American Pie: Reunion
The entire gang from the first American Pie film are brought back together for their high school reunion. After two cinematic sequels and some straight to dvd follow up titles, the original cast return to reprise the roles that made some of them famous. The likelihood is that the cast have aged but the humour most definitely won’t have. An initially entertaining series of movies that lost its shine a while back could be re-invigorated or finally put to rest. American Pie: Funeral for the next outing perhaps.
Beauty & the Beast 3D
The current trend for retrofitting successful movies continues with, what was at the time, the transformative Disney movie of the 1990’s. Beauty and the Beast set the format that would give ‘The House of Mouse’ huge financial success and acclaim, after a long lull in form, with films such as Aladdin and the Lion King. A movie that rightly deserves the moniker of classic, Beauty and the Beast features pitch perfect musical numbers, exquisite animation and many memorable characters. Even if you’re not a fan of 3D, getting to see this on the big screen once again will be an undoubted treat.
The Dictator
Sacha Baron Cohen dons a disguise and heads to America to highlight cultural insensitivities and poke fun at unsuspecting US citizens. Sound familiar? The Dictator will follow in the well trodden footsteps of ‘Borat’ & ‘Bruno’ and focus on the adventures of an over the top Middle Eastern Dictator as he tries to find his way back home after being stripped of his beard. Expect cultural insensitivities galore and enough crass humour to fill a tyrant’s palace. This film seems to promise a greater narrative thread than SBC’s last two outings but whether that will be enough to hide the fact that this is basically the same routine that the British comedian honed during his time as Ali G, is yet to be seen.
The Raid
You may think that having not seen any Indonesian Cinema isn’t going to score up there with your life’s biggest regrets. The Raid looks set to change that opinion and is being heralded as one of the finest action movies in years. The film has the simple concept of a SWAT team carrying out an operation to clear a 30 storey tower block that is under the control of a drug dealer. The action takes place almost entirely in the high rise block and the team has to fight its way, floor by floor (typically the lift doesn’t work), through the building once they become trapped. This film could do, for Indonesian Martial Arts, what District 13 did for free running.
Men in Black 3 3D
Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones reunite as J & K in the third outing for this comic sci-fi series. The film deviates slightly from the previous two movies as it soon goes all ‘Mad Men’ and heads back to the 1960’s when Smith discovers that Jones’ character has been killed in that decade and that the timeline has changed. J meets a ‘young’ K in the form of Josh Brolin and the two have to solve the mystery and save the future. The move of time period could be a very shrewd move by the movie’s producers as it will add plenty of opportunity for historical gags and new alien characters. Hopefully more reminiscent of MIB I rather than MIB II this film will be a bankable success for Columbia and Sony Pictures.
All of the above films are being shown at cinemas in Bristol this month, including at Cinema de Lux in Cabot Circus, Showcase Avon Meads, Vue at Cribbs Causeway, Odeon in Broadmead, Cineworld at Hengrove.
