Last week’s side-by-side release of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, and the live-action Lilo & Stitch, resulted in a record-breaking “out of season” period for South African cinemas. This Friday, three more features join the mix, along with the following limited release options.
For K-pop fans, there’s a live screening of j-hope Tour ’HOPE ON THE STAGE’ in Japan on 31 May. Opera fans are spoiled for choice, with recordings of both Strauss’s Salome and Rossini’s Il Barbiere Di Siviglia (AKA The Barber of Seville). Finally, there’s the one-week-only return of 80s teen classic The Breakfast Club.
Was anyone really expecting Karate Kid: Legends? Set following the events of Cobrai Kai and 2010’s reboot The Karate Kid, Legends is the next installment in the coming-of-age martial arts franchise, which brings together its two major narrative branches. This time around the teen underdog is Li Fong (Ben Wang), a kung fu prodigy forced to move to New York City from Beijing with his mother (Ming-Na Wen). Struggling to fit in, he nonetheless makes friends, but must come to their defence by entering a karate competition. To diversify Li’s skills, his old teacher, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) enlists Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) for help.
The work of filmmaker Wes Anderson is an acquired taste, but the auteur has a loyal following, and his fans will be pleased to know that his latest, The Phoenician Scheme, is a return to form after maybe getting too fussy and indulgent in recent times.
In this dark offbeat comedy, Benicio del Toro plays a ruthless 1950s industrialist whose underhand dealings have made him the enemy of… everyone. With his estranged daughter (Mia Threapleton) in tow, and a new business advisor (Michael Cera), he embarks on a risky new venture that makes him the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists and determined assassins. As expected for an Anderson film, the cast is stuffed with stars, including Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson and Benedict Cumberbatch,
To wrap up your new movie options there’s action comedy Guns Up. Kevin James’s devoted husband and father is more than an ex-cop. He’s also secretly a mob henchman. With plans to open a restaurant with his wife (Christina Ricci), he’s on the brink of bowing out of the Family. Then his last job goes horribly wrong and the task of protecting his loved ones means revealing his real profession. Also with Luis Guzmán and Melissa Leo.