Home Entertainment Movies out Today: 14 September 2018

Movies out Today: 14 September 2018

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I’m not going to be seeing any of the new releases this weekend. Not because they’re all terrible (only the vast majority of them are), but because it’s Comic-Con Africa weekend!

The Predator

Age Restriction: 16 H L V

From the outer reaches of space to the backwoods of southern Georgia, the hunt comes home in Shane Black’s explosive reinvention of the Predator series. Now, the universe’s most lethal hunters are stronger, smarter and deadlier than ever before. And only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and an evolutionary biology professor can prevent the end of the human race.

You can expect a full review from Kervyn for this on Monday (blame Comic-Con again) but the short version is that The Predator often feels like a pure 80s action movie, which is bloody fantastic. Unfortunately, too many useless comic relief characters who give us mostly awkward and flat comedy beats drag things down. When it’s good, it’s really good, but when it’s bad, it’s bad.

Critical Hit: To be revealed later
Rotten Tomatoes: 40% (Rotten)
Metacritic: 50 (Mixed or Average Reviews)

Billionaire Boys Club

Age Restriction: 16 D L S V

A group of wealthy boys in Los Angeles during the early 1980s establish a ‘get-rich-quick’ scam that turns deadly.

Derivative and boring, Billionaire Boys Club would have been bad even if Kevin Spacey’s career hadn’t crashed and burned. You’ve seen better versions of this kind of story over and over before, so feel free to give this one a miss.

Rotten Tomatoes: 9% (Rotten)
Metacritic: 30 (Generally Unfavourable Reviews)

Submergence

Age Restriction: 16 V

James (James McAvoy) is a British agent under the cover of a water engineer, while Danny (Alicia Vikander) is a bio-mathematician working on a deep-sea diving project to explore the origin of life on our planet. On a chance encounter in a remote resort in Normandy where they both prepare for their respective missions, they fall rapidly, and unexpectedly, into each other’s arms and a deliriously wild love affair develops, even though their jobs are destined to separate them. Danny sets off on a perilous quest to dive to the bottom of the ocean. James’s assignment takes him to Somalia, where he is sucked into a geopolitical vortex that puts him in grave danger. Both characters are subject to different kinds of isolation as they pine for each other; their determination to reconnect becomes as much an existential journey as a love story.

While leads McAvoy and Vikander are undoubtedly capable and insufferably photogenic, their journey is hamstrung by an overwrought narrative that drowns the film in philosophical trappings and drains away all dramatic tension.

Rotten Tomatoes: 21% (Rotten)
Metacritic: 38 (Generally Unfavourable Reviews)

Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero

Age Restriction: 7-9 PG V

With the war to end all wars looming, a young army “doughboy” Robert Conroy has his life forever changed when a little dog with a stubby tail wanders into camp as the men of the 102nd Infantry Regiment train on the grounds of Yale University. Conroy gives his new friend a name, a family, and a chance to embark on the adventure that would define a century. Despite lacking formal military working dog training, Stubby the dog and his human companions find themselves in the trenches of France and on the path to history. French Infantryman Gaston Baptiste befriends the duo and accompanies them along their epic journey through harsh conditions and incredible acts of courage. For his valorous actions, Stubby is recognized as the first canine ever promoted to the rank of Sergeant in U.S. Army history.

“The War to End All Wars” seems like an odd setting for a cutesy animated movie about a dog, but here we are and, apparently, it’s not all bad. Based on a bizarre, truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story, Sgt Stubby might be lacklustre in the animation department, but makes up for that with cleverness and a surprising level of historical accuracy.

Rotten Tomatoes: 84% (Fresh)
Metacritic: 57 (Mixed or Average Reviews)

For more information about the age restrictions, click here.

Last Updated: September 14, 2018

7 Comments

  1. Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

    September 14, 2018 at 14:26

    Fuck rotten tomatoes. They know sweet fuckall about movies. Lowest common denominator and all..

    Reply

    • GooseZA

      September 17, 2018 at 09:48

      The thing with RT is that most people don’t realise that 34% rotten score doesn’t mean 3.4/10. It means that 34% of critics liked the movie.

      If you look below the freshness rating there’s an average score for both reviewers and audience. in this case predator got 5/10 from critics and 3/5 from the audience.

      Granted, these are still not great scores, but my point is that people misread RT all the time. The freshness score is NOT a score out of ten. So a 95% fresh movie can still be a 7/10.

      Reply

      • Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

        September 17, 2018 at 15:43

        Thank you, however was already aware of that. You can’t take a website seriously if they aggregate movie critics reviews. That’s like saying who’s the most redeemable scumbag conman. So, fuck rotten tomatoes.

        Reply

  2. For the Emperor!

    September 16, 2018 at 17:32

    I really liked Predator, and enjoyed the comedic moments as well. I expected much less, and only saw the first trailer, so I guess perhaps I was pleasantly surprised? Look, nobody should expect an MCU movie here, just silly fun with action and aliens 🙂

    Reply

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