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Shot through with flashes of outright brilliance, Colm McCarthy’s Outcast is a film that never quite figures out what it wants to be. Is this the story of Fergal, the roving Irish teen of unusual parentage struggling to hold on to the first romantic relationship he has ever experienced? Or is this the story of Mary, Fergal’s wild and wildly protective mother? A woman steeped in lore and history Mary fears that her son may take a wrong turn and may unleash something terrible in the process. Or is this the story of Cathal, the man with a dark history tracking down both mother and child, intending to kill them both? Because the film never decides which it wants to be it ends up being a curious and sometimes clumsy amalgamation of all three, an unfortunate situation that prevents it from reaching the heights that are so nearly in its grasp. First, the good. Director Colm McCarthy has created here a gripping, intimate and shockingly visceral portrait of the sidhe, the Celtic fairy people. Theirs is a wild magic, one steeped in blood and pain and ritual and McCarthy captures it all in potent fashion. To my knowledge there has never been a film to touch on this enormous wealth of myth and folklore in such a fashion and that seems an absolute crime because the magic elements of Outcast are exactly that on screen: magical and mysterious, a little bit frightening and absolutely riveting. The magic is riveting because it is believable and for that McCarthy deserves full marks for the way he handles his talented cast. Youngsters Niall Bruton and Hanna Stanbridge as the star crossed lovers who make up the young end of the cast while Kate Dickie and James Nesbitt positively burn up the screen with their mutual hatred and menace. If there is justice in the world, Dickie and Nesbitt will soon be fielding a wave of offers from Hollywood on the back of this film. And here’s where McCarthy makes the first of his two significant mistakes, I think. Strong as Bruton and Stanbridge may be, their love story is badly underwritten and verges on cliche. The story of Fergal and Petronella just isn’t all that interesting, particularly not when put beside the burning hatred of Mary and Cathal and yet every time things heat up between the two adults we cut away to spend a bit more time with the teens. Though Fergal is only really interesting in that Cathal wants to kill him while Mary wants to protect him, he is given lead time in the film which frequently throws things out of balance and disrupts the flow. It’s almost as if McCarthy didn’t realize just how strong his adults were and felt the need to young things up a bit to appeal to a broader audience. Not only an unnecessary move but also a counterproductive one. Mistake number two? While attempting not to completely spoil the ending I can say that while the technical aspects of the film are generally very strong – the work of cinematographer Darran Tiernan, in particular, is outstanding – there is a significant special effects sequence in the finale of the film that just isn’t good enough. Instead of the finale bolstering the emotional distress of one of the core characters the dodgy work ends up verging a bit on the silly side. Though Outcast never becomes the brilliant film it is so close to being it nonetheless showcases a stack of impressive talent. McCarthy is clearly one to watch for, as is Teirnan behind the camera, and his entire cast is very strong indeed. The flaws are significant, yes, but the high points are very high indeed.

by Perri Nemiroff The cast of “The Oranges” is growing a whole lot juicier. Just after word got out that “House” star Hugh Laurie could make the dark comedy his much-anticipated first lead role in a film, The Hollywood Reporter announces that a slew of top-notch actors are interested in joining him. Adam Brody, Alia Shawkat, Catherine Keener and Allison Janney are all in negotiations to sign onto TV director Julian Farino’s debut in the features department. The script by Ian Helfer and Jay Reiss, which you may remember as the piece holding the #2 spot on the 2008 black list, has Laurie starring as man who gets romantic with the daughter of a family friend. That young lady was speculated to be played by either Leighton Meester or Mila Kunis, but according to the THR report, Meester has won out. The unconventional relationship causes family drama, particularly with Laurie’s character’s son (Brody), who falls for Meester as well. Keener will play Mrs. Laurie and Shawkat their second child who’s considering moving out of the family abode. Janney would play Meester’s mom. Yes, this sounds like one heck of a dysfunctional family, but at least it’s a well-cast one. “House” fans are aching to see Laurie headline a film. And who better to pair him with than the quintessential mom, Keener? As for the kiddies, it’s difficult to move past Meester playing “Gossip Girl”’s Blair Waldorf, but the fact that she can go from conniving enemy to Serena’s BFF in a matter of seconds shows she’s got some range. Brody and Shawkat are always eager to please and often do. Brody is coming off roles in “Jennifer’s Body” and “Cop Out” while you may recognize Shawkat from the indie film “Bart Got a Room” or from Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut “Whip It.” Or, of course, the unjustly canceled Fox TV series, ” Arrested Development .” If all goes to plan, the group will unite to begin shooting in New York on March 30th. Do you think these actors are the perfect components for a family dramedy? Are you glad it is Meester over Kunis?

