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This weekend there are seven new films out for you to choose from: Tom Hardy plays The Krays in Legend, there’s angst in the alps for Everest, censored action in Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, Woody Allen comedy in Irrational Man, British thriller Containment, Abel Ferrera’s biopic Pasolini, and horror in The Visit.
Legend tells the tale of identical twin gangsters Ronald and Reginald Kray, both played by Tom Hardy, who terrorise London during the ’50s and ’60s.
Back in 1990, we had Spandau Ballet‘s Martin and Gary Kemp playing The Krays, but now, what do women like more than a film with Tom Hardy in it? A film with TWO Tom Hardys!
And now, the first official trailer has been released and it gives more edge than the teaser trailer did, making this look an absolute must-see in the cinema.
Legend also stars Taron Egerton, Emily Browning, Colin Morgan, Christopher Eccleston, David Thewlis, Paul Anderson, Tara Fitzgerald and Chazz Palminteri, and is written and directed by Brian Helgeland, who wrote the screenplay for LA Confidential and directed Payback.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Everest is not a film about the life of Everest Windows magnate Ted Moult, but in fact it’s about a climbing expedition on Mt. Everest which is devastated by a severe snow storm.
The film stars Keira Knightley, Robin Wright, Josh Brolin, Jason Clarke, Sam Worthington, Clive Standen, Emily Watson and Tom Goodman-Hill. While this looks good, despite the scale of Everest the mountain, I’m not sure whether it’s worth a watch on the big screen. And based on reviews, Jake Gyllenhaal isn’t actually in it that much, and a lot of the rest of it sounds like a TV movie of the week.
Everest isn’t out on general release until next Friday but some cinemas are getting it a week early in their IMAX screens.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Maybe!
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is the second chapter in the “Maze Runner” saga, where Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and his fellow Gladers face their greatest challenge yet: searching for clues about the mysterious and powerful organization known as WCKD. Their journey takes them to the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with unimaginable obstacles. Teaming up with resistance fighters, the Gladers take on WCKD’s vastly superior forces and uncover its shocking plans for them all.
The film also stars Nathalie Emmanuel, Katherine McNamara, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Aidan Gillen, Kaya Scodelario, Giancarlo Esposito, Ki Hong Lee, Barry Pepper, plus Six Feet Under‘s Patricia Clarkson and Lili Taylor.
I wasn’t wholly sold on the first one, but as they realise that, unlike Highlander, there isn’t just one… maze, that is. And so the scene is set. Sadly, this sequel has also been censored like the first film, and you can read all about this here.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss! (in its censored form)
Irrational Man stars Joaquin Phoenix as Abe, an irrational man…, well, a tormented philosophy professor who finds a will to live when he commits an existential act.
Also starring Emma Stone, the trailer shows it to be rather a daft-looking film, but one that the two leads will excel in, and also stars Jamie Blackley, Ethan Phillips, and from some of my favourite episodes of Louie, Parker Posey.
But when I said it looks daft? Well, it is written and directed by Woody Allen.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Containment finds what happens when the public wake up one day to find they have no water, no power, no explanation and no escape. Just what’s going on? With a great cast including Louise Brealey, Lee Ross and Benidorm‘s Sheila Reid, I love this sort of thriller and I really want to check this out, although it’s the kind of thing which will only get a major airing on Blu-ray and DVD as cinemas save the screens for the bigger movies above.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Pasolini is a kaleidoscopic look at the last day of Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1975, such is the brief billing. Willem Dafoe takes the titular lead role, and is accompanied by Riccardo Scamarcio, Ninetto Davoli, Valerio Mastandrea and Maria de Medeiros, best known as Butch’s better half Fabienne in Pulp Fiction.
Directed by Abel Ferrera, I know nothing about Pasolini or his work, but while the trailer looks bizarre, Dafoe rarely makes a bad film so I’ll say this will be a…
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
The Visit
A single mother finds that things in her family’s life go very wrong after her two young children visit their grandparents.
This is another tale from one-hit-wonder writer/director M Night Shyamalan, and this time he hasn’t even attracted any big stars. It also looks pretty tedious from the trailer.
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.