Publications
As the holiday season approaches, blockbusters are making a triumphant return to the bioscope as studios regain their confidence to release their films on the big screen. This month there are more sequels aplenty, plus animated fun for the family. Here’s what’s on offer on wide release in South Africa.
No Time To Die
After 18 months of delays, Daniel Craig takes his last bow as James Bond – it’s a worthy send-off that’s been worth the long wait.
After the events of Spectre (2015), Bond is retired and living his best life in Jamaica. When his old friend, CIA agent Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), shows up asking for his help rescuing a kidnapped scientist, Bond agrees to get back to work.
As usual the mission turns out to be far more complicated and puts Bond on the trail of terrorist Lyutsifer Safin (Bohemian Rhapsody’s Rami Malek), who has a dangerous new technology at his disposal.
Age restriction: 13DLV
The Addams Family 2
In this sequel to the 2019 animated reboot about the kooky, macabre family, parents Morticia (voiced by Charlize Theron) and Gomez (Oscar Isaacs) are worried that their kids, Wednesday (Chloë Grace Moretz) and Pugsley (Javon “Wanna” Walton), are growing up and no longer want to spend time with them. Wednesday, especially, feels that she doesn’t belong in her family and is embarrassed by them.
To rebuild their bond, Gomez decides they should all go on a road trip across America. But just before they can depart, lawyer Mr Mustela (Wallace Shawn) shows up claiming that Wednesday was switched at birth and is actually his daughter.
Distraught, Gomez and Morticia hit the road with the kids before Mustela can talk to anyone else, but he races after them. Will their vacation and family be ruined?
Age restriction: PG HV
After We Fell
This is the third film in the romantic drama series based on the books by Anna Todd. After their relationship has navigated choppy waters, university students Tessa (Josephine Langford) and Hardin (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) seem to finally be on track, until she gets a job offer in Seattle and he wants to go live in England.
To make matters worse, a revelation about her family shatters Tessa’s world view. Can the couple heal themselves and their love?
Age restriction: 16DLSV
Around the World in 80 Days
The French-Belgian animated movie based on the book by Jules Verne turns Phileas Fogg (voiced by Rob Tinkler) into a frog who washes up on an island where he meets a nerdy young monkey named Passepartout (Cory Doran).
When Phileas accepts a challenge to circumnavigate their world – in this case, the island – in 80 days, Passepartout runs away with him to escape his overbearing mom.
Age restriction: PG
The Boss Baby: Family Business
The sequel to the surprise 2017 hit takes place 30 years later. The Templeton brothers, Tim (voiced by James Marsden) and Ted (Alec Baldwin), are now adults: Tim is a stay-at-home dad with two daughters, while Ted is a super-successful CEO but the pair have drifted apart.
Tabitha (Ariana Greenblatt), the eight-year-old daughter of Tim and his wife, Carol (Eva Longoria), is at the top of her class and idolises her uncle Ted, which worries Tim, who thinks she’s growing up too fast.
Then Tim discovers that thanks to a special baby formula that gives babies the minds of adults, their youngest daughter, baby Tina (Amy Sedaris), is also a secret boss baby like Ted was in the first movie.
Tina is on a mission to investigate Tabitha’s school principal, Dr Erwin Armstrong (Jeff Goldblum), who seems to be planning something dodgy behind parents’ backs.
Tina gives Tim and Ted a new special baby formula that allows them to turn back into kids for 48 hours so they can infiltrate the school and try to uncover Armstrong’s secrets. Can this adventure help the brothers reconnect?
Age restriction: PG V
Don’t Breathe 2
Eight years after the events of the first film, The Blind Man (Avatar’s Stephen Lang) and his 11-year-old daughter, Phoenix (Madelyn Grace), live quietly in Detroit while he teaches her to fight and survive in the wilderness.
When a group of ex-soldiers break into their house and abduct Phoenix, The Blind Man sets off to rescue her. But one of the soldiers claims to be Phoenix’s real father. Who can she trust?
