In Cinemas this week (23 – 29 August)

Red 2

Retired black-ops CIA agent Frank Moses reunites his unlikely team of elite operatives for a global quest to track down a missing portable nuclear device. To succeed, they’ll need to survive an army of relentless assassins, ruthless terrorists and power-crazed government officials, all eager to get their hands on the next-generation weapon. The mission takes Frank and his motley crew to Paris, London and Moscow. Outgunned and outmanned, they have only their cunning wits, their old-school skills, and each other to rely on as they try to save the world-and stay alive in the process.

Cast:
Bruce Willis (Frank)
John Malkovich (Marvin)
Helen Mirren (Victoria)
Anthony Hopkins (Bailey)

Director: Dean Parisot
Writer: Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber
Runtime: 116 min
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2013

The Company You Keep

After years in hiding, ex-Weather Underground militant, Nick Sloan aka Jim Grant, learns about his old compatriot’s arrest for a bank robbery turned deadly in the 1970s, which he is wanted as an accomplice. This puts the ambitious young local reporter, Ben Shepard, on the scent of a story that exposes Nick as well. As such, Nick goes on the run while taking his daughter to safety. With that accomplished, Nick stays one step ahead of the FBI while pursuing a faint hope to clear his name. Meanwhile, Shepard digs deeper into the case himself as he discovers the true complexities of another times’ determined ideals even as Nick faces their consequences with another.

Cast:
Robert Redford (Jim Grant/Nick Sloan)
Shia LaBeouf (Ben Shepard)
Julie Christie (Mimi Lurie)
Stanley Tucci (Ray Fuller)

Director: Robert Redford
Writer: Lem Dobbs, Neil Gordon
Runtime: 121 min
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Rating: K
Language: English
Production Year: 2012

Planes 3D (Greek)

Dusty Crophopper is a little cropduster plane with a fear of heights and a crazy dream of being a racer. While his friends need convincing, Dusty gets the training he needs from Skipper, a veteran fighter, and qualifies for the Wings Across the World race. In the event, Dusty finds competitors who soon learn that there is something special about this underdog as he is tested to his physical and emotional limits. In doing so, Dusty soon finds enemies, and more importantly friends, who are inspired by his dream. In the face of all obstacles, the winner of this air race will be anyone’s guess.

Cast:
Yiorgos Kapoutzidis (Dusty)
Doretta Papadimitriou (Dottie)
Dinos Soutis (Skipper)
Telemachos Krevaikas (Ripslinger)

Director: Klay Hall
Writer: Jeffrey M. Howard, John Lasseter
Runtime: 91 min
Genre: Animation
Rating: K
Language: Greek
Production Year: 2013

We’re the Millers

After being robbed of a week’s take, small-time pot dealer David is forced by his boss to go to Mexico to pick up a load of marijuana. In order to improve his odds of making it past the border, David asks the broke stripper Rose and two local teenagers to join him and pretend they’re on a family holiday.

Cast:
Jennifer Aniston (Rose O’Reilly)
Jason Sudeikis (David Clark)
Will Poulter (Kenny Rossmore)
Emma Roberts (Casey Mathis)

Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Writer: Bob Fisher, Steve Faber
Runtime: 110 min
Genre: Comedy, Crime
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2013

Kick-Ass 2

After Kick-Ass’ insane bravery inspires a new wave of self-made masked crusaders, led by the badass Colonel Stars and Stripes, our hero joins them on patrol. When these amateur superheroes are hunted down by Red Mist — reborn as The Mother F%&*^r — only the blade-wielding Hit Girl can prevent their annihilation. When we last saw junior assassin Hit Girl and young vigilante Kick-Ass, they were trying to live as normal teenagers Mindy and Dave. With graduation looming and uncertain what to do, Dave decides to start the world’s first superhero team with Mindy. Unfortunately, when Mindy is busted for sneaking out as Hit Girl, she’s forced to retire leaving her to navigate the terrifying world of high-school mean girls on her own. With no one left to turn to, Dave joins forces with Justice Forever, run by a born-again ex-mobster named Colonel Stars and Stripes. Just as they start to make a real difference on the streets, the world’s first super villain, The Mother F%&*^r, assembles his own evil league and puts a plan in motion to make Kick-Ass and Hit Girl pay for what they did to his dad. But there’s only one problem with his scheme: If you mess with one member of Justice Forever, you mess with them all.

Cast:
Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Dave Lizewski / Kick-Ass)
Chloë Grace Moretz (Mindy Macready / Hit-Girl)
Jim Carrey (Colonel Stars and Stripes)
Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Chris D’Amico / The Motherf%&*‏^r)

Director: Jeff Wadlow
Writer: Jeff Wadlow, Mark Millar
Runtime: 103 min
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2013

The Call

The skilled 911 operator Jordan Turner receives a phone call from the teenager Leah Templeton reporting a burglary at home. Jordan instructs Leah to hide herself in a room, but Jordan commits a mistake with tragic consequences, affecting her career. Six months later, Jordan is a trainer of rookies in the 911 service haunted by her past. While showing the operation to the group, a new operator faces the call from the teenager Casey Welson that tells that she has been abducted. The operator panics and Jordan assumes the call, trying to calm down Casey and to get information to identify where she is and who kidnapped her. Now Jordan faces the chance of redemption and gives her best efforts to help Casey.

