In Cinemas this week (22 – 28 March)

Jack the Giant Slayer 3D

The ancient war is reignited when a young farmhand unwittingly opens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants. Unleashed on the Earth for the first time in centuries, the giants strive to reclaim the land they once lost, forcing the young man, Jack into the battle of his life to stop them. Fighting for a kingdom, its people, and the love of a brave princess, he comes face to face with the unstoppable warriors he thought only existed in legend-and gets the chance to become a legend himself.

Cast:
Nicholas Hoult (Jack)
Ewan McGregor (Elmont)
Stanley Tucci (Roderick)
Eleanor Tomlinson (Isabelle)

Director: Bryan Singer
Writer: Darren Lemke, Christopher McQuarrie
Runtime: 114 min
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2013

Hitchcock

In 1959, Alfred Hitchcock and his wife, Alma, are at the top of their creative game as filmmakers amid disquieting insinuations about it being time to retire. To recapture his youth’s artistic daring, Alfred decides his next film will adapt the lurid horror novel, Psycho, over everyone’s misgivings. Unfortunately, as Alfred self-finances and labors on this film, Alma finally loses patience with his roving eye and controlling habits with his actresses. When an ambitious friend lures her to collaborate on a work of their own, the resulting marital tension colors Alfred’s work even as the novel’s inspiration haunts his dreams.

Cast:
Anthony Hopkins (Alfred Hitchcock)
Helen Mirren (Alma Reville)
Scarlett Johansson (Janet Leigh)
Danny Huston (Whitfield Cook)

Director: Sacha Gervasi
Writer: John J. McLaughlin, Stephen Rebello
Runtime: 98 min
Genre: Biography, Drama
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2012

Identity Thief

Unlimited funds have allowed Diana to live it up on the outskirts of Miami, where the queen of retail buys whatever strikes her fancy. There’s only one glitch: The ID she’s using to finance these sprees reads “Sandy Bigelow Patterson”….and it belongs to an accounts rep who lives halfway across the U.S. With only one week to hunt down the con artist before his world implodes, the real Sandy Bigelow Patterson heads south to confront the woman with an all-access pass to his life. And as he attempts to bribe, coax and wrangle her the 2,000 miles to Denver, one easy target will discover just how tough it is to get your name back.

Cast:
Jason Bateman (Sandy Patterson)
Melissa McCarthy (Diana)
Jon Favreau (Harold Cornish)
Amanda Peet (Trish Patterson)

Director: Seth Gordon
Writer: Craig Mazin, Jerry Eeten
Runtime: 111 min
Genre: Comedy, Crime
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2013

The Last Stand

Sheriff Owens is a man who has resigned himself to a life of fighting what little crime takes place in sleepy border town Sommerton Junction after leaving his LAPD post following a bungled operation that left him wracked with failure and defeat after his partner was crippled. After a spectacular escape from an FBI prisoner convoy, the most notorious, wanted drug kingpin in the hemisphere is hurtling toward the border at 200 mph in a specially outfitted car with a hostage and a fierce army of gang members. He is headed, it turns out, straight for Sommerton Junction, where the whole of U.S. law enforcement will have their last opportunity to make a stand and intercept him before he slips across the border forever. At first reluctant to become involved, and then counted out because of the perceived ineptitude of his small town force, Owens ultimately accepts responsibility for the face off.

Cast:
Arnold Schwarzenegger (Ray Owens)
Forest Whitaker (Agent John Bannister)
Johnny Knoxville (Lewis Dinkum)
Luis Guzmán (Mike Figuerola)

Director: Jee-woon Kim
Writer: Andrew Knauer, Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Runtime: 107 min
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2013

Oz the Great and Powerful 3D

Oscar Diggs, a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz. At first he thinks he’s hit the jackpot – fame and fortune are his for the taking. That all changes, however, when he meets three witches, Theodora, Evanora and Glinda, who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone’s been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity – and even a bit of wizardry – Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well.

Cast:
James Franco (Oz)
Mila Kunis (Theodora)
Rachel Weisz (Evanora)
Michelle Williams (Glinda)

Director: Sam Raimi
Writer: Mitchell Kapner, David Lindsay-Abaire
Runtime: 130 min
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2013

Warm Bodies

With much of the future world’s population rendered into an undead horde, R is a young, and oddly introspective, zombie. On a feeding encounter with a human gathering party, R meets Julie and feels an urge to protect her. What happens with that is the beginnings of a strangely warm relationship that causes R to start to regain his humanity. As this change spreads throughout the undead population, Julie and R eventually find they are facing a larger issue even as their friendship is challenged. Caught between the paranoid human forces and the ferocious Bonie zombies who are a mutual threat, R and Julie must find a way to bridge the sides to fight for a better world no one thought possible.