Age restriction: 18
Free Guy
Set inside an open-world video game, this sci-fi comedy follows Guy (Ryan Reynolds), a non-playable background character who happily goes about his monotonous daily routine while the game’s players wreak havoc in his city.
One day Guy notices kick-ass player Molotovgirl (Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer), and deviates from his programming to follow her, leading to repercussions that will shake his world to the core.
Age restriction: 13LV
The Last Duel
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon reunite on scripting duties for the first time since Good Will Hunting (1997), for which they won a best screenplay Oscar. The Last Duel is also Damon’s second film with director Ridley Scott after The Martian (2015).
This historical drama is set in 13th-century France and concerns the last official duel or trial by combat that was held in the country.
The story is centred on noblewoman Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer) who tells her husband, Sir Jean (Damon), that while he was away, she was raped by Jacques Le Gris (Star Wars’ Adam Driver).
Jean has come to loathe Jacques, a former friend who’s risen above him in status thanks to the favour of local ruler Count Pierre d’Alençon (Affleck).
Instead of taking the matter to court, Jean insists on a trial by combat in which the men will fight to the death, which puts Marguerite in great danger, because if Jean loses, it will be taken as a sign from God that she was lying and she’ll be burnt at the stake.
Age restriction: 16LNVS SV
The Night House
This horror film stars Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) as Beth, a widow grappling with her husband’s suicide, who returns to the remote house he designed in upstate New York in the hope of finding peace and comfort there.
Instead, she’s plagued by horrific visions and noises that lead her to try to uncover more about her husband’s past, which leads her to a disturbing mystery.
Age restriction: 16
PAW Patrol: The Movie
If you don’t know what this is about you obviously don’t have kids! It’s based on the popular cartoon PAW Patrol about a boy named Ryder (voiced by Will Brisbin) and his team of rescue dogs who go on missions in their city, Adventure Bay, to protect and help people in danger.
In the movie the PAW Patrol’s nemesis, Humdinger (Ron Pardo), has become the mayor of Adventure City and has started making all sorts of changes that lead to traffic accidents and fires.
The pups set off to help but for one team member, Chase (Iain Armitage) the German Shepherd, it’s a difficult mission as being back in the city where he had to survive on the streets on his own as a puppy leads to him having an anxiety attack. Can he overcome his fears with the support of his loyal friends?
Age restriction: A
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
This is Marvel’s first movie with an Asian lead and is centred on the titular character (Simu Liu), a car valet in San Francisco who enjoys his slacker life hanging out with his best friend, Katy (Awkwafina).
But Shang-Chi is ripped from his carefree existence when a violent attack forces him to confront his dark past and the father he ran from, Wenwu (Tony Leung), a crime lord and wielder of the magical 10 rings.
Age restriction: 13LV
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Tom Hardy returns as Eddie Brock, a journalist bonded to the titular alien symbiote in this sequel to 2018’s Venom, when the duo saved Earth from a bunch of Venom’s fellow creatures from outer space.
Eddie is still down in the mouth after splitting up with his girlfriend Anne (Michelle Williams) when she drops the bombshell that she’s marrying her stable and reliable fiancé (Reid Scott).
Venom tries to comfort Eddie, but his chaotic, destructive attempts only serve to aggravate his friend further, to the point where the pair have a falling-out and Venom leaves.
When death-row convict Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson), who’s fixated on Eddie, bonds with a monstrous new symbiote, Carnage, and escapes his execution, our hero needs to find Venom before Cletus can find them.
Age restriction: 16LV
SOURCES: THEGUARDIAN.COM, AVCLUB.COM, HOLLYWOODREPORTER.COM, OBSERVER.COM, EMPIREONLINE.COM, ROTTENTOMATOES.COM, STERKINEKOR.COM, NUMETRO.CO.ZA, IMDB.COM
A: All ages D: Drugs H: Horror L: Language N: Nudity P: Prejudice PG: Parental guidance S: Sex V: Violence
