STACK #137 Mar 2016

CINEMA REVIEWS

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ALSO SCREENING IN MARCH

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

Zack Snyder lays the foundations for DC's forthcoming Justice League movie, pitting the Man of Steel against The Dark Knight in a city-destroying smackdown. Henry Cavill is back in the Super-suit, Ben Affleck drives the Batmobile, Gal Gadot debuts as Wonder Woman, and Jesse Eisenberg irritates as Lex Luthor. Are you team Gotham or team Krypton? Choose a side on Mar 24 .

RELEASED: March 3 DIRECTOR: John Hillcoat CAST: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kate Winslet, Casey Affleck RATING: MA15+

TRIPLE 9

The heat is on in John Hillcoat's grim and gritty heist thriller.

J ohn Hillcoat's movies have always possessed a strong sense of verisimilitude; whether its a post- apocalypse wasteland ( The Road ) or 19th century outback Australia ( The Proposition ), the director has made a career out of conjuring bleak worlds inhabited by desperate characters. Such is his commitment to authenticity, you feel like taking a shower after watching a Hillcoat film – and that's actually a compliment. In Triple 9 , Hillcoat brings his trademark grit to the 'hood usually occupied by Antoine Fuqua and David Ayer, reinventing the urban crime thriller/heist movie with a hard edge and visuals as dirty as the cops involved in the central scheme. It also features a terrific ensemble cast playing against type. Chiwetel Ejiofor is a former soldier who is blackmailed by ruthless Russian-Israeli mob boss Kate Winslet (a long way from Titanic here) into pulling off a near impossible heist using military tactics, a pair of corrupt cops (Andrew Mackie, Clifton Collins Jr.) and special forces buddies (Aaron Paul, Norman Reedus). To ensure a clean getaway, Ejiofor's motley crew plan to use a 999 call – police code for "officer down" – to distract the Atlanta police department. Elsewhere, good cop Casey Affleck and his detective uncle, Woody Harrelson, suspect something is going down, and with the help of local gang members attempt to expose the rats in their ranks. Although ostensibly resembling Michael

Mann's 1995 heist classic Heat (with a patina of grunge), Triple 9' s production design and robust action sequences are more indebted to seventies' crime flicks like The French Connection , which Hillcoat cites as a major influence. Moreover, the director's insight into the dynamics of the criminal underworld adds additional kick to a brutal and spectacularly seedy genre offering. Scott Hocking

CINEMA

Eight years after the hand-held monster movie comes another mysterious, J.J. Abrams' produced sci-fi movie with Cloverfield in the title. We'll know what it all means on Mar 10 . 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE

FURTHER VIEWING: End of Watch, Heat

Move over Bruce Willis! Having saved the US President in Olympus Has Fallen , action man Gerard Butler must now foil a plot to assassinate world leaders in the British capital. Out Mar 17 . LONDON HAS FALLEN

After five long years, the weight is over. Having clobbered the competition at the international box office, Po and the Furious Five are bringing their animated brand of martial arts mayhem and sight gags to local cinemas (in 3D) on Mar 24 . KUNG FU PANDA 3

MARCH 2016

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