This week, the new release we’re most looking forward to seeing is NINJA ASSASSIN. I’m hoping for a super-violent action-fest. The plot revolves around super assassin Raizo (Rain), who, after being trained in his deadly art by a secret society of ninjas and witnessing them kill his best friend, is now hunting them down to exact his revenge.
If you’ve ever watched and enjoyed a kung-fu flick, you must be getting a slight tingle over the prospect of seeing a modern kung-fu flick with added swords, cars and slo-mo editing? I know I am. I suspect it won’t be as good a film as our other picks this week – but I also suspect it’ll be the most fun.
Next up is DAYBREAKERS, which is yet another vampire flick. This one doesn’t feature any teen angst though. And, while it does seem to be going with the tried and tested humans vs vampires formula that we’ve seen over and over, at least it also seems to be going one step further by setting the battle of the species on a disease riddled earth where humans are on the brink of extinction after a plague has swept through the population turning almost all of them into vampires. A small band of vampires has realised that the species food supply is about to blink out of existence and they’re teaming up with some of the remaining humans to try and save our race.
Starring Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill and Willem Dafoe, DAYBREAKERS looks like it might be a solid action horror in the same vein (excuse the pun) as BLADE, but hopefully with better acting and dialogue.
Last this week, but by no means least, is EXAM, a no budget thriller directed by unknown Stuart Hazeldine as his first feature. It doesn’t really star anybody massively recognisable, certainly no big names, but you might recognise Luke Mably and Jimi Mistry. The movie has a very interesting premise that has me more excited about it than some of the big name releases this week. The idea is that eight candidates have reached the final stage of interviewing for a job. They are locked in a room for their final exam, given 80 minutes to answer one final question. They turn the pages on their desks over and discover them to be blank. It seems that the exam is figuring out what the hell the exam is.
EXAM really could go either way – it could take itself too seriously and end up boring with an easily foreseeable twist, or it could turn out to be a no-budget gem, just like PRIMER or CUBE. Fingers crossed.
Other movies released this week:
IT’S COMPLICATED: Average-looking romcom from Nancy Meyers, starring Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. Official site.
THE ROAD: Based on a Pulitzer winning book, the fantastic Viggo Mortensen is the man trying to keep his son safe and survive a post-apocalyptic world. Expect it to be well acted but grim. Official site.
SEX & DRUGS & ROCK & ROLL: This is an interesting looking movie – the Ian Dury biopic. Looks like Andy Serkis has nailed the Blockheads frontman in his performance. Official site.
You can read archived New Release pages here.
