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The 1980s was a unique decade for British comedies and films in general, with a golden tinge on the ten-year run that produced some incredible cinematic works. In contrast to many American comedies at the time, the differences between the two are often noted, with British work dripping in irony, satire, and self-deprecation, which create a unique brand of comedy. It was also a time when many of Britain's rising stars and comedians were really coming into their own and blossoming into internationally known talents.

There are many films from the time that stand out as rewatchable British classics, such as A Fish Called Wanda and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. These films represent some of the very best of comedy, from the surreal and absurd sketch comedy of Monty Python to films that lean on social commentary and hilarious premises to provide the breeding ground for comical moments.

Richard Curtis brought Christmas cheer to an unseasonably drizzly day at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on Tuesday as he presented his first animated feature That Christmas in a Work in Progress session.

“I really adore Christmas. Whenever I’m kind of thinking of stories, that’s the first place that my mind goes to,” the screenwriter and director told the audience of animation professionals and students.

Having made one of the definitive Christmas movies of all time with live action hit Love Actually, the Bridget Jones Diary and Notting Hill rom-com king has his sights on realizing a similar achievement in animation.

His Netflix-backed animation debut is directed by How To Train Your Dragon animator Simon Otto and produced by Nicole P. Hearon and Adam Tandy For Locksmith Animation.

“It’s the best time of the year,...

Britain is full of incredibly talented actors, but one that has always been able to stand out is Jason Isaacs. Originally enrolled at Bristol University to study law, he loved the theater and began working in various productions while studying. After graduating, he attended the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and in 1989, he made his film debut in The Tall Guy.

In the years before Twitter was euthanized, I’d patiently wait for the onset of the holiday season, and the renewal in my feed of the great “Love Actually” Debate. Every year, the best and brightest of the world — middle management apparatchiks, underemployed magazine writers and hall of fame doomscrollers — would chime in, mostly on the nein side, and make their arguments with eloquence. My favorite was ‘You’re a fucking idiot.’

That one I heard a lot.

“Love Actually” turns 20 this month, and I thought it was time for a thorough revaluation. Was it still a glorious double-steak overstuffed Chipotle burrito of humanity, or would I now see it as they did — a foot-long Subway sandwich with way too many olives bought at a South Dakota gas station?

So I watched the movie again this week. I was struck with an unearned epiphany, the kind that you find in a middlebrow holiday romantic comedy.

This bafflingly bland offering wastes the talents of Melissa McCarthy and Paapa Essiedu – it’s as if they removed the laughs in case they offend

Screenwriter Richard Curtis is a cinema colossus with nothing left to prove: he reinvented the romcom with transatlantic classics like Four Weddings, Notting Hill and The Tall Guy; he re-energised charitable giving with Comic Relief; and even those of us who never signed up to Love Actually concede the dark power of the Emma Thompson-crying scene. But we really do not need this new Christmas film from him, an unremittingly awful, bafflingly terrible and defanged bit of seasonal gibberish: a fantasy comedy which forgets to put in gags and which cheats its own narrative rules. Watching it is like trailing around a year-round Christmas market in March.

Paapa Essiedu plays a chap with the quirky name of Bernard Bottle, employed in New York (cue...

The American actor and musician on working with Wes Anderson, keeping his music fresh and who unbuttoned his shirt in Jurassic Park

Have you ever done something just because you could, without considering whether you should? erret76

Haha! Well, that’s very good. Of course, it quotes the line from Michael Crichton’s brilliant book [Jurassic Park], and then the movie by Steven Spielberg. It’s an interesting idea; you hear people talking about AI. People are weighing in daily about whether we should put a little halt on the progress and use some restraint, wisdom and discretion with the development of AI. Not unlike the genetic opportunities in that movie. Me, myself, you ask. Well, probably all the time. I’m aspiring to think more deeply about whether I should do one thing or another, just because I can.

Did you and Emma Thompson hurt yourselves in that sex...

Here’s your chance to ask the star of The Fly, Jurassic Park and countless Wes Anderson films anything you like – whether about his voice, his work on The Simpsons, his acting on Friends or his music. Get your questions in now!

We could all sit here and list Jeff Goldblum’s filmography at a drop of a hat: Jurassic Park, Independence Day, The Fly, The Tall Guy with Emma Thompson and Grandmaster in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 and Thor: Ragnarok. Then there’s his Wes Anderson films: 2004’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2018’s Isle of Dogs and Anderson’s new one Asteroid City.

On stage, Goldblum has been in Twelfth Night off-Broadway and appeared twice at the Old Vic in London. TV? You name it, he’s done it, from Sesame Street, Friends and Will & Grace to The Simpsons,...

