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  • Walter Hill’s Streets Of Fire Makes Blu-ray Debut November

    Walter Hill’s Streets Of Fire Makes Blu-ray Debut November

    Walter Hill’s action-packed eighties classic Streets Of Fire finally makes its Blu-ray bow with a brand new transfer and a wealth of special features from Second Sight Films.

    This highly stylised rock and roll fable has gained a huge cult following since its original release in 1984 and with its back drop of rain drenched, neon-lit streets is one of the most visually iconic films of the decade. It features an all-star cast including Diane Lane (Man Of Steel, The Perfect Storm), Willem Defoe (Spider-Man, The English Patient), and Rick Moranis (Ghostbusters, Honey I Shrunk The Kids) and comes to Blu-ray for the first time with a stunning new transfer and featuring some fantastic bonus features on 18 November 2013.

  • Interview With Paul China, Director Of CRAWL

    Interview With Paul China, Director Of CRAWL

    Australian brothers Paul China (left) and his Benjamin, received rave reviews for their debut feature film, CRAWL, for which they have been compared to the Cohen Brothers.

    On the eve of the film receiving its much deserved UK TV premiere on the Horror Channel, Paul China gives us some insight into the making of the film.

    CRAWL is broadcast on Saturday October 5, 11pm.

    Have you always been a fan of horror movies?

    I am equally frightened and fascinated with them – ever since I saw John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’ as a child. Despite the fact that the horror genre is so popular and lucrative with cinemagoers, it is still sadly overlooked by some, and considered a low form of entertainment. A shocking notion, really, given some of the greatest films ever created can be labelled as horror – be it ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, ‘Jaws’, ‘Alien’, ‘The Shining’, ‘Psycho’ or ‘Rosemary’s Baby’.

    Where did the inspiration for Crawl come from?

    It was based on another script my brother, Benjamin, and I had written, a dark noir thriller titled ‘Howl’, which was set in East Texas. The finance for that project sadly fell through at the last minute, as is often the case in independent filmmaking, so we decided to make a different film, a suspense thriller, on a lower budget in Australia (where we were living at the time) – one that was influenced by Roman Polanski’s earlier films (particularly ‘Repulsion’ and ‘The Tenant’). Thus, ‘Crawl’ was born.

    Did you have actors in mind when you were writing it?

    We had one actor in mind: George Shevtsov. We had seen him audition for another film we were trying to get off the ground, some years earlier, and he had left such a unique impression. When it came to casting the role of the ominous, mysterious Stranger in ‘Crawl’, he was our first and only choice. He truly is a remarkable actor, one of Australia’s best. His facial features alone are incredible, as is his striking screen presence. I could quite easily watch him read a phone book, truth be told.

    Was it a difficult film to pitch and did you have much budget?

    Fortunately, we did not have too much difficulty, in spite of our limited budget. We were making a suspense-thriller that was both entertaining and intelligent, a film that at numerous times features no dialogue or score. It was drenched in tension and rich atmosphere. That was key. We had planned the film very carefully – from the costume to the soundtrack to the camera work. Our cast, crew and financiers had the upmost faith in what Benjamin and I were aiming to create, despite the fact it was our first feature film.

    What was your first day on set like?

    Exciting, mostly. There were some nerves, obviously, but more than anything I simply wanted to roll up my sleeves and get to work. It took many hard years to get to the point of making my own film, and I consider myself fortunate to be able to do something that I absolutely love. We had unexpected troubles on that first day – heavy rain, equipment failure, etc – but I relished the challenge. The bat was in my hand, so to speak, and I was eager to swing.

    Crawl is your first feature, was there a point that you’d thought you’d taken on too much or were out of your depth?

    Never. Even during the sleepless nights and unexpected grey hairs. As a film director, especially one who writes, you have to be certain of what you are doing. If you do not believe in yourself, and the story you aim to tell, your crew and cast certainly won’t. For us, my brother and I, story-telling is our one true passion. Our first love. Everything else is secondary.

    It gained huge critical appreciation, has that added pressure to deliver even more for your next feature?

    Fortunately, Benjamin and I have written numerous other scripts, set in different genres, so we are only keen to keep telling our stories. Our next feature is already in development and is progressing well, so we have zero complaints.

    You must be pleased it’s getting shown on the Horror Channel?

