45 / 62
45
Kate Winslet, who can also be seen this month reprising
her villainous role in the second chapter of the
Divergent
Series
, is on a more familiar ground in this classy period
piece, co-written and directed by Alan Rickman. It’s loosely
inspired by the expansion of the fabulous gardens at
Versailles overseen by the 17th century French ruler Louis
XIV (essayed in his usual sardonic fashion by Rickman), with
Winslet playing Sabine De Barra, a gardener hired by royal
landscape artist André Le Notre (Matthias Schoenaerts) to
create a new mini-amphitheatre. The widowed De Barra,
who wants to freshen up the rather staid royal gardens, quickly makes her
mark at court, but Le Notre's growing attraction for her incurs the wrath
of his aristocratic wife (Helen McCrory). The impeccable playing and lush
design more than compensate for the occasionally stodgy plotting.
Garden state
A Little Chaos
If the first
Monsters
film was
more indie romance than creature
feature, the sequel is an out-and-
out war film that just happens to
be set against the backdrop of
an alien invasion.
Monsters: Dark
Continent
sees the action switch
to the Middle East where the US’s
indiscriminate war on aliens means
local insurgents pose just as much
of a threat as the ET invaders. A
unit of young untrained troops, led
by a psychotic NCO (Johnny Harris),
find themselves stranded behind
enemy lines after a rescue mission
goes wrong, and face a perilous
journey back to safety. Both an
intriguing spin on the alien invasion
genre and a sobering allegory on
current Midde Eastern events.
Monsters: Dark
Continent
Release Date:
09/07/15
Format:
Jennifer Aniston can consider
herself a little unlucky to miss out
on at least an Oscar nomination
this year for her superbly
understated turn in this low-key,
offbeat study of depression. Shorn
of her usual glamour, Aniston
plays Claire Bennett, a middle-
aged woman who suffers from
crippling back pain and takes out
her bitterness on those unlucky
enough to be around her. Anna
Kendrick is equally good as Nina, a
member of one of Claire’s support
groups who has just committed
suicide but whose ghost now
regularly pops up to harangue her,
while SamWorthington also scores
as her grieving partner, who forms
a tentative bond with Claire.
Cake
Release Date:
12/08/15
Format:
Release Date:
19/08/15
Format:
Films like
Re-Animator
and
Pet Sematary
have taught
us that bringing things back from the dead is a bad
idea, but that doesn't stop scientist Mark Duplass from
making the same mistake in
The Lazarus Effect
. After
successfully reviving a dead dog (which of course soon
begins behaving aggressively), Duplass uses his milky
"Lazarus serum" on electrocuted research assistant
and fiancée Olivia Wilde, who promptly returns to
life with black eyes, a gravelly voice and supernatural
powers. There's a stream of technobabble and debate
over science, religion and the ethics of playing God, but instead of a
thought-provoking examination of the questions it raises,
The Lazarus
Effect
is simply content to deliver jump-scare shocks. It's
Flatliners
for
the
Paranormal Activity
/
Insidious
/
Sinister
audience.
Back from the dead
THE LAZARUS EFFECT
This sequel to the atmospheric
2012 Hammer horror film is set
during World War II, with a new
group of characters encountering
the eponymous apparition. Children
evacuated from London during the
Blitz are relocated to the sinister
Eel Marsh House – which isn't
a good idea, given its ghostly
resident's habit of making kids
suffer a horrible fate. The Woman in
Black quickly makes her presence
known to a mute orphan boy,
and before long, bodies are being
dragged from the surrounding
marshland.
The Woman in Black
2
delivers some genuinely creepy
moments, but ultimately lacks the
scares and dream-like quality that
made the original so effective.
THE WOMAN IN
BLACK 2
Release Date:
12/08/15
Format:
Anything with cult director Joe
Dante's name attached is worth
a look in our opinion, especially
a zom-com.
Burying the Ex
has more in common with
Life
After Beth
than
Warm Bodies
;
horror store clerk Anton Yelchin's
girlfriend (Ashley Greene) is hit
by a bus, returns from the grave,
and isn't happy to discover he's
since hooked up with the lovely
Alexandra Daddario. Yelchin's
attempts to conceal his ex's
resurrection from his new love
give Dante free reign to indulge
in the slapstick set-pieces, pitch
black humour and nods to the
B-movies of old that are his forte
– and it's a return to form after the
disappointing
The Hole
.
Burying The Ex
Release Date:
05/08/15
Format:
Release Date:
12/08/15
Format:
DVD
&
BD
REVIEWS