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This week, there are FOUR new films out for you to choose from: Christopher Plummer, not Kevin Spacey, is J.Paul Getty in All the Money in the World, JK Simmons leads a team of Navy SEALs in Renegades, Christian Bale appears to be repeating Unforgiven in Hostiles, and Ben Stiller plays Ben Stiller in Brad’s Status.
All the Money in the World is set Rome, 1973, and the trailer I’ve featured is the first one which came out since it was announced how, and why, Christopher Plummer replaced Kevin Spacey.
Masked men kidnap a teenage boy named John Paul Getty III (Charlie Plummer). His grandfather, Jean Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer), is the richest man in the world, a billionaire oil magnate, but he’s notoriously miserly. His favorite grandson’s abduction is not reason enough for him to part with any of his fortune. The film follows Gail (Michelle Williams), Paul’s devoted, strong-willed mother, who unlike Getty, has consistently chosen her children over his fortune.
Her son’s life in the balance with time running out, she attempts to sway Getty even as her son’s mob captors become increasingly more determined, volatile and brutal. When Getty sends his enigmatic security man Fletcher Chace (Mark Wahlberg) to look after his interests, he and Gail become unlikely allies in this race against time that ultimately reveals the true and lasting value of love over money.
Watching this new trailer, it shows how Ridley Scott was right with his initial thoughts that Plummer was the best man for the job. The studio wanted Spacey – who is a good actor, but Plummer has both the age and the gravitas for this movie.
Hang on… is this synergy? Christopher Plummer AND Charlie Plummer? Together in a film? Well… they’re not related. Sorry to get your hopes up. But it would’ve been cool. Surely if they were, though, Christopher Plummer would’ve been the ONLY choice for Getty.
Director: Ridley Scott
Writers: David Scarpa (based on the book by John Pearson)
Also stars: Timothy Hutton, Romain Duris
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Renegades leads with JK Simmons (Whiplash, The Accountant) as the head of a team of Navy SEALs who gets angry at the fact they’ve discovered Nazi gold underwater in a lake in Sarajevo, after the soldiers have rampaged through the place and trashed most of it.
We’ve waited a long time for this, since the trailer first came out in November 2016! However, based on what’s on show here, it looks very entertaining indeed.
Directed by Steven Quale (Into The Storm), from a script by Luc Besson and Richard Wenk, the film also stars Sullivan Stapleton, Sylvia Hoeks, Ewen Bremner and Jim Rainey.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Hostiles tells the tale of legendary Army captain Captain Joseph J Blocker (Christian Bale) who, in 1892, reluctantly agreed to escort a Cheyenne chief and his family through dangerous territory.
And now, there’s a full trailer, and like the teaser, I wasn’t wowed at all by it. When I heard the words, “I’ve killed everything that ever walked or crawled…”, well, that’s straight out of the brilliant Unforgiven, from Clint Eastwood, so it sounds like he’s trying to rip-off that legendary movie.
The film also stars Rosamund Pike, who can’t act to save her life. Who keeps hiring her?! That said, there are a lot of decent actors in it, too.
Director: Scott Cooper (Black Mass)
Writers: Scott Cooper, Donald Stewart
Also stars: Peter Mullan, Ben Foster, Jesse Plemons, Stephen Lang, Paul Anderson, Rory Cochrane, Wes Studi, Bill Camp
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Brad’s Status stars Ben Stiller as Brad Sloan… or any other Ben Stiller movie, since he never changes.
Here, he’s a father to a son Troy (Austin Abrams), who’s checking out colleges on the East Coast, but along the way he meets up with old friends, including Craig Fisher (Michael Sheen) and Jason Hatfield (Luke Wilson), who’ve all done far better than him and, thus, make him feel inferior about his life’s choices.
The ‘status’ side of it comes from everyone updating Facebook, telling the world how wonderful their lives are.
Brad’s Status… er… updates (sigh) on September 15th in the US, but as of yet, there’s no UK date. Hopefully, it’ll be updated to ‘cancelled’, since it looks quite dull. That said, it’s an Amazon movie, so it’ll most likely be simultaneously available everywhere.
Then again, writer/director Mike White also made the brilliant 2002 Jennifer Aniston comedy drama, The Good Girl, so I’m conflicted…
Also stars: Jenna Fischer, Jemaine Clement, Shazi Raja, Luisa Lee
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.