YOUR GUIDE TO THIS WEEK’S NEW CINEMA RELEASES
Only a couple of movies worth catching up with this week…
TOP PICK
The must see movie this week is GOLDSTONE. In this follow-on from the excellent Mystery Road, ‘Indigenous Detective Jay Swan arrives in the frontier town of Goldstone on a missing persons enquiry. What seems like a simple light duties investigation opens a web of crime and corruption. Jay must pull his life together and bury his differences with young local cop Josh, so together they can bring justice to Goldstone.’ (Written by David Jowsey) I saw GOLDSTONE last night and was very impressed. My review coming shortly. People **** ◉ Me ****1/2
OTHERS TO SEE
MAGGIE’S PLAN to have a baby on her own is derailed when she falls in love with John, a married man, destroying his volatile marriage to the brilliant Georgette. According to Screen International’s Tim Grierson, ‘All three leads [in this romantic comedy drama] get stronger as the movie goes along, in part because Miller’s full intention isn’t clear until about halfway through. These characters are foolish without being idiots, which produces a more sophisticated type of comedy.’ People ***1/2 ◉ Critics ****
MAYBE/MAYBE NOT
There seem to be lots of comedies on offer at the moment. In MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES two brothers place an online ad to find dates for a wedding and the ad goes viral. Can’t say the premise sounds very exciting. Don’t expect much from this one if you decide to see it. The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy says that ‘Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates rates medium on the grossness scale (an all-body, pre-marital naked-Indian-guru-administered massage for the bride with a happy ending, anyone?), and pretty high in crude talk. But it’s kind of a dud when it comes to endurance and imaginative moves.’ People ***1/2 ◉ Critics **1/2
THE LEGEND OF TARZAN is retold again on our screens this week. Tarzan, having acclimated to life in London, is called back to his former home in the jungle to investigate the activities at a mining encampment. This movie has received mixed reviews from critics. But, overall, they don’t rate it very highly. New York Daily News’s Stephen Whitty warns us that ‘Alexander Skarsgard is more abs than actor as the ape man, and Margot Robbie’s Jane looks about as 19th-Century as an Aussie surfer girl. Together, they produce all the real-life passion of an Abercrombie & Fitch ad.’ People ***1/2 ◉ Critics **
ONE TO AVOID
Prior to the Iranian revolution it was a place where people of all religions were allowed to flourish. SEPTEMBERS OF SHIRAZ is the story of a prosperous Jewish family who abandon everything before they are consumed by the passions of revolutionaries. Sounds like this could have been a good story. But, according to The Guardian’s Jordan Hoffman, ‘This lifeless, by-the-numbers production is an excruciating exercise in cliche and tedium. Its sole joy is in trying to figure out which of its leads is overacting most.’ Give it a miss. People **1/2 ◉ Critics *
That’s it for this week. See you at the movies!