At The Flix with @Timmy666
Greetings one and all and welcome to this week’s #AtTheFlix.
The only thing you should need to vote for this week, is the power of voting with your two feet, to deciding what you’d like to see at the cinema this week.
There’s a highly eclectic selection of films out at cinemas in Birmingham, so without further or do, let’s take a sneak preview of what’s out!
A Walk Among the Tombstones (15)
I have acquired ‘a certain set of” acting skills and in this latest Liam Neeson headliner, he plays an ex-NYPD cop who works as an unlicensed private investigator operating just outside the law. He helps a heroin trafficker (Dan Stevens) hunt down the men who kidnapped and then brutally murdered his wife, but learns that this is not the first time these men have committed this sort of twisted crime before.
One critic describes the film as a cross between Taggart and Taken, another “weighty, solid and sharp”. As explained in a previous #AtThe Flix, Neeson’s unlikely rise to becoming an action hero par excellent has spurred film and film of highly credible and enjoyable B-movie popcorn fodder. This films has weightier thriller substance even with a poster campaign which still gives Neeson his badass persona!
Magic in the Moonlight (12A)
Woody Allen‘s latest comedy stars Colin Firth as an Englishman brought in to help unmask a possible swindle. He is a magician. It is his job to spot fraudulent activities when he sees them. He meets Sophie (played by Emma Stone and her mother who he believes are up to no good. Over time though, he starts to believe their activities, and further still, starts to fall in love with Sophie, all to to inevitable comedic effect!
This sounds like classic Allen! And he has been on a resurgence of sorts especially with the magnificent Blue Jasmine. I look forward to seeing this one and to be fair, even mediocre and middling to better Allen films are not without their genius moments.
The Giver (15)
Dependable Australian director Philip Noyce brings us an adaptation of Lois Lowry’s young adult novel of the same name. It centres on Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), a young man who lives a contented life. He begins to spend time with The Giver (Jeff Bridges), who is the sole keeper of all the community’s memories, and Jonas begins to discover the dark and deadly truths of his community’s secret past.
He realises the stakes are a matter of life and death for himself and those he loves most and plans to escape their world to protect them all. Adaptations of dystopian teen thrillers seem to be coming with fairly regular abandon at the moment. Clearly, Hollywood producers are quick to understanding there’s an audience to this stuff and the much-loved novel is crammed full of cinematic potential. Reviews suggest that the film’s interpretation of the book is somewhat mixed.
The Riot Club (15)
The Riot Club follows the story of two first-year students at Oxford University who join the infamous Riot Club, where reputations can be made or destroyed over the course of a single evening. It’s a quintessentially British film if only because of its portrayal of class warfare. Cinematically speaking, we often see the dark side of the underprivileged so it stands in contrast to see such a story of darkness amongst the privileged.
Clearly director Lone Scherfig pulls no punches in his portrayal and hopefully all the more fascinating it will be too.
Think Like a Man Too (15)
I never saw Think Like A Man and according to the film’s marketing ‘blurb’, it is a film which is “highly anticipated”. A bunch of couples who were in the original unite for a wedding in Las Vegas but things start to go awry when their misadventures threaten to derail the big event. Expect lots and lots of gags but I’ll leave the question of whether you found this funny, up to you.
Elsewhere at The Electric this week, you will find showings of 20,000 Days on Earth a fictitious 24 hours in the life of musician and international cultural icon, Nick Cave including frank insights and an intimate portrayal of his artistic process, and celebrating the transformative power of the creative spirit.
That’s it from me this week! As always, I warmly welcome your feedback on any of the comments above or indeed your thoughts on the films themselves. Until next week, enjoy your trips to the cinema!
