The UAE has Bon Jovi mania at the moment.

News about the band is in newspapers and magazines, the music is getting more airplay than ever before and I am pretty sure it is only a matter of time before leather pants and bouffant rocker wigs appear in shop windows.

The rumours of a Bon Jovi concert in Dubai seem to have been around since we started Time Out magazine more than five years ago.

And now its official. They’re coming. Not to Dubai, but neighbouring Abu Dhabi. But this is one of those events it is worth making the drive across the country for.
Like Elton John and JustinTimberlake before them, Bon Jovi will be playing at the Emirates Palace.

I chatted to Tico Torres and Richie Sambora from the band on the phone the other night and these guys are very excited about the gig. Their first in the Middle East. See more extracts from that interview over on Ahlanlive right now.

As ever Time Out will be bringing you the best coverage of the event in the run up to the gig.

But you have got to get your tickets quick.

I’ve just put my head around the door of a very busy ticket office at Time Out towers. My colleagues there started selling tickets at noon today and they tell me the demand is very high.

My advice is to snap them up while you still can to avoid disappointment.

There are less than four weeks to go, but until then enjoy the video below. Bon Jovi in all their hairspray glory:

The trailer for Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull was released this week.

The release of a film’s trailer is not normally news at Time Out towers.

It is, after all, just a marketing stunt to keep the wheel’s of publicity churning.

But this is different. There is a feeling of occasion about watching the trailer.

Not just because it signals the return of the all-time coolest cinema character. Ever. (Sorry Han Solo fans)

It is exciting because…well, watch for yourself

If that does not get you twitching with excitement then you are not one of the millions of fans who will be humming the theme tune for the next week.

Watching Indy back in action has moved Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull to the top of my must-see films list.

Take another look at the trailer again and watch out for these ten moments.

Moments that suggest this could become an instant classic.

• 12 seconds: The Paramount logo fades away to reveal a mountain behind filling exactly the same space. Nothing special there. Until you remember that the three previous Indy movies start in exactly the same way. It is a running joke for Steven Spielberg (director) and George Lucas (producer). This is a sign that the film will at least try and live up to its predecessors.
• 23 seconds: A plane flies across a map background. Another repeated shot from previous Indy adventures. It also tells us that this will be another globetrotting adventure.
• 40 seconds: It only takes up a tiny part of the frame, but there is no mistaking it - that is Indiana Jones’s iconic hat on the floor. This is when you will really start getting excited. Don’t feel bad about that. Unless you click this link and try and buy the Indiana Jones hat online.
• 48 seconds: The music begins. Only the first few bars, and it is a slightly different tempo to how I remember it. But there is no denying that the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end when I first heard this.
• 55 seconds: We haven’t seen him yet. But there is the silhouette of the titular star. Looking lithe as well. No need to worry about the 65-year-old Harrison Ford squeezing into leather trousers for the action sequences…
• 1 minute and 1 second: …but the production team have at least recognised that this was a major concern for fans and dealt with it humourously. Beating up bad guys is ‘not as easy as it used to be’ says Indy as he, no doubt, grabs a breather in between bouts. A less adventurous actor might have wanted to appear in Indiana Jones and The Nice Sit Down or Indiana Jones and A Lovely Armchair but there is no question that this film is going to be action-packed.
• 1 minute and 2 seconds: The wonderful theme tune really kicks off now. ‘Du du duh der, da da daah‘ Has there ever been better music in a film? Perhaps, but if there was it was also composed by John Williams.
• 1 minute and 4 seconds: What better way to punctuate that moment than seeing and hearing the first crack of Indy’s whip?Brilliant film-making and brilliant editing. That three second loop of film alone is going to sell an awful lot of popcorn this summer.
• 1 minute and 11 seconds: A wisecrack almost spoken direct to camera. This might be slightly worrying the first time you see it. Terrible images of a Jar Jar Binks-style comic character spring to the imagination. But, think back to the original Indiana Jones trilogy and you will recall that the wisecracking is nothing new. Lets just hope they don’t overdo it.
• 1 minute and 25 seconds: The most exciting revelation of all. Blink and you’ll miss it, but is there a box in the background with the word ‘Roswell’ printed on it? Is Indiana Jones going to go in search of an alien artefact or is this just a very clever red herring thrown in by Mr Spielberg?

