Lethal Weapon 3 - third time luckiest?

Lethal Weapon III has become something of a legend in the movie world. Mel Gibson, Danny Glover and the hilarious Joe Pesci shine in some classic action and comedy scenes that place the third installment of the Lethal Weapon series in a class of its own.

The film opens with Murtaugh (Danny Glover) only days from retirement. His plans for an easy life are scuppered when his old partner in crime Riggs (Mel Gibson) persuades him to help track down an ex-cop who is flooding the streets with guns. Unable to let a challenge like this pass him by, Murtaugh agrees to join up with Riggs again, but will he live to regret it?

There’s some amazing chemistry between Gibson and Glover as they brawl their way through various high-powered scenes. The plot is traditional action fare - bomb blasts, gun fights and general mayhem - but the script keeps the fun flowing.

Lethal Weapon III has to be one of the best action movies of its day. It grossed $145 million at the box office which is slightly less than the sequel, but it’s the one most people remember. Love, romance, jokes, action, bombs, gun fights and suspense - Lethal Weapon III has it all.

Movie buffs should check out the bath scene at the end with Joe Pesci and see if you notice anything strange about his broken hand. Watch carefully!

Catch this classic tonight at 22:00 on ITV1.

Flatliners

While it was first aired back in 1990, Flatliners has become something of a classic with an all star cast which includes Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon and William Baldwin. This is an intriguing look into the world of medicine with a group of medical students playing games with life and death!

Using an array of drugs to stop their hearts and their brains for a short period – commonly known as flatlining – they venture into a world of terror, joy and intrigue all appearing in a number of alarming episodes. While they think their dreams are over when they are awoken from their slumber, this is where the real fun begins. Chased by demons of years gone by, haunted by things they have done in their lives, each and every one of the medical students come face to face with their own nightmare . Eager to push the boundaries yet further and further, they attempt to “flatline” for longer and longer with shocking consequences.

While the storyline itself is edge of the seat stuff, it is the acting by the array of stars detailed above which really takes this film to a different level. Suspense, fear, joy and excitement, this movie has it all. Quite where they get the ideas for such films remains to be seen but a seemingly unbelievable storyline suddenly becomes believable!

It is difficult to pick out the main players in the film but Kiefer Sutherland and Julia Roberts are cast in the lead roles, although they are more than ably supported by the remainder of the cast. For those who have not seen Flatliners, you really do not know what you have been missing for all of these years, and for those who have seen it before, well, you have the chance to watch it all over again!

Fim 2008 with Jonathan Ross

Film 2008 Jonathan Ross is not only known for his presenting skills, near-the-knuckle comedy and as a radio 2 DJ, but took up the gauntlet as a successor to Barry Norman as a film buff on “Film 2008 with Jonathan Ross”. Jonathan Ross has a keen interest in films – particularly Japanese and his wife Jane Goldman recently was co-writer of the screenplay Stardust. Ross has been presenting the Film series of programmes since 1999.

Film 2008 is a weekly programme that is shown late on a Tuesday evening. It has a standard format, examining releases of latest films, film clips, interviews and how films are doing at the box office.

This week, the main films being reviewed were 10,000 BC and the animated film, Horton Hears a Who – both of the films have been released in time for Easter and aimed at families. As the name suggests, 10,000 BC is set in prehistoric times and follows the story of a young mammoth hunter and his life and loves. Although the film has done well at the box office, Ross was not totally enamoured.

Horton Hears a Who received a much better view and the programme showed Jim Carrey getting into character and his visual expressions as he adopted the role. The animated film is based on the Dr. Seuss book and Horton is an elephant (voiced by Carey). This is the second Dr Seuss film in which Jim Carrey has starred – the first being The Grinch.

Film 2008 is an enjoyable half hour programme presented in Jonathan Ross’s own teasing style. He is courteous to guests but not afraid to “tell it like it is”.

