• Home
• /
• Movie Reviews

Reel magic: Latest cinema releases in UAE

Ironically, if the makers of Project Almanac could indeed time travel, the only change they would make would be releasing this film any time but now.

Project Almanac

We love time travel movies. We mean loved them. Or, we will love them. Whatever, we think they’re generally brilliant despite what everyone else says. Whether it’s the pinnacle of filmic achievement with Marty McFly speeding back to 1955 to invent Johnny B. Goode, or the shoddy depths of Jean-Claude Van Damme taking a short hop from 2004 to 1994 to kick some people in Timecop, the mere fact the plot contains leaping into the past or future means we’re in.

Ironically, if the makers of Project Almanac could indeed time travel, the only change they would make would be releasing this film any time but now. As it hits screens, the far superior, nay excellent Predestination with Ethan Hawke is currently doing the rounds and you really should go see that, not only to assuage your quantum physics cravings, but also for a cracking plot.

However, if you’re stuck with Project Almanac you could do a lot worse. We are in the vast minority here as a result of our bias. Many people say it’s dreadful. However, there is something quite amusing about a teenager stumbling across his late father’s unfinished time machine, inexplicably being able to put it together with a few Xbox parts and using it for personal gain with his friends. Yep, it’s as predictable as it sounds - akin to The Butterfly Effect without the twists. Suffice to say things work out well to begin with, get a little shaky with that pesky space-time continuum, and then catastrophe ensues. Like Channing Tatum comes across in interviews…simple but fun.

Rottentomatoes.com has this at 35% and imdb.com gives it 6.4

Chappie

Another science fiction tale this time from the co-writer of the bizarrely brilliant South African movie District 9. Neill Blomkamp has a unique way of seeing the world and putting it on a page. A mixture of futuristic plot devices and good old fashioned sarcasm make his work compelling. While Chappie doesn’t look like a lot of peoples’ cup of tea, it has enough to pique interest. Hugh Jackman stars as a big Aussie mulleted bloke in requisite tan shirt and shorts tasked with tracking down a sentient robot policeman, the superb Sigourney Weaver is in it and even Dev Patel may play someone other than the dopey sidekick (probably not).

If we were going for anything this week, it would be this film.

Imdb and rottentomatoes is yet to score it.

Outcast

Oh dear. Here it is. The flop has come to the fore, regular as clockwork. Outcast has a name attached to it that would have signalled a blockbuster 15 years ago, but is now more associated with ‘straight to DVD’: Nicolas Cage. Poor old Nic. He’s had a rough run of late with his attempt to be in over 100 movies a year…all of them bad. It’s not that he’s a terrible actor. He’s uniquely gifted. It’s just, and this is well documented, he really needs the money and doesn’t care what the story entails as long as there’s a steady paycheque at the end of it. Not only does Outcast contain Nic Cage it also has another unwelcome blast from the past in the form of Hayden Christensen. How this plank of wood (an insult to all those fine planks of wood out there) ever became an actor is beyond belief, but at least this picture doesn’t look set to catapult him back to the big-time.

The plot revolves around an ancient prince in danger of being usurped by his elder brother. He enlists the help of crusader Christensen, who brings fellow crusader Cage onboard.

Imdb gives this 4.5 and, rottentomatoes ...7%!