Skip to content
This week, there are NINE new films out for you to choose from: Emily Blunt gets the frighteners in A Quiet Place, there’s Brit spooky stuff in Ghost Stories, two upper-class teenage girls attempt to keep their friendship as it all hits the fan in Thoroughbreds, there’s plenty of action sillyness in The Hurricane Heist, Bruce Willis and Eli Roth remake Charles Bronson’s Death Wish, there’s a time travel tale in Wonderstruck, the AIDS epidemic of the early 1990s is addressed in 120 BPM, there’s a children’s fantasy in I Kill Giants, and drippy gay teen drama in Love, Simon.
A Quiet Place is a forthcoming thriller centred around a family who live an isolated existence in utter silence, for fear of an unknown threat that follows and attacks at any sound…
This full trailer doesn’t show a whole heap more that the original teaser, but the trailer looks more intriguing this time round, even though not a lot is going on. But then again, it looks like one of those films where the least you know, the better.
However, how many cinemas are ‘a quiet place’?
Director: John Krasinski
Writers: Scott Beck, John Krasinski
Stars: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Noah Jupe
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Ghost Stories centres around arch-skeptic Professor Phillip Goodman (Andy Nyman), who embarks upon a terror-filled quest when he stumbles across a long-lost file containing details of three cases of inexplicable ‘hauntings’.
Nyman co-wrote and co-directed this with Jeremy Dyson, and also stars Martin Freeman and Paul Whitehouse, and I’m really looking forward to this, although like A Quiet Place, how come these spooky films aren’t out at Halloween?
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Thoroughbreds centres around two upper-class teenage girls in suburban Connecticut, Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy – The New Mutants, Split) and Amanda (Olivia Cooke – The Limehouse Golem), who rekindle their unlikely friendship after years of growing apart.
Together, they hatch a plan to solve both of their problems-no matter what the cost.
Written and directed by Cory Finley, their plans include Anton Yelchin, who sadly passed away last year, but do check out Star Trek Beyond, last year’s incredible Green Room, and I can’t wait for Rememory, which will be his last film released.
Thoroughbreds has a short and sweet trailer at just over a minute long, but sometimes that’s just enough to set the scene.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
The Hurricane Heist is, yes, another disaster movie, but every now and again comes one which look like it’ll actually be fun, and this is one of those.
As an unstoppable and deadly hurricane bears down on the Gulf Coast of the US a mandatory emergency evacuation is underway clearing the city. The storm proves to be the perfect cover for a team of hackers to infiltrate a vulnerable Treasury facility and steal $600m.
Bracing himself for the impact of the hurricane, stormchaser and meteorologist Will (Toby Kebbell – Kong: Skull Island) finds himself caught up in the chaos and teams up with Casey (Maggie Grace – Taken 3), the only Treasury agent left standing and his wayward brother, Breeze (Ryan Kwanten – True Blood). Together they must stop the ruthless thieves from pulling of the heist of a lifetime and survive the storm of the century.
Directed by Rob Cohen (xXx, The Fast & the Furious, and one of my favourite ’90s actioners, Daylight), I’m really looking forward to this.
Also stars: Ralph Ineson, Melissa Bolona, Ben Cross, Jamie Andrew Cutler
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Death Wish is Eli Roth‘s remake of the 1974 classic Charles Bronson actioner.
And it stars… Bruce Willis, as Paul Kersey, a mild-mannered janitor, I mean, father who’s transformed into a killing machine after his family is torn apart by a violent act.
Sure, it looks a bit rubbish – as you’d expect from most remakes – but it’s still streets ahead of A Good Day To Die Hard!
Director: Eli Roth
Also stars: Vincent D’Onofrio, Elisabeth Shue, Jack Kesy, Dean Norris, Beau Knapp
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Maybe!
Wonderstruck is a forthcoming Amazon Prime movie from director Todd Haynes, which tells the story of a young boy in the Midwest, and also simultaneously tells a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection…
I didn’t go a bundle for Haynes’ recent Carol, since I can’t really get into most period movies, but I always love a bit of time travel.
Writer: Brian Selznick (based on his novel)
Stars: Oakes Fegley, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Millicent Simmonds, Cory Michael Smith, James Urbaniak, Damian Young
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
120 BPM
Members of the advocacy group ACT UP Paris demand action by the government and pharmaceutical companies to combat the AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s.
I’m in two minds about this, but it could be a decent drama.
Director: Robin Campillo
Writers: Robin Campillo, Philippe Mangeot
Stars: Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Arnaud Valois, Adèle Haenel
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Maybe!
I Kill Giants centres around young Barbara Thorson (Madison Wolfe), who struggles through life by escaping into a fantasy life of magic and monsters.
The film is based on American comic book series, first published by Image Comics in 2008, and according to creator Joe Kelly: “It’s a story about a girl who’s a bit of an outsider – she’s funny, but totally in our geekland: she’s obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons, she doesn’t have a lot of friends, she’s a bit of a social misfit. She’s taken her fantasy life a little far, and really only talks about giants to people. She’s convinced that giants are real and giants are coming, and it’s her responsibility to stop them when they show up. This weird little fantasy life that she’s going has started seeping into her real life, and as we see things from her point of view, we see that she sees pixies and she sees signs in the clouds and other things that might be telling her that bad things might be coming.”
It might work for kids, but… I Kill Giants? I Got Bored.
Director: Anders Walter
Screenplay: Joe Kelly, from his graphic novel
Also stars: Zoe Saldana, Imogen Poots, Jennifer Ehle, Noel Clarke
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Love, Simon stars Jurassic World‘s Nick Robinson in the titular role.
Everyone deserves a great love story. But for Simon it’s complicated: no-one knows he’s gay and he doesn’t know who the anonymous classmate is that he’s fallen for online. Resolving both issues proves hilarious, scary and life-changing.
Personally, I hate these sickly-sweet teen love dramas with a passion, so changing the sexual proclivities of the coupling doesn’t make it any less dull for me.
Go see A Quiet Place or Ghost Stories instead…
Director: Greg Berlanti
Writers: Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker (based upon the novel “Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda” by Becky Albertalli)
Also stars: Katherine Langford, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel, Talitha Bateman, Keiynan Lonsdale, Alexandra Shipp, Logan Miller
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.