Now that eid rush is over, it’s quieter in its aftermath. We have a biopic of a legend, yet another Detective Conan anime, and a few smaller films as well, so let’s check them out.
Rocketman
Directed by: Dexter Fletcher
With: Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, and Bryce Dallas Howard
What is it about: A musical fantasy about the fantastical human story of Elton John’s breakthrough years.
Heads Up: After the massive success of Bohemian Rhapsody, another musical biopic about a musical legend is coming out. This one has excellent reviews, but our in-house critics attended its UAE premiere earlier in the week and were not fans. Rocketman is more explicit about the sexuality of its subject, hence has scenes that will be subject to censorship. So as much as I wanna see this one, I will wait till it comes out for home viewing.
Detective Conan: Fist of Blue Sapphire
Directed by: Tomoka Nagaoka
With: Minami Takayama, Wakana Yamazaki, Rikiya Koyama, and Kappei Yamaguchi
What is it about: The world’s greatest blue sapphire, the “blue lapis fist”, said to have sunk in a pirate ship in the late 19th century, on the coasts of Singapore. A local millionaire plots to retrieve it, and when it’s exhibited in an exhibition at the Singaporean Marina Sands hotel, a murder takes place.
Heads Up: The 23rd film in the Detective Conan/Case Closed film series is also the second highest grossing films of the series and one of the highest grossing films in Japan. If you are a millennial or a Gen-Z, then chances are you grew up watching the cartoon, thus this film is for you. Even though I’m too old to be its target audience, it will be a perfect movie for me take my nephews and nieces to.
The Poison Rose
Directed by: Francesco Cinquemani, George Gallo
With: John Travolta, Famke Janssen, Brendan Fraser, and Morgan Freeman
What is it about: An ex-football star turned PI, who’s got a soft spot for a lady in distress, takes on a routine missing persons case which slowly reveals itself to be a complex interwoven web of crimes, suspects and dead bodies.
Heads Up: This wannabe neo-noir has been unanimously panned by critics. Avoid!
Polaroid
Directed by: Lars Klevberg
With: Kathryn Prescott, Tyler Young, and Samantha Logan
What is it about: High school loner Bird Fitcher has no idea what dark secrets are tied to the mysterious Polaroid vintage camera she stumbles upon, but it doesn’t take long to discover that those who have their picture taken meet a tragic end.
Heads Up: This teen supernatural horror film is trying to invoke films from the early 2000s such as The Ring, The Grudge, and Final Destination. I don’t see it coming close to any of these films, but if you are nostalgic for the genre, then maybe you will have some fun with it. A big “maybe”.
Game Over
Directed by: Ashwin Saravanan
With: Taapsee Pannu, Parvathi T., Vinodhini Vaidynathan
What is it about: A wheelchair bound woman has to defend her home from a mysterious entity.
Heads Up: This Tamil-Telugu thriller (which will be released dubbed in Hindi as well) stars Bollywood‘s Taapsee Pannu who has proven her acting prowess many times over. It is also getting great buzz prior to its release. This might be the film I am most curious about out of this weekend’s slate of releases.
