By Steve Palace.

Steven Soderbergh’s crime comedy Logan Lucky is crashing its way into cinemas next month. The frantic family tale appears to have a touch of the Coen Brothers about it, not least in its vivid characters. Among these is Daniel Craig as Joe Bang, a bleach blond felon who has to be broken out of jail in order to help the Logan clan pull off a heist at the petrol-fuelled Coca-Cola 600 race.

Such is the unexpected nature of Craig’s casting, Soderbergh has billed him under the “And Introducing” banner. It’s certainly bizarre seeing the current James Bond playing an off-kilter randy convict, though of course the role of 007 can easily cement a performer in audiences’ minds, often unfairly.

So with the pec-happy hunk about to alter our perceptions of him in his latest release, we look back at other Bonds who broke free from the shackles of MI6 to give us something different from their established repertoire. Licence to kill? Licence to throw a curveball more like…

SEAN CONNERY: THE AVENGERS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti1Qy9xcXFM

The man who started it all off for Bond on the big screen has been retired for a while now. Unfortunately one of the flicks that pushed him towards an easier life was also an attempt to play against type. 1998’s disastrous cinematic take on Brit TV show The Avengers was seen as an embarrassment for stars Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman, who failed to follow in the footsteps of small screen legends Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg.

Macnee appeared in the film, though thankfully his character was invisible. Connery on the other hand was front and centre throughout. His villainous performance as Sir August De Wynter, a flamboyant kilt-wearing aristocrat who wanted to take over the world via the weather, was lost in the critical storm that followed.

GEORGE LAZENBY: SUPERBOY

Lazenby’s time as 007 was short and sweet and his acting career to date has been comprised mainly of action man-types. However in the Eighties he got the chance to broaden his range with a guest appearance on the Superboy TV series. He portrayed the mighty Jor-El, father to the Boy Of Steel, alongside Bond girl Britt Ekland as wife Lara.

Bearing in mind he was sharing the Jor-El legacy with Marlon Brando, this was quite a big deal for the former secret agent. Sadly it didn’t become a permanent gig, for he turned out to be an alien who’d merely taken the form of Superboy’s white-quiffed parent. Still, he filmed two episodes and that was better than nothing.

ROGER MOORE: BOAT TRIP

The late, great Sir Roger Moore was known for his wit as well as his celebrated eyebrow-based acting technique. The wry humour was in evidence throughout his time as Bond but sometimes he would play for laughs in an actual comedy. The most extreme example, though not the best-regarded, was Cuba Gooding Jr’s sea-bound and somewhat controversial comedy Boat Trip from 2002.

Moore played Lloyd Faversham, one of the passengers aboard a gay cruise onto which Gooding Jr and co-star Horatio Sanz were accidentally booked whilst on the lookout for love. The film was attacked for its outdated stereotyping and if that wasn’t bad enough we and Sir Roger had to endure the spectacle of 007 suggestively licking a breakfast sausage.

TIMOTHY DALTON: HOT FUZZ

Dalton initially rejected the part of James Bond, feeling he was too young. Then years later he finally accepted and this serious thespian was immediately plunged into mediocrity with The Living Daylights and Licence To Kill, which was so nondescript it polished the franchise off for several years.

With his Walther PPK unholstered, he was free to target other characters, most notably Rassilon in Doctor Who. However on the big screen he subverted his smooth, smouldering image when he played sleazy supermarket manager Simon Skinner opposite Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz. Skinner was the flipside of Dalton’s brooding 007 – shifty, oily and lacking in class.

PIERCE BROSNAN: PERCY JACKSON & THE LIGHTNING THIEF

It’s easy to overlook the fact that, before Daniel Craig took his top off and got gritty for Casino Royale, Brosnan was the man in the tuxedo. His adventures awkwardly emphasized both the hard-nosed Connery side and the over-the-top Moore side of the equation, yet his performance received rave reviews. Post-Bond his CV has been hit and miss, though he found fertile acting ground recently in the likes of The Son.

He did manage to make a big impression in 2010’s Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief, the opening instalment of the popular fantasy franchise based on the books by Rick Riordan. He gave the part of Chiron 100%. Or rather 50, as most of the time we only saw the top half of him. The rest was a CGI horse, for Chiron was a centaur as well as a tutor of Olympians. The other 007s have had their unusual moments onscreen but surely Brosnan trumps them all with four legs and a fine set of hooves…!

The world is bracing itself for the manifestation of a new Royal family, the Inhumans.

