Gemma Arterton in Tamara Drewe.

Tamara Drewe is a comic book movie without flaming skulls, mutants or crimefighting adolescents

Tamara Drewe, the British movie based on a comic strip and starring the rather hot Gemma Arterton, makes its North American DVD debut today (Tuesday Feb 8). DVD extras include a couple making-of featurettes and a commentary by Arterton.

Directed by Stephen Frears (High Fidelity, Dirty Pretty Things), Tamara Drewe is actually based on a comic strip of the same name by English cartoonist Posy Simmonds. Clive James, writing about Simmonds on his website, remarks of the Tamara Drewe graphic novel, “Tamara’s tribe are English people self-exiled in England… the ambience is one of middle-class leisure with just enough resources to destroy itself through ungoverned emotion. The principal emotion is sexual desire, and nobody beats Posy at creating the kind of young women that supposedly civilized men go mad about. She is not salacious… but sexy she is. In real life she is quite capable of calling her it-girl women ‘babes’, and she draws them that way.”

Hence, the casting of Gemma Arterton (Prince of Persia, The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Quantum of Solace)…

Gemma Arterton in Tamara Drewe

The year in comic-book movies

Tamara Drewe movie review

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Gemma Arterton in the April 2010 UK edition of GQ.

Video – Gemma Arterton for GQ:

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Lexi Belle as Batgirl in Batman An XXX Parody

Kick-Ass, Iron Man 2 and superhero porn top the year’s comic book movies

- by Shawn Conner

As near as we can tell, 2010 saw at least seven theatrical releases, one straight-to-video sequel and a cable TV series based on a comic book series, character, or graphic novel. Add an animated movie that might as well have been based on a comic book, and a porn parody of a beloved superhero TV series and you have an even 10. And, believe it or not, the best of the bunch was probably the porn parody.

2010 was also the year we lost Harvey Pekar, whose comic book series American Splendor inspired a movie of the same name, that was easily one of the decade’s best movies based on a graphic series.

Anyway, here’s a rundown of the Year in Comic Book Movies. We’ve tried to be objective, but overall it’s a pretty dismal list if you were sick of zombies, vampires and Michael Cera. Filmmakers either used graphic-novel subject matter as an excuse for mindless violence (Kick-Ass, Red, The Losers), got everything completely wrong (Jonah Hex), or just threw as much as possible at the screen in the hopes something would stick (Iron Man 2, Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World).

Also, we have a list of upcoming comic book movies below.

Kick-Ass – Fake and real superheros beat-up gangsters in the first of this year’s comic book movies. Kick-Ass caused a bit of a stir because of Chloe Grace Moretz‘s 11-year-old character Hit Girl’s expletive-laden dialogue. Also notable for its ultra-violence, Kick-Ass did reasonably well at the box office and earned fairly positive reviews. It was based on a Marvel Comics series (2008 – 10) on its Icon imprint, created by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.

Movie trailer – Kick-Ass featuring Hit Girl:

The Losers – Another hyper-violent saga, this one based on a Vertigo series (2003 – 6) written by Andy Diggle. According to Wikipedia’s entry on The Losers, which is about yet another elite team on a suicide mission, Scott Tobias in his review on The Onion‘s AV Club noted “the lack of humility or self-deprecation in the heroes despite their title” and that “the film tries so strenuously to be cool” but is “nothing more than style for its own sake” (for proof, see clip below with actress Zoe Saldana). According to the same entry, the New York Post‘s Kyle Smith gave it half a star out of four and described Saldana “as a femme banale”, and dismissed the film as G.I. Joke and The D-Team, and said that even though The Losers “tries to do so little, it still falls so short.”

Iron Man 2 – The anticipated sequel offered more of everything the first film had except for laughs and a compelling storyline. At least it had Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow. Oh, and to no one’s surprise, it made a ton of money. (Director Jon Favreau‘s next movie, Cowboys & Aliens and starring Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde, is also based on a comic.)

Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow in Iron Man 2

Tamara Drewe – Not long after the release of Iron Man 2 came its opposite, a domestic comedy drama based on a British comic strip by Posey Simmonds. Although actress Gemma Arterton, who plays the title character, was a hit, the movie received lukewarm reviews. (Our own lukewarm Tamara Drewe movie review.)

Gemma Arterton makes an entrance in Tamara Drewe (2010).

Batman XXX: A Porn Parody – Of the six titles on this list that I’ve actually seen, this was the most fun, and not just because of the sex (though Lexi Belle‘s Batgirl is pretty hot). With costumes and the occasional set looking like they came straight off the set of the ’60s TV series, and some appropriately campy acting, Batman XXX: A Porn Parody – directed by Axel Braun whom, apparently, has never met a sex scene that has gone on too long – is colorful, funny and a turn-on in a pervy, nostalgic kind of way (that is, if you’re a fan of the original series). Also released this year: Bluebird’s BatFXXX: Dark Knight Parody. According to a review on bleedingcool.com, BatFXXX is “the superior of the two… BatFXXX draws on many different incarnations of Batman to construct an original vision of the character’s world that feels both familiar and unusual.” I dunno though, at least from the trailer it looks like it takes itself a little too seriously. At least three more triple-X superhero movies, featuring Hulk, Superman and Wonder Woman, are in the worxxx.

