Movies out Today: 12 August 2016

We have an odd mix of movies out today, with the highly anticipated Pete’s Dragon bringing fun for the whole family, and Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates bringing fun for, well, no one.

• Pete’s Dragon

For years, old wood carver Mr. Meacham (Robert Redford) has delighted local children with his tales of the fierce dragon that resides deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. To his daughter, Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), who works as a forest ranger, these stories are little more than tall tales…until she meets Pete (Oakes Fegley). Pete is a mysterious 10-year-old with no family and no home who claims to live in the woods with a giant, green dragon named Elliott. And from Pete’s descriptions, Elliott seems remarkably similar to the dragon from Mr. Meacham’s stories. With the help of Natalie (Oona Laurence), an 11-year-old girl whose father Jack (Wes Bentley) owns the local lumber mill, Grace sets out to determine where Pete came from, where he belongs, and the truth about this dragon.

I hate using clichés like “fun for the whole family” (and so far I’ve used it twice!), but that’s exactly what Pete’s Dragon is. Everyone is going to love this movie, it’s charming and wonderful with beautiful, believable effects that draw you in to its wondrous world. Just take a lot of tissues, as that ol’ Disney charm has a way of getting under your skin and making you feel all the feels.

TheMovies review score: 4/5 stars
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
Metacritic: 73

Book now for 2D at Nu Metro or Ster Kinekor
Book now for 3D at Nu Metro or Ster Kinekor

• Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

Hard-partying brothers Mike (Adam Devine) and Dave (Zac Efron) place an online ad to find the perfect dates (Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza) for their sister’s Hawaiian wedding. Hoping for a wild getaway, the boys instead find themselves outsmarted and out-partied by the uncontrollable duo.

If you watched the trailer and it feels a bit familiar, that’s because Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates is a mish-mash of all the clichés of the genre, even though it tried desperately to avoid them. Worse than that, and despite the fantastic cast, the jokes are disappointingly more miss than hit.  You’ve seen this before all, and you’ve seen it done better.

Rotten Tomatoes: 38%
Metacritic: 50

Book now at Nu Metro or Ster Kinekor

• Florence Foster Jenkins

A wealthy New York heiress (Meryl Streep) attempts to become an opera singer despite her horrible singing voice. Hugh Grant and Rebecca Ferguson co-star in this biopic directed by Stephen Frears.

Based on the incredibly true story of the real life socialite, this is one of those cases where the truth is definitely stranger than fiction. Florence Foster Jenkins is absurd and silly, but charming and heart-warming all the same. That goes for both the movie and the main character, who is expertly portrayed by Meryl Streep. No big news there though, she has like a billion Oscars for a reason.

Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Metacritic: 68

Book now at Nu Metro or Ster Kinekor

• Alison The Movie

Raped. Disemboweled. Nearly decapitated. Dumped on the outskirts of a nature reserve, dead…or so they thought. She needed a hero that night, so that’s what she became. This is Alison’s tale. A tale of monsters, miracles and hope.

More than twenty years ago, South Africa (and the world) were rocked by the horrific story of what happened to Alison Botha, a young student who was viciously attacked and left for dead. Now,  the documentary Alison the Movie chronicles both the attack, and the aftermath, as Alison stitched both herself and her life back together.

Book now at Nu Metro

Last Updated: August 12, 2016