It doesn’t get more star-studded than this: George Clooney pleases the old guard in the lead role as a presidential candidate in The Ides Of March, while Ryan Gossling plays his idealistic campaign manager. The film also stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, Paul Giamatti and Jeffrey Wright, and it’s as good as political thrillers get.

Scandal abounds (involving a young intern – very Monica Lewinsky) in a film where power corrupts and ambition seduces. Up there with the previous likes of The Candidate, Advise And Consent, That Special Relationship, and The Best Man. Watch it.

We’re quivering in anticipation to see the new Tim Burton flick, Dark Shadows. Judging by the shorts, it’s far from serious – as its title might otherwise suggest.

Set predominantly in 1972, the gothic comedy sees Johnny Depp play a vampire who is freed from his tomb after two years of incarceration and thrown into a world of disco, drug-talk and daggy bell-bottomed trousers.

Also in the cast is Burton staple Helena Bonham Carter, who plays a kooky psychologist, Michelle Pfeiffer as a troubled matriarch with plenty of evil secrets, Chloe Moretz as her rebellious teenage daughter, and Gulliver McGrath as her precocious son.

Oh, and from the promotional posters we can see enough pasty white makeup to make the cast of Twilight look like they’ve been sunning it up!

Dark Shadows is in cinemas May 10.

View the trailer at www.darkshadowsmovie.com.

The Inbetweeners did pretty well on the telly, drawing an audience that appreciated seeing the troubles of youth coming of age, akin to Skins but perhaps not so dirty/dirty. But where Skins tried too hard at times to appear too cool for school, the characters on The Inbetweeners have always been okay with not taking themselves so seriously.

Anyway, so popular has the TV series been, that a movie has come to fruition, aptly titled, well, The Inbetweeners Movie. In it, the four main characters of Will (Simon Bird), Simon (Joe Thomas), Jay (James Buckley) and Neil (Blake Harrison) bid high school goodbye forever, and venture off on their first vacation together.

But their holiday in Crete is no picnic; rather a chaotic ride from the get-go. From disastrous accommodation, to much heartache on Simon’s behalf, to Jay falling asleep in an ants nest, it’s a comi-tragic coming-of-age flick where four boys become men. Or at least try to. Of course getting laid is a priority among the group.

‘The Inbetweeners Movie’ is out on Blu-ray and DVD through Roadshow Home Entertainment.

As far as compilation products go, the Triple J Hottest 100 albums are hot property. But with the forever growing technological world we live in, brands have to keep their customers happy with bigger and better products. Cue the ‘Triple J Hottest 100’ DVD. As music videos are becoming more and more advanced in perpetuating the message of the audio accompaniment, what better way to flog Australia’s best countdown via another quality music video compilation.

This time ’round there are vids featured by Foster The People, 360, The Black Keys, Nero, Boy & Bear, San Cisco, Kasabian, Gotye and the lovely Lana Del Rey.

Volume 19 of the Hottest 100 not only features the music videos (all 45 of them) of the songs we loved throughout the past 12 months, but also a nifty juke box setting that allows the viewer to essentially create their own playlist to play on repeat. Perfect for a party, or even the backdrop of a lazy Sunday afternoon. Up to you.

I can never get enough of Dr Seuss. The house I’m in has a couple of the man’s original artworks on the walls, hung beside some spooky Stormie Mills’s, which we’re very proud of. I still buy Seuss’s books in all shapes and sizes, with the likes of Fox In Sox, Green Eggs And Ham and Sam I Am funnily enough not looking out of place between the more serious likes of War & Peace and The Andy Warhol Diaries.

From literature to cinema, I’ve been fairly impressed with Hollywood’s treatment of Seuss’s works so far. Jim Carrey was killer in How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Mike Myers was a hoot in The Cat In The Hat, and even Horton Hears A Who has had a couple of rotations on the Blu-ray machine at home.

