For up to date local cinema links and day-by-day listings of what’s showing on local screens every week visit the Virtual-Lancaster Cinema Page. Read on for the weekly round-up, and reviews.
There are three new releases showing at local cinemas. There is superhero action with Deadpool (15), comedy romance in How to be Single (15) and the comedy horror Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (15). In addition the Reel is showing the family animation The Iron Giant (U), released in 1999 but new to our region.
The following movies are no longer being screened; Capture the Flag; Creed; The 5th Wave and The Big Short. In addition it is likely that Joy; Snoopy & Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie and The Danish Girl will soon be dropped.
Movies that have returned to the screens after a short absence include Brooklyn; Carol; Pan; Suffragette and The Lady in the Van.
There is a good selection of romantic films with Brooklyn; How to be Single and Carol. For adult drama there is the welcome return of The Lady in the Van and the excellent Revenant. In addition we have The Danish Girl and Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. Adult humour is also very well represented with Dad’s Army; Dirty Grandpa; Joy; Ride Along 2 and Zoolander 2.
Science fiction adventure comes with Deadpool and the continuing saga of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In addition we have tongue in cheek horror with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
The only category not represented this week is high culture.
Reviews
Brooklyn
Director: John Crowley
Certificate: 12A
Cast includes: Saoirse Ronan, Fiona Glascott, Emory Cohen.
The movie is a period drama, based on the novel by Colm Toibin. Eilis
Lacey (Ronan) grew up in Ireland, but her sister (Glascott) arranged for
her to move to Brooklyn for a chance to find a better future.
Initially homesick, Eilis finds lodgings, a job and subsequently romance
in the form of Tony (Cohen) who she meets at a dance. However back
home her sister Rose dies and her mother gets her to return to Ireland.
Here Eilis must decide whether to continue with her life at home or to
return to New York. The film has been well received and is marked by
very strong acting. An excellent movie that will tug at the
heartstrings.
Dad’s Army
Director: Oliver Parker
Certificate: PG
Cast includes: Michael Gambon, Bill Nighy, Toby Jones, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Blake Harrison
After some fifty years, the famous Dads army TV sitcom makes it to the
big screen. It is 1944 and the end of the second world war is in sight.
Morale in the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard is low until Rose Winters
(Zeta-Jones) a glamorous journalist, arrives to report on the exploits
of Mainwaring (Jones) and his platoon. In addition evidence is
uncovered of a local German spy who must be caught. The movie makes
references to the original series and surviving members make a couple of
cameo appearances. This is a very amiable movie, quietly amusing
rather than riotously funny. One is left with the impression that a
star studded cast should have been capable of making something a little
more spectacular.
Daddy’s Home
Director: Sean Anders
Certificate: 12A
Cast Includes: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Linda Cardellini
A comedy. Conservative radio executive Brad (Ferrell) marries Sarah
(Cardellini) and tries to be a good step dad to her two children.
However his wife’s charismatic and musclebound former husband Dusty
(Wahlberg) comes for an extended visit. Brad finds he must now compete
with their real father for the affection of his step children. There is
a real on-screen chemistry between Ferrell and Wahlberg as they vie
with each other and this provides plenty of opportunity for gags and
comedy set pieces. However some of the gags are rather predictable
leaving a film that is genuinely funny but seldom hilarious.
Deadpool
Director: Tim Miller
Certificate: 15
Cast includes: Ryan Reynolds, T L Miller, Morena Baccarin
Another Marvel comic super-hero makes the big screen. Wade Wilson
(Reynolds), a mercenary, is diagnosed with cancer. He agrees to take
part in an experimental cure and this gives him super powers but leaves
him disfigured. He escapes from the laboratory but feels he can no
longer return to his girlfriend and his previous life. Taking advice
from his best friend Weasel (Miller), he decides to become a masked
vigilante and subsequently is invited to join the X-Men. He finds that
his girlfriend Vanessa (Baccarin) has been kidnapped and so seeks her
safety and his revenge. Made on a low budget, this is an enjoyable
movie. It makes fun of the super-hero movie genre and does not take
itself very seriously. Full of wise cracks, one liners and excessive
violence this is still a very entertaining film.
Dirty Grandpa
Director: Dan Mazer
Certificate: 15
Cast includes: Robert De Niro, Zac Efron, Dermot Mulroney, Aubrey Plaza
Dick Kelly (De Niro) is a foul mouthed old man who has recently
lost his wife to cancer. He coaxes his grandson Jason (Efron) into
driving him to Florida on the pretext of seeing an old army buddy.
However, once there Dick follows his ambition of getting drunk, getting
high and bedding a younger woman Lenore (Plaza). This is a bawdy
comedy, with an unrelenting stream of bad language and tasteless jokes,
few of which are funny. It has received poor reviews. Not De Niro’s
finest work.
Joy
Director: David O Russell
Certificate: 12A
Cast includes: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Diana Ladd
A semi-fictional biographical comedy drama about a mop, or how Joy
Mangaro (Lawrence) became a millionaire. Joy is a divorced mother with
two children, living with her extended dysfunctional family who all
depend upon her. In the early 1990s she invents and markets the Miracle
Mop. This becomes a great success, selling on a TV shopping channel.
