Whether at the movies or at home, February serves up plenty of variety for movie-lovers – action, comedy, romance, science, spying, documentary, s-e-x, drugs, and Channing Tatum. This is all sounding good to us, and it’s just a start. Read on for the best new viewing next month – as well as a few choice home video reissues.
Kingsman: The Secret Service – Feb. 5
Director Matthew Vaughn returns from the X-Men universe to the more irreverent side of ass-kicking here, with this over-the-top spy thriller blending elements of 007 and Vaughn’s own Kick-Ass. Colin Firth plays Harry Hart, dapper mentor to a wayward youngster introduced to a secret society known as Kingsman. So far, so YA novel – but the hilariously excessive violence and foul language will have you rolling in the aisles, as will Samuel L. Jackson’s turn as an unlikely super-villain.
Movie times and release date info
The Theory of Everything – Feb. 5
Nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Lead Actor (Eddie Redmayne) and Best Lead Actress (Felicity Jones).
Biopic on theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, whose genius changed the way we look at our universe. Rather than just delving into the mechanics of his mathematics, though, The Theory of Everything captures Hawking’s relationship with wife Jane. Based on her memoir, the film follows his journey from adventurous, healthy romantic to renowned, world-famous scientist – and a tenacious battler against his diagnosis as a sufferer of paralyzing motor neuron disease.
Movie times and release date info
Citizenfour – Feb. 12
Nominated for Best Documentary at the 2015 Academy Awards.
Seldom has one man revealed more unsettling secrets about the world we live in than Edward Snowden, who famously lifted the lid on a global surveillance network so vast it almost defies comprehension. Capturing its subject at a critical juncture, shortly after he fled the US in fear of his liberty, Citizenfour is framed around a central interview with Snowden in Hong Kong in 2013, when the cries of ‘traitor’ from the US establishment had reached fever pitch, and intelligence agencies furiously worked to capture him. Sure to fascinate, regardless of where you stand on his course of action.
Movie times and release date info
Fifty Shades of Grey – Feb. 12
The soft-porn novel that became so huge it was ok to read on the bus becomes a big-screen affair, coming full circle from its origins as Twilight fan fiction. Depicting the relationship between a young college graduate (Dakota Johnson) and a wealthy entrepreneur with a taste for S&M (Jamie Dornan, TV’s The Fall), this may not be one to take your mum to – but like us, she’s probably just as interesting in finding out how Hollywood tackles an erotic tale when they’re now so seldom made. Yes, that’s why we’re going. Professional curiosity. Yep.
Movie times and release date info
Inherent Vice – Feb. 19
Smashing a Raymond Chandler-esque private dick tale into a blender with the washed-up druggies, paranoia and bummed-out post-’60s vibes of The Big Lebowski and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thomas Pynchon’s novel on which this is based is an absurdist, logic-defying page-turner. A perfect fit for director Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master) and his star Joaquin Phoenix then! Set to be the most comic of Anderson’s films to date, Inherent Vice still won’t shirk from being intellectually challenging – whether it makes complete sense won’t matter though when Pynchon’s dialogue starts flowing and Anderson weaves his customary magic.
Movie times and release date info
Jupiter Ascending – Feb. 19
Speaking of absurd, have you seen what Channing Tatum looks like in the trailer to this? Magic Mike himself plays a genetically-engineered alien butt-kicker who comes to Earth in order to protect Jupiter (Mila Kunis), unknowingly targeted for assassination by powerful interstellar forces – part of a galactic civilisation we pathetic Earthlings have no idea even exists. Coming from the Wachowskis (The Matrix, Cloud Atlas) this space opera looks like a spectacularly excessive sci-fi adventure, albeit one that Eddie Redmayne, in a villainous role, is unlikely to repeat the award nominations he’s received for playing Stephen Hawking.
Movie times and release date info
Gore Vidal: United States of Amnesia – Feb. 4
The basics: Charismatic intellectual Gore Vidal was a fixture in American cultural and political commentary for decades, and here the late writer’s concerns with modern Western democracy are brought to life with interviews and archival footage.
The buzz: 86% on RottenTomatoes. “Does a great job of collecting Vidal’s Wildean aphorisms on class, democracy and liberty” says the Newark Star-Ledger. The New York Times reckons “this entertaining documentary portrays Vidal as a pessimistic political prophet with streaks of paranoia and misanthropy, but a truth teller nonetheless”.
