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January rolls on and the weather’s getting worse, so let’s hope there’s some good films to keep you warm this weekend. This week’s films include two titles which include a colon in their title. They are: Grudge Match, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, Inside Llewyn Davis and August: Osage County.
Grudge Match
Grudge Match stars Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro as a pair of aging boxing rivals are coaxed out of retirement to fight one final bout, 30 years after their last match.
Also starring Kim Basinger, Jon Bernthal, Kim Basinger, Alan Arkin and Kevin Hart, it’s rare that you’d get two Hollywood heavyweights (pun not intended) working together onscreen so while the film might not look the most amazing one, it’s a definite must-see.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Jack Ryan, as a young covert CIA analyst, uncovers a Russian plot to crash the U.S. economy with a terrorist attack.
Reboot, reboot, reboot. Yet again, another reboot. Chris Pine – as wooden as his name suggests, is the fourth actor to take on the role of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, following Alec Baldwin in Hunt For Red October, Harrison Ford – now, most associated with the role, in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, and Ben Affleck in the dire The Sum of All Fears.
Directed by Kenneth Branagh, the film also stars Keira Knightley as wife-in-waiting Cathy, plus Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branagh, Lenn Kudrjawizki, Alec Utgoff, Peter Andersson, Elena Velikanova, Nonso Anozie and Gemma Chan.
Now, despite the fact there are still several unfilmed Jack Ryan novels, this hasn’t stopped the makers of Shadow Recruit from going it alone and writing their own story. And the end result, judging by the trailer, looks as flat as Keira Knightley’s chest!
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Inside Llewyn Davis
Inside Llewyn Davis follows a week in the life of a young folk singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961. Guitar in tow, huddled against the unforgiving New York winter, he is struggling to make it as a musician against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, some of them of his own making.
It stars Oscar Isaac as the titular Llewyn Davis, plus Carey Mulligan as his better half Jean, alongisde Justin Timberlake, Garrett Hedlund and John Goodman, and from the trailer I’m not 100% sold on it, but a Coen Brothers film has to be watched in full to work out one way of the other if you like it.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: My gut feeling tells me that this will be Hit!
August: Osage County
August: Osage County gives a look at the lives of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose paths have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Oklahoma house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them.
Starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Chris Cooper, Ewan McGregor, Sam Shepard, Dermot Mulroney, Juliette Lewis and Abigail Breslin, while this film has a fantastic cast, the end result definitely looks like a film for women only.
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.