How To Make A Quick Billion

+The PictureShow Guide to Cannes Exclusive Interviews with Caity Lotz and Nicholas McCarthy

PictureShow Reviews Things To See

Contents June 2011

June Features

Page 4: How To Make A Quick Billion

Page 7: The Pact Exclusive

Page 13: Cannes Film Festival

Reviews Section

Page 17: Avengers Assemble

Page 18: The Raid

Page 19: Dark Shadows

Page 20: The Dictator

Page 21: Men In Black 3

Page 22: Prometheus

Page 23: Juan Of The Dead

Page 24: The Innkeepers

Regulars

Page 3: Editor’s Note and Con-tributors

Page 25: Things To See In June

Contributors Editor’s NoteWelcome Back to PictureShow Magazine

It’s been far too long. Since our last issue the majority of our writers have finished

university for good. Which means that over the next few months we’ll be bringing you

the greatest issues of PictureShow yet.

Anyway, looking at this issue we have a sterling piece of film journalism for you to indulge in. Our six page The Pact special

has two fantastic interviews with Caity Lotz, the lead actress and Micholas McCarthy the director of the film. A great series of interviews even if we do say so ourselves

We also have a quick guide to why Aveng-ers Assemble has become the third most

successful film ever made, even though it is a superhero movie.

Dale J Pearson also gives us his unique take on the Cannes Film Festival and

whether we can expect the same level of classics from the festival as it featured last

year.

Joshua Hammond, Editor-in-Chief

EditorsJoshua Hammond: Editor-in-Chief

joshua@pictureshow-magazine.comDale Pearson: Editor

dale@ pictureshow-magazine.com

WordsJoshua Hammond

Dale PearsonChris Binding

Benjamin SchwarzBenjamin Ostell

OnlineFind us at

pictureshow-magazine.com

Like us on facebook

Follow us@PictureShowMag

8 Rules ForMarvel-lous Movie Success

JOSHUA HAMMOND

Marvel’s The Avengers (or in the UK Avengers Assemble) has absolutely

destroyed a series of Box Offfiice records. PictureShow Magazine tries to account

for its incredible success

PLAN IN ADVANCE

The plan for Avengers Assemble was in motion from the get go. Whilst Marvel does not own the rights to Spiderman, Fantastic Four or X-Men, it did own the rights to the individual elements of the Avengers. Marvel even had the sense to tie Robert Downey Jr to three Iron Man films AND the Avengers film in his initial con-

tract. Iron Man piqued interest in the project with the now famous credit sting with Samuel L Jackson (a man with a contract for nine films, he has appeared in five). Marvel’s clear plans made it so that people were aware of Avengers Assemble, 4 years before it came out. There are even possibly clues to the next few sequels in the films already released (have a look in the Treasure Vault in Thor for the Infinity Gauntlet).

. . .BUT DON’T SACRIFICE THE STORY

It is wise, however, to never sacrifice story for the will of the fans. Case in point, Spiderman 3, fans wanted Venom, fans got Venom and it sucked. Updating the time and location of Tony Stark’s kidnapping from Vietnam to Afghanistan worked with a modern audience that was unfamiliar with the

source material. Equally, had Captain America woken up in 1964, as he does in the comic books there would not be the ripe opportunity for Cap’s fish out of water humour in Aveng-ers Assemble or the storyline revolving Steve Rogers adapting to life in the 21st century.

HIRE AN INTERESTING DIRECTOR

This could apply to any film in reality, but Marvel’s frequent gambles with inexperienced or untested directors have paid dividends. Jon Favreau had directed three feature films before being given the reigns to Iron Man, some-thing entirely unlike anything he had done before. Kenneth Branagh, director of Thor had largely only directed Shakespearean adaptations, but that experience fit the tone of Thor perfectly. Joss Whedon was possibly the least experienced of all Marvel’s directors, having only directed one film before The Avengers, but his love and enthusi-asm for the source ensured that The Avengers was not the clunky CGI fest it could have been. Possibly the least inspired choice Joe Johnston, director of The Wolfman, Jumanji and Jurassic Park III, created one of Marvel’s weakest films, Captain America: The First Avenger.

PLEASE THE FANS

There is little doubt that the most vocal voice following the release of any comic book adaptation is the voice of the people that read the comics. The power of the internet can have an incredible effect on the performance of any film, there is evidence to suggest that the mighty takings of The Avengers in the US is down to the ecstatic reaction of fans in Europe and Australasia, who saw the film days before it was released in America. Marvel’s films over the last 4 years have treated the eagle eyed and those “in the know” to little moments of geeky pleasure. In Iron Man, the little shots of Captain America’s Shield in Tony Stark’s workshop provided something extra for those willing to look.

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DON’T CUT RUNNING TIME

Most studios like their bigger blockbusters to have a lean running time of be-tweeen 105 and 120 minutes, this means that they can fit more screenings into the day. With a film of this length, you can fit about 4 or 5 screenings of a film into any one screen with the time needed for trailers and cleaning on either side of the a screening. This increases the potential to generate more ticket sales. The Avengers runs to about 145 minutes and as such you can only fit 3 screenings of the film into any one screen in a regular cinema, 4 at weekends. One of the problems many blockbusters encounter is of a lack of development in both the characters and the story, Avengers As-semble’s longer running time makes sure that each character is suitably developed

ADVERTISE FOR A BROAD AUDIENCE

While the advertisers behind The Avengers will not have had much time to take heed of the warnings John Carter and Battleships presented they still made damn sure that they advertised Avengers Assemble tactically. From the very first ad shot of 4 chairs (see below) the advertisers knew that their

key selling point was the whole crossover theme. The set pieces, while spectacular, were not the main focus of the film, the focus was the characters and the way they interact. This ensured fans of the series would be interested as well as those who were unfamiliar prior to the release of the film. By not advertising to any particular audience and emphasising the highlights of the movie, the film generated interest on its own merits.

ENSURE THE ENTIRE CAST IS RIGHT FOR THEIR ROLES

Whilst Tom Hiddleston’s acting experience prior to Thor was in television and theatre work, there is little doubt in anyone’s mind that he was the perfect choice to play Loki. It is certain that other names were thrown around for the role, but ultimately Hiddleston was the right choice and the films were con-

siderably better because of it. Tony Stark may have his issues with alcoholism but casting Robert Downey Jr, a man who only a few years previous had a very severe drug prob-lem, as the genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, hero in quite a family friendly flick was “out there” at best. Downey Jr undoubtedly plays the role with suitable aplomb. The only issue Marvel have had is with Terrence Howard as Col. James Rhodes who allegedly earned more than Downey Jr for Iron Man and refused to take a pay cut for the sequel.

