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.
This is proving to be a quiet period for films with the Reel and the Vue both showing a rather limited programme.
The only new release we have is the much awaited The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (12A). Yet this weeks sees the loss of six films; Annabelle, Dracula Untold, Fury, Gone Girl, Horns and Nightcrawler.
There are two return, with a weekend showing of The Nut Job and a one day screening of A Walk among the Gravestones.
The big films of the moment are science fiction with Interstellar and the biopic Mr Turner. Also this period brings culture in the form of light hearted opera Royal Opera House Live: L’Elisir D’Amore and ballet with The Pharaoh’s Daughter.
A film of note is the cult comedy Withnail & I being screened for one day at the Dukes.
Reviews
A Walk Among The Tombstones
Director: Scott Frank
Certificate: 15
Cast Includes: Liam Neeson, Ruth Wilson, David Harbour, Robert
Boyd Holbrook, Dan Stevens, Adam David Thompson, Brian Bradley
Set in 1999 and based on the tenth book in Lawrence Block’s
best selling crime series. Matt Scudder (Neeson) used to be an
alcoholic police officer until a disastrous shootout caused him to give
up both. Now he works as an unlicensed private eye and with some
reluctance he agrees to help find the men who kidnapped and killed the
wife of a drug trafficker (Stevens). Scudder discovers the kidnappers
are serial killers and, helped by a homeless teenager (Bradley), who
acts as his apprentice, he tracks them down. Neeson gives a strong
performance in this atmospheric thriller. There are quite a few sub
plots during the course of this movie as it builds to up a violent
conclusion. A fine film.
Interstellar
Director: Christopher Nolan
Certificate: 12A
Cast Includes: Matthew McConaughey, Casey Affleck, Anne Hathaway, Wes Bentley, Michael Caine.
The earth is facing environmental disaster. Dust storms are
common and crops are failing. Cooper (McConaughey) a farmer, but
formerly a top pilot, is recruited by Professor Brand (Caine), to fly a
final mission taking a team of specialists through a newly discovered
wormhole to find a planet in a far solar system that could be a new home
for humanity. This is a big budget very grandiose film full of action
and spectacular scenery as the crew search to see if there is a future
for mankind. It is however a little low on humour and at times requires
some suspension of disbelief but in all it is a great movie.
Mr Turner
Director: Mike Leigh
Certificate: 15
Cast includes: Timothy Spall, Marion Bailey
A biographical dramatization of the life of English painter J.
M. W Turner. The film starts when Turner is aged 51 and working in his
London studio. It follows Turner through depressions following his
father’s death up until the painters own death in 1851 when he was
living in Chelsea with his mistress Sophie Booth (Bailey). Spall gives a
great performance as Turner, bringing out his humanity and
eccentricity. A very enjoyable movie.
Ouija
Director: Stiles White
Certificate: 15
Cast includes: Olivia Cooke, Douglas Smith, Daren Kagasoff, Shelly Hennig
Debbie (Hennig) confesses to playing with an Ouija board but
she is murdered. Her friend Laine (Cooke) decides to investigate her
death by using the Ouija board to contact Debbie’s spirit and to this
end she enlists the help of a group of friends. They hold a seance in
Debbie’s house. However, they inadvertently connect with a murderous
spirit which starts to attack them. The whole is a competent horror
film complete with ghosts, unexpected noises and frights for the viewer.
Given the film was released just before Halloween, it merits a visit
to the cinema.
The Drop
Director: Michael R. Roskam
Certificate: 15
Cast includes: James Gandolfini, Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, John Ortiz
Bob Saginowski (Hardy) works as bartender in his cousins
Brooklyn bar. The bar operates as a ‘drop’ where criminal launder money
and one night it is robbed. Bob is witness to the robbery and thus
involved in the subsequent crime investigation by Detective Torres
(Ortiz). However things turn out to be more complicated than they first
seem. The movie is a solid crime thriller with a nice final twist
based on the short story “Animal Rescue” by Dennis Lehane. A competent
movie worth seeing.
The Imitation Game
Director: Morten Tyldum
Certificate: 12A
Cast Includes: Benedict Cumberbatch, Rory Kinnear, Keira Knightley
A protrayal of the life of computer genius Alan Turing
(Cumberbatch) who masterminded the cracking of the German Enigma code in
the second world war and continued to develop computer theory at
Manchester University. The film opens in 1951 with a robbery taking
place in Turing’s house. Thence the film explores Turing’s life by
flashbacks to his schooling and his life in Bletchley Park. The acting
in the film is excellent with Cumberbatch giving a particularly good
performance. However the film rather backs away from Turing’s
homosexuality and his subsequent suicide after his persecution by the
British Government.
The Maze Runner
Director: Wes Ball, Douglas Cumming
Certificate: 12A
Cast includes: Kaya Scodelario, Dylan O’Brien
Thomas (O’ Brien) awakes with no memory to find himself
trapped with dozens of other boys inside an enclosure with towering
walls. He subsequently discovers this to be a gigantic maze. He
integrates in the society of boys, becoming one of the runners, a sub
group who try to map the maze and find a way out. Attacking the boys
are Grievers which are giant spider like creatures who also inhabit the
maze. Thomas has dreams about an organisation called W.C.K.D. and he
must uncover his purpose and find a way to escape. The movie is a
decent adaption of the best selling novel by James Dashner, the first in
a trilogy. The acting is strong and the depiction of the maze and its
grandeur is very impressive. The movie is aimed at young adults but it
contains some violence and the whole has a rather joyless atmosphere.
The ending was somewhat complicated, designed perhaps to pave the way
for the forthcoming sequel.