Valentine’s Day falls on a Friday this year, and what’s a better date night activity than heading to the movies? Local film distributors have clearly realised this because there are three notable new releases hitting the big screen.
And these don’t even include the other more specialist offerings making their cinema debut: Bollywood epic Chhaava (book here as well); Chinese fantasy actioner Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force; legend-soaked Zambian drama The Scroll; a recording of the Metropolitan Opera’s latest take on Aida; and beloved romcom The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds as the week’s Throwback option.
Below are details on the biggies of the week, though.
It’s a ballsy move on Disney and Marvel’s part to release Captain America: Brave New World in the context of a new America, where diversity, equity and inclusion are being dismantled, because here we have a non-superpowered black man, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), stepping up as the new Captain America. With the MCU once more leaning in the direction of espionage thriller, Wilson must unravel a conspiracy centred on general-turned-president Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford).
Look out for our Captain America: Brave New World review soon.
The fourth entry in the Bridget Jones film series, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is the most traditionally Valentines-ish of the week’s new releases. In this romantic comedy, Bridget (Renée Zellweger) tentatively gets back into the dating scene, four years after losing husband Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Almost immediately, she has a much younger man (Leo Woodall) and her children’s staid teacher (Chiwetel Ejiofor) on her radar. Hugh Grant’s Daniel Cleaver makes a return as well.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is also enjoying special preview screenings across the country tonight, 13 February.
A supernatural thriller is always a great initiator of reassuring cuddles. Rather surprisingly, acclaimed and unconventional ghost story Presence is releasing this week in South Africa out of nowhere. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, and starring the likes of Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan, this tale puts the genre on its head, by showing events in a haunted suburban home from the perspective of the titular presence, which doesn’t take kindly to the new family sharing its space.