What you may need to know:

1. Writer/director Shane Meadows serves up one last slice of bittersweet nostalgia.

2. Woody (Joe Gilgun), Lol (Vicky McClure) and the gang embrace baggy.

3. It looks like Combo (Stephen Graham) is out of prison. I’d wager that he won’t be on board with the whole “Second Summer of Love” thing.

4. If you haven’t seen the movie or the two mini-series, then you have approximately eight hours’ worth of catching up to do. But what an eight hours.

5. Meadows originally planned to shoot these final four episodes back in 2012, but went off to do his Stone Roses documentary instead.

6. Made of Stone (2013) didn’t really turn out as expected. Meadows definitely wore his fan hat to that party.

7. Broadsheet prognosis: There may be trouble ahead.

Release Date: September 7  (TBC).

(Mark blogs about film, TV and other stuff at WhyBother.ie)

What you may need to know:

1. An experimental procedure cures Wade Wilson’s (Ryan Reynolds) cancer and gives him accelerated healing powers and stuff. Comic book logic.

2. There’s a red band version with slightly more cussing, but the jokes are just as forced.

3. Reynolds appeared as Deadpool in 2009’s poorly received X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Everyone hated it. Including Reynolds.

4. This project has been in various stages of development hell since 2007. Shelved in 2013, it was finally greenlit following the positive reaction to test footage leaked last year.

5. Those Stan Lee cameos are really getting old.

6. Broadsheet prognosis: Not feeling it.

Release Date: February 5, 2016.

(Mark blogs about film, TV and other stuff at WhyBother.ie)

What you may need to know:

1. A team of Boston Globe journalists investigate the cover-up of widespread sexual abuse by the Catholic Church. True story, yo.

2. That’s a mighty impressive cast. You’ve got Batman, the Hulk, Sabretooth, Dr. Manhattan and Iron Man’s dad. It’s getting hard to find an actor who hasn’t been in a comic book movie.

3. …Or a Catholic priest who hasn’t [TEXT REDACTED]

4. Here’s hoping that post-Birdman Michael Keaton will never have to take another Robocop (2014), Need for Speed (2014), or Herbie Fully Loaded (2005).

5. “And the Oscar for best hairpiece in a supporting role goes to… Stanley Tucci.”

6. Broadsheet prognosis: Hot under the dog collar.

Release Date: November 6.

(Mark blogs about film, TV and other stuff at WhyBother.ie)

What you may need to know:

1. Based on the 2010 Chilean mining accident, when 33 miners survived for 69 days under 2,300 feet of rock.

2. Spoiler alert: They get out.

3. Nice to see Antonio Banderas doing something besides chewing gum ads.

4. Remember Yonni Barrios? He was the miner whose wife found out about his mistress when they both showed up holding pictures of him. In front of the world’s media. Oof.

5. This trailer is crying out for a bit of “Sending Our Love Down the Well.”

6. Broadsheet prognosis: Imagine the smell.

Release Date: November 13.

(Mark blogs about film, TV and other stuff at WhyBother.ie)

What you may need to know

1. It’s the new film by Lenny Abrahamson.

2. Based on the novel by Emma Donohue.

3. Starring Brie Larson, from 21 Jump Street (2012) and Short Term 12 (2013). Track down the latter.

4. Not to be confused with Tommy Wiseau‘s masterpiece.

5. The buzz is already deafening.

Broadsheet Prognosis: Lenny, meet Oscar

Release date: Autumn

What you may need to know:

1. “What if” scenario supposing that the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs missed.

2. Two movies in one year? You’re really spoiling us, Pixar.

3. Minimal dialogue reminiscent of Wall-E (2008)… Good.

4. Overbearing, emotionally manipulative Of Monsters and Men soundtrack… Bad.

5. This is the directorial feature debut of long-time Pixar animator, Peter Sohn. You might recognise him as the physical model for Up’s (2009) Russell. The likeness is uncanny.

6. Broadsheet prognosis: Men will weep.

Release Date: November 27.

(Mark blogs about film, TV and other stuff at WhyBother.ie)

What you may need to know:

1. Robert Redford and Nick Nolte hike 2,200 miles across the Appalachian Trail.

2. Based on Bill Bryson’s 1998 best-seller.

3. It’s back to the day job for Sundance Kid and gran crush Redford.

4. Oh hai Nick Offerman. Always a pleasure.

5. Is there a studio brave enough to put Nolte, Rip Torn and Randy Quaid in the same movie? I guess the liability insurance would be prohibitive.

6. Broadsheet prognosis: Wild (2014) for the Werther’s Original set.

Release Date: September 18.

(Mark blogs about film, TV and other stuff at WhyBother.ie)

—

What you may need to know:

1. Katie (Tina Fey) and Maura Ellis (Amy Poehler) throw a final house party before their parents sell up.

2. You know those movies where they put all the jokes in the trailer? Well, this isn’t one of those.

3. After six years together on SNL, Mean Girls (2004), Baby Mama (2008) and presenting every Golden Globes since the onset of Ricky Gervais fatigue, Fey and Poehler are rapidly turning into the American Ant and Dec.

4. Paul Feig should drop Ghostbusters (2016) and do an all-female reboot of Byker Grove with Fey and Poehler instead. I would watch the hell out of that.

5. That’s John Cena in the trailer. Cena is a popular WWE wrestler. Apparently.

6. Broadsheet prognosis: Two sisters. Zero laughs. Is it too late for a rewrite?

Release Date: March 11, 2016.

(Mark blogs about film, TV and other stuff at WhyBother.ie)

What you may need to know:

1. A new one from David O. Russell. Joy of joys indeed.

2. It’s about Joy Mangano who invented the Miracle Mop and The Huggable Hanger among other really clever things.

3. Joy initially sold 1,000 mops to QVC on consignment who later wanted to return the remaining mops after poor sales. Having invested her savings and borrowing from her family to get the mop into production, she insisted on going on herself to demonstrate it and shifted 18,000 units in twenty minutes. Mmf.

4. American Hustle (2013) kicked us in the senses. Silver Linings Playbook (2012) kicked us right in the feels. It looks like Joy is going to kick us right in that painful lower back area you get from scrubbing or repeatedly having to bend down.

5. Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro are back together again. This time with bonus chizzled jaw courtesy of Édgar Ramírez.

6. Broadsheet Prognosis: Oscar spillage on aisle 3

7. Release date:  January 1,  2016

What you may need to know:

1. 19th century revenge western. After a bear mauling, fur trapper Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is robbed and left for dead by his companions (Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter).

2. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s eagerly anticipated follow up to Birdman (2014), one of the most divisive movies of last year. If you loved it, odds are your mate hated it. Your mate’s wrong.

3. Can Iñárritu bag an Oscar two years in a row? Doubtful, but he’ll certainly be in contention. Probably best to keep Sean Penn away from the podium, just in case.

4. The last director to win two successive Oscars was Joseph L. Mankiewicz (A Letter to Three Wives [1949] and All About Eve [1950]). John Ford also won for The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and How Green Was My Valley (1941).

5. Iñárritu certainly doesn’t make things easy for himself. After choosing to shoot Birdman using a brilliant one-shot device, the director’s self-imposed handicap on The Revenant was the decision to shoot the film in sequence.

6. Broadsheet prognosis: Needs more jazz drumming.

Release Date:  January15, 2016

(Mark blogs about film, TV and other stuff at WhyBother.ie)