Grim Pickings for Cinema & Home Entertainment this week…
GRIM PICKINGS this week includes key dates to dismember for the last week of this year’s MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (MIFF) along with the theatrical release of a controversial Australian black comedy and a whole slew of home entertainment releases including one that pits washed-up nineties popstars head-to-head against the living dead. Here’s what’s releasing locally this week…
In Cinemas
Thursday August 11th
DOWN UNDER (Limited Release)
A black comedy set during the aftermath of the Cronulla riots, DOWN UNDER is the story of two carloads of hotheads from both sides of the fight destined to collide. Sincere, though misguided, intent gives way to farcical ineptitude as this hilarious yet poignant story of ignorance, fear and kebab-cravings unfolds, and what was meant to be a retaliation mission turns into something neither side could have imagined.
At MIFF
Wednesday August 10th
THE DEVIL’S CANDY (MIFF)
A happy family moves into their dream home only to find it marred with a terrible secret. Although the headbanging painter (Ethan Embry) is under pressure to support his wife (Shiri Appleby) and pre-teen daughter (Kiara Glasco) on artist’s wages, they are a tight-knit unit – that is, until the bounds of their relationship are tested with the mentally disturbed former resident (Pruitt Taylor Vince) turning up to reclaim his home.
TRAIN TO BUSAN (MIFF)
A high-speed train powers towards Busan, carrying a single father trying to connect with his daughter; a pregnant couple; two elderly sisters; a high-school basketball team; and a shady CEO. But a fast-acting virus soon leads to a zombie outbreak, and the passengers must try to survive the onslaught of walking dead closing in on them within the speeding vehicle.
Sunday August 14th
DON’T BREATHE (MIFF)
Rocky, Money and Alex are a trio of down-on-their-luck Detroit teens who rob wealthy homes to get by. When they hear about a blind war vet sitting on a massive pay-out, they see him as the perfect victim: an easy way to turn their financial fortunes around. They couldn’t be more wrong!
Home Entertainment
Thursday August 11th
DEAD 7 (DVD Only)
An ensemble cast of music’s biggest pop stars including members of The Backstreet Boys, ’NSYNCH, 98 Degrees & O-Town go head-to-head with the living dead. A ragtag band of assassins team up to rid a small town of a zombie plague in the post-apocalytpic west.
ANDRON: BLACK LABYRINTH
In the year 2154, a group of young men and women awake in a dark claustrophobic maze. They don’t remember who they are or how they got stuck in the Black Labyrinth of ANDRON. The group must learn to decipher codes, understand the signals and beat the tests in this mysterious and bizarre place. Out of necessity they struggle to form a bond to survive, while the outside world watches and wagers on their fate.
LAZER TEAM: DIRECTOR’S CUT
Four small-town losers stumble across an alien crash site containing an incredible battle suit. One round of bickering and a quick scuffle later, they each find themselves wearing a piece of the suit, which has genetically bound itself to them. Now, they must work together as one to save humanity. With the government chasing after them and desperate to remove their new equipment at ANY cost, the foursome must learn to use a strange alien device meant for only one person, train for a battle against an omnipotent enemy, and not kill each other in the process. They may not be strong, smart, or talented…but they’re Lazer Team.
KILL YOUR FRIENDS
A jet-black comedy about a music executive at the height of the Britpop era who will stop at nothing to further his career. A&R man Steven Stelfox (Nicholas Hoult) is slashing and burning his way through the music business, a world where ‘no one knows anything’ and where careers are made and broken by chance and the fickle tastes of the general public. Fuelled by greed, ambition and inhuman quantities of drugs, Stelfox lives the dream, as he searches for his next hit record. But as the hits dry up and the industry begins to change, Stelfox takes the concept of “killer tunes” to a murderous new level in a desperate attempt to salvage his career. Based on John Niven’s best-selling novel, KILL YOUR FRIENDS is a dark, satirical and hysterically funny evisceration of the Nineties music business.
