It’s a great week to be a Dublin cinephile, with two worthwhile new releases and three classics returning to the big screen.
If you’re a horror fan, the Lighthouse has a treat for you with a late night screening of horror comedy gem Return of the Living Dead at 10.30pm Saturday. This 1985 movie is a loving spoof of the seminal 1968 Night of the Living Dead and the zombie movies that shuffled in its wake. It’s a laugh riot, and seeing it with a Saturday night crowd on the big screen is an experience not to be missed.
If musicals are more your taste, then Sunday afternoon at 3.30pm is the time to visit the Lighthouse, when they’ll be screening the latest in their summer long musical season, 1958’s South Pacific.
Returning in a restored print to the Irish Film Institute, where it’s playing all week, is Billy Wilder’s iconic caper Some Like it Hot. Regularly voted the best comedy movie of all time, the film is a stone cold classic, with a hilarious script and unforgettable performances from Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and the underrated comedienne Marilyn Monroe.
The highlight of this week’s new releases is Grand Central, an atmospheric French thriller set in the gritty world of the decontamination crews that clean up France’s nuclear power plants.
Blockbuster sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the eight movie in the franchise spawned by the 1968 Charlton Heston starring original. While it fails to repeat the success of the 2011 reboot, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it’s a more thoughtful movie than Hollywood usually gives us, and is a must see if you’re a fan of the series.
By Eric Hillis
Image: Movie of the Week, Return of the Living Dead
