Wonder Woman 1984 has made it to a triumphant sixth week at Number 1 on the Official Film Chart, as the hit sequel continues to dominate with 84% of its sales made up of DVD & Blu-ray copies.
Disney & Pixar’s Soul floats back up to its Number 2 peak, while Joker rebounds to Number 3 – pushing Godzilla: King of the Monsters down two spots to Number 4.
Psychological thriller The Invisible Man sneaks up six places to return to the Top 5 at Number 5, marking its 24th non-consecutive week in the chart. Spider-Man: Far From Home drops to 6, Harry Potter: The Complete Collection is down one to Number 7, and Godzilla (2014) has stormed up 21 places to Number 8 as fans revisit the franchise following the release of sequel Godzilla vs. Kong.
The week’s highest new entry, crime-drama Let Him Go, starring Kevin Costner and Diane Lane lands at Number 9. Based upon a novel of the same name by Larry Watson, a retired sheriff and his wife – grieving the death of their son – set off to rescue their grandson from his dangerous new family.
Finally, Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone rounds off this week’s countdown at Number 10.
This week’s Official Film Chart online show features a preview of Blithe Spirit starring Judi Dench & Dan Stevens. The British comedy will be available to download & keep from 26 April.
Now, as well as OfficialCharts.com, the Official Film Chart can also be found on FindAnyFilm.com – the ultimate site for Film and TV fans to discover all the legal ways to buy the entertainment they want on disc and digital formats.
Helen McCrory Edition: Bits & Pieces – Given only a time, a location, and a cryptic clue, the methodical hit man must identify his mysterious foe from among several possible targets, including a local sheriff (David Morse, The Green Mile). Meanwhile, a chance encounter with an alluring woman (Abbie Cornish, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) at the town’s rustic diner threatens to derail his mission altogether…
MUBI, the global streaming service and theatrical distributor, has launched the new trailer for Oscar®-nominated Chloé Zhao’s (dir. Nomadland) directorial debut Songs My Brothers Taught Me, which will stream exclusively on MUBI from 9 April 2021.
Apple TV+ released today the official trailer for “The Mosquito Coast,” the widely anticipated drama series adapted from the best-selling novel and starring Justin Theroux, Melissa George, Logan Polish and Gabriel Bateman. “The Mosquito Coast” will premiere globally with the first two episodes on Friday, April 30, followed by new episodes every Friday on Apple TV+.
From director Jason Reitman and producer Ivan Reitman, comes the next chapter in the original Ghostbusters universe. In Ghostbusters: Afterlife, when a single mum and her two kids arrive in a small town, they begin to discover their connection to the original ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind. The film is written by Jason Reitman & Gil Kenan.
Troy (Steve Zahn, Dallas Buyers Club, Lean on Pete) is on a camping trip with his transgender son Joe (Sasha Knight), an 11-year-old with a passion for cowboy yarns and the great outdoors. As they travel through the majestic beauty of the northern Rockies, television news reports emerge claiming that Joe is missing. As detective Faith (Ann Dowd, The Handmaid’s Tale) investigates, we see a bigger picture involving Joe’s conservative mother Sally (Jillian Bell, Brittany Runs a Marathon) and her inability to let go of the little girl she loves.
Nicolas Brazer is a retired U.S. special operative who worked in the darkest shadows of the government, part of an elite “invisible” team that quietly took out some of the worst villains around the world. After being blamed for the exposure, and ultimately the assassination, of several members of his own team, Nicolas disappeared into a life of solitude and indignity. Now, two years removed, he is reluctantly drawn back into this dangerous world – with both enemies and supposed friends coming after him – to not only clear his name, but to prevent the killing of a new generation of noble operatives.
