Movies Monday!

Having traveled to Yorkshire over the weekend to see him perform in a forest – see elsewhere on hotpress.com for the photographic evidence – we thought it only proper that this week’s Movies Monday should kick off with the Plan B co-starring remake of The Sweeney.
With Ray Winstone playing Jack Regan to Mr. Drew's George Carter, it promises to be a “you slag”-tastic update of the ‘70s cop show, which is well worth hunting down on DVD.

Movies Monday has always been rather partial to time travel yarns, hence our bracing at the bit to see Bruce Willis, Joseph-Gordon Levitt, Jeff Daniels and Emily Blunt – heavyweight cast or what? – in Looper.
Premiering Stateside on September 28, it flits between 2042 and 2072 and finds a trained assassin being tasked with the job of killing his future self. Equal parts Die Hard and The Matrix, it looks like a monster hit in the making.

Talking of the future, here’s the first peak at The Silver Linings Playbook, which won’t be with us until November 21.
Based on Matthew Quick’s best-selling novel, the pitch black comedy draws on the not inconsiderable box-office muscle of Bradley Cooper, Jacki Weaver and Robert De Niro who’ll be hoping the critics are kind after a couple of maulings. Memo to Bobby: please, please, please don't make another focking Fockers film!
“Pat Solitano has lost everything – his house, his job, and his wife,” reads the blurb. “He now finds himself living back with his mother and father after spending eight months in a state institution on a plea bargain. Pat is determined to rebuild his life, remain positive and reunite with his wife, despite the challenging circumstances of their separation. All Pat’s parents want is for him to get back on his feet – and to share their family’s obsession with the Philadelphia Eagles football team. When Pat meets Tiffany, a mysterious girl with problems of her own, things get complicated. Tiffany offers to help Pat reconnect with his wife, but only if he'll do something very important for her in return. As their deal plays out, an unexpected bond begins to form between them, and silver linings appear in both of their lives.”

The latest installment in Spike Lee’s Chronicles Of Brooklyn anthology, Red Hook Summer features a stunning turn from Clarke Peters as a “praise the Lord and say ‘Motherfucker!’” preacher who’s world is turned upside down when his estranged – and impressively mohawked – teenage son comes to live with him for the summer. One imagines that Peters' resemblance to the Reverend Al Sharpton is entirely intentional!

Benicio del Toro, Pablo Trapero, Julio Medem, Elia Suleiman, Gaspar Noé, Juan Carlos Tabio and Lauren each get to direct one of the chapters in 7 Days In Havana, “a contemporary snapshot of the iconic city”, which has an almost documentary feel about it.
Check out [link]http://www.7daysinhavana.com[/link] for loads of extra goodies.

One of the big hits at this year’s Sundance festival was The Sessions, the "triumphant true story" of a paralyzed 38-year-old poet who avails of a therapist trained to perform sexual acts for disabled patients. Harrowing in parts, insanely funny in others, its impressive cast includes John Hawkes, Helen Hunt and William H. Macy who's looking more like Mick Jagger than ever.

Also impressing Robert Redford’s mob was Beasts Of The Southern Wild, a stunning introduction to the talents of 8-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis who’s being tipped to become the youngest ever Oscar winner. That accolade currently belongs to Tatum O’Neal who was a withered old crone of ten when she won her ‘Best Supporting Actress’ statuette for 1973’s Paper Moon.

“In a forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee, a six-year-old girl exists on the brink of orphanhood,” is how it’s being pitched. “Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural world is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality. Desperate to repair the structure of her world in order to save her ailing father and sinking home, this tiny hero must learn to survive unstoppable catastrophes of epic proportions.”

Movies Monday’s weekend was greatly enhanced by our watching of two online documentaries, which examine what the respective Icelandic and Mancunian music scenes have to offer beyond the top 20-dwelling obvious.

“Idiosyncratic, intelligent and involving, Iceland: Beyond Sigur Rós, Serious Feather's latest not-for-profit film production, is a memorable celebration of Iceland's dynamic and diverse contemporary independent music scene,” they promise and then duly deliver. “Filmed in full HD, the 30 minute documentary features insightful interviews with Haukur Magnússon, flamboyant editor of Reykjavík's Grapevine Magazine, Ólafur Arnalds, world renowned pop-classical composer and music producer, and Pétur Úlfur Einarsson and Hafsteinn Michael Guðmundsson, ambitious co-founders behind online music distributor Gogoyoko.
“With wonderful performances also from cutting-edge Icelandic acts such as Reykjavik!, Hafdis Huld, Berndsen, Mugison, Ólafur Arnalds, Lára Rúnars, Bloodgroup, For A Minor Reflection, Seabear, Sykur, Severed Crotch and DJ Musician, Iceland: Beyond Sigur Rós has been receiving rave reviews from around the world and really is something you shouldn't miss.”

Meanwhile, back in Blighty: “Frantic, fascinating and full-on, Manchester: Beyond Oasis is Serious Feather's first ever full-length feature and the second chapter in our self-funded Beyond series. Once again filmed in full HD, this 90 minute documentary features honest and thought-provoking interviews with independent music producer, Aniff Akinola, co-founder of Debt Records, Louis Barrabas, the manager of The Ruby Lounge music venue, Jay Taylor, former BBC Manchester Introducing producer, Chris Long, co-founder of Unconvention, Jeff Thompson, and bassist with I Am Kloot, Peter Jobson. With definitive performances from over 40 of Greater Manchester’s latest independent artists, Manchester: Beyond Oasis is a movie which will quite simply make you a new improved human being.”
Like it at [link]http://www.beyondseries.co.uk/manchester[/link] – which you will, a lot – and you’ll be able to download the whole thing for free.

Iceland: Beyond Sigur Rós from SeriousFeather on Vimeo.

Having focused last week on Asian martial arts films, Movies Monday is this time round switching into hack ‘n’ slasher mode.

“Taking demented supernatural terror to new levels” is the promise of Six Degrees Of Hell, the new Corey Feldman film, which nicks all the best bits from Nightmare On Elm Street, Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer and those other teen horrors you profess to hate but actually watch every time they get a late night TV airing.

From Australia comes – with bugger all love – Primal, an outback zombie flick in which hundreds of Bruces and Sheilas come to grizzly brains-sucked-out ends. Add in rabies, acid-spitting flies and carnivorous plants and you might to reconsider that gap year Down Under.

“A twisted vision of science gone horribly wrong in the tradition of early David Cronenberg” is one critic’s verdict on Cell Count, a low-budget jobbie that’s winning a cult following among horror connoisseurs. Take it from us, you’ll never trust a member of the medical profession again.

Bringing our horror special to a close is Thale, a Norwegian chiller about a folkloric half-woman/half-cow creature – we’ll have no Madonna jokes please – who praying mantis-style eats her mortal lovers after having her very evil way with them. It sounds daft, but actually scared the bejaysus out of us.

On which blood-chilling note we sadly have to end this week’s Movies Monday. Don’t forget to check out our Free Music Friday and Tasty Tuesday brother and sister, which reside elsewhere on the hotpress.com news feed.