Review : Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)

All growed up: Daniel Radcliffe as the titular boy-man-wizard

Six years have passed since Harry Potter was sitting alone under the stairs without a care in the world. Now the world has changed, darkness has fallen and Harry and co must leave home and go on a quest to find a way to defeat the mighty dark lord.

Voldemort now controls the magical world and the only way for our dynamic trio to defeat him is to destroy the remaining shards of his soul, known as Horcruxes.

At one point our teenage heroes wear one of the Horcruxes as a locket around their neck, which makes them slowly become overcome with anger and rage, not entirely unlike a certain ring, and you can't help but wonder why they didn't just put it in their pocket instead.

If you're thinking it all sounds a bit familiar, then cast your mind back to 2001; a group of heroes travelling in search of a way to destroy an item of jewellery to defeat an evil overseer? Hmmm...

Throughout the Deathly Hallows there's a distinct Fellowship of the Rings feel. This isn't automatically a bad thing of course, as director David Yates embracing the picturesque landscapes and dynamic camera work which gave the films such an epic sense of scale, but the sense of foreboding and ever-increasing darkness soon takes its toll.

The film itself begins the climax to the boy-wizard's story solemnly, with Harry, Ron and Hermione all leaving home for what they know will be the final time. Particularly heart-breaking is the moment where Hermione wipes her parents memories of her, to protect them, and her face fades from the picture frames across her muggle – that's non-magic – home.

The universe which author J.K Rowling might not be exactly the same as the one which we've got to know on screen, but fans will notice plenty of familiar touches crammed in between the lines, and the absence of Alnwick Castle (or Hogwarts to those in the know) mixes up the hum-drum school year formula and turns the film into a non-stop chase movie.

As ever, those who've read the books will understand far more of what is going on (Snatchers?), but the usual tension between the main characters and ample amounts of Polyjuice potion hurry things along. With Obi Wan/Gandalf/Dumbledore gone and Sirius long since departed, Harry has noone to guide him. There's a real sense of the group really not knowing what to do for the first time, which adds to the sense of helplessness and world-ending which Yates is keen to push.

The supporting cast are the usual high standard, with new addition Bill Nighy sublimely asserting his authority as new Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour, and the return of Dobby the house elf is sure to be a hit with younger fans.

It's Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson that we've all grown up with though and they all continue to be as effective as ever, though Radcliffe still lags behind the rest, but Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) really stands out from the 'evil minions' crowd, even over Ralph Fiennes' chilling tones.

With the story only being half over it's hard to build to a climax, though Yates succeeds in creating a impressive and lasting closing image, but the two parts demand watching together to give a real sense of finale. The film is an effective beginning to the end, but not exceptional, the closing chapter will either prove its worth or see the series fall short of the mark.

Rating: 3/5

James Michael Parry

Film Review: The Social Network (so yeah...they mean Facebook)

Just a fad? A waste of time? For people with no real lives? Facebook may fall victim to the generation gap but there’s no denying its popularity.

Over 500 million people actively use the site, spending 700 billion minutes of their time every month updating statuses, poking people and checking out pictures.

The company is currently valued at $25 billion, making CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg the youngest billionaire of all time.

But The Social Network’s story begins well before all that in 2003, at a bar at Harvard University with poor socially awkward Mark (Jesse Eisenberg) being dumped by his Girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara) for being elitist about his academic future.

Sure enough, Mark doesn’t react too well to this and goes on the computer-geek version of a alcohol binge, creating a site called facemash.com which compares girls on the university campus, blogging all the while.

It’s not all megabytes and C++ coding though, and as Mark, with his business partner/best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), evolves their company from a lose connection of college students to the most popular social networking site in history the strain begins to show.

Mark and Eduardo soon don’t see eye to eye over the business, with Eduardo pushing to make money from their success while Mark insists: “We don’t even know what this is yet, all we know is that it’s cool.”

