In an average month I watch around ten movies at the cinema, during the summer months that number drops off dramatically as the big budget blockbusters take over. Big budget films need to make their money back, one way of achieving this is for larger multiplex’s to show them in multiple screens when they are newly released and at their most popular. This has become more noticeable this summer as so many movies are shown in both 2D and 3D. There have been times recently when four, five or even six screens are taken up by one film (my local cinema has 12 screens). So over the last few weeks what movies have bypassed my local cinema in favour of the bigger movies like: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2; Green Lantern; Transformers: Dark of the Moon? Here are a few movies that look interesting that I would probably have watched given the opportunity:
22nd July
The Big Picture (L’homme qui voulait vivre sa vie)
“When a successful Parisian lawyer kills his wife’s lover his life takes an unexpected turn… for the better.”*
15th July
Cell 211
“Juan (Ammann) is about to start work as a prison guard and is taking a tour of a maximum security area when he is injured slightly in an accident and left behind as a riot breaks out. Juan convinces Malamadre (Tosar), the convicts’ leader, that he is a new inmate who has been beaten up by guards, and the two men become close as the crisis escalates.”*
Hobo With A Shotgun
“A nameless, homeless man (Rutger Hauer) drifts into a city dominated by a family of gangsters who have bought off all law enforcement and allow crime to run rampant. Finally sickened by the bad situation, the hobo takes a shotgun from a pawn shop and becomes a vigilante avenger.”*
Honey
“In a remote region of the eastern Black Sea, a young man searches for his missing, sick father.”*
Bobby Fischer Against the World
“The first documentary to explore the dramatic life of the late chess champion, Bobby Fischer.”*
08th July
Trust
“A fourteen year-old girl befriends a teenage boy online to later discover that he is an adult with sinister intentions.”*
Holy Rollers
“Sammy (Eisenberg) — an ultra-orthodox Jewish teenager — risks losing everything when his frustration with religion’s limitations gets the better of him. Lured into a drug-smuggling career by his shifty neighbour (Bartha), Sammy must go on the run, but will he ever redeem his soul?”*
Super
“When Frank D’Arbo’s (Wilson) wife leaves him for a psycho drug dealer (Bacon), his paralysing anger transforms him into DIY crime fighter, The Crimson Bolt. With his trusty sidekick, Boltie (Page), and a monkey wrench, he sets out to right society’s wrongs and gain revenge on the man who stole his wife.”*
24th June
Incendies
“Canadian twins Jean and Simon Marwal (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette) are summoned to the reading of their mother’s last will and testament. Her last request soon leads them to delve back into her violent past.”*
Has anyone seen these movies? What am I missing?
Being totally blunt, I’ve been pretty disgusted with my local two Cineworlds (totalling abour 22 screens). For the past ~6 weeks they’ve averaged about 4-5 films per day – barring the kids clubs in the am…
Worse yet is that the only foreign/indie films they’ve been showing have all been Bollywood… and nothing particularly interesting of that. HP7B, Transformers, Bridesmaids and now Cars 2 have dominated the screens… lame.
I hope they make up by drip-feeding films like the above through over the next few months.
Cell 211 has been on dvd in Europe for about a year and is a great thriller. My local cinema is an independent operation with four screens that shows mainly films for youngsters – to be honest although people get annoyed (no Sucker Punch, Battle Los Angeles or Source Code) but as a small business they do the best they can… it’s why I’ve got involved with the local cinema club. We screen films that never made it to the cinema but would be great to see on a big screen with an audience.