{"id":4013,"date":"2008-12-13T00:17:34","date_gmt":"2008-12-12T23:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=4013"},"modified":"2008-12-13T00:18:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-12T23:18:00","slug":"uk-cinema-releases-friday-12th-december-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2008\/12\/13\/uk-cinema-releases-friday-12th-december-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Cinema Releases: Friday 12th December 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

The Day The Earth Stood Still<\/a><\/strong> (Fox): A remake of the 1951 sci-fi film<\/a> about an alien named Klaatu (here played by\u00a0Keanu Reeves<\/a>) who comes to Earth to assess whether humanity can prevent the damage they have inflicted on their own planet. A team of scientists (played by\u00a0Jennifer Connelly<\/a>,\u00a0Jon Hamm<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0John Cleese<\/a>) try to convince him that humans are worth saving before it’s too late. Directed by\u00a0Scott Derrickson<\/a>, it has some reasonable visual effects but is mostly a drab affair which wastes the talents of the actors involved. That said, the marketing for this film has been savvy and it has a good chance of a respectable gross this weekend before a busy Christmas period. It opens here on the same day as the US and will have to make it’s mark this week before negative word of mouth and bad reviews<\/a> impact the box office.\u00a0[Cert 12A]<\/p>\n

Dean Spanley<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(Icon):\u00a0A charming and unusual comedy based on the novella by Irish author Lord Dunsany<\/a> which tells the story of an old man (<\/span>Peter O’Toole<\/a>) and his son (<\/span>Jeremy Northam<\/a>) who strike up an unlikely friendship with a local clergyman named Dean Spanley (<\/span>Sam Neill<\/a>). A <\/span>quirky\u00a0but rewarding film<\/span>, which sees an impressive cast in good form and marks Toa Fraser<\/a> out as a director to watch.<\/span>\u00a0Decent box office will depend on word of mouth, which could be very good, even if it is likely to be a film more people discover on DVD.\u00a0[Cert\u00a0U]<\/p>\n

Inkheart<\/a> <\/strong>(Entertainment): A long delayed\u00a0fantasy film\u00a0based on the German\u00a0novel of the same name<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Cornelia Funke<\/a>. The story is about a\u00a0young girl (Eliza Bennett<\/a>) who discovers her father (Brendan Fraser<\/a>) has an amazing talent to bring characters out of their books and must try to stop a freed villain from destroying them all, with the help of her father, her aunt, and a storybook’s hero. Despite a highly impressive supporting cast (including\u00a0Paul Bettany<\/a>,\u00a0Andy Serkis<\/a>,\u00a0Jim Broadbent<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Helen Mirren<\/a>) awareness of this film doesn’t appear to be what it should. Entertainment will be hoping family audiences who haven’t seen the new Madagascar film might want some Christmas fantasy fare but it will do well to make serious money.\u00a0[Cert\u00a0PG]<\/p>\n

[ad]<\/p>\n

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

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

Lemon Tree<\/a><\/strong> (Unanimous Pictures):\u00a0A drama based on the true story of a Palestinian widow (Hiam Abbass<\/a>) who must defend her lemontree field when a new Israeli Defense Minister moves next to her and threatens to have her lemon grove torn down.\u00a0[Showing at\u00a0Curzon Soho, Odeon Swiss Cottage & Key Cities \/ Cert\u00a0PG]<\/span><\/p>\n

The Man From London<\/a><\/strong> (Artificial Eye): A drama from Hugarian\u00a0director\u00a0B\u00e9la Tarr<\/a>\u00a0based on the\u00a0French<\/a>-language novel by\u00a0Belgian<\/a>\u00a0writer\u00a0Georges Simenon<\/a>.\u00a0It stars\u00a0Tilda Swinton<\/a>\u00a0opposite\u00a0Czech<\/a>\u00a0actor\u00a0Miroslav Krobot<\/a>. The international ensemble cast also features British actress\u00a0Leah Williams<\/a>, and Hungarian actors\u00a0Janos Derzsi<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Istvan Lenart<\/a>.\u00a0[Showing at\u00a0Renoir & Key Cities \/ Cert\u00a012A]<\/p>\n

Trade<\/a><\/strong> (Lionsgate UK): Drama about two girls who are kidnapped in order to be sold in to the international sex trade. Directed by\u00a0Marco Kreuzpaintner<\/a>, it stars\u00a0Kevin Kline<\/a>,\u00a0Kate del Castillo<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Cesar Ramos<\/a>. [Showing at\u00a0<\/span>Apollo Cinema, Piccadilly Circus & The Ritzy, Brixton in London \/ Cert\u00a015]<\/span><\/p>\n

North Face<\/a><\/strong> (Metrodome):\u00a0Set in 1936, centers around four mountain climbers who attempt to climb the north face of the Eiger Mountain in Switzerland and the tragic events that follow.\u00a0[Shwoing in\u00a0London & Key Cities \/ Cert 12A]<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde<\/a><\/strong> (bfi Distribution):\u00a0Robert Louis Stevenson’s celebrated horror novel, first published in 1886, has inspired countless screen adaptations, but this 1931 adaptation by director Rouben Mamoulian remains the best and gets a reissue at by the BFI.\u00a0[Showing at\u00a0BFI Southbank \/ Cert 12A]<\/span><\/p>\n

[ad]<\/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 8th December 2008)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NATIONAL RELEASES The Day The Earth Stood Still (Fox): A remake of the 1951 sci-fi film about an alien named Klaatu (here played by\u00a0Keanu Reeves) who comes to Earth to assess whether humanity can prevent the damage they have inflicted on their own planet. A team of scientists (played by\u00a0Jennifer Connelly,\u00a0Jon Hamm\u00a0and\u00a0John Cleese) try to […]<\/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":[535],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4013"}],"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=4013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}