:00:26. > :00:30.We'd like to hear from you so please do tweet us.
:00:31. > :00:41.Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy breathe new life into the monster
:00:42. > :00:53.It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas for Seth Rogen and Joseph
:00:54. > :00:59.And having a whale of a time with Ron Howard, director
:01:00. > :01:08.I see every movie as its own story yet to be fulfilled.
:01:09. > :01:11.Plus we'll take a look at Terence Davies' Sunset Song starring
:01:12. > :01:20.By my side, as ever, is the divine Danny Leigh.
:01:21. > :01:22.And joining us is the brilliant critic, Kevin Maher.
:01:23. > :01:28.First up is Victor Frankenstein, the latest cinematic take on
:01:29. > :01:31.Starring James McAvoy as the devilish doctor with Daniel
:01:32. > :01:44.It is a time of innovation and progress, when the world's greatest
:01:45. > :01:47.minds push the limits of what is possible. And delve deep into the
:01:48. > :02:04.unthinkable. Are you ready? I play Igor, and he
:02:05. > :02:09.is living this abject, horrible life where he is abused, and Victor sees
:02:10. > :02:14.him at the circus and sees him doing something that Victor realises would
:02:15. > :02:20.very helpful to him. I can't just leave. You can be better than this,
:02:21. > :02:25.I can save you from it, but you have to trust me. So he saves me from
:02:26. > :02:28.this awful life and rings me into this world of creating monsters and
:02:29. > :02:32.gives me a purpose, and at that point, it becomes about him trying
:02:33. > :02:40.to achieve his goal and me trying to hope that he doesn't go mad as he
:02:41. > :02:49.tries to do it. It's alive! It's alive, it's alive! Back in 1931,
:02:50. > :02:55.Boris Karloff made Dr Frankenstein's monster instantly
:02:56. > :03:05.recognisable. Christopher Lee made the role his own in truth Hammer
:03:06. > :03:13.style in 1957. In the 1970s, Millbrook David Bates comic twist in
:03:14. > :03:19.Young Frankenstein. You are putting me on. And Kenneth Branagh wrestled
:03:20. > :03:28.with Robert De Niro's monster in the 90s. It's alive! Cinema has
:03:29. > :03:35.repeatedly given new life to Mary Shelley's Gothic fantasy, and now it
:03:36. > :03:39.has been resurrected once again. I don't feel like we've had
:03:40. > :03:47.Frankenstein movie for a long time. Kenneth Branagh's was 21 years ago,
:03:48. > :03:54.and how many Batmans and how many Spidermans have we had in that
:03:55. > :03:59.time? Be careful, Mr Frankenstein. Life is sacred creation. You and I
:04:00. > :04:03.shall be at the very heart of a scientific enterprise that will
:04:04. > :04:11.change the world. I want to speak with a Mr Frankenstein. I think what
:04:12. > :04:15.people will enjoy about this version of Frankenstein is the human element
:04:16. > :04:21.to it, the psychological element. I hope that they understand what Mary
:04:22. > :04:25.Shelley was trying to do. Which is to examine the question of loss and
:04:26. > :04:30.grief and what we can do is human beings and what we can't do. Be
:04:31. > :04:33.careful, Mr Frankenstein. You toy with wrathful forces, and there is
:04:34. > :04:50.no mercy in nature. You are homicidal! We decided to run
:04:51. > :04:53.with a maniac and let it affect our relationship in the film and the
:04:54. > :04:57.energy in the film. That is one thing we wanted it to be, we wanted
:04:58. > :05:03.it to have the pace of an adventure thriller romp.
:05:04. > :05:11.OK, Danny? Appropriately, it is a horrible, monstrous abomination,
:05:12. > :05:17.made up of the sad twitching disembodied bits of other, better
:05:18. > :05:23.things. Mostly Sherlock Holmes, the Robert Downey Junior version. It
:05:24. > :05:30.takes the rakish hero of the lead, the CGI malarkey, it is absolutely
:05:31. > :05:36.shameless. You don't know if they filmed it all plugged in Guy
:05:37. > :05:39.Ritchie's memory stick. And you have this tourist board endorsed casting
:05:40. > :05:43.approach, Jessica Brown Findlay to remind people of Banton, Daniel
:05:44. > :05:50.Radcliffe to remind people of Harry Potter. Anyone who has ever been in
:05:51. > :05:57.any episode of Sherlock, they are thrown in. It is a really bad film,
:05:58. > :06:04.a very bad film, and it is toxic, like a toxic chicken nugget. I like
:06:05. > :06:08.small jams and chicken nuggets. I would love to come back and say, no,
:06:09. > :06:13.it is really good, but it is one of the worst films of the year, or any
:06:14. > :06:21.year. There are so many things wrong with it. I would hesitate to say it
:06:22. > :06:26.has no dramatic core. They have taken the best things of Mary
:06:27. > :06:32.Shelley's 200-year-old classic, and they have got rid of them. And what
:06:33. > :06:36.they are left with is a relationship between Dr Frankenstein and Igor,
:06:37. > :06:41.who was not in Mary Shelley's book but was in the 1931 movie, and it is
:06:42. > :06:47.a dead relationship and they don't even give Igor the dignity of having
:06:48. > :06:52.a hump, he has a makeover where they get rid of it. There are so many
:06:53. > :06:59.things wrong with it. How long do you have? Let me just try and stick
:07:00. > :07:03.up for it a bit. It is them, it is Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy.