Cast:
Nicholas Hoult (R)
Teresa Palmer (Julie)
John Malkovich (Grigio)
Analeigh Tipton (Nora)

Director: Jonathan Levine
Writer: Jonathan Levine, Isaac Marion
Runtime: 98 min
Genre: Comedy, Horror, Romance
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2013

Mama

The day their father killed their mother, sisters Victoria and Lilly vanished near their suburban neighborhood. For five long years, their Uncle Lucas and his girlfriend, Annabel, have been madly searching for them. But when, incredibly, the kids are found alive in a decrepit cabin, the couple wonders if the girls are the only guests they have welcomed into their home.

Cast:
Jessica Chastain (Annabel)
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Lucas)
Megan Charpentier (Victoria)
Isabelle Nélisse (Lilly)

Director: Andrés Muschietti
Writer: Neil Cross, Andrés Muschietti
Runtime: 100 min
Genre: Horror
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2013

Lincoln

In 1865, as the American Civil War winds inexorably toward conclusion, U.S. president Abraham Lincoln endeavors to achieve passage of the landmark constitutional amendment which will forever ban slavery from the United States. However, his task is a race against time, for peace may come at any time, and if it comes before the amendment is passed, the returning southern states will stop it before it can become law. Lincoln must, by almost any means possible, obtain enough votes from a recalcitrant Congress before peace arrives and it is too late. Yet the president is torn, as an early peace would save thousands of lives. As the nation confronts its conscience over the freedom of its entire population, Lincoln faces his own crisis of conscience — end slavery or end the war.

Cast:
Daniel Day-Lewis (Abraham Lincoln)
Sally Field (Mary Todd Lincoln)
Tommy Lee Jones (Thaddeus Stevens)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Robert Lincoln)

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: Tony Kushner, Doris Kearns Goodwin
Runtime: 150 min
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2012

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

In this spin on the fairy tale, Hansel & Gretel are now bounty hunters who track and kill witches all over the world. As the fabled Blood Moon approaches, the siblings encounter a new form of evil that might hold a secret to their past.

Cast:
Jeremy Renner (Hansel)
Gemma Arterton (Gretel)
Famke Janssen (Muriel)
Pihla Viitala (Mina)

Director: Tommy Wirkola
Writer: Tommy Wirkola
Runtime: 88 min
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Horror
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2013

Barbie in the Pink Shoes (Greek)

Dance your way to a magical adventure with Barbie as Kristyn, a ballerina with big dreams! When she tries on a pair of sparkling pink shoes, she and her best friend, Hailey, are whisked away to a fantastical ballet world. There, Kristyn discovers she must dance in her favorite ballets in order to defeat an evil Snow Queen. With performances to the legendary Giselle and Swan Lake ballets, it’s a wonderful journey where if you dance with your heart, dreams come true!

Voices:
Sia Koskina
Ino Stefani
Fivos Rimenas
Marilou Katsafadou

Director: Owen Hurley
Runtime: 75 min
Genre: Animation
Rating: K
Language: Greek
Production Year: 2013

A Good Day to Die Hard

Iconoclastic, take-no-prisoners cop John McClane, for the first time, finds himself on foreign soil after traveling to Moscow to help his wayward son Jack – unaware that Jack is really a highly-trained CIA operative out to stop a nuclear weapons heist. With the Russian underworld in pursuit, and battling a countdown to war, the two McClanes discover that their opposing methods make them unstoppable heroes.

Cast:
Bruce Willis (John McClane)
Jai Courtney (Jack McClane)
Sebastian Koch (Komarov)
Yuliya Snigir (Irina)

Director: John Moore
Writer: Skip Woods, Roderick Thorp
Runtime: 97 min
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2012

Sammy’s Adventures 2 (Greek)

Sammy and Ray, leatherback turtles and friends forever, are enjoying an atoll’s water and sand, shepherding new hatchlings Ricky and Ella out to sea. Suddenly, a poacher swoops in and ships them off to be part of a spectacular aquarium show for tourists in Dubai. The kingpin of the place, Big D the seahorse, enlists them in his plans for a great escape. But with their new friends Jimbo the bug-eyed blob fish and Lulu the snippy lobster, Annabel the sweet Octopus, and a whole family of penguins, Sammy and Ray hatch breakout plans of their own. That is when little Ricky and Ella arrive, determined to break in to rescue them. After a series of thrilling adventures and narrow escapes, our heroes head south to meet up with Shelly, Sammy’s first and only love.

Voices:
Othon Metaxas (Sammy)
Dimitris Menounos (Ray)
Vasiliki Souti (Ella)
Arsenios Chalkiopoulos (Ricky)

Director: Vincent Kesteloot, Ben Stassen
Writer: Domonic Paris
Runtime: 92 min
Genre: Animation, Adventure
Rating: K
Language: Greek
Production Year: 2012