Movies Monday

First out of the traps is God Bless America, a dark as fuck comedy that’s equal parts Kalifornia, Bonnie & Clyde and Leon.
 “Frank has had enough of the downward spiral of American culture,” says the blurb. “Divorced, recently fired, and possibly terminally ill, Frank truly has nothing left to live for.  But instead of taking his own life, he buys a gun and decides to take out his frustration on the cruelest, stupidest, most intolerant people he can imagine – starting with some particularly odious reality television stars.
 “Frank finds an unusual accomplice in a high-school student named Roxy who shares his sense of rage and disenfranchisement. Together they embark on a nationwide assault on our country’s most irritating celebrities…”
The Kardashians and Paris Hilton should be afraid. Very afraid!
 
 

 
Milla Jovovich is her usual kick-ass self in Resident Evil: Retribution, which will be with us in September. Here’s the trailer and a Q&A with the statuesque Ukrainian. 
 

 
Partial as Movies Monday is to a bonkers documenyary, we’re looking forward to The Queen Of Versailles, a riches to rags story that scored big at this year’s Sundance. Never has the American Dream gone so tits up before!
 
“With epic proportions of Shakespearean tragedy, the film follows two unique characters, whose ups and downs reveal the innate virtues and flaws of the American Dream. The film begins with the family triumphantly constructing the biggest house in America, a 90,000 sq. ft. palace. Over the next two years, their sprawling empire, fueled by the real estate bubble and cheap money, falters due to the economic crisis. Major changes in lifestyle and character ensue within the cross-cultural household of family members and domestic staff.”
 

 
If you liked American Psycho, we think you’ll also get off on Cosmospolis, the new David Cronenberg weirdfest about a 28-year-old billionaire asset manager. Starring Harry Potter and Twilight hunk Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche and the impossibly perfect Sarah Gadon, it has Stateside critics drooling with delight.
 

 
Next, we cross the Atlantic to scope out some of American TV’s hot new shows, which will doubtless be doing the return trip by year’s end.
Time-warp sci-fi fans mourning the death, sob, of JJ Abrams’ Alcatraz will love Continuum, which finds a detective and the terrorist cell she’s chasing flung back from 2077 to modern day Vancouver. We’ve had a sneak preview and it’s cracking stuff!
 

 

 
 
 
We’re also hearing great things about Longmire, a suitably gritty crime thriller set in Wyoming.
“Widowed only a year, Longmire is a man in psychic repair that buries his pain behind a brave face and dry wit,” reads the pitch. “Struggling since his wife’s death and at the urging of his daughter, Cady, Longmire knows that the time has come to turn his life around. With the help of Vic, a female deputy new to the department, he becomes reinvigorated about his job and committed to running for re-election.”
Based on Craig Johnson’s series of Walt Longmire novels, its cast includes Lou Diamond Phillips who having faded from cinematic view has been racking up the small screen hits.
 

 
Talking of Mr. Abrams, he’s back in The Fall – that’s autumn to you! – with the tasty Revolution, a post cyber-apocalypse series, which judging by the 7,751,390 (and rising) trailer views is going to be mega. JJ hasn’t turned his back on cinema though, with Star Trek 2 landing early in the New Year.
 

 

 
Also debuting in September is The New Normal – “Two gay dads and a baby mama create a totally new kind of family comedy” – which features Ellen Barkin among its fine ensemble cast.
 

 
Back in Cinemaland, Hugh Jackman, Alec Baldwin, Jude Law and Isla Fisher are among those voicing the new Dreamworks animation, Rise Of The Guardian, which looks like perfect family fare.
 

Previewing as part of next month’s Galway Film Fleadh, Songs For Amy is the second film in recent times to feature a cameo by Hot Press. It also features the depraved – we mean that as a compliment – talents of Alabama 3 who are across for acoustic dates next month in Cork, Limerick, Belfast and Galway.
 

Also premiering at the Film Fleadh is Grabbers, an Irish “comedy horror” that’s already been given the ‘thumbs up’ by Empire who describe it as being “like a lost Amblin flick, shaken and stirred with a dash of The Guard.”

“When an island off the coast of Ireland is invaded by bloodsucking aliens, the heroes discover that getting drunk is the only way to survive,” is the very promising premise.
 

 
 
We leave you with the new trailer for Argo, the Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin and John Goodman-starring true story of how the CIA managed to rescue six American hostages from captivity in revolutionary Iran.
Drawing heavily on documents that were only recently declassified, it’s already being talked about as a possible Oscar winner.
 

 

Which is where, having hopefully put a smile back on your face, Movies Monday has to leave you for this week. Keep munching the popcorn and we’ll catch you again, all trailers blazing, on June 25.