YOUR GUIDE TO THIS WEEK'S NEW CINEMA RELEASES

There is a smorgasbord of movies to see in cinemas this week...

TOP PICK TO SEE

My top pick is THE GIFT which I saw today. Written and directed by, and starring in is Australia's very own Joel Egerton. It is a psychological thriller about a young married couple's lives thrown into a harrowing tailspin when an acquaintance from the husband's past brings mysterious gifts and a horrifying secret to light after more than 20 years. It's brilliant! I give it ***** and will post my review shortly. I completely agree with TheWrap's James Rocchi who says that, Nothing here feels cheap or hasty, which is why the horror, when it comes, is all the more chilling and grim. Slick, sharp and legitimately terrifying, The Gift is a truly brilliant thriller - and, one hopes, the first of many features from Edgerton to come. Make sure you go see it!

OTHERS TO SEE

HOLDING THE MAN tells the story of Tim and John who fell in love while teenagers at their all-boys high school. John was captain of the football team, Tim an aspiring actor playing a minor part in Romeo and Juliet. Their romance endured for 15 years to laugh in the face of everything life threw at it - the separations, the discrimination, the temptations, the jealousies and the losses - until the only problem that love can't solve, tried to destroy them. Sounds interesting.

MAYBE/MAYBE NOT

The tagline for STALKHER is intriguing: He chased her... until... she caught him. Jack is pushed past the brink of his stalking obsession when he decides to break into Emily's home to take what he wants by force. However, his plans for her pain and his pleasure come unhinged when he wakes up to find himself bleeding and bound to a chair in her kitchen. For one night Jack and Emily engage in a twisted and thrilling courtship of the sexes that leads one to wonder which one of them will survive the night. It's billed as a comedy romance thriller. Don't know much more about the movie than that - so we'll have to wait and see.

RICKI AND THE FLASH is getting a mixed reception - general audiences are rating it as average and critics around 2 to 2.5 stars. It's about a musician (played by Meryl Streep) who gave up everything for her dream of rock-and-roll stardom and then returns home, looking to make things right with her family. The Playlist's Rodrigo Perez says, Ricki And the Flash is about mistakes, regrets, and of course, redemption, but all of it feels a little too neat, familiar and convenient even if no one's quite belting out “Kumbaya” by the end.

I've already posted my review of SHE'S FUNNY THAT WAY. Check out my review here to see why I liked it so much.

TO AVOID

One movie to avoid this week -- WE ARE FRIENDS starring Zac Efron - which probably tells you all you need to know. Caught between a forbidden romance and the expectations of his friends, aspiring DJ Cole Carter attempts to find the path in life that leads to fame and fortune. Chicago Sun-Times's Richard Roeper: Talk about a mediocre mash-up. Much of We Are Your Friends plays like an Electronic Dance Music update of a very good John Travolta movie - “Saturday Night Fever” - with a liberal sprinkling of plot elements from a quite terrible Tom Cruise movie called “Cocktail.” Give it a miss.

That's it for this week. See you at the movies!

*NOTE* Movie summaries are adaptations of movie summary on IMDB. Opinions are mine unless credited. These updates are written from an Australian perspective so openings of the movies in cinemas may vary in other parts of the world.