#ENTERTAINMENT

New On Screen: March

Meet an accidental time traveller, a reluctant vampire and an ancient Egyptian god this month.

By Yong Shu Chiang        11 March 2022

The Adam Project

Out 11 March, Netflix

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell, Mark Ruffalo

A man from the stars falls out of the sky in his spacecraft and crash lands on Earth. He meets a young boy, Adam (Scobell), and tells him a wild story: that he, older Adam (Reynolds), is actually the boy’s future self. And also, time travel is real and has been abused by some. Before long, the two Adams realise that their fates are intertwined, and with the technology in their hands, they have to go on a mission together to change the course of time, and reunite with the father (Ruffalo) neither grew up with.


Ryan Reynolds: Second time’s a charm

The Canada-born actor, once named the Sexiest Man Alive, has seen his career soar after he took on the role of Deadpool, again, in 2016 and 2018.

It started out as two guys and a girl in a sitcom.

Ryan Reynolds, then an unknown young Canadian actor, got his first lead role in the American comedy series Two Guys and a Girl, which aired from 1998 to 2001.

A fast-talking 22-year-old with a goofy face, he would go on to appear in and become known for often comedic roles, in films such as Van Wilder; Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle; Definitely, Maybe; The Proposal and RIPD.

While he appeared as Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), who was the alter-ego for the anti-hero character Deadpool, his first real superhero role, and possibly the biggest of his career at that point, was that of Green Lantern, a film that unfortunately flopped spectacularly in 2011.

This came just a year after Reynolds was named People magazine’s Sexest Man Alive.

Five years later, he again took on the role of Wilson in a standalone Deadpool movie that proved to be a surprise blockbuster hit, with nearly US$800 million box-office earnings, and his career has only gone from strength to strength since.

Since then, he was in another sleeper hit, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, opposite Samuel L Jackson and has appeared in a second Deadpool movie, which was also a huge hit in 2018.

Last year’s streaming success, Red Notice, put him next to two of the most bankable stars around, Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot. This came after his first hit of 2021, Free Guy.

Reynolds, a star reborn since he turned 40 the year Deadpool was released, can next be seen in The Adam Project, as a time-travelling spaceman eager to right some wrongs.


Dog

Out in cinemas 17 March (available at Shaw Theatres)

Stars: Channing Tatum, Jane Adams, Ethan Suplee

A cocky Army Ranger, Jackson (Tatum), is working his way back to active duty when he is tasked to babysit his fallen commander’s military dog, Lulu, and bring her on a road trip to his funeral. At first, he is overwhelmed by the situation. Lulu’s behaviour around him is erratic and Jackson slowly realises that she has something in common with him – they’ve both experienced trauma and loss in their lives. Over time, the pair develop a bond and help each other find the former selves that they might have lost.


Ambulance

Out in cinemas 17 March (Available at Shaw Theatres)

Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eiza Gonzalez

Danny (Gyllenhaal) and William (Abdul-Mateen) are adoptive brothers who had gone on different paths. Danny has led a life of crime while William has served his country in battle and is now a civilian and war veteran. Saddled with debts and unable to pay for his wife’s medical bills, William turns to Danny for help and gets swept up in a multi-million-dollar bank heist that goes horribly wrong. As they try to elude the authorities in a hijacked vehicle, they take an ambulance technician (Gonzalez) hostage.


Morbius

Out in cinemas 31 March (Available at Shaw Theatres)

Stars: Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Jared Harris

A brilliant scientist with a rare blood disease is living on borrowed time. When he finally finds a cure for his affliction, he is torn between being able to escape his tragic fate and the moral implications of his actions. The cure imbues the scientist, Morbius (Leto), with heightened senses and physical rejuvenation, but at a heavy cost – he has also developed an insatiable thirst for blood. Now a living vampire, he struggles to harness his newfound powers for good while grappling with how he has to slake his thirst.

SAFRA members enjoy special rates at Shaw Theatres. For more info, go to www.safra.sg/promotions/shaw-theatres


Twisted Strings

Out 27 March, HBO Go

Stars: Sylvia Chang, Lee Kang-sheng, Bai Runyin

In a place called Taiping City, a series of bizarre deaths occur one after another. Each takes place on a distinct day, with a particular cast of characters and a sequence of strange events that are hard to believe. Some of the odd goings-on include a funeral without a body, a dangerous and forbidden game, a kidnapping without a kidnapper, nursery rhymes and coriander, and a woman with a monkey puppet, whom all of the characters have to meet on a specific day. Inspired by a popular Taiwanese nursery rhyme.


Moon Knight

Out 30 March, Disney+

Stars: Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke, May Calamawy

Steven Grant (Isaac) is a mild-mannered and frazzled man who works in a gift shop, suffers from blackouts – due to a sleeping disorder, he believes – and who has a tenuous grasp on reality. In fact, he doesn’t realise that he is also Marc Spector, among several other personas, because he actually has dissociative identity disorder, also known as a split personality. To add even more chaos into his splintered life, his body is a vessel for the Egyptian moon god Khonsu and he cannot help becoming a brutal vigilante.

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