There are very few movie genres in which Emma Thompson hasn’t left her mark, but she’s established a special pedigree in romantic comedies: from “The Tall Guy” to “Sense and Sensibility” to “Love Actually” to “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” she’s explored love in more ways on screen than most people get to experience in real life.

In the romantic entanglements of writer-producer Jemima Khan’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It?,” Thompson’s more of a well-meaning instigator than an active participant, playing a divorcee named Cath who clumsily tries to make a match for her serially-single filmmaker daughter Zoe, played by Lily James. Zoe, meanwhile, is more interested in documenting the arranged marriage agreed to by her childhood friend Kazim (Shazad Latif), not realizing the complicated feelings that his impending nuptials are igniting in her about relationships past, present and future.

Thompson recently...

Mass might be Jason Isaacs’ most powerful role to date, as he expertly authors a father’s grief alongside Ann Dowd, Martha Plimpton and Reed Birney. But Fran Krantz’s film is just the latest in perhaps one of the world’s most varied acting careers, that has covered the gamut of human—and otherworldly—experience. As he’ll explain, everyone has their own favorite Jason Isaacs movie…

My First Film Lesson

My first day on a film set was on Dangerous Love, and— no, I can’t tell you that. It’s too rude. My second day on a film set was on The Tall Guy, with Jeff Goldblum. He wasn’t in the shot—wasn’t even in the frame—and yet he stood in a pair of undies on a chair and recited love poetry to try to get himself into the mood for the shot that...

Few films have had a more transformative impact on their local industry than Four Weddings And A Funeral, which was first released twenty five years ago this week.

Grossing a remarkable $245M off a $4M budget, the film about a committed bachelor who unexpectedly finds love, helped pave the way for a string of globally successful Brit-originated comedies from The Full Monty to Trainspotting, Notting Hill to Love Actually and Bean to Bridget Jones. The rom-com catapulted the careers of Richard Curtis, Working Title, Hugh Grant, Mike Newell, Kristin Scott-Thomas and Duncan Kenworthy among many others, and kick-started the fortunes of its emerging European studio backer Polygram.

The film took a stunning $52M in the U.S., an unprecedented number for a relatively small-budget, British, R-rated comedy. It went down a storm with critics at Sundance and was up for Oscars, BAFTAs and a slew of international awards. The film...

Jeff Goldblum has returned to one of his most successful roles with Dr. Ian Malcolm in the film “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.” Goldblum first played the character in the blockbuster film “Jurassic Park” back in 1993. The actor has had a highly successful career in film, television and theater for over 40 years.

Goldblum’s film career started in a particularly auspicious manner since his first four films were all highly regarded works of the early 1970s: “Death Wish”, “California Split”, “Nashville” and “Next Stop, Greenwich Village.” He continued to work in film and television for the next four decades and even returned to Broadway a few times, most notably in the highly regarded Martin McDonough play “The Pillowman.”

Along the way Goldblum has picked up a number of award nominations including an Oscar nomination for Best Live Action Short Film for “Little Surprises.” He received an Emmy nomination for a guest...

Though he’s been working in films since 1974 — when he played Freak #1 in “Death Wish” — and starred in some of the biggest blockbusters of all time, it seems like only recently that the whole world fell for the charms of Jeff Goldblum. Perhaps it’s the abundance of memes that have taken over the internet; asked for his personal favorite and he cites his “Jurassic Park” co-star Sam Neill “putting his cheek next to the giant shirtless Jeff Goldblum and riding the waves of my breath.” It could be the wry, halting delivery that makes him so much fun to imitate. Or the sense of humor he has about his own image, such as gamely reading “thirst tweets” about himself for Buzzfeed.

This golden age has not gone unnoticed by the star himself. “Things seem to be flourishing right now,” he says. “For whatever reason, I seem to be in a growth spurt.

Love is in the air! Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton put their romance on display at a charity event in the Hamptons on Saturday night. Stefani, 46, was set to perform at the Apollo in the Hamptons event, a fundraiser held to raise funds for education and mentoring programs for youth at the historic Harlem theater. But Shelton, 40, surprised everyone in attendance, and the two performed the song they co-wrote, "Go Ahead and Break My Heart" to open Stefani's set. After leaving the stage, Shelton was his leading lady's biggest fan. Blake sat in front of the stage in the converted...

