February brings the winter film season to a close and has a lot of interesting premieres in store: spy action movies, biopics, superhero films, and a sequel to a cult sci-fi book. There’s definitely something to watch this month!
Race for Glory: Audi vs. Lancia
This is the incredible story of the 1983 World Rally Championship. In a real-life David vs. Goliath story, we see how the brave underdogs of the Lancia team, led by the charismatic Cesare Fiorio, faced off against the mighty Audi team in one of the greatest competitions in the history of sport.
Recently, more and more films related to motorsports have been released, and this month we will see a fascinating story of the confrontation between Audi and Lancia at the 1983 World Rally Championship.
The main role of the engineer who headed the Audi Sport GmbH team was played by the wonderful German actor Daniel Brühl, who played the great racer Nicky Lauda in the 2013 movie Race.
The premiere in Ukraine took place on February 1.
Argylle
Ellie Conway’s spy novels are popular with an increasingly wide range of people. The writer prefers to leave the house as little as possible, so traveling by train is a real challenge for her. On the way, the unexpected happens. A real spy, Aiden, saves the writer from an attack and brings her to a secret spy base. The fact is that the plots of her books have become dangerously similar to real events unfolding in the secret world. This was the reason why a real hunt was organized for the writer.
Director Matthew Vaughn has long established himself as an unconventional creator who likes to break the mold and surprise audiences. One of his first directorial works, Kick-Ass, was a very powerful satire on the superhero genre. X-Men: First Class proved that it is possible to make cool movies about this team of heroes without Wolverine. The first part of Kingsman is still the director’s best film. This spoof on spy action movies has become a modern classic of the genre and is still watched in one breath. Unfortunately, the sequels turned out to be weaker, but the action and non-standard plot twists as the director’s specialty remained in place.
This year, Matthew Vaughn’s new spy comedy, Argylle, is coming out. The plot description looks really interesting, and the cast surprises with a number of well-known names. Among them: Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bryan Cranston, John Cena, and Samuel L. Jackson. We expect the classic inventive and fun action, the budget of the movie allows to play out to the fullest, as well as unexpected plot twists, for which the director is famous.
The premiere in Ukraine took place on February 1.
Madame Web
Cassandra Webb develops the ability to see the future. She develops relationships with three young women bound by fate to survive the deadly present.
Another Sony movie about the Spider-Man universe without this iconic hero. It’s worth mentioning because the previous movie, Morbius, was in production hell for many years and its release date was constantly postponed. When the film was released in 2022, it was ridiculed for its poor quality and failed at the box office. But a small number of people who watched it began to tell others that it was the best movie of their lives. Internet trolls picked up on this and demanded that Sony re-release the movie, because “we were very interested, we just didn’t have time to watch this masterpiece!” As a result, Morbius was re-released and flopped again. And the jokes about how it earned “a morbillion dollars” literally blew up the Western Internet. Let’s “hope” that this time the Internet trolls will be out of a job.
If you are a very big fan of superheroes, you will watch this movie anyway. In addition, the movie stars actresses Dakota Johnson, Sidney Sweeney, Isabela Moner, and Emma Roberts.
The premiere in Ukraine is on February 14.
Bob Marley: One Love
Bob Marley: One Love celebrates the life of the famous musician and the reggae music that inspired generations of fans. The film tells the story of the life and journey to success of Bob Marley, the first artist from Jamaica to achieve worldwide recognition and for many people to become a true prophet of Rastafarianism.
You will be able to learn about Marley’s life and work in cinemas on February 15.
Dune: Part Two
Finally, the long-awaited sequel to Dune by Danny Villeneuve is out. The first film received very positive reviews, it adapted the original material by Frank Herbert better than its predecessors, but it had one big drawback, as it ended right in the middle of the plot. The second part of Dune plans to fix this, with more large-scale scenes, because it is in the second half of the book that the main action takes place. Christopher Walken, Austin Butler, Lea Seydoux and Florence Pugh joined the cast of the film, expanding the already stellar cast.
If you’re a fan of the first part, adore the book, or just miss science fiction, then Dune: Part Two is definitely worth watching. The movie will premiere on February 29.
This month’s series segment offers a wide variety of genres, so it’s easier to find an interesting project for yourself.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Two strangers take a job at a spy agency that offers them a life of extreme adventure, wealth, and travel. The catch: new identities in an arranged marriage.
The series, based on the feature film with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, made it clear from the first trailer that it would not be a one-to-one replication of the original. This is only emphasized by the main actors Maya Erskine and Donald Glover. John Turturro, Paul Dano, and Ron Perlman played secondary roles in the series. Eisa Gonzalez and Alexander Skarsgård are also involved.
You can watch all 8 episodes starting February 2 on Amazon Prime Video.
The New Look
The series explores the rise of the fashion designer Christian Dior, telling the story of his revolutionary fashion line called New Look. In his time, Dior challenged the world, and we can see the fruits of his work in our time.
Ben Mendelsohn plays the main role in the series, his sister Catherine is played by Macy Williams (Arya Stark from Game of Thrones), and Juliette Binoche plays Coco Chanel herself. The series also features John Malkovich as Lucien Lelong.
The first three episodes will premiere on Apple TV+ on February 14.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
A young man known as the Avatar must master the four elements to save a world that has been at war for 100 years.
The series is based on the mega-popular animated series by Nickelodeon. The original skillfully combined the strongest aspects of Western and Japanese animation, touched the heart with its plot, and made us care about the characters more than ourselves.
There was already an attempt to adapt M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar in 2010 under the title Lord of the Elements. Ironically, in episode 17 of season 3 of the animated series, the main characters went to a performance by the Fire People (i.e. their enemies) based on their adventures. In the end, the characters were outraged by the performance, but noted that the special effects were not bad. This was a review of The Lord of the Elements 2 years before its release.
This time things are much better. The actors are more or less similar, the magic looks good, the original music was not touched, and the movie’s footage contains moments from the animated series. The only slightly annoying thing is that the trailer showed the Lord of Fire Ozai, who was actually only partially shown in the first two seasons and fully introduced only in the third. It turns out that the plot of the original will still undergo minor changes. Last year, Netflix adapted the manga OnePiece and there were some minor differences with the original, but it turned out fine, and fans are happy, so there are also certain expectations of a quality project for the life-action Avatar. Most importantly, don’t expect the film adaptation to be better than the animated series. The most important thing is for the creators to respect the original, which is still a real treasure of animation.
It premieres on February 22 on Netflix.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
The “next superhero movie” is joined by the “next Walking Dead spinoff.” It seems that 11 seasons of the series were not enough, so The Ones Who Live has become the third project in a year that continues its storyline. This time, attention will be focused on Michonne, who is looking for her husband Rick Grimes. If you are a true fan of this universe, then the new six-episode series will definitely not leave you indifferent.
It premieres on February 25 on AMC.
Shōgun
A historical drama series based on the 1975 novel of the same name by James Clavell. In fact, “Shogun” is more of a fiction based on the true story of how William Adams came to Japan and became a samurai during the reign of Tokugawa Ieyasu. In the series, the characters have other names, John Blackthorne and Yoshi Toranaga. Among the cast, perhaps only Hiroyuki Sanada (High Speed Train, John Wick 4) is known to the audience, but almost all the actors are ethnic Japanese, which adds to the flavor. In recent years, Japanese themes have become increasingly popular in all areas of art, and Shogun can be a great opportunity to learn more about the history of this country.
It will premiere on Hulu on February 27.
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