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WILL SMITH was in London recently to promote his new flick 'Seven Pounds'. The film directed by Gabriele Muccino is about this guy called Ben Thomas (Smith) and has to help seven people, which involves first roaming around interviewing troubled strangers, trying to find out if he considers each of them a good person. The contenders include a woman (Rosario Dawson) who needs a heart transplant, a blind tele-marketer (Woody Harrelson) and a victim of domestic abuse who needs a way out. The studio clearly assumes that people will see 'Seven Pounds' because of Will Smith's box office clout. (?) Considering the movie comes from the director of the overrated 'The Pursuit of Happiness' and a writer whose only experience is a couple episodes of '8 Simple Rules ..' and 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch' there's not much reason to be optimistic.
WILL SMITH
Though Smith usually doesn't choose total stinkers. He did with this one. It must be the stinker of the year. What a pile of dross. Had I paid to see this utter cr-p I would've asked for my money back, or else! Is this April fool's day? Are they having a laugh at your expense? No and yes. This is as monotone and manipulative as movies get, speaking almost entirely in vague generalities -"I'll make sure everything goes as planned"- to string you along until it decides to tell a story. Which it never really does. The script overflows with questionable emotional choices -guff- that insult concepts of life and your intelligence. Death and love while refusing to analyse guilt and atonement, -even stooping to imply that some people deserve to live more than others. Finger down throat and puke. Rosario Dawson's performance is the one bright light in a film that is a lie and a tease, and boasts, -most probably- the most ridiculous death scene you've seen this century. At the premiere in Leicester Square, Will even said in the live TV interview that he will continue to make fantastic films. Jeez, the ego. Pure ego as this film is pure horse manure, and no way near as useful.
KATE WINSLET
Woman of the moment and double Golden Globe winner KATE WINSLET was present and correct with co-star LEONARDO DICAPRIO at the London premiere of 'Revolutionary Road'. Directed by Winslet's hubby SAM MENDES, KATE WINSLET gives very good performance as a wife and mother desperately trying to swim against an ever-rising tide. But, I have to say, that Dicaprio and Winslet are both a bit wooden at times. It takes around half the film to get them working properly together. There’s one scene in particular when her character walks across her kitchen to kiss her husband like she’s striding across a Broadway stage. You know the type of thing, luvvies delight. After this however, they seem to gel well -they know each other very well of course- and their performance seemed much more natural and convincing.
LEONARDO DICAPRIO
Yet this niggling sense of over the top theatricality has a positive side also, adding to the idea that performance is at the root of this couple’s lives. It’s about people who are ambitious enough to have ideals and goals whilst not being intrepid and bold enough to act on them. They seem very emotionally sensitive, but mostly -the cast and director ensure that this comes across well- it’s their environment and society’s values that seem to dictate their fate. -Or they are weak enough to let society do this to them-. A shiny gemstone of a movie from director SAM MENDES about suburbanites who lead lives in silent desperation.
At the premiere, KATE WINSLET wore a an elegant black dress with a daring cross strap at the front and she looked fantastic. Husband SAM MENDES was in New York -Broadway- directing a new project and wasn't able to accompany Kate.
After a year break, Celebrity Big Brother was bump started once again. The show took a year's break to let the dust settle from the racism scandal started single handedly by JADE GOODY. This series, we had a proper freak show. BEN ADAMS, COOLIO, LA TOYA JACKSON, LUCY PINDER, MICHELLE HEATON, MUTYA BUENA, TERRY CHRISTIAN, TINA MALONE, TOMMY SHERIDAN -who?- VERNE TROYES and ULRIKA JONSSON ensured we had a proper circus.
VERNE TROYER
At the launch of Celebrity -ha ha- Big Brother 6, what really struck me was minute VERNE TROYER -Troyes/Troy etc- was. He wasn't a 'midget' he was SMALLER. Like an eight month old baby walking. I couldn't believe it. He was like a toy walking along. So small in fact, he couldn't walk up the Big Brother house's stairs. They had a made a special entrance for him at ground level. MICHELLE HEATON was pleased to see me there, and gave a big wave. -I've worked with her before.-
MICHELLE HEATON
TERRY CHRISTIAN
The rest of the group well you know F-Listers. OK, COOLIO and LA TOYA were the biggest international names whilst ULRIKA JONSSON the biggest national name, and reportedly the highest paid to be in the house. Biggest disappointment was the 'politician' AKA commie freak TOMMY SHERIDAN. Apart from being a complete BORE, anyone who supports wannabe Venezuelan communist dictator Hugo Chavez needs shooting along with that thick, uneducated, terrorist funding, anti-Semite, vomit inducing sack of crap.
