This month at the multiplex: a Cloverfield sequel, a fascinating drone warfare drama and a superhero battle for the ages.
In Theatres


Eight years after found-footage monster movie Cloverfield rode an ingenious viral marketing campaign to unexpected box-office success, this quasi-sequel is seemingly on its way to doing the same. An altogether different sort of shocker, it follows a young woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who, following a car crash, wakes up in the bunker of a mystery man (John Goodman) who claims the world outside is now a nuclear wasteland. Stuck underground with a possibly insane survivalist, doubt creeps in and tensions rise. But just because her captor’s a madman doesn’t mean what’s waiting for her on the other side of his locked doors is any less horrifying.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (March 25, Warner Bros)


Warner Brothers takes their own shot at an Avengers-style superhero extravaganza with this dark, gritty clash of the DC Comics titans. After witnessing Superman’s (Henry Cavill) Metropolis-destroying battle with General Zod in 2013’s Man of Steel, an aging Batman (Ben Affleck) comes out of retirement intent on finding some way to neutralize this seemingly unkillable “hero.” But even as the two of them duke it out in an unprecedented superhero scrap, crafty billionaire Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) is hatching a scheme that might take both of them — along with Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) — to thwart.


The latest from South African helmer Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) is a star-studded foray into the complex world of drone warfare. Hellen Mirren heads the cast as a British colonel who, from her war room in the U.K., is overseeing a mission to capture some suspected terrorists in Kenya. When it turns out her targets are about to carry out a series of suicide bombings, she makes the call to take them out from above.
The wrinkle: the American drone pilot (Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul) tasked with carrying out the bombing spots a little girl camped out next to the terrorists’ building, selling bread to passersby. What ensues is a taut, fascinating back-and-forth between soldiers, generals, diplomats and on-the-ground operatives scattered across the globe as they go up and down the chain of command, grappling with the moral and political consequences of pulling that trigger.
On DVD


One of the most iconic tragedies in the history of popular culture is given new life by two of the finest actors working today. Michael Fassbender stars as the titular Scottish duke, who is told by three witches that he’s destined to be king. Gradually overcome by toxic ambition, he and his wife (Marion Cotillard) plot to murder the good king Duncan and, in the process, damn themselves to misery and death. On top of the incendiary perfomancers, critics have also been raving about Aussie director Justin Kurtzel's gritty, visceral direction, which potently renders the physical and emotional brutality of the Bard's enduring work.


Saturday Night Live all-stars Tina Fey and Amy Poehler took their act back to the big screen with this kooky comedy about two grown siblings — one a party girl (Fey), the other a strait-laced nurse (Poehler) — who, upon learning that their parents are selling their childhood home, decide to throw one last off-the-hook party. Unfortunately, there might not be much of a house left to sell by the time they’re through. The Mindy Project’s Ike Barinholtz and SNL alum Maya Rudolph also star.
The Hateful Eight (March 29, The Weinstein Company)


Quentin Tarantino followed up his smash-hit Django Unchained with another bloody trip to the past in this slow-burning post-Civil War thriller. It centres on an eclectic array of strangers (including Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson and Oscar nominee Jennifer Jason Leigh) who take shelter from a Wyoming blizzard in a remote road house where not everyone (and perhaps no one) is what they seem. Trapped in tight quarters, prejudice and long-simmering resentments boil over into suspicion, paranoia and eventually a hail of bullets.
Though not as universally acclaimed as his other works, this is arguably Tarantino’s most mature and ambitious work, using a drawing-room mystery to meditate on America’s history of violence and racism, brought to life with the auteur’s singular penchant for unforgettable tension, action and foul-mouthed banter.
Main Image Photo Credit: Warner Bros



Matthew Currie
Author
A long-standing entertainment journalist, Currie is a graduate of the Professional Writing program at Toronto’s York University. He has spent the past number of years working as a freelancer for ANOKHI and for diverse publications such as Sharp, TV Week, CAA’s Westworld and BC Business. Currie ...