A look at what is out in NZ Cinemas fresh this week and what is still playing in theatres near you.
DISNEY’S A WRINKLE IN TIME
The Cosplay inspo! The hair and make-up work that is going to launch a thousand YouTube tutorials; I’m of course talking about Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time. Directed by refreshing visionary Ava DuVernay; and based on the book by Madeleine L’Engle and starring oooh OPRAH! Plus some new comer called Reese Witherspoon; as well as Chris Pine, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Peña, Zach Galifianakis and Mindy Kaling. I’ve been enthralled every time I’ve seen the trailer for A Wrinkle in Time and I can’t WAIT to see this sumptuous piece of scifi fantasy cinema for myself .
FACES PLACES
While watching the Oscars broadcast this year I spotted Faces Places in the nominees for Best Documentary and I made a note to check out this heart-warming, art focused film that shows the cuteness of an unlikely friendship pairing between two artists on the ultimate creation road trip. This French delight directed by and starring Agnès Varda and Jr; will be found in local boutique cinemas near you.
RAMPAGE
Geez Rampage is a lot of fun! Based on the vintage video game of the same name; Rampage stars everybody’s favourite success story and genuine rad dude Dwayne Johnson in an action monster movie with bite. Big explosions, car chases, death-defying plane stunts and ridiculously cool ginormous monsters causing destruction and chaos? Sign me up! If you enjoyed San Andreas (which I very much did thank you very much…) then you’ll dig Rampage I reckon as San Andreas director Brad Peyton collaborates with The Rock again to create this popping adventure blockbuster that replaces earthquakes with freakish genetic mutations and a truly villainous scientist gone rouge played excellently by Malin Åkerman. Starring of course, the MAN Dwayne Johnson and; Naomie Harris, Joe Manganiello, Marley Shelton, Jake Lacy, Breanne Hill and Negan, sorry The Comedian, sorry John Winchester, sorrry Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
SWEET COUNTRY
I absolutely adored Sweet Country. This exceptionally shot film is set in the 1920s of Australia’s Northern Territory outback and is brutal in it’s realism and unvarnished portrayal of the hard living land and characters that inhabit it. Starring Sam Neill, Thomas M. Wright, Matt Day, Bryan Brown and the phenomenal debut of Hamilton Morris as our tragic hero Sam; Sweet Country rules because it is independent Australian cinema telling a very unsavoury, true depiction of it’s past. Sweet Country also impresses me because it’s an indigenous story based on true events, told by an indigenous voice from director and cinematographer Warwick Thornton (Samson & Delilah and Green Bush); I think anyone who truly loves stories, culture and cinema, can celebrate that this is an excellent thing!
NEW FOR KIDS THIS WEEK
Sherlock Gnomes and The Little Vampire are new in NZ Cinemas for kids this week. Sherlock Gnomes is the follow up to Gnomeo and Juliet, with James McAvoy and Emily Blunt returning to lend their voice acting to these animated characters as they’re joined by: Johnny Depp, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mary J. Blige, Stephen Merchant, Michael Caine, Dexter Fletcher, James Hong, Ashley Jensen, Ozzy Osbourne, Maggie Smith and Julie Walters…it’s going to be a feel good romp safe in the hands of Kung Fu Panda director John Stevenson. The Little Vampire is a animated flick based on the characters from Angela Sommer-Bodenburg‘s best-selling novels and has great looking character designs and would be perfect for those kids you know who like a bit of the scary themed stuff (that was totally me growing up…); but it’s not too scary mind you, as the Vampire Hunters are the baddies of this piece, so I think you see what they’re going for.
WHAT ELSE IS ON THIS WEEK?
A QUIET PLACE
Ooh my gosh I’m so proud of A Quiet Place and how well it’s been received by everyone I’ve talked to about this special suspenseful, thrilling scifi meets lite Horror. I know that’s a bit of a weird descriptor; but I reaaally want people to see this gem of a story told by John Krasinski, so if I can encourage anyone who wouldn’t normally check out something scary to give A Quiet Place a go then I’m happy. For more on A Quiet Place visit All Horror’s entry here
READY PLAYER ONE
Now that I’ve had some time to sit with my viewing of Ready Player One I can very confidently say that my 10/10 is still standing and I’m pretty confident Spielberg’s pop culture love letter…to himself, will appear in my Top 18 of the year (cause 2018, you know what I do by now!). Ready Player One is absolute cinema perfection and I can’t wait to see it again in cinema soon; oh and did you know it’s the number one movie in New Zealand box offices right now? Of course Ready Player One is.
There’s also plenty of other cool movies to check out at your local cinema if you haven’t seen Love, Simon; Pacific Rim: Uprising; Blockers; Peter Rabbit; Black Panther and Tomb Raider…
Check out what’s on at your local: Event, Hoyts, Rialto or Reading Cinemas.
What movie did you see recently that you LOVED? Tell me in the comments…
