After hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for, WALL•E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in life (besides collecting knick-knacks and looking after his pet cockroach) when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE.

EVE comes to realize that WALL•E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet’s future, and races back to space to report her findings to the humans who have been eagerly awaiting word that it is safe to return home.

Meanwhile, WALL•E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into motion one of the most exciting and imaginative comedy adventures ever brought to the big screen.

To celebrate the film’s imminent release, we have some advance clips to whet your appetites. We defy you not to fall in love…

Clip 1 – Bouncy Balls
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Clip 2 – Fire hydrant
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Clip 3 – Head phones
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Clip 4 – Hula Hoop
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Clip 5 – Magnet
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Clip 6 – Vacuum
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The film took a whopping £9.59m between Friday and Sunday (July 4-6, 2008), comfortably beating critically-acclaimed animated movie Kung Fu Panda into second place ,(with £4.38m) and last week’s box office champ, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, into third.

The UK success comes in the wake of the film’s American box office triumph, where it easily landed Smith with his eighth consecutive US No.1 movie, taking a healthy $66 million despite bad reviews. States-side, the film has already passed the coveted $100 million mark.

In Hancock, Smith plays a dishevelled superhero who is forced to undergo an image change when his exploits (and the collateral damage he causes) turns him into a public enemy. With the help of an image consultant, Hancock turns his life around, but then falls foul of the PR guru’s wife (played by Oscar winner, Charlize Theron).

To celebrate the film’s global box office dominance, we thought we’d bring you a selection of clips of Hancock in action…

Hancock on YouTube
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Rather than teaming up or facing off in a no-holds barred action extravaganza, the duo have decided to come over all touchy-feely for this lightweight kids movie that’s only concerned with paying respectful homage to past screen classics.

After being bullied by neighbourhood thugs, Boston teenager Jason (Michael Angarano) is magically transported back to ancient China to save the world by defeating an evil Jade Warrior (played by Collin Chou) who has stolen a magic staff from the legendary Monkey King.

Helping him on this mission is a good-natured drunk (played by Jackie Chan) and a mysterious monk (Jet Li) who have their own reasons for wanting to restore balance to the kingdom.

Taken on its own terms, The Forbidden Kingdom is a moderately entertaining teen update of the Chinese classic Journey To The West that also feels like a cross between The Golden Child and The Karate Kid.

Both Li and Chan appear to be having fun clowning around and indulging in whatever martial arts mayhem director Rob (Stuart Little) Minkoff can throw at them, while a keenly-anticipated fight scene between them marks a highpoint despite – tellingly – failing to realise a winner.

But once the dust has settled and teen movie conventions are strictly adhered to, audiences are left to ponder what might have been.

The action is mostly family-friendly and more befitting Chan’s comical baffoonery than Li’s harder-edged artistry, while the story itself is predictable and even pedestrian in places. Angarano is also way too earnest as the teenage hero and ends up lumbering the film with a bland leading presence.

Young teenage martial arts fans will probably get a kick from some of the imaginatively choreographed set pieces but, rather like the aforementioned Golden Child, it’s not a movie that’s destined to age well or live long in the memory. Like we said, a missed opportunity.

Certificate: 12A
Running time: 104mins
UK Release Date: July 9, 2008

The concert is part of a new scheme being organised by Orange RockCorps, which seeks to give young people something to do for the better in their neighbourhoods.

Hence, if something in a neighborhood needs doing, whether it be a garden created, mural painted, tree planted or whatever, members can put forward their suggestions at the “Give Projects” section of the website.

In addition to London, projects will also take place in Manchester, Newcastle, Cardiff and Southampton, while the concert and projects will be shown on TV.

An estimated 5,000 tickets are available for people who volunteer for four hours on a community project and can only be sent to people who earn them.

Their reward will be the free Busta Rhymes concert, who will perform with three other yet-to-be-announced stars at the landmark London venue on September 26.

Orange RockCorps are setting up a total of 50 volunteer projects between now and the date of the gig. They hope the initiative will be as successful in the UK as it has already proved in America, where it has been running for the past four years and hosted gigs by Kanye West, Nelly and Panic At The Disco.

To find out more, or to register, visit orangerockcorps.co.uk

For the exhibition, 2007 Royal Academy graduate Moxhay brings together a series of images that exist in the space between photography and the staged or theatrical.

Using a process of re-photographing collected imagery, the borderland refers equally to the physical boundaries of a landscape as it could to an uncertain psychological state. Her work delves between the ‘reality’ of the photograph and the illusory staged nature of the theatrical or cinematic.

