Skip to content
This weekend there are six new films out for you to choose from: Iggy Pop takes the lead in Blood Orange, there’s tense prison-ish drama in The Stanford Prison Experiment, potentially the last Studio Ghibli animation: When Marnie Was There, Melissa McCarthy shouts a lot in The Boss, a lot of American actresses waste their time in Mother’s Day, and the God-botherers are out in force for Miracles Can Happen.
Blood Orange stars Iggy Pop as Bill, an ageing rock star living with his beautiful and promiscuous young wife Isabelle (Kacey Barnfield). Into their peculiar paradise comes a dangerous ex-lover (Ben Lamb) hell bent on revenge.
The film was put back from April, but Iggy Pop is ace, and Kacey Barnfield is hotter than the sun, so this is a…
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
The Stanford Prison Experiment centres around 24 male students, selected out of 75 to take on randomly assigned roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison situated in the basement of the Stanford psychology building.
Based on the book by Philip Zimbardo, Billy Crudup, Ezra Miller and Tye Sheridan star in what looks like a powerful and intense drama and I definitely want to see this.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
When Marnie Was There
A young girl is sent to the country for health reasons, where she meets an unlikely friend in the form of Marnie, a young girl with flowing blonde hair. As the friendship unravels it is possible that Marnie has closer ties to the protagonist than we might expect.
To my shame, I still haven’t seen a Studio Ghibli animation, and I know I really should. No doubt an updated Hayao Miyazaki Collection will be the place to start when it’s released.
The English-language version of the film features the voice talents of Laura Bailey, Kathy Bates, Ellen Burstyn, Geena Davis, Ashley Johnson and John C Reilly (The Lobster).
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
The Boss stars Melissa McCarthy as Michelle Darnell, a titan of industry, who is sent to prison after she’s caught for insider trading. When she emerges ready to rebrand herself as America’s latest sweetheart, not everyone she screwed over is so quick to forgive and forget.
Cue lots of rude gags, sometimes about weight, sometimes about food, but while it doesn’t look quite as funny as Spy, it’s still worth a watch. And Spy was a high benchmark to meet. That said, this new Red Band trailer brings a lot of potty mouth action to the trailer.
Directed by co-written by Ben Falcone (McCarthy’s Tammy, which I’ve yet to see), the cast also includes Kristen Bell (Frozen), Peter Dinklage (Game Of Thrones), Kristen Schaal, Kathy Bates, Parker Young and Cecily Strong.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Mother’s Day is billed with the simple… Intersecting stories with different moms collide on Mother’s Day. Now, I love Jennifer Aniston, but she has sold her soul for this. Get ready to puke bigtime.
The oversized cast includes Britt Robertson, Kate Hudson, Timothy Olyphant, Julia Roberts, Jason Sudeikis, Shay Mitchell, Christine Lakin, Margo Martindale, Jon Lovitz, Jack Whitehall and… Scrubs’ Sarah Chalke. As for the director? Garry Marshall, who brought us 1990’s Pretty Woman, also starring Julia Roberts.
Mother’s Day was out in the US on May 8th, and they got this just ahead of that on April 29th, whereas we were originally due it next Friday, so we’ve only been granted it a week earlier, but even still, our Mother’s Day takes place on March 6th, so the film misses the boat by a country mile. Hey ho.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Miracles From Heaven is more god-bothering gunk from the makers of Heaven Is For Real. It stars Jennifer Garner, throwing what’s left of her career away with this dreadful syrupy-sweet movie where the entire plot is told in the 2.5 minutes this trailers runs for.
Based on the Christy Beam‘s book, Three Miracles From Heaven, the story centres around a young girl suffering from a rare digestive disorder, who finds herself miraculously cured after surviving a terrible accident.
And that’s it. They you go – you don’t even need to watch the trailer, now. I’ve saved you 2.5 minutes that are better spent reading a book, watching part of a film, or doing the washing up.
Miracles can happen, and they will if someone burns all copies of this movie’s print, but in the meantime, the cast also includes John Carroll Lynch, Martin Henderson and the ridiculously named Brighton Sharbino.
Queen Latifah and Gregory Alan Williams also get caught up in this mess which saw the light (geddit?) of day in the US on March 18th, but we were also smited now it’s out over here, too.
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.