Now. I know Intermission has its fair share of begrudgers. But they’re wrong. As far as I’m concerned, Intermission is still the best Irish film I’ve seen in the last 10 years (just).

Which is why I’m delighted to be giving away a pair of tickets to the exclusive Jameson Cult Film Club screening of the film in Dublin’s “Mega Mart” (aka, a secret location) on Tuesday 18th June 2013. I had the great fortune to get to go to the last Jameson Cult Film Club screening and it really was something special. If you doubt me, check out the photos from their Jaws screening. Now that’s how you want to watch Jaws. There was a boat on the stage.

You can’t buy tickets to a Jameson Cult Film Club screening so either you can enter this competition and hope, or register to join the Jameson Cult Film Club by visiting JamesonCultFilmClub.ie… and hope. And surely two hopes are better than none.

For your chance to nab a pair of tickets to the Intermission screening, simply complete the below quote from the movie:

“Have I got a ronnie? Well you’re no…”

A Tom Selleck
B Tom Jones
C Tom Hardy

Please note, this competition is open to entrants from the Republic of Ireland only and, due to the nature of the film and the event, you must be over 18.

To enter, e-mail your name, address, phone number and the answer to competitions at averagefilmreviews dot com, with the subject line “Jameson Cult Film Club Competition – Intermission”.

The closing date is Wednesday 12th June 2013 at 10pm. Please note, you must be over 18 to enter and resident in the Republic of Ireland. afr’s general competition terms and conditions apply.

Music documentaries seem to enjoying a resurgance in recent years. Just in the last year or so we’ve seen Reincarnated, The Frames: In The Deep Shade, Neil Young Journeys, Sound City, Searching for Sugar Man, and of course LCD Soundsystem’s Shut Up and Play the Hits (review)…

Unfortunately, not all music docs are created equally. In fact, I’d be tempted to say that more than a few music docs leave much to be desired. I suppose it’s a difficulty with the genre. We’re basically watching group biographies here and the best biographies are generally of the warts and all type. Problem is, when it comes to a music doc the only audience you can rely on seeing it are the fans, so the pressure’s on to produce something that going to appeal to them. So you get something that plays up the good, glosses over the bad and has a whole lot of music in it.

There’s a few music docs recently that have got around that – Searching for Sugar Man and Anvil: The Story of Anvil bypassed it by being films that were specifically about artists who don’t really have a following, at least not in the target audience. For the average band, you’re not going to get that freedom.

So we’re left with a film like The Stone Roses: Made of Stone.

Which is not to say that it’s a bad film. Or that The Stone Roses were an average band. It’s just that it’s probably a little more… reverential than it needs to be. Or if I’m been cruel… pandering. It swiftly skims over the legal troubles, numerous line-up changes and pays no attention to the 15 year gap in the band’s history. No mention is even made of Ian Brown’s very successful solo career.

I guess we’re meant to assume that The Stone Roses = Life.

But in an odd way, it gets away with it.

Director Shane Meadows, of This Is England fame, is an unashamed Stone Roses fan and his love for the band is infectious. Before seeing it I had wondered why one of the shining light of British film had decided to switch into music documentaries – when you see him talking about them, it makes perfect sense. Who would turn down the chance to make a film about their favourite band ever?

Indeed, where the film shines is when they talk to the fans. In May 2012, as a warm up to the comeback tour, The Stone Roses gave something back to the fans by playing a free gig in Parr Hall, Warrington. It was the first public gig they’d played in 16 years and, understandably, fans were desperate to get their hands on tickets. Shane Meadows quickly delves into what The Stone Roses mean to these fans and it really brings to the fore how influential the band really were, far more than archive footage from the ’80s.

It’s also worth mentioning that the film brings nothing new to the table in terms our understanding of Ian, Reni, Mani and John. While Meadows has followed them around on tour and rehearsal, there are no new sit down interviews with the band, just some footage from the press announcement of the gigs and some gigging banter.

The reason The Stone Roses: Made of Stone works is because it’s a film for fans, by a fan with some formidable film-making talent. Even though some of the songs did drag for me (I have never been a fan of Waterfall) it’s a great showcase of their talent. They may have only had two albums but damn did they have some fantastic tunes.