:07:04. > :07:07.It is them I feel sorry for. You feel sorry for the flesh and blood
:07:08. > :07:12.parts of this. I feel sorry for Mark gaiters and Luiz Brearley who get
:07:13. > :07:18.one line each. I feel sorry for Andrew Scott who is a very gifted
:07:19. > :07:22.actor and deserves to be able to remember where he is wearing an eye
:07:23. > :07:27.patch or not from one scene to the next. And I do feel sorry for James
:07:28. > :07:31.McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe who throw a lot of gusto and a sense of
:07:32. > :07:38.fun at this, but there is no fun to be had. Why is a film involving a
:07:39. > :07:44.super-strength reanimated chimpanzee called Gordon this little fun? I
:07:45. > :07:50.wasn't bored. It was rollicking, and there is the end. The end, you give
:07:51. > :07:53.it the benefit of the doubt thinking, I can't wait to see the
:07:54. > :07:59.monster at the end of this tedium, and the monster is basically a very
:08:00. > :08:04.tall man with a rubber bucket on his head with an angry face drawn on it.
:08:05. > :08:08.That can be quite scary. He was created by a kind of mad genius, but
:08:09. > :08:13.every time he sketches in his medical sketchbook, the brain, he
:08:14. > :08:20.has to write brain next to it, in confuses it with the coccyx,
:08:21. > :08:36.possibly. I am older than both of you, but are we just too old? Is
:08:37. > :08:41.this for 16-year-olds? No. No. 16-year-old kids are smart and
:08:42. > :08:44.honest and social media crazy, this would be a patronising filmed
:08:45. > :08:53.anybody. Someone has that then thought, we will take these things,
:08:54. > :08:57.there is no Sherlock Holmes 3, we will get the director in and get him
:08:58. > :09:01.to do it, and he will do his Sherlock magic, but you can't just
:09:02. > :09:06.take TV is transplanted onto film, or we would always be talking about
:09:07. > :09:09.how excited we are to see Barry chuckle on film. Not yet!
:09:10. > :09:11.And now for our first Christmas film of the season.
:09:12. > :09:14.The Night Before stars Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon Levitt roaming
:09:15. > :09:20.New York in search of the ultimate Christmas party.
:09:21. > :09:26.14 years ago to this very night I lost my parents. And you guys have
:09:27. > :09:34.been with me every single Christmas since then. You knew! These three
:09:35. > :09:40.buddies have a tradition on Christmas Eve that goes back ten
:09:41. > :09:45.years now. And what you are seeing in this movie is the last time that
:09:46. > :09:54.they are going to have this big night out on Christmas Eve. I really
:09:55. > :10:01.liked the dynamic that all three of these guys brought to the table.
:10:02. > :10:16.Seth particularly gets put in the comedy, and he is able to find the,
:10:17. > :10:27.so you have him who is going to be having a baby. Don't you dare throw
:10:28. > :10:35.up in here, swallow it! So this is still happening? He is a football
:10:36. > :10:39.player, kind of allowed guy who likes a lot of attention and is very
:10:40. > :10:49.charismatic, and an entertainer as much as an athlete. I am going to
:10:50. > :10:57.teach you a Christmas lesson. OK. Later, sucker! You consider them
:10:58. > :11:05.dramatic actors, and yet they have these kind of comedic jobs. Show me
:11:06. > :11:11.the elf face. They go! That is it. This movie has something, some of
:11:12. > :11:17.the big ridiculous, these don't have, which is people and stories
:11:18. > :11:19.that actually resonate and meaningful. And I think having that
:11:20. > :11:34.balance on Christmas is nice. I wanted the opportunity for an
:11:35. > :11:43.audience to look at these three skies and say, that is me, that is
:11:44. > :11:48.my friend. What I always thought was fascinating is how friends involved.