Imagery selected references film genre iconography such as the Western, Sci-fi or Horror, finding parallels between the world of National Geographic and the fictionalised worlds depicted in film. Using these filmic conventions, Moxhay conflates the boundaries between ‘real’ and psychological space.

Each image is derived from three-dimensional cutouts sourced from a vast archive of collected material, mainly images from the 1950’s to the 1970’s. From the photograph to the print, to the three-dimensional set in the studio and then back to the photograph, imagery is continually moved through real and illusory space.

Playing with the scale and depth of each element in the images, the images appear to hover between the miniature and the epic. The idealised yet dystopian environments exist in a space between various intersecting fields of representation whilst also embodying a reality of their own.

Tricycle Recent Graduates 2008 is a programme of exhibitions organised by the Tricycle Gallery to give exhibition opportunities to aspiring artists. In devoting an entire year to recent graduates, the Tricycle aims to give greater exposure to the selected artists whilst simultaneously displaying an exciting and contemporary programme.

Admission: Free.

Times: Monday to Saturday – 10am to 10pm; Sunday – 3pm to 9pm.

Tricycle Gallery, 269 Kilburn High Road, London, NW6 7JR.

Illumini will bring together a variety of artists, all sharing a passion for the subject of light. Set in the famous St Pancras crypt, these impressive pieces of artwork, ranging from photographs and paintings depicting light to sculptural works that literally glow, will transform the crypt’s ‘murky and shadowy’ atmosphere like never before.

The artists will include Mercedes Altuna, Madi Boyd, David Chalkley, Vincenzo Di Maria, Lewis Hayward, Caroline Lambard, Jayne Lloyd, Liz Murfitt, Adrian Navarro, Silviu Pascalin, Suzan Swale, Matthew Swift, Andrea Tyrimos, Jane Webb and Deon Winter.

On opening night (from 6pm to 9pm), there will be a full evening of free entertainment – light shows, circus acts and performance artists working with illumination – taking place throughout the crypt. Admission free.

Curated by Jane Webb, Illumini is supported by Mathmos, who will be displaying a range of their latest products, as well as Surelight, Glowsafe and the Glass bar.

Admission: Free.

Times: Daily from 11am to 7pm.

The Crypt, St Pancras Church, Euston Rd/Duke’s Rd, London, NW1 2BA.

This year’s event – which runs from August 21 to 25 at the Odeon West End in London’s Leicester Square – includes the UK premiere of Paul WS Anderson’s remake of cult hit Death Race 2000 as well as the ultra-violent Brit-flick Eden Lake.

There are also screenings of Kiefer Sutherland thriller Mirrors (pictured) and Universal’s ultra-creepy chiller The Strangers, which pits Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman against unknown assailants in their home.

Eden Lake will open the event and is a keenly-anticipated British horror described by Empire magazine as a fierce mix of French chiller Them and cult classic Last House On The Left.

Starring Thomas Turgoose (of Shane Meadows’ This Is England fame) and Kelly Reilly (recently seen in TV’s acclaimed He Kills Coppers), the film follows the fortunes of a couple after their camping holiday is rudely interrupted by a gang of young thugs.

Death Race, meanwhile, draws the festival to a close and promises to offer more violent thrills as Paul Bartel’s 1975 cult classic (starring David Carradine and a young Sylvester Stallone) is given a modern makeover with the help of Jason Statham and Ian McShane.

Further picks come in the form of The Strangers, which finds Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman being brutalised by masked youths just for kicks, and Mirrors, the latest from The Hills Have Eyes remake helmer Alexandre Aja, that finds Kiefer Sutherland starring as an ex-cop who becomes the target of an evil force that is using mirrors as a gateway into his family home.

Cult appeal almost certainly beckons for I Know How Many Runs You Scored Last Summer, a comedy horror about a cricket team who are dismissed by a serial killer in revenge for the torment he endured 20 years earlier, and Mum & Dad, about a family who live off whatever they scavenge from cargo holds.

