The Hobbit The Desolation Of Smaug Poster

Check out the first Official Poster for the next chapter in the Middle Earth Hobbit saga, The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug. The film is set for a Christmas release on 13th December and sees Martin Freeman reprising his role as diminutive Hobbit Hero Bilbo Baggins, on a quest to help a band of Dwarves reclaims their homeland from the clutches of a fire breathing dragon with a lust for Gold.

Stephen Merchant Hello Ladies TV Show Trailer

Here’s the first official teaser trailer for Hello ladies the new HBO sitcom from Stephen Merchant, co-creator of The Office and Extras. The new show is Merchant’s first series without the involvement of his long-time comedy collaborator Ricky Gervais and is loosely inspired by some of his own experiences of love, life and dating.

Check out the trailer below and what he had to say about the show when we caught up with him recently in London. Hello Ladies will premiere on HBO on 29th September.

Blue Jasmine Trailer

After several years enjoying the whimsical delights of Europe, time travel and young love;  veteran filmmaker Woody Allen has inevitably returned to his great muse… neurotically troubled New York socialites. His new film Blue Jasmine see’s Cate Blanchet portraying a high society snob, reluctantly forced to move into her sister’s working class home in San Francisco when her own life of riches and privilege suddenly collapses.

After achieving a career box office high with a string of jaunty romantic comedies,  Woody Allen appears to finally have retreated to more gloomy territory. Check out the first trailer below with promises a drunken downward spiral and vocal family drama.

The Escape Plan Poster

Having quickly escaped the unfortunate previous title of The Tomb the new Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone film The Escape Plan introduces itself with it’s first official poster.

The new poster does a pretty effective job at setting up the simple premise that the two aging action superstars must indeed team up at last to break out of the most secure prison ever built and avoid their careers going straight to DVD. The new title will hopefully also provoke fewer inevitable bad puns about getting old than The Tomb would have.

 

The Purge Review

The Plot:

In 2022, America has become a 100% crime free country. That is apart from one night each year, known as The Purge, where, for 12 hours all laws can be broken and chaos can ensue. As a security system salesman James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) gathers his family together in the safety and comfort of their barricaded home for the night, things turn ugly when his son decides to become a good Samaritan.

The Good:

Perhaps the most interesting part of The Purge is its initial premise. The concept of a world where all laws are put on hold for a single night to cleanse the human race of their supposed animalistic tendencies is certainly intriguing.

During the film’s persuasive opening, it almost convinces you that the idea might make some sort of sadistic sense, providing an extreme solution to escalating crime rates and collapsing global economies. However, the film quickly slams into some inevitable moral dilemmas.

When the family opens their tightly locked house to allow a desperate man to escape his would be murderers, it sets up a deadly game of cat and mouse. The family must hunt down their newfound ‘guest’ and return him to the determined gang of maniacs lurking outside, or risk a similarly grisly fate for themselves.

Whilst the opening act sets the film up nicely, it’s really this increasingly vicious second act which delivers meatier food for thought. Provocative questions are raised as the family’s young children start to realise that even their loving parents could quickly turn to violent murder given sufficient motivation.

The Bad:

The Purge begins with a promising idea but fails to find a plot to match that initial intrigue. Disappointingly the origins of The Purge are barely explored and instead the film’s sole focus seems to be simply whether such a horrific social experiment might work. Although it is a good bit of fun with enough gore to keep horror fans entertained, it still feels like a missed opportunity to tell a better story. Whilst this family ordeal is presented well enough to make it slightly (albeit worryingly) realistic, it might have been better to discard such petty details and aim for a bigger story.

Leading man Ethan Hawke holds the film up adequately, but doesn’t have much opportunity to truly shine. This is particularly disappointing after his impressive display in last year’s horror hit Sinister. As for the rest of the cast (mainly consisting of James’ wife, Mary and kids Charlie and Zoey) they unfortunately have even less to work with.

Perhaps the film’s most frustrating disappointment is the handling of the unnamed leader of the homicidal gang, played by Home And Away star Rhys Wakefield. Wakefield’s presence alone is fantastic and yet his character sadly isn’t. Failing to give him sufficient storyline or screen time needlessly squanders the opportunity to give the film a memorable villain.

The Ugly Truth:

The Purge entertains enough for its brisk 85 minute running time and horror fans won’t be disappointed by the standard mix of gore, tension and trauma. It might also particularly interest fans who saw 2008 slasher effort The Strangers and were left with an appetite for more. The Purge boasts a core concept that might be strong enough to start a franchise, but a more carefully considered and original  plot would definitely be needed for any worthwhile sequel or prequel.