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This weekend there are five new films out for you to choose from: drama in True Story, action in Ant-Man, sci-fi in Self/Less, horror in The Gallows, and World War II drama in 13 Minutes.
True Story stars Jonah Hill as Michael Finkel, a recently terminated New York Times journalist who’s struggling for work after a story gone wrong. One day, he receives a phone call from a man regarding an FBI Most Wanted individual named Christian Longo (James Franco), who’s been captured and claimed to be living as Finkel. Longo and Finkel meet and form a potentially marriage shattering bond while Longo is in prison awaiting his trial.
Finkel exchanges journalism tips for the real events behind Longo’s alleged heinous acts of murdering his family. Through the twists and turns in the movie, only at the end will Finkel uncover the True Story.
True Story also stars Felicity Jones, Ethan Suplee, Gretchen Mol and Robert John Burke, and looks like everyone’s on top form, here. I’m very much looking forward to this.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Ant-Man is a Marvel film which has been very long in the making… or, at least, thinking about.
Originally slated to be directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Spaced), he left the project due to creative differences, so the Marvel enterprise went ahead with a new director. Personally, the only ants I’m familiar with are either the old ZX Spectrum game, Ant Attack, or those pesky creatures which fill up my conservatory during the summer, requiring me to buy a bottle of Raid.
Armed with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, con-man Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) must embrace his inner-hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), protect the secret behind his spectacular Ant-Man suit from a new generation of towering threats. Against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Pym and Lang must plan and pull off a heist that will save the world.
Ant-Man is directed by Peyton Reed (Yes Man, Down With Love, Bring It On) and also stars Evangeline Lilly, Judy Greer, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña and Hayley Atwell, and it looks okay, but it’s not my first choice for the cinema. However, True Story isn’t showing in my local Odeon, whereas Ant-Man is on lots of screens!
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit! (just about)
Self/Less looks like one of the weirdest premises for a film I’ve ever seen…
Ben Kingsley plays Damian, an extremely wealthy man, dying from cancer, who undergoes a radical medical procedure that transfers his consciousness into the body of healthy young man, also called Damian (Ryan Reynolds). But all is not as it seems when he starts to uncover the mystery of the body’s origin and the organization that will kill to protect its cause.
Also starring Matthew Goode and Michelle Dockery, the script comes from David Pastor and Àlex Pastor, and it is directed by Tarsem Singh, also responsible for Jennifer Lopez’s The Cell, plus Immortals, Mirror Mirror and the video for REM’s Losing My Religion.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
The Gallows is yet another in a long line of found-footage-style horror films, owing a debt to 1999’s The Blair Witch Project.
20 years after a horrific accident during a small town school play, students at the school resurrect the failed show in a misguided attempt to honor the anniversary of the tragedy – but soon discover that some things are better left alone.
There’s no-one famous in this cast, names including Cassidy Gifford, Pfeifer Brown, Ryan Shoos, Reese Mishler and Alexis Schneider, who all sound like they’ve taken their names from one of those bizarre “What’s your pet name?”-type posts floating around on Facebook.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
13 Minutes tells the breath-taking story of a man who nearly would have changed the world. 1939, when Hitler tricked millions of people at the height of his power, one said a radical No: Georg Elser, disparaged as an assassin, is one of the greatest resistance fighters.
Starring Christian Friedel as Georg Elser, plus Katharina Schüttler, Burghart Klaußner and Johann von Bülow, this certainly looks an intriguing film so I would say it’s a…
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
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.