Skip to content
Easter has arrived and there’s seven, yes – count ’em! – seven new films out this weekend.
This week’s selections are: Love Punch, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Locke, Magic Magic, We Are The Best, The Sea and God’s Not Dead.
Love Punch
A divorced couple scheme to recover the retirement money that was stolen from them, in a film that stars Emma Thompson, Pierce Brosnan, Tuppence Middleton, Timothy Spall and Celia Imrie, and looks very satisfied with itself, but I wasn’t sold on it from the trailer.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
In this sequel, Spider-Man squares off against the Rhino and the powerful Electro while struggling to keep his promise to leave Gwen Stacey out of his dangerous life.
It stars Jamie Foxx as Electro, Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn, Paul Giamatti as The Rhino, plus Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Sally Field, Denis Leary, Martin Sheen, Chris Zylka, Frank Deal, Felicity Jones and another appearance from Stan Lee.
I’m going to go and see this on the big screen anyway, even if the last film was so-so, but it at least had great action sequences.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Locke
Locke is a new thriller starring Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises) which is simply described with the synopsis: A man’s life unravels during a 90-minutes race against time.
Directed and written by Steven Wright (Hummingbird) and also starring Ruth Wilson (Luther), Andrew Scott (Sherlock), Tom Holland (The Impossible), Olivia Colman (Peep Show, Broadchurch, Tyrannosaur), Ben Daniels (House of Cards), Alice Lowe (This is Jinsy), Bill Milner (Son of Rambow, X-Men: First Class), Danny Webb (Hummingbird, Lightfields) and Lee Ross (Press Gang, Titanic), Locke is released on April 18th in the UK.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Magic Magic
Alicia (Juno Temple) arrives in South America to vacation with her cousin, Sarah (Emily Browning). When Sarah is suddenly called away, Alicia is stuck on a remote island off Chile with three of Sarah’s friends, including Brink (Michael Cera), an American exchange student with a sadistic streak.
Bewildered, frightened, and unable to sleep, Alicia’s reality becomes a nightmare from which there is no waking. Ancient indigenous rites, disturbing animal behavior, and captivating hypnotic trances come together in an intense exploration into the darkest corners… when the games go too far, reality unravels with astonishing and deadly consequences.
Also starring Catalina Sandino Moreno, this looks like it could be worth a watch so I’ll say it’s a…
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
We Are the Best
Three girls in 1980s Stockholm decide to form a punk band — despite not having any instruments and being told by everyone that punk is dead.
This film looks like it might be worth a look, although the trailer is brief so you never know. That said, it gets across in a trailer more than most near-3-minute Hollywood films do.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
The Sea
Ciarán Hinds is the man who returns to the sea where he spent his childhood summers in search of peace following the death of his wife.
In a film which also stars Bonnie Wright, Natascha McElhone, Rufus Sewell, Charlotte Rampling and Sinéad Cusack, I found the trailer a bit of a rambling mess, which didn’t grab me at all, so I’ll pass on this one.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
God’s Not Dead
God’s Not Dead stars Hercules actor Kevin Sorbo as a professor who gets into a debate as to whether God is alive or dead, as the film title would suggest.
Present-day college freshman and devout Christian, Josh Wheaton (Shane Harper), finds his faith challenged on his first day of Philosophy class by the dogmatic and argumentative Professor Radisson (Kevin Sorbo). Radisson begins class by informing students that they will need to disavow, in writing, the existence of God on that first day, or face a failing grade. As other students in the class begin scribbling the words “God Is Dead” on pieces of paper as instructed, Josh find himself at a crossroads, having to choose between his faith and his future.
Josh offers a nervous refusal, provoking an irate reaction from his smug professor. Radisson assigns him a daunting task: if Josh will not admit that “God Is Dead,” he must prove God’s existence by presenting well-researched, intellectual arguments and evidence over the course of the semester, and engage Radisson in a head-to-head debate in front of the class.
God’s Not Dead also stars Willie Robertson, David A.R. White, Korie Robertson and Marco Khan, but it’s not a film I’ll be holding my breath for as it looks like a tedious TV movie which has somehow made its way to the big screen.
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.