5 November 2014
In 1996 Gary Webb (Jeremy Renner) was a reporter covering the drug trade for mid-level US newspaper the San-Jose Mercury News when he was approached by a drug dealer’s wife with some explosive information: the government had mistakenly released to her (as part of her husband’s trial) documents proving that a major drug importer had been working with the CIA.
3 November 2014
Christine Lucas (Nicole Kidman) wakes up with no idea of where she is – or who the man in bed with her is. Fortunately, the man (Colin Firth) knows what to do: his name is Mike, he’s her husband, and she has a special kind of amnesia that means every night when she goes to sleep she forgets everything she learnt during the day. In her head she’s still in her early twenties; in the mirror, she’s clearly pushing forty.
3 November 2014
It’s World War II time yet again – it seems like only yesterday that Hitler was defeated, and yet WWII actually ended 69 years ago. Hollywood just can’t seem to let go, so it must be time to follow yet another unsung group of brave warriors as they face down the Nazis. Does anyone know who the “sung” heroes of WWII were?
26 October 2014
A Swedish family – Tomas (Johannes Kuhnke), Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) and their two children – are on holiday in the Alps when an avalanche (supposedly a controlled one set off by the ski lodge to control the snow on the slopes) gets out of hand. Snow billows over the lodge where the family are watching; the husband panics and runs, leaving his wife and children behind.
24 October 2014
Locked up in a WA prison, JR (Brenton Thwaites) looks next in line for a whole lot of prison rape until his chess skills bring him to the attention of notorious armed robber Brendan (Ewan McGregor). Now part of the gang, he’s tasked with getting in touch with Brendan’s organised crime contacts once he gets out and helping put together an audacious breakout plan for the rest of the crew.
22 October 2014
When sleazy big city lawyer Hank Palmer (Robert Downey, Jr.) takes time out from pissing on rival lawyers (in a toilet, of course) and snapping at his soon-to-be-divorced wife to answer his phone, he finds out his mother is dead. Rushing back to his small-town home, he’s not exactly surprised to find his father and local judge Joseph (Robert Duvall) still treats him with distain.
21 October 2014
Andrew (Miles Teller) is a nineteen-year-old who desperately wants to be the best jazz drummer in the world. He’s currently studying at a New York conservatory where he draws the attention of Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), a much-admired teacher who wants Andrew to be the best jazz drummer in the world.
20 October 2014
Remember the creepy doll from The Conjuring? Clearly Hollywood did: this spin-off starring her has hit cinemas before the official Conjuring sequel has. Presumably a movie based around a doll is a lot easier to knock out – especially when most of your story comes direct from the giant tome of horror movie stunts that Hollywood has locked in a crypt somewhere.
20 October 2014
The year is 1999 – yes, there are a lot of Y2K jokes here – and former NYPD officer Matt Scudder (Liam Neeson) is now an unlicensed private investigator. As he puts it, “sometimes I do favours for people, sometimes they give me gifts”. So when a man (Boyd Holbrook) from one of his AA meetings says his brother Kenny (Dan Stevens) wants his help, Matt goes along.
19 October 2014
You might think that the subject of Dracula has pretty much been done to death (seriously, what more was there left to be said after Dracula 3000?). Yet the actual origin of Dracula has been sadly neglected over the years, with the sinister vampire just generally assumed to have either been born bad or become a vampire through sheer force of evil will.
12 October 2014
The year is 1982, and while many would have you believe that punk is dead, in Stockholm teenage girls Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) and Klara (Mira Grosin) are doing their level best to keep it alive. Mocked at school for their boyish looks, they spend their spare time hanging out at the rec centre, where they discover they can piss off a bunch of long-haired teenage jerks by booking the band rehearsal room out from under them.
8 October 2014
It’s ’70s Detroit, and small-time crooks Ordell (Yasiin Bey – formerly known as Mos Def) and Louis (John Hawkes) have come up with a way to hit it big. They’ve found out that celebrity golfer Frank Dawson (Tim Robbins), who’s also a Detroit property developer, is on top of that making a whole lot of dodgy money via shady business practices. So they figure if they kidnap his wife Mickey (Jennifer Aniston) and hold her for ransom, with what they know about his earnings he’ll have no choice but to pay up.
