The Friday Feeling - Movies out this Week
Oh I do so very much love Friday. The weekend is almost upon us and there are a whole batch of new releases in cinemas nationwide. So how is this weeks slate looking?
The first big release of the week is the latest Disney/Pixar release Up. The story of an elderly man who seeks to escape it all and journey on a long awaited adventure into the unknown. First shown at the Cannes Film Festival (where it was the first animated movie to open the festival) the movie has been out in the US since May and has earned just over $290 million there alone. Director Pete Docter showed great style and vision with his first movie Monsters Inc and the cast which includes Ed Asner and Christopher Plummer is perfectly suited to their roles. Disney/Pixar movies have a strong heritage of truly mesmerising storytelling and incredible visual effects and Up is no different. A simply stunning movie which everyone should see. You can check out my full review here.
The second big release of the week is Zombieland, an American zombie comedy horror film directed by Ruben Fleischer. The film boasts a strong cast of Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin who are all survivors of a zombie apocalypse seeking refuge in the only place known to be unaffected by the plight, a theme park. The writers and director are relative unknowns but that’s not necessarily a bad thing as Sam Raimi was unknown before the Evil Dead. The movie opened huge in the US and has generated positive word-of-mouth since for it’s laugh-out-loud humour and “mystery” cameo. I will be checking this out as soon as I can but in the meantime Sharon has been to see it and loved it.
It wouldn’t be October without a raft of horror movies in the run up to Halloween and our third big release is just one of those. Halloween II is a sequel to Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake of Halloween, the 1978 John Carpenter seasonal classic. Zombie is back in the writer, director and producers chair keen to improve on the last outing, which despite many negative reviews garnered $80 million worldwide. Set one year after the events of Halloween, Halloween II follows Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) as she cope with last year’s events, Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) who is desperate to cash in with a new book that chronicles everything that happened, and Michael Myers (Tyler Mane) as he continues his search for Laurie so that he can reunite with his sister. Critics have savaged the film but horror fans, and anyone who likes Zombie’s previous efforts should probably check it out. I’ll be waiting for the DVD.
The fourth release of the week is Love Happens, a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart. The movie centres around a recent widower (Eckhart) who writes a best-selling novel about coping with loss and falls for a florist (Aniston) who is providing flowers for the hotel where he holds his seminar. Jennifer Aniston is usually solid in romantic comedies and Aaron Eckhart has been brilliant in both Thank You for Smoking and The Dark Knight. This is writer/director Brandon Camps first feature and it has already been the issue of a $10 million lawsuit over ownership of the story. The movie opened last month to very negative reviews and a poor box-office. Critic’s usually don’t like rom-coms so if they are your thing this could be worth seeing.
Also out this week is Katalin Varga, a feminist revenge movie, set in rural Hungarian-Romanian Transylvania; Goodbye Solo, the story of a Senegalese cab driver in North Carolina, who is working to provide a better life for his young family; and Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee, a low-budget mockrockumentary featuring the Arctic Monkeys and UK rapper Scorzayzee.
About the Author
Niall The proverbial man lost in La Mancha. Sports aficionado and all-round scoundrel. Über-geek to boot. I run the movie website Scannain.com and can usually be found twittering away as @niallxmurphy.
Related Posts
Movie News: Och, it’s a clip from Brave! →
Superb Superbowl Movie Spots →
Okay, this looks like fun… →
