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Flipped - Movie Review

The movie mostly fails to gain traction due to the lack of solid direction by Reiner. For one, the film is set in the '50s/'60s for no discernible reason other than nostalgia, which doesn't play that big of a part in the plot anyway. Also, aside from half of the voiceovers not really working, the back-and-forth between the two main characters is just not compelling. Even when you know where things are headed, there needs to be that certain something that keeps the audience wanting more, and Reiner never infuses the story with that extra oomph.

A popular children's book (albeit one that's nine years old), Flipped should have no problem drawing a decent number of moviegoers. But with a flawed structure and so-so overall storyline, the film is just more evidence that Reiner ain't what he used to be.

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AS Byatt on Alice In Wonderland

In the week Tim Burton's film is released, AS Byatt takes another trip down the rabbit hole to celebrate classics she first enjoyed as a child

Norwich author Alex Scarrow says, "It's a sort of teen book about time travel. The teenagers are plucked from the very last seconds of their lives in a way that doesn't make a difference to history to become time travellers and work for a covert agency.

"For example, one of them is called Liam and is a steward on the Titanic, and he is taken just as the ship is sinking, so it doesn't make a difference to history as he would have died anyway.

"They are based in New York and their job is to stop others changing the course of history. So in this book, Neo Nazis have gone back in time to make Hitler win, and the kids see New York transformed into a Nazified version of the city. They have to work out what has happened and go back in time and stop the future being changed."

See local news feature...

The movie PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTNING THIEF is out on February 12th.

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack:

Movie poster:

Desperately Seeking Sendak

Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers relive the cold winter's day when they went to visit famously prickly writer Maurice Sendak, to talk about filming Where the Wild Things Are...

The 90 minuteTV dramatisation of Frank Cottrell Boyce's Framed is now showing tomorrow night (Monday 31st August) on BBC1 at 8.30pm, not tonight as previously announced.

Frank Cottrell Boyce TV Drama

new Children's Drama
from Jeranette Winterson...

Una Stubbs will star in Ingenious, the story of 11-year-old Sally, who lives on a farm with her grandmother and friends. The children find a mysterious old glass bottle which leads them on a magical adventure. As the nearby Jodrell Bank telescope picks up curious signs, the children and a local author suspect a dragon could be at large. The drama will be shown on BBC1 later in the year....

Trailer for Darren Shan's first Cirque du Freak movie, titled The Vampire's Assistant, due for release in October.
The series' fans have been posting alarmed and disappointed messages on YouTube. Certainly the movie appears to have gone for the light entertainment, family holiday viewing approach, but looks to me to have done that quite well, as far as a short trailer can convey. It does have a great theme tune and intro.

from The Independent:

Disney took advantage of the seasonal news lull last week to quietly slip out news that it has decided to withdraw from producing The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the next in the Chronicles of Narnia series of films based on the children's books by C S Lewis.

Blaming "budgetary considerations" for its decision, the studio said it would not renew an option to co-finance the $200m (£137m) movie because the worsening economic climate has forced it to become more selective about the number of films it produces.

It was the second major fantasy franchise to be unceremoniously cancelled in recent months. Earlier this year, Warner Bros decided not to make a follow-up to The Golden Compass, the first instalment of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy...

Tim Burton On Alice Movie Set

As with "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," his mission is to reclaim a children's classic and resharpen its edges.

"The story is obviously a classic with iconic images and ideas and thoughts," he said. "But with all the movie versions, well, I've just never seen one that really had any impact to me. It's always just a series of weird events. Every character is strange, and she's just kind of wandering through all of the encounters as just a sort of observer."

Austrailian actress Mia Wasikowska will be Burton's Alice in the 2010 release and Johnny Depp will play the Mad Hatter.

Roman Mysteries, Season Two

Season Two of The Roman Mysteries started this Tuesday on BBC1 and will be repeated each Sunday evening on CBBC...

See the link to Caroline Larence's own blog for more details.

Chronicles of narnia microsite

Nim's Island

Jodie Foster grew up on-screen in the 1970s, acting beyond her young age in such films as "Taxi Driver" and "Freaky Friday." Now Abigail Breslin, who starred in "Little Miss Sunshine," is doing the same.

Jodie Foster and Abigail Breslin co-star in "Nim's Island."
The two were brought together for the adventure comedy "Nim's Island," opening Friday, a film adaptation of the 2002 children's book by Australian Wendy Orr.

Jacqui And Colin Hawkins daughter stars in Mike Leigh film...

Hawkins had "quite a magical childhood": her parents, Jacqui and Colin, write and illustrate children's books, and Sally and her older brother were immersed in their irreverent world of fairy-tales, pirates and witches. "They were always drawing, and it was incredibly creative to be around that," says Hawkins. "I was encouraged to draw and paint and express myself and create things. And I wasn't pushed academically; I could just be what I wanted to be. My parents have a strong work ethic, but their attitude to life, their philosophy, is: whatever makes you happy."

http://www.happy-go-lucky-movie.co.uk/