So when news arrived that an animated version of The Lorax would be released in glorious 3D, I was beside myself like Thing One jumping up and down next two Thing Two.

The film is clever for several reasons. Firstly, it focuses on a major ecological theme: with the Lorax “speaking for the trees” which have been chopped down throughout all of Thneedville – making oxygen scarce whereby allowing the O’Hare Air Corporation capitilise on the sale of water-come-gas.

The story goes back to when Thneedville was a vivid landscape of natural beauty – which in Dr Seuss world means hot pink, fluoro yellow and neon green tufts for tree-tops. The village is populated by all manner of cute and quirky characters, each happier at a time when trees weren’t made of plastic and air from the gods was available for free.

Surprisingly, the resolution of the film isn’t half as twee as the ending seen in most Hollywood flicks, and it’s a joy to see Tinseltown moguls not feeling like they have to talk down to Generation Z. That said, The Lorax will appeal to just about anybody, from your kid sister to your Pop. See it.

‘The Lorax’ is out now in cinemas.

When I was a teenager, I considered Duran Duran one of my favourite bands. The space in my study dedicated to D-squared wasn’t as big as, say, that devoted to Madonna or Michael Jackson, but the New Romantics did leave their fair share of Blu-Tac markings on all four walls.

Since joining the music industry as a journalist, I’ve enjoyed interviews with lead singer Simon Le Bon, talking about his heady days of partying, waxed lyrical about makeup and music-making with keyboardist Nick Rhodes, and swapped notes on a flight from LA to New York with bass-player John Taylor. Yes, fellow Duran fans have screamed with envy.

I’d only seen the band live once before last weekend’s performance at Sandalford Estate in WA’s stunning Swan Valley, and that was at the Future Music Festival in Sydney where Le Bon sounded somewhat croaky in the vocal department while the band’s set list consisted of few of their better hits. Suffice to say, the Sandalford gig blew me away.

Right from the get-go, the lads delivered a finely tuned and crisply produced set, selecting some of the better songs from their current album All You Need Is Now, but ensuring fans would hear just about every one of their single release successes.

Having the privilege of photographing Le Bon and the boys from just three feet away of stage centre, I felt like Nick Rhodes might have when he was rushing about with camera in hand in the video clip for A View To A Kill. That the song happened to be in the band’s opening few numbers only added to the glamorous snapperazzi vibe.

After three songs my job of photographing was complete and I joined a fellow Duranie mate in the audience to enjoy the rest of the show. But every time we went to sit down, a gem from the Duran archive would come pounding out of the speakers, and up in the air we were again, lip-synching to inane lyrics that once seemed terribly deep and meaningful, like “dancing on the Valentine”, “I smell like I sound”, and “the girls all love pulling dolly by the hair”. From Planet Earth to Notorious, Girls On Film to Girl Panic, there was plenty of flamboyant pop to get excited about.

There was, however, in the middle of the gig, a major stuff-up with the power, sending the stage into darkness and even seeing the bars shut down due to lack of refrigeration. But with graceful style, Le Bon insisted on taking a break until the generator was fully revved up again. Nobody seemed to mind the 20-minute interval, since they knew plenty of familiar tunes were yet to come.

Culminating in a final chapter that included Wild Boys and an encore that has all crooning to Rio, punters left the estate well elated. In fact, bumping into several girlfriends from high school at the end of the night, I wasn’t too surprised to hear them insistent on stalking the band members at their hotel. Ah, it’s like the Eighties never ended…

The Beatles’ 1968 animated feature film, Yellow Submarine, already stands out as a landmark in cinema, being one of the first full features to encompass an entire album’s soundtrack and breaking the mould for animation and turning its fluffy Disney-like peers on their heads.

This writer once got so high on hooch, he began to read, perhaps too deeply, into the film’s narrative, in which an army of ‘Blue Meanies’ who destroy all that is good on this earth began to represent the heads of capitalist corporations. I’ve since laid off the hooch.

