The biggest and (in our opinion) best in this series of competitions so far, The Void is super proud and like, really psyched, to be able to offer you tickets to see the Noisettes in an intimate London gig on Tuesday, June 9.
The band behind the mega smash hit Don’t Upset The Rhythm will be playing alongside Mr Hudson as Sony Ericsson presents Q The Music Club Live at Hard Rock Café on Tuesday, June 9.
So, after all the rants, the raves, the ratcheting up of tension, can this, the latest instalment of the Terminator franchise, really live up to the hype? The answer is a resounding yes, because there’s never been a summer blockbuster where the money has been more up there on the screen. If you want action, thrills, spills, amazing CGI and make up effects then look no further because Terminator Salvation delivers on absolutely every front.
In this particular episode of mankind against the machines we visit events in the future Sarah Connor never told her son John about – mainly because this fourth part of the story hadn’t even been envisaged when the original came out. However, scriptwriters John Brancato and Michael Ferris do well to keep in all the facts we do already know and then augment them with a new, well thought out story strand.
In our own time Sarah Connor has been visited by a man from the future who becomes the father of her son, John (Christian Bale), who grows to lead mankind’s resistance against the deadly machines. Also in our own time the newly introduced figure of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) is facing the death penalty for killing his brother and two policemen. Believing himself to be damned, Marcus is offered a “second chance” to redeem himself by scientist Dr Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter) who, after his execution, wants him to donate his body to a special experimental procedure she hopes will help cure cancer in the future.
Unfortunately, she has no idea what a nightmare the future will turn out to be, so when Marcus reawakens he finds the last dregs of humanity, including a young man named Kyle (Anton Yelchin), valiantly battling machines intent on wiping out mankind. There is a rumour that a brave leader named John Connor is their last best hope of winning the war and so an amnesiac Marcus and Kyle set out to try and find him. Their frequent encounters with Terminators on the way throw up more questions about just who the seemingly indestructible Marcus is than they answer, and by the time Marcus finally meets John, no one – not even Marcus himself – is sure what he has become and whose side he is on.
Although the storyline may sound slightly complex, in fact it is so straightforwardly explained the audience is left to concentrate on what Terminator Salvation is really all about – spectacle. From the very opening scenes of a resistance attack on a machine base through to some truly awe-inspiring chase scenes (by car, Terminator bike and by fighter plane) to its last showdown in the Terminator factory, this is real seat of your pants stuff. The film creates an almost unbearable atmosphere of paranoia and fear and you’ll be gnawing your knuckles down to bare bone with the tension of it all.
Christian Bale’s intensity sears white hot from the screen but this isn’t, in fact, John Connor’s movie. For long passages of the film he’s not even on screen as the action sits firmly on Sam Worthington’s shoulders as the confused, tormented Marcus. Worthington – in the absence of an Arnie Terminator character – provides a perfect foil for Bale while Anton Yelchin (so brilliant in Star Trek) once again adds youthful energy as the idealistic Kyle, innocently hero-worshipping John Connor.
So, if you want stupendously explosive action with seamless special effects and real heart-pounding excitement, look no further. The summer blockbuster has landed.
Dee Pilgrim
Yes, it’s yet another teenage, bloodfest horror flick, but this time the kids are not in high school, they’re in a British school and there’s actually a serious message behind all the screams and silliness.
Welcome to suburbia and posh grammar school Fairview High. Here, the pouting princes and queen bees are Bradley (Alex Pettyfer), Alexis (Dimitri Leonidas) and their gang, and Tasha (April Pearson) and her followers. Head Girl Justine (Tuppence Middleton) steers well clear of them all, but when bullied fellow pupil Darren (Calvin Dean) commits suicide, the whole school, including all the nerds, goths and emos who never made it into the in-crowd, are thrown together in horrible circumstances. Although overweight Darren may be dead and buried, his ghost is out for vengeance against everyone in the school who bullied and tormented him. Soon, pupils are dropping like tenpins, dying from decapitation, drowning, scalpel slashes, penis chopping and guillotining.
