
At some point in the not too distant past someone in Hollywood got a fat bonus, a hearty pat on the back and instant respect from his peers for inventing a brilliant way of advertising when new films arrive at the cinema. Wait for it: you simply name the production after its release date! Brilliant! And if the film isn’t released on that exact day, at least people will know when they can stroll up and buy a ticket.
Disasterpiece director Roland Emmerich employed the technique with Independence Day, aka ID4, and it went rather swimmingly well – so much so that he tried it twice more but misfired considerably. 10,000 BC advertised a release date a wee bit earlier than your average cinemagoer could feasibly get to, and 2012, while more plausible, arrived three years early (it was released in 2009).
Nobody needs to explain when Valentine’s Day will be available in cinemas for your viewing pleasure, if your idea of viewing pleasure equals a smaltzy dramatically inept rom-com with an unaccountably large array of characters played by an ensemble of underperforming celebs, including (deep breath) Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biel, Patrick Dempsey, Jamie Foxx, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway and Ashton Kutcher.
A plot synopsis would be long, exhausting and pointless, so let’s just say that a bunch of people get together on Valentine’s Day. Some date, some get engaged, some have relationship tiffs, one comes out of the closet and one – to protect her identity we shall call her “Queen Latifah” – plays against type (ahem) as a large, loud, boisterous ball breaker. The story tediously criss-crosses between them. Ashton Kutcher proves once again that he can’t act. Or, if he can, he does a masterful job faking it. Read More



The nominations for the 2010 Academy Awards were announced this morning. This year’s awards are particularly significant in that they mark the first year in which the number of Best Picture nominees extends from five to ten. They are an impressive bunch of films: Avatar, The Blind Side (which I haven’t seen), District 9, An Education, Inglourious Basterds, Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, The Hurt Locker, A Serious Man, Up and Up in the Air. The big surprise here is the inclusion of debut director Neil Blomkamp’s killer social commentary SCI-FI, District 9.
Throughout the hullabaloo of the annual film awards season one ceremony maintains a proud history of spotlighting the worst Hollywood has to offer. No, I’m not talking about the Academy Awards, though we all feel the pain when Mr. Oscar dishes out golden statuettes to people like James Cameron and Halle Berry. I’m talking about the Golden Raspberry aka Razzie Awards, which this year celebrate “29 years of dishonouring Hollywood’s worst.”
The phenomenal success of Avatar and its widely lauded, eye-bogglingly gorgeous visual structure has paved the way for an onslaught of 3D movies. Some titles, such as the re-rendered 3D versions of Pixar classics Toy Story 1 and 2, were in production well before James Cameron’s 


3D movies are traditionally associated with horror, science fiction and animation, but in the wake of Avatar’s 