What's on at the movies 5th August 2016?

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NEWS

SUICIDE SQUAD SETS BOX OFFICE RECORDS ON OPENING DAY

Warner Bros. Pictures' anti-superhero blockbuster SUICIDE SQUAD has broken box office records on its way to the #1 spot at the Australian box office on Thursday.The action film based on the characters from DC Entertainment has taken $3,213,153 at the Australian box office on its opening day, making it the biggest opening day ever in August.In a big year for comic book films, SUICIDE SQUAD had the #2 opening day for a superhero flick in 2016 behind BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE on $3.41 million and ahead of CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR on $3.06 million and DEADPOOL on $2.94 million.SUICIDE SQUAD also marks the biggest opening day for a Will Smith film in Australia, surpassing 2008's I AM LEGEND.

THE CONJURING 2 BECOMES THE #1 HORROR FILM OF ALL-TIME AT THE AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND BOX OFFICES

Warner Bros. Pictures and Roadshow Films are proud to announce that New Line Cinema’s THE CONJURING 2 has become the highest grossing horror film at the Australian and New Zealand box offices. The 2016 supernatural thriller, from Australian horror mastermind James Wan, has conjured up over $10.75 million at the Australian box office, surpassing 2001’s THE OTHERS on $10.73 million; THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999) on $10.24 million; THE CONJURING (2013) on $8.87 million and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (2007) on $8.63 million.In New Zealand, the film has grossed $2.215 million, overtaking the classic horror flick SCREAM (1996).

SUICIDE SQUAD ✪✪✪✪ Opens August 4

The battle has arrived. DC Comics vs Marvel. The winner could be this DC if Suicide Squad is anything to go by. DC Comics is much darker than the increasingly ever more lollypop-colored Marvel. Personally, I’m loving this DC franchise which began with Superman Returns, then Batman v Superman and is continued with Suicide Squad referencing the previous film and Superman’s demise.

These are anti-heroes. Very bad guys enlisted into a covert team to help the army ward off the attack by an evil sibling duo. Don’t expect a deep and meaningful film, but you will enjoy the action and the interspersed comedy and back stories of each character.

It’s a reasonably A list cast led by our own Margot Robbie and Will Smith. Jared Leto is a fantastic joker, perhaps not quite as subtle as Heath Ledger’s but probably the best we’ve seen since.

For those who can’t miss a moment, there is a bonus scene half way through the end credits. Unlike the Marvel bonus clips, it actually makes sense and gives us an indication where the next film Justice League is going (that’s if you haven’t see the trailer). No swearing and no blood means this film is suitable for those younger kids who can handle fight sequences and scary images. Probably one of the coolest films you will see all year. Love the tag line: Worse heroes ever!

Film Blurb

Director David Ayer (Fury) takes the helm for this Warner Bros. production adapted from the DC Comics series about a group of super-villains who are given a shot at redemption by embarking on a heroic mission that will most likely mean the death of them all. Dan Lin produces from a script by Justin Marks.

EMBRACE ✪✪✪✪✪ Opens August 4

WEBSITE: http://bodyimagemovement.com.au/

This film needs to be shown in every school. On a given evening, every station including Foxtel, Netflix, etc., should suspend their programming and play this film. The world would be changed. The Australian Classification Board has given the film an MA15+ rating purely based on the inclusion of ‘protruding labia’. What a disservice to our youth this is. Taryn Brumfitt the writer and producer of the film and founder of the Body Image Movement responds on her blog: “Embrace unsuitable for under 15-year-olds for showing in an educational and informative context the range of ways a woman’s body can look? The whole point of the classification system is to protect minors from being exposed to harmful content, but what exactly is the board protecting them from? This is not rude or crude, this is natural, this is life.”

There is so much truth in this film about life, ourselves, where we are going so terribly wrong. Bizarrely, it’s almost the tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes. We’ve just accepted it as normal that it’s not good to not be beautiful in the eyes of some fictitious image created purely to sell things. You know it already, but during the film you begin to feel as though you really know we've been hoodwinked. The first five minutes of the film simply broke my heart. To hear women talk about their disgust for their bodies and the impact these feelings have on their lives brought me to tears.

Embrace introduces us to so many inspiring, wonderful people, a poor woman suffering from anorexia; a photographer who captures the beauty in mothers' bodies; Rikki Lake speaking openly and honestly about her struggles with her image; Mia Freedman, the youngest editor of Australian Cosmopolitan and her desire to move away from the skinny model; and so many other brave, beautiful women. It’s just incredible and beyond inspiring. In my twenties, when I decided to give up smoking, one of the main thoughts I kept in my mind, to defeat the urge to take it up again, was that cigarette companies knew they were hurting their customers and they were laughing at us. They were making money from making us sick and killing us. “Thank you,” I thought, “No longer will you make money from me. I won't be your fool.” This body image issue needs the same thought process.

