Things are starting to look a lot more festive when it comes to the cinema release schedule in South Africa, with the crowd-pleasing blockbusters lining up from this point onwards to the end of the year.
In addition to three feature debuts this Friday, you can also check out a production of ballet Swan Lake filmed specifically for IMAX, and revisit Ridley Scott’s cult classic sci-fi tale Blade Runner on the big screen for this week only.
The biggie release of the week is action comedy Red One. Directed by the new Jumanji movies’ Jake Kasdan, this holiday-themed tale kicks off with the kidnapping of Santa Claus (J. K. Simmons) from the North Pole. In response, Callum (Dwayne Johnson), Santa’s his most loyal security officer, must join forces with accomplished tracker, and Naughty List regular, Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans) to find him and save Christmas. Also with Lucy Liu and Kiernan Shipka.
Look out for our Red One review soon.
On the drama-thriller front, there’s Magpie, where the lives of married couple Anette (Daisy Ridley) and Ben (Shazad Latif), start to fracture when their daughter is cast alongside glamorous movie star Alicia (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz). As Anette’s suspicions of Ben’s infatuation with Alicia intensify, things take a darker turn. Ridley apparently delivers a stellar performance here.
Get your dose of big screen anime this week in the form of dark fantasy adventure Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom, which is based on the Japanese light novel series (turned manga and animated series), and continues the story of undead overlord Ainz Ooal Gown. With Ainz and their army coming to the aid of the Sacred Kingdom, which is facing invasion by the monstrous forces of the Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth, the line between savior and conqueror starts to blur.