Brad Pitt

Eric Bana

Orlando Bloom

Nicole Kidman

Daniel Radcliffe

review of Emile

ROTK Theatrical DVD Review below

ROTK DVD Review

THERE'S NOT MUCH point reading this page - the review is redundant and the release itself is something of a non-event. Make no mistake, autumn's four-disc edition is the most anticipated DVD this side of Star Wars, and the additional footage arguably 2004's most exciting hour of celluloid; the two-disc tease, however, is for families, not fans. As for the movie, with the Oscars victory lap not even complete, the worldwide shortage of superlatives has reached crisis levels.

However, the trial run does occasion one auspicious event - the first opportunity for most of us to watch the entire trilogy uninterrupted. And this, in turn, affords a quite different perspective.

J. R. R. Tolkien did not like the idea of three books, and the 'trilogy' was merely a publishing device. Peter Jackson, for his part, made just one movie: The Lord Of The Rings. He shot with multiple crews, out of sequence, filming crucial scenes from The Return Of The King as far back as 1999. It is therefore utter nonsense that the rousing third part comes bejewelled with Academy Awards when its equally distinguished predecessors did not. Further, it is henceforth clearly foolish to talk about the relative merits of what are now clearly three acts of a single story. Of the three movies, only The Fellowship Of The Ring, duty-bound to corral an audience, is designed to stand alone and Comes replete with variegated moods, measured pace and completed character arcs. The Return Of The King, on the other hand, is barely a conventional movie at all - consisting almost entirely of third act.

But what a third act - as climaxes go, this sprint-paced marathon is the movie equivalent of the mythical multiple all women's magazines boast about. Jackson is sensible to the huge emotional investment he had leveraged during the first two episodes and decides to splurge here. All the earnest emoting does, in fact, ultimately teeter on the edge of melodrama, but then, the false endings and multiple goodbyes only balance out if you take into consideration the previous ten hours.

Indeed, viewed as the author, and the director, intended, The Lord Of The Rings is both richer and more measured than the individual Christmas rituals, with any minor complaints dwarfed by the sheer consistency on display. Sadly, it's unlikely that the last remaining pockets of Rings resistance will be persuaded by the prospect of watching 550 minutes or so in one sitting. However, if the dear old Beeb was to air the entire saga in hour-long episodes on successive Sunday evenings, the story would be packaged into portions that even non-believers would find impossible to deny. And for those who find the suggestion of such tampering heretical, remember that Francis Ford Coppolla once did exactly this for The Godfather, Parts I and II. Brooking no argument, The Lord Of The Rings is now in that class.

DVD extras: Were it not for the peerless four-disc sets, it would be time to give the standard issue extras a good kicking. Not that those on offer are meagre exactly, with two decent 'making of documentaries, six internet-premiered featurettes and the usual padding of trailers and TV spots. For an average DVD, this would be passable fare, not least because the interviews and B-roll footage convey so much of the project's personality. But ROTK is not an ordinary film and the overlap of material is sloppy - the tone is often misjudged and even the tenses jar, with the actors hinting at plot points we discovered long ago. All told, this is just a collection of materials produced to promote the film - what we want, and what we will get in autumn, is a collection of materials that properly commemorate the achievement.

COLIN KENNEDY

FILM ***** EXTRAS **

What's It All About, Gandalfie?

IF OSCAR NIGHT was a landmark date in LOTR's epic history, there was also a touch of melancholy: the trilogy was ended and the fellowship brought together for one last black-tie evening. But if it was poignant for the fans, spare a thought for Sir Ian McKellen, currently enjoying unprecedented popularity in a distinguished 40-year career. "When we were filming The Lord Of The Rings I wasn't at all certain it was going to be a success;" he told Intermission. "You do your best and you cross your fingers but sometimes you do what you think is smashing work and the critics don't like it. It's changed my life in terms of people recognising me, though. There aren't many places in the world I can go where people don't want to say hello to Gandalf!"