Whether the film is a true reflection of what really happened between the pair through those ground-breaking years, only seven years ago, is unlikely, but there is a keen sense of teenage-awareness with director David Fincher, helmsman of Seven, Fight Club and Zodiac, to keep the film entertaining as well as tense.

Zuckerberg wasn't involved with the film and in fact only Saverin is loosely connected with the book which originated the film, The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich.

Nonetheless the events did happen, and a few unexpected names pop up in the opening credits such as Kevin Spacey as Executive Producer and Trent Reznor, the founder of industrial rock group Nine Inch Nails, on music duty alongside Atticus Ross, who appeared in Reznor's post-Nails side project How to Destroy Angels.

The supporting cast has a few surprising additions, none more so than former pop sensation Justin Timberlake, who plays Sean Parker, a renegade entrepreneur who co-founded original music sharing site Napster back in 1999. Parker becomes a wedge between Mark and Eduardo and Timberlake manages to be convincing as the washed-up party boy – strange that.

Social media is undoubtedly a phenomenon, and Facebook is at the centre of it, like MySpace before it it changed everything about how people interact on the internet, and it continues to be important today, seven years on, after a lot of similar sites have long since declined, including MySpace itself.

As for the film the story is engaging because of the friendship between the characters, and anyone who has grown up with the rise of the internet will relate to it's integration with the cyberculture which has evolved in the 21^st century, as well as typical teenagery moments.

For those who don't know Facebook and don't want to know it won't offer much, but to see what goes into something that has become more than 'just a fad' it is much more rewarding.

Rating: 4/5

James Michael Parry

Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook film, film, review, movies, James Michael Parry, Eduardo Saverin, Jesse Eisenberg, social media, internet, cyberculture

Smartphones: App-tacular Ubrain for Android and iPhone

Some people's lives are ruled by music - I am one such sufferer - and with Spotify and Last.fm around you would have thought we had enough music-related apps about, but, of course, you were wrong.

The idea behind Ubrain - other than having a name that sounds like a type of yo-yo - is that it creates sound to control you. The most blatant brain-washing idea (no pun intended...) since Simon Cowell's plan to put on a 24 hour X-Factor marathon is achieved through binaural waves.

If you don't know what they are then don't worry, though you are a little behind the times since they discovered them back in 1839, but the science is that binaural beats are based on broadcasting 2 different frequencies, one in each ear, resulting in a median 3^rd beat. This 3^rd beat becomes an attraction to your brain and encourages cerebral activity to stick to this virtual beat and carry the brain to this frequency.

Basically, it convinces your brain it is happy if you are feeling a bit down by combining sounds, and although the effect is only temporary, it could be enough to give you a bit of confidence before you take that final exam, or wake you up in time to get to work.

Apparently it does have genuine scientific basis, according to clinical psychologist Brigitte Forgeot, who said: "I'm looking forward to its release, and hope it will turn out to be a product which can be adapted for use in therapeutic treatments. Being able to combine music you enjoy with binaural sound waves is a very definite plus, which leaves room for a lot of creative freedom and different uses of this process."

There's also endorsement from Grammy nominated DJ Paul van Dyk: "That music effects your mood is something we all know – that binaural beats can boost these effects and increase your energy level, help to focus, or calm you down to relax was something I experienced using the Ubrain App."

The app is now available on Android market and for iPod, iPad and iPhone on iTunes, but before you part with £3.49 check out these fancy YouTube videos:

What it's all about

How it all works

James Michael Parry

Exclusive: iPad world premier of spy thriller Nikita

Maggie Q gets her gun on

All good attackers know the most important thing in a fight is the element of surprise, which is exactly what This Is Entertainment got when we were invited to a top secret preview screening of Nikita, a TV remake of the 1990 French film.


The twist was that this was to be the first TV show to be previewed via Apple's shiny iPad. Danny Wallace, writer of Yes Man, hosted the event, dropping the bombshell that unfortunately we weren't allowed to keep the interactive TV trays, but soon everyone was lounging on a comfortable sofa watching episode one.



