The original film centres around a group of men who rent rooms in the house of one Mrs Wilberforce, a kindly old lady with a large house close to King’s Cross railway station. The men, led by Alec Guinness’s “Professor” Marcus, convince the old dear that they’re an amateur string group who need the rooms for rehearsal space – in reality they’re planning to rob a security van at the train station and the house is their base of operations and bolt-hole.

It’s a superbly good fun black comedy, and I’d recommend it to anyone. What has me excited, however, is not just the prospect of seeing The Ladykillers live on stage – but that it’s being adapted for the stage by the man who gave us Black Books, Father Ted, and the wonderful The IT Crowd; the brilliant Graham Linehan.

Linehan’s version will be limited to what happens inside the house, so will need a fair bit of creative license, but if anyone can do it, he can.

He’ll be directing an ensemble cast, including Peter Capaldi (The Thick Of It), comedian Ben Miller and James Fleet (Hugo from The Vicar of Dibley) so there’s notable talent both on-stage and behind the scenes.

Sadly the show is currently only scheduled to run at the Liverpool Playhouse from 3-19 November before moving on to the Gielgud Theatre in London’s West End the week after. But, given Linehan’s credentials and the names on the billing, I suspect it won’t take too much convincing to take the show on a national tour.

Apparently Superman, Spiderman and Batman have already had this treatment, so Bruce Banner is just joining his superhero friends in the slightly more adult world apparently.

I find it ridiculous that they will literally make porn out of anything, though to be honest, it must be a fun job coming up with what to parody.

Well, to be honest, it’s not really the movies but more the Irish accent. Any British accent seems to be hard for people from other countries to master, and a lot of the time Scottish and Irish accents seem to get confused. So it’s not surprising that even the best actors and actresses can be a bit rubbish at Irish accents. So here we go, and let us know if you think I’ve left any clangers out.

• Julia Roberts in Mary Reilly.
• Tom Cruise in Far and Away.
• Brad Pitt in The Devil’s Own.
• Gerard Butler in P.S. I Love You.
• Sean Connery in Darby O’Gill and the Little People.

And also as a side note I would like to include any American show that has gone to Ireland for one episode, such as Murder, She Wrote.

WARING: My taste in movies is awful.

Jesse Eisenberg – Actor in a Leading Role – The Social Network.

OR

Cursed.

Now for those of you who haven’t seen Cursed, it is a werewolf movie starring Christina Ricci and Jesse as a brother and sister who both get attacked by a werewolf and subsequently turn into werewolves themselves. Joshua Jackson plays Ricci’s boyfriend and (it turns out) the werewolf who started this whole mess in the first place. The movie is directed by Wes Craven, so it should definitely get some horror recognition for that.

Mark Ruffalo – Actor in a Supporting Role – The Kids Are All Right.

OR

Just Like Heaven.

This is a chick flick, I’m not going to lie to you. It stars Reese Witherspoon as a young doctor who is too focused on her career to find love and happiness. She is then run over by a car and begins haunting Ruffalo, who has moved into her old apartment. He then discovers she is in a coma and does his best to stop her family turning off the life support machine, all the while falling in love with her. Very mushy, but also very funny.

Nicole Kidman – Actress in a Leading Role – Rabbit Hole.

OR

Practical Magic.

This movie is a love story/feel-good movie/ story about witchcraft and I love it. Amazing soundtrack as well, so it’s worth a watch if only for that. It stars Kidman and Sandra Bullock as sisters who are also witches and accidently kill Kidman’s abusive boyfriend, try to bring him back to life and then kill him again. Because of their dabbling in magic, he comes back and takes over Kidman’s body. This movie is based on a novel (which is a little less feel-good but still alright).

Amy Adams – Actress in a Supporting Role – The Fighter

OR

Drop Dead Gorgeous

Amazing teen black comedy also starring Denise Richards, Brittany Murphy and Kirsten Dunst. The movie revolves around teenagers getting ready for a beauty pageant and is shot in a mockumentary style. Adams features as one of the teens trying to take the crown, as Richards’ mother (Kirstie Alley) sets about trying to kill off the competition.

So, I think you will agree that these movies are far better than anything the Oscars deems amazing, so why not go and check them out?

I would imagine The King’s Speech is going to do well with 12 nominations and having proved itself worthy at the other award shows. I hope Colin Firth wins Actor in Leading Role because he is such a sweetie and surprisingly funny when he’s being interviewed. I think Natalie Portman should win the Actress in Leading Role award for her performance in the Black Swan, although some predictions have suggested that the film is a bit too ‘out there’ for the Oscars. The Social Network has managed to rake up 8 nominations which doesn’t exactly surprise me as I thought it was a really good film but Oscar worthy? I am not so sure.

So who do you think would be a worthy winner? Or more importantly who will be the best dressed?

