It took me, what, three weeks until I was late? But this time, it’s not my fault. I blame jet lag! I’ve just returned from the United Kingdom and spent the last two days sleeping. Now, I’m (kind of) refreshed and ready to go. Here are the movies coming out this week, the week of April 29th. We have some good ones folks. Stay tuned. Also, I’m going to start adding trailers to the end of my write ups so be sure to check those out.
Billiam’s Pick of the Week
Keanu: Key and Peele had one of the best sketch comedy shows I’ve ever seen. Even my parents saw a skit they thought was funny and that amazed me. Keanu is the first feature length film from Jordan Peele and Alex Rubens, the two main writers of Key and Peele, and of course they brought Keegan-Michael Key with them because he’s hilarious and one of the gang. Keanu is about a man played by Peele who finds a kitten after his girlfriend leaves him. His cat is eventually kidnapped by a gang and the two friends have to go get the cat back. Does this plot sound familiar? It should. It’s kind of a spoof of John Wick with, that’s right, Keanu Reeves. It’s not a straight spoof, however, as it looks like they took just a few elements from John Wick for the sake of comedy. I have a feeling that this movie is going to stand on its own, even if you haven’t seen John Wick. With other spoof movies like Wayans Scary Movie series, it’s mainly for those who get the references, so their potential audience is smaller. I’m not going to miss this one. Even if I come down with some weird illness, I’ll drag my sick butt to the theater. If you haven’t seen it already then do yourself a favor and watch the Key and Peele skits Substitute Teacher and Mexican Standoff. If you don’t like that kind of humor then skip this movie. For the rest of you, I have the feeling that this is going to be a funny movie. So at the very least, you’ll have fun. Please keep in mind that the trailer below is the red band trailer. Just FYI.
[youtube www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_zLEi_Sk3Y&w=560&h=315%5D
Ratchet and Clank: I love the Ratchet and Clank video game series. The Future series for the PS3 is the best “next gen” platformer I’ve ever played. From the looks of the trailers, the movie has captured everything that made the games great, except for the actual game play part. From what I gathered, the movie is a prequel, how Ratchet met Clank, if you will. I don’t know why they chose to suddenly do a movie… Okay, suddenly may not be the right word. Apparently Sony has been trying to make this movie for ten years. I’m surprised they didn’t give up since the last game came out. It’s been 3 years since Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus came out and I’m sorry to say that I missed that game entirely. The last one I played was Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time back in 2009. That was the time to release the movie, right when the last game of their most popular series came out. But Sony loves money so they made a new game which I now have to buy a PS4 to play… okay… not JUST that game, but it’s been added to the list. But lets get back to the movie. It looks hilarious with the same style of humor as the games. James Arnold Taylor, David Kaye, and Jim Ward return to lend their voices to Ratchet, Clank, and Captain Qwark (respectively) but now they’re joined by an all star cast including Sylvester Stallone and Paul Giamatti. It bothers me that Ratchet and Clank themselves get lower billing on the poster because of these stars, but I understand. Hollywood is just politics that result in a movie. Games and politics aside, this looks like it’ll be good and I’ll have to see it too. This will be a busy weekend for me.
[youtube www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvWRilQ9lnI&w=560&h=315%5D
The Man Who Knew Infinity: I wanted to be a fancy bastard and put this one as my featured movie of the week, but lets face it, Keanu looks hilarious. But if you’re not in the mood for comedy, you may want to consider this movie. Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) and Jeremy Irons (Die Hard With a Vengeance, The Borgias) star in this bio drama of Srinivasa Ramanujan, a Indian mathematician who was accepted into Cambridge in 1913. I tried to read up on him so I could sound smart in my blog, but I don’t know math. I’m a terrible Japanese. I don’t do math. But i digress. This movie tackles not only Ramanujan’s time at Cambridge, but his struggles with racism and his relationship back in India. From what I’ve read, the cast saves this movie. Early reviews say that the plot is lacking but the acting makes up for it. So we’ll see if they’re right. This looks like one of those movies that turn out to be a feel good drama and I fear that they show the ending in the trailer. I may be wrong, and I hope I am. There’s nothing worse than a trailer spoiling the ending. I’m not sure if I’ll catch this in theaters, but if I do, I’ll write a review.