Love is in the air! Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton put their romance on display at a charity event in the Hamptons on Saturday night. Stefani, 46, was set to perform at the Apollo in the Hamptons event, a fundraiser held to raise funds for education and mentoring programs for youth at the historic Harlem theater. But Shelton, 40, surprised everyone in attendance, and the two performed the song they co-wrote, "Go Ahead and Break My Heart" to open Stefani's set. After leaving the stage, Shelton was his leading lady's biggest fan. Blake sat in front of the stage in the converted...

No one has done a musical like this before, keeping an uneasy beat to craft a dark replica of scared community spirit in the wake of a shocking crime. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

When I hear that something deadly serious has been turned into a stage musical, the first thing that springs to mind is Elephant! the all-singing, all-dancing Broadway show based on the life of “Elephant Man” Joseph Merrick, within the comedy film The Tall Guy. Or, of course, Springtime for Hitler.

So when I heard that London Road, a film adaptation of a National Theatre musical production, is about a 2006 serial-murder case, my first reaction was: Hell no. The potential for getting this wrong is enormous: the probability of tonal imbalance between hammy dramatics and horrible crime is almost 100 percent.

But...

Hollywood went hunting for lots of British comedy talent in the 1990s - and lured the likes of Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry and Emma Thompson...

For some reason, Hollywood fell in love with British actors again in the 1990s. Sparked by Alan Rickman's turn as Hans Gruber in Die Hard at the back end of the 1980s, many movie villains were either Brits, or in the case of Cliffhanger, John Lithgow taking on the mannerisms of a British antagonist.

Yet in particular, Hollywood went recruiting British comedy talent, with faces then mainly - but not exclusively - known for their small screen work getting roles of various sizes in Hollywood productions. Here are some who racked up the air miles - starting with the man who arguably became one of the most successful...

Hugh Laurie - 101 Dalmatians

Laurie is a man of many talents, who ultimately cracked America with...

Oscar-winning UK actress and writer to receive Richard Harris Award.

Emma Thompson is to receive The Richard Harris Award at The Moët British Independent Film Awards on Dec 7.

The award, introduced in 2002 in honour of actor Richard Harris, recognises outstanding contribution to British film by an actor. Previous winners have included, John Hurt, David Thewlis, Bob Hoskins, Jim Broadbent, Daniel Day-Lewis, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon and Julie Walters.

Thompson is known for both acting and screenwriting and is the only artist to date to have received an Oscar for both acting and screenwriting.

Speaking about the Richard Harris Award, Thompson said: “This is a very special award, in name of an incredible actor who inspired so many people during his career. I am honoured to follow in the footsteps of my peers who have received this award before me.”

Thompson received her first Oscar in 1993 for her leading role in Merchant Ivory adaptation Howard...

Emma Thompson is pretty much all the awesome. One of the best things about hiring her to play P.L. Travers in "Saving Mr. Banks" is that Thompson is an accomplished writer in her own right, and when she portrays the creative process, she's not imagining what it's like. She knows. She's done the hard work herself, and she's damn good at it. She's also someone who can effortlessly play sophisticated, but who is unafraid of being massively silly. The first film I really remember seeing her in was "The Tall Guy," a very funny and very silly romantic comedy. She has...

I first discovered screenwriter Richard Curtis in 1989 with "The Tall Guy," an hilarious British comedy starring Emma Thompson and Jeff Goldblum. Curtis is one of those writers (like, say, Charlie Kaufman) who has a voice so powerful and distinctive that it shines through every one of his movies, no matter who directs them. Warm, charming, witty and moving, his films involve the pursuit of love and happiness. Think "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Notting Hill," starring Hugh Grant as Curtis's alterego, or the "Mr. Bean" movies, starring Curtis's early "Black Adder" collaborator Rowan Atkinson, who garbled more than one wedding service in "Four Weddings" with such lines as "in the name of the the Father, the Son and the Holy Spigot." (See our flip cam interview and an "About Time" trailer  below.)  Curtis has enjoyed a long and rewarding relationship with Brit production company Working Title's Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner,...

In Curtis's films, friends and family trump romantic relationships – which are too often founded on superficial attraction

• About Time: first-look review

• Feature: why can't women time travel?

• Watch the About Time trailer

It's right there in the trailer. The key moment in Richard Curtis's new romantic comedy, the pledge of mutual devotion that's supposed to have us reaching for our hankies, comes when Bill Nighy says, "My son," and Domhnall Gleeson whispers back: "My dad." Yes, the posters may concentrate on Gleeson and Rachel McAdams, rather than Gleeson and Nighy, but by the end of About Time it's clear that the young sweethearts' flirty shenanigans are incidental to the main event. What matters to Curtis is just a father, standing in front of a son, and asking him to love him.