:11:49. > :11:55.Do you hold them back, let them go? That is something everybody has to
:11:56. > :12:01.content with. There are so many bits in this film
:12:02. > :12:05.that I really liked and really laughed at. I can't give it a
:12:06. > :12:10.massive vote of confidence. It kept veering off piste annoyingly, drug
:12:11. > :12:21.jokes that didn't quite work. It is nearly a decade since Knocked Up,
:12:22. > :12:28.and I feel we have been down this alley into whether a male friendship
:12:29. > :12:32.can become slightly homoerotic. I have been there one to many times
:12:33. > :12:35.with Seth Rogen. But there was enough in this film to make me
:12:36. > :12:39.chuckle. I found bits of it completely
:12:40. > :12:43.painful, but you are right, and I don't want to give anything away.
:12:44. > :12:48.There are moments that are properly fantastic. I found it like being
:12:49. > :12:54.greeted by a large and enthusiastic dog, a bit sloppy and grubby and you
:12:55. > :13:01.want a hot shower afterwards, but in a certain context in a certain mood,
:13:02. > :13:09.it is not an enjoyable. He does male friendship well. There is a nice
:13:10. > :13:14.chemistry between the characters. It takes a certain skill to make a film
:13:15. > :13:19.this dopey actually likeable. And the problem is, a lot of the jokes,
:13:20. > :13:24.and there is one joke in particular, it is so genuinely offensive, which
:13:25. > :13:29.is quite rare, we can't really even broach the subject on TV. But when
:13:30. > :13:32.you are treading that Hangover kind of territory, to pull something out
:13:33. > :13:40.and make it quite sweet and human... I found the sweet and the
:13:41. > :13:45.heartfelt, and I can't give anything away, this must be so annoying to
:13:46. > :13:50.watch, I'm sorry. But I found the heartfelt stuff painful, I was like,
:13:51. > :14:00.be funny again! Enough of the messages. You are a cold and hard
:14:01. > :14:05.person. I am! And the director keeps making those kinds of film, and the
:14:06. > :14:08.bits of the film is not that funny when characters are either high or
:14:09. > :14:13.taking drugs with no real story points, it is just the camera
:14:14. > :14:19.looking at Seth Rogen who is on shrooms and having a bad trip, and
:14:20. > :14:23.that was funny when he was in the church with funny Jewish jokes
:14:24. > :14:26.happening in a church. Every now and then I thought that Jonathan Levine
:14:27. > :14:30.finds it funny to look at the ball high. And a lot of people who end up
:14:31. > :14:37.watching the film will be high when they are watching it. Even if it is
:14:38. > :14:41.just an Lemsip! And I mentioned Julia Bell who plays Seth Rogen's
:14:42. > :14:46.wife, she is funny. She isn't in it enough. Alana Glazer is really funny
:14:47. > :14:53.as well, she steals the whole film, she is like a hipster grinch. And
:14:54. > :15:02.Michael Shannon, playing a role which would have been Christopher
:15:03. > :15:08.Walken's 15 years ago. I didn't like him. I didn't like him. I didn't
:15:09. > :15:11.like the Scrooge thing, there is a Scrooge paradigms floating around in
:15:12. > :15:16.the back of the story keeps drifting towards it. I like that paradigms.
:15:17. > :15:18.Ron Howard may have begun his career as the Fonz's sidekick
:15:19. > :15:24.in Happy Days but now he's an Oscar-winning director.
:15:25. > :15:29.With a CV including all action block asters. -- blockbusters.
:15:30. > :15:33.His new movie is epic action adventure In The Heart Of The Sea -
:15:34. > :15:36.a film he says he could only make after picking up some top tips
:15:37. > :15:46.Hurtling through space to the age of oblivion. Houston Open, we have a
:15:47. > :15:56.problem. Pushing the limits to maximum overdrive. Certain death in
:15:57. > :15:59.a blazing inferno. Director Ron Howard is in the business of keeping
:16:00. > :16:06.us on the edge of our seats. What is at? With his latest film, In The
:16:07. > :16:13.Heart of the Sea, he once again is aiming for the heart of the action.
:16:14. > :16:20.In The Heart of the Sea is the Genesis story for Moby Dick, I had
:16:21. > :16:26.no idea that that whale had actually existed, it had destroyed a ship
:16:27. > :16:31.years before Moby Dick was written. This is the true story of a man
:16:32. > :16:44.adventuring and being punished for it. It is not so much like Jaws, it
:16:45. > :17:05.is more like King Kong, they awaken a force of nature that is perhaps
:17:06. > :17:09.retribution. Mini moments in this movie, I was grateful for past
:17:10. > :17:19.experiences, I had done a lot of water work, in Splash and also in
:17:20. > :17:22.Splash. They are very different tones but the logistics of being out
:17:23. > :17:30.there and trying to get something accomplished was similar. Madison!
