releasing this week: Crazy Heart & Solomon Kane

Yes, I know I’m kind of ignoring the biggest film of the week… which is of course Peter Jackson’s take on Alice Seobold’s novel, The Lovely Bones. Thing is, I’ve already done a review of that this week so I figured there was no need to highlight it any further. You can read that review by clicking here.

Instead I’ve decided to highlight to of the medium sized films this week – Crazy Heart and Solomon Kane, both opening with a reasonable spread around Ireland so hopefully everyone will get a chance to see them.

I kind of presume you’ve heard of Crazy Heart at this stage… It’s that film that’s finally going to win Jeff Bridges his Oscar. He’s been nominated 5 times so it’s pretty much his turn.

I’ve already seen Crazy Heart and I’m in the middle of writing the review so I won’t go on about it too much now but suffice it to say that I think the Oscar is in the bag for him. I haven’t see Colin Firth’s performance in A Single Man yet and I gather it is fantastic but I do think it’s Jeff Bridges’ time and he’s done enough in this film to win it. Even though I still want to give it to Jeremy Renner… he hasn’t a hope really…

In case you haven’t heard anything about Crazy Heart though; it’s the story of a washed up, alcoholic country music star. You’ve seen/heard/read the story a thousand times. All that really matters is the performances and they are excellent all round. Also the music great. I’m not a country music fan by any means… not at all in fact… but you can hear the heart beating in these songs… I know that seems a bit mad but seriously. I’ll be shocked if they don’t win Best Song for The Weary Kind… more shocked than if Jeff Bridges doesn’t win. I don’t know if really sounds like anything when you hear it there but honestly, in the film it’s magic.

By the way, in case you haven’t checked then yes, the guy who wrote/sang that song has the same name as George Clooney’s character in Up In The Air… weird hey. I guess it’s just Ryan Bingham’s year.

The other film this week is Solomon Kane.

You may or may not have heard of Solomon Kane. He’s a character by the 1920s pulp-fiction author, Robert E. Howard. Howard was also the creator of Conan the Barbarian

To be honest, I’m not sure how much resemblance this Solomon Kane bears to Howard’s. I gather he looks the part though. He is 16th century Puritan who, after an unfortunate tangle with a demon, find himself damn to hell…

…Or something along those lines anyway. All I know is that there is an ass-kicking trailer that seems to have borrowed more than a few looks from the Lord of the Rings movies. Sword swinging all over the place suitably nasty looking adversaries mean that this one is definitely on the list for me.

A quick look through the press for this film makes me think I’d better mention James Purefoy. I don’t know who he is but they seem to be pushing him in the title role. I just read that he controversially bared all in the role of Marc Antony in the HBO/BBC Rome. So I guess that makes him notable in some way. I’ve nothing against him, maybe he’s great!

I do suspect though that for a variety of reasons – i.e. there are already quite a few big films in the cinema, cinemagoers are on a bit of an Oscar buzz at the moment and the fact that Solomon Kane has a relatively small distributor – this won’t be in the cinemas for long. So catch it while you can.

I’ve already mentioned The Lovely Bones but the other film out this week is The Last Station – a historical drama about Russian author Leo Tolstoy which has been garnered Oscar nominations for Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer. The Last Station is a limited release so you’ll find it in Cineworld, IFI, IMC Dun Laoghaire and the Cork and Galway Omniplexs.

Crazy Heart, Solomon Kane, The Lovely Bones and The Last Station are all in Irish cinemas from 19th February 2010.