June 2016 - Miracles From Heaven, Warcraft and more....

Hey guys! Here we go with the start of my fortnightly movie release updates. Like I said, the number of movies that I think are worth a watch is constantly growing and whilst most of these are available internationally, some are only available in certain locations, so there may be a film or two from now on  available to some people reading this and not to others, but I will let you know.

So, my Movie of the Fortnight for this half of June is Me Before You. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, this film sees the recently unemployed Louisa (Emilia Clarke) take a job at the local "castle" as a caregiver for William (Sam Claflin), a paralysed young man who now has a world view due to his disability. Wanting to reverse his cynicism and restore him to his outgoing former self, Lou is determined to show Will that life is still worth living by taking him on a series of adventures. 

Also out in the first weekend of June is The Nice Guys. In this 1970s crime-action comedy, down-on-his-luck private eye, Holland March (Ryan Gosling), and hired enforcer, Jackson Healey (Russell Crowe), have to work together to find a missing girl and solve the seemingly unrelated death of a porn star. The two plunge further into the dark and seedy underbelly of Los Angeles and uncover a shocking conspiracy that reaches up to the highest circles of powers.

Next is Race, the incredible true story of courage and determination in which Jesse Owens (Stephan James) became a legendary athletics superstar during the 1936 Olympic Games, on his quest to become the greatest track and field athlete of all time, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler and his vision the superior Aryan race.

Like last month's Angry Birds Movie, Warcraft: The Beginning is another movie based on a very popular game. This time, when a portal opens, connecting the human world of Azeroth with Draenor, home to the orcs, the once peaceful Azeroth stands on the brink of war as the orcs flee their dying home world to colonise another.

Released the following week is firstly, Miracles from Heaven. This is a christian, faith-based film that follows the true story of Anna (Kylie Rogers), a young girl who is diagnosed with an incurable eating disorder that forces her to feed through a tube. Her mother, Christy (Jennifer Garner) is determined to find a cure for her daughter until a freak accident causes Anna to go to hospital. There doctors find that she not only escaped with a few cuts and bruises but she is also now cured of her illness, leaving medical experts bewildered. 

Next is Mother's Day. The film tells the story of three mums. Sandy (Jennifer Aniston) is a stressed-out, single mum,  Jesse (Kate Hudson) is a fitness freak who doesn't tell her parents that she has a family and Miranda (Julia Roberts) who is too busy with her career to worry about having children. When their respective problems start coming to a head, the Mother's Day holiday takes on a special meaning.

Learning to Drive is a drama with a comedic twist. When Wendy (Patricia Clarkson) sets out to claim her independence after her husband leaves her, she hires Darwan (Ben Kingsley) to teach her to drive, something many New Yorkers never do. An unlikely friendship is formed between the two of them and he shows her how to take control of the wheel in the car and in life, she coaches him on how to impress women.

In The Boss, Michelle Darnell (Melissa McCarthy) is a wealthy, giant in her industry. Having just been released from prison after a being caught out during insider trading, she is ready to rebrand herself but not everybody is willing to forgive her actions so she has to move in with Claire, (Kristen Bell) her hapless former PA. Now, this cunning entrepeneur has a new plan to get back to the top.

UK Release Dates
Me Before You                                 03 June 2016 TRAILER

Race                                              03 June 2016 TRAILER
The Nice Guys                                 03 June 2016 TRAILER 
Warcraft: The Beginning                    03 June 2016 TRAILER
Learning to Drive                             10 June 2016 TRAILER 
Miracles from Heaven                       10 June 2016 TRAILER 
Mother’s Day                                  10 June 2016 TRAILER 
The Boss                                       10 June 2016 TRAILER

Disney have some big plans for the next few years

After the success of The Jungle Book, Disney are sticking with their live action movies, at least for the foreseeable future. Not only are they releasing a number of movies from their other recently acquired franchises like Marvel's Doctor Strange and the Star Wars spin-off, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story from Lucasfilm, but they have also scheduled many more live action remakes, retellings, sequels and original stories for the next several years, up until December 2019. 

