Upcoming Releases - August '12

Here is a selection of films due out in UK cinemas next month.


Ted - 1st August 
Comedy | Fantasy
106 mins
15 certificate
Main cast: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Seth MacFarlane, Giovanni Ribisi
Director: Seth MacFarlane

'As the result of a childhood wish, John Bennett's teddy bear, Ted, came to life and has been by John's side ever since - a friendship that's tested when Lori, John's girlfriend of four years, wants more from their relationship.'

Official site: http://www.tedisreal.com/


The Flowers of War - 3rd August
Drama | History | War
146 mins
15 certificate
Main cast: Christian Bale, Ni Ni, Xinyi Zhang, Tianyuan Huang
Director: Yimou Zhang

'A Westerner finds refuge with a group of women in a church during Japan's rape of Nanking in 1937. Posing as a priest, he attempts to lead the women to safety.'

Official site: http://www.theflowersofwarthemovie.com/


360 - 10th August
Drama | Romance
110 mins
15 certificate
Main cast: Rachel Weisz, Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Ben Foster
Director: Fernando Meirelles

'A dramatic thriller that weaves together the stories of an array of people from disparate social backgrounds through their intersecting relationships.

Official site: http://www.magpictures.com/360/


The Bourne Legacy - 13th August
Action | Adventure | Thriller
135 mins
12A certificate
Main cast: Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Joan Allen, Albert Finney
Director: Tony Gilroy

'An expansion of the universe from Robert Ludlum's novels, centered on a new hero whose stakes have been triggered by the events of the previous three films.'

Official site: http://www.thebournelegacy.net/#/home


Brave - 13th August
Animation | Action | Adventure
100 mins
PG certificate
Main cast: Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, Kevin McKidd, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters
Director: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Steve Purcell

'Determined to make her own path in life, Princess Merida defies a custom that brings chaos to her kingdom. Granted one wish, Merida must rely on her bravery and her archery skills to undo a beastly curse.'

Official site: http://www.disney.co.uk/brave/


The Expendables 2 - 16th August
Action | Adventure
102 mins
TBC certificate
Main cast: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Liam Hemsworth, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme
Director: Simon West

'Mr. Church reunites the Expendables for what should be an easy paycheck, but when one of their men is murdered on the job, their quest for revenge puts them deep in enemy territory and up against an unexpected threat.'

Official site: http://theexpendables2film.com/


Take This Waltz - 17th August
Comedy | Drama
116 mins
15 certificate
Main cast: Michelle Williams, Seth Rogan, Sarah Silverman, Luke Kirby
Director: Sarah Polley

'A happily married woman falls for the artist who lives across the street.'

Official site: http://www.magpictures.com/takethiswaltz/


The Watch - 24th August
Comedy | Sci-Fi
101 mins
15 certificate
Main cast: Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade
Director: Akiva Schaffer

'Suburban dads who form a neighborhood watch group as a way to get out of their day-to-day family routines find themselves defending the Earth from an alien invasion.'

Official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thewatchmovie


Shadow Dancer - 24th August
Drama | Thriller
101 mins
15 certificate
Main cast: Clive Owen, Andrea Riseborough, Gillian Anderson, Aiden Gillen, Domhnall Gleeson
Director: James Marsh

'Set in 1990s Belfast, an active member of the IRA becomes an informant for MI5 in order to protect her son's welfare.'




Total Recall - 29th August
Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi
118 mins
12A certificate
Main cast: Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston, Bill Nighy
Director: Len Wiseman

'A factory worker, Douglas Quaid, begins to suspect that he is a spy after a visit to Rekall - a company that provides its clients with implanted fake memories of a life they would like to have led - goes wrong and he finds himself on the run.'

Official site: http://www.welcometorecall.com/



Information obtained from IMDb, http://www.filmdates.co.uk/, and the films' official websites.

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Posters & Pics: Skyfall, Anchorman 2, The Dark Knight Rises...

