The vacation time is ushering in some nifty, or at the very least fascinating, presents for Bay Space film followers.
Main releases due in theaters this week embody “Anaconda,” “Is This Thing On?,” “No Other Choice,” and “The Choral” all land in theaters this week. And Netflix is serving up the brand new tearjerker “Goodbye June.”
Right here’s our roundup.
“Anaconda”: In case you’re selecting to remake a dumb monster film, then do it with the identical infectious tongue-in-cheek fashion as director/co-screenwriter Tom Gormican does right here. “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” filmmaker realizes solely a moneygrubbing hack would go for an actual remake. Nobody needs that. As a substitute, he and co-screenwriter Kevin Etten and a pleasant goofball solid get all meta and irreverent with their revisit of the 1997 howler that starred J-Lo, Ice Dice, a bellowing Jon Voight and a really hungry snake. The crux of the plot, should you may even name it that, hinges on 4 middle-aged childhood associates from Buffalo — wedding ceremony videographer Doug (Jack Black), lately fired third-tier actor Griff (Paul Rudd), stuck-in-a-rut Claire (Thandiwe Newton) and ne’er-do-well Kenny (Steve Zahn) — combatting their midlife crises by journeying to the Amazon to allow them to shoot a remake of one in every of their favourite monster flicks. In one of the heartwarming sequences a flashback reveals these younger movie buffs capturing one in every of their shlocky Huge Foot-esque monster films. It’s unexpectedly candy and endearing. As soon as the quartet hits the Amazon, in fact, all heck breaks unfastened, resulting in showdown between this motley crew and the ginormous anaconda (the CGI results are good, not overdone). Is any of it scary? Hardly. However it’s constantly humorous — and Gormican’s movie by no means bites the hand that feeds it — in different phrases, he doesn’t sneer on the authentic. “Anaconda” is impressed and foolish and even advocates, simply as “Marty Supreme” does, for all of us to dream as huge as you’ll be able to even when the chances are stacked towards you. “‘Anaconda” will make you snicker after which slither its means into your coronary heart. Particulars: 3 stars; in theaters Dec. 25.
“Song Sung Blue”: Neil Diamond’s voluminous fan base would be the most appreciative of Craig Brewer’s truth-based musical biopic, a good tearjerker impressed by a same-titled 2008 documentary. It, like that movie, chronicles the lives, careers and misfortunes of Mike Sardina and Claire Stengl, a preferred duo that shaped the Neil Diamond tribute band known as Thunder and Lightning. Thunder sang and was a Vietnam veteran and recovering alcoholic whereas Lightning performed keyboards and suffered from bouts of despair. Each liked to carry out and did they ever pack them in all through Milwaukee and past, Brewer’s function may use extra artistic spark, and generally feels a bit uneven. However that doesn’t diminish the ability of its story nor the lead performances from Hugh Jackman and, particularly, Kate Hudson who’s going for one thing larger than what the screenplay permits. The celebrities’ charisma outshines the issues of “Song Sung Blue,” a satisfying portrait of two Neil Diamond lovers who weathered exhausting occasions and sang their means into the hearts of others again then and now with this admirable movie. Particulars: 3 stars; in theaters Dec. 25.
“No Other Choice”: When South Korean paper manufacturing exec Man-su (Lee Byung Hun, in a efficiency that deserves awards traction) loses his 25-year-old job in an inhumane American conglomerate takeover, the married father of 4 takes determined issues into his personal palms. His macabre resolution to slay his fellow competitors in order that he can guarantee his household maintains their idyllic and materialistic life-style results in a rising physique depend. How Man- su goes about his plan shouldn’t be divulged; it is advisable to uncover it for yourselves. Relaxation assured you’re in for one wild journey and are within the palms of one in every of our best residing filmmakers, Park Chan-wook — recognized for surprising viewers — is as much as his devious, typically exhilarating, methods right here. Whereas “No Other Choice,” based mostly on the late/nice writer Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 novel “The Ax,” doesn’t rank along with his greatest — together with “Oldboy,” “Decision to Leave” and “The Handmaiden” — this nonetheless ranks as one in every of 2025’s greatest movies, an alternately humorous, savage and violent satire that faucets right into a hostile, dog-eat-dog work atmosphere created by hostile company entities all in favour of revenue over folks. “No Other Choice” has some screwball moments that largely work and a few sexual stuff that doesn’t completely pan out, nevertheless it Chan-wook and cinematographer Kim Woo-hyung create virtuoso visible moments that take your breath away and which few others may even dream of. By some means he makes the informal act of a consuming a boilermaker one of the intoxicating and thrilling photographs of 2025. What a rare treasure Park Chan-wook is. Particulars: 3½ stars; in choose theaters Dec. 24, expands Jan. 2.
“The Choral”: Nicholas Hytner’s musty World Conflict I interval piece resembles an artifact, a drama that’s composed of components and themes from different, higher, movies. That may be comforting to some, however makes for a rote, unsurprising movie. I additionally grew pissed off over how “The Choral” tiptoes round potent subjects — sexuality, class, battle, and so forth — reasonably than coping with them full on. Ralph Fiennes’ presence does elevate Alan Bennett’s screenplay a notch or two, even when he’s not given rather a lot to work with. He performs an incoming refrain grasp, Dr. Henry Guthrie, who’s a current rent from Germany who goals to shake up the staid Choral Society crowd by helming a efficiency of “The Dream of Gerontius” that’s extra modern and related. Bennett has produced polished diamonds of screenplays and performs earlier than (“The Madness of King George,” “The History Boys”) however right here he neve fairly succeeds in weaving collectively the varied narratives — the cocky younger males subsequent in line to affix the ranks, the lives of the opposite choir and board members and Guthrie’s previous and his sexualit. “The Choral” has top-tier manufacturing values to its credit score, nevertheless it all appears cobbled collectively from different oft-told tales. Ultimately, it ought to have taken a cue from Guthrie’s tinkering about with dated materials and punched it up a bit extra. Particulars: 2 stars; opens Christmas Day in choose theaters.
“Goodbye June”: A solid of unimaginable actors — Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren, Johnny Flynn, Andrea Riseborough, Toni Collette, Timothy Spall — will get trapped in a well-recognized dysfunctional household Christmas tearjerker that too typically speaks in cliches and is stocked with one-note characters. There’s the harried however profitable sister (Winslet), the black sheep sis (Collette) who’s into chakras and motion therapies, the loyal-to-a-fault, repressed stay-at-home son (Flynn) and so forth. All of them congregate at a hospital throughout vacation time when most cancers plaguing the matriarch (Mirren) takes a much more critical flip. Winslet capably directs a screenplay by her son Joe Anders that wanted just a few extra rewrites earlier than Winslet shouted “rolling.” Some scenes work — those between Winslet and Riseborough, for instance — however others backfire, reminiscent of when Spall’s addled character performs karaoke. What’s purported to be tender and touching rings completely phony and manipulative. To its credit score, the solid works wonders with the little it i given, however that simply isn’t sufficient. Particulars: 2 stars; drops Dec. 24 on Netflix.
