Every month, we’ll tell you what upcoming movies are screening in cinemas islandwide, and which are the ones that you must watch.
Overview of October’s releases
October is a relatively quiet month although it sees a good handful of Chinese films coming out. It’s a mish-mash of lower profile films and other movies with strange premises, but the strangest one of them all is also the most highly anticipated — “Doctor Strange”, or “Marvel’s Doctor Strange” as the full title is called. There are also a good number of horror films, though none of them are likely to exceed “Blair Witch” in terms of scariness.
Highlight: Sausage Party (6 October)
Sausage Party, the first R-rated CG animated movie, is about one sausage leading a group of supermarket products on a quest to discover the truth about their existence and what really happens when they become chosen to leave the grocery store.
Deep down, we’re all childish adults who like the occasional dirty joke or two, especially when they are veiled references in animated films or children. So it’s high time we got an entirely R21 animated movie to indulge that inner filth in all of us. No more sniggering at those off-colour references — you get to laugh out loud in this raunchy comedy that’s made by adults, for adults.
Highlight: Inferno (13 October)
Academy Award winner Ron Howard returns to direct the latest bestseller in Dan Brown’s (Da Vinci Code) billion-dollar Robert Langdon series, Inferno, which finds the famous symbologist (again played by Tom Hanks) on a trail of clues tied to the great Dante himself. When Langdon wakes up in an Italian hospital with amnesia, he teams up with Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), a doctor he hopes will help him recover his memories. Together, they race across Europe and against the clock to stop a madman from unleashing a global virus that would wipe out half of the world’s population.
Robert Langdon has amnesia? That’s rather convenient, but it’s a necessary complication in a world where he’s solved umpteen historical mysteries. We see him return to pit his magnificent code-breaking skills against psychotic villains who have awfully convoluted motivations and plots. But that’s the whole point of it, isn’t it — to see our hero make sense of what appears to be nonsense.
Highlight: Marvel’s Doctor Strange (27 October)
After his career is destroyed, a brilliant but arrogant surgeon (Benedict Cumberbatch) gets a new lease on life when a sorcerer takes him under his wing and trains him to defend the world against evil.
Of course, Benedict Cumberbatch has to play a superhero with an eccentric premise in his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut right? Just like “Ant Man”, the world of “Doctor Strange” introduces new perspectives and a dimension that we’ve never seen before. Want to bet that the next Infinity Stone is going to pop up here?
6 October
Sausage Party
Genre: Animated comedy
Cast: Seth Rogen, Edward Norton, Kristen Wiig, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd
Tsukiji Wonderland
Genre: Documentary
Cast: Jiro Ono, Rene Redzepi, Theodore C. Bestor
The Girl on the Train
Genre: Mystery thriller
Cast: Emily Blunt, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life
Genre: Comedy
Cast: Jacob Hopkins, Alexa Nisenson, Griffin Gluck, Lauren Graham, Rob Riggle, Thomas Barbusca, Andy Daly, Adam Pally
Operation Mekong (湄公河行动)
Genre: War action film
Cast: Zhang Hanyu, Eddie Peng, Joyce Feng
Mission Milano (偷天特务)
Genre: Action adventure comedy
Cast: Andy Lau, Huang Xiao Ming, Ou Yang Nana, Wong Cho Lam, Shen Teng, Michelle Hu
Good Kids
Genre: Comedy
Cast: Nicholas Braun, Mateo Arias, Zoey Deutch, Israel Broussard, Demain Bichir, Ashley Judd
13 October
Inferno
Genre: Mystery thriller
Cast: Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Omar Sy, Ben Foster, Irrfan Khan, Sidse Babett Knudsen
The Disappointments Room
Genre: Thriller-drama
Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Charles Carroll, Mike Bizon, Lucas Till, Gerald McRaney
The Tenants Downstairs (樓下的房客)
Genre: Horror
Cast: Simon Yam, Li Xing, Yu An-Shun, Hou Yan-Xi, Angel Ho Ivy Shao Yu-Wei, Kaiser Chuang Kai Hsun, Lee Kang Sheng
A Tale of Love and Darkness
Genre: Historical biographical drama
Cast: Natalie Portman, Makram Khoury, Shira Haas, Neta Riskin
L.O.R.D.: Legend of Ravaging Dynasties (爵迹)
Genre: Fantasy
Cast: Fan Bingbing, Kris Wu, Yang Mi, Roy Wang, Lin Yun, Amber Kuo
The Accountant
Genre: Action thriller
Cast: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson
I.T.
Genre: Mystery crime drama
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Stefanie Scott, Anna Friel, Michael Nyqvist, James Frecheville
20 October
I Am A Hero
Genre: Horror action film
Cast: Yo Oizumi, Kasumi Arimura, Masami Nagasawa, Hisashi Yoshizawa, Yoshinori Okada
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
Genre: Action crime drama
Cast: Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders, Danika Yarosh, Aldis Hodge, Robert Knepper, Patrick Heusinger, Holt McCallany, Robert Knepper
Julieta
Genre: Drama
Cast: Adriana Ugarte, Michelle Jenner, Rossy de Palma
Max Steel
Genre: Action adventure
Cast: Ben Winchell, Ana Villafane, Andy Garcia, Josh Brener, Maria Bello
The Neon Demon
Genre: Horror thriller
Cast: Elle Fanning, Karl Glusman, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves
A Monster Calls
Genre: Fantasy drama
Cast: Liam Neeson, Sigourney Weaver, Geraldine Chaplin, Lewis MacDougall, Felicity Jones, Toby Kebbell
Hell or High Water
Genre: Crime drama
Cast: Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges, Gil Birmingham
Genre: Action drama
Cast: Nicholas Cage, Matt Lanter, Brian Presley, James Remar, Tom Sizemore, Thomas Jane
27 October
Marvel’s Doctor Strange
Genre: Action adventure superhero movie
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams, Tilda Swinton, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Heartfall Arises (惊心破)
Genre: Crime thriller
Cast: Nicholas Tse, Sean Lau, Tong Liya, Mavis Fan, Vengo Gao, Babyjohn Choi
The Monster
Genre: Horror
Cast: Zoe Kazan, Ella Ballentine, Scott Speedman
One Day
Genre: Romance
Cast: Chantavit Dhanasevi, Nittha Jirayungyurn, Teerapat Sajakul
American Pastoral
Genre: Drama
Cast: Rupert Evans, Valorie Curry, Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Connelly, Ewan McGregor
This review was also posted on Yahoo!.
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