Valentine’s Day falls on Tuesday next week, which means this weekend’s batch of new big screen releases are unsurprisingly focused on matters of lurve, ranging from romance to lust and plain ol’ self-love. Here are your latest date night options if you’re considering a cinema outing.
Magic Mike’s Last Dance
As the latest example of movie sequels we didn’t expect or ask for, there’s the third installment in the Magic Mike franchise. Channing Tatum is back as dancer and male stripper Mike Lane, and Steven Soderbergh directs with a script he co-wrote with Reid Carolin, who also wrote the first two films. This time around a broke Mike is taking bar-tending gigs in Florida until he crosses paths with Salma Hayek Pinault’s wealthy socialite, who sets him up to oversee a hot new stage show in London.
The Whale
If you’re an Oscar watcher, you probably want to catch intimate drama The Whale. Adapted from his own play, Samuel D. Hunter writes, and Darren (Requiem For a Dream, The Wrestler) Aronofsky directs this tale of a reclusive and severely obese English teacher who attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter. Brendan Fraser plays the lead and has been nominated for Best Actor at this year’s Academy Awards, along with his co-star Hong Chau for Best Supporting Actress. Also in the cast are Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink, and Samantha Morton.
Titanic Re-release
Finally, this week gives movie fans the chance to experience the 1997 blockbuster phenomenon that’s Titanic all over again – now remastered in 4K to celebrate the movie’s 25th anniversary. For years, the most financially successful film ever made, and winner of 11 Academy Awards (including for Best Picture), James Cameron’s Titanic is part star-crossed romance and part disaster movie epic. Upper-class Rose DeWitt Baker (Kate Winslet) and struggling artist Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) fall in love during the fateful first voyage of ocean liner Titanic in 1912.