Movie of the week – Repo Man
The great Harry Dean Stanton recently passed away, and in tribute the Lighthouse are screening 1984’s Repo Man on Saturday night. From director Alex Cox, whom older readers may remember as the host of BBC’s Moviedrome back in the day, it’s a wild tale of a disillusioned young man (Emilio Estevez) who takes a job alongside Stanton’s veteran car repossessor. Also at the Lighthouse you can catch a 35th anniversary screening of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the best of the Trek movies, on Tuesday, while their season of journalism movies continues with Nightcrawler (Friday), In Cold Blood (Saturday) and Goodnight and Good Luck (Sunday).
On Body and Soul
The week’s best new release comes from Hungary in the form of offbeat rom-com On Body and Soul. A charming story of two slaughterhouse co-workers who embark on a romance after discovering they share the same dreams, it features two of the year’s best performances from its leads and mines some pitch black comedy.
Maze
Closer to home is Maze, a dramatisation of the 1983 mass escape by prisoners at the titular Northern Irish prison. While the prison break itself is rendered quite weakly, the film works best when exploring the awkward friendship between an IRA inmate (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) and a prison guard (Barry Ward).
Borg Vs McEnroe
Borg Vs McEnroe details the infamous rivalry between tennis stars Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe. Told primarily from Borg’s perspective, this one doesn’t really work, as it’s like watching Rocky from Apollo Creed’s corner. It does however boast a pair of great performances from Shia LaBeouf and Sverrir Gudnason as the eponymous enemies.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
One of the worst films I’ve seen in recent years was the awful spy spoof Kingsman, and now the sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, has hit cinemas. This one isn’t quite as offensive as the first; instead, it’s simply dull, with an all-star cast wasted in pointless roles.
By Eric Hillis of themoviewaffler.com