Movie trailer – Batman XXX: A Porn Parody:

Movie trailer – BatFXXX: Dark Knight Parody:

Jonah Hex – June 18 release date. Based on a DC Comics Western hero who first appeared in 1972, Jonah Hex featured Josh Brolin as the title character. Hex is a post-Civil War antihero, a surly and cynical bounty hunter whose visual hook is a strand of flesh extending over his mouth so he always looks like he’s clenching his teeth. Or maybe he is always is clenching his teeth. The movie did poorly, limping out of theatres despite the fact that it also starred fanboy sexpot Megan Fox. Critics savaged the flick as well, with Keith Phipps of The Onion‘s AV Club giving it a rare F, saying “the 81 minutes (including credits) of Jonah Hex footage that made it to the screen look like something assembled under a tight deadline, and possibly under the influence.” The Houston Film Critics Society named Jonah Hex the worst film of 2010.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World – Full disclosure: I hated this movie. I found it interminably facile, relentlessly and strenuously unfunny, and finally just a stupid waste of time. That said, nearly everyone else who saw it (admittedly, not many – it didn’t do well in theatres) liked its energy and video-game-like effects. (Fuller disclosure: I walked out of director Edgar Wright‘s Shaun of the Dead and couldn’t get past 15 minutes of the DVD version of his similarly unfunny Hot Fuzz.) Based on a comic book series by Canadian Bryan Lee O’Malley (who took the name “Scott Pilgrim” from a song of the same title by ’90s Halifax girl pop group Plumtree), Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World has Michael Cera as the title character fighting off his new girlfriend’s exes with inexplicable superpowers.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World

30 Days of Night: Dark Days – This sequel to the 2007 vampire flick 30 Days of Night went directly to DVD. Both movies are based on a comic book series by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith that first appeared in 2o02. 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, with a script by Niles, scored a 17 per cent (un)approval rating on rottentomatoes.com.

Mia Kirshner plays a vampire queen in 30 Days of Night: Dark Days.

Red (Oct 15 release date) – Not to be confused with the 1994 Krystof Kieslowski French arthouse flick of the same name, Red stands for “Retired extremely dangerous”. Based on a 2003-4 Homage/WildStorm series written by Warren Ellis, Red‘s more accurate acronym might be “Regurgitated extremely dumb”. This was another gratuitously violent, senselessly plotted movie, although it did receive okay reviews from some generous critics, many of whom were probably turned on by the idea of art-house doyenne Helen Mirren shooting up the landscape with a machine gun. Also features Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman sleepwalking through their roles.

Helen Mirren in Red

The Walking Dead (Oct 31 release date) – So far, just about everyone loves this AMC TV series, which is based on a comic book published by Image beginning in 2003 and writte/created by Robert Kirkman. The movie (and comic) follows the struggles of the last surviving humans in a world full of zombies.

Hey, how’d this picture of my fridge get on the Internet?

Megamind – Not based on a comic book or graphic novel, just the same Megamind cribs its best ideas and jokes from comic-book source material. Decades of superhero and supervillain mythology (origin stories, motivations, powers) are played for laughs, with varying degrees of success but enough to make Megamind an enjoyable pastiche for the comic-book fan (though perhaps a little more in-jokey for a general audience). Tina Fey‘s is one of the voices. Our Megamind movie review.

Movie trailer – Megamind:

Upcoming comic book movies for 2011: The Green Hornet (Jan 14, Michael Gondry director); Thor (May 6, Kenneth Branagh director); Priest (May 13, Scott Stewart director); X-Men: First Class (June 3, Matthew Vaughn); Green Lantern (June 17, Martin Campbell director); The First Avenger: Captain America (July 22, Joe Johnston director); Cowboys & Aliens (July 29, Jon Favreau).

Also scheduled for a 2011 release: Conan, Deadpool, Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance, Men in Black 3 and Sin City 2.

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Gemma Arterton in Tamara Drewe.

Posy Simmonds’ comic strip Tamara Drewe comes to the big screen

- review by Julia Brown

It’s no High Fidelity or The Queen, but director Stephen Frears’ latest effort, Tamara Drewe is still better than a kick in the head (note: that is indeed a clever-ish reference to the end of the movie, but you’ll just have to watch it to find out).

Based on Posy Simmonds‘ UK comic strip, which in turn is based on Thomas Hardy’s novel Far From the Madding Crowd, the film is funny in that sly British sort of way. Indeed, if you are looking to forget your own problems for approximately one hour and forty-seven minutes and laugh at the misfortunes of the film’s characters instead, then this flick is for you.

In art as in life, it doesn’t take much to turn men into drooling mop-heads. An early scene from Posy Simmonds’ comic strip Tamara Drewe.