Dawn French Works Some Animal Magic

If you thought you’d never learn anything from a farting cow, think again. Aardman Animations, famous for Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run, have paired up with Animal Planet to create a series of short films promoting environmental awareness.

Dawn French is providing the narration for the clips which will air on Animal Planet (Sky 524 and Virgin 215) from March 1st. They’ll be broadcast to more than 200 million homes across Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

The ten clips feature a series of animated clay animals offering advice on how to lead a greener life. There’s a penguin who discovers the advantages of energy saving lightbulbs, a farting cow who finds out that his methane gas production is harming the environment, and a pug who learns to turn off electrical appliances before he goes to bed to save energy and get a better night’s sleep.

The humour in the 20 to 40 second clips means that the message never feels like a lecture. Plus, the entertainment value will make sure children pay attention – an important demographic to involve in the fight against climate change.
Dawn French has learned a lot while working on the clips. She confesses that she hasn’t always been green-savvy:
“I know I don’t do enough to save the planet and I know I should to try a bit harder.”

However, working for Animal Planet has inspired her to make changes:

“I’ve learnt greenhouse gases come off things that are on standby. I didn’t know that! I might have to address that in my own home. And we definitely recycle all plastic bags. I don’t throw them into the sea to harm the jellyfish. All cans go in one place and bottles in another place, and we have a compost in our garden.”

Sounds like she’s got it sussed. She even has some tips of her own:

“Don’t put meat in the compost. I used to think that anything that would decompose could go in the compost, but in fact what I was providing was a rat café at the bottom of my garden.”

Look out for the clips on Animal Planet from March 1st.

What’s happened to the Academy Awards?

By McGee Noble

A.O. Scott in The New York Times today said “The wonderful thing about the Academy Awards is that they are fundamentally trivial”. He has a point, at least intellectually if not financially, given that the winners involved can roll around in money screaming ‘they love me, they love me’. Anyway, his comment did remind me of some of the greater injustices of Oscar winners. My all time favourite example is 1997.

In 1997 the modern film noir L.A Confidential was nominated against some films that are still classics: the endearing As Good as it Gets, the unexpectedly moving, beautifully tempered Good Will Hunting as well as one of my all time favourite British comedies The Full Monty. Who can guess which film won best film that year? Go on have a guess. It was TITANICally bad. Yes. Against these four wonderful films, the film which won was Titanic. If ever we needed evidence that the Academy Awards was a trivial celebration of the commercial then 1997 certainly would be the year to hold up and show to our friends saying ‘see? see? Is there any justice?’ This piece of Hollywood fluff saw some of our best actors turn in their most absurd performances and also gave us one of the most cringe worthy acceptance speeches of all time (James Cameron’s misinformed decision to hold his Oscar aloft and say ‘I’m the King of the world!’. Tumbleweed drifted). In 1976 Rocky won both best picture and best director against Martin Scorcese’s Taxi Driver. In 1980 Ordinary People won against Raging Bull (again best picture and best director). You may notice a theme here: generally the Oscars do not reward innovation in film. They reward the fairy tales, the heart warming, fantasy affirming stories that Hollywood produces so well. I love Rocky. I love it, I love the young Sly, I love that he wrote the movie and demanded to star in it even though the execs thought he was a terrible actor. But courageous, world examining film making Rocky is not. It is a classic Oscar winner.

Yet last night, something kind of weird happened. Not only was there an array of wonderful, challenging movies up for nomination, there was not a single commercial heavyweight among them. It was hard to pick which ones I wanted to win, because they all deserved to. Yet I wonder what this means for Hollywood when the films being lauded are universally outside the Hollywood model. I honestly like the Hollywood model, I liked Rocky, I thought Forrest Gump was charming, Jaws was scary and The English Patient was romantic and sad. Where are those films that once Hollywood did so well? The commercial, grand and heart warming? The divide between good cinema and Hollywood cinema grows greater every year and this year’s Oscars are a landmark in which even the Hollywood elite cannot find something to reward themselves for. A sad day for the fundamentally trivial, fairy tales of yore that once had the whole world in Hollywood’s palm.

