James Absolon explains how this Pope-themed film, despite its risky premise, works
Alex Pollard reviews Hollywood's biopic of the controversial Margaret Thatcher
Releases: You can really tell that awards season is now but a memory with all bar one of this week’s releases garnering the customary “Why God why?!” exclamation. The first of these are Old Dogs and The Spy Next Door who have both been universally panned upon release stateside and as such are libel to ensure the same groans down this end of the pond. Then there is The Bounty Hunter which is the latest release starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler whose plotline of the bounty hunter husband chasing his ex-wife bears a slight resemblance to her ex-husband’s film Mr & Mrs Smith where Brad Pitt would meet Angelina Jolie and result in the much-publicised divorce.
The one ray of sunshine is the final release of I Love You Phillip Morris which finally secured distribution rights after bouncing from festival-to-festival. This true story sees Jim Carrey take the role of a con artist who falls madly for his cellmate (Ewan McGregor) and, after his cellmate is released, instigates multiple jailbreak attempts.
News: Robert Downey Jr. Has apparently been signed up to star in the forthcoming sci-fi film Gravity by director Alfonso Cuarón (Children Of Men), a project that has already had its fair share of rumour surrounding its cast list.
Also in film news, despite only just being premiered the creators of Kick-Ass already appear to be in talks regarding a sequel. With such great word-of-mouth regarding the first film it is only natural that a sequel would be in talks, however whoever got the ball rolling on the recently publicised new prequel to the Planet of the Apes canon really should leave this now tattered franchise alone and maybe focus on new ideas.
News: Thanks to his routine to Cheryl Cole’s ‘Fight For This Love’, Rufus Hound was crowned winner of Let’s Dance for Sport Relief on Saturday.
If you’re a Glee fan, you can look forward some great cameos coming up in the next couple of months including Idina Menzel and Neil Patrick Harris. Yippee!
The rumour mill is buzzing about whether 20th Century Fox is dropping 24 because of falling ratings and rising costs. But don’t fret Jack Bauer fans, because NBC may be picking it up...of course, all this is just speculation.
New Series: Friday night at 10pm sees a new series on Dave, Comedy Exchange, in which two comedians perform at the other’s usual stand-up venue – the first episode stars Phill Jupitus and American stand-up Eugene Mirman.
Lovers everywhere of nerdy guys should check out Bang Goes the Theory (Mon 7:30pm, BBC1). Among the presenting team is Jem Stansfield, engineer extraordinaire – last series, he defied the US military’s latest non-combative weapon with a motorcycle helmet and some foam. In this week’s episode, he’s attempting to break the land speed record with a fire extinguisher, a go-kart and a spanner. That’s something you’ll probably want to see.
Listings Highlights: The main Sport Relief programme airs on BBC1 from 7pm on Friday, and promised highlights include James Corden as Gavin and Stacey’s Smithy coaching stars such as Andy Murray and David Beckham.
The much-anticipated new season of South Park is back this week (Fri 10:30pm, Comedy Central), and look forward to the 200th episode in a few weeks, where they plan to bring back all the characters of people who’ve complained over the years – it should be a packed episode!
Also, in case you haven’t caught it yet, Dexter, about a forensic investigator living a double life as a serial killer, is showing from the beginning on FX (Wed 10pm).
Get ready to say goodbye to the current Skins cast (Thu 10pm, E4) – the programme has already been commissioned for a further two series, but following tradition, the characters will be replaced after they finish college.
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