Dublin 2003. Aimless teenager Matthew (Chapman) and his disaffected friends leave school into a social vacuum of drink, drugs and thrill-seeking in one last Summer of adolescence. Matthew romantically yearns after his free-spirited friend Jen (Taylor-Joy) and struggles to maintain his increasingly disturbing relationship with the magnetic but sadistic Kearney (Cole). Whilst their precocious friend Rez (Walsh Peelo) has started to succumb to paranoia and depression. Matthew and the group are soon led by the deranged Kearney into a world of nihilistic violence, falling into shocking acts of transgression that will irrevocably change their lives.
From filmmaker Zack Snyder (300, Zack Snyder’s Justice League), ARMY OF THE DEAD takes place following a zombie outbreak that has left Las Vegas in ruins and walled off from the rest of the world. When Scott Ward (Dave Bautista), a displaced Vegas local, former zombie war hero who’s now flipping burgers on the outskirts of the town he now calls home, is approached by casino boss Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada), it’s with the ultimate proposition: Break into the zombie-infested quarantine zone to retrieve $200 million sitting in a vault beneath the strip before the city is nuked by the government in 32 hours. Driven by the hope that the payoff could help pave the way to a reconciliation with his estranged daughter Kate (Ella Purnell), Ward takes on the challenge, assembling a ragtag team of experts for the heist. They include Maria Cruz (Ana de la Reguera), an ace mechanic and Ward’s old friend; Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick), a zombie killing machine; Marianne Peters (Tig Notaro), a cynical helicopter pilot; Mikey Guzman (Raúl Castillo), a go-for-broke influencer and Chambers (Samantha Win), his ride-or-die; Martin (Garret Dillahunt), the casino’s head of security; a badass warrior known as the Coyote (Nora Arnezeder) who recruits Burt Cummings (Theo Rossi), a slimy security guard; and a brilliant German safe cracker named Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer). Scott finds an unexpected emotional hurdle when Kate joins the expedition to search for Geeta (Huma Qureshi), a mother who’s gone missing inside the city. With a ticking clock, a notoriously impenetrable vault, and a smarter, faster horde of Alpha zombies closing in, only one thing’s for certain in the greatest heist ever attempted: survivors take all.
The hunt for the “Son of Sam” captivated the world in the late 1970s, but the story behind one of America’s most notorious serial murderers is all but forgotten — until now. While the arrest and conviction of David Berkowitz brought the nightmare to an end for many New Yorkers, for journalist and Ultimate Evil author Maury Terry, the real mystery was just beginning. Terry, convinced Berkowitz had not acted alone, would go on to spend decades attempting to prove that the web of darkness behind the murders went deeper than anyone imagined – and his pursuit of that elusive truth would eventually cost him everything. Filmmaker Joshua Zeman (CROPSEY, MURDER MOUNTAIN) draws on archival news footage, conversations with the people closest to the investigation, and Terry’s own words and case files to tell a cautionary tale of a man who went down a rabbit hole and never came out. But was Maury Terry just chasing ghosts – or are the true Sons of Sam still out there…
Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams — writers, celebrities, geniuses — catapulted to fame in the 1950s, sparking a friendship and rivalry spanning nearly 40 years until their deaths within a year of each other. Inextricably entwined, and fixtures of their age, they were creative powerhouses (and gay men) who dealt with success and its evanescence in vastly different ways.
Inspired by true events, featuring a stunning performance from James Norton (Happy Valley, War & Peace, McMafia) and a heart-warming debut by Daniel Lamont, NOWHERE SPECIAL follows a thirty-five-year-old window cleaner, John, who has dedicated his life to bringing up his son after the child’s mother left them soon after giving birth.
Tropical surroundings, a haunted hotel complex, and four keen explorers – THE RESORT is an exhilarating and terrifying joyride. Vibrantly shot on location, the film is an eerie dose of escapism not to be missed once it releases in the UK from 30thApril. The film will be available on Sky Store, Virgin, iTunes, Amazon, Microsoft Store, Google Play, and Chili for digital and download.
