Oxygen.ie sponsored by International Student Identity Card
The only globally recognised student ID
160,000 student discounts
Get yours today at
The evenings are drawing in, the temperatures are dropping, assignments are flooding in, and of course, all the big winter movies are vying for your hard-earned cash.
But what movies are worthy of your time in the next few months?
The Predator
The original 1987 film is a modern landmark of American action cinema, so naturally a reboot was in order.
Thankfully, the reboot is in the hands of Shane Black, best known for writing the Lethal Weapon movies, as well as directing the devise Iron Man 3 and the under-rated crime comedy The Nice Guys.
Black actually had a supporting role in the original film, so perhaps a man with the insider knowledge of the franchise could be the person to resurrect it.
With Narcos’ Boyd Holbrook as our leading man, Room’s Jacob Tremblay as the plot-centric gifted child and Moonlight’s Trevante Rhodes as Holbrook’s best friend, this movie promises to be a fun and winking retelling of John McTiernan’s seminal classic.
A Star Is Born
Bradley Cooper makes his directorial debut in the film that will either be the Oscar front-runner come next February, or the biggest disaster of the year.
If the title sounds familiar to you, it’s because this is the third remake of a film that originally debuted in 1937, with the Judy Garland version from 1954 being the most recognisable to contemporary audiences.
Lady GaGa is our undiscovered superstar in waiting, who is taken under the wing of Bradley Cooper’s country star.
All the red flags are there – an actor making a directorial debut, a remake of a remake of a remake, the strange lack of buzz, but on the contrary it could be a massive hit in spite of those barriers.
First Man
Damien Chazelle looks set to continue his 1970’s Spielberg-esque miracle run of films with a biopic of Neil Armstrong.
The pre-emptive awards season favourite (which at time of writing got a standing ovation at the Venice film festival) sees Chazelle and Ryan Gosling reunited to tackle the story of the first moon landing.
Gosling has been on an incredible streak, including the 1-2-3 punch of The Big Short, The Nice Guys, and Chazelle’s own La La Land, and this may well be the film that lands him an Oscar.
The script has been penned by Josh Singer, himself an excellent talent, boasting Spotlight and The Post on his resume.
The buzz around the advance screenings of this film has been described as “the editing and intensity of Whiplash applied to spaceflight” and if that alone doesn’t want to get you to your local cinema, I don’t know what to say.
Halloween
Before there was Freddy, Jason. or Pennywise, there was Michael Myers.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the original Halloween movie, and to celebrate they’re giving the franchise a hard reboot.
Thankfully, the film has the blessing and direct involvement of series creator John Carpenter, who is also contributing the score.
The film is being produced by Jason Blum, who may not sound like anyone important to the average movie-goer but is in fact one of the key figures in the recent horror revival, with his company Blumhouse being responsible for the likes of Get Out, Insidious, The Purge, Split and The Gift to name just a few of their productions.
A moderately-budgeted reboot with the original creator’s input sounds like a slam dunk, and the deal is sweetened even further with the news of original star Jamie Lee Curtis being the lead of the film.
Here’s hoping the film can pull off the balancing act of appealing to old-school horror fans and a new generation!
The Hate U Give
Race relations and police brutality are a hot-button topic in the contemporary era, and this film looks to address the topic head on.
Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, the story follows a student who witnesses the death of her unarmed best friend by a police officer, and must decide what to do when she is called to testify in court.
The film is debuting at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival, which has often been a launching pad for massive critical and commercial successes in recent years such as Shape Of Water, Moonlight, 12 Years A Slave, Slumdog Millionaire and more.
If the film is a success there, it will set it on a path to becoming the most successful social drama of recent times, and a welcome break from 2 hours of CGI explosion.
Widows
How do you follow up a movie like 12 Years A Slave?
By adapting a 1980’s ITV drama, obviously.
Steve McQueen’s first film in five years promises to be a cracker – four men are killed during a robbery gone wrong, and their widows attempt to avenge them.
The most intriguing of these is Gillian Flynn writing the script with McQueen.
Flynn followed up Gone Girl with the riveting Sharp Objects on HBO, and she’s going for the 3peat here with the big prestige drama of the year, and I could hardly think of a better co-writer than Steve McQueen.
Crazy Rich Asians
At time of writing, this film has been out for just over two weeks in America and is on track to be the biggest romantic comedy since My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
The plot concerns a young bride-to-be, who discovers her new in-laws are amongst the richest families in Singapore.
The film is notable for being the first Hollywood production in 25 years to boast an all-Asian cast, and if the success of Black Panther tells us anything, representation is as lucrative as any amount of action figures or tie-in albums.
CRA doesn’t land here until early November, but rest assured it will be amongst the biggest movies of the year, if not the decade.
By Mike Finnerty
ISIC TAKEOVER
GET THE ONLY GLOBALLY RECOGNISED STUDENT ID