdonald) is annoyed that her only fate seems to be to choose a suitor from three eligible losers.

She'd much rather be out having epic adventures and making her own history. Her mother, Queen Elinor (Thompson), struggles to keep Merida in line, to say nothing of her rambunctious husband, King Fergus (Connolly), and three tearaway young sons. When Merida's frustration boils over, she consults a witch (Walters) about a spell that will sort her mother out. Of course, what happens isn't what she had in mind.

Continue reading: Brave Review

Men In Black 3 Review


Good
A decade after Men in Black II, the cast and crew attempt to rekindle that blend of dry humour and outrageous silliness. But instead of ramping up the hilarity, as in part 2, this movie is weighed down with a messy plot and jokes that are amusing if not actually funny.

One day Agent J (Smith) wakes up to find that his partner Agent K (Jones) has been dead for more than 40 years. It turns out that evil alien Boris (Clement) has travelled back to 1969 to stop K from capturing him so he can conquer Earth. So J has little choice but to follow him. First, he must convince new boss O (Thompson) to let him go, and then he has to explain everything to the younger K (Brolin) and work with another alien (Stuhlbarg) who can see multiple futures.

Continue reading: Men In Black 3 Review

Brave Trailer


Princess Merida is the daughter of the warrior, King Fergus and his wife, Queen Elinor. She is also the eldest of four; she has three younger brothers, Hamish; Hubert and Harris, who are a set of triplets. Being part of the royal family means she has to sit and watch a Scottish tradition: the first born son showcasing his archery.

Continue: Brave Trailer

Men In Black III Trailer


Agents K and J work for the Men In Black, an organisation specialising in hunting down aliens. Agent J used to be known as James Darrell Edwards III and was recruited by Agent K, after the latter observed the former hunting down an alien in disguise while working for the NYPD.

Continue: Men In Black III Trailer

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 Trailer


Harry Potter and his friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, continue their search for Voldemort's Horcruxes - dark magical objects that help the user gain immortality. Having found and destroyed one Horcrux - a locket belonging to Hogwarts founder Salazar Slytherin - the three friends travel from Ron's older brother Bill Weasley's house by the sea to the wizarding bank, Gringotts and then to Hogwarts to look for the final remaining Horcruxes.

Continue: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 Trailer

Nanny McPhee & The Big Bang Review


Excellent
Emma Thompson is back with a second encounter between her somewhat scary nanny and another houseful of unruly kids. As with the first film, a secondary plot feels corny and superfluous, but it's still thoroughly entertaining.

During the Blitz in London, posh children Cyril and Celia (Vlahos and Taylor-Ritson) are sent to stay with their aunt, Mrs Green (Gyllenhaal), on her farm. While she awaits news of her soldier husband, she struggles to manage her three rambunctious kids (Butterfield, Woods and Steer), pay her bills, fend off her financially desperate brother-in-law (Ifans) and keep the dotty local shopkeeper (Smith) from doing something dangerous. The person she needs is clearly Nanny McPhee (Thompson), who arrives with several stern-but-magical tricks up her sleeve.

Continue reading: Nanny McPhee & The Big Bang Review

Nanny Mcphee and The Big Bang Trailer


Watch the trailer for Nanny Mcphee and The Big Bang

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Treasure Planet Review


Very Good
Children, put down your books. Thanks to Walt Disney Studios, you no longer need them. In today's world, a video store membership card and a working knowledge of animated Disney classics proves to be a much more valuable educational tool than a library card. Want to learn about early American settlers conquering the New World? Rent Pocahontas. Pending pop quiz on Greek mythology? Try Hercules. Put down Sir Edgar Rice Burroughs. You've got Tarzan.

The art of reading a book is slowly fading away. Disney realizes this, and even makes a not-so-veiled reference to it at the beginning of their latest literary plunder -- er, adaptation -- Treasure Planet. When we first meet our hero, 10-year-old Jim Hawkins, he's engrossed in a swashbuckling pirate novel. However, it's really a 3D pop-up novel, where interactive visual effects act out the stories for kids "reading" them. The process has begun.

Continue reading: Treasure Planet Review

Nanny McPhee Review


Excellent
Once upon a time, there was a young, dashing movie critic who ventured to see a fairy tale named Nanny McPhee. The critic was scared, as he had done battle with kids' movies. His record featured duels with the likes of Are We There Yet? and Rebound. He had barely survived.

But our hero had a job to do, and he never shied away from danger. He swallowed his fear, hopped into his silver, gas-fueled chariot, and sped off through the rain and inky darkness to the multiplex, that house of horrors where Cedric the Entertainer and John Travolta lurked. The critic pushed open the heavy doors and made his fateful way to face off against Nanny McPhee.

Continue reading: Nanny McPhee Review

Love Actually Review


Very Good
I can only presume that the British calendar is so uniquely screwy that it allows for a Christmas movie to open a week after Halloween. Or maybe Love Actually is just in a universe of its own... one in which the prime minister is inaugurated in November and where an adverb can be used to modify a noun.