:17:31. > :17:33.There were times when you need to catch the weather at a particular
:17:34. > :17:38.time to get a tremendous amount of work done and that comes from
:17:39. > :17:43.planning and rehearsing with the actors and getting things to work
:17:44. > :17:54.very quickly. If it was not for the photorealism of some of the CGI work
:17:55. > :18:00.that was done in Rush, we would not get that photorealism in In The
:18:01. > :18:02.Heart of the Sea, to get that whale inhabiting a space in an authentic
:18:03. > :18:09.way that will transport the audience. The kind of action I like
:18:10. > :18:13.to see in movies is always connected to characters and this is very much
:18:14. > :18:17.a character movie even though it is a classic adventure on the one hand,
:18:18. > :18:21.there is something very related and modern about what the characters are
:18:22. > :18:25.going through and I wanted to extend that the action. It is a little bit
:18:26. > :18:34.like a cousin to a movie I've directed, Apollo 13. Back-up the
:18:35. > :18:38.tunnel. With Apollo 13, without doubt, the challenge was the
:18:39. > :18:45.weightlessness and this was before CGI was an option and shooting those
:18:46. > :18:50.weightless scenes in an aeroplane out over the Gulf of Mexico, that
:18:51. > :18:54.was a huge physical challenge. That was a pretty successful broadcast. I
:18:55. > :19:00.think that the weightlessness was the strangest action scene I have
:19:01. > :19:11.ever been involved with, I think that the fires in backdraught was
:19:12. > :19:15.the most dangerous. Because was always the feeling that something
:19:16. > :19:21.could go horribly wrong and while weightlessness was a very big injury
:19:22. > :19:26.and is test and sexy and cool, I do not think we felt afraid. But here
:19:27. > :19:28.we had to constantly respect not only the mechanics of salt to
:19:29. > :19:31.constantly respect not only the mechanics of Soto stunts that we
:19:32. > :19:37.were doing but also the environment we were in. I do not go back and
:19:38. > :19:42.look at the movies, I have not become that man who thinks, let me
:19:43. > :19:49.just go back 20 years and take a look at those fires. I will
:19:50. > :19:52.sometimes do it for reference. There are some fire scenes and I was very
:19:53. > :19:56.grateful for my experience and generally I am kind to myself
:19:57. > :20:02.because I also remember the challenges we were facing so yes, I
:20:03. > :20:04.will say, I wish that scene could have been better and with the
:20:05. > :20:09.technology of today I could have gone even further with that where I
:20:10. > :20:13.wish that I knew then what I know night, all those things, but for the
:20:14. > :20:20.most part I am pretty forgiving of young Ron Howard trying to work his
:20:21. > :20:26.way through the medium. Part of your job want Happy Days is to recreate
:20:27. > :20:37.the scene, the episode over and over again. To get those feelings. -- on
:20:38. > :20:41.Happy Days. Everything is going to be fine. When I left acting on
:20:42. > :20:45.television and realised I was to have a career as a director, I
:20:46. > :20:50.wanted to be able to create all kinds of reactions for audiences and
:20:51. > :20:53.I love a great, broad appeal, popcorn movie and likewise, I have
:20:54. > :21:04.got tremendous respect for a powerful drama that reaches you in
:21:05. > :21:10.another way. The s, it stove the ship. What drew me to In The Heart
:21:11. > :21:14.of the Sea was the combination of the bigger visual ideas and the
:21:15. > :21:17.cinematic elements but also, those acting moments that ran deeper than
:21:18. > :21:28.you would expect in a normal adventure story. I see every movie
:21:29. > :21:33.with its own story, yet to be fulfilled. Then it becomes a
:21:34. > :21:38.creative exploration, every department, actors, writers,
:21:39. > :21:42.everybody contributing everything that can be dreamt of, to elevate
:21:43. > :21:46.the story and capture the most exciting bits to share with the
:21:47. > :21:49.audience. While I use experiences from past movies and I was so
:21:50. > :21:54.grateful for all of my experiences in making this movie, which is so
:21:55. > :22:03.ambitious, I think that every story winds up being its own kind of
:22:04. > :22:13.journey. Promise me to come back. I promise.
:22:14. > :22:19.We will survive. And that film is out on Boxing Day.
:22:20. > :22:22.Next is Sunset Song from veteran British director Terence Davies - a
:22:23. > :22:33.coming-of-age drama set in Scotland just before the First World War.
