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This weekend there are five new films out for you to choose from: war-time drama in The Imitation Game, crime thriller in The Drop, action in Redirected, love stories in Third Person, and utter awfulness in Nativity 3: Dude Where’s My Donkey?.
The Imitation Game stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the late Alan Turing, the mathmetician and logician who cracked the Enigma code, which led to the defeat of the Germans in World War II, but who was persecuted for his homosexuality and then went on to eat a poisoned apple, thus taking his own life.
The film also stars Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Charles Dance, Mark Strong, Rory Kinnear, Allen Leech, Tuppence Middleton, Tom Goodman-Hill, Matthew Beard and Steven Waddington, it’s written by Graham Moore and directed by Morten Tyldum.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
The Drop is the term for a bar where all the dodgy money from illicit drug deals, etc, will end up. And Tom Hardy works in such a bar which is about to be ripped off by other baddies. Ones with shotguns…
Also, starring Noomi Rapace and James Gandolfini, this certainly looks worth a watch, given the cast.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Redirected
Four friends – John, Ben, Tim and Michael – turned first-time robbers, get stranded in Eastern Europe through a series of misadventures and have to find their way back home. To do so, they’ll have to overcome hit men, ladies of the night, whores, orrupt cops, smugglers and more, all while rediscovering each other as friends.
With Vinnie Jones leading a cast including, Scot Williams, Gil Darnell and Oliver Jackson, this woyld initially seem to have ‘straight to video’ (or DVD) written all over it, but it’s got a cinema release, and an average IMDB score of 9.0 from around 11,500 users! Watching the trailer, it did make me laugh a lot (with it, not at it), so I think it’s worth a watch.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Third Person tells of three interlocking love stories, involving three couples in three cities: Rome, Paris, and New York.
The Japanese trailer was very bizarre, not least because the occasional Japanese language meant you don’t get a full grasp of what’s going on, whereas this trailer is more accessible.
Third Person has a large cast in James Franco, Mila Kunis, Olivia Wilde, Liam Neeson, Kim Basinger, Adrien Brody, Maria Bello, Moran Atias and Caroline Goodall, as well as being written and directed by Paul Haggis (2004’s Crash). However, on balance, it’s a…
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Nativity 3: Dude Where’s My Donkey?
Unfortunately, it’s a third outing for the pupils of St Bernadette’s and the apparently madcap Mr Poppy (Marc Wootton). When their new teacher Mr Shepherd (Martin Clunes) loses his memory as well as Archie the Donkey, it’s up to them to save the day and reunite him with his fiancée Sophie (Catherine Tate) in New York. Prepare for a race against time, fantastic flashmobs and plenty of Christmas fun on their greatest adventure yet…. it says here.
Also starring Susie Blake, Adam Garcia, Celia Imrie, Ralf Little and Duncan Preston, out of all the terrible Christmas films ever released, this one probably tops the lot.
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.