World Movie News: The Last 24 Hours
I Play Rocky and Rocky’s 50th, Godzilla Minus Zero roars in, Ramayana’s ₹127 crore opening & Sally Field turns 80.
Morning, all. After yesterday’s La Bola Negra (5*s) audience award and the sad news of Tinto Brass, today brings a very busy Friday of new releases, and a Diwali blockbuster that has already had its opening.
New in UK and Irish cinemas:
- Last month’s London Film Festival surprise screening, Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky, opens today from Entertainment Film Distributors, and which tells the story of how Sylvester Stallone fought to write and star in Rocky, with Anthony Ippolito as Stallone, and Matt Dillon, AnnaSophia Robb, Stephan James and P.J. Byrne in the cast. It opens in time for the 50th anniversary of the original on 21 November, which is returning to cinemas today in a Park Circus re-release, so you can make a double bill of it.
- Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus Zero opens in IMAX and cinemas, in Japanese with English subtitles, after opening in Japan on Tuesday. It’s set in 1949, two years after Godzilla Minus One, and it’s the first Japanese-produced Godzilla film shot for IMAX. Godzilla fans came out of the LFF press screening (which I was unable to make) raving about this one, so this is on my must see list this weekend.
- Netflix’s La Bola Negra (5*s), which won the London Film Festival’s Audience Award yesterday, also arrives in cinemas, via Altitude. The muti-time-stranded epic is a masterpiece that really should be experienced on the big screen: some of the images will stay with you for ever.
- Jack Spring’s festive comedy Merry Christmas Aubrey Flint, with John Bradley, Celia Imrie and Richard E. Grant, opens in select cinemas from Signature. It’s too early for Christmas…. but not, apparently for Christmas films!
- Raise the Red Lantern: Zhang Yimou’s 1991 classic, starring Gong Li, returns in a re-release from Central City Media.
- George Michael: The Faith Tour: a concert film, from Universal (that I will be going to see this evening).
- Think of England, a World War 2 porn movie. Or, more accurately, about a government sponsored team who are tasked with making porn movies for the boys on the front. This one looked interesting, but with all the other big releases, might be hard to find (no pun intended). and
- Manipulation. A Czech-made drama/thriller that I know very little about.
Earlier in the week, Wild Horse Nine (5*s) opened on Wednesday, the concert film Rammstein: Live in Mexico City screened from Trafalgar, and the teen-fantasy anime, based on a 2014 TV series, The Irregular at Magic High School opened from Sony.
New in US cinemas only: Warner Bros.’ animated The Cat in the Hat, with Bill Hader as the Cat and Quinta Brunson, Bowen Yang and Xochitl Gomez among the voices, opens in US cinemas today. It will open in the UK on December 4th. A24’s Club Kid, one of the Gotham Awards’ Best Feature nominees, also opens in US cinemas, and Siân Heder’s documentary Being Heumann (4.5*s), which I saw at the London Film Festival and I can heartily recommend, opens in select US cinemas today ahead of its Apple TV debut on 13 November. Meanwhile, Wild Horse Nine (5*s) opens in the US today, two days after its UK release.
Ramayana: Part 1 opens big: Nitesh Tiwari’s Diwali epic Ramayana: Part 1 opened worldwide on Thursday, and it took ₹64.85 crore net in India (about $6.8 million), according to Sacnilk, with a worldwide gross of ₹127.5 crore (about $13.3 million), including ₹50 crore from overseas. Ranbir Kapoor plays Rama, Sai Pallavi plays Sita and Yash plays Ravana, and it’s the first of a two-part retelling of the epic.
Birthdays: Sally Field, who won two Oscars, for Norma Rae and Places in the Heart, turns 80 today, and Ethan Hawke of Before Sunrise and Blue Moon (4.5*s) turns 56. Also celebrating is Emma Stone (38), who won an Oscar for La La Land (5*s).
That’s all for today.
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