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This week, there are SEVEN new films out for you to choose from: a rom-com with a difference (i.e. it actually looks worth watching!) in The Big Sick, war is hell for Aaron Taylor-Johnson and John Cena in The Wall, Joey King kickstarts a potential new horror franchise (in my view) with a box that grants wishes in Wish Upon, Bryan Cranston retreats into the attic in Wakefield, there’s dark and disturbing, but also compelling strong, violent drama in Hounds Of Love, two young women go 47 Metres Down to meet a shark, and four women go on a girls trip in… Girls Trip.
The Big Sick
Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani) is a budding stand-up comedian when he meets Emily (Zoe Kazan). Meanwhile, a sudden illness sets in, forcing Emily to be put into a medically-induced coma. He must navigate being a comedian, dealing with tragic illness, and placating his family’s desire to let them fix him up with a spouse, while contemplating and figuring out who he really is and what he truly believes.
Although this sounded like a sickly-sweet pile of junk from the premise, I saw the trailer and was blown away by it, and am really looking forward to seeing it.
Director: Michael Showalter
Writers: Emily V Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani
Also stars: Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Anupam Kher, Zenobia Shroff, Adeel Akhtar
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
The Wall is a new movie from Amazon which, on first seeing the trailer, looked far more engaging to me than either Spider-Man Homecoming or the Baywatch reboot.
The premise is simple, as both American sharpshooter Aaron Taylor-Johnson and his soldier buddy John Cena are trapped in a standoff with Iraqi sniper Juba (Laith Nakli). With Cena trapped in the line of fire, and the former having to negotiate with the sniper, whilst he’s trapped behind a wall unable to see the enemy, at just 81 minutes, this looks like a tightly-shot thriller that I definitely want to see.
It’s directed by Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow, Go!, The Bourne Identity), from a script by Dwain Worrell.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Wish Upon
Clare Shannon (Joey King – Independence Day: Resurgence) is a teenage girl who discovers a magical box which will grant her seven wishes…
As she uses them for personal gain, bad things begin to happen to those around her. She discovers an evil entity lives inside the box and may be behind the gruesome deaths.
This actually looks pretty good and has done well in the US so will most likely spawn another new series of films.
Director: John R Leonetti
Writer: Barbara Marshall
Also stars: Ryan Phillippe, Ki Hong Lee, Mitchell Slaggert, Shannon Purser
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Wakefield… Howard Wakefield (Bryan Cranston), has a loving wife, Diana (Jennifer Garner), two daughters, a prestigious job as a Manhattan lawyer, and a comfortable home in the suburbs.
But inwardly he’s suffocating, and eventually he snaps and goes into hiding in his garage attic leaving his family to wonder what happened to him. He observes them from his window – an outsider spying in on his own life – as the days of exile stretch into months. Is it possible to go back to the way things were?
The trailer for this actually looks pretty intriguing, although it is a bizarre idea.
Writer/director: Robin Swicord
Also stars: Ian Anthony Dale, Beverly D’Angelo Beverly D’Angelo, Jason O’Mara, Pippa Bennett-Warner
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Hounds of Love
In 1987 Perth, Austraila, John (Stephen Curry) and Evelyn White (Emma Booth) are a pair of serial killers who target teenage girls.
One night, Vicki Maloney (Ashleigh Cummings), who impetuously sneaks out of the house for a forbidden party, is lured by the pair into their clutches. Now paying dearly for her naivety, Vicki must endure a horrific nightmare of confinement and torture at the hands of this depraved pair. Against these murderers, Vicki’s only chance of survival is a mix of subterfuge, cunning, and mind games while her estranged parents and her boyfriend desperately try to learn what has happened and what can be done to find her. Meanwhile, the Whites have growing problems of their own, which could provide the only hope Vicki could have to survive.
This looks very dark and disturbing, but also compelling.
Writer/director: Ben Young
Also stars: Damian de Montemas, Harrison Gilbertson, Fletcher Humphrys, Steve Turner, Holly Jones
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
47 Metres Down – or 47 Meters Down in the US – is a film I really can’t get excited about in any way.
Last year, we had the mediocre The Shallows with deadly-dull Blake Lively. This year, it’s the turn of Mandy Moore and Claire Holt to be shark bait, as they go into the water in a diving cage, only for you-know-what to hit the fan, and… problems ensue.
Trapped underwater at the bottom of the ocean, while on vacation in Mexico, they have less than an hour of oxygen left. I’m hoping it’ll be a very quick hour.
Director: Johannes Roberts
Writers: Johannes Roberts, Ernest Riera
Also stars: Matthew Modine, Yani Gellman, Santiago Segura
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Girls Trip
You know those films where a group of white women drink and swear a lot? This is the same. Except they’re all black. So add in lines like, “You go, girlfriennnnnnnnnnnd!”
This junk writes itself!
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.