National Movie Awards 2011

On Wednesday 11th May 2011, the biggest movie stars in the UK made their way to Wembley Arena in London for the National Movie Awards.

The evening was presented by Christine Bleakley and had performances by JLS, Take That and Eliza Doolittle.

With nominations including the likes of 'The Kings Speech', 'Black Swan' and 'Little Fockers', as well as Daniel Radcliffe and Simon Pegg there was never any doubt about how difficult the competition for the nine awards would be.

The most successful contender of the night was unsurprisingly 'The Kings Speech' who went on to add even more awards to their collection.  They won the award for 'Best Drama', and the 'Special Recognition' title as well.  Along side this Academy Award winner Colin Firth earned the title of 'Performance of the Year' for his role in the film.

The Harry Potter series also had an incredibly successful night winning two awards.  They picked up the title of 'Best Fantasy' for the seventh movie in the collection, 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part one'.  They also won the 'Must See film of the Summer' title for the part two of the Deathly Hallows instalment.  As well as these, one of the actors in the Potter cast walked away with the award for 'One to Watch: Brits Going Global', Jamie Campbell Bower who plays the part of Gellert Grindlewald  in the final two films.  He has also been in the Twilight series as the character Caius.

Others who had a good night were 'Tangled' who won 'Best Animation' and 'Paul' who won 'Best Comedy.

It wasn't only the Brits who earned awards during the evening, American star Johnny Depp got the award for 'Screen Icon' for his numerous incredible performances in Brit made films.

Overall, the evening was full of joy for both 'The King's Speech' and 'Harry Potter', however even some of the lower profile movies enjoyed receiving commendation for the efforts put into creating the films.

X Factor 2011

Over the past few months gossip has been running wild over X Factor 2011.

There has been so many questions circulating; Who will judge the show? Who will present the main show?  Who will present Xtra Factor?  With a large number of celebrity names being thrown into the mix it isn't surprising that it has captured the attention of the country.

This week the interest in it grew to a higher level when it was announced that along with Simon Cowell and Cheryl Cole, Dannii Minogue would also not be returning to the judges panel.  This was announced on Saturday 14th June, only four days before the auditions were supposed to begin in Manchester.  It has been announced that Dannii's reason for leaving was due to commitments to Australia's Got Talent and that Simon Cowell did in-fact want her to continue her position on the show.

It has also been confirmed this week that Take That star Gary Barlow and N-dubz singer Tulisa Contostavios are to replace Simon and Cheryl, who have both left to join the US version of the show, on the panel of judges.

Other rumours that have been discussed are concerned with the presenter of the Xtra Factor.  Three names are the leaders in the running.  Ex-X Factor contestant and I'm a Celebrity winner Stacey Solomon, who has since won over the hearts of the country, Cheryl Cole's Girls Aloud bandmate Kimberley Walsh and the Saturday's Frankie Sandford are all in talks with the producers of the show.

Canterbury Resident on The Apprentice

As the candidates for this year's Apprentice were revealed, the people of Canterbury were surprised to see one of their locals was a contender.

Vincent Disneur was born in Glasgow but is half Swiss and half Belgian.

The 29-year-old who currently resides in Canterbury said: "My positive approach and very good looks make me stand out from the crowd.

He is a sales manager for a telecoms software company and is a self-confessed perfectionist.  He has a passion for theatre and his role models are Richard Branson and Bill Gates, demonstrating that he clearly has a head for business.

He revealed that it was his friends and family who suggested he should apply for the programme.  Mr Disneur described his time on the show as: "an amazing experience and very entertaining."

The British Soap Awards 2011

The past 12 months in 'Soapland' has been full of drama, not only that we have seen the 50th anniversary of Coronation Street and the 25th anniversary of Eastenders.

It has been a year of classic characters making their return, legendary characters saying their goodbyes and dark issues being explored.

Film Review - Something Borrowed

Something Borrowed is the story of a girl who has always lived in the shadow of her best friend and has found herself falling for her fiancé.

It is based on the best selling novel by Emily Griffin and stars the likes of Ginnifer Goodwin, Kate Hudson, Colin Egglesfield and John Krasinski, so there was never any doubt that the film would be a success.  

Terminally single Rachel (Goodwin) met Dex (Egglesfield) when they both attended Law school and she almost immediately fell for him.  Not knowing that her feelings were reciprocated, she encouraged him to get together with her childhood best friend Darcy (Hudson), now she is to be Maid of Honour at their wedding.  