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MAKE SURE THE SCREENWRITER CAN HANDLE THE PROJECT

As was mentioned earlier, Joss Whedon’s success can in no small part be down to his knowledge and enthusiasm for the characters Iron Man 2, an-other one of Marvel’s slight missteps was written by Justin Theroux, a man largely known for his acting rather than his writing and his only previous work was on Tropic Thunder. Equally, the Captain America writers’ only notable work was on the adaptations of The Chronicles of Narnia. Thor’s science fiction elements meant that the screenwriters’ experience on Andromeda, Fringe and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles proved invaluable creating a better film.

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The Pact

PictureShow speaks exclusively to Nicholas McCarthy and Caity Lotz,

Director and star of upcoming horror movie The Pact

JOSHUA HAMMOND

By now you will all have heard of The Pact, the film’s posters and trailers have been all over cinemas for the last few months. PictureShow secured an exclu-sive interviews with the star of the movie Caity Lotz. Caity will be most familiar to you as Stephanie from the few episodes of Mad Men set in California. Her career is speeding up with more features on her horizon.

So Caity, can you quickly summarise The Pact for our readers?

My character Annie, she left home when she was like seventeen, and hasn’t been back since. She’s really trying to avoid her family and her childhood, she had a pretty rough upbringing. Her mom was crazy religious and her Dad was never around and then her sister left so she was trying to get long gone. When her mother passes away, she is forced to come home and deal with everything that hap-pened but when she gets there, her sister disap-pears and all of a sudden all of this crazy stuff starts happening in her house. So she goes on this whole hunt and gets the shit kicked out of her [laughs]. So she’s just trying to find her sister and find out what’s going on and it’s definitely not what she was expecting.

Did you personally “get the shit kicked out of you”, or did you use a double?

No, that was me. Definitely me. I did all my own stunts, the only stunts I didn’t do where with the motorcycle because I don’t know how to ride a mo-torcycle and we didn’t have time to learn. I would have been more than happy to learn but we were on a pretty tight schedule and if I got hurt we’d be in big trouble. But all the wire work, getting thrown around and flying around the house was me. So yeah, they beat me up

Are you a big fan of horror movies?

[Thinks] I like … umm, some horror movies. You see, I wouldn’t say that I’m a big fan but I’m com-ing around. My favourite horror is The Shining, I like things that are more like a psychological thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The Pact is definitely the kind of horror movie that I like. You know it’s not just about [makes slashy noise] killing as many people as you can. There’s a lot going on. It scares your mind, so it’s pretty cool.

What was it that attracted you to The Pact?

Well, the character. I read the script and for me the role is the biggest thing and this is the kind of char-acter that I’ve never played before. She’s a little bit tough, a little bit darker and it just grabbed me. I enjoyed it when I was reading it, I really enjoyed it, I was getting scared as I was reading it y’know?

There’s a lot of twists and turns and you never real-ly know what’s going to happen. I think that’s what makes it a good movie.

How was it working with Nicholas Mc-Carthy on his first feature length movie?

Well it was great. I didn’t feel like “Oh this guy’s inexperienced”. We worked a lot and he wrote the script so he knew that thing inside and out. He had a great DP (Wayne Bridges) Everything went pretty smoothly. I really love working with Nick he really gave me space to do what I wanted to do and he was really helpful with collaborating on the charac-ter and the performances.

Now, we’re big fans of your work on Death Valley.

Good, I am too [laughs]

Is it likely that there’ll be a second sea-son?

You know as of right now, no, there’s not going to be a second season of Death Valley. Which is really unfortunate, just not enough people saw the show over here. Everyone that saw it loved it, even the critics. It just wasn’t getting out to enough peo-ple. But it’s a good show. It’s a fun show, right?

Yeah, we like it

Good

There is a cliffhanger at the end of the season, which is why we thought it might get recommissioned.

Yeah, well you don’t know if you’re going to get a second season until way later. Until way after the series finishes shooting. Sometimes things change, but in our case we didn’t know if we would get a second season or not so we just went for it. It ei-ther happens or it doesn’t. You never know, it might get some kind of resurgence on something. Maybe we’ll make a movie [laughs]. That’s what I’d like to do.

You also had a role on Mad Men, after The Pact can you tell us whether you pre-fer working on TV or film projects?

I like the both. I honestly like them both. If I’m work-ing then I’m happy. TV’s cool because it’s so quick. You do so many scenes in a day and you’re just flying through it which I actually really like. But film has this thing to it where it just has this timelessness to it, it’ll last forever. So yeah, I like them both.

Can you tell us about your upcoming projects?

I have a movie that comes out in January and it’s called Battle Of The Year and it’s a really great dance movie. It was a looootta fun. Pretty crazy. Benson Lee is doing it. It’s got a great cast Josh Holloway, Laz Alonso, Chris Brown and it’s really fun working with the greatest b-boys in the world. We shot it over in France and some of it in LA and it should be a lot of fun

Have you found that you enjoy films like Battle of The Year that combine your tal-ents for acting and dancing?

It’s cool you know because I think if I did that movie at the beginning of my career I probably would be a little bit worried that people would think that I’m just a dancer that can act rather than an actor that can dance. So, because I have done work before that movie, I’m not worried about it. It’s great to be able to use those skills because it was part of my life for so long

You’re also working on Live At The Fox-es Den with the director Michael Kristoff and Jackson Rathbone.

Yeah, that movie’s cool because it has this great musical aspect to it. There’s some great jazz music to it and it’s great to bring that it. Jackson Rath-bone’s character is an attorney and I play an at-torney as well. He basically quits his law firm to go and work with this jazz band. Quitting his law firm kinda changes his whole life and he’s just trying to figure everything out. Like I said the musical aspects are great, Jackson’s a great singer

Is there anyone in particular that you re-ally want to work with?

Yeah, there’s so many. I’d love to work with Leon-ardo DiCaprio because I have a massive crush on him and I’d love to work with some more really great directors.

I’d love to work with Paul Thomas Anderson or So-phia Coppolla of course. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t want to work with her.

Have you seen the teaser trailer for The Master? The new Paul Thomas Anderson movie?

