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Our favourite cinema picks of the month, by Rhys Wilson-Plant

WAR DOGS
“God bless Cheney’s America” is a quote that about sums up War Dogs.

Set up as a gangster film, two ignorant young men spot a gap in an unforgiving business and try to achieve the American dream using, you guessed it – guns.

War Dogs has its moments of raw excitement and once again displays Jonah Hill and Miles Teller’s acting talent, but it’s a film where we never connect with the characters, and struggle to identify their motives.
Release Date: August 26
Director: Todd Phillips
3 stars

 

 

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BEN-HUR
After leaving to join the Roman army Messala (Toby Kebbell), the adopted son of a wealthy family living in Jerusalem, returns three years later claiming his brother, Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston), is a traitor to the Roman cause, and sentences his mother and sister to death whilst making Judah a galley salve.

Often skipping large amounts of time, we suddenly have to accept that these characters are changed and that they now think differently and have new goals.

It lacks any substantial emotional punch and leaves the audience with a protagonist whom we never truly care for, while the only moments of enjoyment come in the chariot race of nameless faces.

The 1959 adaptation swept the Oscars with 11 awards. However, the re-make doesn’t hold the same substance as the Heston picture, overly relying on CGI animation throughout, and sure to struggle come awards season.
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Release Date: September 7
2 stars

 

 

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CAFÉ SOCIETY
Set in the rocking thirties, the era of financial boom, political radicalism and the end of prohibition Bobby (Jesse Eisenberg), a Bronx-born kid, moves to Los Angeles where he falls in love with his big time uncle’s secretary (Kristen Stewart).

Layered in well-know classics from the period that soak us in the nostalgia of the era, a young man finds love in a new and confusing world, only to lose it. So distinct are his films, this is another one in the collection for Woody Allen.
Director: Woody Allen
Release Date: September 2
3 stars

 

 

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BAD MOMS
Upon realising how low the quality of her life is, mum Amy (Mila Kunis) decides, along with two other mums, that they shall be bad mums, and start to look the other way from their responsibilities.

Bad Moms is a light-hearted film that feels as though it’s trying too hard to be funny, often having to rely on graphic jokes to get laughs (which we do), rather than funny situations in the story. Bad Moms is a film that does not live up to its potential.
Release Date: August 24
Director: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
2 stars