6 films to see on the week of February 26-March 4, 2016:
Always Be My Maybe
DAN VILLEGAS directs Arci Munoz, Gerald Anderson, Tirso Cruz III in this Star Cinema release about two broken-hearted people who take comfort in each other.
MTRCB Rating: PG
Charlie’s Farm
FRIENDS go to the Australian Outback to visit an abandoned farm that was the site of the brutal massacre of a family at the hands of an angry mob. Written and directed by Chris Sun, it stars Tara Reid, Nathan Jones, and Allira Jaques. Anton Bitel of The Horror Show writes: “despite some inventive grand guignol in the eleventh hour, the swathe that Charlie cuts through moribund slasher tropes is not nearly original enough to warrant a sequel.”
MTRCB Rating: R-16
Gods Of Egypt
A MORTAL MAN (played by Brenton Thwaites) team up with a fallen god Hotus (Game of Thrones’ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) to do battle with the oppressive god Set (Gerard Butler) who has usurped Egypt’s throne, plunging the country into chaos. Directed by Alex Proyas.
MTRCB Rating: PG
The Himalayas
BASED on true events, the film follows a veteran Korean mountaineer when he returns to Mount Everest to retrieve the body of a friend that died making the climb. Directed by Lee Suk-Hoon, the film stars Hwang Jung-Min Jung Woo Cho Sung-ha In-kwon Kim. The Village Voice’s Michael Nordine writes: “Director Lee Suk-hoon proves a capable (if uninspired) hand at meeting genre expectations; rest assured that ladders will precariously bridge crevasses, oxygen levels will drop, and grand speeches will be made as our heroes face near-certain death.”
MTRCB Rating: PG
The Other Side of the Door
A MOTHER grieving the recent death of her son upsets the balance of life and death when she turns to the supernatural for the chance to see her child one last time. Directed by Johannes Roberts, it stars Sarah Wayne Callies, Jeremy Sisto, and Javier Botet. “There is Conjuring-style haunting. There’s a creepy piano that plays itself. And there is an annoyingly liberal use of horror’s cheapest gimmick, the jump-scare,” writes Dave White of TheWrap.
MTRCB Rating: R-13
Triple 9
A GANG of dirty cops is blackmailed into attempting a seemingly impossible heist for the Russian mob. Directed by John Hillcoat, the film stars Casey Affleck, Aaron Paul, Teresa Palmer, Kate Winslet, Woody Harrelson, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The film has critics divided, with a 56% rating on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes. Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly writes: “The most impressive thing about Triple 9 is that it somehow manages to be both predictable and incoherent at the same time. Well, that and the fact that it manages to make half a dozen good actors look really lost.” Much more positive was Variety’s Justin Chang who called the film “A modern-day heist thriller of unusually grim, coiled intensity…”
MTRCB Rating: R-16