The show itself boasts an impressive cast including Maggie Q as the titular femme fatale as well as Shane West, formerly Tom Sawyer in the ill-fated League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Xander Berkeley, from not only Kick-Ass and Terminator 2, but also hit action series 24 (which Nikita has plenty in common with).


Berkeley also took part in a live webchat afterwards to explain how the series works: "It's a great structure: you take this deadly female assassin and put her up against this nefarious organisation who trained her to take it down."


Wallace went on to ask him why he thought there were such a large number of spy-turn-rogue-agent flicks around, with the likes of Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer dominating the screens for the past few years: "I'd like to think in this post-9/11 era there is a lot of money being put into counter-terrorism and the public don't really know where that money is going so it all generates the same kind of intrigue that I felt during the cold war era."



So it's your classic case of asset turns against its maker with a few twists turned in for good measure and a little bit of photogenic casting. Now that these sorts of shows, particularly Alias, seem to be on the wane, Nikita deserves to do well. Definitely worth watching.


The show is already available via iTunes and is set to be aired on Living TV in October. Special thanks to Fever PR.


James Michael Parry

Nikita, Warner Brothers, thriller, action, James Michael Parry, iPad, Apple, Maggie Q

Music: Reading Festival 2010 Review

Moody rock stars, muddier teenagers and a plethora of fantastic music and comedy performers made up this year’s Reading Festival weekend.

The rain began on Thursday 26 and continued on and off through the Friday to create one of the most water-logged festivals of recent years.

Classic rock fans refused to have their spirits dampened by the rain and earnestly awaited Guns ‘n’ Roses Main Stage headlining performance on Friday evening. Unfortunately they waited far longer than anyone expected and when frontman Axl Rose waltzed on stage at 10.30pm the band were already an hour late for their advertised slot.

The heavyweight rockers, famous for hits such as ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ and ‘November Rain’, had already kept fans waiting 10 years for their latest album Chinese Democracy, but once the music began the crowd’s discontent softened a little.

Despite festival management company Festival Republic allowing the band to play on for an extra half an hour, they were forced to switch of the sound system at 12.00pm to comply with Reading Borough Council’s licensing, leaving Axl mouthing along to muffled drum sounds.

Being a no-good rock and roller though Rose felt this was not the end and promptly picked up a nearby megaphone to sing along with the crowd in the most original rendition of ‘Paradise City’ in the band’s history.

Guns may have failed to capture the crowds’ imagination but across the (now sodden) grass in the Lock Up tent American pop-rockers Alkaline Trio were delivering a solid performance.

Elsewhere on the Friday Queens of the Stone Age and Lostprophets oozed energy on the Main Stage and both had the crowd singing along to their greatest hits.

Saturday brought a clash between the thumping drum and bass outfit Pendulum and the mellow radio-friendly sounds of Arcade Fire, whose latest album The Suburbs jumped to the top of the album charts last week. Both bands were well received, with the crowd chanting the haunting chorus of Arcade Fire’s ‘Wake Up’ for hours after the music had finished.

In the midst of the battle for supremacy, NOFX showed up as a secret act on the Lock Up stage to entertain the crowd with their usual jibes, even inviting Frank Turner on to join them during their 18 minute epic song 'The Decline,' which they performed in full. Soon after came the band that really shone through on Saturday night: Bad Religion. The group's 30-year-old political punk sounds united old and new fans with a fantastically diverse set delivering hit after hit.

Earlier in the afternoon The Mystery Jets hypnotised the audience with songs from their latest album Serotonin and Dizzee Rascal united rock and pop fans with his bizarre range of styles, including a rendition of his own version of Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ as well as his own hits ‘Bonkers’ and ‘Jus a Rascal’.

Sunday saw a departure from the usual tradition of heavy metal bands to have pop-punk kings Blink 182 closing the festival amid fans of all ages. A particular visual highlight was drummer Travis Barker’s 360 degree drum kit, which spun in all directions, leaving him upside down while he thrashed out a blistering drum solo.