That’s the one with Philip Seymour Hoffman right? Yeah I enquired about the role and I got to meet Paul Thomas Anderson and it was really cool to meet him. I want to see it, but it’s hard to watch movies where you read for a part and don’t get it. But I’ll still give it a look

The Pact is Nicholas McCarthy’s debut feature length film. After many success-ful showings of short films at Sundance Festival, he was given the opportunity to adapt his short feature The Pact into a longer film. Whilst our interview was only short, McCarthy quickly revealed his excitement about Cinema in a gen-eral sense and his real love of horror movies. As a director, McCarthy clearly knows what he wants The Pact to be and how he wanted to achieve it.

When you showed The Pact at Sundance in January last year, did you think you would be given the opportunity to adapt it into a longer film?

Absolutely not, I think that was a dream, but I had only finished making the short about a week and a half before taking it to Sundance. I wasn’t thinking much further past whether the picture was gonna be in focus and the sound was going to be alright. I had the meeting about the feature about three days after the festival. I didn’t even know what the meet-ing, with the company Content Film, was going to be about. It was a complete surprise to me, but after having made so many short films and written so many screenplays before trying to get a feature off the ground for years and years and years I felt like I was ready to tackle it.

Now that you have that experience working with feature length movies, will you stick with that format or go back to short films?

Hmm... that’s a tough question. At a Film Festival they’ll have a Short Film programme and all the short film makers are there and they’ll get asked by a member of the audience “What are you doing next?” and nine times out of ten they’ll say “Oh, I’m trying to get a feature made”. I love the short film form and if people get a chance to see The Pact short then they’ll se it’s an entirely different kind of movie to the feature and in a way there are lots of things that were easier and lots that I couldn’t do with the short. There is something about that brevity of story telling that is the same difference between the are of the short story and the art of the novel

3D is the past, from like the 1950’s ... for pe

y’know. I would love to do another short film, but now that I’ve gotten a taste of directing a feature, that’s what I want to do next

Why did you opt to keep the majority of the crew from the short for the feature?

Becase they were great, what’s really important to a director it his or her collaborators and I think one of the reasons why The Pact short film was so suc-cessful was because I reached a kind of sweet spot with a few people that I had worked with before like my director of photography, Bridger Nielson, my editor Adriaan van Zyl. I found new collabora-tors on that short the composer Ronen Landa and the production designer Walter Barnett. It was just this wonderful experience for us all to make that short because we all enjoyed the sort of movie that we were making and working together to do some-thing mew with that world. The feature is almost like a riff on the short and the chance for all of us to just jump back into it and continue the conversations that we had been having about ghosts and terrible 1970’s wallpaper was just a dream come true.

Caity told us that you “kicked the shit out of her” with the stunts.

[laughs] Yeah.

Why did you opt to use practical effects rather than CGI?

Well, i’ve always liked the idea of when you are shooting something that you look to the camera and you can actually see what you’re getting as opposed to when you work with a computer which means that everything is done later. To me CGI is used brilliantly in very subtle ways in all sorts of films and in our movie a computer WAS used but to remove things. There’s no instance where a com-puter is used to create something. I think when actu-ally have the actress falling to the floor … you have the actress falling to the floor. You don’t have some sort of Walt Disney cartoon version of a person fall-ing from the ceiling and that’s why I would want to pay money to go see a movie

Would you ever be tempted to use more CGI?

Well CGI is just a tool and it’s a tool that can either be used well or can be used poorly and obviously there’s a lot of terrible examples of it. The deci-sion to use practical effects is more of an aesthetic one for me it’s just how I see things. Maybe it’s because I grew up watching older films and con-tinue to watch older films I can appreciate that kind of aesthetic where you are seeing something actu-ally happen. It’s just a quality to filmmaking that I like. But y’know, if there’s some kind of effect that demands that a computer create it because it’s the right thing for the story I wouldn’t say no to it out-right. I’m not that religious about it.

ople who are into porn, it might be the future.

What was the last film to really scare you?

That’s an interesting question. What was the last film to really scare me. Sssshhhhhiiiiiiiit. [laughs] The truth is that I see a lot of horror films and I see a lot of older movies, there are older films that have spooked me. The most recent, kind of modern, film that really scared me, and it scared me in a differ-ent way to how people associate the scares in say Paranormal Activity or something, was Martyrs. And Martyrs scared me because I couldn’t imagine the person that made that film. It was just so diabol-ical and so strange and upsetting that it was such a frightening experience from scene to scene but also after having turned it off. Just finishing the DVD and sitting there feeling kind of bathed in grime after having seen that movie and that was a really fright-ening experience. I’ll never forget that movie.

The first hour of Martyrs really terrified me, the initial scenes in the house are just insane

It’s probably the only film i’ve wanted to fast for-ward through and I NEVER use the fast forward button.

On a similar note, what would you want to see as a double bill with The Pact?

Hmm … The movie was influenced by a lot of the 1970’s Italian exploitation and horror films and there’s a Dario Argento movie called Deep Red. However imperfect Deep Red is, it has these kind of indelible mysterious images and that was the kind of thing that I was hoping to get in some places in my film. Just things that would stick with you, like when you wake up from a dream, which Deep Red has in spades. I would be honoured if anyone would pair the two films together. They might not have a lot to do with one another aside from that philosophy but that would be the one I’d pick

Just one more question; is 3D the future of filmmaking?

3D is the past, from like the 1950’s. For people who are into porn, it might be the future. The fu-ture of filmmaking is telling a fucking good story, it doesn’t matter what the tool is, it can be 3D or not 3D. That’s what we need, we need strong writers and directors. We’ve got a lot of strong directors but not a lot of strong writers and I’m not saying I’m one of them but i’m trying.

Cannes Report

Dale J Pearson gives us the lowdown on this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Contains Violence, Drug Use and Golden Showers

DALE J PEARSON

Regular readers will know that PictureShow has re-ported on the decline of the ‘great European film festivals’ in previous issues. Last year, Venice and Berlin film festivals came and went relatively unno-ticed. There is however, one European film festival which still maintains all the gravitas and prestige of it’s heyday. And so, it was with great anticipation with which PictureShow watched on as the 65th Cannes Film Festival unfolded.

Last year’s Cannes was indeed the platform for many of the year’s great films. ‘In competition’ films included Drive (10/10), The Skin I Live In (9/10), The Artist (8/10), We Need to Talk About Kevin (8/10) and Melancholia (8/10), all of which Pic-tureShow commented upon very favourably. Even PictureShow non-favourite, The Tree of Life (even-tual Palme d’or winner) turned out to be the most devisive and debated film of the year. And so, if Cannes is to be as half as influential as it was in 2011, the following films will definitely be ones to look out for, and PictureShow, as always, will be sorting the wheat from the chaff as and when they hit our screens.

