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This week, there are NINE new films out for you to choose from, led by Roma. Here are the titles, with more info below:
- Roma
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
Anna and the Apocalypse
Three Identical Strangers
Disobedience
The Possession of Hannah Grace
The Wild Pear Tree (Ahlat Agaci)
Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks The Internet
Creed II.
Roma is a new Netflix movie which tells a story which chronicles a year in the life of a middle-class family in Mexico City in the early 1970s.
Alfonso Cuarón is a director who rarely fails to impress, and both Children Of Men and Gravity were two huge cinematic joys. He’s also the king of extended one-take scenes so I can’t wait to see this.
Writer/Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Stars: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Diego Cortina Autrey
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, aka just Mowgli in some territories, retells The Jungle Book for Netflix, brought to us in the director’s chair by Andy Serkis, who’s best known for being in a motion-capture suit for big-screen movies such as War For The Planet Of The Apes and Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.
But do we need another movie like this after Jon Favreau last brought us his version of The Jungle Book in 2016
This film gets a limited theatrical release this week, and is on Netflix on December 7th.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Read the review!
Anna and the Apocalypse
In a week where another yet Rocky cash-grab is the main movie, I like that this one has an element of Survivor’s Eye Of The Tiger in its soundtrack.
I like how the trailer lists this as a cross between Shaun Of The Dead and La La Land.
When the zombie apocalypse hits the sleepy town of Little Haven – at Christmas – teenager Anna and her high school friends have to fight, sing and dance to survive, with the undead horde all around them. Teaming up with her best friend John, Anna has to fight her way through zombified snowmen, Santas, elves and Christmas shoppers to get across town to the high school, where they’ll be safe. But they soon discover that being a teenager is just as difficult as staying alive, even at the end of the world.
Director: John McPhail
Writers: Alan McDonald, Ryan McHenry
Stars: Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Sarah Swire, Christopher Leveaux, Ben Wiggins, Marli Siu, Mark Benton, Paul Kaye
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Three Identical Strangers
New York, 1980: three complete strangers accidentally discover that they are identical triplets, separated at birth. The 19-year-olds’ joyous reunion catapults them to international fame, but it also unlocks an extraordinary and disturbing secret that goes beyond their own lives – and could transform our understanding of human nature forever.
The trailer for this draws you in, the more that is revealed, so I definitely want to check this out.
Director: Tim Wardle
Stars: Silvi Alzetta-Reali, Eddy Galland, Ron Guttman
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Disobedience
A woman returns to her Orthodox Jewish community that shunned her for her attraction to a female childhood friend. Once back, their passions reignite as they explore the boundaries of faith and sexuality.
Initially, I wasn’t that fussed about this, but the longer the trailer went on, the more engaging the film looked… and that’s not just because Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams get it on…
Director: Sebastián Lelio
Stars: Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams, Alessandro Nivola
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
The Possession of Hannah Grace centres around cop Megan Reed (Shay Mitchell), who’s just out of rehab, and when she takes the graveyard shift in a city hospital morgue, she faces a series of bizarre, violent events caused by an evil entity in one of the corpses.
It begins when the late Hannah Grace (Kirby Johnson), who’s brought in after her parents performed an exorcism upon her, and would you believe it – something went wrong! Hence, “evil will find a new vessel” and it’s going to be Megan! Cue lots of freaky stuff and jump scares.
Maybe I’m just getting old, but all the horror films made today are making me laugh more than scared.
Director: Diederik Van Rooijen
Screenplay: Brian Sieve
Also stars: Stana Katic, Grey Damon, Louis Herthum, Lexie Roth, Jacob Ming-Trent
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Maybe!
The Wild Pear Tree (Ahlat Agaci)
Filmed in Turkey, an aspiring writer returns to his native village, where his father’s debts catch up to him.
At 188 minutes, this is almost as long as Titanic! I was going to say I erred on the side of ‘Hit’, but after that, I’m sure it can be cut down.
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Writers: Akin Aksu, Ebru Ceylan
Stars: Dogu Demirkol, Murat Cemcir, Bennu Yildirimlar
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Maybe!
Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks The Internet takes place six years after saving the arcade from Turbo’s vengeance. The Sugar Rush arcade cabinet has broken, forcing Ralph and Vanellope to travel to the Internet via the newly-installed Wi-Fi router in Litwak’s Arcade to retrieve the piece capable of saving the game.
I’ve seem about 30 minutes of the original, and it looked quite fun, but based on this teaser, this sequel looks full of product promotion and is incredibly lazy, especially as the characters have only *just* heard of ‘wifi’. Perhaps it’ll be this year’s Emoji Movie?
About the only point of interest with this, is that while there will be a 3D version, Odeon are only showing the IMAX release in 2D. They’re also doing the same with Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
Directors: Phil Johnston, Rich Moore
Stars: John C Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Mandy Moore, Kristen Bell, Kelly Macdonald, Auli’i Cravalho, Alan Tudyk, Taraji P Henson, Ming-Na Wen, Idina Menzel, Ed O’Neill, Jane Lynch
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Creed II
Rocky VIII comes to the screen… How much more of this crap are we going to have to tolerate? Now, son of Apollo Creed goes up against son of Ivan Drago. It’s a poor cash-grab.
I hope Drago punches him into an early grave in the first minute and we can all leave early.
The first one wasn’t a patch on the Rocky movies, even Rocky V – although for me, that was better than Rocky Balboa!
Sylvester Stallone continues to top up his pension, since the plot is again putting him tutoring the son of Apollo Creed, Adonis Creed (Michael B Jordan), and who’s he going up against this time? Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu), the son of Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren). Yes, we’re skipping straight from Rocky to Rocky IV.
To that end, one of my friends suggested that perhaps Creed III will see Adonis go up against the son of Rocky III‘s Clubber Lang (Mr T), and then where will we be?
Director: Steven Caple Jr
Writer: Cheo Hodari Coker
Also stars: Tessa Thompson, Wood Harris, Phylicia Rashad, Russell Hornsby, Andre Ward
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.