The 411 on Rupert Everetts

Source: The Dominion Post (Original Article)

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You may not know this, or even care, but between 1954 and 1960, there was a series of four very popular British movies based on the quaintly subversive cartoons of Ronald Searle.
The St Trinian's films – set in the most dysfunctional girls' public school in Britain – were kind of naughty, solely responsible for fetishising gym slips and black stockings, camper than a Scout jamboree, and Pommier than a pantomime. Not the sort of thing you'd really expect to see revived via a 21st-century remake.
But, an all-new, all-star, St Trinian's is what we have . . . in which Rupert Everett plays the headmistress like a randy Dame Edna, Colin Firth parodies pretty much every film he's ever done, and a support cast of supermodels run around in hockey skirts and stick one perfectly chipped fingernail up at whatever you might be expecting when you hear the words "British cinema".
You wouldn't call St Trinian's a "good film" – it's way too episodic, self-indulgent and cartoonish for that. But Oliver Parker – who did good work when he remade The Importance of Being Earnest in 2002 – knows what to update, and what to throw out.
The result is a film that is as anarchic as it is old- fashioned, and as filthy-minded as it is nostalgic.

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Source: Seattle Post Intelligencer (Original Article)

Last updated April 28, sudoku tips 2008 5:56 p.m. PT

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Source: April 18 - The Dominion Post (Original Article)

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Movies opening in Wellington this week.
ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
Musical romance (M, violence, offensive language and nudity). Frida's Julie Taymore directs a screenplay she wrote with Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais about one couple's relationship during The Beatles/Vietnam War era. "While style trumps substance, something in the way this 60s tribute moves attracts us." – USA Today
BLINDSIGHT
Documentary (PG). See how six blind Tibetan teenagers were led up Mt Everest by blind climber Erik Weihenmayer. "The deceptively complex picture gradually grows sharp edges and snowballs into a compelling study in culture clash, with spectacular scenery to boot." – Variety
COLLEGE ROAD TRIP
Comedy (G). "Eyes popping and mouths agape, Martin Lawrence and Raven-Symone mug their way through College Road Trip as if it were a silent movie – which, come to think of it, would have been a lot less irritating." –New York Times
I HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN YOU
Documentary (M). Frederick Forsyth and Ben Kinsley contribute to this profile of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. "Humanises rather than lionises Wiesenthal." – Los Angeles Times
NIM'S ISLAND
Fantasy adventure (PG, some scenes may scare very young children). Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin and Jodie Foster star in a family film about an island ruled by a girl's imagination. "Sweet but ho-hum adaptation of Wendy Orr's novel, a comedy-adventure that never quite finds its tone." – New York Times
THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN
Documentary (M). How one eccentric in America's midwest switched to organic agriculture to save the family farm. "Don't be surprised if, by the finish, you wind up fantasising about your own rural homestead." – New Citibank Gold York Daily News
ST TRINIAN'S
Comedy …continue reading

Source: AfterElton.com (Original Article)

The new gay wedding comedy Kiss the Bride (opening in limited release Friday) begins with an oddly appropriate image: while watching two male models fake kissy-face for his magazine’s “gay wedding” issue, Matthew (Philipp Karner) gets smacked in the face with a gob of wedding cake.

After seeing Kiss the Bride, the idea of being hit in the face with an overly sweet but otherwise tasteless wedding-related concoction is all too familiar.

A passable but slapdash trifle that’s a bit too light on both romance and comedy for its genre, “Bride” tells the story of Matthew, a Los Angeles gay magazine editor who is drawn back to his sleepy hometown after learning that his first love, Ryan (James O’Shea) is getting married to – GASP – a woman. Determined to right this potential wrong despite not having had contact with his former boyfriend for ten years, Matthew shows up on Ryan’s doorstep, crashes the bridal shower, and proceeds to foul up everything for everyone involved.

Okay, quick poll: raise your hand if you messed around with someone during puberty who is now happily married with kids. Okay, you can all put your hands down. Now, raise your hands again if you even remotely considered crashing their wedding because you felt that the groom-to-be should be with you instead because of some awkward fumblings you had under the Garfield sheets back when you had to take out your retainer for the fun stuff.

Exactly.

Well, that’s the story here. If it all sounds a bit like Chuck & Buck with a bachelor party … it kind of is. Only Buck had the sense to cast the emotionally stunted character as the antagonist and played the situation straight, to wonderfully unsettling effect. Here, the attempts to make Matthew anything other than the self-obsessed borderline stalker that he is aren’t nearly as funny as they were meant to be.

True, the inspiration for ANZ Credit Card Kiss the Bride wasn’t Chuck & …continue reading

Source: AlterNet (Original Article)