First official poster for Skyfall, which stars Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench and Naomie Harris. Release date: October 26th

New poster for Ridley Scott's Prometheus, which stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba and Guy Pearce. Release date: June 1st

New image from Total Recall, featuring Colin Farrell and Kate Beckinsale. Release date: August 22nd

Teaser poster for Anchorman 2, which stars Will Ferrell, Steve Carell and Paul Rudd. Release date: TBA 2013

New poster for King of Devil's Island, which stars Stellan Skarsgard, Benjamin Helstad and Kristoffer Joner. Release date: June 29th

New poster for The Dark Knight Rises, which stars Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Anne Hathaway and Marion Cotillard. Release date: July 20th

Trailers: Total Recall, Ted, ParaNorman & Rock of Ages

The first full-length trailer for Total Recall, directed by Len Wiseman and starring Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Bill Nighy and Bryan Cranston. Release date: August 22nd

The first red-band trailer for Ted, directed by Seth MacFarlane and starring Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Giovanni Ribisi and Seth MacFarlane. Release date: August 3rd

A new international trailer for ParaNorman, directed by Chris Butler and Sam Fell and starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, John Goodman and Casey Affleck. Release date: September 14th

A new trailer for Rock of Ages, directed by Adam Shankman and starring Julianne Bough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Paul Giamatti and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Release date: June 15th

Short Story / Movie comparison: We Can Remember it for You Wholesale / Total Recall (Philip K. Dick blogathon)

Douglas Quail dreams of Mars. He is very similar to Douglas Quaid, of Total Recall, in that respect. However, unlike his on-screen counterpart, the protagonist of Philip K. Dick’s short story We Can Remember it for You Wholesale keeps his feet firmly on Earth. Yep, that’s right; none of the events that take place on Mars in the film are present in the story.

Even though much of the content of the film isn’t in the short story it is based on, there are still elements in it that stay true to Philip K. Dick’s themes and ideas. A man who is hunted and on the run appears in a lot of his stories, as well as classic questions of reality. What is part of the implanted memory and what is real? Is this all in Quaid’s head? Is he the good guy or the bad guy? You still get that same feeling you get when reading Dick’s work; that you can’t be complacent because any moment he will turn everything on its head.

“He awoke – and wanted Mars. The valleys, he thought. What would it be like to trudge among them? Great and greater yet: the dream grew as he became fully conscious, the dream and the yearning. He could almost feel the enveloping presence of the other world, which only Government agents and high officials had seen. A clerk like himself? Not likely.” (Page 157 of Volume 5 of the Collected Stories).

In We Can Remember it for You Wholesale, Quail goes to have the memory of Mars implanted, only for the men carrying out the procedure to find that he actually has been to Mars, and this memory has been buried deep by the government. The men at Rekal, Incorporated send Quail home without grafting the fake memory and when he comes around, he can remember a trip to Mars as an undercover agent but it is hazy and vague, and he believes something went wrong with the procedure. A policeman shows up at his apartment, who tells Quail a telepathic transmitter is wired within his skull, which tells them all of his thoughts. He knows too much about his past as an agent and he must be killed. As a final measure, Quail desperately suggests they imprint a false-memory as they did previously, and implant another memory, something which would be enough to satisfy his craving for Mars, which seeped through before. A psychiatrist discovers an interesting fantasy buried deep in his mind, one different to wanting to be an undercover agent. One in which he stops an invasion of small alien creatures, by showing them kindness and mercy, and they make a covenant with him not to invade Earth while he is alive. However, when they try to implant this memory, it turns out this one also happened for real… and that is how the short story ends.

Both the short story and the film are appealing in their own ways, although very different from each other. All the events that take place after Quaid leaves Rekall in Total Recall are not Philip K. Dick’s ideas, but they do follow similar themes and there are some great sci-fi moments, so this makes for an interesting comparison.

