Pride Of Manchester Award for Best Movie with a Manchester Connection
Whilst 2007 saw Manchester-located movies winning awards around the globe and 2009 is set to see the release of some blockbusters filmed in the city, 2008 was a relatively quiet year. The biggest releases starring Mancunian actors included Steve Coogan in the smash comedy Tropic Thunder, Ian McShane in Death Race, Albert Finney in Before The Devil Knows You're Dead and Sir Ben Kingsley in The Love Guru, Elergy, Transsiberian and the brilliant The Wackness amongst others. Ian McShane also provided the voice of Tai Lung in Kung-Fu Panda with Jane Horrocks voicing Fairy Mary in Tinker Bell. Mike Leigh's multi-award winning Happy-Go-Lucky had the critics purring. Grant Gee's cinema documentary of Joy Division received 5 star reviews across the board as did Oldham comic legend Eric Sykes in Son Of Rambow. Interestingly Ridley Scott's Body of Lies starring Leonardo Di Caprio and Russell Crowe was set in Manchester but actually filmed in Baltimore.
1708 members voted for 24 different films with the 2008-09 final shortlist...
2007-08 Winner
CONTROL
Anton Corbijn's Cannes Film Festival winning cinema biopic of Manchester music legend Ian Curtis
Body Of Lies
Though this terrorist thriller from Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe and Leonardo Di Caprio is partly set in Manchester, it's actually filmed in Baltimore and, as such, may confuse many who don't recognise our streets and buildings. American curbside items like fire hydrants were hidden by dropping bottom-less slatted metal rubbish bins (or should that be 'trash cans') over them and then adding prop Mancunian litter. That said, it's still a great movie and won plenty of your votes.
Grant Gee's cinema documentary of Manchester band Joy Division received 5 star reviews from the likes of Time Out and The Guardian, with Empire and Total Cinema also waxing lyrical of the rockumentary. The film follows the unlikely rise of these working class Manchester lads up to Ian Curtis's suicide, which tore the band apart until it was reborn as New Order. Unlike the Pride Of Manchester Award winning Control, a drama which told the story of Ian Curtis, Joy Division is a documentary about the whole band which boasts rare footage as well as their beautifully moody videos and one of Tony Wilson's last ever interviews, capturing the essence of what made Joy Division so special yet so tragic.
One of the finest animated films released under the DreamWorks banner, Kung Fu Panda juggles action, heart, and humour in a highly entertaining way, with the beautiful back drop of lovingly depicted ornate Chinese chambers and vast mountainous vistas. Salford actor, Ian McShane voices his character with verve, the evil Tai Lung, a Kung Fu master tiger who escapes from a high-security prison, setting up a collision course with the film's star, Po, a clumsy and ever-hungry panda (voiced by Jack Black). Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie and Jackie Chan also provide voices in this movie with remarkably wide appeal.
Legendary Oldham comedian Eric Sykes makes a cameo appearance in Son of Rambow, an affectionate film about two boys in the 1980's who spend the summer holidays making their own home-movie version of 'Rambo'. Playing a care-home resident dragged into the shoot to play an utterly nonplussed Rambo Senior, Eric Sykes proves why he is one of the greatest British comics of all time. Surely it's time he was given a knighthood?
Written and directed by Ben Stiller and featuring Middleton comic Steve Coogan, Tropic Thunder is an action packed dark comedy not to be missed. A group of well-known successful actors (played by Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black), are cast in the biggest, most expensive war movie ever produced when, after filming begins, the director (Steve Coogan) has a change of heart and throws the actors into real-life combat and they are forced to become the fighting unit they're portraying. It picked up loads of your votes.