The full line-up is as follows…

Thursday, August 21
6.30pm – Eden Lake
9pm – I Know How Many Runs You Scored Last Summer
11.15pm – Scar 3D

Friday, August 22
10.30am – Time Crimes
12.30pm – The Substitute
2.40pm – Trailer Park of Terror
4.50pm – Mum & Dad
7.15pm – The Strangers
9.15pm – Freakdog
11.45pm – Bad Biology

Saturday, August 23
12.30pm – Fear(s) of the Dark
2.30pm – Manhunt
4.40pm – The Chaser
7.20pm – Bubba’s Chili Parlor
10pm – Midnight Meat Train
Midnight – Tokyo Gore Police

Sunday, August 24
11.30am – From Within
1.30pm – Let The Right One In
4pm – The Broken
6.15pm – Autopsy
9pm – Martyrs
11.30pm – Jack Brooks Monster Slayer

Monday, August 25
11am – The Dead Outside
1.20pm – The FILM4 FrightFest Short Film Showcase
3.40pm – The Disappeared
6.30pm – Mirrors
9pm – Death Race

Watch the trailers for The Strangers and Mirrors.

When Tom and Susan, a New Jersey couple, lose their son in the attack on the twin towers, it begins to affect their marriage, friends and community…

More than just a story of one couple’s personal and political journey, Enduring Freedom is also a powerful portrayal of the Bush years and how a climate of repression and fear hijacked the democratic process, undermining the lives of ordinary people.

Roland Jaquarello directs a cast that includes Lisa Eichhorn, Fiz Marcus, Vincent Riotta, Charlie Roe and Anna Savva.

Eichhorn’s theatre credits include Shadowlands (Salisbury), Tobaccoland, The Misfits, Winding the Ball (Royal Exchange, Manchester), Women of Lockerbie (Orange Tree Theatre), Golden Boy (National Theatre), The Speed of Darkness, The Common Pursuit (Off Broadway), and Any Given Day (Broadway).

Her extensive screen credits include King of the Hill, A Modern Affair, The Weather in the Streets, Cutter’s Way (Best Actress Deauville), The Europeans (for which she received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress), Yanks (for which she received two Golden Globe nominations), Midsomer Murders, Spooks, Law and Order, Jericho and Inspector Morse.

Marcus’s credits include Equus (UK National Tour), Star Quality (Apollo Theatre), A Man With Connections (Minerva Theatre Chichester and Finborough Theatre), A Kind of Alaska (Orange Tree Theatre), Private Lives, Red Princess and A Small Family Business.

Riotta’s credits include Measure for Measure, Romeo and Juliet, Flashpoint (Young Vic), Salome (National Theatre), A Streetcar Named Desire and All My Sons. On screen he has appeared in Revolver, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Under the Tuscan Sun, Heaven, Babylon 5, Monk and Alias.

Roe’s theatre credits include A Few Good Men (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Electra (Gate Theatre), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (English Touring Theatre), The Winter’s Tale (Young Vic), The Tempest and Philoctetes (Cheek by Jowl), As You Like It and Ting Tang Mine (National Theatre), and Troilus and Cressida (Royal Shakespeare Company).

Savva, who was nominated for Best Actress by Time Out for her performance as Frida Kahlo in Frida and Diego at the Red Shift Theatre, has appeared on screen in The Quiet Assassin, EastEnders, Silent Witness and London’s Burning.

Lustgarten’s first play The Insurgents, a comic drama about Kurdish immigration and political resistance to globalisation, was produced at Finborough Theatre in 2007 as part of a double bill A Letter To England.

Enduring Freedom is designed by Vanessa Hawkins, with lighting by Gabriel Phillips-Sanchez and sound design by David Sharrock. It is presented by Giant Steps in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre.

Tickets: £13, £9 concessions, except Tuesday evenings £9 all seats and Saturday evenings £13 all seats. Previews (August 6 and 7) £9 all seats.

Times: Tuesday to Saturday at 7.30pm; Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3pm.

Performance Length: Approximately 2 hours.

For more information call the box office on 0844 847 1652 or visit the website.

Five women meet for the first time in 25 years to celebrate Carol’s 40th birthday. However, what starts out to be an entertaining reunion is interrupted with issues of the past that come home to roost.

The friends arrive with great expectations of each other but how will they live up to it? And will the night be a complete disaster for Carol?

Starring alongside Le Mar (as Sandra) are Orlessa Altass (Carol) whose previous credits include EastEnders, SouthWestNine, Emmerdale, Doctors, Tube Tales and Bad Girls (TV) as well as Stereo (Tricycle Theatre); and Ellen O’Grady (Mandy) whose credits include Doctors, Goodnight Sweetheart (TV) and Bad Girls – The Musical, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (Theatre).

