Skip to content
This week, there are SIX new films out for you to choose from, led by Escape from Pretoria. Here are the titles, with more info below:Escape from Pretoria
Fantasy Island
Military Wives
The Photograph
Sulphur and White
Onward
Escape from Pretoria is the South African Prison Break!
Set in 1979, the film begins with freedom fighters/terrorists (take your pick) Tim Jenkin (Daniel Radcliffe – Horns, Imperium) and Stephen Lee (Daniel Webber, above-right with Radcliffe and Mark Leonard Winter, left) being jailed for setting off bombs in public places – alebeit ones that exploded leaflets all over the place, in the fight for apartheid.
Read the review here!
Director: Francis Annan
Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Daniel Webber, Ian Hart
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Read the review!
Fantasy Island is given a horror reboot, where the enigmatic Mr. Roarke (Michael Peña), makes the secret dreams of his lucky guests come true at a luxurious but remote tropical resort. But when the fantasies turn into nightmares, the guests have to solve the island’s mystery in order to escape with their lives.
And as the trailer shows, one of the participants dreams of getting revenge on their childhood bully… but they’re really there! Who wouldn’t have guessed that? Ooh, the plot thinnens!
Director: Jeff Wadlow
Also stars: Lucy Hale, Maggie Q, Portia Doubleday, Charlotte McKinney, Kim Coates, Michael Rooker, Ryan Hansen
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Military Wives is inspired by global phenomenon of military wives choirs, the story celebrates a band of misfit women who form a choir on a military base. As unexpected bonds of friendship flourish, music and laughter transform their lives, helping each other to overcome their fears for loved ones in combat.
This ‘feel-good movie’ looks as dull as it sounds.
Director: Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty)
Writers: Rosanne Flynn, Rachel Tunnard
Stars: Kristin Scott Thomas, Sharon Horgan, Jason Flemyng, Emma Lowndes, Gaby French, Greg Wise, Lara Rossi
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
The Photograph
On Valentine’s Day, Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield connect in a romance where a woman must learn from the secrets in her mother’s past if she is to move forward and allow herself to love and be loved.
When famed photographer Christina Eames unexpectedly dies, she leaves her estranged daughter Mae Morton (Rae) hurt, angry and full of questions. When a photograph tucked away in a safe-deposit box is found, Mae finds herself on a journey delving into her mother’s early life and ignites a powerful, unexpected romance with a rising-star journalist, Michael Block (Stanfield).
From writer-director Stella Meghie (The Weekend, Jean of the Joneses) from her original screenplay comes a sweeping love story about forgiveness and finding the courage to seek the truth, no matter where it may lead you.
While watching the trailer, I kept waiting for the twist, as to when bad things were going to happen, but no… in the US, this was released on Valentine’s Day, so everything will be sickly sweet and work out. You can tell that from the off.
Wwriter/Director: Stella Meghie
Stars: LaKeith Stanfield, Chelsea Peretti, Teyonah Parris, Issa Rae
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Sulphur and White centres around city trader and mountaineer David Tait (Mark Stanley), a man whose professional success masks a series of traumatic secrets.
However, whatever’s going on in this particular family was boring me rigid based on the trailer.
Director: Julian Jarrold
Writer: Susie Farrell
Stars: Mark Stanley, Anna Friel, Dougray Scott, Emily Beecham, Alistair Petrie
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Onward
Set in a suburban fantasy world, two teenage elf brothers, Ian and Barley Lightfoot, go on an journey to discover if there is still a little magic left out there in order to spend one last day with their father, who died when they were too young to remember him.
I will be giving this a miss because it’s typical CGI junk for kids and looks awful.
Director: Dan Scanlon
Writers: Dan Scanlon, Jason Headley
Stars: Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus
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.