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Clooney makes a Fantastic Mr Fox
DVDs out this week.
MIXING the darkly comic genius of Roald Dahl with the quirky style of director Wes Anderson was a cunning move.
So it's no surprise that FANTASTIC MR FOX (PG: Twentieth Century Fox), the feature-length animated version of one of the author's best-loved children's stories, is a winner.
Anderson, whose previous work includes The Royal Tenenbaums, opts for an unorthodox retro style that has old-fashioned stop-motion effects rather than modern CGI.
Voiced by Hollywood heavyweights George Clooney and Meryl Streep, the film tells the story of wily Mr Fox, who must use all his craftiness to keep his family, friends and countryside safe from evil farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean.
Clooney, although rather too American for a character living in rural Britain, does a praiseworthy job as the voice of Mr Fox, who promises his wife that he'll mend his chicken-thieving ways, only for temptation to get the better of him.
Strong voice work support comes from Michael Gambon, as one of Mr Fox's farmer adversaries, and Anderson regulars Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson.
Although the female characters, especially Streep's Mrs Fox, are given too little to do, this is an endearing take on a tale that lovingly echoes Dahl's own home in the small detail, including the armchair in his writing hut.
* Gripping and bewitching 9 (12: Universal) is a visually stunning animated feature shot with the unmistakeable signature touches of co-producer Tim Burton.
Not to be confused with the similarly numbered 2009 musical starring Daniel Day-Lewis, this dark, grungy and relatively brief (79 minutes) film is set in a post-apocalypse future in which all humans have gone.
A group of small automatons, numbered 1 to 9 and all with distinct personalities, try to survive on an Earth destroyed by fearsome machines.
Despite being the newest member of the group, rebel leader 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good and they must take the offensive if they are to survive and discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place.
Based on director Shane Acker's 2005 Oscar-nominated short film (11 minutes) of the same name, it may be a bit scary for younger viewers, but it is blessed with quality vocal performances from Elijah Wood, as 9, Christopher Plummer and John C. Reilly.
*Dull and confusing sci-fi shocker PANDORUM (15: Icon) is essentially The Descent in outer space with no real menace or horror.
An intergalactic mission starts to go horribly wrong when two astronauts (Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster) awake disorientated from hyper-sleep, with no memory of their assignment.
They find themselves at the mercy of fast-moving mutant monsters that have infiltrated their ship. That's if the eponymous deep-space disease (or Orbital Dysfunctional Syndrome) that manifests itself as a delusional God complex doesn't get them first.
Obvious reference points in this hopelessly muddled, jerkily edited mix are Pitch Black, Alien, Event Horizon and Resident Evil.
*Former Home And Away star Melissa George gives an exceptionally haunting and moving performance in polished mystery chiller TRIANGLE (15: Icon).
She plays a single mum trapped in a purgatorial Groundhog Day and forced to take refuge on a deserted liner when her yachting party's vessel overturns in a storm.
But all is not what it seems on board the Aeolus as events play out like the plot of Ghost Ship with a sophisticated Twilight Zone spin.
Writer/director Christopher Smith avoids the flamboyant violence he served up in Creep and Severance and effortlessly manages to marry epic ocean vistas and supernatural and slasher elements. This creates a strange atmosphere that remains eerie and intriguing right up to the jolting climax.
* TOP TEN: 1 The Time Traveler's Wife; 2 Couples Retreat; 3 Surrogates; 4 The Ugly Truth; 5 The Invention Of Lying; 6 District 9; 7 The Soloist; 8 The Hangover; 9 Gamer; 10 Dorian Gray. Chart supplied by Blockbuster.
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Weather for Leighton Buzzard
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 10 C to 24 C
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