Although the movie is played for laughs and has a definite whiff of MTV about it, its anti-bullying message comes through clear and strong. There are also a couple of sex scenes where the safe sex message is never mentioned but illustrated through the use of condoms. It’s firmly aimed at the teen market with the gore being of the blood sprayed across the whole room variety rather than anything remotely realistic and isn’t at all scary.
However, it does act as a showcase for plenty of young British talent with Olly Alexander as nerdy Jason impressing and Tom Hopper as Bradley’s minder Marcus coming on like a fresh-faced Freddie Flintoff.
Dee Pilgrim
Yet another movie about football hooligans probably won’t appeal to much of the cinema-going public, but there’s way more going on in Awaydays than a bunch of violent oiks in bovver boots. This film is actually more a poignant and tragic love story than a straight depiction of violence.
It’s 1979 and 19-year-old Paul Carty (Nicky Bell) is football and music mad. He’d love to run with The Pack, a notorious gang of Liverpool fans, famous as much for their outfits as their violent clashes before, during and after matches. But in order to join them he has to be accepted by them and pack leader Godden (Stephen Graham), and Godden sees him as an outsider. Then one night Carty runs into Elvis (Liam Boyle) at an Echo And The Bunnymen gig and his life suddenly changes, for Elvis is an aloof and enigmatic member of The Pack and he can get Carty an introduction to the gang. Soon Carty is in the thick of it, fighting with the best of them and getting closer and closer to Elvis. But, Elvis has two secrets, secrets that would tear him apart if anyone knew, so when he decides he has to confide in Carty he puts them both in terrible danger.
Although the utterly senseless violence of The Pack is sickening and doesn’t make for great cinema, if you can get beyond that and concentrate on the growing bond and rather complicated relationship between Carty and Elvis, you’ll find much to impress. This is the real heart of Awaydays and writer Kevin Sampson (from his book of the same name) skilfully creates a friendship of real substance and emotion – brittle and sometimes confrontational, but strong and enduring.
Liam Boyle as tortured soul Elvis, dreaming of a better life anywhere but in Liverpool, perfectly captures Elvis’s frustration and yearning. The mighty Mersey and the even mightier ships that sail down it are used throughout the film as a metaphor for escape and release and the scenes shot at the river’s edge are probably the most memorable of the film. Unfortunately, however, the accents are so thick subtitles would not have been a bad idea as deciphering the dialogue is difficult, but then there is the glorious soundtrack of The Bunnymen, Magazine, The Cure and Joy Division to listen to when you give up on the words.
Dee Pilgrim
The saying goes “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”, which is why this sequel of the hugely successful NATM 1 is more of the same with a few new characters thrown in for good measure.
Ben Stiller resumes his role as museum nightwatchman Larry, although he has now left to set up his own business. However, on a trip back to the museum to play with the dinosaur and chat with Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) he discovers all his favourite exhibits are being shipped out to be stored in the basement of the Smithsonian in Washington. Larry knows he can’t forsake his old buddies including Attila The Hun (Patrick Gallagher), General Custer (Bill Hader) and miniature cowboy Jed (Owen Wilson), Roman Octavius (Steve Coogan), or that infuriating monkey and so travels to Washington to find them. However, the Smithsonian is huge and spread across a number of different venues so while on the quest to find his mates he bumps into Egyptian ruler Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria), Napoleon (Alain Chabat) and Ivan The Terrible (Christopher Guest) and eventually has to enlist the help of Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) to foil their evil plans for world domination.
This is one of those movies where it is almost inevitable that setting the story will take an age as there is so much backplot to get through and so many characters to reintroduce, but director Shawn Levy then exacerbates the slow pace of the film by intercutting the (too few) action scenes with longueurs where nothing much of anything happens. These are mostly scenes dealing with the nascent romance between Larry and Amelia when all the audience really wants is to know how the familiar characters are faring.
Unfortunately, as they spend most of the movie stuck in a cargo container, when we do return to them there’s nothing much going on anyway. This is a great pity as there is so much imagination in this film (a wonderful scene with ‘wobble head’ miniature busts of Einstein is inspired, but is over almost before it begins) it could have been a great old-fashioned action romp with a host of famous historical figures and assorted fauna stampeding through the vast areas under the museum. Instead, by concentrating on the twee romance and neglecting the action it becomes a vapid ghost image of the original.
Dee Pilgrim
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