It looks like we’ve mostly eased out of the midyear blockbuster season. That’s not to say that we don’t have big movies on the horizon, but film fans can expect things to get darker (or, conversely, lightweight) and more awards season-minded from this point onward. This week offers a trio of diverse new features, while on the special screening front you can check out Cape Town Opera Presents: Carmen – a more accessible take on Georges Bizet’s iconic, fiery opera– at select Ster Kinekor theatres.
Likely to be the top earner of this week’s new releases is Spa Weekend, which is ideal for fans of raucous women-out-of-control comedies like Bridesmaids, Girls Trip and Bad Moms. Featuring the impressive comedic ensemble of Isla Fisher, Leslie Mann, Anna Faris, and Michelle Buteau, Spa Weekend sees a three friends realize that in the midst of their busy lives, they’ve forgotten how to take care of themselves. They try to rectify that with a luxury spa retreat, but that ambition is derailed when the fourth trainwreck member of their band pops up.
Look out for our Spa Weekend review soon.
Fill that kinetic Jason Statham action movie hole in your life with Mutiny. Here the British tough guy plays a former Special Forces operative and London Metropolitan police officer whose move into private security ends in disaster when his billionaire boss and friend is murdered. Framed for the death, our hero’s one-man quest for justice leads him to board to a cargo ship where he uncovers an international conspiracy involving a vast human trafficking ring. Also with the familiar faces of Annabelle Wallis and Adrian Lester.
Kicked off by genre auteur James Wan, astral projection-themed horror franchise Insidious returns after a three-year absence with Insidious: Out of the Further. In this sixth series entry, the action centres on young mother Gemma (Amelia Eve) who discovers that not only can she travel into the Further, a purgatorial realm of lost souls, but she has the ability to bring back what lives there to the real world. Cue demons lining up to enter our reality. Look out for Lin Shaye reprising her role as paranormal expert Elise Rainier.