August 2016 - Kids in Love, Bad Moms and more...

Hi guys! Unfortunately we're nearly at the end of summer now, but don't worry, we still have plenty of brilliant movies still to see in the cinema.

My Movie of the Fortnight this time is a lesser known film, Kids in Love. Originally premièring at the Edinburgh Film Festival last month, the film gets its wider release this week. The film follows Jack (Will Poulter), a gap year student who isn't really sure what he wants from life, but he does know that he wants more than he has a the moment. When he meets the beautiful Evelyn (Alma Jodorowsky), he is introduced to the bohemian side of London and his life veers off in a completely new direction, full of all-day parties and wild nights out with Evelyn and her charismatic friends. After following Evelyn and her hedonistic lifestyle, Jack begins to remember what he is leaving behind and eventually comes to realise that his new "friends" may not be the kindred spirits he first thought they were.

There are a few other less recognisable movie titles in this post, with the first being Julieta, a Spanish language film in which the titular character (Emma Suarez) has a chance encounter with Bea (Michelle Jenner), her daughters' best friend whilst planning to leave Madrid. The unexpected encounter is a shock to Julieta, who hasn't seen her daughter Antia for eighteen years, but when Bea tells Julieta that she recently saw Antia holidaying with her children at Lake Cuomo, and then reveals that Antia knows her mother is in Madrid, Julieta decides to stay still in case her daughters tries to contact her.

Swallows and Amazons is another of the lesser known films out, although the title may be recognisable to some. This film is the second remake of the novel with the same name that sees four children, on holiday with their mother (Kelly McDonald) in the Lake District, allowed to camp on their own on a small island within one of the lakes and they find themselves at the centre of a fantastic summer adventure. When another family of children, the Blacketts, also lay claim to the island, it leads to a play battle between the rival Swallows and Amazons but things turn serious when the Blacketts' Uncle, Jim Turner (Rafe Spall), is revealed to be a spy, hotly pursued by a secret agent (Andrew Scott)!  

The next film is not due for release in the UK but I thought that it was worth a mention. Collide shows Casey (Nicholas Hoult) who feels he has to go back to working for drug smuggler Geran (Ben Kingsley) in order to get the $20,000 he needs to save his girlfriend Juliette (Felicity Jones), who desperately requires a kidney transplant. In a dangerous mission, Casey has to overtake a drug-filled truck but when it fails, he is beaten up by the enforcers' of the powerful crime boss, Hagen Kahl (Anthony Hopkins), whose drugs he tried to steal. After escaping Kahl, he has Juliette kidnapped and threatens her life, forcing Casey to go as far as he can to save her.

The third film in Noel Clark's Kidulthood trilogy, and sequel to Adulthood, is Brotherhood. The film focuses on Sam Peel (Noel Clark) who is trying to leave his violent past of living in the gritty side of London behind him, and after a long road of murder, prison and retribution, he is now a family man. He now faces a new set of challenges and risks losing everything he has fought so hard for. To confront these fresh dangers, he will need to call upon the assistance of some old friends.  

There are some movie titles coming out before the end of the month that you may be more likely to recognise. The first of these is Mechanic: Resurrection, the sequel to Jason Statham's 2011 crime thriller The Mechanic, a retired assassin (Jason Statham) who had a preference for quick, clean kills but has now left that life to pursue one of normality. When a formidable foe reappears though, he is forced to return to the life he wanted to leave and execute three murders over four continents, whilst still making them look like accidents, in order to save his girlfriend (Jessica Alba).

Kevin Spacey plays the lead character, Tom Brand, in Nine Lives. He is a billionaire businessman whose workaholic lifestyle has taken its toll on his family life. Every year, his daughter Rebecca (Malina Weissman) wants a cat for her birthday so in an attempt to reconcile with his family and reconnect with his daughter, he buys her the feline friend she has always wanted from a mystical pet shop, belonging to an eccentric owner (Christopher Walken). Whilst on the way to his daughter a strange turn of events occurs where, after a bizarre accident, Tom finds himself trapped inside the body of the cat, named Mr. Fuzzypants. He is adopted by his own family and has to experience what life is like as a family pet.

Probably Ricky Gervais' most famous character, David Brent, is back after being sacked from Slough's most famous paper merchants and becoming a sales rep selling cleaning products, he has now returned to fulfil his dream of being a successful musician in . Filmed as a "Where Are They Now?" style documentary, Life on the Road follows him and his band, Forgone Conclusion, as they go on tour around the UK, but the truth is that the aspiring musician is somewhat broke and has to use some of his pension to pay his bandmate, Dom Johnson (Doc Brown) and the rest of his entourage. Brent is determined to keep his dreams alive but will he ever finally reach them, or will he forever more be destined to feature in small-time documentaries.

During the first Iraq War, David Packouz (Miles Teller) and Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) discovered a great way of making money through a little known government initiative that gives small businesses the opportunity to bid for US military contracts. War Dogs tells the true story of how the pair profess to be businessmen, rather than the beach-bums that they actually are, which lands them $300 million from the Pentagon, meant to help arm the Afghan military, but they just wanted to live the good life. This life can't last forever though and they find themselves in trouble with the government and now this gun-running duo find themselves rubbing shoulders with some very shady characters indeed. 

Amy Mitchell (Mila Kunis) is the perfect mum, with a great marriage, two bright children, a lovely home and a career. Underneath the capable facade however, she's close to breaking point through exhaustion and too much work. To save herself, she teams up with two other stressed-out mums, Kiki (Kristen Bell) and Carla (Kathryn Hann), to let off some steam and free themselves from the conventional responsibilities of a mother. Together, the Bad Moms go on a wild frenzy of partying for a long-overdue binge of freedom, but this does not sit well with perfectionist Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate) and this put them on a collision course wth her and the rest of the PTA.

 
UK Release Dates

Nine Lives                                    17 August 2016 TRAILER
David Brent: Life on the Road          19 August 2016 TRAILER
Swallows and Amazons                   19 August 2016 TRAILER
Bad Moms                                    26 August 2016 TRAILER
Julieta                                         26 August 2016 TRAILER
Kids in Love                                 26 August 2016 TRAILER
Mechanic: Resurrection                  26 August 2016 TRAILER
War Dogs                                    26 August 2016 TRAILER
Brotherhood                                29 August 2016 TRAILER

USA Release Dates
Collide                                       19 August 2016 TRAILER