James' conversation with him will go online on Wednesday and 'Where The Wild Things Are' is out on the 11th December.
James' conversation with him will go online on Wednesday and 'Where The Wild Things Are' is out on the 11th December.
End of year lists are as festive and traditional as mince pies, mistletoe and Jo Whiley having a really long holiday. With a couple of my fave films of '09 out on DVD this week - The Hangover' and Inglourious Basterds - it's time to start thinking.
The joy of The Hangover was that no-one had any expectations. In a Summer full of sequels and big guns that made such a change. Oh yeah - it was also pant-wettingly funny (Mike Tyson drumming to 'In The Air Tonight' is my musical highlight of the year). The inevitable sequel can never capture that kind of surprise again.
Quentin Tarantino's 'Inglourious' (to quote the TV ads) also surprised. After the indulgently thin Death Proof he was back with some meat on the bone, giving a new spin on the well-worked Second World War genre with some beautifully subtle moments amongst the excess. Chilling performance of the year, for me, was from Christoph Waltz as Colonel Hans Landa. Again, another unknown actor to most audiences.
In fact, a lot of the year's best have shown that the old guard might need to up their game in 2010. Paranormal Activity avoided stars altogether whilst (500) Days Of Summer went for the quirky - Joe Gordon Levitt and **sigh** Zooey Deschanel - over 'A' listers. Star Trek showed that a brand was more important than any star. Slumdog Millionaire, meanwhile, nabbed a fistful of Oscars from under the reshaped noses of the Hollywood elite. Nice one, Danny (like I know him...)
Btw, my movie Best of '09 is on Boxing Day (1 to 4pm) on R1. Comment on your fave pics of the year below and maybe we'll give 'em a mention on-air.
Right, I'm off to make that list. JK
The actual chat will be online on Wednesday, but we thought you might like a little guess as to who it could be. To help you guess here is a picture of his guitar which he left lying around on the floor of his hotel room, next to a chair that looks a lot like a throne.
I'll give you the answer on Monday afternoon.
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I know it's hard not to instantly think, "it's Tim from the office," but Martin Freeman is a lovely and very busy man. Not only does he do the occasional radio show but he seems to be always working. He came in to R1 HQ last week in a very Christmassy coat (it had a fur collar) to talk about his new film Nativity, which he stars alongside Ashley Jensen (she went to the same college as me) and a guy called Mark Wooton. Remember that name, Mark Wooton, he is a very very funny man.
Sometimes guests come in and you actually lose track of time, chatting away and just having a lovely time. Martin was definitely one of those people and Nativity is a really sweet Christmassy movie with great kids in it and it'll make you chuckle.
Hear part 1 of the interview:
Hear part 2 of the interview:
Quentin Tarantino's new film Inglorious Basterds is out on DVD & Blu-Ray tomorrow and we've got this online exclusive of scene from the film. It features QT's iconic staging, some superb British accents and a wonderful cameo from Mike (Austin Powers) Myers.In other QT news he's been talking about Kill Bill 3 recently, which will still star Uma Thurman and take place ten years after Kill Bill 2 but it'll be called 'Volume 3 of the story of the Bride'. But enough of that, on with the clip.
What do you think? This has the potential to be brilliant, but do we really need a remake of The Karate Kid? What's next a remake of ET?
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Also this is a good time to point out how difficult it is for us to get certain images to use on this blog, so instead what we've done for a lot of these is just searched in the worlds worst photo archive at the BBC for things somewhat related to the film. Hence why for The History Boys it's a photo of the Natural History Museum.
The History Boys
Crash
ET
Ray
Batman Begins
Happy-Go-LuckyMike Leigh's likeable London drama which features the happiest, smilest person ever put into film. She never stops smiling....sometimes I wish she would. I give it 20 minutes before you think the same.
]]>We now have the answer... so click on read the rest of the entry to find out who drank from the cups.....
]]> The first cup with the tea and milk and one sugar belonged to Martin Freeman from The Office, Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy and Nativity. Here is some proof.
The second cup had Zac Efron's lips on it, the fella from High School Musical and Me & Orson Wells. Here is some proof.
You can listen to Edith Bowman talking to Martin this Saturday & Sunday from 7am on Radio 1, and listen again to Switch to hear Zac talking to Nick & Annie.
]]>It's Thursday. Check your calendars. I'm not telling lies. Recently we've had some movie stars come into Radio 1. One thing that links us normal people with movie stars is that we all like to use cups to drink from. We kept the cups the movie stars used, so thought we'd ask you, Who Drank From This? Seriously. That's what we're doing.
