Film Review: One Day, a waste of a day!

Obviously the film was never going to be as good as the book, but that’s no excuse for the movie’s lack of detail, disjointedness and Anne Hathaway’s accent, which was more like a public schoolgirl’s, and when she remembered with a Northern twang. I think I even heard her American accent at the beginning, start as you mean to go on and all.

As a huge fan of the book, I was particularly disappointed that the film failed to capture the spirit and like-ability of the main characters-Emma and Dexter. Emma’s efforts in theatre before working as a waitress were completely glossed over, as was her affair with her headmaster, and Dexter’s heady days as a TV presenter off his face on drink and drugs were only touched on. Most importantly, the depth of the relationship between Em and Dex was missing.

This left little empathy for the characters, especially when Emma was killed, a scene which was unnecessarily gruesome and gory, and when Dex was left broken sitting with his father eating soup.

The best and most accurate performances, in my opinion, were from Rafe Spall, who played Ian, his looks and personality were spot on, and even Jim Sturgess did the best he could with the script to portray Dexter.

However, the rest of the cast didn’t look and act as I had imagined. Suki was too obviously annoying, Slyvie too cold hearted to begin with, and Dexter’s father too common.

Making One Day was always going to be risky, but the movie’s portrayal of the book was inaccurate and missing its charm.

Sam wins Dancing on Ice

Sam claimed the title of Dancing on Ice winner 2011 last night. The soap star proved his worth after delivering an outstanding performance of his own version of Torville and Dean’s Bolero, along with children’s TV presenter Laura, whose routine was, according to the judges, ‘Slow to get going’, putting her in overall second place.

The pair were chosen by the public vote to skate the honourary Bolero after Chloe was knocked out of the competition, following the celeb skaters’ final showcase, which saw them choose the costumes, lighting and make-up, and an encore performance of their favourite routine.

Top skater Sam wowed  the judges, even with the injury he sustained in training, with his choreography to ‘Footloose’, which Jason said was ‘fiesty and very clever’, and Emma called ‘Ammmazzzing’, earning him a score of 29.5/30.

Laura skated to Madonna’s ‘Express yourself’, which saw her and two other female professional skaters don secretary outfits, while the men wore very little. But her attempt to recreate Madonna’s music video was unsuccessful. Comments from the judges included, ‘You don’t have the fire I expected’- Robin and ‘You were missing the sexy Madonna feel’- Emma. Laura’s score 26/30.

Chloe took on the part of Baby for her Dirty Dancing performance to ‘The Time of my Life’. However much like Laura, she failed to pull it off, mainly because of her tabletop lift, which Jason branded a ‘collapsible cardboard table, earning her a score of 25.5/30.

For their encores, Sam re-perfomed his Riverdance on ice, Laura her routine to ‘I’m so excited’, and Chloe ‘Kiss Kiss’. But despite Jason’s approval for Chloe’s routine, even taking his hat off to her and revealing the results of his recent hair transplant, the TV presenter come model, failed to win the support of the public to dance the bolero,placing her in third place.

Dancing on Ice- Denise fights a loosing battle

Jason got a taste of his own medicine last night as Denise’s husband jumped to the celeb skater’s defence after the straight talking judge branded her routine like ‘twister’ and said it had no flow. But even that didn’t save the Loose Women panellist who was voted off the competition by the judge’s unanimous vote.

52-year-old Denise and Johnson Beharry VC were put into the bottom two by the public vote and chosen to skate again for their survival, despite Denise being near the top of the judge’s leader board after winning the team challenge.

On the first of the Team Challenge’s last night, team Laura- Laura, Denise and Jeff, skated to Scissor Sisters I Don’t Feel Like Dancing, while team Sam-Sam, Johnson and Chloe performed to Rocking All Over The World.’

Jason said he preferred team Laura as the skaters had more energy, Emma agreed. Whereas Robin chose team Sam for their technical ability.

The win turned the leader board upside down, as top skater Sam was placed in fifth position and Denise in third. But the public vote righted the situation by choosing the weaker skaters- Johnson and Denise to perform in the skate off.

Johnson was saved by all three judges for his determination and smooth performance.

Another surprise of the night was Laura’s score of 28.5/30, the highest of the series so far, which put her at the top of the leader board, a far cry from last week when she was in the skate off.

Chloe Madeley also impressed judges with her ballet inspired routine. Her score of 26.5/30 knocked golden boy Sam into third place. Judges said they believed Sam’s role as team captain had affected his performance, with Robin claiming he could really see the soap star working at it, when his skating normally comes so naturally.

Next week the anti is upped again as the skaters have to perform with a prop.

Dancing on Ice- The ice thaws for rapper Rob

Rapper Vanilla Ice failed to melt the hearts of the judges with his Spanish Matador routine on Dancing on Ice’s World Tour themed show last night.

 

The US star, who was voted off the competition following comments from Jason that his Matador poses looked like Space invaders, lost to children’s TV presenter Laura, who was saved by all three judges in the skate off for her Charleston on ice.

Now with only six couples left after last night, it’s getting harder to predict which celeb skaters will go, admitted the judges, who made it no secret that they thought the weakest skaters Denise and Johnson should be the ones to leave, despite the public saving them week upon week.

However they had nothing but praise for top skater Sam, who they said was back on form after performing a Riverdance on ice routine filled with complicated step sequences, jumps and lifts, which earnt him the highest mark of the series, 27/30.

Laura and Chloe were hot on his heels, both scoring 24.5. In forth position was Jeff, who Emma said was ‘the dark horse of the competition’, after pulling off a Vietnamese waltz on the ice.

The couples with the lowest score were Denise and Johnson. Denise donned an ugly wig to skate a samba, which earnt her strict criticism from Jason. ‘You looked like you needed a MRI scan afterwards’, he said. ‘It was messy and hard to watch as you played catch up to partner Matt’, and ‘You and up beat tempo’s don’t match.’

Johnson’s tango didn’t go down much better as it lacked sexual tension, according to the judges.

Both were awarded 14.5/30.

Dancing on Ice-Comedy Dave skates his last lap

It's back to the day job for Comedy Dave, who was voted off Dancing on Ice last night for his performance-less routine.

The Radio 1 presenter, who failed to live up to his name, received one vote from the three judges to stay in the competition from skating expert Robin, while Emma and Jason chose to save Kerry (Katona) based purely on performance, despite her being at the bottom of the judges leader-board with 12/30. 'Kerry has lots of catching up to do with the other skaters' they all agreed.

Last night's show was the second of the Ultimate Skills Test, where celebs were required to perform a jump in their routine. The theme of the show was musicals.

The front runners (skaters) Sam, Laura and Chloe, as usual performed at their best, with Laura catching up to Sam with a score of 25.5/30 for her Hairspray routine, for which she was branded by Jason as 'Soooo Disney.'
Hot on their heels was Jeff, who, with his new found confidence, delivered a controlled performance to open the show, earning him 22/30, his best score to date, even beating Vanilla Ice, who Jason said 'was melting.'

Once again Denise's performance to Chicago's Roxy was ripped apart by judge Jason who told her 'Your Fosse arms were more like windscreen wipers', and 'You lacked the sentiment of the performance.' Denise said, 'I was trying to be sexy', 'We didn't get that', replied Jason. Fortunately Johnson escaped Jason's wrath for his comical routine, with Emma praising him for trying something new each week.

Next Sunday the celebs must perform three tricks, a step sequence, jumps and a 360 degree spin, which will count for more than half their overall score.