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HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE – Patrick Doyle
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the film adaptation of the best-selling novel by J.K. Rowling, sees young the wizard Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) entering his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, along with his best friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson). After getting caught up in a worrying incident at the Quidditch World Cup, Harry finds himself unexpectedly involved in the legendary Tri-Wizard tournament, in which the champions of three international witchcraft schools take part in a number of challenging and highly dangerous tasks to find an overall winner. However, against the backdrop of this prestigious event, something much more sinister is afoot: rumours begin to circulate about the return of the Death Eaters, evil wizards who wrought havoc upon the magical world years before – and worse yet, the return of Voldemort, their leader, and the one who murdered Potter’s parents… Read more…
PRIDE & PREJUDICE – Dario Marianelli
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Jane Austen wrote her timeless classic of love and longing Pride & Prejudice in 1813, and in doing so introduced to the world what would in time become a classic of English literature. Austen’s story has been adapted for both the big and small screen on several occasions, arguably the most popular and acclaimed being the 1995 BBC mini-series starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, with music by Carl Davis. This new version directed by Joe Wright stars Keira Knightly as the ‘quick minded, sharp witted’ Elizabeth Bennet, who in order to keep her family home secure and provide a future for her mother and sisters, is betrothed to the wealthy but passionless Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods). However, just as her family’s fortunes look as they are finally going to take a turn for the better, Elizabeth unexpected finds herself falling for the dour, taciturn Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen), with whom she clashes both on a number of occasions… The film features an exceptional supporting cast, boasting the likes of Judi Dench, Donald Sutherland and Brenda Blethyn, makes wonderful use of English locations (such as Chatsworth House in Derbyshire), and looks set to become one of the year’s most critically acclaimed motion pictures. Read more…
ZATHURA – John Debney
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Celebrated children’s author Chris Van Allsburg must have a thing about board games. Having already unleashed Jumanji on the world back in 1995, and after the festive diversions of The Polar Express last year, he now returns to his genre of choice with Zathura, another juvenile adventure about a deadly game which proves all too real for its players. Directed by Jon Favreau and starring Jonah Bobo, Josh Hutchinson and Tim Robbins, Zathura tells the story of two brothers who discover a space-adventure board game in the basement of their house. However, once they start playing the game, the boys suddenly find themselves in mortal peril: their house has hurtled through space and is now in orbit around Saturn; they find themselves bombarded with meteors; and, worst of all, they are being threatened by a race of nasty lizard-like aliens called Zorgons. Their only way home is to finish the game – providing they stay alive long enough to do so… Read more…
CHICKEN LITTLE – John Debney
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
It pains me to write this, but the quality of Disney’s annual animated features seem to be decreasing in quality with each passing year. It’s a truly depressing thought to realise that having gone from such legendary fare as Pinocchio, Snow White and Bambi, to modern classics such as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, we are now reduced to watching twaddle like last year’s Home on the Range, and this year’s lacklustre effort, Chicken Little.
The story is a simplistic fable variation on “the boy who cried wolf”, aimed firmly at kids, with little in the way of the subtle subversiveness which makes this kind of fare palatable for adults. Young Chicken Little (Zach Braff) causes a mass panic in his small hometown of Oakey Oaks when he claims that “the sky is falling” (it turns out to be an acorn), and is scorned as a dumb kid, and treated as a social pariah. Read more…
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