Only two new feature films open in South Africa this week, although there are a couple of new specialist options in limited release as well. The Royal Opera’s take on Puccini’s Turandot is screening at Nu Metro’s Hyde Park cinema, on Sunday, 6 April only. Meanwhile, on the Throwback Cinema front, Oscar-winning romantic epic Dr Zhivago will be re-released at Rosebank Nouveau for a limited time, and Shrek comes to select Ster Kinekor locations nationwide. Finally, a heads up that Episodes 1 and 2 of acclaimed Biblical drama The Chosen: Season 5 will also be on the big screen from next week Thursday, 10 April, telling the story of Jesus’s arrival in Jerusalem in the lead up to the Last Supper.
This is the film all kids and kids at heart will be watching this week. Based on the creativity-driven sandbox game from Mojang and Microsoft, A Minecraft Movie is a wild comedy adventure where four misfits, Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Jason Momoa), Henry (Sebastian Hansen), Natalie (Emma Myers), and Dawn (Danielle Brooks) are sucked into the Overworld: a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home, they must turn to expert crafter Steve (Jack Black). Expect quirkiness from A Minecraft Movie because Nacho Libre and Napoleon Dynamite’s Jared Hess directs.
If you’re looking for something darker, there’s action thriller Locked, which is an English-language remake of the Argentinian film 4X4, and features Sam Raimi’s name in the producer credits. In Locked, Bill Skarsgård plays a young, opportunistic thief who breaks into a luxury SUV, only to realize that he has slipped into a sophisticated and deadly trap, courtesy of Anthony Hopkins’s character.