While on a recent swing through South Korea, Rihanna told MTV Asia that she’s desperate to crack some jokes on the big screen. “I want to do comedy,” she said. “I enjoy watching funny movies and hanging out with funny people.” Sounds good to us. But there are many pitfalls on the way from a career as a recording artist to one as a genuine Hollywood funnywoman. If Rihanna wants to make us laugh, she’d be wise to follow these five simple steps. 1. Cameo As Yourself Start off slowly. Hook up with an established Hollywood player like Judd Apatow, Adam Sandler or Todd Phillips — just as Billy Idol, Eminem and Mike Tyson have — and set yourself up for the cameo everyone will be talking about. You’ll show that you don’t take yourself too seriously and can deliver a line or two. Getting that first laugh from an audience might be the most difficult step, and once you’re no longer a comedy virgin, you’ll be on your way to Step #2. 2. Follow Beyoncé’s Lead In 2002, Beyoncé joined up with Mike Myers at the height of his box office prowess for “Austin Powers in Goldmember.” She essentially played herself, albeit a version of herself with super high hair and a handgun, but that is exactly what Beyoncé needed at that point in her film career. The role didn’t require very much in terms of acting chops, exposed her to a wide theatrical audience and gave her the chance to get comfortable in front of the camera. Myers got the laughs and Beyoncé benefited from simply sharing the frame as he unleashed his zingers. Similarly, Rihanna should go in for a zany comedy where an emphasis on acting is secondary to laughs and where she doesn’t have to play a character too far outside her happy place. Possibilities include Apatow-approved people like Seth Rogen, a veteran funnylady like Maya Rudolph or Dave Chappelle in the midst of a too-long-delayed comeback. 3. But Avoid Jessica Simpson’s Missteps Just as Beyoncé made all the right moves, Jessica Simpson made all the wrong ones, and Rihanna should heed those mistakes. In the midst of Simpson’s MTV “Newlyweds” fame, the singer signed up for the iconic role of Daisy Duke in a big screen version of “The Dukes of Hazzard.” Not only did the role ask far too much of her in terms of comedic delivery, but she was predictably compared unfavorably to the woman who pioneered the part over two decades earlier. Simpson followed up that stinker with a plain Jane role in “Employee of the Month,” and her big screen career has never recovered. The lesson for Rihanna is to stay in her comfort zone and let an established star like Mike Myers do the heavy lifting. 4. Circle Back Around To Taylor Swift Now that she’s followed Beyoncé’s lead, Rihanna should take a page from Taylor Swift’s comedy playbook. That means hosting “Saturday Night Live” and taking a role in an ensemble comedy like “Valentine’s Day.” A couple good sketches is all you need to leave the general impression that you succeeded on “SNL,” and if Swift can pull of that feat, who can’t? The ensemble comedy will give Rihanna a chance to expand her range while not asking her to hold an entire film. But it’ll be one more step in the evolution. 5. Go Out On Top Okay, Rihanna now that you’ve conquered comedy, it’s time once again to follow Beyoncé’s example and bail. After her turn in the surprise hit “Pink Panther,” Beyoncé next appeared in “Dreamgirls” a critical hit that received eight Oscar nominations and cemented her status as a true Hollywood player. Rihanna could go drama, she could go action (another genre she said she wants to explore ), she could go horror. The key is just to go.

Time was, companies knew how to keep track of their important customers. First, they set up loyalty programs: computerised systems that tracked the monetary value of everyone who shopped in their stores or flew on their planes or ate at their restaurant. When a high spender made a booking, the company was alerted to their status and they were treated accordingly. Frequent fliers got upgrades and champagne, frequent diners got a visit from the chef at their table – that kind of thing. Anything to ensure that the money kept flowing. And then there was the other way of measuring worth: celebrity. It was understood that if you were (in order of importance) in movies, or on television or a journalist with a significant audience then you would get special treatment too, often for free. Brad Pit doesn’t have to mingle with the plebs in the American Airlines lounge, Courtney Cox doesn’t wait in line at the bank, and the New York Times restaurant critic never has to wait a month for a table at Le Bernardin. If you’re a business, all of this makes perfect sense: high paying customers are the ones who keep you in business, and celebrities are the ones who guarantee positive mentions in the press. No one messes with Oprah. And for decades the system worked. Sure, the rest of us often found ourselves treated like crap but what were we going to do about it? Write a letter to the company’s complaints department? Write a furious blog post? Post a negative review on Yelp? Ooooh – scary! The fact is that, even with Google making it easier than ever to find negative reviews, most large companies couldn’t care less about individual complaints. The average customer simply didn’t have the value, the cachet or the audience to cause more than the tiniest PR blip. A $10 gift certificate and a form letter from the head of customer services was enough to make everything better. Frankly, I had absolutely no problem with this system. In fact it suited me just fine. For a start, I’m a journalist, so people are generally nice to me. But more importantly I’m a Brit and, as such, any reminder of our old class system – hereditary peers making the rules and peasants knowing their place – makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. None of your Thomas Jefferson ‘we hold these truths to be self-evident’ colonial bullshit. So can imagine how horrified I was when I picked up a newspaper and realised that something was starting to go very wrong with the established order of things. Two weeks ago, Kevin Smith – the film maker who brought the world Clerks, Chasing Amy and the character of Silent Bob – was flying from Oakland to Burbank on Southwest Airlines. Smith, as fans will know, is a big guy to the point where he frequently books two seats when he flies. On this occasion though, there was only one seat available on his flight, so he booked that. Which is where the problems started. Despite having checked Smith in and allowed him to board, the Southwest flight crew suddenly decided – just before takeoff – that he was (in his words) ‘too fat to fly’. In front of hundreds of passengers they escorted him off the flight. None of the crew realised he was a celebrity – he’s really only famous to stoners and people who have watched Die Hard 4 – so to them he was just a fat dude who needed to be dealt with. In response to his treatment, Smith did what you’d do, and what I’d do: he Tweeted about it. Not once, but a billion times. Dear @SouthwestAir – I know I’m fat, but was Captain Leysath really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated? Wanna tell me