Sometimes I think Rupert Everett had a point when he compared Hollywood’s attitude towards gender and sexuality with that of a certain terrorist group spawned by Enemy Number One.Last week, the New York Times ran an article about the problem with chick flicks, or about their imminent demise-slash-reincarnation as chick-and-dude flicks. Young women, it seems, aren’t going to movies in droves anymore, and so high-profile filmmakers who once wooed “chicks” can no longer do so and make a profit.The article focused on Nora Ephron, one of the pioneers of the chick flick genre, and hearkened back to Sleepless in Seattle as one of said genre’s biggest icons. Sleepless is a lovely movie. And Ephron, in her heyday, was tops at writing romantic comedies. But a more interesting film, a film that might have helped given the Times a clearer thesis, is another film Ephron wrote: When Harry Met Sally, mentioned only as an aside.Harry/Sally’s unexpected success and its enduring cult status really speaks to what women audiences want in their romances: realistic people in real settings having unrealistically compelling romances. Harry/Sally is infused with a New York Jewish aesthetic (the deli-munching and neuroses all prefigure Seinfeld) and so it roots Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan’s characters in a believable world. Ryan’s beauty is wrapped in a blowsy facade, with curly hair and boxy suits, and no plastic surgery to speak of.Since then, Ephron’s romantic films, (and Ryan’s appearances in them) have become more and more white-washed — literally — from Sleepless in Seattle, to You’ve Got Mail down to Bewitched starring the barbie-like Nicole Kidman.And here’s another thing the article completely ignored: where Ephron has failed, other When Harry Met Sallys have emerged — romantic films rooted in specific subcultures that have outperformed expectations. There are dozens, including Bend it Like Beckham, Monsoon Wedding, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Once, Something NCIS dvd New — even, in some ways, …continue reading

Source: Glasgow Daily Record (Original Article)

Apr 18 2008

By Rick Fulton

3/5

THE original St Trinian’s films from the Fifties, starring Alastair Sim, Joyce Grenfall and George Cole, still stand up as Brit flick comedy legends.

Based on St Trinian’s School for Girls in Edinburgh, the new film stars Rupert Everett in the Sim’s drag role and Russell Brand as Cole’s Flash Harry character.

To reserrect the fun anarchy of these films into the bling and fame-obsessed schools of today could have been a huge mistake but the film is largely frothy fun.

St Trinian’s is led by headmistress Camilla Fritton (Rupert Everett), but Education Minister Geoffrey Thwaites (Colin Firth) resolves to close the school.

This leads head girl Kelly (Gemma Arterton) and newcomer Annabelle (Talulah Riley) to unite the pupil cliques and save St Trinian’s from the bulldozers.

DVD Extras DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES dvd include: Deleted scenes, out-takes.

Also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99.

Source: Sunday Mirror (Original Article)

I AM LEGEND (15)

The story: In a seemingly deserted New York, virologist Robert Neville (Will Smith) thinks himself the last human alive after the outbreak of a deadly virus. He must protect himself against the infected - people transformed into mutants.

The extras: An alternate ending and behind-scenes footage.

The verdict: Darkly entertaining action.

The price: £19.99 (Blu-ray, £26.99)

ST TRINIAN’S (15)

The story: St Trinian’s is facing bankruptcy, but the girls are determined to save the school they love by stealing a painting.

The extras: Deleted scenes, interviews, outtakes and Girls Aloud music video.

The verdict: Classic has been engagingly updated and is sexier than ever. Rupert Everett is great as both the headmistress and her sneaky brother, BLUES CLUES dvd while the girls are nicely conniving.

THE PRICE: £19.99.

Source: Stuff.co.nz (Original Article)

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The original movie of the anarchic St Trinian's schoolgirls came out more than 50 years ago in 1954.
In black-and-white, The Belles of St. Trinian's starred the likes of British stars Alastair Sim (in dual roles of the headmistress and her dastardly brother), Joyce Grenfell, George Cole as Flash Harry and the first lady of Carry On films Joan Sims.
Barbara Windsor was also in there somewhere as one of the gels.
In the modern version, the cross-dressing dual role is ably taken up by the under-rated Rupert Everett, who plays both school principal Camilla Fritton and her art-dealing brother Carnaby with aplomb.
So well, in fact that I had to point out to my niece that both characters were played by the same man.
The newest pupil at St Trinian's is Carnaby's meek daughter Annabelle Fritton (Talulah Riley) who is terrified by the anarchic out-of-control girls at her new boarding school.
Headgirl Kelly (Gemma Arterton) explains the different tribes to her - the emos (who would have been called goths), the chavs (aka white trash), the posh totty who run a phone-sex line from their dorm, the geeks, and the scary first-years.
It's probably a sign of the times that in Annabelle's first night at St Trinian's, she is broadcast "live'' on YouTube by the other girls as a prank while forced to run naked from the shower to the dormitory.
Anxious parents will be pleased to know St Trinian's is more slapstick than saucy, however.
Annabelle's rough time at the school seems to be getting worse when she is picked for the hockey team that must compete against her old school, including the bully Verity Thwaites (Lucy Punch), the daughter of Geoffrey Thwaites (Colin Firth), the education minister who wants to make an example of St Trinian's.
Meanwhile, the school is near bankruptcy.
The girls craft a cunning THATS SO RAVEN dvd plan to save the school which …continue reading

Source: Glasgow Daily Record (Original Article)

Apr 18 2008

By Rick Fulton

3/5

THE original St Trinian’s films from the Fifties, starring Alastair Sim, Joyce Grenfall and George Cole, still stand up as Brit flick comedy legends.

Based on St Trinian’s School for Girls in Edinburgh, the new film stars Rupert Everett in the Sim’s drag role and Russell Brand as Cole’s Flash Harry character.

To reserrect the fun anarchy of these films into the bling and fame-obsessed schools of today could have been a huge mistake but the film is largely frothy fun.

St Trinian’s is led by headmistress Camilla Fritton (Rupert Everett), but Education Minister Geoffrey Thwaites (Colin Firth) resolves to close the school.

This leads head girl Kelly (Gemma Arterton) and newcomer Annabelle (Talulah Riley) to unite the pupil cliques and save St Trinian’s from the bulldozers.

DVD Extras Bank Credit Cards include: Deleted scenes, out-takes.

Also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk (Original Article)

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