    Extremely. We are admirers of the channel, and are aware of its loyal viewers, so to have our TV debut play here is simply fantastic. We couldn’t be more thrilled, frankly.

    So what are you working on at the moment?

    A dramatic-thriller set in the U.S. titled ‘Sweet Virginia’.

    The China Brothers-MR1

  • Review: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

    Review: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

    By Gordon Foote.

    Changez Khan is a financial analyst. 
He works on Wall Street, having been handpicked from Princeton, by Underwood-Samson for “one of the most sought after jobs in the entire world”.
He earns in excess of $100,000 a year, has a flat in Manhattan, and a beautiful girlfriend.
Then 9/11 happens.
Changez is Pakistani.
Following the attacks on the twin towers, he watches in horror as the country he has adopted as his home hardens in defence and people of his ethnic background come to be viewed with an air of mistrust and hostility. 

Of course, the same hostility was met by most people of middle-eastern and Indian descent in America at that time, and most of those were not living the high life. About half way through the Reluctant Fundamentalist, my brain bounced a scene from Crank to its forefront, in which Chev Chelios pulls a taxi driver from his vehicle, throws him to the ground and shouts “Al-Qaeda!” to create a diversion, before stealing the car. One has to wonder what this taxi driver’s response to the situation was (after the bones had healed). Did he go back to his penthouse, sit down in a £1000 leather chair and whinge about the racial injustice creeping back into American society, moralize about his lost culture, or grow increasingly callous to those around him?

    Or did he struggle to pay the hospital bills, have to wait for his taxi to be replaced by the insurance company, losing earnings every day until the new vehicle appeared, then have to get back on the road to do the same job because he didn’t have the financial security, the liberty, to just up and quit? 

Unfortunately, as soon as this thought had taken hold, it was very hard to shake, despite two particularly unpleasant scenes where Changez is forced to endure a strip search at the airport, and is attacked. I don’t want to come across as uncaring. Let me be clear on this topic, I would not wish either of these things on anyone, but I think…I hope, perhaps, that it would take more than these events to turn me against my country and also, that I would have enough empathy, enough of a view of the bigger picture to understand that these were not indicative acts, merely the result of an outpouring of fear and anger. For a professional analyst, I feel his conclusion at this point is poor.

    As such, we follow Changez through a series of upsets which largely seem to be over-reactions on his part, or of his own making, each of which push him further and further from his idyllic existence and away from American life. It’s difficult to know how you’re meant to react to Changez who, instead of using his skills and relative wealth to help others in his position, just goes a little bit emo instead…
    It’s frustrating that more attention wasn’t paid to the storytelling as there is a lot to like in The Reluctant Fundamentalist: performances are strong for the most part with Riz Ahmed giving a powerful performance as Changez. He effortlessly manages to keep interest in the character despite the script problems, and I would love to see him get more work on the back of it. The British actor conveys the complex, conflicting emotions within Changez excellently, never taking him too far away from the audiences sympathy, always keeping him relatable.

    Ahmed is supported by a few familiar faces. Primary amongst these is Kiefer Sutherland, who delivers a great turn as Jim Cross, Changez’ boss. His stage presence and severity are used to wonderful effect and there is an obvious chemistry between him and Ahmed.
    Liev Schreiber also does well in the role of, journalist, Bobby Lincoln. Though not a big part, he brings his A-game, easily sharing screen time with Ahmed without being overshadowed. Sadly, of the main cast, only Kate Hudson fails to impress, coming off as flat and uninteresting in her portrayal of love interest, Erica. Despite a good portion of the film being turned over to the budding relationship between Changez (both in his high-flying days, and on his slippery descent) and Erica, whose previous boyfriend died in a tragic car accident some months earlier, it only seems to be there as a lazy plot device and the pair have next to no synergy together. 

The direction, courtesy of Mira Nair is good, though your tolerance for unnecessary use of shaky camera effects will be tested at times. She spends time well in building worlds; the cold, lonely, quick-fire grey, corporate locales of New York are juxtaposed with the warm, family-orientated, reds and oranges of Lahore. It’s clear Nair is not scared to take the time to tell the story as she wants to tell it either, ample time dedicated to character development, which ultimately sits at the heart of this movie – the film is about Changez and it would have been fatal to underestimate the importance of selling him to the audience.