Review: Total Recall (Philip K. Dick blogathon)

Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) dreams of Mars and a pretty brunette. On the metro he sees an advertisement for Rekall, a place where memories of trips of a lifetime can be implanted into your mind. He goes to check it out even though his friend at work warns him against it. Something goes wrong while he is being prepared for the procedure, which could make him regret disturbing his peaceful, ordinary life as a construction worker in order to chase his dreams. He chose to be a secret agent on Mars but then he starts rambling about it before he’s even been implanted. Was he really a secret agent previously and had his memory covered over by the government? The people at Rekall don’t want any trouble and they wipe the memory of his appointment there and bundle him off in a cab.

 

When he comes around in the cab, his whole world starts to fall apart. He doesn’t know which people he can trust and who is telling him the truth. He can’t even trust his own memories. His friend from work tries to kill him, he goes on the run and receives help from a mysterious figure who leaves him a briefcase. Inside there is a video message from himself, who tells him he must get to Mars. Easier said than done for a hunted man to journey to a planet in the midst of a revolutionary war, as a small group of rebels and mutants fight back against the tyranny of industry leader Cohaagen (Ronny Cox).

Total Recall is a lot more than it first appears to be. Don’t expect a typical action movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger, this film is intelligent, complex and rich in detail. It’s science fiction aspects are more prominent than it’s action set pieces (although those are impressive too); the visual details of the future world of Earth and the station on Mars, and the overwhelming themes of reality and memory are the stars here. The film expertly plays with the possibility that the plot which unfolds is taking place in Quaid’s head, and all the scenes are memories that have been inserted, just like he asked for. The audience is never really sure whether there’s going to be a twist at the end, which sees him wake up from the procedure after believing he experienced the artificial moments first-hand.

 

There is a stand-out scene in the film where Quaid is visited by his wife (Sharon Stone) and a doctor, claiming they have been inserted into his memory in order to help him. They tell him he has become too involved in the implanted memory and he is in danger of losing his mind. He wrestles with the choice of believing them, until he sees a bead of sweat on the doctor (his nerves getting the better of him as he tries to make a lie seem believable).

There are moments where the effects or the science don’t stand up to scrutiny, such as when Quaid and his dream girl (Rachel Ticotin) swell up and their eyes start to pop out cartoon-style, when they are outside on the surface of Mars (the lack of an atmosphere apparently has that effect on you). However, these are minor negatives, and Total Recall should be appreciated as an intelligent and exciting sci-fi/ action film with good performances. Its twisting, thought-provoking story never lets up on pace as it unfolds.

 

Philip K. Dick movie blogathon

Everything is almost ready for me to kick off the blogathon I mentioned here a while ago. Over the next few months, I will review the eight English language films that have been adapted from Philip K. Dick novels or short stories and discuss their original source material. A ninth may be added if I get the chance to see The Adjustment Bureau before the blogathon is complete. Here is the list:

• Blade Runner (1982) - 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'
• Total Recall (1990) - 'We Can Remember It For You Wholesale'
• Screamers (1995) - 'Second Variety'
• Impostor (2001) - 'Impostor'
• Minority Report (2002) - 'The Minority Report'
• Paycheck (2003) - 'Paycheck'
• A Scanner Darkly (2006) - 'A Scanner Darkly'
• Next (2007) - 'The Golden Man'

Philip K. Dick movie adaptations

Philip K. Dick is one of my favourite sci-fi writers. The films that have been adapted from his novels and short stories have generated over $1 billion in world-wide box office and ancillary revenue. Most famous of all is probably Blade Runner (1982), adapted from "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". Other films also based on his works include Total Recall (1990), Screamers (1995), Minority Report (2002), Paycheck (2003), A Scanner Darkly (2006) and Next (2007). I am really looking forward to seeing the upcoming The Adjustment Bureau starring Matt Damon, Emily Blunt and Terence Stamp. In the near future I am hoping to rent these films again so I can re-watch them, I might also re-read the stories at the same time and then write reviews incorporating how well I think they have been adapted. In the meantime I shall leave you with the trailer for The Adjustment Bureau...