Based on Leigh Bardugo’s worldwide bestselling Grishaverse novels, Shadow and Bone finds us in a war-torn world where lowly soldier and orphan Alina Starkov has just unleashed an extraordinary power that could be the key to setting her country free. With the monstrous threat of the Shadow Fold looming, Alina is torn from everything she knows to train as part of an elite army of magical soldiers known as Grisha. But as she struggles to hone her power, she finds that allies and enemies can be one and the same and that nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. There are dangerous forces at play, including a crew of charismatic criminals, and it will take more than magic to survive. – Helen McCrory Edition: Bits & Pieces
Wonder Woman 1984 marks a fourth week at Number 1 on the UK’s Official Film Chart.
The film continues its reign with 84% of its sales this week made up of DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD copies, despite strong competition from our highest new entry this week, Disney Pixar’s Soul.
Landing at Number 2, Soul stars Jamie Foxx as Joe, a jazz musician and teacher who gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body. After landing in a strange realm between life and death, Joe tries to find his way back to his life on earth.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters storms up seven places to Number 3 following the release of Godzilla vs. Kong on Premium Video on Demand; Spider-Man: Far From Home holds tight at Number 4; Scoob! rockets 18 places to Number 5. Trolls World Tourlands at Number 6 this week, and the boxset of Wonder Woman/Wonder Woman 1984 drops to Number 7.
Flying up 13 spots to Number 8 is Roald Dahl’s The Witches, which lands just ahead of 2004’s The Passion Of The Christ at Number 9 following the Easter weekend – the first time the movie written, produced and directed by Mel Gibson has earned a spot in the Official Film Chart.
Finally, Harry Potter: The Complete Collection jumps to Number 10, marking the first time the full collection of eight films has entered the Top 10.
This week’s Official Film Chart online show features a look at award-winning drama Let Him Go, starring Diane Lane and Kevin Costner. Let Him Go will be available to download & keep from April 12.
Now, as well as OfficialCharts.com, the Official Film Chart can also be found on FindAnyFilm.com – the ultimate site for Film and TV fans to discover all the legal ways to buy the entertainment they want on disc and digital formats.
Kate Garraway Edition: Bits & Pieces – Filmed over the course of three years, this documentary film is an intimate and inspiring portrait of Youngstown, Ohio, a quintessential post-industrial American city, seen through the efforts of a new generation of residents who have chosen not to abandon their hometown, as so many have, but to stay, rebuild and make a life for themselves.
PAPER SPIDERS, starring Lili Taylor (Say Anything), Stefania LaVie Owen (The Carrie Diaries), Peyton List (Cobra Kai), Ian Nelson (The Boy Next Door), and many more. This award-winning coming-of-age drama is about a high-schooler trying to help her mother’s deteriorating mental health after she starts showing signs of paranoid delusions.
In 1967, fashion photographer by day and super-agent by night Austin Powers (Mike Myers, Wayne’s World) is on the verge of catching his arch-nemesis, Dr. Evil (also Myers), when the latter has himself cryogenically frozen. Following suit, Powers unthaws thirty years later in the ’90s to find Evil threatening the world once more. Can Powers recover from his culture shock in time to battle his old foe? With the help of sexy sidekick Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley), he just might.
In our increasingly mechanized and automated world that frowns on superstition and mysticism, this story shows how vitally relevant our disappearing ancient wisdom and traditional beliefs still are. In particular, the film focuses on the age-old Himalayan respect for and celebration of feminine energy as the most supreme aspect of being. This energy is personified in tantric Buddhism by dakinis who may appear as mysterious living beings who give or take away our life force and guide or ruin our lives. While only realized adepts like the character of O.T. in this film, who is based on an exceptional living master, are today able to summon this vital energy through esoteric dakini practices, it so crucial to our volatile era that the times demand it be communicated to a wider audience.
STUDIOCANAL is thrilled to debut the official trailer for MANDABI, the 4K restoration of Ousmane Sembène’s trailblazing Senegalese classic which is released for the first time in the UK.
