300 RISE OF THE EMPIRE
The Greek General, Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) has to find a way to fight off the massive invading Persian forces, once again ruled by the mortal-turned –god Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), and Artemisia (Eva Green), the vengeful commander of the mighty Persian army. Themistokles, knowing his only hope of defeating the massive Persian forces is to unite all of Greece, Ultimately leads the charge that will change the course of war.
Coming 7 years after 300, we have a new director taking the helm in Noam Murro but thankfully Zack Synder, Director of 300 and Man of Steel, acts as writer/producer in this instalment. We have all the same visual feel of the 1st film with a lot of half naked fit men (for one which makes me happy), gratuitous violence. The only downfall is the deeply romanticised historical inaccuracies.
SEE IF YOU LIKED: 300, THE SCORPION KING.
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
The Grand Budapest Hotel centres around one man, the legendary concierge, M Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes) at one of the most famous European Hotels in between the two wars of the early 20th century. The story involves the buddy friendship of Gustave with his young protégé, the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting, the battle for an enormous family fortune and the slow and sudden upheavals that transformed all of Europe during the first half of the 20th century.
Directed and produced by Wes Anderson, this comedy-drama may seem a little on the strange side to some but I wouldn’t completely write it off. The film has a slight monthy-pythonesque feel about it and to be fair is a more intelligent comedy than most that have graced our screens over the last few months. If that still doesn’t float your boat, maybe the case of names will such as Fiennes, Adrien Brody, William Defoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jude law, Harvey Keitel and Ed Norton just to name but a few have all participated in what could be the best comedy of the year so far.
SEE IF YOU LIKED: The Royal Tenebaums
ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH
Scorch is a master of daring rescues, pulling off great unthinkable feats with the understated help of his nerdy, by the rules brother, Gary, head of mission control at BASA, and James Bing BASA’S computer. When No nonsense chief Lena informs the guys of an SOS from a well known dangerous planet, Scorch goes against all of Gary’s warnings and rushes off to the rescue. Unfortunately Scorch finds himself in the middle of a trap set by the evil Shanker leaving it down to the scrawny Gary to save not only his brother but his planet, his beloved wife Kia and there adventure hungry son Kip.
Well like we didn’t already need another animation film to grace an already over saturated genre. Does this bring anything new to the table? Pretty much no. Where it might just entertain with its extremely thin storyline to its target audience of well… five year olds, it brings only a smuttering of laughs for the adults. Not even the voices of Brendan Fraser, Sarah Jessica Parker and Ricky Gervais can save this pile of pony.
SEE IF YOU LIKED: Planet 51, Monsters Vs Aliens
MY PICK OF THE WEEK: THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL.
By Zehra Phelan