{"id":3584,"date":"2008-10-31T22:55:57","date_gmt":"2008-10-31T21:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=3584"},"modified":"2008-10-31T23:03:19","modified_gmt":"2008-10-31T22:03:19","slug":"uk-cinema-releases-friday-31st-october-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2008\/10\/31\/uk-cinema-releases-friday-31st-october-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Cinema Releases: Friday 31st October 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

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NATIONAL RELEASES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Quantum of Solace<\/a><\/strong> (Sony): The latets Bond film arrives at UK cinemas on a huge wave of expectation and hype, not least because it’s predecessor Casino Royale<\/a> was the highest grossing Bond movie ever<\/a>, but because Daniel Craig<\/a> helped re-establish the character for a new generation. The plot takes off just minutes after the last film and sees 007 investigate the mysterious Quantum\u00a0organisation, led by the enigmatic Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric<\/a>). Along the way he hooks up with a vengeful woman named\u00a0Camille\u00a0(Olga Kurylenko<\/a>) and regularly incurs the displeasure of his boss M (Judi Dench) by aggressively pursuing those responsible for the death of Vesper Lynd (his lover from the last film). Whilst Craig still impresses as a leaner and meaner spy, the problem here appears to be the choice of\u00a0Marc Forster<\/a>\u00a0as director. Best known for character based films like Monster’s Ball<\/a> and Finding Neverland<\/a>, he handles the quieter scenes well but doesn’t have a grip on the multiple action sequences which have none of the adrenaline rush of the recent Bourne or Batman films. It has already received mixed reviews but this is going to absolutely kill at the UK box office this weekend – the only question will be if it can surpass the amazing gross of the last film. [Cert 12A]<\/p>\n

Hunger<\/a><\/strong> (Pathe): The feature debut of Turner prize winning artist Steve McQueen<\/a> is\u00a0a riveting look at the\u00a01981 Irish hunger strike<\/a>. The story explores a key episode of the Troubles<\/a>, when IRA prisoners in the Maze led by\u00a0Bobby Sands<\/a>\u00a0(Michael Fassbender<\/a>), went on a protracted hunger strike in order to apply pressure against the British government, so that they could be classed as political prisoners. This isn’t a polemic for any side but does take the viewer inside the raw and brutal world of the Maze prison, as well as depicting the terror and violence outside. In the role of Sands, Fassbender gives an incredible performance, but there is also some fine work too by Liam Cunningham<\/a> as the prison chaplain – one mesmerising sequence between them is shot in a 17 minute unbroken take. The widescreen lensing by Sean Bobbit<\/a> and the radical direction by McQueen make for a brutal but astonishing film. Although this is one of the best films of the year, I think Pathe<\/a> are taking a huge risk in opening the same week as Bond. Whilst counter-programming an art-house release against a blockbuster can be a canny move, Bond is one of those franchises with an enormously wide appeal across every demographic. It could be that Hunger just gets lost amidst all the 007 hype, which would be a shame because it has had some really good press and marks the arrival of a major new directing talent. [Cert 18]<\/p>\n

* Listen to our interview with Liam Cunningham about Hunger<\/a> *<\/p>\n

The Midnight Meat Train<\/a><\/strong> (Lionsgate): Although Lionsgate haven’t exactly busted their marketing budget for this horror film they’ll be hoping horror fans will be checking it out this Halloween. Based\u00a0on\u00a0Clive Barker<\/a>‘s 1984 short story of the same name, about\u00a0a photographer who tries to track down a\u00a0serial killer<\/a>\u00a0(played by\u00a0Vinnie Jones<\/a>) dubbed the ‘Subway Butcher’. It had an interesting release in the US with fans reportedly upset that Lionsgate were effectively dumping the film<\/a>\u00a0before a quick DVD release<\/a>. It is\u00a0directed by\u00a0Ryuhei Kitamura<\/a>\u00a0and for this kind of material has an OK cast which includes\u00a0Bradley Cooper<\/a>,\u00a0Leslie Bibb<\/a>,\u00a0Vinnie Jones<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Brooke Shields<\/a>. Given the lack of awareness it would be surprising if this did any serious box office, but could become some kind of cult favourite. [Cert 18]<\/p>\n

[ad]<\/p>\n

IN SELECTED RELEASE<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Of Time And The City<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(BFI): A documentary by Terence Davies<\/a> which recalls\u00a0his life growing up in\u00a0Liverpool<\/a>\u00a0during the 1950’s and 1960’s, using archive\u00a0newsreel<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0documentary<\/a>\u00a0footage along with his own voiceover. It premiered at Cannes back in May<\/a> to very warm reviews<\/a> and was the first film by Davies since\u00a0The House of Mirth<\/a>, his\u00a0Edith Wharton<\/a> adaptation,\u00a0in 2000. The BFI are giving it a limited release in key cities but with the strong reviews, it could do some healthy art-house business. [Cert 12A]<\/p>\n

Golmaal Returns<\/a><\/strong> (Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision): A\u00a0Bollywood<\/a>\u00a0release\u00a0directed by\u00a0Rohit Shetty<\/a>. It is a sequel to the 2006 film,\u00a0Golmaal<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0Ajay Devgan<\/a>,\u00a0Tusshar Kapoor<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Arshad Warsi<\/a>\u00a0reprising their roles and\u00a0Shreyas Talpade<\/a>\u00a0reprising the role originally played by\u00a0Sharman Joshi<\/a>.\u00a0Kareena Kapoor<\/a>,\u00a0Anjana Sukhani<\/a>,\u00a0Amrita Arora<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Celina Jaitley<\/a>\u00a0are new additions to the cast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vaaranam Aayiram<\/a><\/strong> (Ayngaran International): A\u00a0Tamil\u00a0film directed by\u00a0Gautham Menon<\/a>, with\u00a0Surya Sivakumar<\/a>\u00a0acting in dual lead roles, whilst\u00a0Sameera Reddy<\/a>,\u00a0Divya Spandana<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Simran Bagga<\/a>\u00a0co-star.\u00a0<\/p>\n

[ad]<\/p>\n

If you have any questions about this week\u2019s cinema releases or any upcoming titles then just\u00a0email me<\/a>\u00a0or leave a comment below.<\/p>\n

>\u00a0Get local\u00a0showtimes for a cinema near you via Google Movies<\/a>\u00a0(just enter your local postcode)
\n>\u00a0Check out our latest DVD picks for this week<\/a>\u00a0(From Monday 27th October 2008)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NATIONAL RELEASES Quantum of Solace (Sony): The latets Bond film arrives at UK cinemas on a huge wave of expectation and hype, not least because it’s predecessor Casino Royale was the highest grossing Bond movie ever, but because Daniel Craig helped re-establish the character for a new generation. The plot takes off just minutes after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[2818,535],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3584"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}