Starting with the 2012 Palme d’Or Winner, Amour is the new film from veteran director Michael Haneke. The film follows 80 year-old couple, Anne and Georges. After Anne suffers a stroke and be-

comes paralysed down one side of her body she resolves herself to commit suicide. Georges, partly fearing for his own wellbeing, bids to stop her. Haneke, who has forged a career out of making films rooted in allegory and social statement, has been criticised in recent times for tending to toward Hollywood Audiences. And Amour has been re-garded by many as a step away from his tradi-tional styles. However, with two Palme d’Ors under his belt in just three years, Haneke has set a Cannes record. Amour will be released later this year.

Contender for ‘line of the festival’ has to go to Nicole Kidman in The Paperboy - ‘if anybody’s gonna piss on him, it’s gonna be me’. Critics have been described as being ‘delightfully appaled’ at a scene in which Nicole Kidman’s character ‘gold-en showers’ all over Zac Efron (because of a Jel-lyfish sting...of course). In a bid to shake off his High School Musical stigma, Zac Efron stars in this film about a trailer trash femme fatale who gets her kicks by writing to convivted murderers in prison. In a film which has recieved a mixed response from critics, Kidman is said to have been the shining ac-tor of the festival.

The Weinstein Company returned to Cannes with another Western-themed film. (In 2009, they pro-duced Tarintino’s ‘spaghetti western’, Inglorious

Basterds, which also premiered at the festival) This year, they introduce John Hillcoat’s Lawless, a film about bootlegging in Virginia. The film stars Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, and Gary Oldman with a writing Credit for Nick Cave (formerly of ‘Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds’)

Fans of Ken Loach will be excited to hear about his 11th entry to the festival, The Angels’ Share. The director has opted for a more comedic film than his usual gritty style. The film follows a young father who narrowly escapes prison and finds an oppor-tunity to turn over a new leaf in a Scottish whiskey distillery. A point of interest in this film is that Loach uses several non-professional actors to portray sup-porting roles. Thankfully, Loach’s skill as a director has left many commenting on the fact that this is barely noticable.

One of the less well-received competition runners this year has been Walter Salles’ adaption of the Jack Kerouac classic, On the Road. The film stars Sam Riley as Sal Paradise, Garrett Hedlund as Dean Moriarty, Kristen Stewart as Marylou, as well as Kirsten Dunst and Viggo Mortensen. Praised for excellent cinematography, but criticised for many other aspects, On the Road could be an occasion where an early release to a negative response at a film festival damages the economic potential of the

film; especially a film which is looking to capitalise on a preexisting fan-market. Garrett Hedlund, has been cited by many as the saving grace of the film, but mainly, the attention has been on Kristen Stew-art who is considered by many to have not quite shaken off her Twilight shoes. However, we must also remember that she did not have the benefit of Nicole Kidman’s urine to destroy all those teen-dream preconceptions.

Fans of less highbrow cinema, however, might be more interested in Cannes Screening of Dream-works’ Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted. The franchise will return later this year starring Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Frances McDormand and Sacha Baron Co-hen. Not out of place at Cannes, the film has a distinctly ‘French Riviera’ theme, set against the Ca-sinos and hotels of Monte Carlo.

Cannes Film Festival may be over, but its real test will be over the coming months as its honoured films make their onto general release in cinemas around the world. And while it looks as though the runa-way successes of 2011’s festival films will probably not be beaten, there is enough variety and excite-ment surrounding the films to stop Cannes from be-coming a ‘dead’ film festival any time soon.

Avengers Assemble

After 6 years of planning, plotting and meddling, Marvel Studios finally brough the superhero cross-over behemoth to the big screen. In 2008, Tony Stark and the movie going public were introduced to the idea of the Avengers Initiative. From the mo-ment Samuel L Jackson broke into Tony Stark’s liv-ing room audiences have been excited by the idea of The Avengers. Avengers Assemble is Marvel’s final masterstroke in the first act of their Studios, it proves not only is there a massive audience for superhero movies, but also that in 6 years a com-pany that had sold most of its major properties, like Spiderman, Fantastic 4 and X-Men, can still make quality films.

Avengers Assemble sees the return of Loki, deter-mined to steal the Tessaract and harness its power to travel between dimensions and enslave the hu-man race. To counter Loki’s plans Nick Fury brings together 6 of the worlds most brilliant people in order to try and fend off Loki’s attack. Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Captain America need to overcome their differences to stop the destruction of the planet.

Marvel’s gamble has paid off remarkably well, from getting every one of the highly in-demand ac-tors for a single film, to getting Geek Numero Uno Joss Whedon to write and direct the film. Whedon’s love for the characters and the subject matter is evi-dent in the script. Possibly the smartest script for a Marvel feature ever. Brilliantly working in each of the individual superheroes and ensuring that none of them are left on the back burner, Whedon utilis-es each character and their own talents with great ability.

Tony Stark and Steve Rogers’ little disputes are great fun to watch, as is Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Ban-ner who seems more like a brilliant scientist than either Ed Norton or Eric Bana. Ruffalo, with help from Whedon’s script makes sure that we believe Banner when he talks about the sides of his person-ality that are unfavourable. However, the star of the show is undoubtedly Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. Cast by his buddy Kenneth Branagh (the two worked together on Wallander) as Loki in Thor, Hiddles-ton comes into his own with this massive spectacle. Loki’s interactions with each individual member of the Avengers is both menacing and brilliant, even in defeat Loki can spit venom with his eyes. It is rare

to see such hatred in any film, nevermind a family friendly blockbuster.

There are some problems with Avengers Assemble. While Loki is brilliant and terrifying, his “army” of Chitauri warriors are remarkably easily disposed of. Defeat never looks like a real option, the greatest moment of tension comes at the hands of humans rather than the Chitauri. The soundtrack is also very standard superhero fare, lots of triumphant horns and banging drums at pivotal moments.

