New Releases (27/06/13)

Out this week: Man of Steel, Epic, In the House, The Look of Love and Everybody Has A Plan.

Man of Steel - A young boy learns that he has extraordinary powers and is not of this Earth. As a young man, he journeys to discover where he came from and what he was sent here to do. But the hero in him must emerge if he is to save the world from annihilation and become the symbol of hope for all mankind.

Epic - From the creators of ICE AGE and RIO, EPIC tells the story of an ongoing battle between the forces of good, who keep the natural world alive, and the forces of evil, who wish to destroy it. When a teenage girl finds herself magically transported into this secret universe, she teams up with an elite band of warriors and a crew of comical, larger-than-life figures, to save their world.

In the House - A sixteen-year-old boy insinuates himself into the house of a fellow student from his literature class and writes about it in essays for his French teacher. Faced with this gifted and unusual pupil, the teacher rediscovers his enthusiasm for his work, but the boy's intrusion will unleash a series of uncontrollable events.

The Look of Love - The true tale of British adult magazine publisher and entrepreneur Paul Raymond (Steve Coogan of "24 Hour Party People", "The Trip"). A modern-day King Midas, Raymond became one of the richest men in Britain - at the cost of losing those closest to him.

Everybody has a Plan - Tells the story of Agustín (Mortensen), a man desperate to abandon what for him has become, after years of living in Buenos Aires, a very frustrating existence. After the death of his twin brother, Pedro, Agustín decides to start a new life, adopting the identity of his brother and returning to the mysterious region of the Delta, in the Tigre, where they lived when they were boys. However, shortly after his return, Agustín will find himself unwillingly involved in the dangerous criminal world that was a part of his brother's life.

 Weekly Recommendation: Having seen all with the exception of 'The Look of Love', which I have heard plenty of negative reports about, my top pick would be 'In the House', an unsettling drama that deals with voyeurism, professional misconduct, the blurring of reality and fiction, and the conscious manipulation of the family dynamic. 'Epic' is a stunning visual experience with some thrilling battle sequences, if covering familiar territory with it's forest set tale of good vs evil.  Both are worth a look, but not essential. With many a desaturated flashback and exposition-heavy lecture, Zack Snyder's CGI trainwreck, 'Man of Steel', starts out blindingly incoherent and then unevenly balances catastrophic (and tiring) levels of destruction with Kent's search for his identity. Many many issues. Not a good film at all. The same can be said for Mortensen's new film in which he speaks Spanish. One of the dullest alternate-identity dramas I can remember seeing.