:22:34. > :22:44.You are the temp one thing I have ever seen. Willie Manu me? -- the
:22:45. > :22:52.bonniest. Best of luck to us. -- will you marry me? It is about the
:22:53. > :22:55.journey of a girl from girlhood to maturity and it is about the
:22:56. > :23:04.humanity that is in all of us. I missed you. What is important, I
:23:05. > :23:10.think, is that she learns to suffer and to forgive suffering. You are my
:23:11. > :23:16.flesh and blood and I can do with you what I will. I was just so
:23:17. > :23:25.inspired whenever I read the script and I read ) Gribbin's book, what
:23:26. > :23:31.she could ensure through all these things and stand with their own
:23:32. > :23:42.integrity and humanity, as a woman. I am not frightened of you! Spill
:23:43. > :23:46.blood breeds ill. She will get knocks and she moves on and she goes
:23:47. > :23:49.by feeling, she remembers through things and she is very observant in
:23:50. > :23:57.life and what it means. Look at my hands. Read with scrubbing. I feel
:23:58. > :24:06.daft, the place is fine. What more do you want? The dirt. Maybe you
:24:07. > :24:15.like it like that? Maybe I do. I like you. The underlying courage
:24:16. > :24:18.that the girl has, and it is unknown courage, you either have that kind
:24:19. > :24:21.of courage or you do not and my mother had it and she had a very
:24:22. > :24:31.hard life and was not embittered at the end. If we don't volunteer they
:24:32. > :24:38.will make us go anyway. No one can stand and happy. He has enlisted and
:24:39. > :24:46.gone to fight. I know what I want from me. There are a lovely things
:24:47. > :24:54.in the world. Lovely, but they do not enter, and they are lovely for
:24:55. > :25:00.that. I am nervous trying to explain why I like this because it is so
:25:01. > :25:04.intensely visual and so much is tied up with this terribly barren
:25:05. > :25:09.landscape and as soon as you start talking about the landscape, I know
:25:10. > :25:13.I remember on a terrible family holiday, pointing out of the
:25:14. > :25:20.window... Are we nearly there? Thank you, both! Take my word for it, the
:25:21. > :25:23.landscape in this film in Aberdeenshire is just polishing and
:25:24. > :25:27.ravaging and harsh and intimidating and beautiful all at once and in the
:25:28. > :25:31.middle of it you have the stunning performance, Agyness Deyn, and
:25:32. > :25:36.Terence Davies is a man who has stopped paying any attention to
:25:37. > :25:40.popular culture in 1957 so he is the only director who I believe when he
:25:41. > :25:47.says he had no idea who I miss Dean was and she is very tough, carrying
:25:48. > :25:49.this movie. This is not Scarlet O'Hara, she has not got this
:25:50. > :25:54.dramatic moment, everything is locked up inside, she has to take
:25:55. > :26:00.this weather and do that accent and she pulls it off. Brilliantly. I am
:26:01. > :26:05.a big fan of this film. So, the things you love about this film, I
:26:06. > :26:16.like one of them, Agyness Deyn is brilliant but the landscape, weed
:26:17. > :26:20.overcurl, Terence suffers from long lingering shotitis and the weeds
:26:21. > :26:31.become a symbol and then going back to becoming wheat. A symbol for
:26:32. > :26:34.what? It is just wheat. Solution and I have been to church services that
:26:35. > :26:39.were shorter than the one in this film. It is nice to look at, there
:26:40. > :26:45.are moments that drift into French and Saunders territory, like... You
:26:46. > :26:49.have got no soul! The young couple having a couple and she thinks at
:26:50. > :26:53.last things are changing for the better and at the same time the man
:26:54. > :26:58.was passed on horseback and says that the Warner starting, I thought
:26:59. > :27:03.that was funny! I was totally gripped, I was crying at one point,
:27:04. > :27:08.I was engulfed and it is because of her, she does that so quietly and
:27:09. > :27:13.with such strength. I don't get that, it could be like Sunday night
:27:14. > :27:17.drama when someone says they are going to do the milking and the
:27:18. > :27:21.doctor will come in and he will scowl and open up a hard-boiled
:27:22. > :27:25.eight and with another draft this would be close to self-parody but
:27:26. > :27:31.this is Terence Davies. Does he get a free pass? He doesn't get a free
:27:32. > :27:36.pass. I love fields. Film of the week? Sunset Song. The Night Before.
:27:37. > :27:39.Playing us out tonight is Tim Burton's 1990 classic,
:27:40. > :28:50.25 years old this year, it launched the career of a very
:28:51. > :28:53.That was the single most thrilling experience of my whole life!