Paladins assemble! Dungeons and Dragons returns for another roll of the dice in this week’s reboot – but what other beloved games could studios be eyeing up for a big screen transfer?
How about a dark, body horror-themed take on Twister: when a glue factory’s bored night shift workers take part in a quick round of the popular party game, a sudden explosion brings them uncomfortably together in ways which make The Human Centipede look like The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
No? Or they could go for a Monopoly film – which starts out promisingly only to drag itself out over a bloated four-hour runtime.
The haunting final scene features one man’s doomstruck realisation that his newly-opened boutique Park Lane hotel has no customers because all the other characters have got bored and gone home…
New releases
Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves
A mismatched band of outcasts trading quick-fire quips to a classic rock soundtrack – it might not feature any talking raccoons, but it’s certainly not hard to guess which wildly successful fantasy franchise this film’s trailer is aiming to invoke.
This big screen reboot of the enduring role-playing game even has a charismatic Chris heading up its motley crew in the form of Star Trek’s Chris Pine, playing charming thief Edgin Darvis, who sets out with his closest ally Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) to search for his daughter after a heist goes badly wrong.
On the way they’ll hook up with Regé-Jean Page’s po-faced knight and Justice Smith’s powerful sorcerer, while Hugh Grant adds another scheming cad to his cinematic rogues’ gallery as the former ally who betrayed them.
Appropriately enough given its origins, this new take on the much-loved source material comes courtesy of writer-director duo Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who masterminded the excellent 2018 comedy Game Night (currently on the iPlayer and well worth a watch).
| Cert 12A, 134 mins | |
| Cineworld, City Screen, Everyman, Vue | |
| From Fri Mar 31 | |
| More details |
Rye Lane
Cheating a little bit here as this actually came out a couple of weeks ago while I was away – but having seen it over the weekend, I can’t resist banging the drum for this sprightly, stylish and big-hearted British romcom, surely destined to become a modern classic.
The story follows Yas (Vivian Oprah) and Dom (David Jonsson), two twentysomethings recovering from bad break-ups, who find hope and inspiration in each other as they spend a day wandering in and out of parks, parties, karaoke bars and fast food joints on the streets of South London.
Brilliantly performed by two leads with charisma and chemistry to spare, it’s all those things that films with a much bigger budget claim to be but often aren’t – fresh, laugh-out-loud funny and properly feelgood, and carried off with eye-popping visual style and an infectious sense of fun by first-time director Raine Allen-Miller.
It will doubtless go down a treat when it lands on streaming later down the line, but it’s the kind of film you’ll wish you’d seen in the cinema, laughing and cheering along with an audience – it likely won’t be out for too much longer, so grab the chance to see it while you can.
| Cert 15, 82 mins | |
| City Screen, Vue | |
| From Fri Mar 17 | |
| More details |
The Night of the 12th
Sarah Lund may have long since hung up her jumper, but the appetite for gripping European crime drama kick-started by The Killing shows no sign of abating.
Fans of the brooding Scandi noir may well be tempted by this gritty French thriller, which centres on the murder of a young woman in a quiet mountain village.
It’s a case which develops into an obsession for newly installed chief detective Yohan (Bastien Bouillon), as he contends with both a multitude of suspects and the systemic misogyny in his organisation which the case brings to the fore.
It may be a familiar set-up, but reviews suggest that the film (inspired by a real-life case) swerves the cliches and tidy resolutions of the genre in favour of something more ambiguous, with the Guardian comparing it to Parasite director Bong Joon-ho’s early hit Memories of Murder.
| Cert 15, 114 mins | |
| City Screen | |
| From Fri Mar 31 | |
| More details |
Easter holidays round-up
If you need to get the kids out of the house for a couple of hours while you plan out the ultimate egg hunt (including some all-important taste-testing, of course), there are plenty of family-friendly options to choose from.
