Twilight

TWILIGHT is an action-packed, modern-day love story between a teenage girl and a vampire. Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) has always been a little bit different, never caring about fitting in with the trendy girls at her Phoenix high school. When her mother re-marries and sends Bella to live with her father in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington, she doesn’t expect much of anything to change. Then she meets the mysterious and dazzlingly beautiful Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a boy unlike any she’s ever met. Edward is a vampire, but he doesn’t have fangs and his family is unique in that they choose not to drink human blood. Intelligent and witty, Edward sees straight into Bella’s soul. [Read more]

Turn it Up

All self-taught dancer Kate Parker has ever wanted to do was perform with the American Academy of Ballet. But when she doesn’t make it after auditioning, she learns that it takes more than precision and perfection to succeed in the dance world. With a turn in a cutting-edge hip-hop club and the help of a good-looking former hockey player, she may just find the passion she needs to make her dreams come true. [Read more]

Live!

Eva Mendes (The Spirit, Hitch), Jay Hernandez (World Trade Center), and Eric Lively (American Pie) star in a scathing mockumentary about an ambitious TV network executive.

Struggling to find a major hit, TV executive Katy (Mendes) comes up with a revolutionary concept for a reality show: Live!, a program where contestants play Russian Roulette-with a loaded gun. While developing the show, a documentary filmmaker Rex records every step of Katy’s struggle to get it on the air.

As the airdate approaches, Katy’s attempt at “reinventing the wheel” of television invites controversy, political debate and, she hopes, the most audacious television event ever.

 

 

Live! makes for quite interesting viewing, especially as we are in an age where a new reality TV show seems to be aired every week (latest one I just saw was Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling).  The concept of the show seems a little far fetched although you can imagine someone trying this out, as long as the facts behind the laws are correct.

Filmed through the eyes of a documentary crew, Live! takes you on the production journey of the show, from concept to completion and is fairly entertaining for most of the way.  The film stalls slightly midway but once the TV show actually starts, and the contestants line up to pull the trigger I found myself on the edge of my seat.

The first applicants for the show are those who are either terminally ill, or suicidal, it gets interesting when they decide to up the reward and entice those that don’t want to die but are willing to take the risk.  The six final contestants all seem fairly believable in their cause especially as one is mainly doing it to become famous which is another interesting piece of social commentary.

Although the way in which the film is shot is not really that original (had a few of these POV films recently, Coverfield, Diary of the Dead, Quarantine etc), the documentary format works and makes Live! a worthwhile watch.  My only gripe is the ending which I found fell a little flat.  Without giving anything away, I felt that they could have made a more poignant statement on todays society but end up just doing something for the sake of trying to squeeze in a ‘twist’.

DVD Extras

-Interviews with Cast & Crew

-The Director’s Vision documentary

 

If you want to be in with a chance of winning a copy of Live! on DVD head over to our COMPETITION page now.

~ Review by Lee

 

 

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Hunger

The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during the troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976, when the British government withdrew Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary prisoners. In 1978, after a number of attacks on prisoners leaving their cells to “slop out”, the dispute escalated into the dirty protest, where prisoners refused to wash and covered the walls of their cells with excrement. In 1980 seven prisoners participated in the first hunger strike, which ended after 53 days. [Read more]

Cass

The incredible true story of how an orphaned Jamaican baby, adopted by an elderly white couple and brought up in an all white area of London, became one of the most feared and respected men in Britain. [Read more]

The Escapist

Frank Perry (Brian Cox) is a lifer; in prison for the rest of his natural born days.  He’s never had a problem with that: he did the crime; he’ll do the time. Until now.  He receives a letter telling him that his daughter is critically ill after following an overdose.  He knows that he must see her and to do that he’ll have to escape.  But he can’t do it alone.  A motley crew of younger associates are assembled to enact his plan.  

[Read more]

Brooklyn Rules

BROOKLYN RULES is an outstanding coming-of-age drama set on the mean streets of Brooklyn. In 1974, Michael Turner, Bobby Canzoneri , and Carmine Mancuso are three young friends who like to think of themselves as tough guys. After they find a dead body–and a gun–their lives are in for a change. [Read more]

AdULTHOOD

We all inevitably grow up, but in the case of Sam Peel (Noel Clarke), the transition from KIDULTHOOD to ADULTHOOD is particularly difficult. Having been released from prison for causing the death of Trife six years previously, Sam struggles to come to terms with life on the outside. [Read more]

Rise of the Footsoldier

RISE OF THE FOOTSOLDIER charts the rapid rise of Carlton Leach, from feared football hooligan to him becoming a member of one of the country’s most notorious crime syndicates. Following his life over the course of three decades, the film follows Leach’s career from soccer thug, through a stint as a doorman and his involvement in the early rave scene, right through to his nadir as an integral part of a gang that ruled London and Essex during the late 80s and early 90s and would culminate in the infamous shotgun deaths of three of the firm’s members in Rettendon.

[Read more]

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Screenwriter Shane Black of Lethal Weapon fame makes his directorial debut with this film noir. Robert Downey, Jr., stars as Harry Lockhart, a petty thief in New York City who quite literally stumbles into acting and soon finds himself in Los Angeles to test for a film role as a private detective. To help Harry prepare, his new agent arranges for him to shadow a gay private investigator, Perry van Shrike also known as ‘Gay Perry’. But when Perry takes Harry along on a simple job for a mystery client, the two witness the disposal of a dead body, and the game suddenly becomes serious. [Read more]

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