Film Reviews This Weeks Releases Great fun acting the metro Arts & Entertainment life Blue Bulb Media Concert Series In Town This Weekend A new concert series launches tonight with Fits Of Passion a contemporary vocal performance and continues tomorrow with pianist Fiachra Garvey and classical guitarist John Feeleys (pictured) from Bach to Buckley show on Sunday Until Sun, St Annes Church, Dawson Street D2, times vary, 10 to 50. www.tickets.ie Calvin Harris Ready for the weekend? Youd better be the Scottish electro- pop artist tonight performs not only with his live band but also in The Academys green room for an after-party DJ set. Mad eyewear a- go-go! Tonight, The Academy, 57 Middle Abbey Street D1, 7.30pm (after-party from 11pm), 30 (after- party 11.95). Tel: 0818 719 300. www.calvinharris.co.uk Spanish Festival Of Literature Writers from across the globe, including acclaimed author Ana Mara Matute (pictured) unite for a multilingual literary event that also features a screening of Even The Olives Are Bleeding, a documentary about the Irish involvement in the Spanish Civil War (today, 2.30pm) Until tomorrow, Instituto Cervantes, Lincoln House, Lincoln Place D2, times vary, free. Tel: (01) 631 1500. www.dublin. cervantes.es Jennifers Body (16) Running time: 102min 1 Day (15A) Running time: 102min Bright Star Running time: 119min A Christmas Carol (PG) Running time: 96min The Men Who Stare At Goats (15A) Running time: 93min D irector Grant Heslovs inventive war film is a quirky cross between Star Wars, The X Files and Apocalypse Now, brimming with imagination and a wickedly black sense of humour. Ewan McGregor (managing a passable American accent) is Bob Wilton, a small-town hack in search of a big, name- making story in Iraq after being dumped by his wife for his one-armed editor. In Iraq he meets the mysterious Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) who claims to be part of The New Earth Army, a renegade division of Super Jedis, led by a long-haired hippy (Jeff Bridges) who insists you need to fight with your mind not your bullets. Lyn tells the sceptical reporter that he can control enemies with his psychic powers, burst clouds by using his mind and stop a goats heart just by staring at it. Crack-job or genius? Bob has to decide. Men Who Stare At Goats keeps its tongue firmly in its cheek, with Clooneys fun-loving, onscreen oddball being helped along with great performances by Bridges and Kevin Spacey as a renegade (and sinister) psychic soldier. Based on Jon Ronsons book, the witty script makes some biting points about conflict, paranoia and the media. And its allegedly inspired by real stories: the most infamous being when Guantanamo Bay detainees were played a childrens show theme tune on repeat as a form of torture. Quite unlike any film youre likely to see this year. Ann Lee Hell is a teenage girl is the concept driving this enjoyably messy horror comedy from the writer of Juno. Transformers hottie Megan Fox has a ball as Jennifer, a bitchy cheerleader who literally becomes a man-eater when a botched black magic spell turns her into an unusually fit zombie. Meanwhile, her adoring BFF, Needy (Mamma Mias Amanda Seyfried channelling Ab Fabs Saffy) is left to dutifully provide the character-driven drama as the dowdy duckling who needs to blossom into a zombie-killing swan before Jennifer gobbles every tasty male in town. As Juno fans will expect, the scripts packed with self-consciously smart-Alec teen speak of the slightly cringey its freak- tarded persuasion. However, as a whole Jennifer lacks Junos narrative snap. Pitched something like Heathers/Mean Girls/Prom Night 3, it lurches wildly between them on the quality scale. More about girl power than gore, there are some wonderfully authentic coming- of-age moments like Needys endearingly awkward sex scene with her steady boyfriend. Bottom line: its barely scary, but a treat for every boy (or girl) whod hack off their right arm to hear Megan Fox purr Youve given me such a wettie. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh Black Birmingham gangs go head to head in an unthrilling British urban thriller thats got gritty sprayed all over it. Our unlikable hero, Flash (newcomer Dylan Duffus), is a drug dealer who has 1 Day to repay 500,000 when his psycho cousin gets out of jail early. Loaded with street slang, gun crime and grime music, this creates a reasonable sense of a subculture. That the cast break into the odd rap has earned this the title hip-hop musical, but thats misleading. This is a less gripping, if grittier, take on the Kidulthood/ Adulthood theme, with musical numbers thrown in. Authentic, but not a rewarding cinematic experience. Anna Smith After a six-year absence, Oscar-winning director Jane Campion triumphantly returns with her finest film since The Piano. Like that, its a period love story, yet despite being set around the Austen era its not your conventional, high-gloss, Hollywood-manufactured bonnet-boiler (eg the ghastly Becoming Jane). Set in 1818, it covers the real-life, tender tryst between 23-year-old Romantic poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and his fashionable, flighty 19-year-old neighbour, Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), inventor of the triple-pleated mushroom collar. That Keats is not only poor (thus unmarriageable) but dying of tuberculosis makes their simple, star-crossed tale so achingly romantic. An effect heightened by Campions exquisite visuals. In another film lines such as Keatss declaration that a poem needs understanding through the senses... might trigger cheesy moments la Ghost, but Bright Star is at once sublimely swoonsome yet marvellously down to Earth. Cornish stomps around in unflattering boots, looking well-scrubbed: you believe this is a real woman experiencing the pain of love for the first time. And by prioritising passion over poetry-spouting, Campion mercifully avoids this feeling like the Blackadder episode set in Mrs Miggins Literary Salon. LI-Z Despite opening with ye olde Disney fairytale book, the House Of Mouses latest animation is unlikely to become a classic. Seeing Dickenss tale not through rosy tinted spectacles, but through 3D ones, this is an uninspiring faithful retelling of his 1840s fable, even using the original dialogue. We start in traditional yuletide mode with a snowy aerial shot of London populated by top- hatted toffs, cheery cabbies and apple- cheeked orphans, only to slam us abruptly into a cold coffin, from which Scrooge (voiced by Jim Carrey) is stealing the pennies off his ex-business partner, Marleys, eyes. It sets the macabre tone for this dark, ghoulish caper as old Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future (all also voiced by Carrey with an embarrassing variety of Oirish/British accents) as a warning to mend his miserly ways. If youve seen director Robert Zemeckiss previous motion capture 3D movies Beowulf and The Polar Express (whose glassy-eyed children still give me the shivers) youll know what to expect. Theres no warmth from these spooky, human-modelled digitised automatons, that glide about like all-night trance festival goers the morning after. Forget the spirit of Death, its Tiny Tims creepy little brave smile thatll give you nightmares before Christmas. LI-Z 14 metrolife Friday, November 6, 2009 Book Now Paloma Faith Flicking through the party pages of fashion magazines lately, youd be forgiven for thinking that Paloma Faith was just another kooky British It Girl. But no. Her beguiling debut album Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? and recent performances on Jonathan Ross and Jools Holland marked her out as a one-to-watch talent whose degree in theatre direction (and experience as a burlesque performer) is as evident as her full-bodied voice. Eat your heart out, Lady Gaga... Mar 16 2010, Vicar Street, 58-59 Thomas Street D8, 7.30pm, 23. Tel: 0818 719 300. www.palomafaith.com The hoTTesT TickeTs in Town We have a pair of tickets to see PALOMA FAITH Mar 16, 2010 at Vicar Street, 7.30pm For a chance to win, e-mail your answer to the question below to life@metroireland.ie by noon today with Hot Tickets in the subject line. With your answer please include your name, address and a number where you can be contacted between 1pm and 3pm. Strictly one entry per person; entrants must be age 18+. Q. Paloma Faith features on the song Whats A Girl Gotta Do? by which band? A Basement Jaxx B Super Furry Animals The winner of yesterdays tickets to see Passion Pit is: Wioleta Frelich index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html