Marvel’s fictional race of superhumans first materialized together in December 1965 in the 45th edition of the Fantastic Four comic book series although members of the regal ensemble, Medusa, and Gorgon, appeared in earlier issues.

Having also already been brought from page to screen in animated series and video games, Marvel’s Inhumans make their debut on IMAX screens on September 1, 2017, for two weeks before premiering on ABC on September 29, 2017.

After a military coup, the eight-episode series sees the Royal Family leave their home, the lunar city of Attilan, and escape to Hawaii where they must save themselves and the world. Marvel’s Inhumans promises to be a television event where innovation and creativity are at its heart.

Anson Mount plays Black Bolt, the head of the Royal Family and King of Attilan, whose voice can cause unfathomable levels of destruction with the slightest whisper.

“If he sneezes he blows half the world away, he is that powerful,” he explained on the show’s Hawaii set. “That’s what attracted me to the role, the obstacle of playing a character, the lead of the show who doesn’t speak.”

As a result, Mount had to come up with a new way of communicating that was otherworldly but also believable. He explained: “It’s not American Sign Language, he can’t do that because Black Bolt’s not from here so he wouldn’t know ASL. I’m building my own sign system, my own lexicon.”

He added: “It’s not going to be 15 or 16 signs that we can just repeat, it’s going to be an actual language.”

On the subject of language, actor Iwan Rheon, who plays Maximus, Black Bolt’s brother, an Inhuman with a strong devotion to the people of Attilan but who also dreams of being King himself, decided against using his natural Welsh accent for the role.

He said: “I’m afraid not because I think that would have been weird on the moon. That was kind of a challenge because I had to ask myself how he would speak. Obviously it would be an incredible coincidence if everyone on the Moon had American accents but I’m not really worried too much about that. He’s got an American-ish twang but as he grew up on the Moon I’ve gone a bit Moon-ish with this one too.”

Something else that was new to Rheon and his cast mates was shooting the first two episodes of Marvel’s Inhumans in IMAX for the show’s theatrical debut, an industry first. He explained on set: “It’s been uncharted territory for us. It’s exciting because we don’t know what it’s going to look like.”

Isabelle Cornish plays Crystal the sister of Medusa, Attilan’s Queen and the wife of Black Bolt. The youngest member of the Royal Family, she has the ability to control the elements. She believes that IMAX will bring the show’s design and effects to life in a spectacular way.

“What I’m really excited about is the way that the IMAX cameras can really capture how beautiful our sets are, our costumes and really capture our show in great detail that the audience is going to love.”

“With the IMAX cameras, and in the show in general, I think the audience is really going to get a sense of television that they haven’t had before.”

Ken Leung, who plays Karnak, Black Bolt’s cousin and closest adviser, added: “Just being able to capture Hawaii in its lush, vast splendor is thrilling.”

Bringing Marvel’s Inhumans to the small and IMAX screens has been a ground-breaking experience for the cast and crew, but Leung thinks that exploring the Inhumans as a collective will be a new experience for audiences in itself.

“A lot about Inhumans is about change, about evolution. We don’t start off with our abilities. Our abilities come from a process that happens when you are 15 years old. So we’re human, but we’re not, we’re human but genetically evolved.”

Auran, the head of the Royal Guards on Attilan and who has a fierce loyalty to Black Bolt, is played by Sonya Balmores, a Hawaii native.

For her, her involvement in Marvel’s Inhumans brought a mix of excitement and trepidation. She explained: “I just enjoy being part of the Marvel Universe and especially with the show’s first two episodes being shown in IMAX. The only thing about that though is whenever I was filming a scene I thought, ‘Oh no, now my head is six feet high!’ so the whole thing is kind of crazy for me.”

“It’s a great partnership with IMAX though,” she added. “There are lots of great people that we’re working with so I feel very lucky to be part of this.

That is a sentiment shared by Eme Ilkwauakor, who plays Gorgon, Black Bolt’s cousin and leader of Attilan’s military, who can generate seismic waves with his hooves.

“Getting the call saying that you’re now part of the Marvel Universe is probably one of the greatest feelings that I could have as a person, not even as an actor,” he explained. “I love doing projects that want to push the boundaries and do stuff that they’ve never done before. The fact that the show is doing something with IMAX, the chances that they are talking with this and not holding back is a beautiful thing so, as an actor, you’ve got to kind of pinch yourself.”

Marvel’s Inhumans debuts on IMAX screens on September 1, 2017, for two weeks before premiering on ABC on September 29.