    I really wanted to like this film more.
Riz Ahmed’s performance won me over early, and I enjoyed the majority of scenes throughout. Sadly, the script and standard of storytelling are not good enough to support what Nair is trying to do, nor do they present anywhere near enough justification for Changez’ eventual abandonment of the American Dream. I have never read the novel and as such, can’t comment on whether this is a problem inherent with the story being adapted, or because of a poor transition to the big screen, but either way, for me at least, it proved to be a deal-breaker.
    It’s a shame the core fundamentals of the film were not shored up, as a truly revisionist look at 9/11 is not something cinema has felt comfortable tackling properly yet, and perhaps won’t for some time to come. A look at the consequences of that day, not for the W.A.S.P brigade but for flag waving Americans who happened to be of eastern descent, would make for a fascinating piece. Sadly, this is only a half-way house; an overly ambitious, under thought out project which dips its toe in the murky waters before deciding to pull back and stand on the bank scowling.

    3/5

  • UWANTME2KILLHIM? A Chat With Toby Regbo

    UWANTME2KILLHIM? A Chat With Toby Regbo

    Why did you decide to become an actor?

    I sort of fell into it slightly at the beginning. I did plays at school and when my Mum said I should pursue it more I went to a drama group that was called Young Blood. Then I started going to auditions. I just liked performing and I liked being funny though I still haven’t done a comedy. A few years ago I did a play at the Royal Court and there were a few really funny lines in that. On my first job I went to India for Sharpe when I played a little soldier which was great. I only had to work for four days and I spent three weeks in India and I thought it was fantastic, the best job in the world.

    Being cast in Harry Potter must have been great and tremendous responsibility because of the Potter fan base?

    It is so hard pleasing that many people and the film production company has done an amazing job.

    Were you nervous about joining such an established team?

    Not really. It didn’t hang on my performance.

    Being cast as Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island must have terrific?

    It’s my Mum’s favourite book. I have an amazing version of it with Ralph Steadman drawings. I also think that The Muppets Treasure Island is once of the best films ever made. It is brilliant. Pirates are some of the darkest characters and there is also something about the ocean that is so alluring, very interesting matter. To film Treasure Island I went to Puerto Rico for four and a half weeks and then we did the rest of filming in Ireland where it was pretty cold. But Puerto Rico made up for the cold.

    What research did you do for uwantme2killhim?

    I was seen for both the roles of John and Mark and at one point I thought that I was going to play Mark. All I knew was from the Vanity Fair article. Then since it is a really touchy subject they gave us research packs of the stuff that they were allowed to tell us. They were minors when it happened so the information about it is not really available. It is restricted and their identities are protected. So we worked from the script. It was not so much about making these real people come to life, we were trying to find the truth in what drove them to do what they did. It was about power and at a base level about love because John is essentially a very lonely character. For me the whole way through the film was about him needing to be loved.

    How did you manage the physical transformation to become a geek like John?

    Looking back on it now it is such a weird transformation. We started by cutting my hair in the most horrific way possible, making sure that I was clean shaven and then getting an awful pair of orthopaedic shoes that l; looked far to big and changed my movement. It was about feeling very awkward in my skin. There is definitely an awkwardness that lurks deep inside of me and it was just a matter of getting that to come out. If people look at me for too long I can feel very self conscious and that was a feeling I drew on.

    You are soon to be seen in the TV series Reign?

    Yes I’ve grown a beard for that and my hair is longer. The TV series has a modern take on the story of when Mary Queen Of Scots lived in the French court with her betrothed, Prince Francis – who is me. It is a teen show with a youthful injection into history. They want to show that underneath the regal aspect and the politics that Mary and Francis are kids. The soundtrack is all modern music which is a twist to wrangler in the kids.

    What is your costume like?

    I wear some interesting stuff. Most of the time I have on knee high boots and at one point leather trousers and some pretty good tunics. I like it.

    So the TV show might have historians tutt-tutting?