Also in the cast are Carol Moses (Jennifer) whose theatre credits include Tiata Delights (Almeida Theatre) and The Maid (Oval House Theatre); and Catherine Hammond (Joyce) who has appeared on stage in Tell Tara (New Writers Festival), The Amen Corner (Bristol Old Vic), The Maintenance Man (Canal Café Theatre), and A Slice Of Saturday Night (Bloomsbury Theatre).

Forty is directed by Treva Etienne whose acting credits include Eyes Wide Shut, Black Hawk Down, Pirates Of The Caribbean II and Bad Boys II (film); The Real McKoy, London’s Burning, The Lenny Henry Show, Desmonds and The Fast Show (TV).

Forty follows the success of The Brothers and Do You Know Where Your Daughter Is?

Tickets: £17.50 + concessions.

Time: 8pm.

For more information call the box office on 020 8985 2424 or visit the website.

Described as a tender portrayal of two women trying to start again, This Wide Night sees Lorraine released from prison and heading straight to Marie’s. Inside they shared everything, but they soon discover that the friendship that once protected them now threatens their new found freedom.

Lucy Morrison directs Cathy Owen and Jan Pearson.

Moss’ previous plays include The Way Home, Christmas Is Miles Away, How Love Is Spelt and A Day in Dull Armour. She wrote This Wide Night after working with inmates at Cookham Wood prison.

Clean Break was founded in 1979 by two female prisoners and is well known for its theatre productions, new writing projects and drama education specifically concerned with women whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system. Each year, it commisions a play by a leading woman writer.

In accepting this year’s commission, Moss follows in the footsteps of Tanika Gupta, Lin Coghlan, Bryony Lavery and Winsome Pinnock.

Tickets: £10, £15.

Time: 7:30pm.

For more information call the box office on 0870 429 6883 or visit the website.

Following its run at Soho Theatre, This Wide Night will embark on a tour – to Newcastle, Plymouth and to various prisons.

What’s the story? Things are really beginning to heat up for Dexter (Michael C Hall). He’s no longer able to kill because Doakes’ (Erik King) suspicions about him are growing. And on the rare occasions he loses Doakes’ tail, he’s unable to finish off his victims. Paul (Mark Pellegrino), meanwhile, is troubling Rita (Julie Benz) about the missing shoe that might get him out of prison and sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) is going through trauma over the Ice Truck killer incident. To make matters even worse, the dumping site in the ocean that he uses to dispose of the bodies of his victim is discovered by divers…

Why so good? After the soaring highs of the first season finale, Dexter was always going to have to slow the pace as it entered its tricky second season. But the omens are good. The black humour that marked season 1 is still gleefully intact, characters appear to have grown stronger and more compelling, and there were some wonderful markers laid down for the remainder of the series. Dexter, it seems, is alive and well – even though the personal problems are stacking up for him.,

Digging a little deeper: The second season of Dexter has its work cut out in trying to surpass the overall enjoyment of its dazzling first season. But while the novelty factor has gone, It’s Alive competently ensured that there is plenty to sink our teeth into.

Michael C Hall’s central character remains an enigmatic presence and a genuinely troubled soul. For someone who professes not to care, the emotional fallout from season 1 is clearly taking its toll.

The opening moments of the episode cleverly played like a re-run of the opening moments of the pilot, with Dexter announcing that “tonight’s the night” and cruising the streets of Miami… only for the camera to pan back and reveal Doakes on his trail. Things have changed already… and Dexter was merely going bowling.

It’s this playful sense of fun that hooked you in from the outset. If Dexter is deprived of his murderous fix, how will he cope? Like a smoker addicted to nicotine, Dexter was a muted, even disorientated figure.

To make matters worse, when he was finally able to give Doakes the slip and line up his next target – a blind voodoo killer – his conscience got the better of him. He was unable to see through the act and, instead, let his victim go. Could it be that the ice man is melting?

Later on, an over-sized gang member who had macheted a rival to death was also in Dexter’s sights… only to be allowed to wriggle free from his bonds and escape near-certain death. Dexter’s sense of bewilderment and frustration was palpable… he was losing his grip and the repercussions for killer and viewer were mind-boggling.

And all this had happened before the discovery of Dexter’s dumping ground that will surely form the basis of much more turmoil throughout the series… as the hunter becomes the hunted.

It’s a tribute to the quality of the writing on this exceptional show that season two hasn’t settled into an easy routine. Rather, it’s shaking up the formula by trading on the familiar, before pulling the rug out from under you.