We have already seen films like Maleficent (2014), Into the Woods (2015) and Cinderella (2015) become big hits, which seems to have sparked the studio's latest interest in turning fairy tale stories into live action movies and now it looks as if they have stepped up a gear with Disney's recent announcement of nine more films to come over the next few years. Here's a list of the release dates we know of now:

• 28th July 2017 - Untitled Disney Live Action Fairy Tale
• 14th April 2017 - Untitled Disney Live Action Fairy Tale
• 3rd August 2018  - Untitled Disney Live Action Story
• 2nd November 2018 - Untitled Disney Live Action Fairy Tale
• 25th December 2018 - Untitled Disney Live Action Story
• 19th March 2019 - Untitled Disney Live Action Fairy Tale
• 8th November 2019 - Untitled Disney Live Action Fairy Tale 
• 20th December 2019 - Untitled Disney Live Action Fairy Tale   

But remember, although none of these dates have films attached to them yet, we know that they won't be filled by other Disney franchises such as Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar or Disney Animation. A list of films in the early stages of production has also been released though and although we are unlikely to know which films will take which spaces for a while, here they are:

• Cruella, with Emma Stone set as the title character and Kelly Marcel as the writer.

• A Wrinkle in Time, with Ava DuVernay attached to direct and Frozen's Jennifer Lee to write.

• Jungle Cruise, with Dwayne Johnson set to take the lead and John Requa and Glenn Ficarra to write.

• Dumbo, with Tim Burton as director and Ehren Kruger to write.

• Untitled Mary Poppins Sequel, starring Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, with Rob Marshall as director.

• Maleficent 2, with Angelina Jolie set to take the lead again, with Linda Woolverton as writer.

• The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, with Lasse Hallstrom directing and Ashleigh Powell penning this tale from 1816.

• The Jungle Book 2, with the return of Jon Favreau as director and writer, Justin Marks.

• Tink, a project in early development, starring Reese Witherspoon as Tinkerbell and written by Victoria Strouse.

The films mentioned above are the most likely candidates to fill the release dates between 2017 and 2019 as they are at least some way into production, even if it is just attaching an actor or director to a film, but characters such as Mulan, Peter Pan, Pinocchio and Rose Red, the sister of Snow White, may all be getting their stories retold in live action quite soon and so could just as easily fill those spots. 

Don't forget though, Disney already has the next twelve months planned out, with tomorrow's release of Alice Through the Looking Glass and the upcoming Pete's Dragon, out on 12th August. Next year we also have the retelling of Beauty and the Beast to look forward to, due on the 17th March, starring Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as the Beast, and also the next instalment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Dead Men Tell No Tales, in cinemas on the 26th May.

May 2016

THIS MONTH AT THE UK CINEMA

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Hey guys, please don't see these few latest posts and think it's going to become a trend, hopefully from next month onwards I'll be able to commit more time to what I enjoy. These monthly things seem to be getting longer and longer but that's only because I keep finding more movies that I think are worth a watch so I may have change to fortnightly film releases. Anyway, that's for future me to worry about, it's now time to see what is at the cinema over the next during this month, so lets get started...

This month's Movie of the Month is Alice through the Looking Glass. It been over five years since we last saw Alice (Mia Wasikowska) in Disney's Alice in Wonderland and this time she must gather a group of friends to save to save the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), and Underland itself, from the clutches of the evil Time (Sacha Baron Cohen). To do this, she must retrieve a magical sceptre and get the Queen of Hearts (Helena Bonham Carter) back her to rightful throne.

Now we're nearing the summer, the big blockbuster movies are starting to be released. We've already seen Captain America: Civil War and now we know that Alice Through the Looking Glass is coming soon, but those aren't the only big cinema draws this month. 

Also coming out at the end of this month is the ninth film from the X-Men franchise and the third and final film from the current trilogy, X-Men: Apocalypse. Seen as a god by many mutants, Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) is an immortal and invincible mutant who wakes to a world that he finds abhorent and so plans to cleanse the world with a team of mutants, headed by Magneto (Michael Fassbender) who see the world in the same way.