Here's the first cup. It had tea with milk and 1 sugar in it. Which movie star drank from this?
And here's the second cup, this one just had water in it. Which movie star drank from this?
We'll stick the answer online at 4pm... and possibly a clue a little later. Depends how generous we feel.
Good luck.
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We've managed to get our grubby web-based paws on an exclusive clip from one of our favourite films of the year The Hangover. If you missed it at the cinema, then what is wrong with you? This is a deleted scene from the film which is going to be out on DVD & Blu-Ray from the 7th December.
Enjoy.
Back in August James King gave Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds 5 stars in his review. If you missed it in the cinema over the summer then you needn't worry as it's out on DVD & Blu-Ray on the 7th Dec.
We've managed to get our hands on a load of the tunes that Quentin listented to whilst in production for the film, ranging from Bowie to Britney. Instead of keeping it to ourselves, we thought we'd share it with you, our lovely internet based friends.
So here it is, some of the songs QT was listening to while making the movie.
Wu Tang Clan - The Rules
"One of the songs that I used to play a lot just to pump me up."
Katie Tunstall - Hold On
"...I actually made it a point not to bring an mp3 player...so I just kinda had what I had and I would just supplement it from time to time by a quick stop at this music store...But one of the CDs that I had was the Katie Tunstall CD Jurassic Fantastic and so I was listening to the song Hold On a lot."
Britney Spears - My Prerogative
"This was a little bit of an anthem to me when I was filming in Germany"
Bob Dylan - Political World
"I'm a huge huge Bob Dylan fan... one of the songs that I would play just a whole lot and played in the car on the way to work from time to time was the first track from his album Oh Mercy, Political World which once you get into your head you can't get it out."
Jason Mraz - I'm Yours
"I really like singing songwriters. I was writing my scripts and I actually fell in love with this song but I think the whole planet earth ended up falling in love with it, but I have to say I fell in love with it earlier than most and I actually in particularly like the acoustic version that first came out..."
Barbara Streisand - Stoney End
"I would only ever hear this randomly when they would play it on an oldies radio station and you go man I love that song and that's a great song."
Robin McNamara - Lay a Little Loving on Me
"Another song in the same oldies but goodies seventies kinda vibe. It's one of those ones you cannot play it once it's like its gotta play at least twenty times before you get sick of it."
Maroon 5 - Wake Up Call
"I love the story of the song. I actually remember before I even knew what it was I was in the Philippines on a radio show and said, 'Hey what's the song where the guy comes home and somebody's with his wife and he attacks the guy?' And they go oh that's Wake Up Call."
Douglas Quintet - Mendocino
"One of the things that I got when I was doing my new movie was this box set from a Texas blues group from the sixties called Sir Douglas Quintet. They are a really cool."
David Bowie - Putting out the Fire
"When listening to this all of a sudden it occurred to me that not only would it be good to use in the film but even the lyrics of the song mirror the character of Shosanna. So much so, that I had to find a way to use it with Shosanna. It could even play in like interior monologue and would actually describe her story very well. I think its hands down the big musical set piece in the movie, it's one of the big things in the film and I am very proud that Mr Bowie let me use the song in the film."
Roy Orbison - There Won't Be Many Coming Home
"...one of the only songs on this whole list that actually has a bit of a war theme to it. I never quite put it in a war perspective because some friends of mine did a special video tape where they took all the murders ever done in the Friday the 13th movies and cut them together to this song ... so every time I hear that song I just think of Jason"
Steve Pulse - Waterfalls
"One of the songs that I listened to when I was doing a lot of writing"
Bah humbug. December's here again and there are no new Christmas films to look forward to. Since Mickey Mouse decided to release his version of A Christmas Carol way back in mid-November, the traditional Crimbo film is already done and dusted for this year. Back to my DVD of Elf, then.
Still, there's plenty of stuff out there over the next few weeks. Women stuck down potholes might not be hugely festive but The Descent Part 2 (out Dec 4th) delivers just like its predecessor. You'll never want to explore monster-ridden caves in the Appalachians again. Freaky in a different way - beautifully so, in fact - is Where The Wild Things Are, visionary director Spike Jonze's adaptation of the classic kids' book. I love it when directors are called 'visionary' (Guillermo Del Toro gets it too). It basically means that they make stuff too weird to be summed up in a pithy sentence on the poster - all good in my book. Where The Wild Things Are might be a children's story but Spike's turned into a film about childhood... and probably more for adults. Vying with Fantastic Mr Fox for most out-there kiddy book flick, this one. It's on the 11th.