By Orla Smith.

Sofia Coppola is distinguishable for two seemingly conflicting qualities: each of her films focuses on a similar dreamy ennui, but each is also startlingly different from the one before.

Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette both centre on a girl out of place, passing the days by sprawling out on bedsheets and wandering around their variously sized accommodation. However, the anachronistic, playful opulence of Marie Antoinette is worlds away from Lost in Translation‘s calm, which was itself a step sideways from the pop stylings of The Virgin Suicides.

Each of her six features presents themselves in various shades of beige – and occasional dashes of millennial pink – but each also demonstrates Coppola’s desire to stretch herself: ‘I feel like when I finish one, the next one is always a reaction the one before’. The vapid gloss of The Bling Ring has spring-boarded into her latest feature, a completely different affair, this one richly toned and shot on 35mm film – in contrast to The Bling Ring, which was her first film to shoot on digital.

The Beguiled is released in UK cinemas today, and in honour of that, I have ranked all six of the features of one of our greatest living directors. Each one of them is excellent, and all in very different ways.

6. The Virgin Suicides (1999)

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbz4-du3Ayg

What is probably Coppola’s most entertaining film is also her least individual. The Virgin Suicides fits snugly into her filmography, both thematically and aesthetically, yet it’s the only one of her films that feels as if it could have come from someone else’s lens.

Make no mistake – the fact that this supremely accomplished debut is her worst work is simply a testament to Coppola’s genius. The story of the mysterious Lisbon sisters, seen through the eyes of a group of neighbourhood boys, was the start of an interesting toying with the male gaze that she has continued with The Beguiled. Based on a book by Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides was always about the male gaze, but now it is also about the way that a woman sees that particular gaze.

I’m not sure if another filmmaker could have pulled off a better adaptation, but it lacks the feathery consistency that defines the rest of her work. The Virgin Suicides holds all the necessary insight, and its ideas have been extended by everything Coppola has done since. But those future efforts were also refinements in craft. The film’s voiceover is necessary to its identity, but it weighs it down. In contrast all five films that followed managed to glide along with an invisible structure.

5. Marie Antoinette (2006)

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wurXJPSp-c

Thanks to Sofia Coppola, my first thoughts when someone mentions French Queen Marie Antoinette are champagne, Converses and Bow Wow Wow’s I Want Candy. Marie Antoinette is her most individual film, simply because nobody else could have dreamed it up.

The film has become known for its sprawling opulence, and Coppola has fun indulging in that, but she never loses sight of the story’s heart – reducing the infamous royal to what she truly was: a girl. Antoinette is still a teenager when the film begins – the first scene sees her moving from her home of Austria, to France, stripped of all her clothes and possessions to be fitted with new ones. She starts over, as much as a person possibly can. Coppola finds fascination in her isolation amidst crowds that wait on her hand and foot, as well as her child-like excitement at the sight of endless riches. She looks at Antoinette without an ounce of historical reverence. While the history books have hated and maligned Marie Antoinette, the conclusion here seems to be: ‘What’s a girl to do?’

4. The Beguiled (2017)

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBoLK5z_FHo

Kirsten Dunst and Sofia Coppola have formed one of the most fascinating collaborative relationships in Hollywood. Besides the fact that they work beautifully in tandem, it’s also interesting to consider how Coppola has cast Dunst over the years. The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette allowed her to play young, vulnerable women who presented themselves with allure and vibrancy. Lux in The Virgin Suicides finds equivalency in The Beguiled with Elle Fanning’s promiscuous Alicia, but Dunst has sharply switched gears to play Edwina, a teacher at an all girls boarding school in Civil War era Virginia. Edwina holds just as much desire as Lux, but nowhere near the same capacity to express it.

Arguably Coppola’s most traditional and formally slick piece of filmmaking, The Beguiled has the familiar feel of a period piece in all the ways that Marie Antoinette does not, but it maintains the lack of historical reverency. These are merely people, and they are treated as individuals, each revealing new complexities as they react to the appearance of Corporal John McBurney (Colin Farrell). It is a sharp, efficient, beautifully rendered and acted film, and one I have difficulty placing within her filmography as of yet – it’s only been three days since I saw it, but give The Beguiled time and it’ll surely find its place.