Guitarist Tom Delongue fared less well as he constantly forgot lyrics and at one point got distracted when he spotted Dominic Howard, the drummer for the British rock group Muse, watching them from the side of the stage.

The Alternative Tent retained its consistently high calibre of acts this year, with Adam Bloom, Robin Ince and Russell Kane, who had only just arrived at the festival after being awarded the Edinburgh Comedy Award the previous day, all having the tent in stitches from start to finish.

Despite some typically British weather, the festival delivered a fantastic weekend of entertainment. There was some slightly over-zealous fire fighting on the final night, but generally new safety measures managed to cut down the amount of crime and dangerous gas explosions, which have tarnished the event’s reputation for years. Roll on 2011.

James Michael Parry

music, rock, festival, Reading Festival, Reading Rock, James Michael Parry, live, bands, indie, punk, Guns 'n' Roses, Arcade Fire, Blink 182

Film: Review: Scott Pilgrim vs The World

From the moment the pixellated 8-bit 'Universal' logo ushers in the beginning of Scott Pilgrim vs The World, you know this film will never win an Oscar – and it shouldn't.

Not because it isn't a work of cinematic brilliance (it is), but because Edgar Wright's first feature since wrapping Police-based actioner Hot Fuzz is just too geeky for the masses.

The fact that early reports already show the film not setting box offices ablaze in the USA is no surprise since its up against most of the 80s action heroes in the form of The Expendables and a well-established children's franchise in Toy Story 3.

The story is hum-drum enough: Scott Pilgrim, played by the Superbad Michael Cera, with High School over and no job tying him down has only the haunting memory of his ex-girlfriend breaking his heart to keep him down. He just so happens to be bassist in (almost...) the biggest band in Toronto : Sex Bomb-omb.

Enter 17 year-old schoolgirl Knives (yes, really) who breaks Scott out of his rut when they start going out, that is until pink-haired Ramona Flowers appears to throw a spanner in the works.

As it turns out Ramona has SEVEN evil exs, not boyfriends as she's keen to note, who Scott must defeat to win her.

Admittedly on paper it makes as much sense as the first few hundred pages of Lord of the Rings, but what makes the film soar above the average comic-book adaptations is style.

Scott's world isn't quite the Toronto we (probably don't) know, apart from geographically this is a world where a ringing phone causes the air to be brazened with the word “BRRIIIIIIING”, computer games teach you complex martial arts and defeated enemies burst into a shower of coins.

Music is a weapon and Scott's band's struggle to get a record deal from the illusive G-Man drives the story along, in between watching Cera being pummelled by various imposing opponents.

The seven-strong evil ex roster boasts some impressive names, such as Brandon Routh, better known as Bryan Singer's Superman and Chris Evans, better known as the Human Torch in Fantastic Four, and soon Marvel's #1: Captain America.

Like any good comic-book villain each ex has their own evil powers, such as Routh's telekenisis and mind-reading granted to him by being a 'hardcore' vegan, and fatal weaknesses which prove their undoing, of which a particular highlight is the downfall of evil ex #4 Roxie Richter (Mae Whitman) from some unusual contact.

Gaming plays as large a role in the film as music but the most surreal aspect of the action is influenced by Japanese Manga, with screen blurs, cinematic cut scenes and slow motion fighting moves in abundance.

Cera fails to shake his typecasting as the reformed loser Scott, but nonetheless makes you genuinely care about him, while being amused at his oh-so-typical teenaged awkwardness...at 22.

It's Kieran Culkin as Scott's gay housemate Wallace who is gifted with the best lines, but like previous Wright work Spaced the film would only ever work as an ensemble piece. Luckily the cast compliment each other and those who initially seem one dimensional, such as frowning Sex Bomb-Omb drummer Kim Pine (Alison Pill) often hint at greater depth.

The film itself lives up to what it sets out to be, a story which could well mostly be going on in Scott's head, and some very polished visual effects bring the audience into the virtual world convincingly, at times making you long for 3D.

