– SEPTEMBER –
This Is Where I Leave You
Starring: Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Rose Byrne, Jane Fonda
Director: Shawn Levy
Out: 19 September 2014

Comedy-drama family saga. When their father passes away, four grown siblings (Bateman, Fey, Driver, Corey Stoll), bruised and banged up by their respective adult lives, are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof together for a week sitting Shivah, along with their over-sharing mother (Fonda) and an assortment of spouses, exes and might-have-beens (inc. Byrne). Confronting their history and the frayed states of their relationships among the people who know and love them best, will they reconnect? Adapted by the author from his novel, this comes from the director of ‘The Internship’ and ‘Date Night’. Book fans have questioned Batemen and Fey’s suitability for the characters. There’s no doubt they’re comedians rather than dramatic actors, so tone may decide the movie’s success – can’t veer too dramatic one way, or too farcical the other. [Critics: 43%] [Public: 6.6] – Good

– OCTOBER –
Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (Død Snø 2)
Starring: Amrita Acharia, Carl-Magnus Adner, Jocelyn DeBoer
Director: Tommy Wirkola
Out: 10 October 2014

The sole survivor of a ski-cabin group, which unwittingly raised malevolent dead Nazis, wakes in hospital to find his severed arm has been accidentally replaced with that of an undead Nazi. Boasting superhuman strength but an unwieldy nature, he’ll need the arm to help him stop the zombie battalion that is marching down the mountain toward civilisation to finish some 70-year-old business. He’ll also need a trio of American nerds called The Zombie Squad and his own army of undead WW2 Russians for an epic showdown. This sequel to 2009’s comedy-horror ‘Red Snow’ comes from the same Norwegian director, who journeyed to Hollywood in the meantime to make ‘Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters’. Half in English this time, there’s a significant budgetary improvement over the first film, appealing once again to fans of wacky practical-fx gore and tongue-in-cheek humour. Rather than the gradual build-up in the first film this is broader Troma/’Evil Dead 2′ insanity from the beginning. It’s an absolute blast that leaves you with a smile on your face. [Critics: 87%] [Public: 7.1] – Excellent

St. Vincent
Starring: Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Chris O’Dowd
Director: Ted Melfi
Out: 24 October 2014

A hardworking single mother (McCarthy) entrusts her angelic 12-year-old son to the grouchy next door neighbour Vincent (Murray), who seems harmless enough. But Vincent is a cantankerous train wreck with a penchant for alcohol, prostitutes and gambling. He teaches the kid everything about his decadent lifestyle, but the boy has such a pure heart that he ultimately only extracts the good. Watts plays a pregnant Russian hooker who’s developed a close relationship with Vincent, while O’Dowd is a Catholic priest and the boy’s schoolteacher. This has a heavyweight comic cast and is being sold as a comedy but really it’s a pretty bleak drama, about a rude man circling around flat-broke rock bottom. Thankfully it’s lifted up by an ending that’s genuinely moving. Murray hasn’t actually been the lead in a straight comedy for 15 years, preferring to just do cameos in those and take leading roles in indie dramas/quirk, which is a shame. Here his accent is all over the place but otherwise it’s a great role for him and a great performance. [Critics: 77%] [Public: 7.3] – Excellent

– NOVEMBER –
Dumb And Dumber To
Starring: Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Laurie Holden, Rachel Melvin, Kathleen Turner
Directors: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
Out: 14 November 2014

Good-hearted yet dim-witted best friends, Harry and Lloyd, head out on a road trip to find one of their long lost children, in the hopes of gaining a new kidney. Directors the Farrelly brothers are back for this follow-up to the 1994 smash and, since Warners wouldn’t make it, have raised $35 million through an outside financer. Rob Riggle plays twins: a handyman named Travis and his unstable special ops brother, Captain Lippencott. Laurie Holden (‘The Mist’) is a villainous black widow seeking to use the pair as scapegoats for her evil scheme. Kathleen Turner plays Fraida Felcher, the “babe who worked for the tractor company” that Harry and Lloyd both courted (uber-fan Jennifer Laurence was meant to cameo as the younger Fraida but dropped out). The leads are of course far too old to be doing this (Carrey is a 51 year old grandfather and Jeff Daniels is nearly 60) which means it dances a line between nostalgic delight and slightly embarrassing spectacle. The main issue is with the writing though, because while Harry and Lloyd work great humiliating deserving targets (like the nasty Rob Riggle on the road trip), but too often their targets are totally undeserving (eg waking up parents in the middle of the night and laughing about their dead son, mocking scientists at a TED talk trying to improve the world, screaming into the ears of a blind person, etc) and it makes them look like assholes. They’re also particularly selfish in their aims too. Overall it’s enjoyable with some clever slapstick and one-liners, but it really should have been made 10 years ago with a kinder heart. [Critics: 29%] [Public: 5.9] – Ok

Horrible Bosses 2
Starring: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Christoph Waltz, Chris Pine
Director: Sean Anders
Out: 28 November 2014

Fed up with answering to higher-ups, Nick (Bateman), Dale (Day) and Kurt (Sudeikis) decide to become their own bosses by launching their own business. But a slick investor (Waltz) soon pulls the rug out from under them. Outplayed and desperate, and with no legal recourse, the three would-be entrepreneurs hatch a misguided plan to kidnap the investor’s cocky son (Pine) and ransom him to regain control of their company. Sean Anders (‘Sex Drive’, ‘That’s My Boy’) takes over the director’s chair, while the screenwriters of the first film return. Jamie Foxx is back as hitman Motherf–er Jones, as are Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Spacey. The first movie was worth watching and this is a decent enough way of tackling a sequel when it’s really not possible to repeat the plot. It’s a fun comic caper, though it’s never significantly gripping or hilarious.[Critics: 34%] [Public: 6.4] – Good

– DECEMBER –
The Interview
Starring: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Randall Park, Lizzy Caplan
Directors: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg
Out: 25 December 2014

A handsome but easily-led talk show host (Franco) and his more sensible producer (Rogen) find themselves way over their heads when they’re asked by the CIA to assassinate the leader of North Korea while in the country to interview him. But Kim Jong-un is a master manipulator and, just like Dennis Rodman before him, the host starts to see him in a new light. Lizzy Caplan (‘Cloverfield’, ‘Freaks & Geeks’) plays the agent pressuring them to go through with it. This marks the second directorial outing from Rogen and Evan Goldberg after last summer’s excellent ‘This Is the End’. They also penned the script, based on a story they formed with Dan Sterling (‘The Daily Show’). Incredibly the movie led to a vengeful North Korea (reportedly) hacking Sony in real life on a massive scale, putting their new movies on pirate sites and releasing years of often-embarrassing private emails. The movie itself is an enjoyable, intriguing adventure story that’s obviously helped if you have a passing interest in North Korea. Seth Rogen gives an effortlessly strong comic performance but James Franco is hit and miss, wrecking quite a few scenes with an over-the-top, sometimes amateurish performance, although he is fine in others. The climax of the big interview itself is frustratingly dumb, when it could have been quite powerful. Overall it’s a decent watch and refreshingly daring for a studio comedy, though ‘Team America: World Police’ did it better. [Critics: 52%] [Public: 6.8] – Good

December & All Of Them Ranked In Order >

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