Just because it's Halloween week don't go expecting a whole new array of horror films to enjoy, as bar one or two exceptions, we're in for a tame October 31st. It's not a bad week for fans of mumblecore, American indies and Emily Blunt though, so good news for me.
Back for a fifth installment in the franchise, Bruce Willis's world weary cop John McClane is heading to Russia on undisclosed business, although the possibility that he's going to pick out a mail order bride who will put up with him hasn't been officially discounted yet (Bride Hard? BBC Three would love that).
To avoid the possible confusion of having two main characters in a film with one of the most popular first names in the world, John McClane Jr is now going by the name of Jack, because apparently there isn't already enough characters in action cinema with that name. Jack's living in Moscow trying to run away from the inevitability of inheriting his father's hairline (or maybe he's doing some kind of government agent type stuff. I don't really know), until he runs into his dad in a foreign city with a population of 11.5 million and they start going around bickering at each other and shooting at commie scumbags. Hey, I'm just telling you what I saw. As well as this new trailer we also have the above teaser poster (exclusively revealed at EW.com but now making its way around the internet on its way to becoming the latest meme), which takes McClane's most famous catchphrase and repositions it as some sort of jokey wink for the fans of the franchise, whilst also coming across as potentially a little bit xenophobic. At least it's a step up from the fourth installment's method of covering up a swear word with the sound of gunfire, which immediately pointed out what's wrong with the ratings system in America. A Good Day To Die Hard is released on February 14th 2013.
Sweet zombie Jesus this looks terrifying. Instead of walking the well worn path of being a poor interpretation of the original, this new remake of the 1981 horror classic seems to have kept what was so scary about the original (as well as pinching elements from the sequel) and added a bunch of new intriguing ideas. What's that you say? A female lead?
Rather than deal with fan uproar over who could play a new version of Ash, they've side stepped the issue by not including the character at all.Directed by newcomer Fede Alvarez, this remake (that for all intents and purposes could be a Bruce Campbell-less sequel) sees Suburgatory star Jane Levy and friends descend on the familiar cabin in the woods for a fun filled weekend of sex, drugs and ancient spirit awakening. In what must be one of the best cut trailers in years, we get a sneak preview of the horrific action in store including some terrifyingly gory body horror and the return of the infamous "tree rape".
Arguably more important than me being okay with this film coming into existence, so are original director Sam Raimi and star Bruce Campbell, both on board here as producers. In a grammatically confusing move that I'm sure no-one else has noticed, this new film is titled Evil Dead as opposed to the original being The Evil Dead, meaning that whilst this film might feature The Evil Dead, the original film will always be THE Evil Dead. Nice move Raimi, I can see what you did there.
Screened at this year's London Film Festival, this is director Cate Shortland's long awaited follow up to Somersault, Lore.
Set in the days after Hitler's death and the end of World War II, Lore sees the eponymous teenager take her younger siblings across treacherous ground as they aim for safety away from the downfall of what they thought was true about the war and the involvement of their father, a high ranking officer in Hitler's army.
It's a week dominated by one particular release, but there's also a highly anticipated boxset highlight and with it, the high definition debut of a number of long overdue films.
Released earlier in the summer and completely missing the whole nation's new found interest in running and jumping and all that other stuff that came off the back of the Olympics, the Noel Clarke scripted Fast Girls told the story of two young women from different backgrounds finding common ground in their love of sport and forging an unlikely friendship. Inspirational stuff, really.
Well, the distributors have decided to try and make the most of the nation's post-Olympics pride by re-jigging the DVD cover to make it look a bit more patriotic. So, now instead of simple plain, everyday training gear, the girls are now dressed in red, white and blue with GBR blazoned across their chests. They're also sponsored by Aviva, which I'm sure is an absolutely crucial detail that warrants inclusion on the DVD cover. They've also decided to, ahem, boost their audience by photoshopping some noticeably larger breasts onto the athletically figured star Lenora Crichlow, thereby increasing the odds that when dirty old men in rain macs are blindly Google searching for movies about "fast girls", they might consider this to be perfectly serviceable evening viewing material after all. Fast Girls is available on DVD from the 8th October.
As we wade into October, so appear a plethora of horror films, including a bunch of classics seeing a re-release. It's the offbeat indie comedy-drama that provides the best disc of the week, though.