Avatar is supposedly going to change the face of cinema when it comes out on the 17th, not least since tons of cinemas will convert to 3-D so that they can show it. James Cameron hasn't made a mainstream film since something called Titanic so the buzz is big. It's also the Terminator creator's return to sci-fi. To be honest, the trailer left me colder than Leo in the freezing Atlantic but that could be a good thing. It's the first law of cinema that awesome trailers often result in forgettable movies and vice versa.
The rest of December is a blend of the classy and the dumb. Like my DVD collection. The classy stuff? Look out of the awesome Aaron Johnson as a young John Lennon in Nowhere Boy, out on Boxing Day and Daniel Day-Lewis blending brains with show tunes in the musical Nine, out a few days earlier. The silly stuff? I know you've all been waiting for a sequel to Alvin & The Chipmunks - well, on the 21st there's something even better. It's a....ahem....squeakwel. But how can they top the rodent rendition of Daniel Powter's 'Bad Day' from the first one?
Finally, St Trinian's 2: The Legend Of Fritton's Gold. Let's hope it really is 'finally'. That said, as someone who thinks that 'Call The Shots' is The Greatest Pop Song Ever Written, Sarah Harding's presence is an obvious bonus. Almost makes up for Rupert Everett. See ya!
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This'll blow you away. Emile Hirsch is blimmin' awesome as Christopher McCandless, a single-minded graduate who decides to give up on the rat race and go travelling to Alaska. Giving up his worldly possessions he soon discovers the cameradie out there on the road, amongst the travellers and hippies with nothing but love to keep them going, a million miles away from the safety of his middle-class upbringing.
Christopher's journey is hardly a straight line - he heads down to Mexico at one point - but this is a roadtrip based on intuition rather than Sat Nav. It's also not easy. After reaching the wilds of America's most northerly state, nature proves Christopher's biggest challenge.
The mighty Sean Penn wrote and directed this poetic nod to the freedom of the open road. It's also star-packed - Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart and Zach Galifianakis all turn up along the way. But what packs the most punch is that this is true story. A tragic one, at that.
The genuine buzz of being young and being free runs through every scene, each a snapshot of a hidden America and the people who've decided that the 21st century no longer floats their boat. It's only by going without that you can really appreciate what you've got.
The problems with Glitter are obvious. As this tale of high-pitched New York warbler Billie (Mariah Carey) unfolded I just couldn't give a monkey's. From the very start, with a young Billie entering an orphanage after being dumped by her single mom, you could see that Mariah would be guilty of over-egging emotion with her one "sad face", hewn from granite and hauled out throughout the film at appropriate moments. Not to mention her excruciatingly over-explaining lyrics ('She was kinda fragile and she had a lot to grapple with...'). I got the point from your pout, Mariah. I need no more information on your grappling issues.
But this weakness becomes Glitter's gift. I was so turned off by Mimi's melodic couplets, my attentions then turned to the film's second star - Dice. Here was a character hungrily played by Max Beesley, frantic to prove himself in his Hollywood debut, proud like a cockerel from high-profile Mel B love-ins and blissfully unaware that the TV slag heap of Hotel Babylon was waiting in the wings like a stalker. Dice is supposedly the most famous DJ/producer in New York and boy does our Max go for it. Resplendent in singlets or leather trousers (or both) for most of the film, he bounces around like a panting puppy. Sometimes he's the overprotective manager, outraged when his Billie has to wear skimpy outfits for video shoots. Other times he's a grinning in puppet master with ADD, eager to push Billie's cleavage into the faces of every music mogul in town.
Glitter works best not as a music star's vanity project but as a film about a man gagging to prove his worth. Mariah may look bored, but Max is hyperactive. As an accurate portrayal of alpha male desperation, it's up there with Fight Club.
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Earlier this week The Lovely Bones, the new film from Peter (Lord Of The Rings / King Kong) Jackson had a Royal Premier in London's Glittering West End™.
The film is an adaptation of best selling book by Alice Sebold telling the story of a young girl who watches over her family from heaven....so not a giant ape or hobbit in sight then. It stars Mark (ey Mark) Wahlberg, Susan (Thelma & Louise) Sarandon, Rachel (The Mummy) Weisz and Saroise (Atonement) Ronan as Suzie.
We've got this EXCLUSIVE clip to show you of Suzie's encounter with Ray Singh, who she has a crush on, just before her family's lives get turned upside down.Once you've watched that why not read what Edith had to say about the film.