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This week, there are SIX new films out for you to choose from, led by Angel Has Fallen. Here are the titles, with more info below:Angel Has Fallen
Crawl
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
Nekrotronic
Never Grow Old
Pain And Glory
Angel Has Fallen shows that you can’t keep a good man down, and Gerard Butler (The Vanishing) returns as Secret Service Kick-Ass Head-Kicker Mike Banning, following 2013’s superb Olympus Has Fallen and 2016’s even better London Has Fallen.
This time round, it goes a bit ‘Jack Bauer’ as Banning is framed for the attempted assassination of the President (Morgan Freeman, playing the President for the fifth time), and must evade his own agency and the FBI as he tries to uncover the real threat.
Okay, so it’s not the fifth time, but it feels like it. It’s actually the second time, following 1998’s Deep Impact and in 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen, he was the acting President, so this could technically be the third time, but the same role.
Angel Has Fallen is released on Wednesday August 21st.
Director: Ric Roman Waugh
Writers: Katrin Benedikt, Robert Mark Kamen, Creighton Rothenberger
Also stars: Piper Perabo, Lance Reddick, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tim Blake Nelson, Nick Nolte, Chris Browning, Danny Huston, Michael Landes, Joseph Millson
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Crawl has a trailer which is the type I love, where many elements within beat in time to the thumping tension-filled music as Haley Keller (Kaya Scodelario – Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile) finds herself trapped in a flooding house, whilst attempting to save her father, Dave (Barry Pepper – Saving Private Ryan), but amongst all this, she spots alligators flowing into the house, causing all manner of problems and making this feel like a decent, modern Jaws.
Directed by Alexandre Aja, who brought us Daniel Radcliffe in 2013’s fantastic Horns, I see this trailer and I can’t wait to watch this!
Writers: Michael Rasmussen, Shawn Rasmussen
Also stars: Ross Anderson, Anson Boon, George Somner
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a new horror movie where a group of teens face their fears in order to save their lives, and based on what’s on display here, it looks better than the average nonsense jump-scare movie out these days, and is directed by André Øvredal who brought us 2010’s Troll Hunter.
Stars: Zoe Margaret Colletti, Michael Garza, Austin Zajur, Gabriel Rush, Dean Norris, Gil Bellows
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Nekrotronic stars Ben O’Toole as Howard North, who’s just come off a long shift and wants to go home, but wouldn’t you know it, it’s then that he discovers he’s part of a secret sect of magical beings who hunt down and destroy demons in the internet. Makes sense, yes? Of course not, but it looks great and silly fun.
This film was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2018, so it’s clearly taken quite some time to come to the UK.
Director: Kiah Roache-Turner
Writers: Kiah Roache-Turner, Tristan Roache-Turner
Also stars: Monica Bellucci, Caroline Ford, Tess Haubrich
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Never Grow Old enters around an Irish undertaker (Emile Hirsch), who profits when outlaws take over a peaceful American frontier town, but his family comes under threat as the death toll rises. John Cusack looks like he’s on hand just to go through the motions. It’s been quite some time since he put any effort into a movie, as the recent Distorted shows.
Writer/Director: Ivan Kavanagh
Also stars: Déborah François, Molly McCann
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Pain And Glory
Writer/director Pedro Almodóvar‘s latest movie stars Antonio Banderas as film director Salvador Mallo, who reflects on the choices he’s made in life as past and present come crashing down around him.
Maybe this is meant to be a self-reflective film? Who knows and, quite frankly, who cares? No doubt all the ‘big name’ film critics will love this, but to me, it looks dull as ditchwater.
Also stars: Asier Etxeandia, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Nora Navas, Julieta Serrano, César Vicente, Asier Flores, Penélope Cruz
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.