Trap
Out in cinemas 8 August (Available at Shaw Theatres)
Stars: Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan
A middle-aged man, Cooper (Hartnett), takes his daughter to a pop concert by the singer Lady Raven (Shyamalan) at a large entertainment venue. A wholesome day of bonding turns into something more fraught, as Cooper notices a larger-than-usual police presence, and learns that the authorities are using the concert as bait for a serial killer at large. As the day progresses, Cooper starts to act strangely, his motives unclear, as police start to guard all the exits and circle in on the killer, nicknamed the “Butcher” for his gruesome murders.
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Josh Hartnett: Opp-ortunity calls
A former teen idol who has gone under the radar for more than a decade, the 46-year-old returned to prominence in Oppenheimer, and headlines M Night Shyamalan’s latest film.
Josh Hartnett was once one of the hottest young actors around.
As a twenty-something in the late 1990s and early noughties, he emerged as a boyish star in horror flicks Halloween H20 and The Faculty (both in 1998), and appeared in indie films The Virgin Suicides (1999) and O (2001).
He found greater prominence in blockbusters such as Black Hawk Down and Pearl Harbor (both in 2001), and was tipped for greater stardom as a heartthrob – in fact, he was a regular on the “hottest”, “most beautiful” and “sexiest” lists of the time.
Reportedly bothered by his public image, Hartnett would go on to turn down superhero roles as Superman and Batman, the latter of which eventually went to Christian Bale in Christopher Nolan’s 2005 movie, Batman Begins.
Since then, he has continued working across a range of roles, including one in the quirky Japanese 2017 film, Oh Lucy!, but Hartnett did not work on any more notable films until he had a supporting role in Guy Ritchie’s 2021 Jason Statham thriller, Wrath of Man.
Following that bona fide hit, he reunited with Ritchie and Statham for Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre in 2023, playing a vain, neurotic actor who gets caught up in a scheme to cheat a billionaire arms dealer.
The same year, Hartnett appeared in the sixth series of Black Mirror, and had a memorable role as a nuclear physicist in Nolan’s Oscar-winning drama, Oppenheimer.
His career seemingly back on the up, the now-46 Hartnett recently appeared in the third season of The Bear, and can next be seen as the lead in M Night Shyamalan’s latest mind-bender, Trap, as a man who finds himself involved in a sting operation to catch a killer.
The Plot
Out in cinemas now (Available at Shaw Theatres)
Stars: Gang Dong-won, Lee Mi-sook, Tang Joon-sang
Young-il (Gang) is a contract killer who specialises in making assassinations look like everyday accidents – mundane and rarely raising any suspicion of foul play. Working with a group of uniquely talented individuals, Young-il is still haunted by the loss of a former colleague, who had seemingly died in a car accident a year ago. Was it truly an accident, or a hit by an even more sophisticated group of killers? As his gang take on a new mission to rub out a high-profile political figure, Young-il realises that he is himself being targeted for an “accidental” death.
Borderlands
Out in cinemas 8 August (Available at Shaw Theatres)
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black
Greed and a knack for violence bring a ragtag group of misfits together on the planet Pandora. Their leader, Lilith (Blanchett), is a bounty hunter seeking a legendary treasure in a hidden vault. With the promise of pecuniary reward, she ropes in an elite mercenary (Hart), a young explosives expert, a muscular brute, a scientist who may very well be mad, and a peculiar and chatty robot (Black). Together, they fight their way past monsters and other undesirables, and realise that the missing daughter of a powerful man could hold the key to their destiny.
The Great Escaper
Out in cinemas 8 August (Available at Shaw Theatres)
Stars: Michael Caine, Glenda Jackson, Danielle Vitalis
World War II veteran Bernard Jordan (Caine), an elderly man pushing 90, goes missing in the summer of 2014, as the staff of his care home in England are left scratching their heads. His wife, Rene (Jackson), had told Bernie not to worry about leaving her behind at the home, and to go commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day, which Bernie had been a part of as a young naval officer. As Bernie makes his way to France, to pay homage to his fallen comrades, and honour their sacrifice, the authorities and the media start to focus on Bernie’s “great escape”.
Alien: Romulus
Out in cinemas 15 August (Available at Shaw Theatres)
Stars: Isabela Merced, Cailee Spaeny, Archie Renaux
A group of young interstellar colonists, including Rain (Spaeny) and her brother Andy, hatch a hare-brained scheme to raid an abandoned space station for valuable equipment to sell. One of them, Tyler (Renaux), estimates that the secret mission would take only 30 minutes. Soon after they arrive on the space station Romulus, they realise that they are not alone, and that their presence has been detected. Before long, the group are attacked by face-hugging aliens and face a terrifying adversary they could not have imagined, let alone prepared for.
Blink Twice
Out in cinemas 22 August (Available at Shaw Theatres)
Stars: Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Haley Joel Osment
When a tech billionaire meets a waitress at a fundraising event, he asks her to join him and his friends on a private island – his island – for a few days. Frida (Ackie) thinks that this could be the start of something special with renowned party animal Slater King (Tatum), an unlikely fairytale beginning with a modern Prince Charming. Then things get problematic. Her companion on the trip, Jess, goes missing, yet nobody else can remember her. The dream vacation turns into an unending nightmare as Frida starts to question reality, and her sanity.
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