New out this week, Mummies (Cineworld, Everyman and Vue) finds its walking dead protagonists on a jaunt in present-day London, while Little Eggs: An African Rescue (Cineworld, Vue) sees rooster Toto on a mission to rescue his offspring before they end up on the menu at a gourmet food event.
In both cases, distinctly underwhelmed reviews suggest you might be better off buckling a swash with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, still on the prowl at Cineworld, Everyman and Vue.
Cineworld and Vue are extending their regular budget screenings throughout the week, with Cineworld offering daily screenings of Matilda the Musical and Disney adventure Strange World for £2.50, while Vue are going with DC League of Super-Pets, screening daily from Sat 1st with tickets priced at £2.49.
Meanwhile, there are slightly bigger pets on offer at City Screen in How to Train Your Dragon 2, showing on Sat 1st in their Kids Club strand (tickets £3.30).
And if you’re in need of something to keep your toddlers entertained, then Julia Donaldson has you covered – Vue have a daily double bill of Zog and The Gruffalo’s Child (tickets £3.99), while City Screen are showing The Snail and the Whale on Fri 31st and Mon 3rd (tickets £3.30).
Other screenings
Let’s start with a couple of other new releases this week: showing at Everyman (it’s also out on Apple TV+), Tetris is a Social Network-style telling of the story behind the iconic video game, starring the ever-watchable Taron Egerton as the man who brought it to the masses – in the event of screenings being over-subscribed, ushers will attempt to fit in late-comers in the most geometrically efficient way…
Over at City Screen, Emily Watson stars alongside Aftersun’s Paul Mescal as a conflicted mother and her prodigal son in God’s Creatures, a tense drama set in a windswept Irish fishing village.
Sci-fi horror Infinity Pool continues at Vue – the latest macabre outing from Brandon ‘son-of-David’ Cronenberg, this tale of crime and punishment (and clones) stars newly anointed scream queen Mia Goth, currently also creeping audiences out in Pearl.
Less gory but no less tense, Arabic-language political thriller Cairo Conspiracy sees a young university student caught up in a ruthless power struggle following the sudden death of the institution’s Grand Imam – it previews at City Screen on Tues 5th.
Two very different inspirational figures are the subjects of documentaries at Everyman and City Screen on Mon 4th – Never Forget Tibet (Everyman) tells the Dalai Lama’s story in his own words, while All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (City Screen) details New York photographer Nan Goldin’s successful activism against the wealthy Sackler family.
The latter screening is part of City Screen’s reDiscover strand, all films in which are currently free of charge for members (non-members pay the reduced rate of £8.00).
When it comes to hanging off a clock tower, Harold Lloyd was doing it before Christopher Lloyd was even born: the legendary silent-film star’s 1923 comedy classic Safety Last! celebrates its 100th anniversary at City Screen on the particularly appropriate date of April 1st.
It’s one of a plethora of old favourites on offer at City Screen this week, with top billing going to 90s arthouse classic Three Colours: Blue, the first part of director Krzysztof Kieślowski’s celebrated trilogy (parts two and three are to follow in the coming weeks) – you can catch it on Fri 31st and daily from Sun 2nd to Weds 5th.
Meanwhile, their celebration of A24 – the studio responsible for many of the best and buzziest US indie releases of the last decade – continues apace with screenings of Barry Jenkins’ (eventually) Oscar-winning coming-of-age drama Moonlight on Sun 2nd, and Ari Aster’s chilling folk horror Midsommar on Mon 3rd – these are also reDiscover screenings so members can see them for free.
And we’ll finish with two endlessly quotable comedy classics: raise a White Russian as The Big Lebowski celebrates 25 years of bums, nihilists and stolen rugs at City Screen (Sat 1st) and Vue (Fri 31st, Sat 1st, Tues 4th), while Lindsay Lohan takes on the Mean Girls at Everyman (Sun 2nd, Tues 4th) – still fetch after all these years…