Ex-mob enforcer Ben Archer (Van Damme) is ready to give up his life of crime and settle down to family life. But when his wife, Cynthia, attempts to help a Chinese refugee girl and brings her into their home, a new war is inadvertently triggered.
From the humans who brought you the Academy Award-winning Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and The LEGO Movie comes The Mitchells vs. The Machines, an animated action-comedy about an ordinary family who find themselves in the middle of their biggest family challenge yet…saving the world from the robot apocalypse. No big deal, right? It all starts when creative outsider Katie Mitchell is accepted into the film school of her dreams and is eager to leave home and find “her people,” when her nature-loving dad insists on having the whole family drive her to school and bond during one last totally-not-awkward-or-forced road trip. But just when the trip can’t get any worse, the family suddenly finds itself in the middle of the robot uprising! Everything from smart phones, to roombas, to evil Furbys are employed to capture every human on the planet. Now it’s up to the Mitchells, including upbeat mom Linda, quirky little brother Aaron, their squishy pug, Monchi, and two friendly, but simple-minded robots to save humanity.
MUBI, the global distributor and curated film streaming service, has released the official UK trailer for Ben Sharrock’s critically acclaimed British debut feature Limbo, which will be released in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on 30 July 2021.
The fourth feature from South African director Oliver Hermanus, MOFFIE explores the life of a closeted young boy serving his mandatory military service during Apartheid in 1980s South Africa. An adaptation of André-Carl van der Merwe’s iconic memoir, the film serves as a brilliant period piece exposing the psychological violence of institutionalized homophobia. Achingly raw depictions of the brutality of military training recall scenes from Kubrick’s FULL METAL JACKET while the timid tenderness, beautifully acted by Brummer and Villiers, provide a soft juxtaposition. Following the film’s premiere at Venice Film Festival where it was a nominee for the Queer Lion, MOFFIE has gone on to receive critical acclaim for its brilliant directing, cinematography and acting alike. IFC Films will release MOFFIE on Friday, April 9, 2021 in select theaters and on digital and VOD platforms.
Argentinian writer/directorFrancisco Márquez’s superb psychological thriller A COMMON CRIME (Un crimen común) comes to Virtual Cinemas and VOD on 9th April 2021.
BAFTA nominated Corinna Faith’s directorial debut, the electrifying 70s-set British supernatural thriller THE POWERwill be released exclusively on SHUDDER, the premium streaming service for horror, thrillers and the supernatural, from 8 April 2021.
The Scariest Hotels On Film & TV: You can check in, but you’ll never leave…
In the new chiller THE NIGHT, a young couple who get lost in downtown Los Angeles book into a forbidding-looking old hotel for the night… and that’s when their troubles really begin. Very strange things start to happen – eerie noises of young children crying out from other rooms, a sinister and unhelpful cop, and a truly peculiar concierge, all of which make their stay extremely uncomfortable and genuinely frightening.
Creepy hotels – some of them actual haunted hotels, like the Hotel Normandie used in THE NIGHT, have provided the backdrop for some of film and TV’s most notable moments, including monstrous managers, disappearing guests and sleep-shattering disturbances. Here’s a guide to the best worst hotels to book into if you are looking for a night of frights…
The Overlook, Colorado
What it’s like: The beautiful and spacious Overlook (the setting for Stanley Kubrick’s 1980s horror classic The Shining, starring Jack Nicholson) is nestled in the quiet and isolated snowy peaks of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. It’s a perfect and restful getaway if you and your family need to unwind.
Facilities: Lavish bar/ballroom, fully stocked kitchen, fantastic topiary maze on the grounds.
Tip for guests: Winter stays can be a bit testing. Don’t go into room 237. Just don’t. And don’t use the elevators.
