‘Lee Chong Wei’, and 7 other smashing March movies

What a month at the cinemas we have this March! Not only is it Oscar month, it’s also like a prelude to the summer blockbuster season, with lots of big films choosing to open this month to avoid the big hitters later on.

There’s Steven Spielberg’s futuristic nostalgia-fest Ready Player One (March 22), mecha versus monster slugfest sequel Pacific Rim: Uprising (March 22), Jennifer Lawrence’s brutal assassin thriller Red Sparrow (March 15) and the reboot of everyone’s favourite female adventurer Lara Croft in Tomb Raider (March 8).

The 90th Academy Awards will be held this weekend, and fittingly, three of the Best Picture Nominees are also opening in Malaysia for the first time – Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird (March 1) starring Saoirse Ronan, Steven Spielberg’s The Post (March 15) starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks and Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape Of Water (March 22).

Fans of local action flicks might also want to keep an eye out for director Syafiq Yusof’s KL Special Force (March 8) starring Syamsul Yusof and Rosyam Nor, though all eyes will definitely be on the sports bio-pic Lee Chong Wei: Rise Of the Legend (March 15), which charts the life of Malaysian badminton legend Datuk Lee Chong Wei.

 

Winchester (March 1)
Cast: Helen Mirren, Jason Clarke, Sarah Snook, Angus Sampson
Director: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig

Based on the story of the Winchester Mansion, home of Sarah Winchester, heiress of the Winchester firearms company. Standing at seven stories with hundreds of rooms, the house is constantly under construction, and meant to keep souls that were supposedly haunting her at bay. Sarah believes that the souls killed by the Winchester rifle are haunting her, and that there is one particular malevolent spirit that could undo what she has built within the house.

Why you should watch it:
Known as one of the most haunted houses in United States, a movie about the Winchester mansion is such an intriguingly scary prospect, and the trailer certainly plays up the spookiness of the home. Also, Helen Mirren is always watchable no matter what movie she’s in, so we’re excited to see her in a full-blown horror flick.

Tomb Raider (March 8)
Cast: Alicia Vikander, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, Dominic West
Director: Roar Uthaug

Based on the popular Tomb Raider video game franchise, this reboot of the Lara Croft character explores her origin. In it, Lara has to follow clues left behind by her father in Britain, which brings her to the mysterious and dangerous Japanese island of Yamatai.

Why you should watch it:
You know her name. You know she used to be played by Angelina Jolie. Heck, you might have even played the game. Alicia Vikander plays the new, updated version of Lara Croft here, and it should be interesting to see if she can reinvigorate the film franchise.

A Wrinkle In Time (March 8)
Cast: Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Storm Reid, Zach Galifianakis, Chris Pine
Director: Ava DuVernay

Meg Murry’s scientist father disappeared mysteriously after conducting experiments on something called a “tesseract”. Meg, her little brother Charles and her classmate Calvin O’Keefe then meet three peculiar astral travellers who persuades her to go on a journey to a strange planet in order to find him.

Why you should watch it:
The original 1962 novel by Madeleine L’Engle is a classic work of science-fiction/fantasy, and from the trailer, this is a suitably wondrous modern update of that novel, complete with gorgeous visuals, epic locations, and Oprah Winfrey with a crazy hairdo.

Lee Chong Wei: Rise Of The Legend (March 15)
Cast: Tosh Chan, Jake Eng, Ashley Hua, Rosyam Nor, Yeo Yann Yann, Mark Lee, Freddie Wong, Bernard Hiew
Director: Teng Bee

The story of how Datuk Lee Chong Wei went from growing up in a poor family to becoming the professional badminton player and national hero that he is today.

Why you should watch it:
If you’re Malaysian, you’ve probably heard of Datuk Lee Chong Wei, even if you don’t follow badminton. The producers have assured us that this movie will have realistic and exciting badminton action, and stay mostly faithful to Lee’s rise to glory. We can’t wait. Note: If you want to watch an extended version of this movie that won’t be shown in the cinemas, you need to get tickets for the movie’s world premiere event on March 9 at the Bukit Jalil stadium.

Peter Rabbit (March 15)
Cast: James Corden, Margot Robbie, Rose Byrne, Domhnall Gleeson, Daisy Ridley, Elizabeth Debicki, Steve Buscemi, Kevin Hart
Director: Will Gluck

A modern interpretation of Beatrix Potter’s classic book The Tale Of Peter Rabbit, which basically focuses on the rivalry between Peter (a rabbit) and Mr McGregor (a human). Expect carrots.

Why you should watch it:
The Tale Of Peter Rabbit is such a well-loved children’s book that we were initially apprehensive about a live-action adaptation. But the movie’s been garnering rave reviews in Britain so far, and from what we can see in the trailer, it appears to keep the fun and lovable spirit of the books, while adding a fair bit of slapstick action as well. Kids should love this.

The Shape Of Water (March 22)
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones
Director: Guillermo del Toro

In 1962 Baltimore, a mute cleaning lady named Elisa, who works at a top secret government lab, discovers a water tank containing a mysterious, scaled, fish creature. Forming a bond with it, she then tries to find a way to save it.

Why you should watch it:
It’s been sweeping up at the awards ceremonies leading up to this month’s Oscars, and is one of the hot favourites to win Best Picture as well. Guillermo del Toro is a master at other-worldly sci-fi fantasy, and this has been hailed as one of his best films yet.

Pacific Rim: Uprising (March 22)
Cast: John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Jing Tian, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day
Director: Steven S. DeKnight

Ten years after the pivotal Battle of the Breach in the first Pacific Rim movie, the kaijus are back, and this time, they have evolved to become even more powerful. Fortunately, the Jaeger programme has also evolved, and it is now up to Jake Pentecost, son of Stacker Pentecost, to lead the humans in a battle against not just the kaijus, but also a rogue Jaeger.

Why you should watch it:
The same reason you watched the first one – because it has GIANT ROBOTS fighting GIANT MONSTERS. LOTS of giant robots fighting giant monsters, to be exact. Heck, who needs a story when you’ve got GIANT ROBOTS fighting GIANT MONSTERS. Well, as long as Michael Bay isn’t directing, of course.

Ready Player One (March 22)
Cast: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, T. J. Miller, Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance
Director: Steven Spielberg

It is the year 2045, and Earth is now vastly over-populated, and its cities turned into slums thanks to pollution, corruption and climate change. To escape the desolation, people enter a virtual reality world called the Oasis. Teenager and Oasis regular Wade Watts enters the VR world to participate in a game created by the recently-deceased creator of the Oasis, James Halliday. The winner gets full ownership of the Oasis and Halliday’s US$500 billion fortune.

Why you should watch it:
The trailer itself got us excited with all the references to pop culture icons like the Delorean from Back To The Future, the light cycles from Tron, the Iron Giant, Chun-Li from Street Fighter II, Freddy Krueger and more. And with Steven Spielberg at the helm, this is sure to be one thrilling visual feast.


Catch these movies at Golden Screen Cinemas nationwide. Follow GSC on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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