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Fantasy fun with Percy Jackson
Potterish film for all the family.
HAVING tackled the first two Harry Potter instalments, director Chris Columbus sets another potential franchise in motion with PERCY JACKSON & THE LIGHTNING THIEF (PG: Twentieth Century Fox).
This fantasy adventure is unashamedly Potter-ish and aimed at younger viewers, although this time it's hardly an unqualified recommendation for a family treat.
A teenage boy learns he's the son of Greek god Poseidon, has powers he never knew about and must embark on a quest to stop war breaking out on Mount Olympus.
The idea of Greek gods co-existing with the modern world is ingenious, but the film gets bogged down in explaining all the legends. Still, the superior special effects bring the many-headed Hydra and Uma Thurman's snake-haired Medusa to vivid life and there's enough thrilling spectacle to keep the clumsy storytelling moving along.
Logan Lerman gives a synthetic performance as troubled adolescent Percy, but this is offset by an entertaining adult cast featuring Kevin McKidd's brooding Poseidon, Pierce Brosnan as Chiron the centaur and Steve Coogan's lord of the underworld.
> You would expect great things from a comedy drama boasting a cast that includes Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell.
Yet although the performances are solid, their talent is wasted in EVERYBODY'S FINE (12: Disney), a routine remake of a much superior Italian original, Stanno tutti bene (1990).
The premise has echoes of Jack Nicholson movie About Schmidt, with De Niro playing widower Frank Goode, who mainly left the raising of his now grown-up children to his late wife.
When they all renege on their promises to join him for Christmas, Frank decides to make amends for past paternal indifference by paying them surprise visits. But in the process he discovers that their apparently happy lives are not quite as hunky-dory as they have made them out to be.
> Richard Gere might not be the first actor you would cast in a slushy animal saga, but surprisingly he's just right for the role in HACHI: A DOG'S TALE (U: Entertainment In Video).
Inspired by a true-life case of canine devotion, Gere plays a music professor who takes an akita puppy home after finding it at a suburban train station and unwittingly changes both their lives.
After a rather wobbly prologue illustrating Hachi's unlikely journey from rural Japan to commuter-belt America, the film shows how this four-legged friend becomes an essential part of the household of Gere and his sceptical spouse (Joan Allen).
Subsequent tragic events are moving rather than manipulative, with director Lasse Hallstrom determined not to milk the story for cheap sentiment. If you're expecting a doggie-themed weepie like Marley & Me, you might be surprised.
> Whimsical comedy MICMACS (12: E1 Entertainment), a deliciously smart satire on the arms trade, adopts the same stylised, magical view of Paris as Amelie.
French superstar Dany Boon is excellent as the deadpan, Buster Keaton-like vagrant who, with help from his new-found family of homeless scavengers, takes revenge on the weapons manufacturers responsible for his plight.
Chock full of distinctive set designs, supreme sight gags, quirky characters, such as a human cannonball, and luminous cinematography, this 'Steptoe & Son In Wonderland' fairy tale offers limitless scope for the director's unique imagination.
> Adapted from the cult Radio 4 series, BEYOND THE POLE (12: Brightspark) is a satirical breath of fresh air about two friends setting out on the first carbon neutral, vegetarian and organic expedition ever to attempt to reach the North Pole.
They hope to save the planet from global warming and get into the Guinness Book Of Records, but haven't reckoned on polar bears, cocky gay Norwegians and a rapidly loosening grip on reality.
TOP TEN: 1.Sherlock Holmes; 2.The Book Of Eli; 3.The Princess And The Frog; 4. The Lovely Bones; 5. Daybreakers; 6. Where The Wild Things Are;
7. Alice In Wonderland; 8. Edge Of Darkness; 9.Up In The Air; 10.It's Complicated. 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
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North