Avengers Assemble is one of the finest superhero films to hit cinemas in a few years, it is by far the best of Marvel’s output and it will be interesting to see how Iron Man 3, Cap 2 and Thor 2 move on from this. The danger is that we will miss Thor when we watch the new Iron Man and vice versa. The Avengers is a remarkable film with a great script and fantastic characters. JH

The Raid

The Raid revolves around father-to-be Rama after he gets assigned to the most covert of covert mis-sions to try and attempt to remove a drug kingpin from his tower block fortress in Jakarta. In order to remove the boss, a tiny team of elite cops have to clear 15 floors of lowest kind of junkie, cook and drug pusher there is. What starts as a relatively straight forward becomes increasingly complicated as one by one, members of the unit are picked off.

Director of The Raid, Gareth Evans, clearly owes a great debt to a history of action and martial arts movies. Evans has been open about his influ-ences from Die Hard to the video for MIA’s Born Free. Even with his influences to guide you, it is hard to be quite prepared for The Raid. The style of direction is uncompromising, long tracking shots through the fight scenes make you uncomfortably aware of every broken bone, every cracked skull and every burst vein. Whilst the scenes of brutality are certainly grim in their detail, there is a certain amount of beauty to the nature of the fights, al-most inhuman levels of punishment are doled out with grace by both Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian. A great deal is made about the personal and honor-able nature of fighting, characters prefer to beat one another than to shoot each other. After 15 min-utes you stop thinking “Pick up the gun, look at that massive knife, arm yourself!” and just revel in the action.

The Raid owes a great deal to its lead actor, Iko Uwais, who must have been put through hell on

this shoot. At the centre of almost all the action scenes in the film, Uwais’ boundless energy makes it hard for even a viewer to keep up with his flying fists. This should not diminish Uwais’ acting either, as the emotional centre of the film Uwais has to emote through his fury and manages to remarkably well. However, don’t let comparison’s to Die Hard fool you, Uwais is no Bruce Willis, there is never enough time for a pay off quip or line. Plus with as many vagabonds as Rama has to dispose of there is hardly enough time to know each enemy as well as we all know Hans Gruber.

Evans’ choice of music director also pays off, the beats that accompany the fight scenes mirror the action, smaller beats for smaller hits and big pounding bass for knock out blows. Even the quiter moments seem to bristle with anticipation for the action that is always about to ensue. Whilst there is very little dialogue, the moments where characters do discuss things are deathly quiet with as little as possible to distract from the characters speaking.

In short, The Raid is a deftly handled, economic yet unflinching action movie, but this does not account for the skill with with Evans accomplishes everything in a scant 100 minute running time. Evans’ eye is on show for all to see here, insane camer angles and tracking shots are some of the most interesting visual flourishes since Park Chan Wook’s OldBoy another uncompromising action movie. The sound-track is a revelation, its dubstep rhythm for every jarring injury adds real intensity to the action se-quences. JH

Dark Shadows

Like Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark that came before it, Dark Shadows is an adaptation of an afternoon television show from the 1970’s. The difference be-tween the two is that Dark Shadows maintains the era of the show, where Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark did not and Dark Shadows keeps the camp element that the original show was loved for. Dark Shadows follows the Collins family as one of their ancestors is unearthed and revealed to be a vam-pire that has been entombed for 2 centuries, or 197 years if we’re not exaggerating.

At the centre of Dark Shadows is Barnabus Collins, a heartbroken vampire who is seen to care about humanity regardless of the fact that he eviscerates 11 men in the first 10 minutes. The comedy largely comes from Barnabus’ fish-out-of-water character. Confused and terrified by tarmac, automobiles and McDonalds Barnabus’ introduction to the modern world is largely comedic, however, once integrat-ed into the family (and this does NOT take long) Barnabus becomes more of a victim to gross out of physical humour, which does not seem to fit as well with the Burton aesthetic.

The cast of Dark Shadows is littered with Tim Burton regulars, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter both have starring roles as Barnabus and Dr Julia Hoffman. Michelle Pfeiffer, Catwoman in Burton’s final Batman movie plays Elizabeth Collins, unfor-tunately however, she does not don a leather catsuit even though she is still smokin’ hot. Christopher Lee continues his work in the Burton film universe with a brief cameo. Newbies to the Burtonverse include Chloe Grace Moretz who is continuing her seam-less rise into super stardom, Johnny Lee Miller fresh from his TV Show and stint in Danny Boyle’s Frank-enstein and Eva Green also “vamps” it up as the incredibly forward Angie.

Burton ropes in his regulars behind the scenes too, Danny Elfman does the score which is a typical of Burtons work but does take cues from the era of the film.

Dark Shadows exceeds when it embraces the com-edy to be found in a character 200 years out of time. Heavy use of 70’s paraphanalia creates easy laughs, a scene involving a lava lamp is a particu-lar highlight. The problem is that everyone adjusts far too easily, very little conflict seems to arise once

Barnabus appears in the Collins home and Barna-bus becomes a modern man far too swiftly to max-imise the potential. Instead the plot becomes em-broiled in trivialities, Depp’s key love interest feels meek and undercooked whilst the renovation of the family business seems to be dealt with far too eas-ily.

Like Tim Burton, Dark Shadows had great potential and there are some fantastic moments however it becomes too complicated in parts and far to simple in others. Maybe extra script work was needed or (god forbid) new acting talent for Burton to try and direct, but Dark Shadows just isn’t as satisfying as Burton’s early work which was both hilarious and bleak. Dark Shadows is neither. JH

The Dictator

Sacha Baron Cohen has a reputation to maintain, it is a reputation as a troublemaker, a cruel manipu-lator who gets into situations under false pretences and shows up those involved. A problem arose af-ter his 2008 comedy Bruno failed to warm critic and audiences as his previous efforts had. Sacha Baron Cohen’s schtick was getting old. As such, Cohen decided a new direction was needed. So Cohen developed a scripted comedy, The Dictator, a comedy that still intended to be cruel but without the civilian casualties and a central character so outlandish that turning up to The Academy Awards in full costume could generate significant headlines.

Ali G, Borat, and to an extent Bruno, worked as co-medic creations because they were ‘of’ the world. Half the time, Cohen did not even know what he was going to say, he just got into character and went with the flow. The looks of shock on his un-fortunate victims were genuine, because what his character was saying and doing was shocking. The Dictator has a similar set up, outlandish foreign character ends up in US and tries to shock folk, but when these folk are being paid to be shocked and Megan Fox is the only person playing herself, Cohen’s comedy no longer works, either as base comedy or as satire.