But even without scratching the film’s surface, rather seeing it digitally restored for full 4K resolution pleasure, it’s now an even greater pleasure to view. Due to the delicate nature of the hand-drawn original artwork, no automated software was used in the digital clean-up of the film’s restored photochemical elements, with the full retouching done by hand, frame by frame.

The soundtrack, of course, presents the Beatles at their psychedelic peak (pardon the pun) and includes the songs Eleanor Rigby, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, With A Little Help From My Friends, All You Need Is Love, and Baby, You’re A Rich Man (the latter more recently heard over the closing credits of Facebook biopic of sorts, The Social Network).

Bonus features for the Yellow Submarine Blu-ray and DVD include a short making-of documentary titled Mod Odyssey, as well as the film’s original trailer, storyboard sequences, audio commentary by producer John Coates and art director Heinz Edelmann, and interview clips with others involved with the film. Heck, so serious about its re-release are the record company, they’ve packaged it with cels from the film, collectible stickers, and a 16-page booklet with a full essay by Yellow Submarine aficionado John Lasseter (Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios).

If you’ve not seen this classic animated rock flick yet, invest. It’d make for excellent, trippy party ambience when jumping out of a projector at your next house party, too.

‘Yellow Submarine’, digitally restored on Blu-ray and DVD is out through EMI Music on May 25.

For those who like their comedy dark and twisted, the second series of Pyschoville is out now on DVD, served in an extra strong dose. Pyschoville is the brainchild of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton who first played a series of outrageous characters in the cult BBC hit, League Of Gentlemen, which lasted an award-winning three seasons and spun off a feature film to boot. Two other cast members went their own separate ways but Pemberton and Shearsmith stayed together and agreed to write another comedy series but one with a shade of mystery which ended every episode on a cliffhanger.

In an interview, Pemberton framed the challenges they faced as both actors and scriptwriters, “most comedy shows tend to be the same thing every week and that’s what people enjoy – familiarity – so what was really tough was blending those elements in a successful show which delivered the same characters and familiar jokes every week, but also giving you a really exciting narrative”.

The narrative is indeed convincing and intriguing but the strength of Pyschoville lies in the characters and each one has their own dark secret from the past that catches up with them.

Dave Sowerbutts is an insecure and overweight loner who works evenings as an actor at murder themed whodunit parties, all the while committing real murders with his interfering and manipulative mother. Both he and Maureen have an obsession with serial killers and are constantly referencing their favourites while carrying out the real thing. “I’d like to do the next one like the Ripper” exclaims Dave. “Jack or Yorkshire?” asks his mother, before stopping to make a cup of tea as if were just another job to do while disposing of a corpse and demonstrating just one of the many ambiguous scenarios that Pemberton and Shearsmith exploit to full comedic advantage.

The second series exposes a deeper, darker plot and delivers a few new characters like obsessive compulsive librarian, Jeremy Goode, who takes the seriousness of overdue book loans to an extreme conclusion. During times of stress or anxiety he suffers from hallucinations, envisioning the Silent Singer (pictured above) who torturously appears at the most inconvenient moment.

Guest star Dawn French – who plays Joy Aston, a frantic ‘mother’ who believes the toy training doll she is nursing is actually a real baby, – delivers another flawless performance. Perhaps the star of the show is Mr Jelly, a highly irate professional clown with anger management issues with a hook for a hand. Always the pessimist, he defies fate to discover the reason why he and all the other characters have been drawn together.

The second series throws a new twist into the plotline and hopefully one that will pave the way for a third. It’s macabre, outrageous, and like nothing else on TV. Plenty of interviews and extras on the DVD give an insight into the program but don’t delve as deeply as we’d like. It doesn’t lessen the enjoyment, however, from this highly addictive comedy series.

Be warned: Pyschoville will have you laughing well into the night, but you’ll be checking the wardrobe before you turn out the lights.

‘Pyschoville: Season 2’ is out through Roadshow Home Entertainment.

