THE update of the 1980 smash hit, remade by young choreographer-turned-director Kevin Tancharoen, begins with Debbie Allen’s classic line: “Fame costs. And right here is where you start paying... in sweat.”
Allen is back in a new role as principal at the NYC High School of Performing Arts, where 10 young students seek to fulfil their dreams. It’s like a gritty version of High School Musical, without the basketball. Naturi Naughton is the standout performer – remember her name!
Rating: lll
THE SOLOIST (12A)
THE Soloist is an inspirational true story about a musical prodigy crippled by schizophrenia (Jamie Foxx), who unexpectedly gets a second chance at his dreams thanks to an influential journalist (Robert Downey Jr).
The fractious relationship between the two men is at the heart of Joe Wright’s third feature, which trades in the frocks of Pride & Prejudice and Atonement for the grime of 21st-century Los Angeles. However, everything feels contrived despite the powerful lead performances.
Rating: lll
CREATION (PG)
IN the year that marks the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work On The Origin Of Species, Hollywood gets in on the act.
Casting real-life couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as the pre-eminent scientist and his wife, Jon Amiel’s beautifully-crafted biopic focuses on the turbulent period before Darwin committed his radical theories to parchment and changed the course of science. Creation is meticulously crafted, yet somewhat uninvolving.
Rating: lll
SURROGATES (12A)
Director Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines) takes the fascinating premise of the same-named graphic-novel series – a future where humans control robotic doppelgangers who carry out their everyday duties, and rarely leave home – and comes up with 88 plodding minutes which barely touch upon the moral implications of a mechanised society. Bruce Willis stars as an FBI Agent hunting a killer who must re-enter the real world to catch the suspect.
Rating: lll
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS (U)
BASED on the beloved 1978 children’s book by Judi and Ron Barrett, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs is a comical fantasy about one man’s pursuit of his dreams.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s computer-animated film is also a colourful morality tale about the gluttony of the West, where bigger is apparently always better. Bill Hader voices the inventor whose contraption causes food to rain from the sky, while Anna Faris is the inexperienced weathergirl asked to cover this meteorological phenomenon.
Rating: llll
AWAY WE GO (15)
OSCAR-WINNING director Sam Mendes’s Away We Go is an entertaining ensemble piece that paints a vivid portrait of contemporary America and its foibles, with John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph starring as expectant parents who decide to leave behind their blissful back-woods existence for the sake of their imminent child’s prospects.
The resulting madcap road trip sees them cross paths with oddball but well-meaning friends played by Allison Janney and Maggie Gyllenhaal, among others.
Rating: lllll
THE FIRM (18)
LOOSELY adapted from Alan Clarke’s seminal 1989 TV drama, The Firm is a brutal and unflinching portrait of hooliganism and male bonding from writer-director Nick Love, who trampled through similar territory in his 2004 film, The Football Factory.
Calum McNab, who had a supporting part in that movie, is wooden in the central role as the disenfranchised teenager drawn into a dangerous world after mistakenly picking a fight with the leader of one of London’s most notorious football firms, played with relish by Paul Anderson.
Rating: lll
JULIE & JULIA (12A)
MERYL STREEP looks certain to secure a 16th Oscar nomination for her tour-de-force portrayal of American cultural icon Julia Child in the new comedy from writer-director Nora Ephron (Sleepless In Seattle). Based on two memoirs set more than 50 years apart, Julie & Julia is a frothy and entertaining tale of cuisine and l’amour which simmers nicely but never quite comes to the boil. Amy Adams co-stars as the modern-day cook and blogger Julie Powell.
Rating: llll