The rest of Celebrity Big Brother I can't really comment on. I'm normally either working or partying at that time of night. I cover all the Big Brother evictions and arrivals, but that's about it. All you need to know is that ULRIKA JONSSON won -against all the odds- and TERRY CHRISTIAN was runner up. Crowd favourite VERNE TROYER managed only fourth.
ULRIKA JONSSON.
TOM CRUISE and wife KATIE HOLMES were in our beloved city to promote 'Valkyrie' the new TOM CRUISE flick. The film by Brian Singer, relates to the true story of the attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler by Claus Von Stauffenberg. (Tom Cruise) There were 15 known attempts to assassinate Hitler. Some 50 men have been verified as principal instigators, including civilians and military officers, tradesmen and trained soldiers, with countless other people in shadowy support. The gambit on which they settled involved a pre-existing plan known as Operation Valkyrie, which had been drawn up in the event of widespread civil unrest in Berlin. If Stauffenberg could successfully plant a bomb near Hitler at his East Prussian front-line compound, sever communications with Berlin and return to the city in time to manage the coup, perhaps power could be transferred with a minimum of bloodshed and the true business of negotiating an end to the war could begin. Gripping stuff.
TOM CRUISE and KATIE HOLMES.
The film has quite a cast including: BILL NIGHY, KENNETH BRANAGH, EDDIE IZZARD, TERENCE STAMP, KEVIN MCNALLY and TOM HOLLANDER. The premiere in London's Leicester Square was attended by most of the cast. TOM CRUISE is well known for taking hours meeting and greeting the fans to the detriment of the press. As a photographer, I want the main talent to pose as soon as possible in front of my lens so I can send out the photos as quickly as possible to the National and International papers and magazines. Waiting hours means I/we miss the deadlines for the newspapers. Having 'downed tools' a few years ago at a TOM CRUISE premiere, as he took nearly two hours before getting to us -we refused to take his picture at the premiere. He was baffled. No one lifted a camera in protest- he has now learnt the lesson. This time, Tom's limo drove right up the red carpet, stopped, and Tom and Katie -Holmes- walked straight up to us and posed for photos. PERFECT! Finally. We took our pictures nice and early, and then Tom and Katie went on to meet and greet the hundreds of fans. Everyone was happy. The best TOM CRUISE premiere I've ever covered. Cheers, Tom.
As far as new releases go, the best film BY FAR this month -and the past few months in my opinion- is 'TAKEN' directed by Pierre Morel. Starring the very talented LIAM NEESON, who in this film, for me, goes up quite a few notches. Definitely LIAM NEESON in one of his best performances. This is what the James Bond series should've been right from the start. Although I don't think society then would've been ready for it. The basic plot is this; A former spy relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been kidnapped, drugged, and forced into the sex slave trade. I kid you not, this film is intense, lot of violence, makes Pulp Fiction -one of my favourite films- look like a Disney cartoon. It had me gripped throughout. I daren't move in case I missed something. I was completely surprised and blown away. In the beginning it seemed that it was going to be an easy movie to watch, but after a short time it turned into a high-speed action movie. I found the story-line original although gruesome as that particular crime is sadly alive and well. Go and see this movie!
Yet another Hollywood legend was in London on business. MERYL STREEP was in town to publicise her new movie 'Doubt'. Set in 1964, the film centres on a nun who confronts a priest after suspecting him of abusing a black student. He denies this, and much of the play's dialogue tackles themes of religion, morality and authority. Though the film takes a while to warm up, -I spent around half an hour wondering what on earth I was watching- MERYL STREEP shows true class and puts a stern performance as a bullying, obsessive Sister whose out to cause trouble with the deluded belief that she's doing good. Not exactly my kind of film, but the performance of the three main characters makes this 'strange' film worth watching. The photocall itself was the standard MERYL STREEP thing and was over in three minutes. There was no premiere. She thought the film didn't fit a full blown premiere. I think she was right.
MERYL STREEP and AMY ADAMS.
And finally, The Costa Book Awards took place in London's Intercontinental Hotel. Not big deal in that. What was of interest, was the fact that there were five winners in five different categories. Thus, the panel of judges choose the best of the five and award them £25000.
SEBASTIAN BARRY.
The lucky guy was Sebastian Barry with 'The Secret Scripture'. Trouble was that some of the judges didn't think the book was any good, and said so. He still won the main prize. Doesn't say much for the runners up. Great coffee though.
Attendees included: KATIE DERHAM, ROSAMUND PIKE, TIM RICE, ANNEKA RICE, KATE ADIE, Pink Floyd's DAVID GILMOUR, ESTHER RANTZEN, GAIL PORTER and the elusive EMILY MATLISS.
ROSAMUND PIKE.
Over and out, see ya next month.
JOE ALVAREZ
joealvarez@verycool.co.uk
Website: www.myspace.com/redcarpetspecialist
WORDS AND ALL PICTURES COPYRIGHT JOE ALVAREZ 2009 |
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