Her grandmother Mimi (Ladd) is always supportive of her, and it is she
who supplies the narration during the film. The movie has a strong cast
and Lawrence provides an exceptionally strong performance. There are
some laugh out loud moments during the movie though at times it seemed a
little flat. A good, but not a great film.
Pan
Director: Joe Wright
Certificate: PG
Cast Includes: Hugh Jackman, Levi Miller, Amanda Seyfried, Kathy Burke, Garrett Hedlund
A prequel to the story of Peter Pan. Perter (Miller) is abandoned by
his mother and brought up in an orphanage run by Mother Barnabus
(Burke). He is captured by pirates and taken to the magical world of
Neverland where he is forced into slave labour by Bluebeard (Jackman).
Peter and his friend James Hook (Hedlund) manage to escape to the forest
where Peter befriends the fairy Tinker Bell. The fairies fight and
defeat the pirates and Hook becomes captain of the Jolly Roger ship. A
rather bland and somewhat contrived movie.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Director: J J Abrams
Certificate: 12A
Cast includes: Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver.
The movie is set some thirty years after ‘The Return of the Jedi’. The
power vacuum left after the Empire was vanquished has been filled by
the ‘First Order’ who start to control the galaxy with their
stormtroopers. The movie tells of the adventures of Han Solo (Ford),
Chewbacca and Princess (now General) Leia (Fisher) as they join new
characters including Rey (Ridley), a scavenger, Finn (Boyega) a First
Order Conscript and a spherical droid BB-8 as they battle the First
Order led by the ominous Kylo Ren (Driver). This movie follows the
style of the first star wars trilogy and, for this reviewer, was much
better than the prequels. Old characters make a welcome appearance to
supplement the newer heroes and villains. An excellent movie in all
respects and the best Star Wars yet.
The Danish Girl
Director: Tom Hooper
Certificate: 15
Cast includes: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Ben Whishaw
The film is based on a novel by David Ebershoff and inspired by the
lives of Dutch artists Lili Elbe/Einar Wegener (Redmayne) and Gerda
Wegener (Vikander). Set in the mid 1920’s Gerda is a portrait painter,
but a sitter is late for an appointment. Hence Gerda gets her husband
Einar to stand in for the missing female sitter. This has consequences.
Einar has been harbouring a disire to become a female and the finished
portrait attracts favourable attention from art dealers. Einar decides
to permanently convert to his alter ego Lili Elbe and becomes one of
the first people to received a surgical sex realignment procedure to
change from a man to a woman. The movie follows both the artists as
they come to terms with the change from Einar to Lili. A serious movie,
well acted and well received that highlights the issues of gender
reassignment.
The Hateful Eight
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Certificate: 18
Cast Includes: Samuel L Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins
A mystery western set in Wyoming some years after the American civil
war, and told in six chapters. A stagecoach bound for Red Rock picks up
a number of passengers. These include John Ruth (Russell), bounty
hunter, Daisy Domergue (Leigh) a criminal, Major Marquis Warren
(Jackson) another bounty hunter and Chris Mannix (Groggins) the
prospective sheriff of Red Rock. Due to a blizzard, the stage coach is
forced to make a stopover at Minnie’s Haberdashery and here the
travellers meet a local hangman, a loner, a Mexican and a Confederate
General. These eight must spend the night together. However, one of
them is plotting evil and the night descends into violence and death.
This is an excellent movie, stylish, well acted and with excellent
dialogue. Tarantino slowly builds up tension and suspense during the
first half of the movie, leading to a final climactic resolution.
The Lady in the Van
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Certificate: 12A
Cast includes: Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings
A true story, adopted from 1999 West End Play of the same name and
filmed on location in North London. In 1974, Miss Shephard (Smith) is a
woman looking for somewhere to park after being moved on the council.
Playwright Alan Bennett agrees to her parking her van (which is also her
accommodation) in his drive for a couple of days. However Miss
Shephard then lived in the drive for the next fifteen years and the film
shows the relationship between Bennett and his nuisance neighbour.
This is a warm, charming and thoroughly fun movie.
The Revenant
Director: Alejandro G Inarritu
Certificate: 15
Cast includes: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy
Set in Montana and South Dakota in the year 1823 and based on the book
by Michael Punke, this is a tale of revenge. A party trapping for pelts
in the American wilderness come under attack by native Americans of the
Arikara nation. With most of the hunting party slain, the remainder
escape. However one of their number, Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) is attacked
and nearly killed by a bear. The remainder of the hunters split up.
The larger group go back to their barracks whereas a couple of men
including John Fitzgerald (Hardy) stay to look after Glass. However
Fitzgerald tries to kill Glass and then abandons him to the wilderness.
Against the odds Glass survives and is intent on revenge. The scenery
in the movie is breathtaking and the action shots are stunning. The
bulk of the film shows the tribulations of Glass as, wounded, he tries
to return to safety after his abandonment. An emotional, well acted and
very convincing movie.