What's on at the movies Oct 27 2016?
My latest release The Troubles Keeper is still at at the bargain price of 99c until 31st October. So far it's made it into the Top 3 new releases in Horror on Amazon USA with a rating of 4.30 out of 5 stars.
You can grab your very own copy or read for free in Kindle Unlimited or Kindle Prime by clicking through here to check it out or click on the cover to the left to read a preview.
Here's a link to the book on Good Reads: Click here
Doctor Strange ✪✪✪✪✪ 1/2 Opened October 27
Who is Doctor Strange you ask?
He's a Marvel comic book hero who came to life in the early sixties. With so many spin offs of Marvel superheroes and now the DC comic crew, superhero films are becoming just a little "Okay, here's another one. What could they possibly do next?" So even though we don't doubt the quality of Disney's Marvel franchise world, having never heard of Doctor Strange I went along anticipating a just okay film.
What you can't factor is the magic this new character literally brings to the Marvel world. Not to mention a stellar cast who elevate this film into one of my favorites of the year. I could easily sit through it again. Benedict Cumberbatch, I love you. You can do absolutely anything and pull it off. From Sherlock Homes to Alan Turing in The Imitation Game to Doctor Strange, without skipping a beat. And that's the thing with this film, it hits all the beats and the multiverse world in which the characters live is mesmerizing. So too, Tilda Swinton's portrayal of The Ancient One (I love her as well). Throw in Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Mads Mikkelsen as the antagonist and you have it all. Go see this film on the big screen in 3D. You will enjoy movie magic. Some films are just not made for television and this one is worth the ticket entry.
Film Blurb
A disgraced former surgeon named Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) becomes a powerful sorcerer under the tutelage of a mystic known as the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton). Rachel McAdams, Mads Mikkelsen, and Chiwetel Ejiofor co-star in this entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Directed by Scott Derrickson (Sinister).
Hell or High Water ✪✪✪ Opened October 27
This film has received some fantastic reviews, ranking 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. So I expected a great heist drama. The acting by Chris Pine and Ben Foster is solid; Jeff Bridges mumbles all the way through so I can't comment on his acting. He seemed good but I just can't understand him. Maybe a voice couch is needed?
However, I found the story just went on and on and the writer and director didn't seem to have the confidence to take a step forward at each point and know the audience got 'it'. So instead we were treated to pretty dullish character driven scenes in between the action.
It's okay. Just don't go along expecting a tense drama like Sicario. I say this because the marketing team are promoting that the same writer Taylor Sheridan wrote both films and I think he missed by a little with this one. Twenty minutes shaved and it would have received another 1/2 star.
Film Blurb
Texas brothers--Toby (Chris Pine), and Tanner (Ben Foster), come together after years divided to rob branches of the bank threatening to foreclose on their family land. For them, the hold-ups are just part of a last-ditch scheme to take back a future that seemed to have been stolen from under them. Justice seems to be theirs, until they find themselves on the radar of Texas Ranger, Marcus (Jeff Bridges) looking for one last grand pursuit on the eve of his retirement, and his half-Comanche partner, Alberto (Gil Birmingham). As the brothers plot a final bank heist to complete their scheme, and with the Rangers on their heels, a showdown looms at the crossroads where the values of the Old and New West murderously collide.
Elle ✪✪✪ Opened October 27
Most of the reviewers who saw this with me thought it was amazing. This was mainly due to the layers and complexity of a story that is right out there on the edge. However, I felt the complexity of the lead character Elle was actually a detraction. I wasn't sure if I was meant to despise or pity her. I found, in the end, that the whole thing was highly implausible. Although I do find myself thinking back to the film occasionally and pondering the whole set up.
Warning: This is a highly provocative film involving rape, with nothing left to the imagination. The trailer makes the story out to be a stalker-revenge film, but that isn't quite on the mark. See this if you feel you would enjoy your head spun by characters with serious issues.
Film Blurb
Michèle seems indestructible. Head of a successful video game company, she brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to business. Being attacked in her home by an unknown assailant changes Michèle's life forever. When she resolutely tracks the man down, they are both drawn into a curious and thrilling game-a game that may, at any moment, spiral out of control.
I, Daniel Blake ✪✪✪✪ Opened October 27
A man who is on sick leave while he recovers from a heart attack, who learns the difficulty of navigating the English (and probably most first world countries') welfare system, with all its bureaucracy laid bare, does not sound like a riveting film.
Don't be fooled. This is like the 2014 Oscar winning film Whiplash; a simple human challenge studied in glorious and perceptive detail. You will love this film and cry hopelessly at the end.
Dave Johns', who plays Daniel Blake, only previous acting role has been as a comedian. That is surprising considering how well he portrays a man who sees clearly the absurdity in rules for rules sake. Not surprising then is the humor and poignancy he infuses into Daniel Blake. Hayley Squires, another newcomer, who plays the single mum also caught up in the system, and who Daniel befriends, is also quite incredible despite being a newcomer.
This is a quality independent film from Ken Loach who mostly chooses social commentary stories to tell and does a darn good job of it.
Film Blurb
Daniel Blake (59) has worked as a joiner most of his life in Newcastle. Now, for the first time ever, he needs help from the State. He crosses paths with a single mother Katie and her two young children, Daisy and Dylan. Katie's only chance to escape a one-roomed homeless hostel in London has been to accept a flat in a city she doesn't know, some 300 miles away. Daniel and Katie find themselves in no-man's land, caught on the barbed wire of welfare bureaucracy as played out against the rhetoric of 'striver and skiver' in modern day Britain.
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