Cast:
Halle Berry (Jordan Turner)
Abigail Breslin (Casey Welson)
Morris Chestnut (Paul Phillips)
Michael Eklund (Michael Foster)

Director: Brad Anderson
Writer: Richard D’Ovidio
Runtime: 94 min
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Rating: 18
Language: English
Production Year: 2013

This is the End

Six friends (James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Jay Baruchel) are trapped in a house after a series of strange and catastrophic events devastate Los Angeles. As the world unravels outside, dwindling supplies and cabin fever threaten to tear apart the friendships inside. Eventually, they are forced to leave the house, facing their fate and the true meaning of friendship and redemption.

Cast:
James Franco (James Franco)
Jonah Hill (Jonah Hill)
Seth Rogen (Seth Rogen)
Jay Baruchel (Jay Baruchel)

Director: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
Writer: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
Runtime: 107 min
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Rating: 18
Language: English
Production Year: 2013

Before Midnight

Building on the first two installments in Richard Linklater’s well-crafted Before trilogy – Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004) – Before Midnight offers intelligent, powerfully acted perspectives on love, marriage, and long-term commitment. We meet Jesse and Celine nine years on in Greece. Almost two decades have passed since their first meeting on that train bound for Vienna.

Cast:
Ethan Hawke (Jesse Wallace)
Julie Delpy (Céline Wallace)
Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick (Hank)
Jennifer Prior (Ella)

Director: Richard Linklater
Writer: Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy
Runtime: 109 min
Genre: Drama, Romance
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2013

The Wolverine

In modern day Japan, Wolverine is out of his depth in an unknown world as he faces his ultimate nemesis in a life-or-death battle that will leave him forever changed. Vulnerable for the first time and pushed to his physical and emotional limits, he confronts not only lethal samurai steel but also his inner struggle against his own immortality, emerging more powerful than we have ever seen him before.

Cast:
Hugh Jackman (Logan)
Tao Okamoto (Mariko)
Rila Fukushima (Yukio)
Svetlana Khodchenkova (Viper)

Director: James Mangold
Writer: Mark Bomback, Scott Frank
Runtime: 126 min
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2013

Turbo 3D/2D (Greek)

Theo, a.k.a Turbo, is a garden snail who dreams of being the greatest racer in the world, just like his hero, 5-time Indianapolis 500 champ, Guy Gagne. His obsession with speed and all things fast has made him an oddity and an outsider in the slow and cautious snail community, and a constant embarrassment to his cautious older brother, Chet. Turbo desperately wishes he could escape the slow-paced life he’s living, but his one chance to live proves a near fatal disaster. Demoralized Theo wanders onto a freeway to admire the traffic and gets into a freak accident when he gets sucked into the supercharger of a drag racer, fusing his DNA with nitrous oxide on a street race.

Cast:
Yiorgos Skoufis
Antinoos Albanis
Yiannis Stefopoulos
Fotis Petridis

Director: David Soren
Writer: Darren Lemke, Robert D. Siegel
Runtime: 96 min
Genre: Animation
Rating: K
Language: Greek
Production Year: 2013

Now You See Me

Four magicians each answer a mysterious summons to an obscure address with secrets inside. A year later, they are the Four Horseman, big time stage illusionists who climax their sold out Las Vegas show with a bank apparently robbed for real. This puts agents Dylan Rhodes of the FBI and Alma Vargas of Interpol on the case to find out how they did it. However, this mystery proves difficult to solve even with the insights of the professional illusion exposer, Thaddeus Bradley. What follows is a bizarre investigation where nothing is what it seems with illusions, dark secrets and hidden agendas galore as all involved are reminded of a great truth in this puzzle: the closer you look, the less you see.

Cast:
Jesse Eisenberg (J. Daniel Atlas)
Mark Ruffalo (Dylan Rhodes)
Woody Harrelson (Merritt McKinney)
Morgan Freeman (Thaddeus Bradley)

Director: Louis Leterrier
Writer: Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin
Runtime: 115 min
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2013

Despicable Me 2 3D/2D

Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment’s worldwide blockbuster Despicable Me entertained audiences around the globe in 2010, grossing more than $540 million and becoming the 10th-biggest animated motion picture in U.S. history. In summer 2013, get ready for more Minion madness in Despicable Me 2.

Cast:
Steve Carell (Gru)
Kristen Wiig (Lucy)
Benjamin Bratt (Eduardo / El Macho)
Russell Brand (Dr. Nefario)

Director: Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud
Writer: Ken Daurio, Cinco Paul
Runtime: 98 min
Genre: Animation, Adventure
Rating: K
Language: English/Greek
Production Year: 2013

Epic

Young Mary Katherine (M.K.) returns to her eccentric scientist father’s home, but his all-consuming quest to discover a tiny civilization in the neighboring forest drives them apart. However, M.K. soon finds herself shrunken down by Queen Tara of that forest, mortally wounded by the putrefying Boggans, and charged to deliver a pod bearing the new Queen to safety. Together with a veteran Leafman warrior, two goofy mollusks and a young maverick, M.K. agrees to help. As the villainous Boggan leader, Mandrake closes in, M.K. and her new friends must draw on the best of themselves together and discover what they have to save their world.

Cast:
Amanda Seyfried (Mary Katherine)
Josh Hutcherson (Nod)
Christoph Waltz (Mandrake)
Colin Farrell (Ronin)

Director: Chris Wedge
Writer: James V. Hart, William Joyce
Runtime: 102 min
Genre: Animation, Adventure
Rating: K
Language: English
Production Year: 2013