James Absolon explains how this Pope-themed film, despite its risky premise, works
Alex Pollard reviews Hollywood's biopic of the controversial Margaret Thatcher
News: Major news is of the recent death of screen icon Dennis Hopper who lost his battle to prostate cancer this weekend. Best known in his roles in classics such as Blue Velvet, Easy Rider and Apocalypse Now, this man is going to be much missed in the acting world.
For those who are unaware of the upcoming Yogi Bear film being released this Christmas, let us at The Yorker enlighten you. With Dan Aykroyd in the starring role, as well as Justin Timberlake as Boo-Boo Bear (sadly not a joke), this film is mixing live-action and CGI in order to bring the beloved Hanna-Barbera cartoon to the silver screen.
Releases: Having been released in America over a year ago, this week finally sees the release of The Brothers Bloom. This film, starring Adrian Brody, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel Weisz, fixates on the Bloom Brothers (Ruffalo and Brody), con-artists extraordinaire as they seek to swindle the beautiful Penelope (Weisz). Despite mixed reviews all have agreed that this cast are easily able to give an engaging performance.
Similar has been said of the US remake of Death At A Funeral. Despite being able to boast a cast containing Chris Rock, Tracey Morgan, James Marsden and Zoe Saldana, this scene-for-scene remake has been dubbed as little more than cinematic karaoke due to its inability to deviate from the original (itself poorly received in the UK).
News: After rather a lot of surprisingly intense speculation, Jason Manford has been announced as Christine Bleakley’s new co-host on The One Show. Meanwhile, despite our best efforts, the UK once again found themselves at the bottom of the Eurovision leader table, with Germany topping it (to read our very own liveblog from the night, click here).
The winner of American Idol was announced last week as Chicago rocker Lee DeWyze over season-long favourite Crystal Bowersox. He caused somewhat of an upset being considered by many as an inconsistent winner, and with the departure of Simon Cowell, the future of Idol is more uncertain than ever.
Listings Highlights: The end of Britain’s Got Talent is looming. Semi-finals will be on every night this week on ITV1 from 7:30–9pm, with half-hour results shows each evening starting from 9:30pm, while the final will air next Saturday at 7:30pm. On another ‘ender’ note, the final (ever) episode of FlashForward is airing, so we can all find out whether those visions are going to come true or not (Mon 10pm, five).
Next Sunday sees one of the biggest nights of the year for the British TV industry in the form of the BAFTA Television awards. Tune into BBC1 at 8pm to see all the winners and losers (and, of course, all the frocks.)
New Series: The first in BBC3’s pilot season comes in the form of hospital-set horror Pulse (Thursday, 9pm). Several one-offs that are being considered for a full series will be shown over the next few weeks. The last time BBC3 tried this, we got the marvellous Being Human out of it. Judging from the impressive cast and the past work of writer Paul Cornell (whose Doctor Who work has been exceptionally well-received), Pulse is certainly one to watch.
A new season of Chuck starts this week, and now that we know it’s been renewed for a 4th season, it’s especially worth tuning in (Mon 9pm, Virgin 1). Similarly, season 9 of Smallville is commencing (Tue 9pm, E4) and a second season of US cable show Burn Notice (Thu 9pm, fiver).
You must log in to submit a comment.
