What will you see in Irish cinemas this month?
EX MACHINA
Directed by: Alex Garland
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Alicia Vikander
Release Date: January 23rd 2015
In the first of two films together this year – the second being STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS – Gleeson and Isaac team up on 28 DAYS LATER and DREDD screenwriter Alex Garland’s directorial debut.
The film follows a young computer programmer, who is drafted in by the CEO of the company he works for to take part in a mysterious experiment into the development of artificial intelligence.
TAKEN 3
Directed by: Oliver Megaton
Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Dougray Scott
Release Date: January 8th 2015
Oliver Megaton – the action movie director with the most appropriate name ever – brings the TAKEN franchise to a violent end this month. Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills, and this time out, it’s not his daughter who is ‘taken’, but him; as he is accused of a murder he didn’t even witness, much less commit.
INHERENT VICE
Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Eric Roberts, Maya Rudolph
Release Date: January 30th 2015
Paul Thomas Anderson has gathered together the best cast of early 2015 for this tale of a drug fuelled LA detective, who finds himself investigating the disappearance of his former girlfriend. INHERENT VICE is based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel of the same name, and could well be Joaquin Phoenix’s FEAR AND LOATHING…
MORTDECAI
Directed by: David Koepp
Starring: Johnny Depp, Aubrey Plaza, Ewan McGregor, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Bettany
Release Date: January 23rd 2015
Johnny Depp reunites with Paul Bettany for a third time – after THE TOURIST and TRANSCENDENCE – in this action comedy flick, which is based on a series of comic thriller novels from the 1970s.
Depp plays the title character, an art dealer who is enlisted to find a stolen painting. The trouble is that this painting is linked with a lost bank account that is reportedly filled with Nazi gold, so Mortdecai is surely not the only person looking for it.
A MOST VIOLENT YEAR
Directed by: JC Chandor
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, Alessandro Nivola, David Oyelowo
Release Date: January 23rd 2015
1981 was one of the most violent years in New York City’s history. MARGIN CALL and ALL IS LOST director JC Chandor’s film focuses on the family of a young immigrant, attempting to make New York their home, during a turbulent and frightening time.