Based on the television show that put Johnny Depp on the map, 21 Jump Street is an action comedy that sees two cops, played by Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, turn in their guns and badges for backpacks, as they go undercover in a high school. Why? Well in order to undergo some good ol’ fashion investigation into crime, of course.

If you think this film is going to be some lo-fi desperate remake, then guess again. 21 Jump Street is in fact hilariously funny. It’s one of those films where you actually catch yourself laughing out loud not just a few times, but during the entire way through. We have to put this down to two things: Firstly, whoever thought of putting Jonah Hill next to Channing Tatum was a frigging genius. We didn’t even think the pairing would work. We thought Tatum’s ‘Save The Last Dance’ lame-ness would kill any attempt Jonah Hill had at getting a comedic thing going. Instead what we are given is a comedy duo with a perfect balance of timing and a real onscreen chemistry. Think something along the lines of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys, albeit a little whiter. Nevertheless, these boys work well together. It even went so far as to make us question our perspective of Tatum. Might he not be lame after all?

Rhetorical questions aside, the second reason we think this movie works well is that the humour derived from the film doesn’t only stem from Hill and Tatum’s onscreen chemistry. The script itself is very well written and superbly funny. Part of this humour is that the film gets all reflexive at times – that is, it speaks as if it knows it is a remake of an Eighties television show. It also possesses all those pop culture references and implicit commentaries on what really makes a person cool in this modern age (ie: the ingredients that has made the likes of Glee so popular – and ironically, Glee is even referred to in the film).

Ultimately we discovered that Jonah Hill himself actually co-wrote the thing. Way impressive. Of course, when an actor is reading his own comedic lines, the delivery is bound to be more spot-on than if some other actor is reading them, as proven by Eddie Murphy his Nutty Professor franchise or Mike Myers in the Austin Powers series.

So many great, credible films have come out post-Oscar season, but if you’re not into the serious stuff and want a huge laugh, go see 21 Jump Street.

‘21 Jump Street’ is out now in cinemas.

View the full trailer here.

Editors of architectural digests and interior design tomes often like to strip things back and present the most minimalist examples in their respective fields, probably due to sifting through so many images of colourful and richly textured edifices and abodes that they’ve tired of the richness and opted to filter it down to the cleanest aesthetic. Which leaves those of us that admire a bit of colour or texture very unsatisfied.

Editor Mark Cleary of new coffee table book ‘21st Century Architecture: Designer Houses’ has not been afraid to focus on all that is brilliant and diverse in modern and postmodern architecture. To start with, he forgoes the usual pretentious introduction and jumps straight to quality examples of unique design and stand-out structure, kicking off with Caramel Architeken’s flamboyant ‘500m Living Room’ in Rodaun, Austria. The four-level living space is a fine example of practical and unique design: with elements of sturdy polycarbonate material consistent throughout, some major eco statements in the living room and office area, and curvilinear furniture well-spaced to lend a certain lightness to the place.

Cleary then heads down to Jakarta, Indonesia, where the Alam Family Residence looks like a mathematician’s dream home, all bold geometric in design with a brise-soleil taking up the entire front wall of the house that allows for abstract light patterns to chop and change as day passes through to night.

The most ostentatious of the lot might be Villa Del Cielo in Las Vegas, constructed mostly of reclaimed materials from Europe, Ecuador and Mexico, and filled to the brim with showy antiques and artefacts.

Elsewhere in this great big designer world, Cleary highlights residential gems in Mexico, Brazil, Finland, Swizterland, The Netherlands, Japan, Italy and is very generous with his Australian quota.

The homes down under that leave an indelible mark include Honiton House in Bellevue Hill, Warrandyte Residence in Victoria, South Yarra House, and Woollahra House.

A great reference guide for budding renovators, or simply something very pretty for the coffee table.

‘21st Century Architecture: Designer Houses’ is published by Images Publishing, RRP $59.99 and available at good book stores.