3. The Bling Ring (2013)

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcE2fj-EtJY

Coppola is outstanding particularly for her unlimited empathy. Often, she will regard her characters with an arched eyebrow, but always maintain a warmth towards them, no matter how selfish and privileged they may be. The Bling Ring, her most maligned work, is the film that tested the limits of her empathy. The warmth is gone, but the understanding is not.

The Bling Ring feels like California breeze. At 90 minutes, it flies by at a faster pace than almost any film I’ve ever seen. It seems to lack any kind of structure, and while it maintains some of the formal distance of Somewhere, it feels far less deliberate. The group of central characters are acted with a very specific kind of vapidity by an excellent cast, headlined by Emma Watson giving a performance that she’s never topped – I’d be surprised if she ever did.

While other Sofia Coppola protagonists fill their boredom by lying about and wondering, these kids spend their spare time robbing celebrity homes. It is a satire that full-force demonstrates Coppola’s underrated comedic writing chops. Many number of reviews accused the film of being empty, but it is deceptively so. The substance is hiding underneath a surface of vacuity. There aren’t many other filmmakers who would care enough to paint such a perceptive portrait of the lives of a group of young people who the rest of us might dismiss as ‘stupid teenagers’. Coppola cares, whether her protagonists deserve it or not.

2. Somewhere (2010)

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG3152yVQqM

It seems, nobody really knew what to do with Somewhere. After winning the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, it was loved by some, but mostly forgotten in the wake of claims of boredom. Perhaps the reason that this snapshot of the life of movie star Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) has stayed with me – and stayed with the others who have caught up with it over the years – is the place that it came from.

There was a four year gap inbetween Marie Antoinette and Somewhere, and in that time Sofia Coppola had a child. Those two films are the antithesis of each other within her filmography: one is about being a child, the other is about having one. One is full of detail and exuberance, the other is pared down within an inch of its life. Somewhere is so spare, that after a few viewings you’ll be able to recall at least half of the shots within it. The opening scenes depict Johnny Marco’s monotonous life, but somehow Coppola manages to make her stark minimalism entrancing, even when we’re only watching a car race around a track… over, and over, again.

The film really begins when Elle Fanning arrives as Johnny’s daughter Cleo. Devoid of much of the music that Coppola is known for, Somewhere contains very little score and only two significant diegetic music choices: uses of Gwen Stefani’s Cool and The Strokes’ I’ll Try Anything Once that you’ll never forget. Cleo breathes pockets of warmth into Johnny’s cold and empty life. It is as moving a testament to parenthood as you’ll ever see.

1. Lost in Translation (2003)

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6iVPCRflQM

As much as it annoys me that some refuse to acknowledge Sofia Coppola’s success outside of Lost in Translation, I have a hard time disagreeing that she’s never topped it. The only film that has earned her major Oscar acclaim, it was inspired by Coppola’s own time in Japan, accompanying her then boyfriend Spike Jonze. Scarlett Johansson’s Charlotte is in a similar situation, and her soft spoken uncertainty is beautifully conveyed. She arrives in Japan with her husband (Giovanni Ribisi), but she is alone in all the ways that it counts.

Bob (Bill Murray) is an aging actor shooting a whiskey commercial, and the two meet at a bar in the hotel they’re both staying at. Thus begins a hazy series of days that consists of running the streets, singing karaoke, sharing secrets – all culminating in a whisper. It’s hard to say whether Lost in Translation is a love story, but just like those elusive last words, it doesn’t really matter. It is at turns, happy, sad and happy-sad. Loneliness and fleeting connection have rarely been so lucidly captured.

The British film scene has become synonymous with the rough-talkin’, underground gangster world that seems to thrive under our murky, grey skies. The gritty realism that is often absent in bigger budget counterparts from across the pond is at the forefront of the genre’s aesthetic, allowing audiences to get as close to the gangsters’ mean mugs as possible without taking a drastic career change.

With the genre continuing to intrigue audiences across the world, most recently with the release of London Heist out on DVD and Digital Download from July 17^th, we’re taking the opportunity to take a look back at some of the pantheon of great British gangster films:

Scum (1979)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdIr_YHdtzs

Alan Clarke’s drama is a brutal and depressing polemic about the British borstal system of the 70s as well as the home of Ray Winstone’s break-out performance. ‘Scum’ refers to the label slapped upon young-offender and reform-school inmate, Carlin (Winstone). When he isn’t being beaten up by the other boys, Ray is being beaten down by The System. He rebels against this treatment and becomes more vicious than any of his oppressors. Scum raised a young Winstone’s profile and helped him grow into his now much-loved “tough guy” persona. Who could forget the iconic scene in which Carlin places two snooker balls inside a sock and beats Banks and his cronies to within an inch of their lives!

