11:39am Thursday 18th February 2010
(PG, 111 mins, Sony Pictures, D £19.99/two-disc DVD £22.99/Blu-ray £24.99)
Stars: Michael Jackson, Kenny Ortega, Michael Bearden
HASTILY constructed from hundreds of hours of backstage and rehearsals footage, Kenny Ortega’s documentary is a glowing tribute to the King Of Pop as he prepares for one of the most spectacular live shows of his career. The rehearsals footage, shot predominantly at Staples Center in Los Angeles and The Forum in Inglewood, California, opens with a footthumping rendition of Bad and segues into Jam with male dancers flanking the star in perfect time. The hits come one after another: They Don’t Care About Us with a futuristic military theme, Billy Jean, Beat It, Black And White and a delicate version of Human Nature, which reveals the singer has lost none of the melody in his voice. At times, Jackson looks painfully gaunt as he strives to perfect each arrangement, but for the most part, the film captures a musician at the height of his powers. The Blu-ray includes an exclusive 24-page booklet of photographs taken during final rehearsals.
(15, 98 mins, Twentieth Century Fox, DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £28.99)
Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Megan Fox, Johnny Simmons, Adam Brody
NEEDY Lesnicky (Seyfried) is a high school geek with a devoted boyfriend, Chip (Simmons). She also has a best friend, Jennifer Check (Fox), who just happens to be the hottest and most desirable girl at school – transformed into a flesh-hungry menace to male society.
Jennifer’s Body is a distinctly off-kilter teen horror that doesn’t quite find its rhythm. Fox graduates to leading lady with confidence, but she needs to finetune her comic timing to match Seyfried’s increasingly wild-eyed performance.
(12, 76 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, Sci-Fi, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99/limited edition Blu-ray £29.99)
FEATURING the voices of: Elijah Wood, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, John C Reilly, Crispin Glover, Jennifer Connelly, Fred Tatasciore.
In a post-apocalyptic future, 9 (voiced by Wood) wakes to find the scientist who created him is dead, one of millions wiped out by a carefully targeted attack by the Great Machine. 9 meets other cloth figures, all with identifying numbers scrawled on their back and joins forces with his cloth kin in an epic battle against the remaining machines.
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