Movies: Happy Death Day 2U, Swimming With Men, Fighting With My Family

Happy Death Day 2U

Yup!  The movie pickin’s are pretty slim…  With the AMC 14 Theaters three blocks from our house shuttered and the lack of any new releases few and far between, it feels like the dark days of the Depression as far as movie releases go…

That would explain the new movie release above.  It’s the second in its ‘want to be franchise’ but time will tell…

It’s an interesting concept. College student Tree Gelbman wakes up terrified when she realizes she is stuck in a parallel universe.  Her boyfriend is now someone else’s boyfriend.  Her friends are all different students.  The only thing the same is the masked killer who is stalking her.  It’s just goofy enough and different enough to hold your attention, if only for a few moments.

It’s rated PG-13 for violence, language, sexual material and thematic elements.  It’s listed as a Horror film.  We do not feel it is appropriate at all for children.  The run time is (a very long) 120 minutes.

Rating  

Swimming With Men

We wanted to see this movie at the Mostly British Film Festival but ran out of time so we were glad to find it still showing.  It’s a lighthearted story about a man in a mid-life crisis who finds a new perspective after joining an all-male synchronized swimming team.

A dozen actors make up the cast.  Charlotte Riley is the team coach.  Rob Brydon plays a burnt out businessman.  Jane Horrocks plays his wife.  Fellow swimmers include Jim Carter, Thomas Turgoose, Nathaniel Parker, Daniel Mays, Adeel Akhtar, Robert Daws, Spike White, and Christian Rubeck.

It was filmed mostly in central London with shoots in the Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Croydon neighborhoods.

What makes this film work is it doesn’t take itself too seriously.  It is sometimes goofy, sometimes a bit serious, sometimes in angst but mostly funny and ultimately satisfying.

This film is not rated.  Its genre is listed as Art House & International, Comedy, Drama, Romance.  The run time is 97 minutes.

Rating

Fighting With My Family

We are still in the weird zone when new movie releases are scarce.  So we were surprised when this film was released ahead of its national opening scheduled for March 1.

A tight-knit British family are huge wrestling fans when a rare opportunity to join the WWE presents itself to the eldest daughter.  The sports comedy-drama is based on a 2012 documentary The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family.

The mostly British cast includes Dwayne Johnson “The Rock”, Stephen Merchant, Florence Pugh, Zelina Vega, Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Jack Lowden, Kim Matula, Aquaala Zoll, Vince Vaughn, Jame Burrows, Hannah Rae and Julia Davis.

It’s not a perfect film but it is mostly an interesting and charming look at one family obsessed with professional wrestling and the twists and turns it causes in their lives.

It’s rated PG-13 for crude and sexual material, language throughout, some violence and drug content.  We do not think it is appropriate for young children.  Its genre is Comedy with a run time of 107 minutes.

Rating