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PETEMSEE IT THIS WEEKEND – 9/21/17

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This column will introduce you to the most popular movies that are coming out in theaters this weekend.

What movie will you see?

Battle of the Sexes

Who doesn’t love Sport?  Oh yeah, me.  However, I do like sport movies.  Anyway, this biographical drama tells the story of a tennis match between the number one female player, Billie Jean King and ex number one male player, Bobby Riggs.  Emma Stone and Steve Carell play the leads, while the rest of the cast includes, Bill “ E-Dub” Pullman, Alan Cumming, Chris Parnell, Elisabeth Shue, Andrea Riseborough, and more.  Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris are the directors of the film.  Dayton and Faris have directed a shit ton of music videos, 2012’s Ruby Sparks, and Little Miss Sunshine.  Simon Beaufoy penned the script for Battle.  Beaufoy wrote the screenplays for Everest, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, 127 Hours, Slumdog Millionaire, and more.  Go check this flick out this weekend.

Friend Request

When a popular college student unfriends an outcast online, all hell breaks loose.  Meaning, demonic possession and people dying.  Starring in this horror flick are Alycia Debnam-Carey (Fear the Walking Dead), William Moseley (The Chronicles of Narnia), and more.  Co-writing and directing is Simon Verhoeven(not relation to Paul).  This will be Verhoeven’s first directorial American film debut.  Don’t unfriend me this weekend.  Go see Friend Request instead.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Kingsman Part 2.  Do we really care what the story is here or do we want to see awesome action set pieces.  Ok….fine.  The Kingsman and another “secret service” come together to fight a common enemy.  Starring in the sequel are Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Julianne Moore, Colin Firth, Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, Jeff Bridges, and more.  Matthew Vaughn is back to direct and co-write the follow up.  Vaughn’s last 4 directorial films are Kingsman: The Secret Service, X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass, and Stardust.  He is also signed on to direct Kingsman 3.  Love the first one?  Then go see this.

The LEGO Ninjago Movie

6 young ninjas must save Ninjago City and fight an evil warlord called Garmadon, who’s son happens to be one of the ninjas.  Lending their voice for this animated feature are Jackie Chan, Dave Franco, Fred Armisen, Kumail Nanjiani, Michael Peña, Zach Woods, Justin Theroux, Olivia Munn, and more.  There are 3 first time directors on this film.  Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher, and Bob Logan.  However, they all have worked in the art/animation department on many features.  Now, leGo to the theater this weekend.

Stronger

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Jeff Bauman, a real life victim of the Boston Marathon bombing, who becomes a symbol of hope for the city of Boston.  The rest of the cast includes, Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black), Miranda Richardson, Lenny Clarke, and more.  David Gordon Green directs this biographical drama.  Green’s last 4 directorial films are Joe, The Sitter, Your Highness, and Pineapple Express.  He is also directing Halloween for 2018.  Co-written by Danny McBride and starring Jamie Lee Curtis.  Need some inspiration this weekend?  Then go see Stronger.

Woodshock

I really can’t say what this movie is about.  IMDB synopsis says, “A woman falls deeper into paranoia after taking a deadly drug.”  However, I would check out the trailer for yourself if this interests you.  Starring in this weird dramatic thriller are Kirsten Dunst, Pilou Asbaek (Euron Greyjoy from Game of Thrones), Joe Cole (Green Room), and Jack Kilmer (The Nice Guys and son of Val Kilmer).  Kate and Laura Mulleavy are the writers and directors of Woodshock.  This is the Mulleavys first writing and directing project.  Hit the theaters this weekend and see Woodshock.

#BingeMedia #BingeOn #PodcastNetwork

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Review: DEVIL’S KNOT

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This is the fifth film in the last 17 years based on The West Memphis Three, the trio of teenagers, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr, convicted of murdering three eight-year-old boys, Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore, in West Memphis, Arkansas. It’s easy to wonder how much more of this story needs to be told after the previous four documentaries (PARADISE LOST 1-3, WEST OF MEMPHIS). The answer is simply…. not a lot. In fact, this film excludes many of the most fascinating facts of this story by focusing on the initial investigation and trial of the teenagers, leaving the more recent events to be summed up by a little bit of text before the end credits. If DEVIL’S KNOT is your introduction to the West Memphis Three saga you should know that there is much, MUCH, more to this story. This is never a good thing to find out after watching a movie. Who knows though, maybe they’re planning a trilogy. Maybe not.

That said, there’s plenty enough here to tell an interesting story all it’s own. Based on Mara Leveritt’s 2002 book of the same name, the film stars Reese Witherspoon as Pamela Hobbs, the mother of one of the murdered children (Stevie Branch), as she deals with her loss, the media circus that follows, and the startling revelations that come from both sides of the trial. Much like the docs, Pamela becomes the face for the grieving parents as the moment she learns about the discovery of Stevie’s body is caught on camera for the whole world to see. Through her eyes we watch as the case slowly turns from a literal witch hunt into something a little less clear cut.

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Director, Atom Egoyan, does make an effort to focus on some of the things not put under the microscope in the previous documentaries. The first being the film’s lead character, Ron Lax (Colin Firth), a private investigator that lends his services to the boy’s lawyers in order to keep them off death row. The other interesting twist that’s thrown into the mix centers around a black man, covered in blood and drenched in swamp water up to his knees, that walked into the bathroom of a local restaurant right around the estimated time of the murders. Too much curiosity for this cat.

The theme for all five of these films is that the boys were wrongly convicted of these crimes. It’s a claim that I have never doubted. When I began to research a little for this review I stumbled across the other side of the coin. Apparently there are many people that still think these men are guilty, admonishing each and every one of these films for leaving out key facts and glorifying the accused. I have a hard time believing any of this (because the moving pictures never lie, do they?) but am willing to listen to what they have to say. When is that 6th movie coming out?

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Overall, what we’re left with in DEVIL’S KNOT is dramatization of one the most popular criminal cases this side of O.J. Simpson. The cast is great, as is their performances, but you can’t help but realize that’s the only reason this wasn’t a TV movie of the week. It’s a story that needs to be told, no doubt, and it has been – with the real life participants, and actual crime scene footage, courtroom footage, additional discoveries, new suspects, and tons of new evidence. Four times before.

DEVIL’S KNOT is AVAILABLE IN THEATERS, VOD AND ON iTUNES: May 9, 2014

Rating 6/10