Movies In Theaters This Friday, March 6, 2015: Chappie, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Unfinished Business, and More
Although we’ve seen movies like Fifty Shades of Grey and Jupiter Ascending release, this weekend’s slate (and the fact that it’s officially March) finally starts to turn the tables on the year. As you’re about to see, we could also call this “Dev Patel weekend” as he’s going to be involved in a large portion of this weekend’s box office results.
First of all, there’s Neill Blomkamp’s (District 9) sci-fi film Chappie. Not only does it have the A.I. appeal, but it stars Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver, and Dev Patel (HBO’s The Newsroom). I’m hoping the movie matches how excited I am for it…which, I admit, could be unfair.
Besides Chappie, the sequel The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel also releases. John Madden again directed the movie and its got a stellar ensemble that includes Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Richard Gere, and, yet again, Dev Patel.
The third, and final, wide release belongs to Ken Scott’s (Starbuck) film Unfinished Business. He’ll team-up with Vince Vaughn again in the European-set comedy. I can’t say I’m super-excited for the movie; however, I was a huge fan of Scott’s Starbuck so I’ll give this a fair shake.
In limited theaters, there are a bunch of films vying for an audience. For my money, I’m most excited to check out the thriller Kidnapping Mr. Heineken. Starring Anthony Hopkins, the film is about the real-life successful kidnapping of Freddy Heineken (brewer of the famous beer).
I’m also excited to see how Two Men in Town does, but mostly because it stars Forest Whitaker.
The rest of the limited releases are for Bad Asses 3: Bad Asses on the Bayou, Buzzard, Faults, Hayride 2, An Honest Liar, Kidnapping Mr. Heineken, The Life and Mind of Mark DeFriest, Like Sunday, Like Rain, Merchants of Doubt, October Gale, Road Hard, and These Final Hours.
Have a great moviegoing weekend!
Every child comes into the world full of promise, and none more so than Chappie: he is gifted, special, a prodigy. Like any child, Chappie will come under the influence of his surroundings – some good, some bad – and he will rely on his heart and soul to find his way in the world and become his own man. But there’s one thing that makes Chappie different from anyone else: he is a robot. The first robot with the ability to think and feel for himself. His life, his story, will change the way the world looks at robots and humans forever.
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is the expansionist dream of Sonny (Dev Patel), and it’s making more claims on his time than he has available, considering his imminent marriage to the love of his life, Sunaina (Tina Desai). Sonny has his eye on a promising property now that his first venture, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful, has only a single remaining vacancy – posing a rooming predicament for fresh arrivals Guy (Richard Gere) and Lavinia (Tamsin Greig). Evelyn and Douglas (Judi Dench and Bill Nighy) have now joined the Jaipur workforce, and are wondering where their regular dates for Chilla pancakes will lead, while Norman and Carol (Ronald Pickup and Diana Hardcastle) are negotiating the tricky waters of an exclusive relationship, as Madge (Celia Imrie) juggles two eligible and very wealthy suitors. Perhaps the only one who may know the answers is newly installed co-manager of the hotel, Muriel (Maggie Smith), the keeper of everyone’s secrets. As the demands of a traditional Indian wedding threaten to engulf them all, an unexpected way forward presents itself.
A hard-working small business owner (Vince Vaughn) and his two associates (Tom Wilkinson, Dave Franco) travel to Europe to close the most important deal of their lives. But what began as a routine business trip goes off the rails in every imaginable – and unimaginable – way, including unplanned stops at a massive sex fetish event and a global economic summit.
Bad Ass 3: Bad Asses on the Bayou
Frank Vega and Bernie Pope return, this time to Louisiana in an attempt to find a kidnapped friend.
Marty is a caustic, small-time con artist drifting from one scam to the next. When his latest ruse goes awry, mounting paranoia forces him from his lousy small town temp job to the desolate streets of Detroit with nothing more than a pocket full of bogus checks, a dangerously altered Nintendo® Power Glove, and a bad temper. Albert Camus meets Freddy Krueger in BUZZARD, a hellish and hilarious riff on the struggles of the American working class.
Claire is under the grip of a mysterious new cult called Faults. Desperate to be reunited with their daughter, Claire’s parents recruit one of the world’s foremost experts on mind control, Ansel Roth.
The end of one journey only marks the beginning of another as Detective Loomis returns to uncover the truth behind the Legend of Pitchfork.