We shouldn't be too surprised. One curious aspect of Curtis's filmography is that while he's more or less synonymous with romantic comedy,...

Comedian, actor, writer and director who came to prominence in satirical TV sketch show Not the Nine O'Clock News

Mel Smith was once upstaged by a talking gorilla. He was playing a zoologist in a sketch on his hit comedy show Not the Nine O'Clock News and the gorilla suit contained Rowan Atkinson. "When I caught Gerald in 68 he was completely wild," said Smith. "Wild?" retorted the gorilla. "I was absolutely livid!"

If the gorilla had the best line, Smith had the more expressive countenance, mugging with a deadpan virtuosity rarely seen since Oliver Hardy in his pomp. That face – as hangdog as his childhood hero Tony Hancock's – made Smith, who has died of a heart attack aged 60, one of the most recognisable of postwar British comedians.

Smith's face was only part of his fortune. He was a writer and editor of some of the most redoubtable British TV...

British comedian Mel Smith, who directed The Tall Guy and the first Mr Bean movie, has died.

The comic actor and writer was best known in the UK for his work on sketch shows Alas Smith and Jones and Not the Nine O’Clock News. His agent confirmed he died at his home in London on Friday [July 19] of a heart attack.

His comedy partner was Griff Rhys Jones with whom he set up independent television company Talkback Productions in 1981. The company, which was sold to Pearson for £62m in 2000, produced series such as Da Ali G Show, I’m Alan Partridge and The Apprentice.

After taking roles in movies including National Lampoon’s European Vacation and The Princess Bride, Smith made his feature directorial debut in 1989 with The Tall Guy. The romantic comedy also marked the screenwriting debut of Richard Curtis and starred Jeff Goldblum, Emma Thompson and Rowan Atkinson.

Smith next directed...

News Den Of Geek 20 Jul 2013 - 14:44

The writer, actor and director Mel Smith has died at the age of 60.

Some really sad news to report. The actor, writer and director Mel Smith has died, at the age of 60. The news has now been officially confirmed by the BBC. A heart attack is believed to be the cause of his death.

Smith sprung to fame in the groundbreaking and hugely influential Not The Nine O'Clock News, and then he joined up with Griff Rhys-Jones for a long running and fruitful partnership, the highlight of which being Alas Smith And Jones. The pair's monologues were so popular, they even become part and parcel of the annual build up to the F.A. Cup Final. They also joined together for the movie of Tom Sharpe's Wilt.

Smith co-wrote and starred in the movie Morons From Outer Space too, and he made...

Filed under: Features, Movie News

Al Pacino has played cops, lawyers, spies, moguls, crusaders, heels, soldiers, mentors, Shakespearean tragic heroes and even Satan, but he'll always be best remembered for his gangsters.

So it's good news that he's adding yet another to his rogues gallery, with the news that he's joining the cast of 'Gotti: Three Generations.' In the John Gotti biopic, which will star John Travolta as the Dapper Don, Pacino will play real-life Gambino crime family underboss Neil Dellacroce.

It might be a stretch for the diminutive actor to play a gangster who was known as "The Tall Guy," but Pacino has played six memorable mobsters in his career, all of them unique, none of them a clone of his Michael Corleone or Tony Montana. That will certainly give him the presence, authority and experience to play Dellacroce, who was Gotti's mentor in the 1970s (though he...

Los Angeles, CA, United States (Ahn Entertainment) - Al Pacino is adding major star power to the upcoming film "Gotti: Three Generations." The Academy Award-winning actor will be joining John Travolta, Kelly Preston, and Lindsay Lohan in the upcoming mob flick based on the true story of mobster John Gotti and his descendants.

The screen icon, who is already famous for playing mobsters in films such as "The Godfather" and "Scarface," will play mob underboss Aniello Dellacroce.

Executive producer Marc Fiore told TMZ that he was "very pleased to have Al join the extraordinary team that we are assembling to make this movie."

Dellacroce, also known as "Father O'Neil" and "The Tall Guy," was Gotti's mentor and an underboss in the Gambino crime family. He was indicted on federal racketeering charges, but died of lung cancer at 71 in 1985 before his trial.

Scarface is about to join the mob ... TMZ has learned Al Pacino has agreed to join the cast of the upcoming " Gotti " flick alongside Lindsay Lohan and John Travolta . Marc Fiore -- the executive producer of " Gotti: Three Generations " -- tells us, "Pacino will portray Gambino crime family underboss and Gotti associate Neil Dellacroce (picture above)." Fiore adds, "We are very pleased to have Al join the extraordinary team that we are assembling to make this movie.

