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This week, there are FOUR new films out for you to choose from: Crash/bang/wallop aplenty with Transformers: The Last Knight, Naomi Watts has trouble raising a child genius in The Book of Henry, Isabelle Huppert is a former Eurovision pop star in Souvenir, and Diane Keaton and Brendan Gleeson are a mismatched couple in Hampstead.
Transformers: The Last Knight is the fifth in the never-ending franchise about toy robots bashing each other to pieces, and Mark Wahlberg returns as the stupidly-name Cade Yeager, although seemingly, Nicola Peltz will not be returning as his daughter, Tessa, and there’s no sign either of the wonderful James Bachman as Gill Wembley, assistant to Stanley Tucci‘s Joshua Joyce who IS returning. Confused? Probably not.
In this new movie, Optimus Prime finds that his home planet, Cybertron, is now completely dead… and it was all his fault. So, he needs to bringing it back to life, and in order to do that… he needs an artifact that just happens to be on Earth! So, he’s on his way back!
With a script from Matt Holloway, Art Marcum and Ken Nolan, the cast also includes Laura Haddock (The Inbetweeners), John Goodman (10 Cloverfield Lane), Isabela Moner, John Turturro, Josh Duhamel, Jean Dujardin, Liam Garrigan as King Arthur (really??), and the voices of John DiMaggio, Ken Watanabe, Frank Welker, Jess Harnell, plus Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime.
Transformers: The Last Knight is out tomorrow (Thurs), and while I’ve still only previously seen the first movie, plus Transformers: Age Of Extinction, I’ll go and see this on the big screen and at Vue’s newly-acquired Manchester Printworks IMAX screen as rather than just shooting in 2.35:1, the last one also opened up to 1.90:1 for a considerable amount of the movie, rather than Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ few minutes during Rey and Finn’s escape in the Millennium Falcon (which was shot in 1.44:1, so could’ve opened up even MORE in Manchester, but Disney didn’t send out more than three 70mm IMAX prints across the entire country, so Odeon never got to show it in that format. What a shame.)
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
The Book of Henry shows that given the one huge movie that’s out this week, it’s understandable that all the rest are low-budget ones.
This one tells the story of single mother Susan Carpenter (Naomi Watts) raising two boys, one of whom is a genius.
After she discovers a book written by her son, Peter (Jacob Tremblay – Room), containing a plan to right a terrible wrong happening next door, she attempts to execute the plan, and in the process discovers new strength as a parent.
Directed by Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World), from a screenplay by Gregg Hurwitz, and also starring Sarah Silverman, Maddie Ziegler and Lee Pace (The Hobbit Trilogy), this looks a very drippy drama and really not my bag at all.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Souvenir stars Isabelle Huppert as a forgotten European Song Contest singer, fading away in a pâté factory, who falls in love with a young aspiring boxer, and together they decide to attempt her comeback…
Also starring Kévin Azaïs and Johan Leysen, I avoid this Eurovision re-hopeful NIL POINTS!
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Hampstead centres around an American widow (Diane Keaton) who finds unexpected love with a tramp (Brendan Gleeson) living wild on Hampstead Heath, and they take on the developers who want to destroy his home.
Co-starring James Norton, I think I’d rather abandon reality and live in the wild than watch this supposed feelgood tripe for the best part of two hours.
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.