The Academy Awards will be broadcast tonight at 9pm on Network2. Set an alert here.

To see the full list of the winners go to:
http://www.oscars.org/80academyawards/nominees/index.html

Terminator TV spin-off starts tonight

Guys, you are in for a treat. Premiering tonight at 10 pm on Virgin 1 is the highly anticipated Terminator spin-off. Rarely has a TV adaptation of a movie got it so right as Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Lovingly made, if at moments a little TOO lovingly, this is a cracking show with the makings of a lasting series.

You might wonder how on earth they are going to make this idea work- I mean Terminator 3 was so tear jerkingly terrible as well as, if I remember rightly, ending in an apocalypse that would seem to make a spin off TV series impossible. Well the first episode cleverly sets up a premise that we can, at a stretch, believe in.

The casting on the whole is great. Sci Fi fans may recognise the young Thomas Dekker, who plays John Connor, from Heroes (gay best friend of the cheerleader in series 1) and Summer Glau (from the tragically doomed but excellent Firefly). Lena Headey is a sexier but still tough as nails Sarah Connor.

Of course, the show doesn’t get it 100% right and there are moments of laugh out loud campness (look out for the line ‘class dismissed’ and you will see what I mean). There are also moments in the series where it spills DANGEROUSLY close to becoming a show that could have been called ‘Terminator High’, with all the teen dramas that you might expect in a show of that name. Don’t be put off though; it only dips a toe in those waters before leaping straight back out to become a gun slinging, car exploding adventure fest.

The terminators themselves are not so scary as you might hope, lacking the brute strength of Arnie or the chilling intensity of Robert Patrick. Cold dead eyes and robotic sprinting do not necessarily a scary terminator make.

As the series unfolds, the real care which has gone into the story becomes clear. These are fully fledged characters with a whole heap of moral issues, dramatic conflicts as well as the ability to kick ass. Like I said, the makings of a lasting show. Watch. Enjoy.

What Women Want

What Women Want is a comedy starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt in the lead roles. Mel Gibson plays Nick Marshall, a male chauvinist business man. He is a divorcee with a teenage daughter who he does not understand. Nick works in the advertising industry, but finds that he is passed over for promotion and that Darcy McGuire (Helen Hunt) gets the job instead.

He is quiet keen to impress his boss, Dan (Alan Alda) and for the next assignment attempts to get in touch with his feminine side in advertising a range of products for women. Unfortunately, he has an accident in the bathroom whilst testing out the products and is electrocuted by the hairdryer and water in the bath tub.

The next day he can hear strange voices and it turns out that he can hear everything that females think about (and is drowned by the noise!). He decides to consult a psychiatrist about this but she persuades him that this is a gift. Still smarting at Darcy getting his job, he gets close to her using his new “gift” and steals her idea based at advertising Nike to women. Darcy loses her job and Nick loses his new found powers , but he realises that he has feelings for Darcy. What Women Want is an enjoyable romantic comedy based on a single theme.

Double Jeopardy

Double Jeopardy is a legal defence in some countries (for example in the USA), which says that a person can not be tried twice for the same crime. This is the premise for the film of the same name. It stars Ashley Judd as Libby Parsons and Tommy Lee Jones as Travis Lehman.

Libby is happily married to Nick and has a young son Matty. Libby and Nick spend time on their boat and she awakes one day to find the bed empty, blood on the sheets and blood in the shower. However, her husband is nowhere to be seen. It is assumed that her husband has been murdered, but the investigation finds that he has a rather large insurance policy. Libby is arrested, charged with his murder and sent to prison to serve a 7 year sentence.

Angela, Libby’s friend is charged with looking after Matty but on one phone call she realises that Nick is still alive. Having been wrongly charged with murder, Libby is determined to get revenge. She learns that using a defence of “Double Jeopardy” she can kill Nick and not be charged. Travis Lehman is her parole officer and becomes involved in the process.

