This is a round up of new films seen at home this month, As it has been a quiet start, all services are included here.
Netflix has opened their purse strings to the tune of $100 million for The Rip, with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck starring as a pair of Miami cops who discover a stash of $50 million in drug money hidden in a house. As their team count the money in the location it has been found in, as per the protocol, they come under attack, and it is clear that one of the group, at least, is dirty. This is old fashioned muscular stuff, with director Joe Carnahan’s script believably capturing how weary cops would talk.
As well as the two starry leads, the rest of the police team is stuffed with Oscar nominees Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor and Catalina Sandino Moreno. The largest section of the film is set in the house and it has a distinct feeling of claustrophobic suspense. Sasha Calle, the house owner, who becomes increasingly desperate to survive, more than holds her own in such exulted company. There follows a good reveal of the identities of the bad guys but then a rather ordinary action finale.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
The next biggest release has been the rom com People We Met on Vacation. Despite being very different people, buttoned up Alex (Tom Blyth) and free spirit Poppy (Emily Bader) are good friends who spend one week every year on holiday together. Will their true feelings for each other emerge? Take a wild guess! Their initial meeting and road trip was fairly entertaining, even if it does borrow heavily from When Harry Met Sally. But the characterisation is sketchy, with Poppy showing her wild side by calling people “dude” and saying “gnarly”. Truth is that their differences are not so great and there is no reason why they do not get together sooner.
Rating: 5 out of 10
Also on Netflix, The Big Fake is a true story set in Rome in the 1970’s. Toni Chichiarelli (Pietro Castellito) is an aspiring artist who becomes a master forger. I think Toni is meant to be charismatic but he comes across as a dullard. The political manoeuvring he becomes involved in is nowhere near as compelling as it ought to have been.
Rating: 3 out of 10
Over on Sky, subscribers can see I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not. Chevy was, in my opinion, the most talented performer from the early years of Saturday Night Live and went on to star in a number of very funny comedies including Foul Play, Seems Like the Old Times, Fletch and its sequel. But he is also known to be difficult, and often unpleasant to work with. This documentary from Marina Zenovich looks at both his life and his career. It includes an extensive interview with Chase but I don’t think he gives a lot away or reveals anything new as he is evasive and often rude. What this film does have, though, are a wealth of great clips of his work and some decent anecdotes from friends and workmates.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Finally to The Knife, which can be bought or rented on the usual services. Late one night, construction worker Chris (Nnamdi Asomugha) says goodnight to his daughter, Kendra (Amari Price), and son Ryley (Aiden Price) before settling down for the night with wife Alex (Aja Naomi King). He is almost asleep when a sound downstairs rouses him. He discovers his glass door is ajar and a woman is standing with her back to him in the middle of his kitchen.
The police are called they find an unharmed black man and a middle aged white woman bleeding and unconscious on the kitchen floor. Chris can’t remember whether he attacked her or not. Unfolding over the course of a few hours, entirely in or just outside their home, this is intelligently written by Asomugha and Mark Duplass. Chris and Kendra make poor decisions that ramp up pressure on themselves and the cop investigating, played excellently by Melissa Leo, seems sympathetic but we gradually see her true, racist, colours, enabled by her complicit colleagues. The final scene is an understated gem, as Chris’ fate is revealed.
Rating: 7 out of 10