When you've been out there this coming week sitting in a dark room with a bunch of strangers taking in a good dose of aural and visual overload, enjoy your cinematic experience, drop me a line and tell my other Reader what you think.
DEVIL'S KNOT (Rated M) - Directed by Atom Egoyan and starring an American accented Colin Firth, and Reece Witherspoon amongst other fine talent, this film appears to over promise and under deliver. The story recounts the real life events surrounding the 'West Memphis Three' young teenagers who were convicted in the mid-90's of killing three young boys (Michael Moore, Stevie Branch and Christopher Byers) . The speculation over this case continues on to this day, and perhaps this is the motivation for the film - giving the case further exposure and reason to cast more doubt over the convictions maybe! Essentially the three teenagers in question were supposed Devil worshippers who allegedly did away with the three younger lads as part of a satanic ritual. The three teenagers, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jnr. were convicted even though evidence was lacking and they pleaded their innocence throughout. Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life imprisonment and Echols to death, although after subsequent forensic testing, a revaluation of the evidence and a new hearing in 2011 the case took a new twist and the three were released. The case continues however, with the real killer still at large. The film I believe presents nothing new that we haven't seen before, and so you'll have to make up your own mind if you can decipher the story presented here and make something of the assessments handed down.
DELIVER US FROM EVIL (Rated MA15+) - this supernatural horror chiller stars Eric Bana as New York City cop Ralph Sarchie investigating a number of inexplicable, disturbing and brutal crimes. When he keeps drawing up blanks he joins forces with Father Mendoza (Edgar Ramirez) who is well versed, somewhat unconventionally, in the occult, the supernatural and the art of exorcism to counteract the malevolent forces seemingly at work in their fair city. This is Directed by Scott Derrickson, and is based on the real life experiences of Sarchie as bone-chillingly and neck-tinglingly recounted in his book. There have been many films of this genre and this subject matter in more recent years, but Eric Bana is always solid, and the shorts I have seen make this worthy of your consideration if you like your supernatural horror chiller served with blood, gore and raw emotion.
HERCULES (Rated PG) - by my reckoning this is the 22nd Hercules movie to grace our screens since 1958 and that includes a number of animated features too. Arnold Schwarzenegger started his acting career credited as Arnold Strong in 1969's 'Hercules in New York' and now in 2014 we have Arnie wannabe Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson flexing his pecs and doing the Herc thing! This is the story of Hercules the man, the myth, the legend and son of Zeus who has been granted nothing by his father other than to walk the Earth and suffer because of his heritage. Gaining solace only in his thirst for battle, bloodshed and death he encounters other similar 'lost souls' with whom he unites to become a band of paid mercenaries never questioning their tasks, only how much is it worth to them. However, the time comes when they are recruited by the King of Thrace and his daughter to train their army to do battle with an evil warlord intent of overthrowing their Kingdom and claiming it for his own. Also starring the talent of John Hurt, Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, and Joseph Fiennes this is Directed by Brett Ratner who has a strong pedigree which might just lift this swords and sandals story to a new level.
SNOWPIERCER (Rated MA) - Directed by South Korea's Boog Joon-ho in his first English language feature this is an audacious deftly handled telling on the big screen of the French graphic novel 'Le Transperceneige'. Set in 2031after an earlier experiment to halt global warming has gone horribly wrong for our dearly beloved green Earth, and created a desolate windswept frozen white planet in which practically all life has been wiped out. Except of course for those riding 'The Snowpiercer' - a massive train powered by perpetual motion, which means that it will never stop! It travels the Earth on a single winding track across continents track taking a year to circumnavigate the planet. On the train are all that is left of civilisation - at the back end are the poor living in carriages of squalor while at the front end are the rich and powerful with all the trappings of the good life - restaurants, bars, clubs, schools and social riches. There is a class system that has evolved over the years but the downtrodden poorer classes at the back are repressed, and once again revolt in an attempt to free themselves ultimately, get off the hurtling train and explore Earth's frozen barren snow strewn landscape which just might, be warming up! There is much that has been lauded already about this film starring the august talent of Chris Evans, John Hurt, Ed Harris, Jamie Bell and Tilda Swinton in the main leads backed up by some of South Korea's finest acting talent which elevates this above your usual end of the world apocalyptic block buster disaster action offering.
MRS. BROWN'S BOYS D'MOVIE (Rated M) - I am not a fan of the TV series that has spawned this big screen spin-off, and I am guessing that everything is here on the big screen that you have already seen on the small screen. Irish widow Agnes Brown is a fecking opinionated, nosy, potty mouthed, cantankerous old woman who clearly feels that the world (or at least hers) could not function without her. Selling fruit and veggies at a local Dublin market her world is about to implode when heartless, greedy corporate property developers threaten the market and her stalls existence. Going on the defensive she enlists the support of her local community, friends, relatives, blind Ninja's and a Tourettes suffering lawyer to stop injustice being done. Starring Brandan O'Carroll in the lead role this is sure to please followers of the TV Series, but might just wallow where the 'Kath & Kim' movie did too!
ONCE MY MOTHER (Rated PG) - Australian filmmaker Sophia Turkiewicz was just seven years old when she was abandoned by her Polish mother, Helen, to an Adelaide orphanage for two years. Being old enough at seven to remember, she never forgot, nor forgave, this act of betrayal. Now in mid-life Sophia seeks to reconcile that act, understand her mothers motives and come to terms with the troubled relationship she has had with her mother and her new family ever since. In doing so, and in making this film, Sophia uncovers Helen's escape from a wartime Siberian Gulag, her survival against all the odds and the truth surrounding Stalin and the Allies. Along the way Helen ends up in a Polish refugee camp in Africa having travelled thousands of miles with other Poles where thousands perished en route. She remains there for six years and this is where Sophia is born. Eventually she secures passage with baby Sophia aboard a boat bound for Australia and arrives in Adelaide - she knows no body, has no money, cannot speak the language and has a baby in tow! With Helen now suffering dementia Sophia documents this amazing story while there is still time to recover those memories from her Mother, and reconcile their relationship before it's too late. A mesmerising real life telling of heartbreak, betrayal, abandonment, relocation, survival, desperation, loss and eventual awakening and reconciliation.
WORDS AND PICTURES (Rated M) - flamboyant English prep-school teacher Jack Marcus (Clive Owen) and a new straight laced art teacher Dina Delsanto (Juliette Binoche) cross swords at a private school and an unlikely courtship ensues. Enjoying the cut & thrust and the battle of the classroom they initiate a hearty debate amongst their students through a competition as to which is more powerful . . . words or pictures? In doing so though they must also fight their own internal battles as these two troubled souls needs to shake off their baggage if they are to truly connect. Also stars Bruce Davison and Navid Negahban and Directed by Fred Schepisi. If 'Dromcom's' are right up your street (Drama, Comedy, Romance) with a back drop of the education system, then this could be for you!Seven is your lucky number this week, and you could if you wish see one a day for the next seven days until my next Preview Post, and then tell us all about it in your 'Guest Reviewer' spot on Odeon Online! Enjoy the films, however many you take in.
Movies - see as many as you can!
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
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