1. Kick-Ass. While Kick-Ass may simply seem like another comic book turned into a movie, it’s not exactly your standard superhero movie. With the main character being a simple teenager who just wants to dress up and help people, it’s not what you would expect. After being stabbed and hit by a car, Kick-Ass ends up with a lot of metal plates in his body, meaning he can take more of a beating than the average person. He teams up with Big Daddy and Hit Girl to try and defeat the bad guys, who are actual horrible murderous bad guys, and not just mental guys in costumes. It’s very violent and has a lot of swearing, but it is an amazing superhero movie and very funny.

2. Whip It. Whip It follows a young Texan girl calls Bliss, who is pushed into beauty pageants by her overprotective mother. Bliss then discovers the world of Texas roller derby, and joins the team the Hurl Scouts under the derby name Babe Ruthless. For those of you who don’t know what roller derby is, it involves girls in fishnets on roller skates trying to knock each other over. Whip It is amazing, and got me involved with playing roller derby for real. The soundtrack is amazing and getting to watch real roller girls skate alongside Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore is a real treat.

3. The Twilight Sage: Eclipse. Okay, if you don’t know what the Twilight movies are about by now you must have been living under a rock. Basically it follows normal girl Bella, her vampire boyfriend Edward and her werewolf best fried Jacob. Eclipse is the third instalment in the saga, and definitely the most action packed. With some great fight scenes, it is edging its way out of the teen romance genre, and becoming a little more enjoyable for those boyfriends who are forced to watch it.

4. A Nightmare on Elm Street. This new version of A Nightmare on Elm Street was actually really good. I usually dislike horror remakes, because they tend to ruin the original movie, but I think this brought a creepier edge to the movie that the first lot didn’t have. The story follows a disgruntled school janitor who comes back from the dead and haunts a bunch of teenagers in their dreams after their parents burned him alive. As you do. Quite creepy and a lot of good jumps, so if you like horror, I would definitely watch this.

5. Zombieland. If you like a horror spoof movie, then this one is a definite must watch. The story follows Columbus as he tries to make his way across American without getting munched by all the zombies that have taken over the world. The movie is extremely funny, and Woody Harrelson gives an excellent performance.

6. Devil. If you like your horror movies as much as I do, then Devil is a perfect movie to watch. The premise is simple; there are five people stuck in a lift and one of them is the Devil. Now you just need to figure out who it is, which gets a bit easier as everyone starts dying horribly. Very scary, with a nice twist you don’t really see coming (and one you sort of do).

7. Paranormal Activity 2. If you’ve seen the first movie, then you will know how scary these movies can get, and the second one does not disappoint. Set just before the first movie takes place, Paranormal Activity 2 follows the sister of Katie (the girl from the first film) and her family as they begin to think their house may be haunted. Do not watch this alone, or with the lights off, because it is proper terrifying.

8. Jackass 3D. I don’t think I need say too much about Jackass, as I’m sure most people know the deal. This movie is very funny, but it didn’t really need to 3D aspect, as there were only a few moments that benefited from it, and it meant it cost me £10 to watch it instead of £7.

9. REC 2. While you may not have seen REC (the Spanish horror movie), you may have seen Quarantine (the American remake of REC) and the story is pretty much the same, except for the cause of the zombie like virus. REC 2 picks up literally right where the first film left off, and gives a bit of a better explaination as to what was going on in that apartment block. While there is the needless addition of annoying screaming teenagers to the situation, the film is actually amazing and almost as scary as the original. And the plot actually makes sense, which is a change for a sequel.

10. Black Christmas. Okay, this is sort of cheating, because this is a very old film (1974 in fact), but I watched it for the first time this year late one night. It is literally one of the scariest movies I have ever seen, and as a horror fan I am ashamed I haven’t seen it up until now. Set in a sorority house, it follows the girls as they are stalked by a deranged killer. This movie is the reason for the “he’s calling from the house” storylines in so many other horror movies, and it will definitely give you the chills. So if you haven’t seen it, I recommend picking it up and watching it this festive season. Though make sure you don’t get the 2006 remake by mistake, because it is awful.

Image via Wikipedia

Well now Hammer is back, and with a real scary movie and not some spoof-type Carry On rubbish. If you’ve watched TV or been to cinema at all in the past month then you’ll know that the American remake of Let the Right One In is coming out this month. Let Me In follows a young bullied boy who befriends a young vampire who moves in next door, as you do. May not sound that scary, but kids are creepy. I mean if you have seen Pet Semetary or Village of the Damned, I’m sure you will agree. If you’ve seen the trailer, it pretty much spells out the whole film for you, so you know what you’re letting yourself in for.

The last horror movie that Hammer released was the 1976 movie To the Devil a Daughter, which starred horror icon Christopher Lee, but now Hammer chief executive Simon Oakes is determined to prove that they have moved away from that classic Hammer style film, and have moved on to something better.

