{"id":4218,"date":"2014-12-18T13:58:56","date_gmt":"2014-12-18T13:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=4218"},"modified":"2014-12-22T12:06:59","modified_gmt":"2014-12-22T12:06:59","slug":"upcoming-movies-the-losers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=4218","title":{"rendered":"Upcoming movies: The losers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Inherent<\/a><\/p>\n

By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

A snapshot preview of\u00a0some of the movies to be released over the holiday period and into the New Year. These are the ones that don’t work.<\/p>\n

Incoherent Vice<\/p>\n

Just add two letters to \u201cInherent Vice\u201d and you get the picture. Lovely burnished images of 1970s L.A., a great soundtrack and a lived-in performance by Joaquin Phoenix (pictured) cannot save Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s pastiche. It\u2019s faithful to the Thomas Pynchon novel, which is to say vacuous, meandering and pointless. (US, Jan. 9 \/ UK, Jan. 30)<\/p>\n

Slayers of the Last Orc<\/p>\n

Peter Jackson\u2019s bloated Tolkien saga comes to a violent end in \u201cThe Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies\u201d so that Martin Freeman can return to anonymity and Richard Armitage can be ready to take over as James Bond after \u201cSpectre\u201d. (out now)<\/p>\n

Mr. Turnip<\/p>\n

Timothy Spall grunts, gropes, snorts, burps, spits and probably farts in the title role of Mike Leigh\u2019s \u201cMr. Turner\u201d, which boasts Dick Pope\u2019s lovely cinematography but has no story and, unlike, say, \u201cAmadeus\u201d, fails to enquire how beautiful art can emerge from a self-described gargoyle. (UK, out now \/ US, Dec. 19)<\/p>\n

Holy crap!<\/p>\n

Ridley Scott piles on the CGI plagues and pestilence in \u201cExodus: Gods & Kings\u201d , which has an epic score by Alberto Iglesias to match Clint Mansell\u2019s for Darren Aronofsky\u2019s \u201cNoah\u201d, although the tale of the man with the ark was sillier and more fun. (US, out now \/ UK, Dec. 26)<\/p>\n

Most odd<\/p>\n

After the splendid \u201cMargin Call\u201d and \u201cAll is Lost\u201d, J.C. Chandor sets his drama \u201cA Most Violent Year\u201d at a time when New York was at its most crime-ridden but he elects instead to focus on the struggles of a shady but boring heating-oil salesman. (US, Dec. 31 \/ UK, Jan. 23)<\/p>\n

Nosecatcher<\/p>\n

Bennett Miller\u2019s \u201cFoxcatcher\u201d tells of a rich man\u2019s obsession with a male wrestler but Steve Carell\u2019s egregious false proboscis and Channing Tatum\u2019s simian impression of a gullible dope are constant distractions. (UK, Jan. 9 \/ US, open now)<\/p>\n

Missing a bet<\/p>\n

Mark Wahlberg is miscast badly as a university lecturer with a gambling problem in Rupert Wyatt\u2019s \u201cThe Gambler\u201d, a predictable, slow and redundant remake of James Toback\u2019s much more interesting 1974 version starring James Caan. (US, Dec. 25 \/ UK, Jan. 23)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett A snapshot preview of\u00a0some of the movies to be released over the holiday period and into the New Year. These are the ones that don’t work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[2275,2274,2276,2273,2043,2277],"class_list":["post-4218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-film","tag-a-most-violent-year","tag-exodus-gods-kings","tag-foxcatcher","tag-inherent-vice-the-hobbit-the-battle-of-the-five-armies","tag-mr-turner","tag-the-gambler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4218"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4236,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4218\/revisions\/4236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}