The Long Good Friday (1982)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdRkhzDmxvY

Since the late, great Bob Hoskins death only a few years ago, this influential London gangster film has been remembered as probably his greatest role, as mobster Harold Shand. Shand’s world is sweet — he lives in a fancy penthouse, he owns a yacht, and has a sensitive and intelligent mistress. But suddenly a bomb explodes inside his Rolls Royce, another bomb destroys a pub he owns, and a third is found inside his casino. Shand can’t understand who would suddenly want him dead, but he is going to make damn sure he finds out before his envied life is cut short. This film was certainly ahead of the curb, and paved the way for the genre’s hay-day in the late 90s/early noughties.

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr43ETpnsjA

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, directed by Guy Ritchie, is gripping, witty and extremely… cockney. The film follows four friends who are involved in a botched card game in London.  They collide with drug dealers, gangsters, loan sharks and debt collectors in order to gain cash, weed and two antique shotguns.  With a cast including the mighty Jason Statham (The Expendables, The Transporter), Jason Flemyng (Clash of the Titans, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Dexter Fletcher (Kick-Ass, The Elephant Man), Nick Moran (Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow P1 & 2), and real-life bouncer and enforcer Lenny ‘The Guv’nor’ McLean”. Lock Stock is comfortably one of the greatest British gangster films of all time.

Snatch (2000)

Another masterpiece by Ritchie: two plots unwind, one dealing with the search for a missing diamond and the other with a small-time boxing promoter who gets himself under the control of a brutal gangster. With a similar style to Lock Stock, and a blockbuster cast, Ritchie pulls off yet another brilliant gangster film. Brad Pitt (Ocean’s Eleven, Fight Club) stars as an extremely convincing ‘pikey’.

Sexy Beast (2000)

Don Logan, played by Ben Kinglsey (Gandhi, Iron Man 3), is a brutal gangster, who recruits ‘retired’ safecracker Gal, played by our man Ray Winstone for one final job; however, it doesn’t end well for either of them. What ensues is a battle of wills between the two men, with Don intimidating, prodding, and manipulating his one-time friend to get what he wants, forever changing the lives of those around him in the process. It’s smart, it’s thrilling and both Kingsley and Winstone pull off astonishing performances.

Football Factory (2004)

Testosterone and football merge in this violent portrayal of middle-class England in Nick Love’s adrenaline charged and sexually charged adaptation of the John King novel. The film has excellent performances including Danny Dyer (Severance, The Business), Frank Harper (In the Name of the Father, This is England) and Tamer Hassan. (Kick Ass, Layer Cake). Shot in documentary style with the energy and vibrancy of handheld, The Football Factory is frighteningly real yet full of painful humour as the four characters’ extreme thoughts and actions unfold before us.

In Bruges (2008)

Two hit-men, Ray and Ken, travel to the medieval Belgian city of Bruges on their boss’ orders to cool their heads after their last job went horribly wrong. Very much out of place, the two hit men fill their days living the lives of tourists. Ray, still haunted by the bloodshed in London, hates the place, while Ken manages to relax, even as he keeps a fatherly eye on Ray’s often profanely funny exploits. Their vacation becomes a life-and-death struggle of darkly comic proportions and surprisingly emotional consequences. Although this may not be thought of as a gangster film because of its setting, the dark comedy, inelegant language and horrific violence means it feels right at home on this list.

London Heist (2017)

Finally we come to the latest addition to this ever-burgeoning list. London Heist, stars a roster of dependably violent Brit screen heroes including Steven Berkoff (The Krays, Octopussy), Roland Manookian (The Business), Mem Ferda (Revolver), James Cosmo (Game Of Thrones) and Craig Fairbrass (Rise of the Footsoldier, The Bank Job).  Directed by the BAFTA-nominated Mark McQueen, the film is a gripping revenge thriller which follows career criminal Jack Creegan (Fairbrass) on a mission for revenge following his father’s brutal murder. The shattering revelations that follow, force Jack to pull off one last dangerous robbery on his way to exacting a brutal revenge on all those involved. The film gives fans exactly what they look for from a British gangster flick; cockney slang, a tale of revenge and a healthy dose of vengeful violence. Lovely jubbly!

https://vimeo.com/189975082

LONDON HEIST IS AVAILABLE ON DVD & DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, JULY 17^th 2017