If you’re a fan of The Stone Roses, it’s a must see, but even if you just enjoy their tunes, it’s worth a look. It might reignite a love you didn’t know you had.


7/10

This year marks the return of the original superhero, Superman. We’ve had more than a few incarnations of the man of steel since his debut in Action Comics #1 in 1938 but this summer we’re getting Zack Snyder’s take on him in… Man of Steel.

Zack Snyder of course has quite a lot of experience with superhero, and near superhero, films, having directed 300, Sucker Punch and of course Watchmen. Ok, I know not everyone loves these films but I thought at least two out of the three were great. Guess which ones?

Anyway, this isn’t the point. The point is that, to celebrate this renaissance of Superman, LOVEFiLM want to help you re-live the memories of the Superman films of old by giving you a FREE 12 month subscription to LOVEFiLM.

To enter the competition, just follow the instructions below:

Usually I just do a little question and answer for my competitions but this time I want to do something a little different. Instead of just telling me A, B, or C, I want you to do this…

If you could be a superhero, what would you be called and what power would you have?

To enter, just comment below with your answer. The best one (as judged by me of course!) wins.

Please note, this competition is open to entrants from the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland only.

The closing date is Tuesday 11th June 2013 at midnight. Please note, you must be resident in the UK or Northern Ireland to enter this competition and afr’s general competition terms and conditions apply.

And you have a picture of yourself actually dressed up as this superhero – you know, from a fancy dress party or something – then e-mail it on to me at competitions at averagefilmreviews dot com. Just for the giggle like… I promise I won’t post it up on the Facebook page. Unless you tell me I can post it up on the Facebook page…

… Come on, let me post it up on the Facebook page!

Everyone knows free tastes better.

I love pizza. I also love movies. Pizza and movies, they just go together. It’s true. Recognising this, the good people at Goodfellas have been kind enough to give me a load of vouchers for free pizza. And because I’m a kindly person, I’m passing them on to you.

But why? You might ask. Well it’s all about celebrating Goodfellas new range of Deeply Delicious pizzas. Any new pizza is good pizza in my book but I have to admit… I’m not that crazy about those thin pizzas you get. Deeply Delicious sounds perfect for me so.

Anyway, why I am I waffling on when you just want pizza? I don’t know.

Just answer the question and be in with a chance to win one of the vouchers.

Who directed the Oscar winning movie, Goodfellas?

a) Martin Scorsese
b) Martin Kemp
c) Martin King

Please note, this competition is open to entrants from the Republic of Ireland only.

To enter, e-mail your name, address, phone number and answer to competitions at averagefilmreviews dot com, with the subject line “Goodfellas Competition”.

The closing date is Sunday 26th May 2013 at midnight. Please note, you must be resident in the Republic of Ireland to enter this competition and afr’s general competition terms and conditions apply.

Also, if you would share the status on Facebook I would be eternally grateful. And give you another entry into the draw.

Finally we have an English language trailer for Michel Gondry’s new film, Mood Indigo. Or at least an English subtitled trailer. Which at least gives me hope that it will be released in English speaking territories.

I’ve talked about how much I’m looking forward to it a couple of times now. That hasn’t changed one bit.

If anything, this latest trailer has further whet my appetite. The last trailer, while being unmistakeably Gondry, did seem to play up the romantic comedy element. This trailer makes it just look plain crazy… and that’s what I’m looking for in my next Gondry viewing. Plain crazy.

In case you missed the other two articles, here is the synopsis.

Mood Indigo is based on a 1947 novel by French author Boris Vian called L’Écume des Jours, or Froth on the Daydream in English. That plot follows the story of a young inventor, Colin (Romain Duris), who falls in love with Chloë (Audrey Tautou), they get married but their joy is cut short when Chloë falls ill when a flower starts growing in her lung…

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Let’s face it. The Fast and the Furious series has never been thought of too highly. The only reason to go see them was if you like seeing fast cars right? Or at least that’s what we all thought up until 2011. In 2011, Fast & the Furious 5 hit our screens and shocked everyone by not only being about fast cars, but actually being a good movie as well.