Let Me In is sure to be a big hit in the cinema. It stars Chloe Moretz (who plays the foul mouthed Hit Girl in the Kickass film) and is a remake of an already popular film, so why wouldn’t it make money? I’m unsure if I’ll pop along to see it until I’ve seen the original (which I own but have still never got around to watching) as I feel I’ll appreciate it better watching it in the right order. However, American remakes tend to be good in their own right but nothing compared to the original. If you’ve seen Rec and Quarantine then you’ll know what I mean.

Oakes says he’s knows he got a lot of live up to, taking on such an iconic brand and trying to push it back into the limelight, but I’m sure horror fans won’t need much persuasion to go and see a movie with the Hammer name on it, as it’s sure to be good.

Image via heyuguys.co.uk

One of the best werewolf horror movies that has ever been made (in my opinion, and I’ve seen enough of them that I feel I can say that) is An American Werewolf in London. It was directed by John Landis and released in 1981. The transformation scene in this movie is iconic, as there was no CGI used, and the effects you see on screen were actually happening. It was also the werewolf movie that inspired Michael Jackson’s werewolf scene in the Thriller video (which John Landis actually helped on, and you can see a lot of the effects are the same).

It spawned a questionable, but still enjoyable sequel An American Werewolf in Paris, and has gone down as a classic. Well if you enjoy the movie as much as I do, then this Halloween it is being screened at London Zoo. This venue has an added geek factor, as anyone who has seen the movie will know that David (the main character) wakes up in the wolf cage of London Zoo after a night of killing things.

The movie is being screened as part of Volkswagen’s See Film Differently campaign, which airs film in interesting locations, so fans can get a different perspective while watching them.

As if seeing the film wasn’t cool enough, there will also be an exhibition of original props from the movie, which fans can look at.

If I had any way of getting to London this weekend I would definitely be there. So if you’re a horror fan, and you can make it, I would try begging, borrowing and stealing to get a ticket.

Image via The Metro

So, let’s take a look at the rules mentioned in the trailer.

Rule 1 – The kills are way more extreme. This is certainly true of recent films. Films like Saw and Hostel have shown people being killed with human vices that twist the limbs off and being tortured to death in very horrific detail. Modern horror movies definitely push the extreme of what is scary and what is just plain wrong.

Rule 2 – The unexpected is the new cliché. This seems to suggest that movies have been trying too hard to create something new to scare people, and they should just stick to what people expect from horror movies. Oh course this could just be an excuse for lazy writing.

Rule 3 – Virgins can die. One of the rules stressed in the early Scream movies, and in movies like Prom Night and Halloween was if you have sex you will die, stay pure and you’ll live. This is apparently no longer true, and is particularly clear in Cherry Falls, where a killer in drag hunts down all the virgins of the down, sparing the teens that have already had sex. So in Scream 4 it seems everyone is up for the chop.

Rule 4 – The killer should be filming the murders. Films like Vacancy, which saw a motel owner and his friends killing people in the motel rooms, while filming them in a snuff movie style, have shown this type of murder in recent times. The tapes are then of course left out for other potential victims to find, and realise the situation they have gotten in to.

According to Scream 4′s trailer “modern audiences have become savvy to the rules of the originals. There are still rules, but the rules have changed.” This certainly seems true, as a lot of new horror movies push the conventions of horror cinema, like no older movie has ever done. Hopefully Scream 4 is as good as the original Scream was, and can bring the slasher movies back to what they were.

Image via Wikipedia

Image by David Bordwell

The studios behind the Making of The Hobbit have confirmed that Martin Freeman will be playing the shire star Bilbo Baggins. Peter Jackson will be directing the two-part prequel to Lord of the Rings.
Jackson released a statement confirming “Despite the various rumours and speculation surrounding this role, there has only ever been one Bilbo Baggins for us,”

“There are few times in your career when you come across an actor who you know was born to play a role, but that was the case as soon as I met Martin. He is intelligent, funny, surprising and brave – exactly like Bilbo and I feel incredibly proud to be able to announce that he is our Hobbit.”

MGM, New Line and Warner Bros also released the casting for the other roles who will be chumming Freeman in the hobbits adventurers including British actor Richard Armitage who will be Thorin Oakenshield (head of the dwarves). The other barefooted little creatures will be played by Aidan Turner and Rob Kazinsky as Kili and Fili; Stephen Hunter as Bombur; Graham McTavish as Dwalin; Mark Hadlow as Dori and Peter Hambleton as Gloin.

The long awaited filming is expected to start in February 2011 and will be shot in 3D. The location is not yet known it will possibly be in New Zealand as with the LOTR films but possibly not! There have been rumours floating around that Warner Bros want to shoot in the UK now that there huge studio is vacant after the filming of Harry Potter.