Getting the remake treatment this week is the fondly remembered Magic Roundabout, recreated in a very European computer generated style, with the added draw of celebrity voices, such as Kylie Minogue, Joanna Lumley, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent and Robbie Williams. This doesn't save the film from taking a critical kicking as both Bradshaw in The Guardian (two stars) and James Christopher in The Times (two stars also) aren't exactly engaged in a nostalgia fest, but found it "twee and distinctly watery" and "designed to please ageing nerds and rehab patients" respectively. Both did like Tom Baker as ZeBadDee and Bradshaw singled out Robbie williams as "Putting his cheeky, chirpy, whingey voice into Dougal's mouth was an inspired touch".
The other kids draw this week is the SpongeBob SquarePants movie which brings out the stay-at-home-watching-daytime-TV-student in Bradshaw who gives it 4 stars and calls it "Bubbles of fun", while Christopher misses the point as it apparently moves him to question his life choices by asking "Why am I analysing this single-braincell film?" before going on to award a solitary star.
Just so the adults have something to do this week, The Sea Inside is also released, the story of a man campaigning for the right to end his own life, but it looks like the Times and The Guardian got shipped different films.
Bradshaw: "the film often looks simply like a very classy TV movie which embraces the cliches" - One star
Christopher: "a profound and decidedly awkward meditation on what it means to be alive" - Four Stars
They only really agree that Javier Bardem excels in the title roll as the real-life quadriplegic babe magnet Ramón Sampedro.
The Baftas are on in London this Saturday, and screened on BBC1, with Stephen Fry given another opportunity to show off the benefits of a classical education, in his role as presenter.
Best film nominees are The Aviator, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Finding Neverland, The Motorcycle Diaries and Vera Drake, but londonist is more curious to see how Ziyi Zhang (from House Of Flying Daggers) fares in the Best Actress category and whether one of favourite films of the last year, Shaun Of The Dead will walk away with Best British Film.
We doubt it but Simon Pegg cracks us up, the film has a Stone Roses gag in it, and the DVD extras are worth an award of their own. The full list of Nominees can be found here.
While not technically film news, but he is a film star, late night dog-walker Kevin Spacey is to play Richard II at the Old Vic where he is currently the theatres artistic director.
Owen Wilson comes out in defence of his buddy Ben Stiller after a critical mauling, which seems to be somewhat of a trend these days.
Some new images from the upcoming Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy adaptation have been released, and the Wathcmen official site is up and while there's not much on there at the moment Londonist prays that get it right because comic fandom will implode if they don't.
