Movie of the Week – Shock Corridor
With a new documentary on the life of Sam Fuller currently playing, the Irish Film Institute is screening a double bill of two of his best movies on Sunday afternoon. Shock Corridor is a thrilling social drama set in a psychiatric institution, while The Naked Kiss follows the travails of a former prostitute struggling to shake off the stigma of her past. Both are essential viewing.
Demolition Man
Friday night at the Lighthouse you can catch a screening of the Stallone sci-fi action romp Demolition Man. Featuring a young Sandra Bullock and a pre tax evading Wesley Snipes, it’s the sort of innocent Hollywood blockbuster that’s been left behind by these knowing times, and a whole lot of fun.
Timbuktu
The best of the new releases this week comes from Africa. Timbuktu looks at the effects of Jihadist occupation on the Malian capital city. While it’s a grim depiction of life under sharia, it also features moments of tenderness and black comedy as its characters do their best to maintain a life in this new era.
The Connection
The Connection documents the 1970s drug gangs of Marseille, who served as the real life inspiration for the French Connection movies. It’s got some great period detail and fine performances but there’s little here you won’t have seen in a dozen other crime sagas.
San Andreas
Similarly uninspired is the disaster movie San Andreas, in which chopper pilot Dwayne Johnson attempts to save his family when the San Andreas Fault rips apart, unleashing history’s largest ever earthquake on California. Johnson is always charismatic but he can’t save this bland blockbuster.
The Dead Lands
The Dead Lands is a mind numbing period action movie set among warring Maori tribes in pre-colonial New Zealand. It’s an interesting setting but played out in hackneyed fashion.
By Eric Hillis
