Fancy a trip to the cinema this weekend? here's our round-up of this week's fresh releases.
The Conjuring 2 (15) Empire, Odeon, ABC ***
FACT and outlandish fiction are repeatedly smudged in James Wan’s stylish sequel to his 2013 supernatural horror, which dramatised one of the real-life cases of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.
Like its predecessor, The Conjuring 2 juxtaposes archive photographs and the Warrens’ taped interviews over the end credits to convince us that the spooky shenanigans orchestrated on screen are anchored in unsettling reality.
Only the gullible would submit wholeheartedly to the film’s gargantuan suspensions of belief.
However, the four screenwriters of The Conjuring 2 are content to use one family’s terror as a foundation for the usual array of horror tropes: creaking floorboards, a child speaking in tongues, inverted crosses, and ghostly figures emerging from the darkness.
The Conjuring 2 feels overlong and lacks the tight emotional bond of the first film’s besieged family.
Wilson and Farmiga ease back into familiar roles while youngster Wolfe is impressive, including one unsettling scene of her character shuddering with fear beneath bedsheets as a spirit hovers above her.
Audiences, who enjoy gentle jump-out-of-their-seat scares, will nervously bite nails in the dark of a cinema.
Gods of Egypt (12A) Empire, Odeon *
SWORDS, sandals and silliness are in abundance in Alex Proyas’ lumbering fantasy adventure, set in a sprawling ancient Egypt in which shape-shifting gods live side by side with awestruck mortals.
According to a laconic voiceover, the deities are easily identifiable because they are taller and have “gold running through their veins”.
Alas, there is no gold - fool’s or otherwise - running through Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless’ uneven script.
Instead it’s heavy on the muscle-flexing and sibling rivalry and light on everything that matters: coherent plotting, characterisation, dramatic momentum or emotional depth.
Preview: Barbershop: A Fresh Cut, Empire
ARRIVING 12 years after the second film in the series, Barbershop: A Fresh Cut continues the misadventures of the staff and customers of a community meeting place on the South Side of Chicago, which has witnessed gang violence on the surrounding streets.
Times are tough and Calvin Palmer (Ice Cube) has been forced to share his barbershop premises with a business partner, Angie (Regina Hall), who runs a beauty parlour on the opposite side of the open-plan floor.
Banter between the two sides lights the fuse on a good-natured battle of the sexes.
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