I’m too wide for the sky? Totally cool. But fair warning, folks: IF YOU LOOK LIKE ME, YOU MAY BE EJECTED FROM @SOUTHWESTAIR. So, @SouthwestAir, go fuck yourself. I broke no regulation, offered no “safety risk” (what, was I gonna roll on a fellow passenger?). I was..wrongly ejected from the flight Thank God I don’t..embarrass easily (bless you, JERSEY GIRL training). But I don’t sulk off either: so everyday, some new fuck-you Tweets for @SouthwestAir. …and on and on, to his 1.6m + Twitter followers , many of whom of course retweeted each and every message. But it didn’t stop there: before long, a host of major news sources had picked up the story – including many who would never normally write about a cult film maker getting bumped from a flight. The LA Times headline summed up the angle most of them took: Kevin Smith’s Southwest Airlines incident sets Web all a-Twitter . And that’s when I realised something interesting, and terrifying: Smith’s involvement wasn’t the reason the story was deemed newsworthy; Twitter’s was. Don’t believe me? The following week, across the pond and at the other end of the follower spectrum, my friend Robert Loch, founder of the Yes And Club , started his own Twitter fight. His target: One Alfred Place – a members’ club in London that offers work space for entrepreneurs. The club has recently brought in a new CEO to revitalise its fortunes and her first act was to start axing members who were using facilities too frequently. One of those members happened to mention to her friend Robert that she’d been booted, prompting him to go into battle on her behalf – writing a scathing blog post about the club and tweeting the URL… My thoughts on One Alfred Place’s appalling treatment of its members. http://tinyurl.com/yds97lm Robert only has a little over 1300 followers , but – as with Kevin Smith’s Southwest embarrassment – the story struck a nerve with enough of them (me included) that we began to retweet it. As did people who saw our retweets, and people who saw those, and so on. By the end of the day, Robert’s tweet had spread far enough that he was contacted by reporters from most of London’s major business publications, all wanting details on the “Twitter revolt” that he;d sparked. Again, it didn’t matter that Robert wasn’t himself particularly newsworthy: Twitter was the angle that interested them. You don’t have to look far for dozens more examples of this journalistic trend. Just type “twitter sparks…” (no quotes) into Google News and you’ll find dozens of headlines where Twitter’s involvement in an otherwise mundane corporate failing has propelled it to the pages of the mainstream media. A random, recent example from those results: “ Artist sparks Twitter campaign against Paperchase over disputed design ” – another UK-based story, this time concerning ‘Hidden Eloise’ an artist who noticed that the upscale stationery company ‘Paperchase’ had apparently ripped off one of her designs. She took her fight to her 1,000+ followers and before long the story had been retweeted enough times to become a trending topic. The Guardian quickly picked up the story and forced Paperchase into issuing an embarrassed apology to the artist, and taking steps to make things better. Two years ago, none of this would have been news. A cult film maker was kicked off a flight? So? What was he going to do? Make a film called ‘Jay and Silent Bob hate Southwest airlines’? (Admittedly that would still have been better than Jersey Girl). An entrepreneur’s got quietly kicked out of a members’ club to make way for more profitable clients? Tough shit: that one’s not even newsworthy enough for the most desperate trade magazine. A little known designer gets ripped off by a gigantic retail chain? Boo hoo. Tell it to someone who cares. Without a major celebrity angle, there was little to no chance of the media picking up a run-of-the-mill intellectual property complaint and forcing the company into action. But today it doesn’t matter who you are or how many fans you have. You can have 1.6m like Kevin Smith or you can have 1000 like Hidden Eloise . All that matters is that a) you have a story that tweaks people’s ‘David vs Goliath’ nerve and that b) you get enough people retweeting it that the mainstream press can paint it as a ‘ Twitter campaign ‘. In the past few months Twitter has been promoted daily on network news shows, it’s been name-checked by Hollywood A-Listers – hell, it was even mentioned in Dan Brown’s latest book; wedged in right at the end to keep da kids interested. The result: Twitter itself has become an A-list celebrity. And like with any A-list celebrity, any story that even tangentially involves it is automatically newsworthy. This presents an enormous problem for companies. If Twitter campaigns are inherently newsworthy then anyone with a Twitter account and a gripe against you has the potential to become your biggest global PR nightmare. Pissing off Joe Twitter User is just as dumb, from a PR point of view, as upsetting Will Smith or Donald Trump. Sure, I can hear the response from CEOs and heads of PR. “Oh, it’s ok, we’re on Twitter already – if anyone complains we reply to them straight away. We have an intern dedicated to it.” Yeah. No. Southwest Airlines is on Twitter , One Alfred Place is on Twitter – even Paperchase finally dragged itself on to the bandwagon a couple of weeks ago. The problem is, official responses, even if accompanied by some kind of grand gesture of apology, do little to quell a Twitter storm once it has started. The phenomenon of mass retweeting means that – to paraphrase Churchill – a complaint makes it half way around the world before the official company response has time to put its pants on. Or as the CEO of Paperchase put it to the Telegraph : “I am sure it can be beneficial but if you get an untruth (on it) it can be very dangerous.” Really there’s only one answer – and it’s one that strikes at the very heart of the established hierarchy of customer importance. Companies are going to have to start treating every single customer like a VIP. Actually, no, it’s worse than that – consider the Hidden Eloise example; she wasn’t a customer, but just a humble designer. Companies are going to have to start treating every single person in the world like a VIP. In all areas of their business they’re going to have to make sure they’re purer than pure; they’re going to have to examine every one of their processes to ensure that no one is getting screwed over. Moreover, they’re going to have to treat every complaint like it’s the most important complaint they’ve ever received, lest the complainer take their fight to Twitter. In other words, if you’re going to kick someone off a plane, you had better be sure you’re kicking them straight into the VIP lounge with a huge gift certificate and possibly even a hot stone massage. Because all of those things are cheaper than cleaning up the mess afterwards. Of course, as a Brit, this horrifies me. I mean, the idea that everyone, regardless of their wealth or fame, should be treated equally by companies just smells a bit… well, French. Quelle horreur! But as a customer, I have to admit that it’s about bloody time.