Another relatively big film released on friday is Bad Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising. Having survived living next door to a fraternity, Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly Radner (Rose Byrne) plan to sell their house but with a new sorority, louder and more rebellious than before, moving in next door their plans may have to be stopped so they have only one option, to call upon their previous nemesis, Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron) to help defeat this new enemy.
 

Last weekend saw the release of a string of films as well as Bad Neighbours 2. The first is Florence Foster Jenkins, which tells the life of Florence (Meryl Streep), a New York socialite and famously tone-deaf soprano who attracted much attention throughout her career, but for the wrong reasons. Until now, her husband and manager (Hugh Grant) has protected her from ridicule but when she agrees to sing at Carnegie Hall, there is nothing he can do to protect her this time. 
 

I Saw the Light is another true life tale of another musician. This time, the film recounts the story of legendary country music singer-songwriter, Hank Williams (Tom Hiddleston). The story begins at the start of his musical career, but the constant threat of military conscription during World War II made things difficult for his work-life and his marriage to Audrey Sheppard (Elizabeth Olsen) and this eventually started him on a downward spiral until his death in 1953.

 
These Final Hours is an Australian film set in a pre-apocalyptic world. With the world near to total destruction, James (Nathan Phillips) is set to spend his last few hours partying but on his way there he meets Rose (Angourie Rice), a girl who has lost her parents, who forces him to re-think his life and he begins wonders if there is time to right his wrongs and make peace with himself

Today saw the release of The Angry Birds Movie. Based on the ever-popular Angry Birds game. When a group of green pigs arrive on an island of only tropical, flightless birds, Red (Jason Sudeikis) and his friends Chuck (Josh Gad) and Bomb (Danny McBride) begin to suspect something is not right and they set out to investigate.

Our Kind of Traitor is based on the John le Carré novel of the same name in which Bristish couple Perry (Ewan McGregor) and his girlfriend Gail (Naomi Harris) just wanted a holiday in Marrakech but they become caught up in some serious international espionage after they are asked by Dima, a member of the Russian mafia, to pass on his criminal trade secrets to the MI6 in exchange for protection.

Also, WTF is Whiskey Tango Foxtrot all about? Based on the real life story of Kim Baker (Tina Fey), a journalist who signs up to be a war correspondent in Afghanistan. Working with fellow journalist Tanya (Margot Robbie) and freelance photographer Iain (Martin Freeman), she is determined to make a name for herself but along the way she finds the human side to conflict, discovering the similarities and differences of people around the world.

 
Set in 1985, Sing Street sees Dublin teenager Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) joining a new school where he meets Raphina (Lucy Boynton). To try and impress her he offers her to chance to star in his band's new music video, except the only problem is that he doesn't have a band, so he must form one to be known as Sing Street.

Washed-up, divorced businessman Alan Clay (Tom Hanks) heads to Saudi Arabia, in A Hologram for the King, to start a new job and a new life but what he finds is not what he was expecting. Now he must learn to adapt to this new culture and embrace new experiences and in doing so he sees not an empty desert but the chance to do something great.

The beautiful, newly-widowed Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale) does not abide by 18th century social etiquette and in Love and Friendship she takes her daughter Frederica (Morffyd Clark) to her in-laws estate in order to play matchmaker for her daughter, as well as for herself. Whilst doing so, she disrupts the peace of the upper-class locals and shows everyone what life can be like when you let go and enjoy yourself.


UK Release Dates

A Hologram for the King                               20 May 2016   TRAILER
Alice Through the Looking Glass                    27 May 2016   TRAILER          
Bad Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising                  06 May 2016   TRAILER     
Florence Foster Jenkins                              06 May 2016   TRAILER
I Saw the Light                                         06 May 2016   TRAILER
Love and Friendship                                    27 May 2016   TRAILER
Our Kind of Traitor                                      13 May 2016   TRAILER
Sing Street                                               20 May 2016   TRAILER
The Angry Birds Movie                                 13 May 2016   TRAILER
These Final Hours                                       06 May 2016   TRAILER
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot                                13 May 2016   TRAILER
X-Men: Apocalypse                                     18 May 2016   TRAILER