The lead character, Tamara Drewe, is played by former Bond girl Gemma Arterton, and boy does she rock her curves – Tamara’s charms do not go unnoticed by basically every male she encounters, and naturally this leads to all kinds of woe. But it’s a funny/dramatic kind of woe, so that makes it all quite amusing to watch.

Still, Tamara cannot drive the plot alone. In fact, most of what we know of her is via everyone else’s perceptions and observations, versus any real development of her character. She is not a person in her own right, really – she is both everything and nothing all at once: a catalyst, a convenient rebound, an ugly duckling turned swan, a fly in the ointment, a life-long fantasy, and/or a pretty thing to help others feel young again.

One scene captures the “blank slate” nature of Tamara’s character perfectly. She has just arrived in her little hometown village to take care of the sale of her diseased mother’s country estate. She is not really an outsider, having grown up in the area, but she is no longer the big-nosed, awkward girl that everyone in the small town remembers. Climbing over the fence that separates her estate from a nearby writers’ retreat, she makes quite the splash with the literary group in a pair of short jean shorts.

Gemma Arterton makes her entrance as Tamara Drewe, a new movie based on a graphic novel by Posy Simmonds.

It’s not her successful journalism career in London that impresses folks, or anything that she says or does at all in the scene. Instead, what really steals the show is the fact that her shorts barely cover her butt-cheeks. Indeed, the way everyone reacts to her new look is quite telling: the local literary “star,” Nicholas Hardiment (played to arrogant perfection by Roger Allam) doesn’t recognize her, despite having been her neighbour for years. Along with the rest of the men in the group, he simply stands there and drools. The women in the group are more pragmatic; one of her old schoolmates compliments her new “hooter” (nose), while Nicholas’s wife, Beth (Tamsin Grieg) whispers that she finds Tamara’s shorts “a bit annoying.”

In this way, Tamara is actually a fairly realistic character, since pretty young things are hardly ever given credit for being individuals in their own right. It would be tempting to call the film a tad sexist for failing to fully develop the female lead character, but a few of other female characters make up for that. For example, Nicholas’s wife Beth gives us a genuinely heart-wrenching look inside the mind and heart of a woman who is married to a chronic philanderer. Her character’s grief gives this film a little bit of much-needed substance.

But what saves this film from becoming a standard, albeit slightly off-beat, romantic comedy are the secondary characters, namely the two bored teenage local girls who manage to get into the everyone’s business. One of the girls, Jody Long (played with amazing adolescent malice by Jessica Barden) is so obsessed with fictional indie rock star/teen heartthrob (and eventual lover of Tamara Drewe, of course) Ben Sergeant (Dominic Cooper, wearing guy-liner) that she will stop at nothing to meet him, including breaking into people’s houses and hacking into their personal email.

Charlotte Christie and Jessica Barden in Tamara Drewe.

Jody is the girl we imagine Tamara might have been, if only she had not been burdened with ugliness as a girl, and then burdened with beauty as an adult. Jody is a girl of action: she gets things done, versus just being done like Tamara, or being done-to the way Beth is victimized by her husband. In a sense, Jody is the under-the-radar heroine of the film, and the reason why the adults are all forced to face their respective demons.

Overall, Tamara Drewe, like the character herself, is pretty to look at and witty, but lacking in any real depth. Still, I recommend it to those who want to feel better about their own messed up love lives… which, let’s be honest, is almost everyone.

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Gemma Arterton. Photo by Vincent Peters

Photos – British actress Gemma Arterton

Our Gemma Arterton gallery has prove to be the most popular section of the site. The selection of photos has even beat out favourites like “10 Ten Things You Pretended Didn’t Happen This Decade” and “Star Trek Fashions“.

The British actress recently starred in the comedy Tamara Drewe), based on Posy Simmonds’ comic strip. Around the same time, her starring (and dishabille) role in The Disappearance of Alice Creed hit the video store shelves and, more recently, cable.

Before those films, Arterton also starred in the blockbusters Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Clash of the Titans and Quantum of Solace.

Gemma Arterton and Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace.

Gemma Arterton in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Arterton was said to have been in talks with Ridley Scott about appearing as the young Ripley (Sigourney Weaver‘s character) in an Alien prequel. Apparently, Scott was impressed with Arterton’s turn as a kidnap victim in Alice Creed.

But, according to her IMDB page, her upcoming projects don’t include an Alien prequel but the movies Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, Byzantium and Crooked House.

Here’s a selection of photos of Arterton.

Gemma Arterton for Vogue Italia December 2010.

Gemma Arterton for Vogue Italia December 2010

Gemma Arterton by Vincent Peters.

Gemma Arterton. Photo by Vincent Peters

Gemma. Vincent. Photo.

Gemma can also be seen in this very sexy video from a GQ photoshoot:

Fun fact: Gemma Arterton was born with polydactyl-ism, that is, with extra digits (read more about Gemma Arterton‘s six fingers here).

Gemma Arterton in the April 2010 UK edition of GQ.

Gemma Arteron.

Gemma Arterton by Emma Summerton for Italian Vogue.

Special bonus: Gemma Arterton in a black bikini – on holiday, it looks like, not a film set.

Actress Gemma Arterton in a bikini.

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