The Bates Motel, California
What it’s like: The Bates Motel (where Alfred Hitchock’s 1960s chiller, Psycho, starring Anthony Perkins, takes place) is a modest, functional facility located near an old highway in California – the perfect stopping off point for the tired traveller, or the guest for whom ‘discretion’ is key.
Facilities: En-suite shower facilities; beautiful taxidermy collection in reception.
Tip for guests: Lock doors while using the bathroom; don’t go up to the main house; be nice to manager Norman.
Cecil Hotel, Los Angeles
What it’s like: The latest must-watch true crime series on Netflix is The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, detailing the story of the disappearance of a student from her hotel room in downtown Los Angeles.
Facilities: With 700 rooms at budget rates, this hotel is also a slice of history, said to be the inspiration for Barton Fink, and American Horror Story: Hotel; and U2 once filmed a promo video on the roof of the hotel.
Tip for guests: Be sure to make your stay as uneventful as possible, otherwise you might end up the subject of a four-hour long conspiracy theory documentary.
Hotel Cortez, Los Angeles
What it’s like: The hotel that provides the basis for Season Five of the popular TV series American Horror Story is allegedly based on the aforementioned Hotel Cecil, due to its history of strange occurrences taking place within its rooms.
Facilities: Mattresses contain hidden surprises, and the ‘Addiction Demon’ might pay a visit.
Tip for guests: Avoid bookings on ‘Devil’s Night’ (October 30th), as this is when serial killers including Richard Ramirez and the Zodiac killers tend to stay at the Cortez.
Hotel Broslin, Times Square, New York
What it’s like: This modest but quirky real-life hotel (featured in Frank Henelotter’s magnificent grindhouse gorefest Basket Case from 1982) does not judge when it comes to accepting guests – all are welcome here! The residents make up a vibrant, eccentric little community, and there is never a dull moment. Rooms are cheap and basic.
Facilities: In the heart of New York – nightlife on your doorstep.
Tip for guests: The tenant in room 7 is very small, very twisted, and very mad. Knock at your peril!
Starlight Hotel, East Texas
What it’s like: The Starlight Hotel, located deep in the Texas swamps, is run by Judd (played by Neville Brand, in Tobe Hooper’s 1976 Eaten Alive), who makes Basil Fawlty seem positively cordial in comparison.
Facilities: The hotel has an adjoining petting zoo – or rather, a huge great alligator in the swamp, for disposing of unwanted guests.
Tip for guests: Don’t upset the manager – he might get out his scythe.
Hotel Earle, Los Angeles
What it’s like: This ‘characterful’ hotel, with peeling wallpaper, is where a screenwriter (played by John Turturro) books in,in an attempt to get some work done in the Coen Brothers’ 1991 Oscar winning Barton Fink.
Facilities: This cheap and no-nonsense hotel is the perfect place to rub shoulders with the ‘common man’.
Tip for guests: Try not to stay in your room too long. Don’t talk to other guests, particularly salesmen. Don’t invite guests to your room. Be sure to know where your nearest fire escape is.
Motel Hello, California
What it’s like: Farmer Vincent Smith and his younger sister Ida welcome you to Motel Hello, with it’s dodgy neon sign (from 1980 cult comedy horror Motel Hell). They are so eager for you to stay at their combination farm/hotel that they will even kidnap you and force you to stay there.
Tip for guests: If you see the sign for Motel Hello, perhaps just keep driving.
Hotel Normandie, Los Angeles
What it’s like: The real-life Hotel Normandie (featured in the new psychological horror film The Night) is said to be the most haunted hotel in the world.
Facilities: Rooms always available.
Tip for guests: Bring earplugs/eye masks in case of ghostly noises/visions; on no account call the police.
If all this talk of haunted and horrifying hotels has piqued your interest, be sure to keep an eye out for the THE NIGHT when it is released on digital platforms (iTunes/Apple TV, Amazon, Sky, Virgin, Google/YouTube, BT, Playstation, Microsoft, Chili, IFI@Home) on 2nd April
