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This weekend there are nine new films out for you to choose from: comedy in We’ll Never Have Paris and Addicted To Fresno, action/thriller in Sicario, period drama in Suffragette, horror in Regression, horror/comedy in Cooties, alleged comedy in Leading Lady, alleged horror in A Haunting In Cawdor, and finally, a country-wide release for The Walk.
We’ll Never Have Paris
Quinn (Simon Helberg) is a man who’s wanting to propose to his long-term girlfriend, Devon (Melanie Lynskey), but the right moment never quite comes around and amongst flying to Paris to win back the girl he thinks is “the one”, he also inadvertently draws the attention of tall, blonde model Kelsey (Maggie Grace).
Also starring Alfred Molina and Zachary Quinto, this is a classic example of a film which doesn’t sound like a lot to shout about from the premise, but turns out to be a very funny trailer indeed and I hope the rest of the film follows suit.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Sicario translates to ‘hitman’ in Mexico, but they don’t want to get confused with the movie reboot based on the videogame which is ALSO having a reboot early next year. Confused?
Anyhoo, in the lawless border area stretching between the US and Mexico, idealistic FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) is enlisted by an elite government task force official to aid in the escalating war against drugs. Led by an enigmatic consultant with a questionable past, the team sets out on a clandestine journey forcing Kate to question everything that she believes in order to survive.
Sicario reunites Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin from Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice, and also stars Jon Bernthal, Victor Garber, Jeffrey Donovan, and is directed by Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners).
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Addicted To Fresno follows the lives two co-dependent sisters – Shannon (Judy Greer) and Martha (Natasha Lyonne) – who work as hotel maids in Fresno, yet according to IMDB, this movie was NOT filmed in Fresno, California.
Anyway, the film also stars Jessica St Clair, Molly Shannon, Clea DuVall, Allison Tolman, Aubrey Plaza, and Ron Livingston, and the daft premise and events that appear throughout the trailer did make this look like a must-see.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Carey Mulligan stars in Suffragette as Maud, plus there’s Meryl Streep as Emmeline Pankhurst, in a film about the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement – women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State. It was also partly inspired by Paul McCartney’s song, Jet. (That’s actually a lie)
The film also stars Helena Bonham Carter, Ben Whishaw, Brendan Gleeson, Romola Garai, Anne-Marie Duff, Samuel West, and is directed by Sarah Gavron, from a script by Abi Morgan. However, while I know it’s an important topic, period dramas really aren’t my bag so I’ll be giving this a miss.
For reasons best known to the studio, they’ve chosen to release this on a Monday, and for anything released on a Saturday onwards, it counts towards the NEXT week’s movie charts, so it’s a bit of a cheat to get closer to a No.1 slot, as Paper Towns did recently.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Regression is a new thriller set in Minnesota in the 1980s and tells the tale of a man who is arrested and accused of having sexually abused his daughter. Although he doesn’t remember anything from the event, he pleads guilty.
With the help of a psychologist, he’ll relive those moments and eventually accuse a policeman of having participated in the crime. Meanwhile, the local media hints the possibility that everything could have been a satanic cult’s doing.
Written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar, this film stars Emma Watson, Ethan Hawke, David Thewlis, Devon Bostick, Lothaire Bluteau, and the ridiculously-named Dale Dickey, and it looks like a great movie so I’m very much looking forward to this.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Cooties had me at ZOMBIE CHILDREN!!
Yes, zombie films have been done to death – no pun intended, but I don’t think we’ve had kids demolishing adults before. Not exclusively, anyway.
A mysterious virus hits an isolated elementary school, transforming the kids into a feral swarm of mass savages. An unlikely hero must lead a motley band of teachers in the fight of their lives.
The film stars Elijah Wood, Alison Pill, Rainn Wilson, Sunny May Allison, and the bizarrely-named Armani Jackson, and looks hilarious.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Leading Lady
An idealistic British drama school teacher, Jodi Rutherford (Katie McGrath), persuades a cynical South African farmer to prepare her for a role in a major film as an Afrikaans war heroine. In return Jodi undertakes to direct the annual concert on the Willemse farm. Jodi’s interaction with the quirky small town citizens and the stubborn Kobus, teaches her that: “there is more to life than lights… camera… and action!”
Also starring Bok van Blerk and Gil Bellows, this is a rather pedestrian-looking romatic comedy that may just work out as okay, but is looking more like a…
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
A Haunting In Cawdor
In this tense tale of psychological terror, Vivian Miller (Shelby Young) is a young twenties woman who’s serving out her jail sentence at a work release program in the Midwest. Her 90 days of probation takes her to The Cawdor Barn Theatre, a dilapidated summer stock theater run by Lawrence O’Neil (Cary Elwes). Lawrence, a failed Broadway director, is now reduced to staging amateur productions with young parolees and raging over the mistakes from his past. Vivian’s arrival in Cawdor starts a terrifying series of events that brings Lawrence’s secret past to the present. After Vivian views an old taped stage production of Macbeth, a force of evil is unleashed which soon turns its sights on her. With the help of Roddy (Michael Welch), a local outcast, Vivian sets about trying to discover who the supernatural killer on the tape is before she becomes the next victim.
Well, the billing states it’s a tense tale of psychological terror, but in reality it’s nothing of the sort and looks awful.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
The Walk tells the tale of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as French high-wire artist Philippe Petit, who attempted to cross the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.
And after last week’s IMAX exclusive, it now gets a regular 3D and 2D release.
Also starring Ben Kingsley, Charlotte Le Bon and James Badge Dale, the full trailer makes it look even more intriguing and well worth going to see on the big screen. And with a cinematographic process of of Deep Vision 3D in 6K resolution, make sure you see it on the biggest screen possible!
The Walk is directed by Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Flight) and you can read our review here.
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.