Only time will tell of course.

The biggest note of caution is what seems to be a worrying level of computer generated imagery (See 1 minute and 31 seconds for most obvious example). The whole charm of the Indy series was that they offered an alternative to the sci-fi extremes of the Star Wars world. You could almost imagine, in an extreme volcanic rollercoaster sort of way, any of the action really taking place. Too much CGI andwe could end up with another Mummy Returns. A hi-tech Indiana Jones rip-off.

So here’s hoping that that the film lives up to the hype.

Time Out will be braving the booby traps to bring you the first review when the film releases in the UAE.

Tiesto is to dance music what Tiger Woods is to golf, Elton John is to piano pop or Antony Worrall Thompson is to bearded celebrity chefs.

He is, in short, a legend.

A record bag full of awards, a live performance at the Sydney Olympics and a Reebok shoe named after him attest to that.

What’s more he is going to be putting the Madinat Arena under his trance next week.

If the name alone isn’t enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, check out this video and they will probably start dancing.

Time Out has blagged three pairs of free tickets and we are giving them away to dance-loving readers. Click here to be in with a chance to win.

Getting your movie made in Hollywood is all about getting the pitch right.

Tell people you are making an all-singing-all-dancing look at 19th century London you don’t stand a chance of getting the green light to take your vision to the silver screen.

Say that your film is Silence of The Lambs meets Moulin Rouge and they will throw reddies at you.

Especially if you add that it will star Johnny Depp and be directed by Tim Burton.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is the sixth meeting of Depp and Burton is as delightfully Gothic and camp as the previous five. While his Sweeney Todd is closer in tone to Captain Jack Sparrow than it is Hanibal Lecter this is still the one of the bloodiest musicals you will ever see. West Side Gory anyone?

This week’s other big release, Cloverfield, is another Hollywood hit born out of a great pitch.

‘Lost meets The Blair Witch Project. With a bit of Godzilla thrown in to stop it being too intellectual.’

You can almost imagine the studio head’s excitement at hearing that one.

Especially when told that it would be produced by J.J. Abrams (the man behind TV shows Lost and Alias) and not require any expensive Hollywood stars to be a box office hit.

All in all a great  week at the cinema. Martian Child, Seraphim Falls and The Water Horse  are all released and rather watchable.

Unlike the dreadful Rambo 4 and Alien Versus Predator 2 we have had to put up with in recent weeks.

If you had asked cinema audiences 20 years ago what the ultimate movie baddie looked like they would probably say it would be a cross between James Cameron’s Alien and The Predator.

Both had become instant sci-fi classics. And both were fierce warriors capable of taking out entire platoons of highly-trained human soldiers.

It was only a matter of time before movie fantasists wanted to see them go head-to-head.

17 years later they got their wish. Unfortunately the film, Aliens versus Predator, was a disappointment.

In fact it stunk. Like a big pile of extra-terrestrial droppings.

It was so bad that the chances of ever seeing the much anticipated Alien/Predator cross-breed seemed to have disappeared.

Until Aliens Versus Predator 2: Requiem was released. It is, obviously, worse than its predecessor.

But it does have the single redeeming feature of mating an alien with a predator.

It looks just as cool as you could have hoped.

But now you’ve seen it you don’t have to go to see the film. (If you really want to see it move, just scroll this page up and down a bit while screaming at your monitor. You’ll get the main idea of the film that way).

Rather than being the ultimate bad guy it is reduced, thanks to unspeakable and comic book (in a bad way) direction, to being an impressive special effect with no real impact beyond the visual.

So it seems all the more strange that we are left with the Coen brothers to provide the ultimate movie bad guy.

Travel back 20 years again, to a time when an Alien fighting a Predator got us so excited, and the Coen brothers were basking in the critical acclaim of Raising Arizona.

It was quirky, irreverent, stylish and followed up with (quirky, irreverent and stylish) comedies like The Big Lebowski and O Brother. Where Art Thou?  

So what makes us think they have come up with a genuine movie terror?

One look at the trailer for No Country For Old Men is what.

They even ask the question themselves: “Who is this guy supposed to be, the ultimate bad ass?”

Compared to a disappointing Predalien, yes, he probably is.