Why Does Hollywood Hate Ireland?
Posted on Tuesday November 17, 2009, 13:28 by Helen O'Hara in The Empire Blog
Yesterday, I watched the new trailer for Leap Year, an Amy Adams / Matthew Goode-starring romantic comedy set partly in Ireland. I would've written about it immediately, but it took a full 24-hours for me to stop gaping at my screen, throwing things and then plotting death by firing squad for all those involved. I'm OK now, honest. And I do think Amy Adams is ace, usually. But...well, see for yourself.... Continue reading... Comment Now (92 comments)
Back To TopWhat's Your Favourite Case Of Bad Movie Science?
Posted on Friday November 13, 2009, 14:43 by Helen O'Hara in The Empire Blog
2012 is in cinemas, in which Roland Emmerich oversees the destruction of most of the surface of the globe in a cataclysm. The film is, as you'd expect, completely bananas but kinda fun once you get past the stock characters and on-the-nose dialogue. But what really stands out in the film is the science. Now we're not experts, but we're nevertheless saying it's what's technically known as "well dodgy". Aside from the fact that even NASA reckons we have nothing to worry about, our fairly basic grasp of physics suggests that the catastrophe, as described, doesn't quite hang together. We're told in the first five minutes that the apocalypse is caused by "mutated neutrinos" which start heating up the interior of the Earth "like microwaves". Now, kinda seems to me that a) sub-atomic neutrinos don't generally Hulk out and b) if there were powerful microwaves coming from the Sun and boiling... Continue reading... Comment Now (72 comments)
Back To TopHelp Avert World War III
Posted on Tuesday November 10, 2009, 14:09 by Helen O'Hara in The Empire Blog
I'm in a bit of a tricky spot, and I'm hoping that the collective wisdom of Empire readers can get me out of it. My generally delighful and lovely but rather strong-minded extended family is getting together this Christmas for my grandmothers XXth birthday* and before the big family dinner we're going to a tiny little private cinema somewhere in deepest, darkest Northern Ireland to see a movie. The question is: what movie? And specifically, since there's a film journalist in the family and she's been lumped with choosing what to watch, how am I going to avoid getting given just socks for Christmas after offending everyone with my choice? Here are the players: a grandmother of mature years and taste that rather precludes too much sex, violence or bad language. A nine-year-old cousin. A smattering of teenagers. Some aunts and uncles with strong opinions on films, the kind who have been known to walk out of a cinema when they don't like what's on. And me, trying to find something they'll all like. ...Continue reading... Comment Now (121 comments)
Back To TopHow Scary Should Kids Movies Be?
Posted on Monday November 2, 2009, 10:57 by Helen O'Hara in The Empire Blog
Yesterday I found Babe: Pig in the City on TV and finally decided to find out if it was disappointing (as I'd heard) or one of the best sequels ever (as I'd also heard). Turns out it was pretty darn fantastic, what with the witty geography*, demented storyline and superb animal acting, occasionally augmented by CGI. But it's also really rather disturbing, what with a death and police brutality and animal experimentation and some vicious animal fights and even a moment where a dog goes to heaven. All of which chimed with recent and upcoming films like A Christmas Carol, Where The Wild Things Are and Coraline, which look like family films but are proper scary as well. So how frightening is OK for kids? Because both Coraline and Where The Wild Things Are (on its US release) drew semi-hysterical reactions from adults worried that children would be traumatised by the more intense and darker scenes in the films. OK, losing your eyes for buttons and/or headi... Continue reading... Comment Now (107 comments)
Back To TopWho Should Host The Oscars Now?
Posted on Friday October 30, 2009, 10:15 by Helen O'Hara in The Empire Blog
Hugh Jackman has decided that he won't be returning next year to host the 82nd Annual Academy Awards - but who will take up the baton mantle envelope in his place? After the changes to the show's format last year, do they have to be able to sing and dance? Should they be devastatingly handsome and able to pop claws if anyone tries to run over the alloted time for their thank-you speech? Or is massive personal charisma most important? Here are a few contenders we came up with to take over the show. Ricky Gervais
PROS: Everyone in the entertainment industry seems to adore him, and he pretty much makes Americans laugh just by turning up, which would make the opening monologue a doddle. He's been talked about for the gig for ages, and he's surely got to actually get asked one of these days.
CONS: His films haven't managed huge box-office in the US, so it may be that Oscar producers are worried that his appeal doesn't extend outside the ... Continue reading... Comment Now (24 comments)
Back To Top100 Sexiest 2009: What Have We Learned?