    We filmed at a castle in Ireland and the people who look after the castle are obviously really into their history because they’ve dedicated their lives to it and they were tutting at our take. But that doesn’t mean it is totally throwing history out of the window. Indeed for young people it is definitely a good way to get into history. The aspect of my character that they are focusing on is that he is weighted with a huge responsibility that one day he will run a lot of land and people. When Mary comes along he has to keep his political motives pure and there is this beautiful girl who is swanning about with her ladies in waiting and he is trying to keep his head strong and not fall in love. We are filming Reign in Toronto and at the minute I am committed to do 13episodes to start with. If it goes well it will be 10 months which means seeing Toronto in all its seasons from terrific summer to horrific winter.

    Who is Mary Queen of Scots?

    It is Adelaide Kane an Australian actress and she can do a good English accent.

    Wouldn’t it be fantastic to think that one day the two real boys will be able to see uwantme2killhim?

    Yeah, I don’t know what I feel about the real boys…maybe that I am intruding on their lives a little bit. Obviously the story is in the public domain and a bad thing was done. I think the Vanity Fair journalist once tried to get in touch with the character I play and he put the phone down. He must know this film has been made and maybe that I am playing him…

    The film deals with the Internet, are you an Internet wizard?

    I think it comes with the territory of being born in this age. My brother is eight years old and he knows how to use the computer as well as I do. The philosopher Alan Watts was saying that when Einstein’s Theory of Relativity came out it was a very difficult concept to comprehend but now we can grasp it more easily. It is the same with the Internet, if you are not brought up with it, it is almost impossible to grasp. It is like a second language that goes along with being born in this age. The Internet though is also very dark and scary. Most of us are just scratching the surface of the Internet.

    The film shows how the Internet can be such a deadly tool for deception.

    Yes and I think it happens a lot more than people think. I am on Twitter and in terms of notoriety I have little to be famous for yet there was someone online faking being me. I got that closed down. There are people out there who pretend to be other people.

    For the film how easy was it to switch back to being 16 years old?

    Really easy, inside I’m a kid. I was 19 or 20 when we made it so it was not too big of a jump. At one point I think Jamie was shaving three times a day to look younger and I shaved every night.

    Your family is original from Norway, do you speak Norwegian?

    No, just a few words. I did not grow up there. So I did not get a chance to speak it and it is such a difficult language.

    Do you have a hero?

    Yes, I talk about him all the time – Mark Rylance. He is the best actor in the world. I saw Jerusalem four times. I am a massive fan of his work.

  • Close Down The Death Factories. End This War Now!

    Close Down The Death Factories. End This War Now!

    The Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom movie is a movie like no other. It is not for charts or benefits; it is not for festivals and glory. It is an ode to the greatest Nelson Mandela, whose greatness is indescribable, whose kindness makes him compared to God, whose graciousness makes him a man with a capital “M”. Nelson Mandela, a Nobel laureate and former president of the Republic of South Africa, throughout his whole life has proved himself to be genuine hero.

    But what is the measure of a true hero? How do you become a national leader and the greatest politician? This is exactly the questions the Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom movie has answers to. How to tolerate repressions and how not to surrender in the face of the unbearable difficulties? How to carry the selfless love and tender affection through searing hatred, raging malice and endless pain? How not to lose yourself in the flames of the revolution, how to resist the temptations of evil and terror, how carry a bright flag of freedom out the ashes of oppression and injustice?

    The Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom movie illustrates the major triumph of this remarkable man’s lifetime and the prevalent victory of his people. His war for freedom was ended in May 1994, when Mandela became the first black president of South Africa. But before the accomplishment of this victory he had long way to walk. The Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom movie describes the path of the freedom in South Africa, a story of a man, whose power of spirit and dignity was enough to endure the dignity of the whole country. It is a gradual description of how this hero of equality has received universal fame and became a symbol of the struggle against the racial discrimination. Nelson Mandela was willing to die for his dreams and aspirations, but the history shows that he got in prison, where he spent dozens of years in the solitary confinement on the Robben Island, where he worked on a limestone quarry and had a right to one visit and one letter in six months. Under these intolerable circumstances he never gave up, never had a single change of heart – he only became surer and surer of his beliefs. Nelson Mandela audaciously and valiantly fought for the freedom of his people, for the peace and flourishing of his country.

    The Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom movie is essentially history in images. Maybe, it is a historical drama, maybe – biographical inscription. But for those, who are ardent at heart and faithful to the principles of that brilliant man, the Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom movie is a hymn to the most precious things in human life: love, care, freedom, forgiveness, nobility, honesty and kindness.