For up to date local cinema links and day-by-day listings every week visit the Virtual-Lancaster Cinema Page. Read on for the weekly round-up, and reviews.
New Releases during this period comprise two science fiction films: Godzilla (12A) and the long awaited X-Men Days of Future Past (12A).
We have lost the films Transcendence and Frozen. However Moshi Monsters: The Movie has returned for the weekend and, for one day only, there is a screening of Non-Stop.
This is a good period for high culture with screenings of the National Theatre productions King Lear and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
The Dukes are holding their popular Film Quiz on the Sunday. Also to
be recommended is their screening of the humorous drama Calvary.
Reviews
Bad Neighbours
Director: Nicholas Stoller
Certificate: 15
Cast Includes: Seth Rogen, Jake Johnson, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne
Released as ‘Neighbors’ outside the UK, this is a comedy about Mac
Radner (Rogen), his wife Kelly (Byrne) and young baby and the disruption
they face when a college fraternity led by Teddy (Efron) moves in next
door. Initially relations between the neighbours are not too bad but
increasingly the frat boys work to ruin their family life and the
Radner’s give as good as they get. The film is a bawdy comedy as the
tit-for-tat acts of sabotage escalate to hilarious (and possibly
offensive) effect. One of the better Frat house comedies.
Godzilla
Director: Gareth Edwards
Certificate: 12A
Cast Includes: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, David Strathairn, Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche
Godzilla rises again with an excellent cast and plenty of special
effects as cities are destroyed. Joe Brody (Cranston) is a physicist
who investigates the events at a Japanese nuclear facility where
Godzilla is accidentally released. It is his soldier son Ford
(Taylor-johnson) who battles the beast as it stalks San Francisco.
There is some excellent performances, especially from Cranston and the
directory tells the story from a human viewpoint. Indeed we don’t get a
good glimpse of the monster till the latter half of the film. A
spectacular disaster movie and one of the best re-telling of the story
of Godzilla.
Non-Stop
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Certificate: 12A
Cast includes: Liam Neeson, Nate Parker, Julianne Moore
Bill Marks (Neeson), an alcoholic and chain smoking air marshall on a
flight from New York to London. He receives a series of text messages
demanding he get the government to transfer a large sum of cash to an
offshore account else a passenger will be killed every twenty minutes.
Yet the offshore account is in Mark’s own name, making him the prime
suspect. This is an excellent and enjoyable suspense drama, complete
with air turbulence, scared stewardesses and the inevitable deaths on
the airplane.
Pompeii
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Certificate: 12A
Cast includes: Kit Harington, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jessica Lucas, Jared Harris, Kiefer Sutherland, Emily Browning
The year is 79AD and the backdrop of the movie is the epic eruption
of Mount Vesuvius. Mile (Harington), a gladiator strives to save the
love of his life Cassia (Browning) who is betrothed to Corvus
(Sutherland) a corrupt Roman Senator. This is a film that is hard not
to like as it ‘ticks all the boxes’ portraying poor boy/rich girl
romance with action and combat set in a disaster movie incorporating
spectacular special effects.
Sabotage
Director: David Ayer
Certificate: 15
Cast includes: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terrence Howard, Joe Manganiello, Josh Holloway, Mireille Enos
John ‘Breacher’ Wharton (Schwarzenegger) leads a special drug
enforcement team, all with equally outlandish nick-names, to raid a
drugs cartel. However a large sum of money goes missing and there is
suspicion of internal corruption. The members of the drug enforcement
team find themselves targeted and start to be killed. There is no
shortage of gore and bad language in this movie, though perhaps it is a
little lighter on action then previous Schwarzenegger films, having just
one major shootout piece. The film however supplies suspense as we
learn what became of the missing ten million dollars. A star cast and
one of Schwarzenegger’s better films.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Director: Marc Webb
Certificate: 12A
Cast Includes: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Paul Giamatti, Jamie Foxx
Garfield plays the role of Peter Parke and his alter-ego Spider-Man.
He must defeat Max Dillon (Foxx) who becomes transformed into the
super-villain Electro, in order to save New York. The strength of the
Spider man franchise lies in the tribulations of Peter Parker as he
juggles his role as super-hero with the more mundane aspects of his life
and his relationship with girlfriend Gwen Stacy (Stone). With jokes,
special effects and love interest this is a worthy sequel to the
Spider-Man series.
The Other Woman
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Certificate: 12A
Cast Includes: Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Kate Upton
Carley (Diaz) discovers that her boyfriend Mark (Coster-Waldau) is in
fact married. She accidentally meets his wife they become friends.
Subsequently they discover Mark is also undertaking a third affair with
Amber (Upton). The three women plot their revenge. This is a rather
lightweight comedy, and a little light on laughs. Mildly amusing.