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This weekend there are five new films out for you to choose from: dull drama in By The Sea, comedy in Grandma and The Ridiculous 6, alleged comedy in Sisters, and tedious drama in Shelter.
By The Sea is set in France during the mid-1970s, where Vanessa (Angelina Jolie, credited for the first time as Angelina Jolie Pitt), a former dancer, and her husband Roland (Brad Pitt), an American writer, travel the country together. They seem to be growing apart, but when they linger in one quiet, seaside town they begin to draw close to some of its more vibrant inhabitants, such as a local bar/café-keeper and a hotel owner.
Jolie also directs a cast including Mélanie Laurent, Melvil Poupaud, Niels Arestrup, Sarah Naudi and The Cook The Thief His Wife And Her Lover‘s Richard Bohringer.
Okay, so we’ve got Mr and Mrs Pitt, here, and they made a great match in Mrs And Mrs Smith, but while this is only a first trailer, it feels like kitchen sink drama meets post-modern nonsense and looks way too weird to be of any real interest. I hope a full trailer can whet the appetite better.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Grandma
Lily Tomlin stars as Elle who has just gotten through breaking up with her girlfriend when Elle’s granddaughter Sage unexpectedly shows up needing $600 bucks before sundown. Temporarily broke, Grandma Elle and Sage spend the day trying to get their hands on the cash as their unannounced visits to old friends and flames end up rattling skeletons and digging up secrets.
The film also stars Julia Garner, Marcia Gay Harden, Judy Greer, Laverne Cox and Sam Elliott, and actually looks pretty good.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
The Ridiculous Six
An outlaw who was raised by Native Americans discovers that he has five half-brothers; together the men go on a mission to find their wayward, deadbeat dad.
There’s a huge cast here for this Netflix-exlcusive release: Adam Sandler, Taylor Lautner, Steve Buscemi, Terry Crews, Rob Schneider, Whitney Cummings, Harvey Keitel, Nick Nolte, Danny Trejo, Luke Wilson, Steve Zahn, Will Forte, David Spade and John Turturro.
Getting in the spoof early for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, this comedy actually looks pretty decent.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Sisters is not exactly a remake of the 1973 Brian De Palma thriller, but is instead a comedy with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as those two sisters who decide to throw one last house party before their parents sell their family home. High jinks and smutty jokes, naturally, ensue.
With support from Kate McKinnon, Madison Davenport, John Leguizamo, John Cena, Heather Matarazzo and James Brolin… is it any good? Meh. A couple of laughs, but the trailer plays out as predictable as you’d expect, so I won’t be rushing to see this as I can’t see anything to get excited about.
If you do, you’ll be glad it’s been brought forward to now from next March. However, this is the first film to get a Saturday release, that I can remember, since Transformers: Age Of Extinction, last year. Why do they do that? Because its “weekend” takings will actually count, in this case, from Saturday 12th December to Sunday 20th December. That’s a NINE-DAY-WEEKEND! What a swizz. Obviously, they didn’t want to release it next weekend to go up against Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, but when Paper Towns was released on a Monday, it went to No.1. This might have a chance of being No.2, as nothing will beat Star Wars.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Shelter centres around Hannah (Jennifer Connelly – Noah) and Tahir (Anthony Mackie – Avengers: Age Of Ultron) who fall in love while homeless on the streets of New York. The film explores how they got there, and as we learn about their pasts we realise they need each other to build a future.
Also starring Amy Hargreaves and Bruce Altman, and is the debut writer/director double-hitter for Paul Bettany (probably best known to US audiences as Jarvis in the Avengers movies). However, despite all the “Oh, this is an amazing movie” words from various publications telling us what a fantastic visual treat it is, it looks dull as ditchwater.
Shelter was put back 2 weeks from November 27th to now, but give it a miss on the big screen. And the small screen.
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.