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This week, there are SEVEN new films out for you to choose from: the bad moms are back in Bad Moms Christmas, Colin Farrell reteams with The Lobster director Yorgos Lanthimos for The Killing of a Sacred Deer, there’s a murder on the Orient Express in Murder on the Orient Express, the punch-ups and swearing aplenty in Rise of the Footsoldier 3, a Brooklyn widower is looking for a wife in an ultra-orthodox Jewish community in Menashe, there’s British wartime drama in Our Shining Sword, and there’s lazy CGI for kids in The Son of Bigfoot.
Bad Moms Christmas re-teams the trio from August 2016’s smash hit, Bad Moms, and an f-word-laden comedy that was actually funny, too – about struggling moms, or ‘mums’ as they’re known in the UK, where Amy (Mila Kunis), Carla (Kathryn Hahn) and Kiki (Kristen Bell) return, but this time they’re struggling to cope when their respective mothers visit for the holidays.
And below, check out the Red Band Trailer.
So, you can tell exactly where this is going, but the first one made me laugh a lot, so hopefully this will too.
Writer/Directors: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Also stars: Christine Baranski, Jay Hernandez, Susan Sarandon, Oona Laurence, Justin Hartley, Peter Gallagher, Cheryl Hines, Wanda Sykes, Emjay Anthony
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
The Killing of a Sacred Deer is a title that didn’t grab me at first, but then I saw the cast featured Colin Farrell, and it comes from Yorgos Lanthimos, the director of the brilliant The Lobster.
Steven Murphy (Farrell) is a charismatic surgeon, forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behaviour of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer is looks weird as hell and I can’t wait to see it.
Writers: Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthymis Filippou
Also stars: Nicole Kidman, Alicia Silverstone, Barry Keoghan, Raffey Cassidy, Bill Camp, Rachael Mcadams
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Murder on the Orient Express retells Agatha Christie‘s many-told tale with plenty of dodgy cod-French accents, as shown by the trailer, on a lavish train ride, on which unfolds a stylish & suspenseful mystery, it says here, and all in a race for thirteen stranded strangers and one man’s race to solve the puzzle before the murderer strikes again.
Shot in Panavision Super 70 by Kenneth Branagh – who also plays Detective Hercule Poirot, I saw people raving about the first trailer but I couldn’t see why. It looks more like a TV special than a big-screen movie.
As for this one, since it’s a thriller and I expect the less that’s known about it the better, I’ll post this here, but I’ll pass on watching it myself so everything in the movie is more of a surprise.
The film also stars Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penélope Cruz, Daisy Ridley, Josh Gad, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Olivia Colman, Miranda Raison, Adam Garcia and Derek Jacobi.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Rise of the Footsoldier 3
Notorious gangster, Pat Tate (Craig Fairbrass), rises through the ranks of Essex’s criminal underworld. A prequel to the ‘Rise of the Footsoldier’ franchise.
It looks like a pretty decent beat-em-up, even though I haven’t seen the first two. The last bit of this trailer made me laugh so much, I coughed up phlegm! 🙂
Director: Zackary Adler
Stars: Terry Stone, Roland Manookian, Larry Lamb
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Menashe
Within Brooklyn’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community, widower Menashe battles for custody of his son, but to do that, he must be married… A tender drama performed entirely in Yiddish, the film intimately explores the nature of faith and the price of parenthood.
This looks like it could be pretty good, so I do want to check it out at some point.
Director: Joshua Z Weinstein
Stars: Menashe Lustig, Yoel Falkowitz, Ruben Niborski
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Maybe!
Our Shining Sword
Douglas, a broken, solitary, Spitfire Ace, must overcome his past to lead a Lancaster bomber crew in the pivotal aerial war over Berlin, in 1943.
This looks like it could be worth a watch. The trailer is no longer available.
Stars: Rosa Coduri, Steven Hooper, Kris Saddler, Josh Collins
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Maybe!
The Son of Bigfoot
A teenage boy journeys to find his missing father only to discover that he’s actually Bigfoot…. but the film looks like very lazy CGI and won’t interest kids who are used to Pixar movies.
Directors: Jeremy Degruson, Ben Stassen
Writers: Bob Barlen, Cal Brunker
Stars: Cinda Adams, Bob Barlen, Laila Berzins
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.