But a little oddness is forgivable: Directing a movie is a strange place for Richard Curtis, who's written umpteen Brit-friendly movies and TV shows over the years but hasn't directed one, until now.

Continue reading: Love Actually Review

Angels In America Review


Good
There are times when Mike Nichols' long-awaited HBO adaptation of Tony Kushner's award-riddled Reagan-era AIDS epic play, Angels in America, just about achieves that grand moment of completion that it's been striving for, and the failure to do so is almost heartbreaking. There are numerous reasons why Kushner's play has never been brought to film before, despite serving for many years as the landmark theatrical statement on AIDS in the 1980s - the lyrical counterpoint to the factual reportage of the book and film And the Band Played On - and highest among them is its length. Nichols' version takes the play at its original, somewhat off-putting size, divided up into two three-hour parts, and does pretty much the best with its material that one could ask for; any problems with the finished product are likely Kushner's own.

Part one, "Millennium Approaches" is full of ominous portents, plague and destruction, the rampant spread of AIDS in the chilly clime of '80s conservatism, while the second, "Perestroika" makes the political issues bandied about earlier in the film devastatingly personal. The story runs from 1985 to 1990 and takes in a broad sweep of characters, but not nearly as many as other writers would have packed in, simply to give a broader demographic sampling. Central to the film is Prior Walter (Justin Kirk), a 30-year-old AIDS sufferer whose boyfriend Louis (Ben Shenkman) leaves him in an astonishingly heartless manner, only to take up soon after with recently uncloseted U.S. attorney Joe Pitt (Patrick Wilson). Left mostly to his own devices, with only his friend Belize (Jeffery Wright) to help, as Walter gets sicker, he begins to have visions of an angel (Emma Thompson, odd, arrogant and completely captivating), determined to make him a prophet, claiming that God has deserted the world and that humans are at fault.

Continue reading: Angels In America Review

Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban Review


Very Good

Harry Potter is growing up, and so is his movie franchise.Under the tutelage of a new director -- Alfonso Cuarón, known for both children's fare (the 1995 remake of "A Little Princess") and an edgy, insightfully soulful, sex-charged teen road-trip flick ("Y Tu Mama, Tambien") -- the boy wizard has graduated from the world of kiddie movie spectacles with tie-in toys.

"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" is a film in which depth of character, cunning humor and hair-raising chills come shining through the visual blitzkrieg of special effects -- which are also magnificently improved over the series first two installments. Case in point: a half-horse, half-eagle creature called a Hippogriff that gives "Lord of the Rings'" Gollum a run for his money as the most life-like CGI creation in cinema history.

Beyond just its detailed feathers (which fluff when it shakes) or its golden eyes (which bore holes in the screen with obstinate personality), this winged equine's every movement, from its canter to its peck, is a studied yet natural, amazingly fluid amalgam of the two beasts that were combined to create it.

Continue reading: Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban Review

Emma Thompson

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Emma Thompson

Date of birth

15th April, 1959

Occupation

Actor

Sex

Female

Height

1.71


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Emma Thompson Movies

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) Movie Review

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) Movie Review

Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha) is on his way to becoming the new Woody Allen, which...

The Meyerowitz Stories New And Selected Trailer

The Meyerowitz Stories New And Selected Trailer

Harold Meyerowitz (Dustin Hoffman) is a celebrated New York artist, whose quick-temper and filter-less conversation...

Beauty And The Beast Movie Review

Beauty And The Beast Movie Review

This remake of Disney's 1991 classic is remarkably faithful, using present-day digital animation effects to...

Beauty And The Beast Trailer

Beauty And The Beast Trailer

Take a closer look at the cast of 'Beauty and the Beast' in the final...

Beauty and the Beast Trailer

Beauty and the Beast Trailer

To outsiders, the castle which sits on the outskirts of a small town is just...

Bridget Jones's Baby Movie Review

Bridget Jones's Baby Movie Review

As it's been 12 years since the last Bridget Jones movie, expectations aren't too high...

Bridget Jones's Baby Trailer

Bridget Jones's Baby Trailer

Bridget has always known how to get herself into a muddle - catastrophic muddles at...

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Beauty And The Beast - Teaser Trailer

Beauty And The Beast - Teaser Trailer

Disney have released the new teaser trailer for the remake of the much-loved animated film...

Bridget Jones's Baby Trailer

Bridget Jones's Baby Trailer

After battling the dating scene and finally finding love with Mark Darcy, Bridget Jones is...

Burnt Movie Review

Burnt Movie Review

Strong characters help hold the attention as this overcooked drama develops, but in the end...

A Walk in the Woods Movie Review

A Walk in the Woods Movie Review

Echoing his witty writing style, Bill Bryson's memoir of his trek up the Appalachian Trail...

Burnt Trailer

Burnt Trailer

Restauranteering is not a profession that should be taken lightly. Indeed, it's less of a...

A Walk in The Woods Trailer

A Walk in The Woods Trailer

Bill Bryson has been living in the UK with his English wife for a long...

Survivor Trailer

Survivor Trailer

The world of counter-intelligence has gotten an awful lot more dangerous. When a visa security...

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