Personally I reckon it was probably The Rock. Everyone knows The Rock can do no wrong. I even liked him in Tooth Fairy. Preposterous wings and all.

He’s back again for Fast & Furious 6, as is Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and director Justin Lin, so naturally, I’m very much looking forward to it. Fast & Furious 5 had one of the greatest “clash of the titans” fights I’ve ever seen plus, and I suppose this was to be expected, some completely ludicrous car chases.

Looking at this new trailer it seems Justin Lin was pretty happy with how well the last one did, Fast Five was the highest grossing of the 12 year old franchise – a decent age for a whiskey, and is fully intending to keep it in that vein. That is, as close to ridiculous as you can get without completely taking the piss…

… Or at least let’s hope he doesn’t end up taking the piss. I mean I can count at least two instances in the trailer where it looks like people are flying. I believe in Justin though, he’s gonna pull it off.

There’s no way this film could be as cool as it looks.

Only God Forgives is Ryan Gosling’s second team up with Drive director, Nicolas Winding Refn.

Unlike most people, it seems, I’m not a massive fan of Ryan Gosling. I like him, he’s a good actor. He was great in Half Nelson, Lars and the Real Girl, The Notebook… but for the last couple of years I have to say, he’s just not doing it for me. He’s in real danger of becoming over-exposed. Maybe he’s working too much but it seems to me that he’s lost a sparkle in his eyes. Dare I accusing him of phoning it in for the last couple of films?

Plus, I really didn’t like Drive, so there’s really no particular reason for me to look forward to this at all…

… Except that these trailers look amazing. Two trailers came out the other day. I’m rather partial to the one with French subtitles but I’ve included the other as well below.

Oddly enough, these trailers put me in mind of Tarantino. Except that obviously one of the biggest things about Tarantino is the dialogue and, judging by Drive and Gosling films in general, there’s no going to be much of that. Also, there are Tarantino’s music choices. Completely different from the use of music in this trailer. So… I don’t really know why it puts me in mind of Tarantino.

Except that it does.

I think it might just be because Gosling seems to be a Tarantino type superhero in these trailers. Could that be it? Or maybe it’s just because it looks cooler than thou. Quentin Tarantino films are nothing if not cool.

Anyway, the final product will probably be nothing like QT. It’ll probably be more like Kim Ki-Duk film more than anything else… but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Let me know what you think of the trailer? Do you think it looks as cool as I think it does?

Only God Forgives premieres at Cannes Film Festival in May. No UK or Irish release date has been announced yet but it’s set for part of Europe at the end of May then the US in July so I’m guessing it’s be out here sometime before then. June…?

It can’t have escaped your notice that well… there’s a lot of comic book serials and horror remakes with movies like Iron man 3 and The Lords of Salem released or about to be. And now, with the release of the remake of The Evil Dead coming up, we thought this would be the ideal time to take a look at the top five all-time horror remakes…

1. Dawn of the Dead (2004)

I know a lot of people would still hold George Romero’s 1978 original in high esteem, and why shouldn’t they? But Zack Snyder’s 2004 remake surprised everyone I think by actually living up to the original. I won’t go so far as to say it surpassed it, but it was worthy of the name.

2. The Fly (1986)

A close second is David Cronenberg’s 1986 remake of the 1958 classic – cue the squeaky-voiced “Help me, help me”.

The incredible modern make-up techniques really seem to transform Jeff Goldblum into the man-sized bug in what was surely one of his finest performances. One not to be missed.

3. Cape Fear (1991)

Martin Scorsese’s 1991 re-make of the 1962 psychological thriller surely improved upon the original? Robert De Niro out-scares Robert Mitchum in his family-stalking work whilst strapping his belt to the bottom of the family vehicle to follow the camping trip was a great moment. Of course, the ending is as dramatically scary as they come. Throw in a ripped and tattooed physique and a little biting off of cheeks and what more could any horror fan really ask for?

