MICHAEL BAY. The man behind some of the highest-grossing films of recent years.
He's the marmite of directors. Some love him. Some loathe him. With a passion that burns hotter than the fire of a thousand suns.
His films are so choc-full of explodey carnage that someone somewhere coined the phrase: "Bayhem" (boak!)
Me? Out of the nine films he has directed, I've enjoyed six. Yes, SIX!
Don't misunderstand me. His films are a million miles away from being anything like perfect. But some of them have been (are still are) damn enjoyable.
Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
With all the hullaballo surrounding superheroes at the moment you could be forgiven for forgetting that another cultural icon is set to return to our screens this year. Therefore please feast your eyes on this gentle reminder that gentleman spy James Bond will be returning in 2012 with Skyfall.
Remember when Elijah Wood went from a cute child star to a heroic hobbit and then turned into a raging serial killer in Sin City and got all creepy? Well he's at it again in the first official photos from the remake of Maniac.
With the recent news that Anchorman 2 is set to go into production next February, writer and director Adam McKay has given a few hints about the upcoming teaser trailer, whilst a brilliant new poster has been released online.
Chronicle star Alex Russell and stage actor Ansel Elgort are the latest to join the upcoming remake of the Carrie, Collider have reported this week.
Carrie, an adaptation of Stephen King’s 1974 novel that was original released in 1976 by Brian De Palma, is set to be remade by director Kimberly Peirce with screenplay by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and is to be released sometime next year.
Almost 80 years after its first release, Thomas Bentley’s The Old Curiosity Shop (1934) is reopening for business and is now available on DVD. For those aware that 2012 is the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’ birth, this may be a reason to celebrate. For those who are interested in the transition from silent film to talkies, this should become a treasured item in their movie collection. For everyone else, well, I'd recommend looking for something maybe not less old, but certainly less curious.
It’s been a decade since the Men In Black last saved the world from the scum of the universe and I did wonder whether time might have moved on and made the adventures of Agents K and J a little outmoded. Needn’t have worried. The crazy joie de vivre of the first two entries in the franchise is present and correct in the third, with Josh Brolin standing in very well for Tommy Lee Jones. Indeed, Jones is only in the film for ten minutes or so with the majority of the adventure set in 1969 as J finds himself cast back in time to thwart the plot of Boris, a diabolical alien who has picked up the sobriquet “Animal” thanks to his particular brand of evil.
Iron Man beats pie. Pie beats vampire.
Is this the weeks box office top ten or the weirdest game of rock, paper, scissors of all time?
The first one.
With the Avengers Assemble juggernaut rolling on, breaking further box office records, it seems that the pressure is on for other superheroes to deliver a similar cash return later this summer.
While I cannot wait for the conclusion of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, I was initially indifferent to the reboot of Spider-Man. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two instalments of Sam Raimi’s take on the web slinger, was disappointed by the third chapter but was looking forward to the director making amends in a fourth instalment with Tobey Maguire once again playing the eponymous hero. I was therefore aghast at the announcement that a reboot was in the works. However, the trailers completely spun me around, it didn’t seem to be a rehash of the origin story we’ve already seen and it got me intrigued enough to swing down to my local multiplex when Marc Webb’s effort hits in July.
However, after seeing part of the latest four-minute “Super Preview” which hit the web this week, I’m now wondering once again if there’s any point.