Posted on Friday October 16, 2009, 12:31 by Helen O'Hara in The Empire Blog
As you really should have noticed by now, we posted the results of our 100 Sexiest Stars poll on the website yesterday. Now aside from the fact that it's an ace feature with lots of brilliantly-crafted copy* and interesting facts about the world's sexiest people, here's what we learned from this year's poll. 1. Since we asked both boys and girls to vote for boys and girls, I'm guessing that the top spots go to people who both sexes acknowledge as ridiculously attractive. It'd take a pretty brazen person to seriously argue that Megan Fox, Angelina Jolie or Johnny Depp isn't attractive. Robert Pattinson may be the exception to this though: unless men are trying to guess who women fancy, it seems to me that he was probably chiefly voted for by a hardcore of girls, since most guys I know claim to despise his Twilight popularity. 2. Making bad movies, especially Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, can seriously affect your standing. Matthew... Continue reading... Comment Now (7 comments)
Back To Top2012: Our Reaction
Posted on Friday September 25, 2009, 15:04 by Helen O'Hara in The Empire Blog
Roland Emmerich, his writing partner Harald Kloser and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and ONLY JOHN FRICKING CUSACK were in town today to introduce 53 minutes of footage from 2012, and it really was everything we expected. Let's describe what we saw, and you can start to make up your own mind. 2009...and Chiwetel "serious government scientist" Ejiofor rocks up to Jimi Mistry's Indian home above a deep copper mine. Mistry's looking sweaty and harried, and not just because he doesn't rate his wife's fish curry. No, it's because "neutrinos" from a solar flare seem to have "mutated" (physicists, stop laughing at the back!) and are not acting as microwaves heating the Earth's core. Suddenly Chewie's looking all sweaty and harried too, as he rushes back to... Washington DC, where Oliver Platt has graduated from White House Counsel's Office (in The West Wing) to something more senior. We didn't quite get what, but he seems to be White House Chief of Staff or Secretary of... Continue reading... Comment Now (17 comments)
Back To TopThe Disney Presentation: What's On Its Way From The Mouse House
Posted on Thursday September 10, 2009, 13:41 by Helen O'Hara in The Empire Blog
Here in London today we were treated to the presence of the man, the legend, the Hawaiian shirt-wearing machine that is John Lasseter. The "Golden Lion of Disney", as he was dubbed after winning the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Film Festival last week, started with the opening ten minutes of Toy Story 2 in 3D (which we'd already seen at Comic-Con, but which continues to impress). And then it was on to the first of a raft of premieres, with some new information and footage from Toy Story 3 (also in 3D). Lasseter said of the film, "This is a movie that I've wanted to make since I was working on Toy Story 2 in 1999. We took the entire original creative team back to a small cabin on the coast where we created the idea of the first Toy Story, for luck, and we went up there for a couple of days and came back with the idea." As we've reported before, it's about Andy leaving his toys behin... Continue reading... Comment Now (16 comments)
Back To TopVampire Love Stories: What Is This Fetish About?
Posted on Monday September 7, 2009, 16:06 by Helen O'Hara in The Empire Blog
True Blood. Twilight. Moonlight. Blood Ties. Seriously, what's with all the vampires around these days? Everywhere you look, some girl who doesn't think she's special is being chomped on by a delectable centuries-old bloodsucker - and probably also being hit on by the neighbourhood shapeshifter / werewolf* to boot. Cue soul-searching and pining and whining and and self-flagellation (mostly from him, because she'd be safer if he left, but he loves her so much he just can't help himself, damnit), moral dilemnas ("I love him - but is he only after my jugular?") and a storyline that's becoming just a little too ubiquitous at the moment. What is it with these titles and the millions like them? Why do they all seem to strike some weird chord? Because they do seem to work. They seem, in fact, like catnip to women. Sure, two of those shows got cancelled, but head to your local bookshop, take a look at the (astonishing) number of vampire romances on sale and tell me this isn't still a growin... Continue reading... Comment Now (97 comments)
Back To TopSci-Fi: High Budget Or Low Budget?
Posted on Thursday September 3, 2009, 17:33 by Helen O'Hara in The Empire Blog
So this week District 9 is finally released in the UK, the South African sci-fi comedy-drama that's about to pass $100million at the US box office. And it hasn't just struck box-office gold: it's also a critical hit, with over 80% acclaim on Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, as well as, of course, 4 stars in Empire. And the whole thing, with its near-flawless effects and entirely convincing CG (even in close-up) was pulled together for a paltry $30 million, about the price of the average Hollywood rom-com. Without stars. This got me thinking two things. Number one:can you imagine what this guy could've done with an eight figure budget on Halo, on which he worked for the guts of two years before the plug was pulled? And number two*, is low-budget sci-fi actually at an... Continue reading... Comment Now (51 comments)
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