2023 Week 15

Hello film world! This is “Film Cell Weekly” and I’m Cell, here for another week of upcoming film releases, for week number fifteen, April 9th through April 16th.  What have you been watching lately? Did everyone check out “The Super Mario Brothers” movie this past weekend? Based on those box office numbers the film is blowing past expectations, and it seems like a guarantee that we’ll see more Mario movies in the future. Maybe even some adaptations of other Nintendo properties? I’m rooting for a Metroid film myself. 

We’ll get started by quickly reviewing the box office from this past weekend, which had “The Super Mario Brothers” movie reaching a giant mushroom sized $375 million dollars worldwide. “John Wick Four” takes second place, being just shy of $15 million, and “Air” follows very close behind that at $14.456 million. Just out of medal contention is “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves”, with $13.9 million. After just a few weeks of release, the Shazam sequel is quickly dying in theatres, landing at number eight in the box office weekend with $1.5 million. This will surely go down as a box office bomb, as the movie struggles to break even on its $100 million plus budget. Has super hero film fatigue, umm, set in, or is it just hesitation for audiences to watch another DC movie knowing that their “universe” is being shaken up soon? We may have a clearer picture with both “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “The Flash” around the corner. 

Let’s see what’s in store for movie releases this week. Up first are a few movies hitting video on demand and streaming services. 

Black Bags is directed by Josh Brandon, and stars Laura Vandervoort – who you may remember from her television role as Supergirl in Smallville. “A seemingly chance encounter between two women on a bus trip with identical black suitcases sets off a dangerous game of cat and mouse when one discovers she’s swapped her bag with a killer’s. As they try to outsmart each other at every turn, deadly secrets are revealed and they learn that their meeting may not have been accidental, and they may have more in common than they think.” Sounds interesting enough! 

“El Houb” is a 2022 film (at least, how it’s listed on Letterboxed where it’s also known as The Love) that may have had a limited theatrical release last week, and hitting vee oh dee this week. "Moroccan-Dutch Karim decides it's time to tell his parents that he is attracted to men. After years of keeping up appearances, the word is finally out… The difficult days that follow evoke beautiful and poignant memories. He realizes that he has to confront his family to finally break the silence. But in order to be accepted, he must come to terms with his own feelings first.” While the viewer count on Letterboxed is low at the moment, it’s tracking well with a three point five average rating. 

If you haven’t seen the original “Cube”, I would highly recommend checking the 1997 thriller out. I’m a bit surprised that a remake is on our front door, but also kind of not surprised because it was such a good film to begin with. Again, this looks like a film from 2021, released in Japan and just hitting the streaming service “Shudder.” “Cube” has a 2.2 average on Letterboxed, so I wouldn’t hold my breath expecting this to be decent, but who knows? It might surprise you – it does have big shoes to fill. 

Keep an eye out for “One True Loves” which hits vee oh dee and stars Simu Liu later this week, as well as “Chantilly Bridge”, from director Linda Yellen. I’ll have Letterboxed links for all the films mentioned here in the episode notes! 

In terms of theatrical releases, we have four notable releases. 

First, is “Sweetwater” directed by Martin Guigui, and is the story of the first African American to land a contract to play in the NBA. It’s a stacked cast, with Everett Osborne playing “Nate Sweetwater Clifton” and a supporting cast including Cary Elwes, Jeremy Piven, Eric Roberts, Jim Caviezel, Richard Dreyfuss and Kevin Pollak. If you watched last week’s “Air” then you may want to keep that basketball bouncing with this film. 

“The Pope’s Exorcist” stars none other than Russell Crowe, playing an exorcist for the Vatican investigating a boy’s possession and – of course – uncovers a long standing conspiracy. An early average for this film has it pegged at a 2.8 on Letterboxed, but if you’re a fan of Crow and supernatural thrillers, you may owe it to yourself to see this on the big screen. Julius Avery directs the movie, and you may recognize a couple of his other movies including “Overlord” and “Samaritan.” If this is anything like “Overlord”, then sign me up. 

Nicolas Cage is back on the big screen in “Renfield”, another movie about supernatural beings, although this looks to be much more comedy and of course, whatever flavor Cage brings (which you know will always be interesting). Rounding out the cast is Nicholas Hoult, Awkwafina and Ben Schwartz. Directed by Chris McKay, who has seen success with “The Lego Batman Movie” and “The Tomorrow War.” Looks like he’s signed on for a sequel there – I’m curious if anyone out there is excited for that? 

Finally, we have “Mafia Mamma”, directed by the accomplished Catherine Hardwicke, and starring Toni Collette and Monica Bellucci. This comedy film follows a suburban woman who inherits her grandfather’s mafia empire. I imagine hijinks follow. 

That’s about it for now! Thank you for listening, and be sure to let me know what you’ve been watching, and what you’re looking forward to. Support your local theatres and don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone when deciding which movie to watch next. Enjoy your film journey!