Coming to you weekly from my vantage point in good old Blighty, it’s Slashfilm UK. Anglos and Anglophiles rejoice as every week I’ll be bringing you a round up of news, links and coverage specific to the motion picture comings and goings here in the UK. Sometimes we’ll be talking about films that have already played in the US, other times it will be films that won’t make it to the US for a good while yet, and from time to time you’ll read about films that will never make it to the US at all. The BBFC have passed Kick-Ass uncut as a 15 certificate noting that it contains “strong language, once very strong, & strong bloody comic violence”. Meanwhile, they also revealed one extra for the Avatar DVD and Blu-ray… an audio description. Good. I’d like to see all films get them. It seems that Working Title could be bringing some of their biggest cinema franchises to the small screen. According to The Guardian : One of the aims is to make TV adaptations of Working Title’s library of more than 90 theatrical releases, which includes the Bridget Jones movies, Billy Elliot and Nanny McPhee , along with Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Shaun of the Dead . Personally, I’d love to see a Hot Fuzz series in a T J Hooker style. Well, for ten minutes at least. Salvage is a new British horror film set in Liverpool – something I’d definitely like to see more of. Fantastically, the picture was filmed on the set for Brookside , the now-defunct Channel 4 soap opera. Here’s the trailer. Note that the cinematographer, Simon Tindall, was a camera assistant on 28 Days Later – something the PR materials for Salvage are at great pains to accent. Salvage will play in “select” UK cinemas from March 19th, and then hit Revolver DVD on the 22nd. It should also be available on your choice of VOD platform. Tomb Raider ’s Lara Croft is getting a road in Derby named after her. This is Derbyshire say that the proposed name won with 28,000 votes. Will Ms. Jolie come and cut the ribbon? I wouldn’t hold my breath. The latest Film Weekly podcast from The Guardian goes behind the scenes of the London Critic’s Circle Film Awards. After East is East and the upcoming West is West , Reuters are reporting that a third film about George Khan and family could be on the cards. Roger Ebert has written for The Guardian on the London hotel that he loved staying in whenever he was in town: …on a corner near the Lower Regent Street end, I found a time capsule within which the eccentricity and charm of an earlier time was still preserved. It was called the Eyrie Mansion. When I stayed there, I ­considered myself to be living there. I always wanted to live in London, and this was the closest I ever got. Empire scored an exclusive premiere of the UK quad poster for Shelter . The tagline is patently dreadful, to wit “The Sheltering Has Begun”. From Deadline Hollywood Daily comes news of a proposed Shank sequel. That’s about the 167th mention of Shank in this column. The article focuses on Revolver’s production arm Gunslinger, suggesting it “could become a Roger Corman-like lab for young filmmaking talent”. It sure could. Jim Loach’s Oranges and Sunshine has wrapped and Dark Horizons marked the occaison with the following still of Emily Watson (not Emily Mortimer, not Suzie McTypo) in full-on social worker action: I don’t like the UK version of The Office nearly as much as I do the US one. All the same, the BBC original is now on Hulu for free streaming. Of course, the irony is that Hulu doesn’t work in the UK… …meanwhile, our own VOD service SeeSaw has launched. To get you started, I’d particularly recommend the BBC sketch show Big Train with Simon Pegg, Kevin Eldon, Mark Heap and Amelia Bullmore and scripts by Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews – but there’s an awful lot more on there too. Below, you can see the Steelbook packaging for the Fox UK release of the Minority Report Blu-ray (Paramount are handling the title in the US). As it happens, earlier in the week I saw a special preview screening of the transfer as well as few glimpses at the special features. There’s something rather unexpected on the disc in the form of a series of interlinked interview segments with Spielberg, indexed directly from moments in the film. This is probably the closest we’ve gotten to a commentary track from the man and I imagine it will help shift a good heap of copies. I’ll give you a better break down of what other cleverness resides on the disc when I get some proper time with a preview copy soon. While I was on the same press trip that took me to the Minority Report unveiling, I got to speak to Danny Kaye , Fox’s Executive VP of Global Research and Technology Strategy. Unfortunately, just about every question I asked was met with a cleverly phrased version of no-comment but lots of announcements were promised as being imminent: on Avatar , on the Alien Anthology box-set, on the 20th Century Fox 75th Anniversary celebration plans, which should mean lots of great catalogue titles later in the year. My money’s on a nice selection of Marilyn Monroe titles, but nothing’s out in the open at all yet, unless you count the Sound of Music disc expected to hit before Christmas. Talking of Fox Blu-ray, I’ve also had a chance to preview some material from the Alien Anthology Blu-rays and while I can’t say anything much yet… wow. Just wow. More on that is bound to come to the front page before long. The latest Sci Fi London podcast features Marc Caro , Cory McAbee , Gerald McMorrow , Stuart Hazeldine and Richard Jobson discussing “The Problem of SF and Fantasy Filmmaking”. The UK Film Council have named a number of projects they’re supporting, and Russ took a look at the list earlier in the week. Frank Zappa collaborator and stop-motion master Bruce Bickford is coming to the UK for a special event being held by the London International Animation Festival folk: American cult animator Bruce Bickford is coming to London for a rare, one-night-only presentation of his films, featuring the exclusive English premiere of his new film that he has been working on for many years – Cas’l . The evening will commence with a