We need to rise up, especially parents, and demand our children are no longer exposed to this insanity. How you look is how you look. If you are healthy and happy, then it doesn’t matter what shape, what color, what size you are. None of it matters. We need to fill our children’s minds with what they can contribute to the world, their friends, their families, not what impact their appearance has on others. Although, I don’t feel I’ve ever had a huge problem with body image, I have my moments. I stress over a pimple, how my hair looks, the wrinkles I see, my tummy since I’ve had kids. I jokingly say I won't ever be wearing a bikini again, and I'm a size twelve! I saw Taryn Brumfitt’s picture a few years ago and reposted it on Facebook then because I was impressed by her words. Ever since, I’ve tried not to worry too much about how soft my body is now I’m in my fifties and have had two children. I have a reasonable control of my mind, but still I have to fight off those negative thoughts sometimes about how I look.

This film is a reaffirmation now that I need to work harder. Especially around my children. No more commenting on the way anyone looks. I’ve been known to jokingly comment on clothes or shapes or age. Done. Gone. People are people. I embrace every one of you. It’s about who you are. And who you are is inside your skin. The outside is just packaging you can play with for the fun of it. Like clothes, your exterior is protection and simply something to carry around your soul, heart, and mind. Inside is the value of a human being.

I’ve seen some incredible documentaries in the past year, That Sugar Film, the recent Chasing Asylum, but this one is by far the most important for the world. Such a little thing: Love yourself as you are could transform everything. Please embrace this film. Don’t spend your cinema dollars on these silly American crass comedies or the latest blockbusters until you’ve seen Embrace. Your entry fee might just change yours, your friends', and your family’s lives.

Absolutely Fabulous: the movie ✪✪✪ Opens August 4

I loved the television series, the earlier ones. I did try and watch a few from the 2012 season, but as the ladies aged, so did the jokes. However, this film’s trailer looked funny, and I welcomed seeing Edi and Patsy back on the big screen. Kudos to Fox for the fantastic preview. 1000 people were there for the four cinemas, along with a dozen lookalikes in the Pack of Patsies. Great fun.

The film isn’t filled with riotous laughs, however, it is fun. My friend’s fifteen-year-old loved it, and though the older folks like me will see it out of nostalgia, it probably will appeal more to the young ones. It’s pretty silly stuff, but that was the show. Funnily enough, I think its interesting that Embrace opens the same week as this film. That film is about removing stereotypical beauty and Ab Fab is all about only the beautiful and fashion. I did cringe at some of Patsie’s lines and maybe the world has moved on a little, or maybe I have. Still probably one of the better TV adaptions. They are never up to scratch, excluding The Man from Uncle which was just brilliant. Fun, almost fabulous, silliness, sweetie, darling!

Film Blurb

In Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, Edi and Patsy are still oozing glitz and glamor, living the high life they are accustomed to; shopping, drinking and clubbing their way around London's trendiest hot-spots. Blamed for a major incident at an uber fashionable launch party, they become entangled in a media storm and are relentlessly pursued by the paparazzi.

Fleeing penniless to the glamorous playground of the super-rich, the French Riviera, they hatch a plan to make their escape permanent and live the high life forever more. Based on TV show from 1992-2012

SPECIAL EVENTS

READING CINEMAS ADVANCE SCREENINGS

BAD MOMS

Date: Wednesday August 10

Time: 7:00pm

Location: Readings Belmont Details and Booking

Film season opens Thursday August 11

Gold Glass $28 General Session $10

In this new comedy from the grateful husbands and devoted fathers who wrote The Hangover, Amy (Mila Kunis) has a seemingly perfect life--a great marriage, over-achieving kids, beautiful home and a career. However she's over-worked, over-committed and exhausted to the point that she's about to snap. Fed up, she joins forces with two other over-stressed moms on a quest to liberate themselves from conventional responsibilities--going on a wild, un-mom-like binge of long overdue freedom, fun and self-indulgence--putting them on a collision course with PTA Queen Bee Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate) and her clique of devoted perfect moms. Also stars Kristen Bell & Jada Pinkett Smith

READING CINEMAS SPIT THE DUMMY SESSION

ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS

Date: Wednesday August 10

Time: 10:00am

Location: Readings Belmont Details and Booking

Readings also has The Spit the Dummy session every Wednesday. Next week they are screening ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS. The lights are dimmed and stay on and the sound is lowered. Tickets are the usual $10

Alfred Hitchcock Film Festival

'MY FILM FESTIVAL FINALLY'

Date: Opens July 28 – August 10

Time: Various Times

Location: Windsor Cinema Details and Booking

Featuring REBECCA (1940) Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine book by Daphen du Maurier ; SPELLBOUND (1945) Ingrid Berman, Gregory Peck; NOTORIOUS (1946) Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant; STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951) Robert Walker; DIAL M FOR MURDER IN 3D (1954) Ray Milan, Grace Kelly; REAR WINDOW (1954), Grace Kelly, James Stewart; TO CATCH A THIEF (1955); VERTIGO (1958) Kim Novak, James Stewart; NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) Eva Marie-Saint, Carey Grant PSYCHO (1960) Anthony Perkins; THE BIRDS (1963) Tippie Hedren