Poking fun at dictators is hardly something new, Charlie Chaplin had a pop at Hitler in ‘44 and Trey Parker and Matt Stone mock tyrants so often that it was surprising when Saddam Hussein did NOT turn up in Team America: World Police. Dictators (like

Charlie Sheen) are a, very scary source of comedy. Cohen is right to suggest that Col. Gaddafi spouted insane nonsense and dressed like a 85 year old lady, Kim Jong Il’s rhetoric is a source of hilarity here in the West, but there is less humour to be found in a character that says insane things and the supporting cast HAVE to act shocked. The problem is, that General Aladeen became passe the minute he dropped Kim Jong Il’s ashes onto Ryan Seacrest.

The ‘plot’ for The Dictator is also as dissatisfying as its eponymous character. Events that transpire feel like the lead up to a joke that never surfaces. Whilst the characters are meant to daft, they are SO ridiculous that all humour is lost. The Dictator feels more like a rejected Farrely Bros. script than a whip smart Sacha Baron Cohen vehicle.

In reality The Dictator is just another vehicle for Sacha Baron Cohen to demonstrate his incredibly versatile face, whilst putting on a silly voice. Co-hen may look and sound the part but there is a lack of genuineness. He may have generated inter-est by surprising high profile people in high profile postions, like Eminem at the VMA’s as Bruno and those at the Toronto Film Festival as Borat, but Gen-eral Aladeen feels harmless, a Mad Dog with no teeth. There is no bite to The Dictator and the rea-son for this is how clear it is that Aladeen is fictional and that the supproting cast are well known actors, like Ben Kingsley, Anna Faris and John C Reilly. JH

Men In Black 3

How long is too long? The last time we saw J and K on the big screen was just under a decade ago. Ten years have gone by, during which both Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones have done bigger and bet-ter movies than either of the Men In Black films. So why have they returned now? Well it certainly can’t be for the script which is so bereft of jokes that it raises questions about their standard of judgement. Men In Black 3 is nothing but a sideways step for all involved.

Men in Black 3 revolves around Boris the Animal (Flight of the Conchord’s Jermaine Clement) with the ability to travel through time and affect the fu-ture. Boris travels back to the 1969 to kill Agent K before K has the chance to imprison Boris in Luna Jail and thwart a coming invasion. After waking up in a world without K, Agent J realises that some-thing is wrong and travels back in time to save K and the also, world.

While this set-up seems almost guaranteed to pro-voke laughs. The idea of Will Smith confronting the racial stereotypes that were still very prominent at the time is a gift of a premise. Throw in the uber paranoid hippie brigade, a great buddy relation-ship and the threat of aliens and you’ve got a great movie. Men In Black 3 avoids all these beats, fo-cussing solely on J and K’s relationship and the main problem is that the relationship is dull. Josh Brolin may be inspired casting as a young Tommy Lee Jones, but his lack of gruffness feels like a mis-step. We have seen J and K learning to work to-gether before and just seeing it in the 60s feels a little old hat.

[SPOILERS FROM HERE ON IN]

The problems don’t stop there. The villain, Boris The Animal, may be one of the most powerful villains to enter the MIB universe but he is completely un-threatening, his gross hand insect thing is disgust-ing but that is as far as it goes. Jermaine Clement is doing his best Tim Curry impression and the make is impressive. However, if regular K defeated him in 69 without J, then J and K with knowledge of the future were always going to triumph.

For a film with such a spectacular budget, the vis-ual effect are also lacking. It would be interesting to know how much of that budget was spent on

Smith alone because the quality of the visual effects is not up to the high standards of today’s filmmak-ing. Mad Men creates a more believable 1960’s atmosphere on a TV budget and Prometheus cre-ated more impressive worlds (not just an invasion) with half the budget. These problems don’t even cover the fact that the 3D conversion is shoddy and pointless adding nothing to the film.

Men In Black 3 fails to hold a candle to either of the previous installments in the series even though Men In Black 2 was a poor sequel in 2002. Any element that seemed right in this threequel, is either poorly executed or ignored. Will Smith has been absent from our screens for almost four years and it would have been preferable for him to come back with a vehicle worthy of his talent, not this half baked idea of a movie. JH

Prometheus

If writers Isaac Asimov, H.G. Wells and Philip.K .Dick were key innovators in the transition of sci-ence – fiction to a popular through provoking me-dium, director Ridley Scott has to receive some rec-ognition for his contributions the visual aspects of the genre. Despite only releasing two straight sci –fi films, Alien and Blade Runner, his iconic visual style provided a dark industrial filter to the colour-ful utopian visuals of future worlds, while creating some iconic images and characters in the process. Understandably, when it was revealed that Scott was releasing a film tied to the Alien universe, with images released of an ominous statue of a human head, fanboy tongues began waggling and since then Prometheus has been set to be one of the sum-mer’s most anticipated cinematic ventures. With a viral campaign leaking tantalising plot snippets, a cast including Hollywood hot properties Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbinder and a trailer full of familiar epic imagery, Prometheus is an impressive endeavour, expanding and building upon Alien mythology and demonstrating a true master at his craft.

The plot is fairly standard but has a lot more di-rection to the freight mission of the original Alien. Following the discovery of a several cave paint-ings that allude to links between human and alien contact, an expedition is set up to discover what is believed to be the origins of the human race , funded by the private enterprise Weyland corpo-ration. Upon investigating the planet, the explor-ers find the remnants of a terrible incident and a

force that will threaten to consume their party and the safety of the expedition. From the H.R.Giger in-fluenced architecture of the planet to the terrifying set pieces, Prometheus replicates the paranoia and fear of the original Alien while adding an air of mystery and speculation to the generic sci- fi horror formula. Avoiding didacticism and over – narra-tion Scott creates a setting filled with visual clues and references to the planets original function and to the race of aliens that inhabited it. However the main focus of Prometheus is its links to Alien, with the revealed identity of the ‘space jockey’, a morbid inversion of the chest burster sequence involving a surgical pod and the alien itself also making a pre – credits appearance. Although many questions re-main un –answered, including the wider context of the humanoid aliens, references are made to the hybrid biological composition of the aliens as we know them aswell as putting a face (albeit decrepit) to Weyland industries.

