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This week, there are SEVEN new films out for you to choose from, led by Judy and Punch. Here are the titles, with more info below:Judy and Punch
Them That Follow
21 Bridges
Ophelia
Harriet
Blue Story
Frozen 2
Judy and Punch
Seaside (nowhere near the sea), puppeteers Judy and Punch are trying to resurrect their marionette show on the brink of an anarchic mob rule. When Punch accidentally kills their baby during a drinking binge, his wife, Judy, having suffered a violent beating, teams up with a band of outcast heretics to enact revenge on Punch and the entire town.
I hadn’t heard of this prior to the week of release, but it looks pretty engaging, so I am looking forward to it.
Writer/Director: Mirrah Foulkes
Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Damon Herriman, Benedict Hardie
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Them That Follow
Set deep in the wilds of Appalachia, where believers handle death-dealing snakes to prove themselves before God, a pastor’s daughter holds a secret that threatens to tear her community apart.
I’ve never heard Olivia Colman with a Southern drawl before, but either way, I don’t think this will wholly work based on what I see here.
Writers/Directors: Britt Poulton, Dan Madison Savage
Stars: Kaitlyn Dever, Walton Goggins, Olivia Colman, Alice Englert
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
21 Bridges has a simple premise, where Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther, Avengers: Endgame) plays Andre Davis, a disgraced detective in the NYPD, who puts New York City on lockdown in order for him and the police to catch a gang of cop killers, and he’s given a shot at redemption.
Watching this trailer, it looks dull as hell, and the sort of tosh Denzel Washington was turning out 25-30 years ago, and now it’s Mr Boseman’s turn to tread that well-worn path.
Director: Brian Kirk
Screenplay: Adam Mervis, Matthew Michael Carnahan
Also stars: Taylor Kitsch, Sienna Miller, JK Simmons, Keith David, Stephan James
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Ophelia is simply, a re-imagining of Hamlet, told from the perspective of Ophelia (Daisy Ridley).
Shakespeare is rarely my bag, and this one looks to be no exception.
Director: Claire McCarthy
Stars: Daisy Ridley, Naomi Watts, Tom Felton
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Harriet is Harriet Tubman (Cynthia Erivo), an iconic freedom fighter, and this film chronicles her escape from slavery and subsequent missions to free dozens of slaves through the Underground Railroad in the face of growing pre-Civil War adversity.
Personally, however, this isn’t my sort of film so I’ll be giving it a miss.
Director: Kasi Lemmons
Writers: Gregory Allen Howard, Kasi Lemmons
Also stars: Janelle Monáe, Joe Alwyn, Clarke Peters, Tim Guinee, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Vondie Curtis-Hall
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Blue Story is a tragic tale of a friendship between Timmy and Marco, two young boys from opposing postcodes.
Timmy, a shy, smart, naive and timid young boy from Deptford, goes to school in Peckham where he strikes up a friendship with Marco, a charismatic, streetwise kid from the local area. Although from warring postcodes, the two quickly form a firm friendship until it is tested and they wind up on rival sides of a street war. Blue Story depicts elements of Rapman’s own personal experiences and aspects of his childhood.
This looks more like a rap video created by BBC3, and looks complete junk.
Writer/Director: Andrew Onwubolu
Stars: Stephen Odubola, Micheal Ward, Khali Best
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Frozen 2: Freeze Harder – where Anna returns to take on the terrorists at Dulles Airport in Washington D.C…..
No, it isn’t really entitled Frozen 2: Freeze Harder in full, but it does see the return of Kristen Bell as Anna, who sang the annoying Let It Go, although since I never watched the original movie, I managed to escape that tuneless tune for quite some time. I tried watching it some time later, but after 10 minutes, I gave up.
As you can see, this is not my bag at all, since as you know I’m not particularly into CGI kids/family movies, with the odd exception like the brilliant Kubo And The Two Strings, but like the 2013 original, this sequel will make a fortune, and spawn a sing-along version and so on.
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.