Movies out Today: 22 January 2016

In very sad news, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has ended its 5 week run on IMAX, to make way for the highly rated, 12 times Oscar nominated The Revenant. So if you didn’t catch it on IMAX, you’ve now officially missed out.

• The Revenant

Inspired by true events, THE REVENANT is an immersive and visceral cinematic experience capturing one man’s epic adventure of survival and the extraordinary power of the human spirit. In an expedition of the uncharted American wilderness, legendary explorer Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is brutally attacked by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team. In a quest to survive, Glass endures unimaginable grief as well as the betrayal of his confidant John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). Guided by sheer will and the love of his family, Glass must navigate a vicious winter in a relentless pursuit to live and find redemption. THE REVENANT is directed and co-written by renowned filmmaker, Academy Award (R) winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman, Babel).

Not much can be said about The Revenant that we haven’t already said. You know that it’s one of the most highly anticipated movies of this year (that isn’t based on a comic book at least). You know it’s up for like, a billion Oscars (including a nomination for Leo, I’m holding thumbs on that one!). You know that we liked it so much we reviewed it twice. Alwynne went into great detail as to why he gave it 4.5 / 5 stars, while James was succinct as usual with his Review in 4 Questions that gave it 4.9 / 5 stars. So basically, we rate this movie as damn near perfect, that’s pretty much all you need to know.

• Daddy’s Home

An affable radio executive finds himself competing for the affections of his step-children following the unexpected reappearance of his wife’s ex-husband in this Paramount Pictures comedy.

If you’ve seen The Other Guys, you know that Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg have had great comedic chemistry together. Sadly, it doesn’t shine through this time. Daddy’s Home ends up being too safe and too predictable, and while it has some genuinely good moments and a few decent laughs, it’s just not enough. Ending up with only 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, this one is for die-hard Ferrell/Wahlberg fans only.

• Norm of the North

TRIGGER WARNING: this trailer is appallingly bad, watch it at your own risk.

A polar bear of many words, Norm’s greatest gripe is simple: there is no room for tourists in the Arctic. But when a maniacal developer threatens to build luxury condos in his own backyard, Norm does what all normal polar bears would do…he heads to New York City to stop it. With a cast of ragtag lemmings at his side, Norm takes on the big apple, big business and a big identity crisis to save the day.

So, remember this piece from last week when I was surprised at how there was nothing on our site about Norm of the North? And I took it upon myself to look it up and watch those two trailers, and they were just… abysmal? Well, it turns out that my saying that this movie looks “unutterably awful” and that those were “the worst trailers I have ever seen” was being rather nice. With a whole fat 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, there is literally no reason to go watch this. At all. Like, seriously, please don’t, Lions Gate do not deserve your money.

Last Updated: January 22, 2016