Film & TV

TRAILERS: 6 films in UAE cinemas this week

Published

6 years ago

November 30, 2016

Complete Unknown (18)
This is the kind of film that has you gazing across at your nearest and dearest and wondering what dark, twisted secrets they may be harbouring. And why they didn’t tell you. And oh no you’re such a fool why couldn’t I see it earlier…? Rachel Weisz plays Alice, who turns up at the birthday party of old flame Tom (Michael Shannon) after vanishing 15 years before. Her story doesn’t add up. None of it does. And so it begins…
In cinemas from December 1

Underworld: Blood Wars (18)
Kate Beckinsale reprises her role as the death-dealing vampire Selene in the latest instalment of the undead fantasy. In Blood Wars, she is placed in the middle of a gruesome plan to create a new vampire-corvinus hybrid – using her daughter’s blood to do so. All good gothic fun that never takes itself too seriously. And, well, there might be a few mortals willing to offer a vein or two if Miss Beckinsale came calling.
In cinemas from December 1

3,000 Nights (15)
This traumatic, often harrowing film from director Mai Masri tells the story of Layal (Maisa Abd Elhadi), a schoolteacher in the Palestinian town of Nablus, who is sentenced to eight years in prison after refusing to testify against a teenage boy. Only after she is incarcerated does she find out she is pregnant – and, forced to deliver in custody, her battle to stay with her newborn son becomes a grim metaphor for the endless injustices of occupation. A difficult but necessary watch.
In cinemas now

The Family Fang (15)
Jason Bateman directs and stars in this offbeat comedy-drama based on the novel of the same name by Kevin Wilson. Now an adult, Baxter Fang (Bateman) returns home with his sister Annie (Nicole Kidman) to visit their parents, who gained notoriety for staging elaborate public pranks when they were children. When Caleb (a wonderful Christopher Walken) pulls one last stunt, it leads to a glorious chase into the recesses of memory and family. Beautifully acted and observed.
In cinemas now\

Allied (18)
Brad Pitt seems to have found a cinematic home amid the grey-blue rubble of World War Two in recent years. The darkly comic Inglourious Basterds and the claustrophobic Fury is now followed by Allied, a lavish, slightly soapy tale of a strained romance between a Canadian intelligence officer in Morocco and a French resistance fighter. The role of the latter is filled by Marion Cotillard, whose hair seems permanently waved in period styles, too. Sweeping and long, it’s ideal matinée melodrama material.

Arrival (18)
It’s been a while since we had a credible Close Encounters-style alien landing film. Coming from French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, the man behind intelligent thrillers Sicarioand Prisoners, this is a similarly superior take on the genre as linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) seeks to answer why a host of spacecraft have touched down across the planet. Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker offer uniformed support.