Yikes, there’s slim pickings for our new releases this week. My recommendation? Go outside, get some fresh air, spend time with your friends and loved ones. Or, just hold out for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them next week.
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Skiptrace
Age Restriction: 10-12 PG V
For years, by-the-book Hong Kong detective Benny Chan has tried to avenge his partner’s murder at the hands of a drug lord. When Benny learns that freewheeling American gambler Connor Watts has the evidence he needs, he teams with Connor to get justice.
You know, being a movie reviewer isn’t all glitz and glamour. Occasionally, you have to suffer for your craft. Kervyn, being the great man that he is, suffered through Skiptrace so that no one else has to. Take his word for it, this is a sub-par effort, and he is speaking as a huge Jackie Chan fan. Even the die-hards may want to think twice about Skiptrace.
TheMovies review score: 2.5/5 stars
Rotten Tomatoes: 35%
Metacritic: 50
Book now at Nu Metro or Ster Kinekor
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Blood Father
Age Restriction: 16 LV
John Link is an ex-convict who fights to protect his estranged daughter from the drug cartel that is hunting her down. John must use his connections from his past and his skills as an ex-criminal to keep him and his daughter alive.
If, somehow, you remain a Mel Gibson fan, you’ll probably enjoy Blood Father. Likewise if you’re a fan of the badass-dad genre (that’s a genre?) perpetuated by movies like Taken. A slow-burning thriller that relies mainly on Gibson’s charisma to skate by, it’s a very middle-of-the-road effort, with not enough action to get your heart pumping.
TheMovies review score: 3.5/5 stars
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Metacritic: 66
Book now at Nu Metro or Ster Kinekor
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Max Steel
Age Restriction: 10V
16 year old Max McGrath has just moved to a new town and is desperately trying to fit in, when he discovers his body can generate the universe’s most powerful energy. Unknown to Max, a slightly rebellious and hilarious techno-organic extraterrestrial named Steel has been keeping an eye on Max, wanting a piece of Max’s superhuman energy. When they finally meet, they discover that together they form “Max Steel,” a superhero possessing a powerful strength beyond anything known in our world. These two unlikely friends soon find themselves hunted by sinister forces who want to control Max’s powers, as well as an unstoppable enemy from another galaxy.
Forgettable, banal and downright lazy, Max Steel is a complete waste of time. The story is boring, the characters are unlikeable, the editing is haphazard and the effects are terrible. Don’t bother with this one, not even if they pay you.
Rotten Tomatoes: 0%
Metacritic: 22
Book now at Nu Metro or Ster Kinekor
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Alone in Berlin
Age Restriction: 10-12 PG V
Berlin, 1940. Working class couple Otto and Anna Quangel receive the news that their only son has lost his life in the battlefield and decide to resist the Nazi regime in their very own way. Soon the Gestapo is hunting “the threat”.
Despite the pretty packaging, Alone in Berlin is a dull, predictable movie. Too perfunctory for true arthouse cinema, and too melancholy for mainstream, instead it sits in an uneasy middle-ground, achieving absolutely nothing.
Rotten Tomatoes: 38%
Book now at Nu Metro or Ster Kinekor
For more information about the age restrictions, click here.
Last Updated: November 18, 2016
Kromas Ryder
November 18, 2016 at 13:34
Fresh air …. what is that?
Andre Fourie
November 18, 2016 at 13:39
I think I can watch Blood Father. Rest, bleh.
For the Emperor!
November 18, 2016 at 14:02
It is quite a decent movie.
Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0
November 18, 2016 at 13:40
Haha Max Steel…….. oh wait, it’s a real movie O_o
Original Heretic
November 18, 2016 at 13:41
Sounds like it should be a character in that Genital Jousting game.
Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0
November 18, 2016 at 13:46
LOL!
Andre Fourie
November 18, 2016 at 13:43
Or is it?