Ladder 49

Ladder 49 is a film about firefighters starring the very talented Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta. It starts with Jack Morrison (played by Phoenix) lying on the floor in a pile of rubble, after his crew have attended a fire in a burning warehouse. He has hurt his leg but is trapped and his life is in danger. There are many flashbacks to his life throughout the film, such as:

His first day, 10 years ago, working for the Baltimore Fire Station and the tricks that are played on him – such as one firefighter posing as a priest and listening to his confession regarding sleeping with women, and not being a virgin.
The first time that he attended a fire and him being in charge of the hose of Ladder 49.
Going shopping in the local supermarket with his best friend and chatting up a couple of girls – one of whom was to become his wife.
The birth of his first child and his wife’s concerns over the daily danger faced in his job
Rescuing a man from a burning building by climbing the ladder on the outside and warning him to calm down or Jack will drop him.
Receiving a prestigious medal of honour.

After a period of unconsciousness, Jack is able to radio his colleagues for help but they are unable to get to him because of the burning inferno. His Captain, Mike Kennedy accepts the fact that he can not be rescued.

Ladder 49 is a touching story of everyday life for firefighters and shows the lengths that they put themselves to in order to extinguish fires and save lives. There are impressive effects and it is apparent that the cast and crew had plenty of training to ensure that the fire and rescue scenes were realistic.

Muriel’s Wedding

Muriel Heslop is a small town Australian girl, from Porpoise Spit, that just wants to get married. She’s the daughter of an over-bearing local politician, but she’s fat, frumpy, shy and out of work. She is the butt of her cynical ‘friends’ ire and her life is bad. The only thing that makes her happy is her love of ABBA, if only life could be as good as an ABBA song.

Muriel’s Wedding is a sparkly Australian comedy plotting her transition from frump to fame. Toni Colette plays the title role with wit and affection. Support comes from the great and good of the Australian film industry.

Muriel steals money from her father to go on a holiday with the friends that despise her, where they accuse her of stalking her. Bumping into an old school-friend, Rhonda, who is glamorous and popular, she has a soul-mate. Rhonda already has a hatred of Muriel’s tormentors and her confidence brings Muriel along.

The most telling scene in the film is when Muriel and Rhonda are miming to “Waterloo” as Agnetha and Annifrid from ABBA. Muriel begins as a stilted and nervous Agnetha, in white jump suit and blonde wig, looking completely out of place next to Rhonda’s confident Frida. As a fight ensues between her ex-friends over the infidelity of one with another’s now husband, Muriel brightens up and shines, putting on a sassy and sexy show. They win the talent contest as the other girls are finishing their scrap.

When Muriel goes back to Porpoise Spit the theft becomes apparent and she retreats to Sydney and Rhonda. Rhonda is wild and helps Muriel open up, as she changes her name to ‘Mariel’. However, disaster strikes on two fronts as Rhonda suffers from a tumour that stops her from walking and Muriel’s father leaves her mother to be with the local beauty consultant. When Rhonda questions Muriel’s reasons for sticking around and looking after her, she explains how she no longer listens to ABBA songs because:

“My life’s as good as an ABBA song, it’s as good as ‘Dancing Queen’”

Muriel gets an opportunity to help a South African swimmer, David, get Australian citizenship by marrying him. As all that she has ever wanted was a wedding she jumps at the chance, despite the reservations of her athletic beau. Mariel has her old ‘friends’ as bridesmaids and thoroughly enjoys her day but falls out with Rhonda who accuses her of deserting her as she goes back to Porpoise Spit. However, the death of her mother brings her closer to David but she recognises that it is not real and ends the relationship as he becomes genuinely fond of her.

Muriel (again) returns to Porpoise Spit as an elegant and urbane city girl, but only to patch up with her father and take Rhonda back to Sydney. This a genuinely delightful movie picking up on the power of true friendships and still Toni Colette’s finest performance.