Your weekend preview: What to see (and what to skip) in the theatres

Top of our list this week is the moving third feature from Quebec’s Louise Archambault,  a drama of age, wildfires and romance set in the beautiful backwoods of Quebec. Reviewer Jim Slotek says that And The Birds Rained Down (Rating B-Plus) is an “often achingly-sad drama” about second chances, with an environmentally-themed story. 

And the Birds Rained Down: A touching story of wildfires and love among the hermits.

For some lowered-expectations escapist alternatives, there’s Color Out Of Space (C) a sci-fi horror movie that has everything:  A script based on H.P. Lovecraft, a teen-aged witch, a meteorite, alpacas, Tommy Chong as a hippie shaman and an on-brand Nicolas Cage wigging out, though reviewer Karen Gordon regrets the script had kept at least “one toe in reality.” English Guy Ritchie goes back to men-behaving-criminally mode in his caper comedy, The Gentlemen (Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant, Colin Farrell, Eddie Marsan, Charlie Hunnam, Jeremy Strong) in a film Jim Slotek says has “extra everything except inspiration.”

This week also offers two hero stories: Kim Hughes reviews The Last Full Measure (B) follows a Pentagon staffer investigating a Medal of Honor request for a Air Force medic, 32 years after his death, with a cast of a certain age (Christopher Plummer, Ed Harris, Samuel L. Jackson, the late  Peter Fonda and Diane Ladd). Reviewer Kim Hughes says the movie is a mix of patriotic chest-thumper and document of the mess of Vietnam war.  This week we welcome our latest stellar addition to the Original-Cin team, Linda Barnard, who reviews Quezon’s Game (C),  about the Philippine president who opened his country to imperiled Jewish refugees during the Second World War, in an important story, not well told.

Have a happy we’re-so-done-with-you-January weekend!