By Cayman Compass contributor Jarett Theberge
March is shaping up to be a great month for sci-fi lovers, as we’ll get three new releases that should scratch that itch of fantastical storytelling for each member of the family.
First, we have ‘Project Hail Mary’ starring Ryan Gosling. This highly anticipated adaption of Andy Weir’s novel of the same name follows a science teacher (Gosling) who wakes up on a spaceship with hardly any memory of how he got there. We uncover he’s enroute to stop an unknown substance threatening our solar system. It may be safe to expect the same alternating beats of drama and comedy that we received from the last Weir adaptation, 2014’s ‘The Martian’, especially coming from the team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller – who have an impressively long CV of fun flicks. ‘Project Hail Mary’ opens at Camana Bay Cinema on 20 March.
For the youngsters or those with an affinity for animation, there’s Pixar’s ‘Hoppers’. An animal-loving teenager named Mabel uses recently invented technology to enter the mind of a robotic beaver to stop the imminent destruction of the local habitats. Featuring the voices of Jon Hamm, Meryl Streep and Dave Franco, it should be a nice break from the never-ending volley of sequels we get from Pixar. ‘Hoppers’ opens on 6 March.
While ‘Project Hail Mary’ and ‘Hoppers’ may be appropriate for kids and/or teenagers, you may want them to stay clear of ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’. Sam Rockwell plays ‘A Man From the Future’ who arrives at a Los Angeles diner where he recruits volunteers to help him save the world from the inevitable uprising of artificial intelligence. In an interview with IMDB, director Gore Verbinski said that this film was inspired by 1975’s ‘Dog Day Afternoon’, 1984’s ‘Repo Man’ and 1988’s ‘Akira’ in varying capacities. In what is sure to be a bloody romp, ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’ opens on 27 Feb.
Kids Club
Piggybacking off of the new features, we have another Gore Verbinski film in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl’, which returns to the big screen on 7 and 14 March, as one of the Saturday morning Kids Club features. This classic action venture features Johnny Depp in his career-defining role as Captain Jack Sparrow helping blacksmith Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) in saving the governor’s daughter (Keira Knightley) from undead pirates. You’d think that one of Disneyland’s oldest and most milquetoast rides wouldn’t serve as inspiration for one of the biggest blockbusters of all time, but we now have decades of Jack Sparrow impersonators to thank for it.
Classics at the Cinema
To round out the month, we have the 1986 adaptation Stephen King’s book ‘The Body’ with the film ‘Stand By Me’. Directed by the late Rob Reiner, this story of four friends who, while spending their summer break, find the body of a missing boy. This classic coming-of-age film featured pivotal early career roles for Kiefer Sutherland, Corey Feldman, River Phoenix, Jerry O’ Connell and Wil Wheaton. Set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Oregon instead of the more commonly employed King setting of Castle Rock, Maine, I’ve always felt this was a nod to the stateside distinction between the real cities of Portland in both of those states. ‘Stand by Me’ screens for one night only on 31 March.
Jarett Theberge is a US-based freelance entertainment journalist.
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