Plex invites you to an evening at the flicks. Back row. Popcorn and ice cream. Pearl and Dean. If you want to know what we think about new releases, you’re in the right place. Read the review, watch the film and then rate it yourself – see what our cine-literate community has to say.
It’s been a decade since the Men In Black last saved the world from the scum of the universe and I did wonder whether time might have moved on and made the adventures of Agents K and J a little outmoded. Needn’t have worried. The crazy joie de vivre of the first two entries in the franchise is present and correct in the third, with Josh Brolin standing in very well for Tommy Lee Jones. Indeed, Jones is only in the film for ten minutes or so with the majority of the adventure set in 1969 as J finds himself cast back in time to thwart the plot of Boris, a diabolical alien who has picked up the sobriquet “Animal” thanks to his particular brand of evil.
If you like Mel Gibson, read on. If you just want to see a lot of cheap shots, divorced from the movie, then go somewhere else.
We first see Gibson, in a clown mask, speeding away from police and barking obscenities at another clown, who is bleeding profusely all over a bag of stolen money. It's a jolting way to start the movie and sets the tone for things to come.
Before we begin, I want to address the notion of Hype. It's a concept that I do not subscribe to as, by definition, it means an exaggeration of the truth. When people say a film is over-hyped what they usually mean is "I didn't have the same reaction as you." It implies the original praise is coming from an insincere place. I can confirm that the reaction surrounding Gareth Evans' Indonesian action movie, The Raid, is not hype. This movie kicks a very earnest amount of ass.
Directed by Scott Hicks with screenplay by Will Fetters, The Lucky One is an adaptation of the 2008 novel of the same name written by Nicholas Sparks, author of The Notebook. Producer Denise Di Novi has already brought three of Sparks’ novels to the cinema with Nights in Rodanthe, A Walk to Remember and Message in a Bottle, and this is the seventh of his novels to be adapted. At the very least we’ve all heard of – or avoided – The Notebook, so it’s easy to guess how the story will pan out.
Lawrence, the erstwhile singer songwriter of 80’s post-punk band Felt and latterly front man of the ludicrously monikered Go Kart Mozart is the eponymous subject of Paul Kelly’s Lawrence of Belgravia.
After a 14-year hiatus, Whit Stillman is back with a stylish and utterly eccentric college campus comedy that oozes with his trademark quaint sense of humour and quick-witted dialogue. Seemingly set in the present but with an obvious throwback to a time before the abundance of mobile phones, and where the only social networking site is the college campus itself, Damsels in Distress follows a group of girls as they face the trials and tribulations of contemporary social life.