Until the night before her 30th birthday, she is content with dealing her this, however after Darcy drunkenly leaving she finds Dex leaning in to kiss her and ultimately both of them realising how deep their feelings for each other go.  

It follows how Rachel leans on her friend Ethan (Krasinski) as she gets to grips with the betrayal of her longest friend and how she finally decides to step out from behind Darcy and do something for herself for the first time.  However, can she watch the person closest to her marry the love of her life or does she actually have it in her to be the person to break Darcy's heart?

The film explores the thin line between love for a friend and love for the love of your life, looking at which of them is truly Rachel's soulmate.  

    

Viewers have claimed that the film is "the best Romantic Comedy of the year" and "it deals with serious love and friendship issues in a comical way."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qlMqqc7YdE

Film Review - Rango

At the end of 2010, there was the release of the trailers for Johnny Depp's two upcoming films, 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides' and 'Rango'.  Considering the general popularity of the Pirates series, it was no surprise that the excitement for this out shined the latter.

Not many people had particularly high hopes for the film 'Rango', the story of an ordinary chameleon who dreams of being the heroic actor, however they were then pleasantly surprised by the outcome.

Original Cast Reunite for American Pie: The Reunion!

It has now been ten years since the first 'American Pie' film was released, since then the cast has changed and the story lines have become more diverse.  However, recently it was announced by the creators that they were planning on reuniting the original cast for another film and this week several of the biggest names in the movies confirmed that they will be reprising their roles in 'American Pie: The Reunion'.  

The big names from the original three movies including Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott and Chris Klein have all confirmed that they will be appearing the the sequel.  As wells as Alyson Hannigan and Eugene Levy who have also both signed.

It has also been announced that since these signings creators have also been in negotiations with Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tara Reid, Chris Klein, Mena Suvari andJennifer Coolidge to once again step back into their character roles. 


Many of the original crew will also be involved in the production of the film, the original directors Paul and Chris Weitz will be executive producers along side the original writer, Adam Herz.  However, there will be a new director and writer user, with Jon Hurwitz who has written the script and Hayden Schlossberg who will be directing the film.


The film is going to see the gang return to East Great Falls for the ten year reunion.  Jim and Michelle still be happily married, but having trouble with a neighbour who has a crush on Jim.  Stifler will be struggling with his job, as well as with the ladies.  Finally, Oz will return famous after starring on 'Dancing with the Stars'.  


News of this has given hope to audiences that the next instalment will reintroduce the level of comedy that the originals had but has been slowly lost in the latest films of the series.

Film Review - Paul

Considering the popularity of ‘Hot Fuzz’ and ‘Shaun of the Dead’, it was hard to believe that the third film written by best friends Simon Pegg and Nick Frost would be anything less than hilarious, and they did not disappoint. 

‘Paul’ follows the story of two geeky, sci-fi loving best friends, Graeme Willy, played by Simon Pegg, and Clive Gollings, played by Nick Frost.  They travel to America to visit sci-fi conventions and go on a road trip of the most notorious sci-fi areas in America.  Whilst on the road trip they come across an alien, called Paul, who is trying to get home.  With Paul trying to out run Federal Agents, its up to Graeme and Clive to get Paul to his mother ship.  

http://www.scifimoviepage.com/upcoming/
photos/paul/paul-poster_large.jpg

The voice of Seth Rogen, who portrays the alien, is perfect for the character’s personality.  With the constant swearing, the witty sarcasm and his raw intelligence, Rogen’s unique voice only amplifies the comedy.  As well as this the writing and acting by Pegg and Frost never fails to create laughter around the audience, especially with the added extra of the director of ‘Superbad’, Greg Mattola.

Other actors who deserve recognition for their performance include Bill Hader for his portrayal of Haggard, the idiotic Federal Agent trying to compete with the “Top Dog”, Jason Bateman for his performance as the serious and committed "top dog" Agent Zoil, and Kristen Wiig, who plays Ruth, the God worshipping character desperate to find adventure. 

The film has been called “2011’s must see film” and has a “clever, cheeky and funny script” by viewers.  Some people felt that the film was too ‘American’ and that Pegg and Frost should stick to what the know best which is British comedies, however the majority of people thought it was another classic to add to the Pegg/Frost collection.   


See the full trailer for the film below.

Bridget Jones 3 Coming...

Seven years ago British cinema was given a huge boost by the release of ‘Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason’, the second film in the series.  Since the idea of a third being made has been discussed and played with but has never been confirmed.

This week, however, it was announced that ‘Bridget Jones 3’ has been given the go ahead and will start production later this year.