Characters have also changed. Doakes is much more of a threat and, as played by Erik King, a predator of a different sort sniffing out Dexter’s wrong-doing. Julie Benz’s Rita is also more feisty, having grown in confidence since bedding Dexter, to the extent that she’s now taking the lead in their relationship. Will she soon be another to question Dexter’s nocturnal activities?

And what of sister Debs? Clearly struggling to cope with the fallout from her ill-fated relationship with the Ice Truck Killer, will she also be a threat to Dexter’s dark secret? Certainly, she’s an unstable character whose volatility is growing.

Yet, for all of its darkness and violence, Dexter remains a highly amusing programme. The script is littered with gems, while even the situations that Dexter finds himself in are played out with a morbid humour (witness his decision to use two syringes to bring down the gang killer).

Hence, what could have become a sickening and even distasteful series about objectionable characters gleefully rises above such potential pitfalls to be a genuinely guilty pleasure. By keeping things so consistently entertaining, and so morally ambiguous, Dexter continues to appeal to that dark side in all of us.

Dexter: Season 2 is currently on F/X on Sunday nights at 10pm. The season premiere aired on July 6, 2008.

What did you think?

Following an unsuccessful stint in an R’n‘B group Leon – inspired by the likes of Beck and Badly Drawn Boy – decided to start over and, while working as a runner in a recording studio, learned his way around a mixing desk, experimenting with his own tunes.

But the path to success wasn’t easy. His parents, wary that Leon was wasting his life, encouraged him to go to college instead and get a proper job. In response, he jacked in university, moved in and out of home, stayed at mate’s houses, slept in his car and even rough on the streets, during which he also dallied in drink, drugs and depression. The experience, though, merely steeled him and inspired many of the songs that make up Bent Out of Shape.

Not that you can expect a hard-hitting, depressing tale of life’s hard knocks (like so many urban artists deliver), but rather a life affirming mix of influences that have plenty to say without ramming any particular message home. Bent Out Of Shape feels like a celebration of triumph against adversity and it’s utterly infectious.

What’s more, it benefits from a who’s who of producers, from Mark Ronson to The Rural and Bloodshy. Ronson, of course, needs little introduction, but The Rural have worked with Gorillaz, while Bloodshy are veterans of Kylie and Britney Spears. It’s clear, then, that Leon has surrounded himself with people who know how to deliver the odd hit – but crucially hits that are capable of crossover appeal.

Needless to say, the highlights fly thick and fast. Album opener Fair is a clap-happy mix of foot-shuffling funk and wonky pop melodies that sound checks Beck and Calvin Harris, while East End Blues delivers its Madness-style observations of London’s darker elements in supremely upbeat style.

Glow is just a fantastic pop record that once again flirts with Beck territory (no bad thing), while the slower, piano-based balladry and suppressed beats of You Must Know find Leon drawing favourable comparisons with the likes of Badly Drawn Boy. The chorus, with its melodic “you must know you are, you must know you are the one”, is a real little gem.

The Mark Ronson influence helps to lend a vital immediacy to former single Bed Of Nails, which draws on Leon’s experiences of sleeping rough, while Bring It On mixes contemporary Gorillaz pop/hip-hop with Steve Miller Band-style classic pop. It’s another instantly catchy head-nodder.

The standard is maintained throughout the rest of the album, with Gotta Have It benefiting from a slinky backbeat and a whole lotta soul; Trusted You trading well on its funky beats and infusion of brass, and some fantastic bass and scratching enlivening the heavy-hitting Scratch (which finds Leon channelling the spirit of Prince and Beck once again).

There’s a charming innocence surrounding the breezy melodies of Jumping Off The Block, while title track and album closer Bent Out Of Shape draws things to a close on a reflective, almost romantic note that merely underlines Leon’s brilliant diversity – whilst confirming you’ll completely have been taken by his musical charms.

By the time you’ve replayed it two or three times, you’ll realise – like me – that Leon has delivered one of the debut releases of the year – and one that’s likely to leave you feeling good about things.

Download picks: Glow, Bed Of Nails, Bring It On, Bent Out of Shape, Scratch, Jumping Off The Block, Glow

Track listing:

1. Fair
2. East End Blues
3. Glow
4. You Must Know
5. Bed Of Nails
6. Bring It On
7. Gotta Have It
8. Beg
9. Trusted You
10. Stay Right Here
11. Scratch
12. Jumpin’ Off The Block
13. Bent Out Of Shape