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 just three new releases during this period. There is the mystery/drama Exposed (15); the action sequel London has Fallen (15) and horror with The Forest (15).
The movies Jungle Shuffle and Ride Along 2 are no long being screened. However, we do have the return of Room; Steve Jobs; The Big Short; The Danish Girl and the excellent The Martian.
Adult comedy is very well represented this period with the movies Dad’s Army; Daddy’s Home; Dirty Grandpa; Grimsby; How to be Single and Zoolander 2. Drama is also strong this period with the following films on offer: Room; Spotlight; The Finest Hours; The Hateful Eight and Triple 9.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is still going strong as is The Revenant. Movies harder to classify include super-hero action with Deadpool and the tongue in cheek horror Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Family entertainment comes with the classic Aladdin; Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Road Chip; Goosebumps; The Good Dinosaur and Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Move.
High culture this period is represented by NT Live: Hangmen; and NT Live: As You Like It.
Reviews
Creed
Director: Ryan Coogler
Certificate: 12A
Cast includes: Michael B Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tony Bellew
Adonis “Donnie” Jackson (Jordan) is the son of former heavyweight
boxing champion Apollo Creed. He is determined to become a fighter and
looks up his fathers old friend Rocky Balboa (Stallone), who agrees to
become his trainer despite problems of his own. Jackson gets a chance
to prove his worth by fighting the world light heavyweight champion
“Pretty” Ricky Conlan (Bellew). The movie closely mirrors the original
Rocky with fighting underdog making good. However this is very much a
film in its own right with Stallone and Jordan giving excellent
performances, making for great entertainment.
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.
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 Geida is a portrait painter,
but a sitter is late for an appointment. Hence Geida gets her husband
Einar to stand in for the missing female sitter. This has consequences.
Einar has been harbouring a drive to become a female and the finished
portrait attracts favourable attention from art dealers. Einar decides
to become 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 Forest
Director: Jason Zada
Certificate: 15
Cast includes: Natalie Dormer, Taylor Kinney
Sara Price (Dormer) learns that her identical twin sister Jess is
missing after heading into the Aokigahara Forest in Japan. The forest
is infamous for the number of suicides that occur there and rumoured to
be haunted by restless spirits. Sara heads to Japan where she teams up
with travel reporter Aiden (Kinney) and together they enter the forest.
Here they find a tent belonging to Jess and so stay the night. This is
when the hallucinations and the violence begins. Dormer gives a good
performance playing both of the sisters and the director has tried the
novel approach of building tension without too many shocks. This makes
for a frightening and entertaining film, thought the lack of real shocks
explains why it has received some rather poor reviews.
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 Martian
Director: Ridley Scott
Certificate: 12A
Cast includes: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig
A manned mission to the planet mars is aborted when the crew face a
huge sandstorm. However astronaut and botanist Mark Watney (Damon) is
left behind, presumed dead. Yet he lives and must now find a way to
survive and contact Earth in the hope that a rescue mission can be
mounted. The movie is based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Andy
Weir. This is a homage to the ingenuity of man in desperate
circumstances. The movie is visually effective, scientifically
accurate and is well seasoned with humour. An excellent film that has
received glowing reviews.
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.