{"id":5614,"date":"2009-05-15T05:32:51","date_gmt":"2009-05-15T04:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=5614"},"modified":"2009-05-17T03:15:15","modified_gmt":"2009-05-17T02:15:15","slug":"uk-cinema-releases-friday-15th-may-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2009\/05\/15\/uk-cinema-releases-friday-15th-may-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Cinema Releases: Friday 15th May 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

Angels and Demons<\/a><\/strong> (Sony Pictures): The sequel to\u00a0The Da Vinci Code<\/a>\u00a0sees Tom Hanks return as\u00a0Harvard\u00a0symbologist<\/a>\u00a0Robert Langdon<\/a>\u00a0and he has to\u00a0solve a plot by the\u00a0Illuminati<\/a>, who are threatening to destroy\u00a0Vatican City<\/a>\u00a0with stolen\u00a0antimatter<\/a>\u00a0during a\u00a0papal conclave<\/a>.\u00a0Directed by Ron Howard, it is only slightly less dull than the first film and the supporting cast (featuring\u00a0Ayelet Zurer<\/a>,\u00a0Ewan McGregor<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd<\/a>) do their best with wafer thin characters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An expensive waste of a talented cast and crew, servicing the Hollywood machine with a film that will almost certainly be amongst the top 5 grossers of the year.\u00a0Perhaps Dan Brown’s next book could be about a conspiracy involving why so many people lap up these turgid books and films. However, despite the bad reviews this film is going to get, Sony can expect to make almost as much money as the Vatican this month, which is really saying something.\u00a0[Nationwide \/ Cert\u00a012A]<\/p>\n

Fighting<\/a><\/strong> (Universal): An\u00a0action film<\/a>\u00a0directed by\u00a0Dito Montiel<\/a>, <\/span>about a\u00a0young ticket scalper introduced to the world of underground street fighting.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>It stars\u00a0Channing Tatum<\/a>,\u00a0Terrence Howard<\/a>,\u00a0Luis Guzm\u00e1n<\/a>,\u00a0Brian J. White<\/a>,\u00a0Flaco Navaja<\/a>\u00a0and Strikeforce Middleweight Champion\u00a0Cung Le<\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Universal might be bracing themselves for everyone else to go and see Angels and Demons but a question that most UK audiences with be asking this weekend is who the hell is\u00a0Channing Tatum<\/a>? [Empire Leicester Square & Nationwide \/ Cert\u00a012A\u00a0\/ Previews 13 & 14 May]<\/p>\n

Synecdoche, New York<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(Revolver Entertainment): The directorial debut of Charlie Kaufman<\/a>\u00a0(who wrote\u00a0Being John Malkovich<\/a>,\u00a0Adaptation<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind<\/a>)\u00a0centres around a theatre director named\u00a0Caden Cotard<\/a>\u00a0(Philip Seymour Hoffman<\/a>) who starts to re-evaluate life after both his health and marriage break down. He then devises an enormous theatre project inside a life size replica of New York city that reflects and imitates his own life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What follows is a strange and often baffling movie, complete with the kind of motifs that are peppered throughout Kaufman\u2019s scripts.\u00a0But despite the oddities and the Chinese-box narrative, this is a film overflowing with invention and ideas.\u00a0It explores the big issues of life and death but also examines the nature of art and performance – a lot of the film, once it goes inside the warehouse, is a mind-boggling meditation on our lives as a performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Imagine\u00a0The Truman Show<\/a>\u00a0rewritten by\u00a0Samuel Beckett<\/a>\u00a0and directed by\u00a0Luis Bu\u00f1uel<\/a>\u00a0and you\u2019ll get some idea of what Kaufman is aiming for here.\u00a0Much of the film hinges on Seymour Hoffman\u2019s outstanding central performance in which he conveys the vulnerability and determination of a man obsessed with doing something worthwhile before he dies.\u00a0The makeup for the characters supervised by\u00a0Mike Marino<\/a>\u00a0is also first rate, creating a believable ageing process whilst the sets are also excellent, even if some of the CGI isn\u2019t always 100% convincing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The supporting cast was also impressive:\u00a0Catherine Keener<\/a>,\u00a0Michelle Williams<\/a>,\u00a0Samantha Morton<\/a>,\u00a0Emily Watson<\/a>,\u00a0Hope Davis<\/a>,\u00a0Tom Noonan<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Dianne Weist<\/a>\u00a0all contribute fine performances and fit nicely into the overall tone of the piece.\u00a0Although the world Kaufman creates will alienate some viewers, it slowly becomes a haunting meditation on how humans age and die.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the film moves towards resolution it becomes surprisingly moving with some of the deeper themes slowly, but powerfully, rising to the surface.\u00a0This means that although it will have it\u2019s admirers (of which I certainly include myself) it is likely to prove too esoteric for mass consumption as it has a downbeat tone despite the comic touches.\u00a0\u00a0[Curzon Soho, Odeon Covent Gdn., Barbican & Key Cities \/ Cert 15]<\/p>\n

N.B. The\u00a0first word of the title is pronounced \u201cSyn-ECK-duh-kee\u201d.<\/p>\n

[ad]<\/p>\n

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

French Film<\/a> (V<\/span>ertigo Films):\u00a0<\/span>A comedy about how French and English cultures differ in their attitudes on relationships. It is directed by\u00a0Jackie Oudney<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>and stars\u00a0Hugh Bonneville<\/a>,\u00a0Anne-Marie Duff<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Eric Cantona<\/a>.\u00a0[<\/span>Apollo Piccadilly Circus & Key Cities \/ Cert\u00a015]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Viva<\/a><\/strong> <\/strong><\/span>(Nouveaux Pictures):\u00a0Two suburban couples experiment with sex, drugs and bohemia in early 1970’s Los Angeles<\/span>. Directed by and starring\u00a0Anna Biller<\/a>.\u00a0[ICA Cinema]<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

>\u00a0UK cinema releases for May 2009<\/a>
\n>\u00a0UK DVD releases for this week<\/a>\u00a0(W\/C Monday 11th May)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Including Angels and Demons, Synechdoche New York and Fighting. <\/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":[960,967,711,535],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5614"}],"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=5614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}