screening of Monster Road , the 80-minute award-winning documentary by Brett Ingram, which premiered at the 2004 Slamdance Film Festival where it won ‘Best Documentary’, eventually screening at 85 festivals around the world and winning 16 awards. This incredibly rare screening will be immediately followed by a live onstage interview and extended audience Q and A with Bruce Bickford. This will mark his first appearance in England. The event takes place at our favourite venue – The Horse Hospital, 30 Colonnade, London, WC1N 1JD on Monday March 15th at 7pm. Nearest tube is Russell Square. Tickets cost £10 full/£7 concession. If you are interested in pre-booking please email us at: info@liaf.org.uk Not the Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy) is comedic oratoria based upon The Life of Brian and featuring all of the surviving Pythons not called Cleese. Filmed as a lived event at the Royal Albert Hall last November, it is now going to get a one-night-only screening on March 25th, in 90 cinemas across the UK . Indeed, it will play across a number of other countries … but not the US… Here’s the trailer. Marina Hyde has written an article for  The Guardian in which she asks if the UK can now claim  Tim Burton as their own. On the matter of Mr. Burton and his Alice in Wonderland movie, I’m now out of the embargo and can tell you what I thought of the film. First of all, though, an update on the threatened boycott by UK cinemas. After their initial threats, all three big-gun UK cinema chains have now withdrawn plans for a boycott of Alice in Wonderland . Here’s how it breaks down by my understanding: Disney said the film would play with a 12 week theatrical window, not the usual 17. The cinema chains supposedly asked for a deduction in payments to Disney to compensate, and Disney apparently said no. The cinemas threatened a boycott, Disney negotiated and one by one, they all stepped in line. The release window now seems set for 13 weeks – what a difference a week makes. As an aside, here’s another picture of Alice POS marketing materials, this one snapped by Jon Lyus of the HeyUGuys podcast and sent to me via Twitter: Now, I’d sympathise with the cinemas entirely if it was not for one thing: there’s barely ever a film that plays for 10 weeks, let alone 12. And with 3D-led prospects like Alice , I’m thinking we’ll soon see even shorter runs, at least as far as main screen and all-day bookings. Within a month or so of Alice hitting, two more 3D pictures come to the UK in the guise of  How to Train Your Dragon and Clash of the Titans , and I’d be absolutely staggered if cinema chains held either of those off for longer Alice bookings in their 3D screens. Don’t take that as a knock on the movie, though, because overall I rather liked it. There’s certainly some silly, badly judged stuff in there, but the good definitely outweighs the bad. By now you probably know that the film is a sequel, but it doesn’t just follow on from the original Wonderland . It’s a sequel to Through the Looking Glass , too, a fact that most people have forgotten thanks in part to the 1951 animated Disney feature that incorporated set pieces and characters from Looking Glass such as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum who don’t show up in Carroll’s Wonderland at all. What makes this film a particularly worthy addition to the Alice canon is that it explores the psyche of a post- rather than pre-pubescent Alice. The result is a story with an entirely new set of meanings and perspectives. Burton’s Wonderland is a sexualised dream world ignited by an unwanted marriage proposal Alice receives in the “real” world. When Alice nervously flees her suitor she enters a dream that exposes and amplifies her anxieties. For instance this time around when Alice shrinks, her dress doesn’t thus revealing bare shoulders and nearly a bit more. When she grows, her hemline rises to reveal her thighs. For a moment, she’s even contrived to be entirely naked (see below clip). Out of context this portrayal might seem dodgy, but in this case it’s integral to the film’s agenda. What’s more it’s been portrayed sympathetically and isn’t gratuitous in any way. Alice’s feelings towards her stereotypically sexualised clothing are raised in an early scene in the “real” world where she talks about having had a dream in which the women wear trousers and the men wear dresses, an idea later echoed in Wonderland when the Mad Hatter comes out in a kilt while Alice is stoically clad in an armoured suit. Alice’s physical transformations resonate across other themes, too, particularly the central discussion of standards of beauty. The Red Queen’s head is hugely outsized and her courtiers are so desperate to conform to this grotesque physique that they deliberately wear false noses, ears, chins and the like. The “good guys” however tend to be more conventionally attractive – Anne Hathaway and Johnny Depp don’t make the covers of so many magazines or sell calendars simply because they’re talented actors. Ultimately, though, this seems to be no more than an oversight in a sincere attempt to satirise body and face fascism in a topsy-turvy fashion. The film is essentially well made, and certainly has a distinctive look. Burton has successfully meshed his style with something more Disney-like. Regrettably though the CG White Rabbit doesn’t sit comfortably with the real world live-action footage when he first appears. Most of the performances are pleasing, particularly Helena Bonham Carter’s snippy, funny Queen played like the most annoying kind of spoiled little rich kid. Not since her ‘Liberal of Privilege’/Trustafarian chimp in Planet of the Apes has Burton given her so appropriate a role. There is one particularly disappointing moment. A few times over we’re promised that the Mad Hatter will dance a celebratory “Futterwacken” when the evil Queen is deposed. Well, when we do get to see this most joyful of dances, it’s a rather sorry scene, I’m afraid. I imagine apologists will use the Hatter’s madness as a kind of cop-out explanation for how baffling this little moment is. While you will have a week to wait for Alice in