The cast are also skilfully assembled and despite the ragtag expedition group character types, Charlize Theron standouts in her role as expedi-tion leader and proto –villain with a quiet inten-sity However the standout performance rests purely with Micheal Fassbinder in his role of polite and well –spoken android David, both eloquent, effi-cient and genuinely unnerving at points, blurring the lines between humanity and machine. As the title Prometheus suggests, the horror and destruc-tion in the Alien universe stems from individual’s hubris in ‘stealing the fire’ of God and creating life and from the androids to the aliens themselves, the horrors of Scott’s world stem from the artificial and the scientific rather than the natural. Despite somewhat slow pacing in parts, Prometheus thank-fully functions both as a functional genre flick and a self –referential prequel to the Alien universe. As a classic addition to Scott’s oeuvre with epic visuals and a budget to match, it will undoubtedly become the unofficial companion piece to the original Alien and is a must see for fans. CB

Juan Of The Dead

Like all great zombie movies, Juan Of The Dead is not just about the dead rising up and infecting the living. While George A Romero may be the undisputed King of the sub-genre using his mov-ies as metaphors for race relations, capitalism and the need for society and human contact, Alejandro Brugués clearly aims to follow in the same tradition. The idea of a Zombie apocalypse in Cuba is some-thing new, the way the news report the incidents is as much a part of the story as the blood and guts.

The story involves Juan, a deadbeat scavenger, who after witnessing the dead taking over the city of Havana, realises that there is money to be made from the situation. After arming himself and a loyal group of buddies, Juan sets up a business designed to dispose of civilian’s relatives who have turned and they can’t kill their own family. Aiming to im-press his estranged daughter, Juan and his associ-ates travel around Havana looking for business or liquor. Juan Of The Dead owes a great deal to the many Zombie movies that came before it. Juan, like Tallahassee from Zombieland, couldn’t find his lot in life until the end of the world arrived. Like Shaun, he does what he can to impress a girl he loves (dif-ferent kind of love) and like the characters of Day of The Dead, Juan has a history in the military.

Juan Of The Dead definitely relies more of the com-edy than the horror, Juan’s zombie killing collective range from a huge, hulking man who can’t stand the sight of blood and has to fight blindfolded to his best friend Lazaro who wields butcher knives to hack through the undead hordes. Various set piec-es lead to brilliantly comedic scenes, Juan trying to communicate in English is a particular highlight. There is also a Zombie Kill Of The Week that far surpasses Sister Cynthia Knickerbocker’s cartoon piano disposal of the undead. Juan’s best joke is by far the reference to media control in Cuba, zombies are labelled dissidents and the attacks are blamed on the US.

Certain set pieces are only eerie rather than scary, the sight of the zombie masses travelling under wa-ter is creepy and Juan walking through the streets of Havana with only screams soundtracking it is creepy. The problem is that there is no threat that comes from the Zombies, while they may stumble across the road aggressively and we do see a num-ber of deaths, they could always have been avoid-

ed. Juan destorys zombie after zombie solely with the use of an oar, possibly an obscure reference the Shaun’s bat.

All in all, Juan of the Dead is a delightfully light hearted romp. Juan may be an unlikely hero, but he certainly is that and his comrades are equally affable and brave int heir own way. Some of the jokes fall flat but the jokes about being Cuban are a refreshing delight. Certainly not a horror, but it is entertaining enough. Juan Of The Dead is a film much like its titular character, an underachiever that manages to surprise everyone at least a few time. If only it could have been scarier. JH

The Innkeepers

The Innkeepers is a rather old fashioned ghost sto-ry. Set in the Yankee Pedlar Inn on its final weekend of business, the two remaining staff, Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy), spend their final days dealing with customers and their evenings looking for evidence of ghosts. So far, so Most Haunted. The legend of Madeline O’Malley, a woman who took her life on her wedding night after being aban-doned by her husband, haunts the Yankee Pedlar. Strange goings on pique Claire and Luke’s inter-est and they try and discover the spirit of Madeline O’Malley.

The scares in The Innkeepers certainly don’t come thick and fast, a great deal of time is spent build-ing up the tension. Odd noises from one place or another, a bird that had got trapped, regular red herrings that have are designed to have the whole audience questioning whether the stories are real all come into play. These ghost story beats have been used for decades, especially in an old creaky hotel. Even the characters seem like stock cut outs, there’s the believer, the skeptic, the psychic and the mysterious one. Look out for an odd 30 cameo by Lena Dunham, star of HBO’s Girls.

Writer, Director and Editor Ti West clearly knows the horror genre, his previous work The House Of The Devil was equally indebted to old seven-ties horror movies. While The Innkeepers is tradi-tional, there is certainly a skill to the directing, the low budget evidently takes its toll on the amount of ghosty shots that could be completed, but those

that make it into the movie are effective. The im-age of Madeline O’Malley is scary but not too memorable. The images are beautifully crisp and long tracking shots add to the effect, but also draw unfortunate comparisons to The Shining and other haunted house movies. As West’s experience and reputation grow he may come to be a great horror director

Once the action gets going The Innkeepers amps up the horror significantly. The appearances of Madeline O’Malley are infrequent, but the hysteria each character causes is easy to get caught up in. Sequences are overly long to try and increase the tension, but it’s a heavy handed tactic that gets old. As does the schrieking music designed to make you jump when a person appears from nowhere, which is considerably overused.

While The Innkeepers certainly lacks originality it does partly make up for this with scares. Like The Woman In Black, it is good to find a horror film that does not solely rely on gore or found footage to pro-voke fear in the audience. There is just a desire for more, the horror is tame and it starts too late in the film to really shred the nerves. The predictable na-ture of The Innkeepers means that the scares come exactly when you think they will and no amount of tension building can resolve this disappointment. The Innkeepers is a good introduction for anyone who is unfamiliar with the genre but not for anyone with some experience with horror. JH

PictureShow’s Things To See sec-tion is back in full force. With a fantastic selection of sceenings across the country, there is noth-ing to keep you from experiencing some fantastic cinema from the last century. If Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter or The Five Year Engagement don’t take your fan-cy then pick a screening near you and give something different a try.

North East

Berwick-upon-TweedThe Maltings Theatre and CinemaCinema Paradiso6 June

A celebration of films and cinema. Cinema Para-diso revolves around Salavator Di Vita, an italian film director as he thinks back to his past and how cinema has shaped his life.

LeedsHype Park Picture HouseDeliverance30 June

Definitely not for everyone, Deliverance is a clas-sic extreme horror movie. Starring Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds as Ed and Lewis, the story revolves around an ill fated trip down the Cahulawassee River as four novices become lost in foreign terri-tory and the situation only gets worse. SheffieldShowroomThe Adverntures of Priscilla, Queen of The Desert

30 June

Possibly the campest film ever to be set on celluloid. A road movie following three drag queens as they travel across Australia for a lucrative dancing con-tract. Early performances by Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce are a world away from their more well known cinematic outings. Beware: Pearce’s laugh-ter could break a glass.

