Arbitrage
Richard Gere plays hedge fund mogul Robert Miller, who is at the helm of the American dream but whose professional and family lives are both crumbling beneath the veneer of success. Juggling his company’s financial troubles with his affair with a French art dealer, Miller is already on thin ice until finally one error forces him to turn to a former acquaintance for help.
Critics describe this one as a smart and tense “character study” that is smart in all the right ways, with a stellar screenplay and an acclaimed performance by Gere as one of the world’s financial elite. Globe and Mail’s Geoff Pevere said, “Gere gets the role he has been suiting up for ever since he was first designer-dressed for a murder rap in American Gigolo.”
In short, watching Gere and Susan Sarandon put out quality-performances of nuanced characters in a world of Hollywood rehashes should be a good investment of your time.
Showing at: Ramses Hilton, Stars Cinema, Golden Stars Deluxe, Concorde El Salam, Plaza Cinema, Galaxy, Galaxy Cineplex, Alexandria: Green Plaza
Red Dawn
A group of young people defend their town against a North Korean invasion. If that was not enough to make you run towards the nearest art house cinema, then perhaps this will: this is the remake. Because the original was just so good.
The plot is painfully formulaic; the main character is a US marine who goes back to his small town where he meets up with his policeman father and his footballer brother. After a power outage, they discover that North Koreans are invading and that they must defend their hometown.
Why North Korean troops would be interested in the town of Spokane, Washington is beyond any and all of us, as the film also does not focus on what happens in the rest of the country during the invasion.
The film has received mostly negative reviews from critics, who say it has none of the positives that made the original mini-series a cult classic. One even described it as a “Tea Party wet dream”.
If somehow you are still miraculously torn between seeing this and skipping it, here’s another final and very painful piece of trivia: the group of teenagers defending the town call themselves “the Wolverines”.
Showing at: Golden Stars Deluxe, Stars Cinema, Galaxy, IMAX, Plaza, Galaxy Cineplex.
Rise of the Guardians
We are not sure how to feel about this one. On the one hand, it has an unusual premise; an evil spirit called Pitch launches an attack on Earth that threatens to engulf the world in darkness, so the Guardians enlist protagonist Jack Frost to stop it. On the other hand, the Guardians consist of the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, the Sandman and the Easter bunny who want to protect the ‘innocence of children’. Err… what?
The film has received mixed reviews that have praised its animation and its somewhat entertaining action but attacked it for its lacklustre storytelling. In any case, the film features Alec Baldwin, Chris Pine, Jude Law and Hugh Jackman and while the whole ordeal might feel like one giant “meh”, rest assured that it only lasts for an hour and a half.
Showing at: Renaissance Nile City, Renaissance Sun City, Renaissance 6th of October, Golf City Cinema, Dandy Mall, Genena Mall, Meeting Point Cinema, Bandar Maadi
