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 six new films released during this period. We have period drama with Ben-Hur (12A); horror with Blair Witch (15) and Don’t Breathe (15); animation/adventure in Kubo and the Two Strings (PG); drama with Valley of Loves (15) and finally musical documentary with The Beatles: Eight Days a Week.
Movies that have come to an end of their screening include Asterix: The Mansion of the Gods; Star Trek Beyond and the family adventure Swallows and Amazons. In addition the movies Suicide Squad; The Jungle Book; The Purge: Election Year and The BFG are coming to the end of the screening. We do however see the return of the comedy Central Intelligence.
Movies coming soon to the region include Bridget Jones’s Baby, due to be released on the 16th September.
Horror is well represented this period with Blair Witch; Don’t Breathe; Lights Out and Morgan. In addition there is science fiction with Aliens and Suicide Squad.
More conventional drama comes with Ben-Hur; Jason Bourne; Love & Friendship; The Commune; The Purge: Election Year; War Dogs and the movingValley of Love.
For adult comedy there is Bad Moms; Central Intelligence; David Brent: Life on the Road; Ghostbusters and Sausage Party.
Once again and despite the loss of Swallows and Amazons family entertainment is will represented with Finding Dory; Kubo and the Two Strings; Nine Lives; Pete’s Dragon; The BFG; The Jungle Book and Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.
For high culture there is opera with Turandot on Sydney Harbour. Also showing is the documentary of the 2003 anti war protest in We are Many and the musical documentaries Nick Cave: One More Time With Feeling and The Beatles: Eight Days a Week.
Finally the Dukes is holding another film quiz on Monday 12th
September. In addition they are showing something a little unusual with
excerpts from some two dozen silent shakespeare films in Play Out! Shakespeare in silent film.
Reviews
Bad Moms
Director: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Certificate: 15
Cast includes: Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, Annie Mumolo, David Walten, Christina Applegate
Amy Mitchell (Kunis) is married with two children and suffering from
stress and overwork as she tries to be the perfect mum. After a trying
day she makes friends with other mums Carla (Hahn) and Kiki (Bell) at a
bar and over a boozy night decides to stop trying to be perfect. Her
new attitude angers Gwendolyn (Applegate), the head of the school PTA,
who takes her anger on Amy’s children. Amy seeks revenge by planning to
become the new head of the PTA. This is a sweet but raunchy movie with
a strong comic cast. It will resonate with many in the audience and
provides comic enjoyment for all.
Central Intelligence
Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Certificate: 12A
Cast includes: Dwayne Johnson, Kelvin Hart
Robbie Wierdicht (Johnson) was bullied at high school. On
leaving, he changed his name to Bob Stone, developed an impressive
physique and became a CIA operative. Calvin Joyner (Hart) was his
friend at high school and had a career in accounting. At the time of
their high school reunion, Bob starts to work with Calvin to stop the
illegal sale of satellite codes by a mystery agent Black Badger. Calvin
however is approached by the CIA and told that Bob is actually
delusional. Yet Calvin continues to help his friend and the two of them
face fights, gun battles and car crashes to track Black Badger. The
movie is a fast paced buddy action comedy. Johnson and Hart work well
together and the fast talking dialogue from Hart goes a long way to
carrying the film. Expect some slapstick and a great deal of humour.
Finding Dory
Director: Andrew Stanton, Angus MacLane
Certificate: U
Cast Includes: Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Ed O’Neill, Hayden Rolence
Pixar’s sequel to the 2003 movie ‘Finding Nemo’. Dory (DeGeneres), who
helped reunite Nemo (Rolence) with his father Marlin (Brooks) in the
first movie, has a flashback in which she remembers her own family. She
decides to look for them despite her problems with a faulty memory.
Marlin and Nemo agree to help and the three swim to California to start
the search. Dory is caught and held in a marine life institute aquarium
for shipping to Cleveland. However with the help of Hank (O’Neill),
the octopus she escapes back to the ocean and finds her parents Charlie
and Jenny. Now she has to come to the aid of Marlin and Nemo who are
also imprisoned in the institute aquarium. The movie is essentially the
same plot as the original, but provides impressive animation and
contains some emotional scenes. However this is ultimately a fun ‘happy
ever after’ sort of film that will delight people of all ages.
Ghostbusters
Director: Paul Feig
Certificate: 12A
Cast includes: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth, Neil Casey
It has been thirty-five years since the original Ghostbusters
movie. Now, finally there is a remake where women take the leading
parts. Erin Gilbert (Wiig) and Abby Yates (McCarthy) are co-authors of a
book which postulated that ghosts are real. When supernatural forces
invade Manhattan, Gilbert and Yates team up with a nuclear engineer
Jillian Holtzmann (McKinnon) and subway worker Patty Tolan (Jones) to
combat the malicious demon Rowan (Casey) and a legion of ghouls. The
movie pretty much follows the plot of the original, but the actors
provide great and extremely funny performances. A terrific movie full
of good hearted fun.
Morgan
Director: Luke Scott
Certificate: 15
Cast Includes: Anya Taylor-Joy, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kate Mara, Toby Jones
Morgan (Taylor-Joy) is a synthetic human being, technically only six
years old, but with advanced development and super human qualities. She
attacks and injures one of the scientists (Leigh) and so a cold
corporate consultant Lee Weathers (Mara) is brought in to decide if
Morgan needs to be terminated. The movie is another tale of man playing
God and reaping the consequences. It shares much with the recent film
Ex Machina. There is little attempt to understand the character of
Morgan and thus we are left with a tale of an out of control monster.
The film attracted average reviews but despite being low on originality
it is a reasonably entertaining movie.
The Jungle Book
Director: Jon Favreau
Certificate: PG
Cast includes: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba
Based on Rudyard Kipling’s works, this is a reworking of a the
well known classic using live action and CGI. Mowgli (Sethi) is an
orphaned boy raised by a wolf and thence by Bagheera (Kingsley) a black
panther. Mowgli alienates the Bengal tiger Shere Khan (Elba) and so
must make his way to humankind for safety, meeting the well known
characters Baloo and Kaa on the way. Subsequently he returns to the
jungle to face Shere Khan. The movie is a good example a remake that
improves on the original. An excellent movie that will entertain all
ages.