For those who enjoyed recent comic-book curve ball Kick Ass this is a sensational follow-up watch, and for those even slightly familiar with any of the plethora of references featured it rewards a little suspension of disbelief hundreds of times over to provide a fantastic fun summer film.

Rating 5/5

James Michael Parry

Pictures: Screen Rant, Filmofilia, The Faster Times

Music: Reading Festival 2010 Special - Headliners

August's arrival can mean only one thing - the countdown to Reading Festival 2010 - this year's alternative music extravaganza has well and truly begun.

Over 100 artists from various music genres and levels of commercial success will take to the six stages over three days at what Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighter's described as "The best festival in the world".

Unfortunately with so many countless bands to chose from it can be difficult to choose who to see to guarantee maximum musical enjoyment (and subsequently drunkenness). So, in order to avoid potential panic, This Is Entertainment presents the the first part of the essential Reading Festival 'Must-see' Guide.



The big names

The reason people go to festivals is to see the big headline acts right? Perhaps...but it's not true for everyone.

The beauty of festivals is that so many acts are available all at once, meaning you might wander aimlessly into a tent at 2pm on the Saturday to discover a band you never would have listened to otherwise. The point of this guide as a whole is to give direction to your aimless wanderings, but before all that let's start with the basics and look at the big names.

Guns 'n' Roses

A band out of touch and out of its time grace the Reading Festival stage for the first time - despite appearing at Leeds in 2002, which is surprising considering the bands worldwide fame. In their heyday at the end of the 80s they were one of the world's most intimidating rock groups, even providing a tune for Terminator 2: Judgement Day in 1991.

Now though, they are a shadow of their former self, with frontman Axl Rose recovering from a decade-long ego trip trying to piece together his magnum opus Chinese Democracy and the fighting between Axl and former band members has dragged on for decades.

Still, there is a new line up - with only Axl remaining as founding member - and fan response to their latest album wasn't terrible, but I still can't see them being as fun as Alkaline Trio.

Tracks to catch: Sweet Child O' Mine, Paradise City, Shackler's Revenge
Verdict: Miss

Arcade Fire

The radio-friendly indie band of the festival takes control on the Saturday, a theme which echoes down through the rest of the main stage, though more will be overjoyed by the resurgence of drug-fuelled Pete Doherty and The Libertines.

For Arcade Fire though the appearance couldn't have come at a better time, with their new album The Suburbs assaulting the charts at this very moment after jumping to the number one spot after its release last week.

If you're wondering what songs the band sing then it's quite difficult to nail down a song you may have heard of, the style is very much that of modern hippies, a swaying, laid back sort of pop/rock, though one or two tracks might be familiar from BBC television show adverts.

Tracks to catch: Rebellion (Lies), Wake Up, Keep The Car Running
Verdict: Maybe

Blink 182

Another reformation but this time a welcome one, the nasally voiced teenage heart-break-ridden trio have returned to give us a reason to smile as the last act of the weekend.

The pedigree of the band is sketchy at best - strangely people don't take a band seriously if they run along a road naked in their videos... - but that's the point of Blink, they entertain first and foremost.

During their last appearance in 2003 the band made even the most tight-faced Blink-haters soften a little with their mixture of boyish banter, catchy tunes and audience participation - at one point they had the audience hold up their phones instead of lighters because "it's the 21st Century now kids."

With a new album nearing completion (expected early 2011), fans will be hoping to hear some new songs, and praying they are as good as they remember. It's been a long time since their last self-titled album in 2003 and the fans are all grown up now, their spirits dampened with years of recession, war and no new pop punk heavyweights around to liven things up.

Tracks to catch: Carousel, The Rock Show, All The Small Things
Verdict: Must See

Stay tuned to This Is Entertainment for more crucial band details...

What NOT to do...

Reading Festival 2010, music, rock, festival, bands, tracks, must see, essential guide, August Bank Holiday Weekend, live, performance, gig, James Michael Parry