With Eid falling mid-week, it is no surprise that this weekend features multiple releases for the holidayers. Fancy any of these movies?
The Equalizer 2
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
With: Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders
What is it about: Robert McCall learns that one of his longtime friends, Susan, has been murdered. McCall decides to return to his old ways and seek out and find and punish the perpetrators.
Heads Up: It looks like a generic action sequel, but this actor/director combo have earned enough goodwill that fans of both (or either) will enjoy this movie. If you go in expecting a middling action movie, you won’t be disappointed.
BlacKkKlansman
Directed by: Spike Lee
With: Adam Driver, John David Washington, Topher Grace
What is it about: Ron Stallworth, an African American detective in Colorado Springs, Colorado, infiltrates the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan and eventually becomes the head of the chapter.
Heads Up: It is the junior Denzel Washington who should have your prime focus of this week’s releases. Spike Lee’s latest is, by all accounts, a home run and the trailer is a testimony to it. Adam Driver continues to pick solid films, and Denzel Washington’s son (John David Washington) establishes himself to the mainstream. Don’t miss this one!
Christopher Robin
Directed by: Marc Forster
With: Ewan McGregor, Hayley Atwell
What is it about: Christopher Robin, the little boy from the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, is now all grown up, and has lost all sense of imagination. Pooh and his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood re-enter Christopher’s life to help him find it again.
Heads Up: Winnie the Pooh gets a live action appearance, with his entire troop. The movie looks safe and wholesome with little to excite serious cinephiles, but all the safety a family audience looks for. Take your kids for this one.
Crazy Rich Asians
Directed by: Someone Somewhere
With: Constance Wu, Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding
What is it about: This contemporary romantic comedy, based on a global bestseller, follows native New Yorker Rachel Chu to Singapore to meet her boyfriend’s family.
Heads Up: What seemed to be a generic, minority-ethnic rom-com is really catching the fancy of critics and the general audience. The movie has a superlative review aggregate already, and looks to have a massive opening stateside. It looks hamrless enough as a rom-com, so make it your date-night movie for the week.
Down A Dark Hall
Directed by: Rodrigo Cortés
With: Uma Thurman, Anna Sophia Robb, Noah Silver
What is it about: Kit Gordy, a new student at the exclusive Blackwood Boarding School, confronts the institution’s supernatural occurrences and dark powers of its headmistress.
Heads Up: Another YA adaptation, another horror-thriller with a female lead… and it is getting a direct-to-video treatment at the US. Although screening at cinemas here this week onwards, you could save your popcorn money and just wait for the soon-available home release. Or you could skip it all together.
Gold
Directed by: Reema Kagti
With: Akshay Kumar, Kunal Kapoor, Mouni Roy
What is it about: Set in 1948, the historic story of India’s first Olympic medal post their independence.
Heads Up: The surge of sports-based movie continues with the latest from Reema Kagti, an accomplished writer and an above-average director. Her collaborations with Zoya Akhtar have been… <ahem>… gold. This time though, she wings it, with Akshay Kumar no less. Between the two Bollywood releases of the week, this is the one to pick.
Satyameva Jayate
Directed by: Milap Milan Zaveri
With: John Abraham, Aisha Sharma, Manoj Bajpayee
What is it about: A vigilante on a mission to take down corrupt and degenerate cops.
Heads Up: Just the fact that Milap Zaveri has directed this movie should disqualify it from any watch-list. But Manoj Bajpayee is picky, and John Abraham usually likes his movies to have a semblance of sanity. I wouldn’t pick this as worthy of a visit to the cinema immediately. Give it a few days until reviews and word-of-mouth is out, then decide if it is worth it.
