It a week for all-star casts and directorial debuts in this week’s new releases
1. Ocean’s 8 (Warner Brothers, 4,145 Theaters,110 Minutes, Rated PG-13 for language, drug use, and some suggestive content, Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer at press time: 71% Fresh [133 reviews]): Sometimes, crime runs in the family. Take Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock). She has inherited the same affinity for grand scale theft her brother Danny had. She even inherited the idea of using said caper as a form of revenge against someone who did her wrong and a talent for picking the right people for the job. But what she really needs is the same luck if she is going to steal that $150 million necklace from the Met Gala.
This film has a better cast that the Ocean’s Eleven (there are three Oscar winners in the cast here, there were only two in the cast who had won an Oscar at the time Ocean’s Eleven came out) but the film is missing the Steven Soderburgh. The trailer makes it look like Gary Ross is doing his best Steven Soderburgh impression, but its not the same.
But with a caper film, a lot depends on the plot and the camaraderie of the thieves involved in the heist. This film should do well in that area.
2. Hotel Artemis (Global Road, 2,407 Theaters, 93 Minutes, Rated R for violence and language throughout, some sexual references, and brief drug use, Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer at press time: 60% Fresh [65 reviews]): This is the weekend for A-list casts in crime films, right?
In 2028, chaos rules on the streets in a riot-torn Los Angeles. Crime is on the rise, and there is one place that the criminals can turn to for their healthcare needs–the Hotel Artemis. As long as you have a subscription and follow the rules, they’ll patch you up without a second thought. However, when a band of thieves inadvertently steal something from a ruthless crime lord, the Hotel’s rules go out the window and a battle begins.
This is the film debut of Drew Pearce, writer of Iron Man 3 and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. That Tomatometer score isn’t all that great, but come on. It’s Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown and Jeff Goldblum in a Grindhouse-y crime action film. It can’t be all bad.
3. Hereditary (A24, 2,964 Theaters, 127 Minutes, Rated R for horror violence, disturbing images, language, drug use and brief graphic nudity, Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer at press time: 94% Fresh [143 reviews]): I would like to point out that this is a horror movie and horror movies seldom get this good reviews. They don’t really need to be “good” to be scary, and as long as they are scary, people will flock to them. But to be a good film and scary? Watch out.
And what makes this all the more unique is that it is director Ari Aster’s feature film directing debut. That’s writing your own ticket to Hollywood. It will be interesting to see where he goes from here.
The film deals with a woman (Toni Collette) dealing with the death of her estranged mother. In the process of going through her mother’s things, she found out things that she never knew about her family, including something quite sinister that was passed down to her and her children.
Next week, the new releases bring us something incredible. Join us then.
