STACK April 2017 Issue 150

40 / 97

40 APRIL 2017
Love, time, death. These three things connect every
ingle human being on Earth. We long for love, we
ish we had more time, and we fear death.” Words
om advertising company honcho Howard (Will Smith)
efore his world turns turtle with the tragic loss of his
oung daughter. Retreating from life, his shell haunts
e office, spiritlessly constructing elaborate domino-
ppling creations. He pens missives to love, fear and
eath, while his business partners – Whit (Edward
Norton), Claire (Kate Winslet) and Simon (Michael Peña)
– need him back. So, they hire actors to portray the three concepts
he’s mail-bombing, and a private dick to film the results. But are they
trying to snap him out of his fugue, or just snap him? Unashamedly
sentimental, Collateral Beauty boasts a cracking cast and plentiful
triggers for weepie worshippers. We do miss Will’s smile though. AF
We are all connected...
COLLATERAL BEAUTY
Release Date: 26/04/17 Format:
You’ve likely never considered the history of McDonald’s
while scarfing down a Big Mac. ‘Maccas’ has become
omnipresent, serving some 68 million customers daily in
120 countries across approximately 37,000 outlets – that’s
a lot of buns, fries and shakes. McDonald’s had humble
beginnings though, as brothers Richard and Maurice
‘Mac’ McDonald started a small burger joint which they
reinvented via automation for speedy service in 1948.
Cue the arrival of struggling mixer salesman Ray Kroc,
curious as to the brothers’ large order of his product and
the rest is, well, history. Michael Keaton delivers substantial sleaze as
Kroc, who enlarges the brothers’ (John Carroll Lynch and Nick Offerman)
vision exponentially, first with franchises to other US states, and then
overseas, before elbowing them out of their creation completely. Equally
spellbinding and sordid, file The Founder under ‘McGekko’. AF
Would you like fries with that?
THE FOUNDER
Release Date: 12/04/17 Format:
After his drama Calvary, writer-director John Michael
McDonagh revisits the buddy cop comedy territory
of The Guard . Sort of. There are more accents than a
heavy metal t-shirt shop as Alexander Skarsgård and
Michael Peña hit our screens – explosions and all – as
Monroe and Bolaño, two corrupt New Mexico police
officers. It’s bad cop/bad cop as both of these guys are
in it for all the booty they can boost, shaking down,
framing and otherwise giving every con they encounter
a bad time. It’s crappy enough that they’re on their last
chance after numerous bribery and corruption charges, but then they
meet their baddie match... With its double-meaning title – beyond the
protagonists the humour here is sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic
and obviously designed to offend – War on Everyone won’t appeal to all,
but if you’ve torched the PC bandwagon you’ll revel in it. AF
They're gonna kick your ass and get away with it!
WAR ON EVERYONE
Release Date: 19/04/17 Format:
There’s no false advertising in this latest from Minions
peeps Illumination, as numerous anthropomorphic
creatures stretch their vocal chords hoping to win
$100,000. However, financially bereft – yet eternally
optimistic – theatre owner Buster Moon (a koala that
sounds like Matthew McConaughey) meant to offer
a mere $1,000, but one typo later... Anyway, he sees
an opportunity to save his beloved theatre, and we’re
treated to everything from prawns getting their Beyonce
on to a gorilla with built-in Auto-Tune and something that
cracks us up every time: a snail perched atop a microphone letting rip
Christopher Cross’ AOR wail-fest ‘Ride Like the Wind’. Will everything
turn out much like it did for The Muppets in their eponymous flick with a
tres similar plot? Maybe sometimes you just need a little song. Unless
you’re the King of Monty Python’s Swamp Castle, natch. AF
They're the voice.
SING
Release Date: OUT NOW Format:
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