Forget Mad Men – just kick back and enjoy watching a cartoon Schwarzenegger run riot

When I was a teenager, I used to get ill every year around Good Friday. It was like having stigmata, but in the form of tonsillitis or earache, and in retrospect, I think I may have been doing it for the attention. One year, I got a virus that manifested itself in about 60 simultaneous mouth ulcers. I had to paint my mouth with some vile antibiotic glue which tasted of boiled cow, and couldn't eat at all, but only lie sadly on the sofa with my giant swollen face in my hands, so my brother decided to cheer me up with a film fest.

He introduced me to what is still my favourite movie, The Princess Bride, and then put on The Tall Guy starring Emma Thompson and Jeff Goldblum. It contains, perhaps, the least generous...

An interview with "Bean" and "The Tall Guy" director Mel Smith in The Daily Mail this week hinted at an ambitious CG-heavy project George Lucas is working on.

Smith directed the ambitious but derided 1994 black comedy flop "Radioland Murders" which Lucas produced and has no qualms about where to lay the blame - "The film was a disaster. George doesn’t understand comedy, so the movie flopped. At least it taught me how to use CGI. George is obsessed with it and used too much in the last two Star Wars films — which I thought were ghastly."

He then dropped this following and telling quote: "‘He [Lucas] has been buying up the film rights to dead movie stars in the hope of using computer trickery to put them all together in a movie, so you’d have Orson Welles and Barbara Stanwyck appear alongside today’s stars."

Smith says he's "too...

Okay, so she's not a Dame yet. Shut up. It's only a matter of time!

Nanny McPhee costar Maggie Gyllenhaal at Emma's star ceremony

for Hollywood's Walk of Fame earlier this month.

Nanny McPhee Returns is on 2000+ of the nation's screens but I probably won't be seeing it. Remember two days back when we discussed what we were always looking for in a movie? One of my answers should have been beauty. I am not a beauty fascist in real life but I suppose I am at the movie theaters. Hollywood's great actresses should be immortalized with key lights, flawless makeup and evening gowns. Movie stars are supposed to be fantasies... our idealized selves. That's why Old Hollywood still has so much appeal. The studio system understood this. I like beauty on my silver screens so I really don't want to see Emma Thompson -- who can be just ravishing (see Much Ado About Nothing.

'Don't get mixed up with drugs, gangs or oil executives,' Em jokes during dig at Bp over oil spill.

By Jayson Rodriguez

Eminem on "The Late Show with David Letterman"

Photo: CBS

Eminem and Jay-z will appear on the "Late Show with David Letterman" tonight (June 25), and in addition to performing on the rooftop together, the two rappers also talk with the cranky host.

In preview clips released online, Em is seen participating in Letterman's famous "Top 10" segment and Jay sits down on the couch to chat with Letterman.

Letterman and the Brooklyn Mc discussed Cleveland Cavaliers star (and Jay-z pal) LeBron James' impending free agency and the arrival of Mikhail Prokhorov, the New Jersey Nets' new Russian billionaire majority owner.

"The tall guy," Hov joked, referring to Prokhorov.

"You're a guy," Letterman then told the rapper. "I'm a guy. Now, if LeBron James wants to be a guy,...

Nov 12, 2009

Richard Curtis is a legend in the United Kingdom, the man who made one of the country’s most popular shows of all time (Black Adder) and helped turn Hugh Grant into a household name. He wrote Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Tall Guy¸ Notting Hill, the adaptation of Bridget Jones’ Diary, and many of the adventures of Mr. Bean before moving into the director’s chair for the beloved Love Actually and, now, Pirate Radio (known as The Boat That Rocked overseas before a stateside title change). Curtis’ ...Read more at MovieRetriever.com...

According to experts at RunPee, a cute bladder-centric website dedicated to the proposition that we've all got to go some time (even while at the movies) so we might as well plan ahead, it's safe to take a four-minute bathroom break approximately 40 minutes into Inglourious Basterds. That's when (I promise I'm not giving anything away)  a young woman stands on a ladder, changing the sign on a movie marquee. The RunPee correspondent suggests that missing the scene, a self-contained exchange between two characters, "won't jeopardize the movie." That is, you'll still understand what's going on after you've flushed and returned to your theater seat. (For other movies/other stall tactics, click around the site.) Hey, it so happens that if you take RunPee's Inglourious advice, you'll miss one of Quentin Tarantino's zingiest lines of dialogue. But that, I think, is the least of what's lost when we fit a...