4. My Bloody Valentine 3D (2007)

Now I haven’t actually seen the original My Bloody Valentine, despite it being well within my life time of movie watching… but… I have no doubt this is a good remake, because I really liked it. Sure, this was partly due to the fact that one of the Supernatural boys, Jensen Ackels was in it, but it was also good. It had the right amount of humour, the right amount of blood and the right amount of 3D to make it work.

5. The Grudge (2004)

The only one I’ve picked which uses the tried and tested Hollywood horror method of taking a scary Asian film and remaking it. It’s actually a pretty good method, definitely one that has a higher success rate compared to remaking an old Hollywood horror.

The Grudge was really the second major remake of an Asian film… of the last wave of Asian remakes. The Ring of course being the first. On the grounds that it stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, I’m putting The Grudge on this list instead. I LOVED Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

And finally … if you get chance to watch any of these movies in a Cineworld Imax theatre or similar in 3d then do so – the horror is nicely intensified!

Every year I look forward to the Japanese Film Festival. Now in it’s 5th year, it’s the only time of year that fans of Japanese cinema, like myself, are spoilt for choice in the cinemas. Save the occasional one that pops up in the IFI, the odd few that appear in DVD rental store and buying them in the exceeding rare number of shops that actually sell DVDs, there are precious few ways for Irish people to see Japanese, or even Asian films, at all, aside from the likes of the annual Japanese Film Festival.

The festival is collaboration between the Embassy of Japan and the good folks of access>Cinema. Through their network of independent screening venues, access>cinema bring all manner of world and arthouse film to towns all over Ireland and each year they team up with the Embassy to create the Japanese Film Festival “road show” if you will. My words, not theirs.

You see, the Japanese Film Festival is a little different from the other film festivals in Ireland… in that it travels. It’s kicking off in the Light House Cinema in Dublin on Thursday 11th April 2013 and Triskel Arts Centre in Cork on Friday 12th but you’ll also be able to see a selection of the films in Limerick and Galway, finishing up in Waterford on Thursday 25th.

You can see the full festival programme on the access>cinema Japanese Film Festival 2013 page but here are a few highlights I’ve picked out of the 15 films that will be showing.

Nicola’s picks for the Japanese Film Festival 2013

009 RE: Cyborg

009 RE: Cyborg is screening in Dublin and Cork.
UCD Student Centre – Thursday 11th @ 6pm (call 01 716 3810)
Light House Cinema, Dublin – Saturday 13th April @ 6pm
Triskel Arts Centre, Cork – Tuesday 16th @ 6.30pm

In 1964 9 humans were abducted, altered and turned into cyborg weapons. They rebelled and struggled and eventually world peace was restored. 50 years pass and the cyborgs have all been forgotten, until… the world is attacked out of the blue. The cyborgs come back to fight once more against evil, but this isn’t the same world they hid away from all those years ago.

I’m a sucker for sci-fi, any kind of sci-fi. So this is one that’s definitely on my list.

The Light House screening of 009 RE: Cyborg will feature an Q+A with Jonathan Clements

As you might have gathered from the title… Colin Farrell is in this. And it’s called Dead Man Down

Now, somehow I’ve managed to miss all the films where Colin Farrell gets down to a bit of ass-kickin’… so I don’t really know what to expect. Is Farrell a credible action lead? Well, to be fair, I did see Total Recall, but I think the girls had more ass-kickin’ in that than he did. He spent a lot of time looking confused. Which is what he’s done in a lot of the films I HAVE seen him in.

My gut instinct from this trailer is that this film would probably be more fun with Jason Statham in it. But then I think that about most action films. Fortunately, Statham’s agent seems to be working on that.

In any case, aside from the “ruined my life and left me for dead” opening, this doesn’t look to be a Statham film. Not really. Dead Man Down is the American directorial debut of Niels Arden Oplev, director of the original 2009 Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

He’s brought Noomi Rapace along too and picked up Terrence Howard and Dominic Cooper along the way, so it’s probably fair to say that this film isn’t likely to be a barrel of laughs.

I haven’t heard a lot about the plot of Dead Man Down and (thankfully) the trailer doesn’t seem to be giving too much away. Hopefully this turns out to be a little hidden gem.