[youtube www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP0lUqNAw3k&w=560&h=315%5D
Papa Hemingway In Cuba: I had no idea this movie was even coming out until I wrote this very blog. I must have missed this last week when I started prepping for this weeks blog. I just watched the trailer and it looks fantastic. I still want to see Keanu more, so this isn’t going to bump that out of the featured spot, but do yourself a favor and watch the trailer. Giovanni Ribisi (Avatar, Gone in 60 Seconds) is one of those actors who’s good enough to get an Oscar, but just needs the right movie. I don’t think that this is that movie, but it’s heading in the right direction. Papa Hemingway in Cuba is about a reporter who idolizes Ernest Hemingway and, thanks to the actions of one of his coworkers (girlfriend?), gets invited to Cuba to meet the famous author. Hemingway helps the young man’s writing grow all while Cuba is in turmoil and the FBI is trying to get the writer out of Cuba. This is based on a true story so it could be a great double feature with The Man Who Knew Infinity. Adrian Sparks plays Hemingway and I recognized him, so I looked him up. It seems like he’s one of those actors who is in one episode of everything. He does some feature films but mainly TV. Yari Film Group is the company behind the movie and it was for the best that they got it. If Universal or 20th Century Fox or any big company got it, then they’d get some big named actor for Hemingway and from the looks of the trailer, Sparks is the best man to play him. He even looks a lot like Hemingway did. Keep your eyes open for this movie. It may not be the kind you have to see in theaters, but I have a feeling it’ll be worth a watch, even at home.
[youtube www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC130UBgtfk&w=560&h=315%5D
A Beautiful Planet: Here’s a tidbit of information about me. I love nature and science documentaries. So when I was scrolling through IMDB and saw this movie, I was more than a little excited. A Beautiful Planet is a documentary about Earth as seen from the International Space Station. That’s it. I’m sold. I want to grab my friends, run to the nearest IMAX, and smile a big goofy grin as I watch it. My only problem is that this isn’t narrated by David Attenborough. Jennifer Lawrence is okay, I guess, but no one is better at narrating that Attenborough. Check out the trailer and if you have an IMAX around you that shows documentaries, then go see this. Support movies like this to show IMAX and the makers of these movies that yes, we do love science. Yes, we do love space. And yes, we do love to learn.
[youtube www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzbHi7Lbz00&w=560&h=315%5D
Also Coming Out the Week of April 29th
Mother’s Day: This one has an all star cast but I just couldn’t make myself do a full write up for it. It looks stupid. Not the kind of stupid like Goosebumps or early Adam Sandler movies where it could still be funny. This just looks like a tired and uninspired “holiday” movie. Check out the trailer if you want, but I wouldn’t waste my money on it. Here’s the premise taken straight from IMDB: Three Generations come together in the week leading up to Mother’s Day.
Viva: The first of two foreign films coming out this week. Viva is a movie that deals with the struggles of being different in a world that wants you to be normal. I say “being different” because I don’t know if Jesus (or Viva) is gay, straight, transgender, or just likes dressing up as a lady, but either way he’s different and that’s not cool according to his estranged father. Viva feels like one of those movies you have to be in the right mindset for. Not only is it in a different language, but it deals with heavy topics that are just as applicable in Cuba as they are the United States. I don’t want to push politics or certain ways of thinking on anyone so I’ll just say this. No matter what your beliefs are, Viva looks like a brilliantly made movie no matter what side you take on the issues the movie tackles. Check out the trailer.
The Wait “L’Attesa”: I enjoy foreign language films. Amelie, Waltz with Bashir, Y Tu Mama Tambien. All great movies. The thing about foreign language films is that they normally only make it to America if they’re worth seeing. I feel like I should want to see The Wait but the trailer was so artsy indie that I couldn’t get a good feeling for it. The premise revolves around a young woman spending time with her fiance’s mother in a villa in Sicily.