6 October 2014
Donna (Jenny Slate) is a New York stand-up comic who’s made a career (well, regular appearances at one comedy club) out of putting her whole life out there up on stage. When her boyfriend turns out to not be a fan of this approach and reveals he’s been sleeping with her friend, she collapses in a heap. So when Max (Jake Lacy), a cute but square-seeming guy turns up at the comedy club (he’s there because one of his clients wanted to check it out), a whole lot of alcohol leads to a one-night stand.
4 October 2014
There are two kinds of action movies in the world. In one, our hero finds himself in a violent situation well out of his league, and the tension comes from his struggles to deal with the increasing carnage despite his clear inability to handle things. In the other, the bad guys make the mistake of stumbling across the ultimate killing machine, and the fun comes from seeing a variety of scumbags meet a ghastly fate at the hands of death incarnate.
3 October 2014
It was no surprise that director David Fincher was the one tapped on the shoulder to adapt Gillian Flynn’s best-seller Gone Girl: with his big-screen version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo he proved he was the go-to guy for hit novels with strong female leads (even if his film did pretty much seem to sink the Dragon Tattoo franchise for good). And hard-edged thrillers have always been a Fincher trademark going all the way back to Seven – though here it takes a while for the edge to make itself known.
3 October 2014
Remember the creepy doll from The Conjuring? Clearly Hollywood did: this spin-off starring her has hit cinemas before the official Conjuring sequel has. Presumably a movie based around a doll is a lot easier to knock out – especially when most of your story comes direct from the giant tome of horror movie stunts that Hollywood has locked in a crypt somewhere.
27 September 2014
Josh (Jesse Eisenberg) is just a regular guy working on an eco-friendly farm outside Portland on the USA’s west coast. Well, that’s his day job: it turns out his commitment to environmentalism extends far beyond film nights and sustainable crops. Together with the more overtly right-on Dena (Dakota Fanning) they buy a powerboat and deliver it to Harmon (Peter Sarsgaard), who provides both fake IDs and the fertilizer bombs they need for their mission: blowing up a local dam.
25 September 2014
After a failed suicide attempt, struggling L.A. actor Milo (Bill Hader) reluctantly takes up an offer from his estranged sister Maggie (Kristen Wiig) to head back east and stay with her and her straightforward nice-guy husband (Luke Wilson) in upstate New York.
23 September 2014
Step Up: All In kicks off with a montage showing the various members of dance crew “The Mob” auditioning for commercial work in Los Angeles. Stupid costumes, confusing instructions (“move right, but make it look like you’re moving left”), being openly ogled by the female casting agents, being told the job’s taken before they even get a chance to strut their stuff: it’s a big comedown from the flash mob social justice work The Mob were last seen doing in Step Up: Miami Heat.
21 September 2014
It’s the future, and after a great war humanity has decided the only way to survive is by eliminating all the things that divide us. Passions and love are drugged out of the population; emotions of any kind are banned; lying is forbidden. Even the memory of such things is locked away, with only the mysterious “Giver” (Jeff Bridges) still allowed to recall a more extreme time.
20 September 2014
It’s not quite “the sequel no one demanded”, but coming nine years after the original Sin City it does seem fair enough to ask why they bothered. Especially as much of what made the original Sin City work was a then-unique style: a decade on and comic book movies that look like comic books aren’t exactly hard to come by.
19 September 2014
Josh Lawson’s first feature as a writer/director is the kind of ensemble relationship comedy familiar on the indie film circuit, with one difference: this is a collection of stories about people with particular erotic fetishes.
19 September 2014
We’re so used to young adult fiction being aimed at young girls that what’s initially striking about this story is the way it has boys firmly in its sights. And not just because the lead is a teenage boy thrust into a world full of other teenage boys (though clearly that adds to the testosterone-heavy atmosphere): our story begins with Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) waking up in a lift with no memory of, well, anything.
13 September 2014
Mia (Chloë Grace Moretz) is a seventeen-year-old whose life is starting to come together. An introverted high school cellist, she’s somehow managed to attract the attentions of the hottest dude in school, teenage rock star Adam (Jamie Blackley). Their love of music might be an obvious link – thuddingly obvious thanks to this film’s love of name-dropping at every possible opportunity – but it’s pretty clear there’s real passion between them. Bummer she’s already dead, hey?
