What to See this Week (02/11/22)
Marry Me
KAT Valdez (Jennifer Lopez) and Bastian (Maluma) are a celebrity power couple who are about to be wed before an audience of their fans in a ceremony streamed in multiple platforms. Meanwhile, divorced high school math teacher Charlie Gilbert (Owen Wilson) has been dragged to the concert by his daughter and best friend. When Kat learns that Bastian cheated on her, she has a meltdown on stage. When she locks eyes with a stranger from the stage, Kat instantly chooses to marry Charlie. What begins as an impulsive reaction evolves into an unexpected romance. Directed by Kat Coiro, the film stars Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Maluma, John Bradley-West, Sarah Silverman, and Chloe Coleman. “While Notting Hill made it look so effortless, Marry Me is mishmash of scenes that lack credibility and coherency,” says Matthew Toomey of ABC Radio Brisbane.
MTRCB Rating: PG
Death on the Nile
AGATHA Christie’s Hercule Poirot returns in this latest filmic iteration of Death on the Nile in which the French detective goes on an Egyptian vacation aboard a fancy river steamer that becomes a tragic crime scene. Kenneth Branagh directs and plays Poirot in the film. The film also stars Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, and Dawn French. Entertainment Weekly’s Leah Greenblatt writes, “There are some fun bits, inevitably, in pulling this many talented actors together and watching them vamp and skitter across the poop deck. But Nile leaves too many of them without much to do beyond stand around in costumes and wait for Hercule to drop a clue. The bigger problem, maybe, is that the movie’s humid sexuality — and its oddly frictionless takes on race and class in the early 20th century — have to play against a series of sprawling screensaver backdrops that recall films from an entirely different era.” Review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer gives the film a score of 68%.
MTRCB Rating: PG
Blacklight
GOVERNMENT agent Travis Block is trying to leave his shadowy past behind, but when he discovers a plot that will endanger the innocent, he steps up against the highest powers in the FBI. Directed by Mark Williams, the film stars Liam Neeson, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Taylor John Smith, Aidan Quinn, Claire van der Boom, Yael Stone, and Tim Draxl. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a Tomatometer score of just 11%. Hollywood Reporter’s less than impressed Frank Scheck writes, “It offers nary a memorable set piece or resonant line of dialogue, except for when Neeson’s character admits at one point, ‘In hindsight, I suspect I made a poor career choice.’”
MTRCB Rating: R-13
