Want to cosy up with a film this weekend? Here's what's showing around town.
Patriot's Day
Take an extremely somber and serious subject like the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013, make a dramatic feature out of it and Mark Wahlberg may not be the first name at the top of your list to lay the lead. However, the native Bostonian may have pulled it off as this picture is definitely our pick of the week. Drawing on his 'everyman' dramatic appeal as witnessed in movies including The Perfect Storm and The Departed, Wahlberg plays Boston PD police officer Tommy Saunders who, after working crowd control on 2013's city marathon day and witnessing the terrorist explosion, joins the hunt for the suspects. The frantic search takes him, as we all remember, to the Boston suburbs where the perpetrators use lethal force to avoid capture. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 79% Trivia: The University of Massachusetts did not allow filming on its campus.
Surf's Up 2: WaveMania
In the US this movie went straight to video and that just about tells you all you need to know. 2007's original animated mockumentary, Surf's Up, wasn't badly received and turned a little profit despite not carrying the cache of Pixar or Dreamworks. It was the second picture from Sony Animations Studios and managed to attract the vocal talents of Zooey Deschanel, Jeff Bridges and lead Shia LaBeouf. The sequel, however, is co-produced by WWE Studios, yep the wrestling people, and features four top wrestlers and the "sport's" CEO in the main roles. The plot is paper thin. The cast of the original have to meet up with this team of five, The Hang 5, and make their way to a mystery surf spot. The five penguins voiced by the wrestling group are generated to resemble the real life crew consisting of John Cena, The Undertaker, Triple H, Paige and Vince McMahon. There are currently no ratings for this film. Trivia: The film was referenced in The Simpsons/ Family Guy crossover episode in 2014.
A Monster Calls
Touching fantasy story A Monster Calls sees newcomer Lewis MacDougal as Conor, a young boy who has to deal with his mum's terminal illness, bullies at school, a strict grandma and the fact his father is not around. It all seems too much until he crosses paths with a tree-like monster voiced by Liam Neeson. Together they confront Conor's problems - the Monster teaching Conor how to deal with everything through lessons learnt from fantastical tales - until he has to face his ultimate fear, the loss of his mother played by Felicity Jones. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 87% Trivia: Sigourney Weaver's flawless British accent used to play the Grandma is a result of the actress having an English mother.
The Windmill Massacre
Do you realise how much money it takes to make a movie? Millions of dollars. Not nearly enough of that goes to the writers, but it is still a decent amount given you're ostensibly doing something you love. So what did the writer of this picture call his horror movie set in Holland? The Windmill Massacre. Why not have the tagline be 'Which one of them will pop their clogs?' and be done with it? It's horror, so the plot isn't exactly taxing. A tourist bus breaks down in the Dutch countryside awakening the spirit of an evil miller. This miller used to grind the bones of his victims in his windmill and now he's back for some holidaymakers to make into flour. Let's hope the breeze stays calm, shall we? Rotten Tomatoes gives it 44% Trivia: Do visit The Netherlands. Homicidal millers aside, it's lovely.
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