Sponsored by
This is it for Michael Jackson
Fitting tribute to the King of Pop
JACKO'S fans are given everything they could wish for, while the cynics have much to ponder, in concert film MICHAEL JACKSON'S THIS IS IT (PG: Sony).
This bitter-sweet tribute to the late 'King of Pop' is slicker, and certainly less tacky, than expected – especially when you consider its fast turn-around after the star's untimely death.
Director and choreographer Kenny (High School Musical) Ortega was a friend of Jackson and he has compiled a heartfelt celebration from more than 100 hours of auditions, interviews and rehearsal footage extracted from preparations for the ill-fated London concert series.
Ortega doesn't allow anything negative or scandalous to permeate this commemoration of one of pop culture's greatest entertainers.
Instead the focus is on his creative genius, perfectionism and catalogue of chart hits and the fascinating way it was all being put together for his 02 Arena comeback.
>> Set in the summer of 1987, coming-of-age comedy ADVENTURELAND (15: Buena Vista) will radiate a warm, nostalgic glow for those who look back at that period with fondness.
College graduate James (Jesse Eisenberg) is stuck in a dead-end job in an amusement park, while his friends go on vacation in Europe.
James believes life is passing him by until the chance of romance arrives in the shape of co-worker Em (Kristen Stewart), who's having a fling with the odd-job man (Ryan Reynolds).
Although Superbad's Greg Mottola is the writer/director, he avoids teen gross-out antics in favour of something more sincere.
Mottola actually worked in an amusement park while a student at Columbia University and the perfectly recalled '80s setting and tone have the feel of personal memories of being young and nave.
Eisenberg is excellent as a vulnerable, gangly nerd, while Stewart brilliantly captures the silent suffering of adolescence with her smart yet melancholy heroine.
>> Lewis Carroll's timeless fantasy is given a modern day twist in MALICE IN WONDERLAND (15: Kaleidoscope).
In this updated urban spin on the tale, Maggie Grace (from TV's Lost) is an amnesiac Alice whose version of Wonderland is the neon-lit North East of England, where she's taken by London cabbie Whitey (Danny Dyer) after he hits her with his taxi.
Many of Carroll's larger-than-life characters make an appearance, with the Cheshire Cat as a night-time radio DJ, both the King and Queen of Hearts a ruthless crime lord, the Mad Hatter a brothel owner and the Caterpillar a drug dealer.
Dyer is in full cockney geezer mode and there's a lively cast of recognisable small-screen stars. But despite being nicely shot in the style of an '80s music video, Alice's adventures lose something in their contemporary translation and there's very little to care about.
>> Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, who were together in Swingers, team up again in ensemble frolic COUPLES RETREAT (15: Universal).
A holiday in a luxury South Pacific resort becomes a chastening programme of marital therapy.
The trip has been organised by a couple (Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell) in a last-ditch attempt to save their marriage, but the advice of a self-styled "couples whisperer" (Jean Reno) also highlights tension with the relationships of their friends.
These include a workaholic (Vaughn) and his long-suffering spouse and Favreau and his other half.
Vaughn is appealing in a 'regular guy' role and Favreau's game for a laugh as the group's 40-something lecher, yet there's more midlife crisis on display than rollicking wit.
>> Jamie Foxx stars as a musically gifted down-and-out with mental health problems in sugar-coated, fact-based story THE SOLOIST (12: Universal).
Robert Downey Jr is cast as the jaded journalist who wants to elevate him from kerbside to concert stage after he hears him playing a beaten-up violin near his Los Angeles office.
On the plus side, the leads strike most of the right notes, despite Foxx's Rain Man-style ramblings becoming a little irritating.
Sadly, the direction of this buddy-movie version of Shine is off key and the portrayal of the redemptive power of music is rather over-literal.
>> PAPER HEART (PG: Anchor Bay) is an odd little film in which performance artist Charlyne Yi traverses the US to question couples, precocious kids, marriage-industry eccentrics and even bikers about 'happy ever after' romance.
Had she stuck to that brief, this hybrid of documentary and make-believe might have offered a diverting insight into an emotion that no-one quite understands.
But this comic investigation into true love is blighted by smugness, particularly when Yi pretends to fall for nerdy Juno star Michael Cera and the mockumentary chronicles their courtship.
The precise nature of Yi and Cera's real relationship has been widely debated, with the press dubbing them 'America's twee-hearts', but it's an irrelevance beside the mediocrity of the pair's acting.
>> Top ten: 1 District 9; 2 The Soloist; 3 The Invention Of Lying; 4 Surrogates; 5 The Ugly Truth; 6 Gamer; 7 Funny People; 8 The Hangover; 9 Halloween 2; 10 The Taking Of Pelham 123. Chart from Blockbuster.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
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