Wonderland to hit cinemas, this weekend sees the release of Jean Pierre Jeunet ’s splendid Micmacs . I was able to see an early screening courtesy of See Film First and my first regret on leaving the cinema was that the film wasn’t yet on general release so I couldn’t just turn around, go back in and see it again. The film tells the story of a young man who ends up shot in the head and and is left to live knowing that, at any moment, the bullet lodged in his brain could kill him. To strip the plot down to the basics, he ends up living with some outcasts in a junkyard and they together conspire to bring down the arms dealers making profit from death and suffering. It’s a premise that meshes the kind of whimsy familiar from Amelie or Delicatessen with a more overtly political objective and though those flavours might seem like an odd combination, they actually end up delighting and, in a surprising final sequence, I was emotionally moved in ways I had not at all been expecting. Be warned that the film is laugh-out-loud funny as often as it is quietly charming and sweet and that the overall effect is like watching an old-fashioned magician carry off a series of imaginative illusions. You’ll have to be in the mood for a collage of invention, subversion and diversion rather than anything more conventional and effortless to get the best out of Micmacs. While I’m not convinced it will be the best picture of the year, I’ll be absolutely flabbergasted to take another one to heart in the same way. I think this is Jeunet’s best picture to date. A good week for cinema screenings then (and I’ll buck the trend and proudly declare that I really rather liked The Lovely Bones too) but what of my homeviewing? This week I settled down for a session with Ca$h . Here’s how I described it last week: A crime thriller in which [ Sean Bean ] plays twin bad guys menacing a poor little couple played by Victoria Profeta and Chris Hemsworth, aka the man who will be Thor . And now, here’s the reason to watch the film, if you fancy it: Sean Bean plays dual roles. We get to see him play against himself, in a way that’s a little like Sam Rockwell’s work in Moon . Just a little, though – Ca$h doesn’t allow for the same quality of interaction. And that’s probably the best I can say, to be fair. I wasn’t impressed, and I’d only recommend the film to fans of the actors. Thankfully, Bean in particular is charismatic and worth watching no matter what he’s doing. Ca$h is available on UK DVD from March 1st and has low-priority Lovefilm listing written all over it. Finally, I want to guide you over to the nomination’s for this year’s Empire Awards . You can vote online now for such categories as Best Director, Best Actor/Actress, Best Newcomer, Best Comedy, Best Horror and so on. reading down their polling list in order, I selected Carey Mulligan, Inglourious Basterds , Let the Right One In , Up in the Air , The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus , Christoph Waltz, Anne-Marie Duff, Quentin Tarantino, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus and Inglourious Basterds . The awards will be announced on March 28th with “a high profile ceremony on Sunday, March 28 at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, hosted for the second year running by award-winning Irish comedian and television presenter Dara O Briain.” No Related Post

Don’t get too excited (or angry) yet, nothing has been officially decided. In fact, this isn’t even the first time we’ve heard this. Back in early February, it was stated in a trades story that Michael Bay has been debating with Paramount and ILM about going 3D for Transformers 3 (due in July of 2011 ). As we already know, Hollywood is going 3D crazy right now thanks to Avatar , but it looks like Bay is doing the smart thing and testing out 3D before deciding whether that’s really the route they want to go with the sequel;. Bay himself has even said that he’s not a big fan of 3D, which is why I’m actually surprised that this is what he’s doing. Bay appeared on Starz’ “In the House” last night and MTV transcribed what he said about Transformers 3 . “It’s a process we’re testing with some ‘Transformers’ scenes,” he said. “How successful it is with my movie in terms of a lot of real stuff coming out of the frame, real dirt, real complicated little particles coming towards the lens, because hopefully that process will work. I’ve seen some tests that look great on other movies. I just want to see how it looks on my footage.” Peter from SlashFilm brings up a good point – Bay uses the term “process” (multiple times), not something like “technology”, which sounds like they’re testing a post conversion process, not the idea of shooting it in 3D from the start. Unfortunately, we already know that’s a very bad idea . I hope his tests show that it’s not a good idea if that’s what they’re planning to do. I don’t understand why studios won’t just support shooting with 3D cameras? On Transformers , it may be that Bay’s shooting style is too chaotic and crazy to actually use 3D cameras, since they’re a bit bigger and require more equipment. As for what else to expect in this? “We’re adding a lot of new elements. We’re adding new characters. We’re adding a lot of twists .” Oh joy! Discover More: Hype , Movie News , Opinions

