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.
A poor period for new releases – we have but one, the science fiction/adventure film Godzilla (12A) being shown on the 15th May. Also we have lost the following films: Muppets Most Wanted, Noah and The Love Punch.
However there is a strong showing of family oriented entertainment with Tarzan, Rio 2, and the return of The LEGO Movie, Frozen, and Tinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy.
This period is likely to be the last chance to catch Transcendence.
High culture is represented by NT Encore: King Lear and RSC Live: Henry IV Part I. For something a little off the mainstream, we recommend The Double a film based on a short story by Dostoyevsky.
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.
Frozen
Director: Chris Buck
Certificate PG
Cast Includes Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad,Alan Tudyk, Jonathan Groff
This Disney musical animation is loosely based on the fairy tale ‘The
Snow Queen’ who has condemned a kingdom to eternal winter. It is up to
Anna (sister to the snow queen) and a loner Kristoff to undertake an
epic journey to find the Snow Queen and convince her to lift the icy
spell. This is a magical movie destined to become a classic. It will
appeal to families and children of all ages.
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 is 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 discovering 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.
Transcendence
Director: Wally Pfister
Certificate: 12A
Cast includes: Johnny Depp, Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall, Kate Mara, Paul Bettany
Dr Will Caster (Depp), a brilliant scientist in the field of
researching artificial intelligence, is creating a sentient computer
called PINN. However anti-technology extremists embark on a series of
attacks against the artificial intelligence community and Dr Caster is
one of the casualties. In order to survive he digitises and loads his
consciousness into the computer. Here he starts a quest for knowledge
and for power that seems unstoppable. The film is well produced and
visually appealing. However the characters come across as rather wooden
and the topics examined in this film have already been explored in
earlier science fiction movies.