There were whoops at the opening credits. There were more whoops as the end credits. There were also whoops at the trailer for the soon-to-be-reissued Back To The Future — which should give some indication of the kind of crowd that gathered last week to watch an early screening of Edgar Wright’s latest movie, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World. (more…)
August 16th, 2010
It’s the stuff of nightmares. You’re in bed, getting down to business with your girlfriend, you’re wearing your favourite band shirt, she’s wearing those cute girl Y-fronts you like. And then you see it — out of the corner of your eye — a mop of black curls, a streak of pasty flesh, a flash of red pants… Yes, Russell Brand is slipping under the sheets behind her. He’s making a love sandwich and your girlfriend is his designated filling. (more…)
June 21st, 2010
First things first. There is no “correct” Robin Hood. The history surrounding the hosieried vigilante and his merry, forest-dwelling men is so sketchy that for filmmakers through the ages he has been pretty much fair game. Still, if you are going to make a new Robin, as Ridley Scott has with his new version released today, you’d better have a damn good reason. (more…)
May 12th, 2010
We will not lie to you: when Chris Morris got up to address the small audience before last week’s screening of Four Lions, his brilliant new comedy about a cell of hapless British jihadis planning a terrorist outrage, we experienced a tangible buzz of excitement. After so long away, the great enigma of British comedy was back in business. (more…)
March 9th, 2010
Entertainment, Review, Theatre
Such is the intention, at least, of the five characters in Tom Basden’s new comic play, Party, which has just opened for a two-week run at Soho’s Arts Theatre, about a group of misguided students attempting to redefine politics from the safety of a garden shed. (Sorry, “summer house”.) As you would hope of a production that got rave reviews at Edinburgh, it is funny, well observed, and in some instances, a little painfully familiar. (more…)
March 4th, 2010
Food & Drink, Restaurants, Review
We love it when a minor royal ups the people-watching ante when we check out a new restaurant. The night Esquire visited new cabaret club Circus in Covent Garden Princess Beatrice (accompanied by bodyguard and obligatory boat and ballet-shoe wearing posse) was there. Had somebody tipped her off we were coming? (more…)
February 17th, 2010
“Only the dead see the end of war. I have seen the end of war. How do I go on living?” The closing words of Brothers, the new movie from director Jim Sheridan, make for an unconvincing finale to a film that threatens to grip the audience but never retains a significant hold. (more…)
January 15th, 2010
This year’s Nozstock Festival landed on the wettest day in the wettest July since 1888. The site, on a farmer’s land near Bromyard in the West Midlands, is entered via narrow roads with hedgerows as high and foreboding as the maze at The Overlook Hotel in The Shining. The reason for our soggy mission? The legendary Buzzcocks. (more…)
August 4th, 2009
