New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Charlotte O'Sullivan's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Doug Liman.
Cast: Hayden Christensen, Samuel L Jackson, Jamie Bell, Diane Lane, Rachel Bilson
Description: Abandoned by his mother at the age of five, David Rice discovers the ability to 'jump' - to teleport anywhere in the world in the blink of an eye - after a near-death drowning incident. Gifted with this incredible power, David is instantly targeted by Paladin agent Roland, who has dedicated his life to finding and killing Jumpers, believing they are too powerful to be allowed to exist and disrupt the flow of the universe. Roland's number one target is orphan Griffin, who has evaded capture for more than a decade. David and Griffin join forces to outwit the Paladins.
Country: US. 2007. 88mins
Charmed life: Hayden Christensen as a decadent creature who breaks all the rules
Much-hyped: The special effects in Jumper are spectacular
Hayden Christensen is a very pretty boy and the special effects that allow him to zip around the globe in this much hyped sci-fi adventure are spectacular. But does that add up to "Bourne meets The Matrix", as the posters suggest?
Back in 1992, Steven Gould wrote a bestselling book about teleporting and child abuse. Well, the teleporting bit's still there. Aged 15, our hero, David, accidentally discovers he's got a gift - thanks to a genetic anomaly, he can jump through space in the blink of an eye.
We meet him eight years later, when his charmed life - robbing banks, surfing in the Maldives - is disturbed by the Paladins, an ancient sect determined to rid the world of "jumpers". Samuel L Jackson plays Roland, the leader of this pack. As he tells David, "Cardigans are so much cooler!"
Just kidding. What he really says is: "Only gods should have the power to be all places, at all times." For reasons best known to the scriptwriters, David then decides to track down his old love, Millie (Rachel Bilson), and winds up meeting Griffin (Jamie Bell), a fellow jumper who's out for Paladin blood.
In terms of performances, Bell is a life-saver. In fact, his unfriendly, ratty-looking Geordie, with the help of a few neat lines, provides the only laughs. When David starts talking about his unhappy childhood, Griffin yelps, "Are we on Oprah?"
Bell's sharpness even manages to infect Christensen. The latter has big, blue eyes that, for most of this film, roll around like marbles (I think the intended effect is troubled intensity). Alongside Bell, those same blue eyes take on a knowing, humorous glint.
When the pair temporarily join forces, David compares it to a Marvel team-up. They'll protect Millie and defeat Roland. "Yeah," grins David, "We'll save her, kill him!" It's as if the boys have made a pact to skip life's boring bits and, with the actors in sync, their youthful impatience actually feels like the real deal.
The authenticity lasts for nanoseconds at a time. Director Doug Liman made the first, and worst, of the Bourne series. Since the phenomenal success of that franchise, it's been fashionable for action movies to have a political slant.
Here, it's possible to see David as a symbol of America, a decadent creature who gets to break all the rules and thinks leaving an IOU note will make it all right.
It's possible to see the Paladins, who Griffin describes as "religious nut jobs", as fundamentalists across the globe. And it's possible that the inevitable sequel will turn these half-baked ideas into something substantial. Possible, but very unlikely.
An excellent quirky pumping soundtrack and endless exotic locations make this an easy film to watch.
Cleverly aimed at fretful teens, it will almost certainly be the number one film of the week. At the end of the day, though, Jumper is worryingly like another of the week's releases, The Bucket List.
Both films shove pyramids and fast cars in our face - it seems the wish list of the modern male is pretty much the same whatever his age. And for all the miles covered, there's the distinct sense that we're going nowhere fast.
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