McKellen, however, isn't content to rest on his laurels, and he certainly hasn't abandoned the kind of smaller, more personal projects that came to him before Hollywood beckoned. This month sees him in Canadian movie Emile, by Carl Bessai, playing the title role of an introverted former professor coming to terms with the ghosts of his life, past and present. "I was in British Columbia doing X-Men 2," he said, "and I'd been there for 15 weeks, not doing very much. I had an awful lot of time off and really enjoyed being there; it's a beautiful part of the world."

It was there that McKellen "fell in" with Bessai, who pitched him the script. "Most filmmakers at Carl's level are full of ideas and they've absolutely no money;" said McKellen, "and I just felt I'd pay  my dues for the lovely time I'd had in British Columbia. We made Emile in as many days as we'd spent weeks doing X2. I liked the story very much, and Carl let me contribute to it a lot in terms of Emile's character. He came over to the UK right at the end and we had one day of guerrilla filmmaking, with just a hand-held camera down in Wapping. The rest of the time we filmed on Vancouver Island, which couldn't be more England if it tried. It's got a Madame Tussaud's there, fish and chips and the horse guards of the Queen. It's a bit like Torquay..."

Meanwhile, for those deprived of their LOTR fix, there'll be some interesting insights from behind the scenes with an upcoming documentary on ITV, which includes footage of that historic night at the Kodak Pavilion. "The South Bank Show have been following me around for a year and it's going to be shown in June;" he told us. "You'll see my reactions to all the awards ceremonies on that, but it's lovely seeing old friends again. As for the Oscars, well, it wasn't too serious for me - I wasn't up for an award so I just went I went for the parties," he grinned. "I had a lovely time!"

McKellen Unzipped

1. There will be an X-Men 3! "I keep hearing that they're intending to do it, but I know no more than anybody else. I know the script is being written and Magneto is going to be in it, but we'll have to wait and see. I saw on the internet they've announced an opening date for 2006, so I suppose they'll be making it next year. I do like the comic; it's got a real purpose to it. An awful lot of kids who read it identify with the mutants because of how they're treated by society--young blacks, young gays and young Jews."

2. Sir Ian is a bona fide star. "Someone sent me a list of the hundred biggest box office stars in the world and I'm currently #3. because of X-Men and Lord of the Rings. Top dog was Hugo Weaving, who was in The Matrix and Rings, and number two is Orlando Bloom who was also in Pirates of the Caribbean, which did very well."

3. He's taking it easy... "I just did the first reading of a new play, at the Royal Court, but I'm not rushing to do anything on a long-term contract. I've also got a new film coming out, Asylum. I play a psychiatrist; it's a very exciting, Gothic, sexy story."

HEROES OF TROY: ORLANDO BLOOM

"PARIS"

Helen Of Troy's paramour is a lover, not a fighter...

"I would say that I'm quite a lucky guy. I'm having a fortunate career." Orlando smiles as he delivers what could prove a contender for understatement of the year. Cast as Legolas when he was barely out of drama school, Bloom became a worldwide sex symbol almost immediately, and his role as Will Turner in Pirates Of The Caribbean, the sequel to which he'll shoot later this year, cemented his position as a viable hero, even with normal ears. Cinema audiences, however, should prepare for a shock, because in Troy they will see a different side to Bloom. As Paris, he's the closest thing to the villain; it is his affair with Helen that plunges the Greeks and Trojans into their ten-year war. Not that Paris does much fighting .

"He's a lover, not a fighter," laughs Bloom, during a break in shooting on the Malta set. "Paris is a ladies' man. He's the guy who, while everyone else is off fighting, is at home seducing the women. I've never done anything like this.

Legolas is so straight, and Will in Pirates is a true-blue, so I thought it would be really interesting to play Paris:' As did director Wolfgang Petersen, although initially he needed some convincing ("I realise all the girls are excited about him," the director notes. "But can he act? He was much better than I thought.").

Bloom is, of course, already a veteran of epic movies, although Troy has been a very different experience from LOTR. "I feel more like part of things in Troy," he says. "In Rings I was just one of an ensemble cast:" To date, the 27 year-old's only false step has been falling off a friend's roof terrace in 1998 and breaking his back. But Bloom even managed to turn that to his advantage. "It's meant that I've kept physical and that's good, because these big films require a lot of energy and stamina." And of course, being so physical helps him fight off all those girls.

DAVID EIMER