For the last half-century, James “The Amazing” Randi has entertained millions of people around the world with his remarkable feats of magic, escape and trickery.
Schooled in the techniques of deception, Randi saw his beloved magician’s tricks being used by faith healers, fortune-tellers, and psychics — not for entertainment, but to steal money from innocent people and destroy lives. Enraged by this, he dedicated his life to exposing those frauds, and would do so with the wit and style of the great showman that he is.
A self-described liar, cheat, and charlatan, Randi embarked on a mission for truth by perpetrating a series of unparalleled investigations and elaborate hoaxes. These grand schemes fooled scientists, the media, and a gullible public, but always with a deeper goal of demonstrating the importance of evidence and the dangers of magical thinking. In one of these acts, he transformed his partner, Jose Alvarez, into a fake guru named “Carlos” to show how easily people can be fooled. His work exposing faith healers won him the prestigious MacArthur “Genius” Award in 1987.
But when dealing with a master deceiver, the truth can often be hard to find. A sudden and shocking truth in Randi’s personal life is brought to light when the tale of multiple identities takes an unexpected and potentially devastating turn. And Randi – who spent his life exposing deception – may have perpetrated another grand hoax or become the victim of a very personal one.
AN HONEST LIAR is a film about deception, told through Randi’s life and acts using never-before-seen historical footage and many of the original people involved. The film also follows Randi and his partner through this latest dramatic – and potentially devastating – twist in their lives.
With appearances by Adam Savage, Penn & Teller, Bill Nye, Alice Cooper and others, AN HONEST LIAR is an exciting and thought-provoking film: part detective-story, part biography, and a bit of a magic act itself.
1983, a group of childhood friends pulled off the crime of the century: kidnapping one of the richest men in the world, the heir of the Heineken beer empire (Anthony Hopkins). The shocking capture–by gunpoint on the streets of Amsterdam–resulted in the largest ransom ever paid for a kidnapped individual. It was truly the perfect crime…until they got away with it. Based on a true story, KIDNAPPING MR. HEINEKEN also stars Sam Worthington, Jim Sturgess and Ryan Kwanten.
The Life of Mind Mark DeFriest
Once known as Houdini for his multiple and improbable jailbreaks, Mark DeFriest was condemned to Florida’s toughest prison after a lone psychiatrist declared he was faking mental illness. When that doctor reaches out 30 years later, DeFriest finds an unlikely ally willing to examine his infamous past and offer new insights to the Parole Commission.
LIKE SUNDAY, LIKE RAIN tells the story of Reggie, a 12 year old rich prodigy who lives in a castle in New York, surrounded by wealth but living a lonely life as his parents are frequently absent. Eleanor is a young musician going through the pains of growing up, who is having problems with her boyfriend and was recently fired from her job. Making matters worse, she finds herself with no place to live and far from her unsupportive family. In a desperate attempt to land a new job, she finds herself at the home of Barbara, Reggie’s mom, and is hired to take care of the young boy. She is surprised by Reggie’s intelligence and street smarts but is worried about his odd behavior of avoiding riding in cars, skipping summer camp and only having one friend, Raj. Little by little they both learn about each other’s lives until an emergency forces Eleanor to visit her family in Upstate New York. After unsuccessfully trying to find a replacement, she takes Reggie with her where he is exposed to a whole different world. This is a beautiful story about discovery and acceptance.
A documentary that looks at pundits-for-hire who present themselves as scientific authorities as they speak about topics like toxic chemicals, pharmaceuticals and climate change.
A doctor takes in a mysterious man who washes ashore at her remote cottage with a gunshot wound. Quickly they both learn the killer has arrived to finish the job, while a storm has cut them off from the mainland.
After his movie and television career has run dry, Bruce Madsen (Adam Carolla) is forced to go back on the road playing one dingy comedy club after another, spending endless nights in budget hotel rooms and always flying coach. Amidst trying to revitalize his career, rekindle his love life and put his daughter through college, Bruce knows one thing for sure – he must get off the road. ROAD HARD is the story of that journey.
It’s the last day on earth, twelve hours before a cataclysmic event will end life as we know it. James makes his way across a lawless and chaotic city to the party to end all parties. Along the way, he somewhat reluctantly saves the life of a little girl named Rose who is desperately searching for her father. Stuck with the unexpected burden of responsibility, James is forced to come to terms with what really matters in life as the final hours tick away.
A Muslim ex-con forms a friendship with his parole officer.
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