Still time to catch Avatar at the Cinema Vox in Chamonix amongst other Epics in VO
...More snow forecast to fall in Chamonix this weekend so make the most of the films on offer at the Cinema Vox whilst we await those blue sky days. Here is a summary of what's on over the next few days to wet your appetite!
Avatar
Extended showings of Hollywood juggernaut Director James Cameron's latest epic, Avatar. Paraplegic war veteran Jake Sully signs up for a tour of duty on the planet of Pandora, home to the peace-loving Na'vi. This magical world cannot support human life, but it conceals vast deposits of an ore that sells for 20 million dollars per kilo, so humans intend to mine the planet for vast profit. A pioneering scientist (Sigourney Weaver, Aliens) has developed a method of fusing the minds of humans with Na'vi avatars. Jake is a successful recipient of this experiment, but as his avatar alter ego, he falls in love with an avatar and together they must defeat the heavily armed human troops intending to mine the ore.
Cameron promised us a visually stunning adventure like nothing we've seen before and he delivers. Avatar is a dazzling spectacle in which technology is employed to impressive effect - this is an absolute must-see on the big screen (better in 3D!). Showing until 12th February.
The Book of Eli
If you're in the mood for spotting a number of eccentric British character actors in minor role throughout an action film, then this film is for you.
Thirty years after an atomic war, Eli (Denzel Washington, American Gangster, Training Day) walks across a ravaged America, guarding his most precious possession – a book. Bad guy Carnegie (Gary Oldman, Batman Begins, Leon, The Fifth Element) wants the book and pursues Eli. In the tradition of Mad Max, Eli just wants to move on peaceably, but keeps running into people who give him a hassle, prompting displays of machete-swishing martial arts which leave circles of dying, dismembered thugs littering the landscape. Also, like every other loner hero in the movies, he attracts helpless womenfolk who need protection. Whilst there is the distinct feeling that you're in a sermon, there is also some ace post-holocaust action.
Wolfman
If you're in the mood for a classic tale of the beast within, then this is the film for you. A remake of the 1941 horror movie, a haunted nobleman, Talbot (Benicio Del Toro, Sin City, Snatch) returns to his ancestral home in Victorian-era Britain and discovers that his village is being attacked by a rampaging werewolf and his brother is missing. What he also discovers upon reuniting with his estranged father (Anthony Hopkins, Silence of the Lambs) is a destiny far darker that his worst nightmares, with rumours of an ancient curse plaguing the area. But before the beast can be slain, a man will have to uncover a primal side to himself that he never knew existed. Despite the themes of a darker side to our humanity, this is light fare and well worth a watch!
Disgrace
If you're in the mood for a dramatic film that has beautiful scenery, this will satisfy. David (John Malkovich, Burn After Reading, Changeling) is dissatisfied with his job as a professor in post-apartheid South Africa. When he cruelly seduces one of his students, he is dismissed and goes to live with his daughter on a farm in the Eastern Cape. For awhile, his daughter's influence and the natural rhythms of the farm promise to bring his life calm, but the balance of power in the country is shifting and in the aftermath of a vicious attack on the farm by three black youths, he is forced to come to terms with the changes in society - as well as with his own disgrace. The film, like the book it's adapted from (J.M. Coetzee's Booker Prize winner) is brilliant.
All films showing at the Chamonix cinema Vox (just off the Place Balmat in the town centre.)