NewcastleThe Star and ShadowRan17 June

At the time Ran was the most expensie Japanese film ever made. Directed by Akira Kurosawa, the story involves the downfall of clans and kingdoms in old Japan. While it may not be as well known as some of Kurosawa’s early work it is still a monu-mental film.

Things to see in June

JOSHUA HAMMOND

North West

KendalBrewery Arts CentreMoulin Rouge1 July

Delve into the world of Parisian culture at the turn of the century. Moulin Rouge is possibly the defining film of Baz Luhrmann’s career, combining heavily stylised imagery and modern music, Moulin Rouge was a massive success in 2001. It’s good to try and forget Australia ever happened.

LancasterThe DukesBride Of Frankenstein19 June

An immediate sequel to the 1931 Frankenstein, this 1935 horror classic revolves around the creation of another creature. The new creation is intended to be a mate for Dr Frankenstein’s initial creature. Toast “To a new world of Gods and Monsters”

ManchesterCornerhouseSoylent Green17 June

While the ending may no longer be as shocking as it was back in 1973 Soylent Green is still a classic piece of science fiction Cinema. Charlton Heston may be a symbol of ridicule these days, for his per-sonal politics and his hilariously over the top acting

Central

Birmingham mac2001: A Space Odyssey22 June

Stanley Kubrick’s definitive movie muses on the be-ginnings of mankind and the future of space travel. While it may have been parodied multiple times on various sitcoms and cartoons, nothing can come close to experiencing this on the silver screen. A precurser to most SF cinema, there are elements of 2001 to be found in almost all good SF work, even more obscure titles such as The Tree Of Life.

DerbyQUADTimecop8 June

“They Killed His Wife Ten Years Ago. There’s Still Time To Save Her” Nothing can be said about Time-cop that wasn’t summed up in it’s own tag line. Possibly Jean Claude Van Damme’s finest career moment.

Leicester Phoenix SquareThe Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp15 June

This fantastic 1943 Powell and Pressburger feature never features a Colonel Blimp, instead it relays the life and death of Major General Clive Wynne-Candy. Candy is a relic, out of time in the modern warzone of World War Two. Following capture by the opposition Candy’s life flashes before his eyes.

WolverhamptonLighthouseJuan and Shaun Of The Dead21 June

You can read our review of Juan Of The Dead on page (). The Lighthouse in Wolverhampton is show-ing a double bill of Juan and Shaun of the Dead, most of you will have seen Shaun of The Dead by now. It’s on ITV2 pretty much every week, but seeing it uncut, uncensored and without adverts is considerably better than seeing it on a TV. It’s also unliklely that you’ll ever catch Juan Of The Dead on ITV3.

South

BristolElectric PalaceThe Wizard of Oz6 June

Rereleased, remade, prequeled, sequeled and adapted. The Wizard of Oz has captured every-one’s imagination. There are even more adapta-tions and stageplays in the works. See the original to witness why this has become such an essential cultural referece. Even Captain America gets jokes about The Wizard of Oz.

LondonPhoenix East FinchleyManhattan9 June

Next to Annie Hall, Manhatten is Woody Allan’s greatest motion picture. From the opening sound-tracked by the notes of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”, Allan’s love letter to the city of New York through the eyes of author Isaac is essential cinema.

Prince Charles CinemaThe Graduate26 June

Everything about The Graduate comes down to the final image. For those of you that have not seen it, you have been advised to make sure that you stick it out until the very end. The Graduate revolves around Benjamin Bradock who returns home after having graduated from college in a state of flux. The Graduate follows his relationships with every-one as they affect his life

Saffron WaldenSaffron ScreenBreakfast At Tiffany’s22 June

Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly outside Tiffany’s in New York is one of cinema’s defining images.

For all of Breakfast at Tiffany’s faults, the film will endure, becuase of the fantastic script based on Truman Capote’s novel. Mickey Rooney’s Mr Yuni-oshi is still terrible though.

Wales

AberystwithAberystwith Arts CentreFish Tank6 June

Michael Fassbender in undoubtedly one of the best young actors working today. His brilliantly under-stated role as Connor, the new man in a household of women, is mesmerising. Being both terrifying and affable at the same time is a hard feat to ac-complish and it is something Fassbender does with great ease.

CardiffTechniquestAlien9 June

For those of you that have seen Prometheus and felt like it was time to reacquaint yourself with Ridley Scott’s original entry there is a fantastic opportunity to see Alien at Techniquest in Cardiff. Techniquest is a great space, designed as an educational facil-ity primarily concerned with the sciences.

Scotland

FalkirkHippodromeMonsters Inc.23 June

While Monsters Inc. is possibly not one of Pixar’s more celebrated films it is hard to see why. The laughs come thick and fast in Monsters Inc, John Goodman and Billy Crystal’s chemistry is fantastic. Determined to capture that on screen the anima-tion was built around their recordings rather han the other way around making Mike and Sully seem even more real. Sully’s animated hair also shows how far animation and animated films had come since Toy Story and signalled how far they were going to go.

DundeeDundee Contemporary ArtsThe Man Who Fell To Earth19 June

Michael Fassbender’s David in Prometheus is clear-ly a distant relative of David Bowie’s Thomas. While David may be a android and Thomas may be a hu-manoid alien, the way Fassbender and Bowie act is definitely comparable. Written by the same men who wrote The Deer Hunter, The Man Who Fell To Earth is no ordinary science fiction tale. Thomas

comes to Earth to find a solution to his own planet’s catestrophic draught. Beautiful and terrifying.

EdinburghFilmhouseJaws17 June

The original blockbuster, Jaws was released 37 years ago and it is still as terrifying as it was. While the production may have been mired in difficulties, the resulting film is without doubt a masterpiece. The shark may not even look real but it still pro-vokes a considerable fear in the audience. For all it’s naff sequels and poor imitators, nothing can take anything away from this stunning film. Look out for the shooting star, it’s real.

GlasgowGlasgow Film TheatreThe Bad And The Beautiful10 June

60 years old this December, The Bad And The Beautiful took home armfulls of awards for both its astonishing performances and cinematography. Films about films can be a dicey game, they can come off pompous or too self aware, but The Bad And The Beautiful counters this with fantastic char-acter development and a hilarious script..

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