The Man from U.N.C.L.E
August 2015

Hollywood has always had a love affair with spy movies, but this year there seem to be a few more than usual. First up we had Kingsman: The Secret Service, which amps up the action and gadgets into one glorious superspy romp. The Man from U.N.C.L.E however is entirely different concept altogether, and should sound familiar to anybody who grew up in the 60s.

It sees the directing talents of Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes, Snatch), who updates the look of the original to give it an early James Bond-esque feel. It also stars the Man of Steel himself, Henry Cavill, who proves that a red cape is not always needed to save the day.

Best Bit: 0:37 for a bit of car tango.

Straight Outta Compton
August 2015

Any publicity is good publicity, right? With the recent murder charge brought against Suge Knight, the movie Straight Outta Compton certainly received a fair share of unintended promotion, since it was on its set where Knight’s problems started. The movie tells the story of the rise of gangsta rap group N.W.A. (themselves no strangers to controversy), and stars O'Shea Jackson Jr. who bears an uncanny resemblance to Ice Cube.

Best Bit: 2:30 when a riot vehicle takes a detour through a house.

Hitman: Agent 47

August 2015

Hitman: Agent 47 might not exactly be a movie that we were waiting for with baited breath, seeing that the first one was a bit more miss than hit, but the new trailer certainly upped our expectations. Starring the relatively unknown Rupert Friend (The Young Victoria) playing our protagonist simply known as Agent 47, and also featuring geek favourite Zachary Quinto (Spock in Star Trek), Hitman: Agent 47 could just provide the same “skiet, skop and donner” action that the video games have in droves.

Best Bit: 0:48 – you are locked in with me.

Pitch Perfect 2
May 2015

If you are sitting by your desk thinking that all you need right now is a straight up shot of a cappella singing, followed by a chaser of comedy, then this is your lucky day. Fat Amy and her comrades in song are back in Pitch Perfect 2, and by the looks of it, the second movie might just be where the Barden Bellas hit their stride.

Best Bit: Every moment the amazing Rebel Wilson opens her mouth.

Poltergeists
July 2015

Remakes doesn’t usually catch our interest, but when the 1982 horror classic Poltergeist gets the Sam Riami treatment, well that’s a different story. You should know the score – a family moves into a new home filled with loads of spirits, who proceed to assist the family through a myriad of trials, providing loads of laughs but also some heartfelt moments along the way. Not.

Once again, the movie seems set to warn about the stupidity of building your property on an old burial ground (you’re much safer building on top of a new one, you see), with Sam Rockwell (Seven Psychopaths) and Rosemary DeWitt (United States of Tara) starring as the concerned parents.

Best Bit: 2:19 when Maddy moves.

Last Knights
Somewhere in 2015

Knights, in many forms and depictions, are hot right now. First it was Kingsman: The Secret Service, whose agents were codenamed after King Arthur’s knights of the Round Table. In just a week’s time The Order: 1886 will hit the PS4, depicting knights in an alternate Victorian London fighting against mutant half breed monsters. Now on the movie front, Last Knights has finally ventured out of its studio limbo to grace us with its first trailer.  

The premise is pretty standard fare. Raiden (Clive Owen) and his dishonoured master (Morgan Freeman) go medieval on a corrupt ruler (Aksel Hennie), looking like he could be Severus Snape’s younger brother.

Best Bit: 2:20 for some slicing and dicing

Jauja
March 2015

For a movie that looks like you’re viewing it through a Viewmaster, we suspect you would need a lot of patience for Jauja. A Danish speaking Viggo Mortensen plays a captain whose daughter goes missing in Patagonia.  Although the movie has a certain Western flavour we’re quite certain Argentinean director Lisandro Alonso might not have a John Wayne crowd in mind.

Best Bit: 1:10 Who is stealing the hat?

Insurgent
March 2015