Movies Not to Miss: March 2015
With all the festivities done in February, it is now back to our regular schedule of movies. If you are looking for the movie just for you, then March would have you spoiled for choices with a movie in almost every genre; from action to animation to horror to romance.
This month's releases are also linguistically diversified, so you can find a good change of pace from your usual fare of Hollywood if you are looking for it.
Fans of Neill Blomkamp may have been divided over "Elysium", but should be ready to give him a second chance after watching the trailer for "Chappie". Discarding the stabs at social injustices, "Chappie" appears to have a much simpler social backdrop to set up a playground for major mayhem; an area that Blomkamp revels in more than his discrete social commentaries. While we will only be seeing Sharlto Copley provide the motion capture for the titular robot who is given sentient artificial intelligence, we can't wait to see Hugh Jackman eat into his villain role with devilish delight.
General Release Date: 5 March
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
Nickelodeons should have been waiting for this moment; the day when the world of Bikini Bottom would finally meet with ours. When SpongeBob and gang are forced to come up to the surface to recover the secret formula of the Krabby Patty, you can definitely be sure that hilarity will ensue. It's been more than 10 years since the first "SpongeBob Squarepants" movie, and now with an updated 3D look, you should be prepared for the cartoon's trademark slapstick comedy and nonsensical dialogue to have you bent over in your seats.
General Release Date: 5 March
If you are in for some shock treatment at the cinema this month, then "The Lazarus Effect" should be able to help you with that. It is a curious to see a big-name star like Olivia Wilde, who plays as a scientist brought back from the dead with unforeseen consequences, lending her star power to this micro-budget horror. But the oddest thing for this is that this will be "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" director David Gelb's fictional feature debut, which could be the right or wrong reason to bring back its dead horse plot.
General Release Date: 26 March
There is no stopping Liam Neeson, and if that reminds you of last year's "Non-Stop", that is because "Run All Night" is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who also directed the former. Sharing a very similar DNA with the "Taken" series, this time Liam Neeson takes on the role of Jimmy Conlon, a former hitman for the mob (most likely with a special set of skills), who takes his estranged son on the run after defending him from the kill order of his former mob boss. We expect "Run All Night" to have that plot twist that "Non-Stop" had if it doesn't want to be taken as a "Taken" clone. Otherwise, here's where you can get your Liam Neeson fix.
General Release Date: 12 March
Disney's retelling of its villains may not have paid off that it had hoped, so maybe a re-imagining of its cartoon princesses to the live action could do the trick of creating another phenomenon. Of course, Disney isn't just that lazy to make a straight adaptation of this well-loved classic tale when you have Kenneth Branagh at the helm with his flair for the theatrics. Whether Lily James can fill in the (glass) shoes as the new icon of girls in this generation is one thing, but we are actually looking forward more to Cate Blanchett's rendition as the evil stepmother, which we would definitely compare with Angelina Jolie's take as Maleficent.
General Release Date: 12 March
March starts off the YA novel adaptation season with the second installment from Veronica Roth's 'Divergent' series. While Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ansel Elgort and the main cast returns for "Insurgent", the reins have been passed on from "Limitless" director Neil Burger to "RED" director Robert Schwentke, who is probably needed to overlook the larger action sequences that will be plunge the once ordered utopian society into a faction-divided war.
General Release Date: 19 March
Based on a true story, Miriam Yeung takes the lead in this story of Hong Kong's lowest paid headmistress who takes over a rundown kindergarten on the outskirts of Hong Kong, with only five students. Director Adrian Kwan, who hasn't made a movie since 2009's "Team of Miracle: We Will Rock You" returns with this moving story of sacrificing ones' personal happiness to help those that are forgotten and suffering from the hard circumstances of metropolitan life. Paired with Louis Khoo as the husband, the main attraction to us, however, is the five adorable children who seem to put up an admirable performance that could easily top any performance from any five-year old on their kindergarten's concert day.
General Release Date: 19 March
While "Home" ticks off every check box it needs to be every culture-referencing animation that has come out of DreamWorks, but it has made the inspired choice of having one of pop culture's biggest stars to be in its voice cast. While we can mean Rihanna in her first voice acting role as the human Tip, we are talking about the unmistakable nerdiness of Jim Parson as the alien Oh, who has to escape into Earth to avoid judgment from his fellow species. Face it, the real reason we're going to watch this because we want to see hear a tiny purple Sheldon Cooper making "The Big Bang Theory" references.
General Release Date: 26 March
Thanks to "Taken", no aging actor needs to shy away from doing an action oriented movie as long as they know how to sound menacing on the phone. That shouldn't be a problem for a two-time Oscar winner like Sean Penn, and so we have this adaptation of Jean-Patrick Manchette's novel. "Taken" director Pierre Morel would be on the helm for this bandwagon as Penn plays a special operative who goes on the run across Europe when his organisation has other plans for him to stop his retirement. While we do have to give this an edge because of its out of the ordinary cast that also stars Idris Elba and Javier Bardem, we seriously hope that this will not be a "Taken" rehash with a different actor on the phone.
General Release Date: 26 March
