Alan Dee’s movie preview (26.10.11)

She will want to catch The Help, a heartwarming tale of humanity triumping over racism based on that book she read and passed on to all her friends.

He will want to see want Steven Spielberg has made of Tintin in his much-hyped megabucks take on the Belgian boy detective’s comic book adventure.

The Help will unravel over 146 minutes of stylish sets and buttoned-up feelings in 1960s Mississippi, and this glossy mesh of Mad Men and Driving Miss Daisy has already been a big hit Stateside.

> Mr Spielberg has gone for a mouthful of a title with The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn and he’s added 3D to his armoury together with a cast that includes Jamie Bell in the title roll and the likes of Daniel Craig, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in other roles.

The Spielster has been determined to bring Tintin to the big screen for years, holding on to the rights for the best part of two decades, and he’s roped in some high class talent to help him finally bring the project in, including the likes of Peter ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Jackson as producer and Brit script stars Joe ‘Attack The Block’ Cornish, Edgar ‘Hot Fuzz’ Wright and Steven ‘Dr Who’ Moffat.

It’s delivered in a curious combination of live action dressed up as animation to make it look as much like a comic book as possible, but with that amount of talent on board how can it fail to pull in the punters?

> Elsewhere there’s Anonymous in which Roland Emmerich peddles the old ‘Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare’ theory with the help of Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson and David Thewlis.

This is a handsome Elizabethan conspiracy caper that doesn’t stand up to much examination but could well please fans of period drama that aims a step above bodice and bosom potboiler.

> X-Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos isn’t just a singer, you know – she’s an actress, too.

Well, judge for yourself in Demons Never Die, a witless slice of teen slasher fluff in which a roll call of rising stars from Brit TV all sign up to a suicide pact and then start getting sent to their maker by a mystery killer before they can go the job themselves. Honestly, anyone would think it was Hallowe’en or something.

> When George Clooney directs, it’s usually serious business so there’s not much Gorgeous George twinkle about political drama The Ides Of March, which stars the man himself as an honourable politician and Ryan Gosling as a camp follower who tries to help him out of a jam.

Paul Giamatti is suitably sinister as a rival campaign manager and there’s already talk of Oscar nominations for the stars.