These days, we can’t get enough of the newly-revealed “ Nightmare on Elm Street ” trailer, giving us our best look yet at Samuel Bayer’s take on Wes Craven’s original formula. With only a few months left before the April 30th unveiling of the film, we took a look back at Craven’s 1984 “Nightmare” and lined up 6 key side-by-side images. Read on for our analysis of what’s better, what’s not, and who might become this movie’s Johnny Depp. The Jump-Rope Girls A longtime staple of the “Elm Street” series, there’s something undeniably creepy about three little girls skipping rope and singing a song about a serial killer. Clearly, their existence in the series is an update of “Ring Around the Rosie,” an upbeat kids’ dittie long-rumored to be about the black plague [interestingly enough, Snopes says it’s not ]. In both movies, the three girls are dressed in white, and hauntingly indifferent to their own existence as heralds of Freddy’s impending arrival. The new film seems to have done a remarkable job at casting young actresses that look exactly the same – and personally, I’m just glad to know that after all these years, the girls have finally learned to get off the damn lawn. Sing along everybody: 1, 2 Freddy’s coming for you… The Ol’ Coming-Through-the-Wall Trick Arguably the most famous image to ever emerge from the “Nightmare” films, Wes Craven’s 1984 original summed up its premise with a great shot that had Freddy Krueger preying upon Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) as she slept; the new film similarly shows Freddy looking down upon the new Nancy, Rooney Mara. The biggest difference is that while the original shot was made by stretching a spandex sheet over a hole in the wall, this one is pure CGI. Considering how the original scene has haunted two generations of horror fans, take a close look and ask yourself: Have special effects really gotten better, or just easier? Tub-Thumping In the ’80s, Wes Craven conceived a brilliant spin on Hitchcock’s famous “Psycho” shower scene. Once again, we have a woman alone, being hunted at the one moment when she could expect to be safe. We’ve got to give props to the new film, which seems to have done a better job of framing the shot. At the same time, Nancy’s baby blue bath pillow in the original is so endearingly cheesy – but honestly, if you’re trying to avoid falling asleep, why would you ever put your head on its air-cushioned goodness? Scratching the Surface Is there a more annoying, unsettling noise than fingernails on a chalkboard? Craven tapped into our primal repulsion by taking it one step further – giving Freddy long, razor-sharp claws and an affinity for running them along things. In another shot that parallels a Krueger trademark, the new film gives us a peek at the boiler room where he was killed – a recurring theme in his nightmares – and has him running his fingers along some pipes. Get ready for a familiar screech, this time in surround sound glory, when you hit the theater April 30th. Dancing on the Ceiling In 1984, one of the spookiest “Elm Street” scenes had a teenage boy helplessly reaching out while he saw his still-sleeping girlfriend cut open by invisible knives, dragged up the wall and across the ceiling – and then was accused of the murder. Loosely based on the original, the new “Nightmare” appears to have changed the character’s name from “Tina” to “Kris,” but Katie Cassidy seems certain to meet the same grisly fate. Like the wall scene described above, the original shot was accomplished with visual trickery that had the actress acting on a floor disguised as a ceiling; in the new “Nightmare,” computer work has been used to float Freddy’s hapless victim. Which do you find more effective? The Next Depp? Our last photo isn’t so much an homage, as it is a pic to click. When Craven’s original “Nightmare” hit theaters in 1984, few people were aware of Johnny Depp, a 21-year-old actor cast as ill-fated Glen “Morality Sucks!” Lantz. Nowadays, 24-year-old Kellan Lutz has a better head start as Dean in the new “Nightmare.” Does Kellan have what it takes to still be a Hollywood star a quarter-century from now? If any of Freddy’s new victims has the goods to become the next Johnny, our money is on him. What do you think of the new movie vs. the old movie? Based on the footage we’ve seen so far, are there any improvements?

So I’ve been milking this whole “Eric is a Hollywood superstar” thing for a couple days, based on my seconds-long cameo in ” The Crazies .” But now as the horror flick, about a town accidentally infected with a government-engineered bio weapon that turns everyone into crazy-eyed killas, opens on Friday, it’s time to tell the true story of my time on set. Last April I flew down to Atlanta at the behest of Overture Films, who’d offered me the chance to stop covering film for a day and actually be in one. From there I took a two-hour drive south to Peach County, Georgia, otherwise known as No, Seriously, It’s The Middle of Nowhere Y’all. If you happened to be under the illusion that being an actor is a glamorous profession, I am here to disabuse you of that notion: it is slow, repetitive and, if you happen to be filming in rural Georgia during an unseasonably winter-like chill, really cold. To begin, I spend three hours in a trailer with makeup effects guru Robert Hall and his three assistants. After donning a wide-necked t-shirt and having my hair pinned back, they set to work gluing on latex strips to mimic bulging veins and bloody protrusions. The “Crazies” infection is modeled on the real world effects of Ebola and tetanus, which lots of blood, puss and general gruesomeness. With the latex in place, the artists begin airbrushing on color, painting veins, applying fake blood, dirtying my teeth and nails. The finishing touch is an enormous yellow contact lens. “I want more puss!” I joke to Hall when I finally look in the mirror. He doesn’t seem to think I’m kidding, and gets a big smile on his face as he gifts me with some seriously bloody boogers and a lovely streak of blood streaming down my ear and across my neck. A quick visit to wardrobe, where I’m given a shirt caked with the nastiest boogers in the history of snotty noses, and a visit with a hair stylist and I’m ready for my close-up. The scene takes place in a high school that’s been commandeered by the government in an attempt to institute a military quarantine on the infected town. I play one of the infected Crazies, locked away in a classroom as star Radha Mitchell is brought in. Yup, to my great pleasure, I learn that Radha and I will be sharing a scene. We actually end up sharing a moment, you might say, as she is whisked by on a gurney and I scream like a banshee at her. We lock eyes. It is movie magic. But it took a while to get there. Seven takes, in fact. Before the first take, director Breck Eisner comes in and tells me I need to throw myself against a glass window, yell a line at the top of my lungs and vomit some fake blood before a guard in a