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This week, there are NINE new films out for you to choose from: South Korean all-action females in The Villainess, more bodies piling up in American Assassin, Jennifer Lawrence freaks out in Mother!, Hungary gets a turn for assassination in wheelchairs – Kills On Wheels, there’s period drama with Judi Dench in Victoria and Abdul, religious mumbo jumbo in The Case for Christ, poor kids CGI in The Jungle Bunch, German gay drama in Centre of My World, and you’ll be wishing Let Me Go does the same for you.
The Villainess is like a mix of Nikita, John Wick and the videogame Doom, with all its first-person action.
Essentially, it’s a revenge movie, where Sook-hee (initially played by Ye-Ji Min, before changing to Ok-bin Kim – as her character ages ten years, in circumstances that will become clear when you watch it) is avenging the death of her father and violently takes out the bad guys, since the police are useless when it comes to doing so, undergoing training in a facility to become a sleeper agent.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Read the review!
American Assassin centres around Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien – The Maze Runner), once an ordinary all-American athlete and scholar, and an extremely gifted young man, but then his girlfriend was viciously killed in a terrorists plane crash.
He’s recruited by the CIA, becoming one of the best assassins they had ever seen. Revenge is in his mind on those terrorists who killed his girlfriend, and to make sure it never happens again. However, when given an assignment on Beirut, things go astray and Rapp must work to make things right without any CIA support…
I love the look of this.
Director: Michael Cuesta (Kill The Messenger, Dexter)
Screenplay: Stephen Schiff, Michael Finch, Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz (based on the novel by Vince Flynn)
Also stars: Taylor Kitsch, Michael Keaton, Sanaa Lathan, David Suchet, Scott Adkins
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Mother! is a new film from writer/director Darren Aronofsky about a couple, played by Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem, whose relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence.
I wasn’t grabbed from the trailer, however good the director may be, or its other stars including, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer, Domhnall Gleeson, Brian Gleeson, Stephen McHattie and Kristen Wiig.
I did enjoy Black Swan when I saw that, but I still haven’t got round to seeing Requiem In A Dream.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Kills on Wheels is billed as a meaningful action-comedy of a wheelchair-bound assassin gang. Driven by despair and fear of becoming useless, a 20 year-old boy, his friend, and an ex-fireman offer their services to the mafia. But things are not what they seem. The boundaries between reality and fiction blur and the story becomes a whirling kaleidoscope showing us gangsters and gunfights, but also the challenge of life in a wheelchair and the pain caused by a father’s rejection.
I loved the look of this and really want to see it.
Writer/Director: Attila Till
Stars: Szabolcs Thuróczy, Zoltán Fenyvesi, Ádám Fekete
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Victoria and Abdul tells the tale I’ve never heard of before, where Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal).
Directed by Stephen Frears, and based on the novel by Shrabani Basu, it also stars Olivia Williams, Judi Dench, Michael Gambon, Eddie Izzard, Tim Pigott-Smith, Adeel Akhtar, Fenella Woolgar, Julian Wadham and Simon Callow.
Victoria and Abdul looks like it could be good…
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Maybe!
The Case for Christ is a film based on the true story of an award-winning investigative journalist – and avowed atheist – who applies his well-honed journalistic and legal skills to disprove the newfound Christian faith of his wife… with unexpected, life-altering results.
This looks dull as ditchwater. Avoid!
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
The Jungle Bunch
Maurice may look like a penguin – but he’s a real tiger inside! Raised by a tigress, he’s the clumsiest Kung-Fu master ever. Along with his friends, The Jungle Bunch, he intends to maintain order and justice in the jungle, as his mother did before him. But Igor, an evil koala, wants to destroy the jungle once and for all, helped by his army of silly baboons… The Jungle Bunch – to the rescue.
This French film, dubbed into English, contains CGI which is far superceded by everything Hollywood can create…
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Centre of My World
After a summer spent with his his best friend Kat to escape his family, Phil goes back to school and starts to question his feelings towards Nicholas, a new classmate.
If German gay drama is your thing, then maybe, but for me it’s a…
Writer/Director: Jakob M Erwa (based on the novel by Andreas Steinhöfel)
Stars: Bendix Hansen, Sarah Fuhrer, Louis Hofmann
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Let Me Go is a film about mothers and daughters, it is about ghosts from the past and the impact they leave on the present. Developed from Helga Schneider’s true life story, Let Me Go explores the effect on Helga’s life of being abandoned by her mother, Traudi in 1941 when she was just four years old. The film is set in the year 2000 following not only Helga and Traudi’s journeys but the next two generations and how Beth, Helga’s daughter and Emily her granddaughter are confronted with the long-term effects of Traudi’s leaving. When Helga receives a letter telling her that Traudi is close to death, it is Emily with whom Helga shares the truth. Emily volunteers to accompany her to Vienna to meet the great-grandmother she thought was dead, and experience the unraveling of the darkest of family secrets.
Let Me Go is tedious nonsense…
Writer/Director: Polly Steele
Stars: Lucy Boynton, Stanley Weber, Jodhi May, Juliet Stevenson
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.