DVD, Blu-ray and On Demand options
The November Man – Feb. 4
The basics: Kiwi director Roger Donaldson helms his third consecutive thriller (after films starring Nicolas Cage and Jason Statham) with this tale of a former CIA operative (Pierce Brosnan), pitted against his former pupil. Co-stars Olga Kurylenko (Oblivion) and Luke Bracey (G.I. Joe: Retaliation)
The buzz: 35% on Rotten Tomatoes. NPR calls the film “a serviceable, pleasingly CGI-unenhanced run-and-gun flick”, while the Wall Street Journal enthuses it’s an “engaging, fast-paced and ultimately ludicrous combo of espionage and mayhem”. On the other hand…. “The utter lack of originality eventually sinks the movie, and the climax has more howlers than a wolf convention” slams Entertainment Weekly.
DVD, Blu-ray and On Demand options
The Signal – Feb. 4
The basics: Indie sci-fi thriller, keeping its premise largely under wraps aside from this set-up – genius hacker lures college kids to the middle of the desert, where mind-f*ckery awaits.
The buzz: 56% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Los Angeles Times calls it a “stylish, slyly funny question mark of a movie”, while Hollywood Reporter reckons it is a “beautifully executed, not-quite-satisfying sci-fi head-scratcher”.
DVD, Blu-ray and On Demand options
What If – Feb. 11
The basics: Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Zoe Kazan (Ruby Sparks) star in this not-quite-a-rom-com about a single young man and a taken young woman who meet and hit it off instantly. Should they stay friends?
The buzz: 70% on Rotten Tomatoes. “Nerd wish-fulfillment of the first order” sneers the Chicago Reader, although Village Voice notes “it’s so enjoyable from moment to moment that it’s easy to forgive” and Variety calculates it to be “roughly three parts charming to one part cloying”.
DVD, Blu-ray and On Demand options
The Infinite Man – Feb. 12
The basics: Independent, time-travelling romantic comedy sees a guilt-ridden inventor utilise a time machine to undo an anniversary weekend go wrong – only to continually make matters worse by interfering with an increasingly complicated timeline.
The buzz: 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Age calls it “inventive and dryly hilarious” and the Guardian reckons it’s “a delightfully intellectual exercise in escapism” .
DVD, Blu-ray and On Demand options
When Animals Dream – Feb. 12
The basics: Danish horror set on a small island sees family secrets come out into the open when a teen girl’s sexual awakening coincides with her persecution from co-workers and a series of mysterious deaths.
The buzz: 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. “Full of restrained horror and tastefully Scandinavian carnage” notes Hollywood Reporter, while Badass Digest opines “it’s a horror film that relies on intimacy and personal resonance over jump-scares, and it’s incredibly effective in that approach”.
DVD, Blu-ray and On Demand options
Obvious Child – Feb. 25
The basics: Comedy about a Brooklyn comedian, Donna (Jenny Slate), who suffers a trifecta of suck: she gets dumped, fired and pregnant just in time for Valentine’s Day.
The buzz: 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. “Jenny Slate shines in a romantic comedy that dares to consider the subject of abortion suitable for date-night crowds” says Variety; “A wildly funny and appealing female-centric comedy that launches very promising talent on both sides of the camera” gushes Hollywood Reporter.
DVD, Blu-ray and On Demand options
A bunch of stuff vying for your attention this month…
The Dead Zone – David Cronenberg’s 1983 Stephen King adaptation stars Christopher Walken, who awakes from a coma to find he has psychic abilities. Cronenberg ditched a screenplay penned by King, the result (unlike The Shining) earning praise from the author.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space – Late ’80s cult classic about… well, the title says it all. Circus tents, cotton candy, acidic pies, and grotesque clowns all combine in this ridiculous, entertaining pile of nonsense.
Pi – Ultra-low budget debut from Darren Aronofsky (Noah), a surreal psychological thriller about mental disintegration played out against an intense Clint Mansell score.
Young Guns – Not a film about the New Zealand cricket team from 1992, but a chance for Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen and Dermot Mulroney to make young women swoon in a Western that bizarrely is one of the more accurate Billy The Kid movies.
