releasing this week: Dear John and Repo Men

It’s kind of another quiet week this week… there are actually quite a few films out but they’re all fairly small/medium releases… We’ve got Cemetery Junction, Dear John, The Ghost, Repo Men, City of Life and Death and The Daisy Chain all coming out by Friday. There isn’t a really big film opening until Iron Man 2 on the 30th so expect cinemas to be extremely busy that week. Well… Date Night, the Steve Carell and Tiny Fey comedy, is opening next week but in the grand scheme of things that isn’t really a huge film either…

The two films I’m going to talk about this week are Repo Men and Dear John. Repo Men I’ve been seeing trailers for for ages, Dear John I know less about but basically it seems to be a drama / romance. The other bigger films that are coming out are The Ghost and Cemetery Junction, I’ve actually seen Cemetery Junction but… I really don’t want to talk about it.

I have to admit, I’m highlighting Dear John simply because I loved The Notebook and Dear John is by the same writer. I actually put The Notebook in my top 10 films of the decade, that’s how much I liked it.

The writer in question is Nicholas Sparks and he’s had so many of his books turned into films that he should really just move into screen-writing as well, cut out the middle man as it were. He’s written 15 books, 6 of them are now films and there are 2 currently in production. To save you looking it up, the other films based on his books, that I’m sure you can rent in a handy DVD store or online DVD rental site, are Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe and The Last Song. Yes, he specialises in the romantic drama… and more specifically the weepie genre.

So I don’t know if I really need to say much about Dear John really… I mean you like weepies or you don’t… I suppose I could tell you that Channing Tatum is in it, starring opposite Amanda Seyfried. I’ve always liked Ms. Seyfried, I should really watch more of her movies. Channing Tatum I don’t really know much about but I notice he takes his shirt off in this one so I’m sure there’ll be some going along just for that. He ain’t really my type to be honest…

… though I’m seeing Dear John on Tuesday so I guess that might change.

Second highlight this week, Repo Men.

Anyone who knows me, or reads the blog a bit, will know that this is probably a bit more my style. There’s probably quite a few people I know who’ll be surprised that I would be interested in Dear John at all… I try to hide that side. Oh well.

Repo Men is one of those films set in a futuristic dystopia. You should all know by now that I love the ol’ “dystopian future” films…

In this particular film the transplant market has been monetised by the perfection of artificial organs. But where there is a payment plan, there is a Repo man. If you fall behind on your payments then the company sends these guys after you to reclaim their property. Sounds nasty.

Naturally they can’t just leave it at that for a film. Gotta have some conflict. So Jude Law plays a model repo man who get injured in the line of duty, gets a transplant but then finds himself unable to repossess organs. Obviously the company can’t be having this so the chase is on for Jude Law’s heart… hehe, do you see what I did there? Man, I feel dirty for that one.

It also sounds like the kind of film that was based on a book… a little digging proves that it was! Repossesion Mambo was written by Eric Garcia was published in 2009. Garcia also wrote Matchstick Men. Didn’t like that film to be honest and I’m not sure this one is any good either but I can’t turn down a dystopian future film so I can’t, in good conscience, not tell people about it. Consider yourself told about it.

The other films releasing this week are…

Cemetery Junction – A coming of age film written and directed by the duo behind The Office, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. I really hated this film. I can’t understand all these positive reviews at all and I honestly have to wonder if it’s possible for people to pay for positivity like that… If you go see it I’d love to hear what you think of it.

The Ghost – Roman Polanski film. When a ghost writer, hired to finish the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister, uncovers some secrets in the Prime Minister’s past, he finds himself suddenly in danger. Relatively big release and so far getting decent reviews. Not that I care about other people’s reviews but it saves you looking it up.

City of Life and Death – Chinese language film (Mandarin) depicting the Nanking Massacre in 1937. Very small release, in the usual cinemas – IFI, Lighthouse and The Screen in Dublin.

The Daisy Chain – Irish drama / thriller set in remote Irish village. Stars Samantha Morton and is directed by Aisling Walsh (Song for a Raggy Boy). It sounds more like a horror film actually, creepy kid story, along the lines of Orphan or Case 39 or… well… loads of other films. That doesn’t mean I think this is a bad film… Could be good, it doesn’t sound overly original but you’d never know.

There is one more film I want to mention that I seem to have missed in a previous week. Irish/Czech co-production, Foxes. It’s about two sisters struggling to cope with an incident in their past. I’m not sure how long it’s been out but it’s in The Lighthouse in Smithfield, Dublin at the moment and will be on in the afternoon for at least the next week.

Dear John opened on Wednesday 14th April however Repo Men, Cemetery Junction, The Ghost, City of Life and Death and The Daisy Chain are in cinemas from Friday 16th April.