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This weekend there are five new films out for you to choose from: swords and sandals epicness in Exodus: Gods and Kings, olympic drama in Unbroken, Tim Burton weirdness in Big Eyes, and a combination of gunplay and fisticuffs in Revenge of the Green Dragons.
Exodus: Gods and Kings is the story of one man’s daring courage to take on the might of an empire. Using state of the art visual effects and 3D immersion, Scott brings new life to the story of the defiant leader Moses as he rises up against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses, setting 600,000 slaves on a monumental journey of escape from Egypt and its terrifying cycle of deadly plagues.
The film stars Christian Bale as Moses, Joel Edgerton as Ramses, plus John Turturro, Aaron Paul, Ben Mendelsohn, María Valverde, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, Ewen Bremner, Indira Varma and Tara Fitzgerald, and it looks pretty tedious, beyond some big special FX, and hasn’t been getting great reviews.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Unbroken is Angelina Jolie‘s third directorial feature film, following 2007’s A Place in Time and 2011’s In the Land of Blood and Honey, and is a chronicle of the life of Louis Zamperini (the man himself appears in the trailer, but he is played in the movie by Jack O’Connell), an Olympic runner who was taken prisoner by Japanese forces during World War II.
Taken from the book by Laura Hillenbrand, and with a screenplay by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Richard LaGravenese and William Nicholson, the film also stars Domhnall Gleeson (About Time, Black Mirror), Garrett Hedlund (Tron Legacy), Jai Courtney (A Good Day To Die Hard), Alex Russell (Chronicle) and Luke Treadaway.
However, despite it being based on a true story, I’ll be giving this one a miss as it just looks a bit too syrupy sweet and soapified, which was the problem with Pride.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Big Eyes is a new Tim Burton drama about the awakening of the painter Margaret Keane (Amy Adams), her phenomenal success in the 1950s, and the subsequent legal difficulties she had with her husband, Walter (Christoph Waltz), who claimed credit for her works in the 1960s.
The film also stars Krysten Ritter, Jason Schwartzman, Danny Huston, Terence Stamp, Emily Fonda and Jon Polito.
Tim Burton films are hit and miss for me, and this one really doesn’t grab me at all.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Revenge of the Green Dragons is described on IMDB as “a true immigrant story set against the vibrant backdrop of Flushing, N.Y. in the 1980s and 1990s”, yet in watching the trailer, it just looks like a lot of people brandishing guns, often shooting them, as well as engaging in a bout of fisticuffs from time to time.
It stars Justin Chon, Kevin Wu, Harry Shum Jr – at which point it looked okay, but then it also adds Ray Liotta which tips the scales in favour of it being a must-watch.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
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.