"1 + 1: The Hollywood Story" (The Upside)
The film “1 + 1: Hollywood Story” is the third remake of the French tape by Olivier Nakash and Eric Toledano “1 + 1”, released eight years ago (it, in turn, is based on a true story).
Neil Burgh, the director of Illusionist and Fields of Darkness, took on the first American adaptation, starring in Breaking Bad, Brian Cranston and comedian Kevin Hart. The picture was supposed to be released in March 2018, but because of the scandal around producer Harvey Weinstein and the subsequent bankruptcy of The Weinstein Company, the creators of Hollywood Story had to postpone the premiere and look for a new distributor.
The plot of the film corresponds in general to the original: the unemployed with a criminal past, Dell (Hart) is hired as an assistant to the paralyzed millionaire Philip (Cranston). Gradually a strong friendship is established between them and Philip learns anew to enjoy life, on which he, after an accident, put a cross.
Creed II
The second high-profile release of the week was the sports drama “Crete 2” - the eighth part of the franchise about boxer Rocky Balboa and the sequel to its spin-off “Crete: Rocky Legacy”. At the end of 2018, actor Sylvester Stallone announced that in this film he would finally part with the cult character and would no longer participate in the planned studio continuation. Because of the work on the Black Panther cinema comics, Ryan Kugler had to leave the director's chair, so the second part of Creed was filmed by the drama “Promised Land” Stephen Capel, the youngest.
The tape will be interesting first of all to fans of old Rocky films: the main antagonist of the fourth film, Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), who killed Creed's father many years ago during a duel, will appear in it. Now Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) will have to meet in the ring with his son Drago Victor (Florian Munteanu).
“Start over” (Second Act)
In the story of the comedy “Start Over”, an employee of the supermarket Maya (Jennifer Lopez), who has no higher education, uses a fake resume and fake Facebook account to take a management position in a large company. Now her goal is to prove to those around her that having a diploma has nothing to do with real human potential.
With this film, Lopez returned to romantic comedies - she had not worked in this genre since 2010. Milo Ventimiglia (Peter from the fantastic series “Heroes”) became her partner on the site. Peter Seagal, author of the films Anger Management, 50 First Kisses, Everything or Nothing and Get Smart, was responsible for directing the film. In November, Lopez released the song Limitless specially recorded for the tape.
"Black bar" (Fleuve noir)
The French cinematographer Erik Zonka (his last work, except for the TV movie “The White Soldier”, was “Julia” with Tilda Swinton) completed his creative leave as a detective thriller “Black Band”. The new film is a screen version of the novel “Disappeared Dossier”, the first part of the cycle of the Israeli writer Dror Mishani about Inspector Abraham (two books from this series were published in Russian). Initially, the main role in the tape was to be played by Gerard Depardieu, but he dropped out of the project after three shooting days. His place was taken by Vincent Cassel.
According to the plot, the experienced commissar Francois Visconti, suffering from alcohol problems, takes up the seemingly usual case of the disappearance of the 16-year-old boy Dany Arnaud. However, finding the missing is not so easy. Under the suspicion of Visconti, both the parents of the teenager and his teacher, Jan Bellell, are showing suspicious initiative in the search for Dany.
Chimera (Braid)
Another thriller in the number of premieres of the week is the full-length debut of American Mitzi Peyrone “Chimera” (it has nothing to do with the science fiction film by Vincenzo Natali and producer Guillermo del Toro). The creators of the picture claim that they have released the first psychological thriller shot on funds collected through cryptocurrency crowdfunding. “Chimera” participated in a number of independent film screenings (premiered at the Tribeback Festival in New York) and gathered an impressive press: according to Rotten Tomatoes aggregator, 80% of critics approved the film.
In the story, two adventurer artists who have moved to New York decide to rob the mansion of their longtime friend. The girl who lives there alone could not part with the fictional world, which the three of them invented as a child, and lost her mind. As a result, the heroines get involved in a mortal game that exists on the verge of our usual reality.