hazmat suit pulls me away. A stunt coordinator stops by to teach me how to fake an impact without breaking any bones. Production folks communicating via in-ear devices tell me to get ready. And….action! I don’t scream, I hit the window, I drool out some fake blood and collapse. Total disaster. Breck comes back and tells me to remember to yell a line. “What line?” I ask. “Just make up something cool!” he tells me. Second take: I unleash a wicked series of f-bombs. Breck comes back. “Easy there, Samuel L. Jackson. Tone it down just a bit.” Third take: I decide on my line: “Let me go! Let me out of here!” Only problem is I’m late making it to the window and the camera’s already passed me by. The crew seems to be getting antsy. I can only imagine what Radha is thinking as she has to suffer through take after take. It’s 2 a.m. and there’s a long night still ahead and I’m the amateur making everyone’s life more difficult. I apologize. I apologize some more. Breck comes in asking for more blood. A makeup guy pours what feels like a pint of fake blood into my mouth. It is syrupy and sweet and by now it’s starting to make me nauseous. But I push forward, because I am a professional actor. And I count myself lucky. The makeup guy is super helpful, wiping away the blood with a tissue after each take and even moistening my yellow contact lens from time to time. But I feel horrible for the guy playing the guard in my scene. He’s been wearing this green hazmat suit with a giant hood and plastic mask for hours. He can’t hear, can’t breath and is sweating like a pig. For his sake, I want to nail the scene and let the guy get some fresh air. Fourth take: I spew blood like a geyser. “Maybe less blood,” Breck suggests. The rest of the takes go smoothly. Breck ushers me over to a monitor to watch the money take. “Dude, pretty sweet,” he says as I head back to the makeup chair for the hour it takes to return me from Crazy to MTV Movies writer. For one last look into Eric’s transformation from MTV staff writer to prima donna Hollywood movie star, enjoy the special MTV interview with the man, the myth, the legend, Mr. Eric Ditzian, below:

” Cop Out ” hits theaters today, the first high-profile example of a buddy cop movie that we’ve seen in quite some time. What good timing then that we learn of another mixed race law enforcement pairing that’s currently in the offing. The word from Pajiba tipster Hollywood Cog is that Ashton Kutcher and Jamie Foxx will team up to keep their city safe in buddy cop “action-comedy-drama” flick, ” Streets on Fire .” It seems that nothing is confirmed yet, beyond the fact that Kutcher’s Katalyst Films will produce. The “Punk’d” star is eying the lead and Foxx for his co-lead. The 2009 Black List script — Black List being a list of top unproduced scripts for the year — comes from Justin Britt-Gibson, a newcomer whose top Google search item is a Washington Post story on race relations. Perhaps “Streets” won’t follow the same old buddy formula of running through the usual stereotypes until the bad guys go boom. The story, set in Chicago, follows the two cops — one a by-the-book boy scout who needs some anger management lessons (Foxx), the other an arrogant loose cannon (Kutcher) — as they take on the city’s drug underworld. Their unwanted pairing turns into a more amicable relationship after they realize that the group they’re pursuing are supported by crooked police. It sounds rote, but these things always do on paper. “Streets” will inevitably live or die based on the power of the writing and the performances which bring that writing to life. And before you start complaining that we’ve seen buddy cop movies many times before, at least take heart in the fact that this isn’t a remake. Do Kutcher and Foxx make a good pairing? What is your favorite buddy cop flick?

Anyone who has ever made a trip to Sea World to see Shamu was undoubtedly shocked by news that one of the killer whales there attacked its trainer, resulting in her death. Some animal rights supporters think the whale shouldn’t have be kept in captivity to begin with, and “Toxic Avenger” director Lloyd Kaufman appears to be one of them. In much lighter news, Lee Unkrich got to share part of ” Toy Story 3 ” with another big-time Hollywood guy. You can find out who that was, as well as which actor claims to have made out with Malin Akerman and what a couple of “Jersey Shore” stars look like in ” Inglourious Basterds ” uniforms after the jump. It all showed up in Twitter-Wood for February 25th, 2010. Twitter Pic of the Day: @Sn00ki In our character mode from the movie Inglourious Basterds http://tweetphoto.com/12379696 -Nicole Polizzi, Reality Star (“Jersey Shore”) Sea World pt. 1: @lloydkaufman I don’t believe animals should be slaves to humans-Maybe that Orca who just drowned her trainer must agree with me. -Lloyd Kaufman, Actor/Director/Producer (“The Toxic Avenger,” “Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.”) Sea World pt. 2: @DougBenson Shamu ate trainer/why is everyone surprised/it’s a killer whale #haikunews -Doug Benson, Actor (“The Sarah Silverman Program,” “Super High Me”) Sea World pt. 3: @danecook Lots of people concerned about this tragic killer whale situation. Please dont panic the flu still kills more people each year. -Dane Cook, Actor (“Waiting…,” “Employee of the Month”) @leeunkrich Surreal life experience #143: Screening part of Toy Story 3 for Quentin Tarantino. -Lee Unkrich, Director (“Finding Nemo,” “Toy Story 2″) @EyeOfJackieChan @BrettRatner did you wake up yet? -Jackie Chan, Actor (“Rush Hour,” “The Spy Next Door”) @tomhanks Pacific premiere at the Chinese. Extra last? No . Best. Hanx -Tom Hanks, Actor (“Saving Private Ryan,” “Big”) @steveagee Last day as a 40yr old. I wonder what bodily function I’ll lose control of in the upcoming year. -Steve Agee, Actor (”The Sarah Silverman Program,” “Stay”) @robhuebel Malin Akerman got to shoot a make out scene with me today. She is very lucky. -Rob Huebel, Writer/Actor (“I Love You Man,” “Human Giant”) Don’t forget to follow @MTVMoviesBlog on Twitter for all the latest updates and colorful commentary from the world of movies.