Where the Crawdads Sing

From the bestselling novel comes a captivating mystery. Where the Crawdads Sing tells the story of Kya, an abandoned girl who raised herself to adulthood in the dangerous marshlands of North Carolina. For years, rumours of the ‘Marsh Girl’ haunted Barkley Cove, isolating the sharp and resilient Kya from her community. Drawn to two young men from town, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world; but when one of them is found dead, she is immediately cast by the community as the main suspect. As the case unfolds, the verdict as to what actually happened becomes increasingly unclear, threatening to reveal the many secrets that lay within the marsh.

Where the Crawdads Sing is a drama thriller, staring Daisy Edgar-Jones ( Normal People) as Kya Clark; Taylor John Smith ( Sharp Objects) as Tate Walker; Harris Dickinson ( The King’s Man) as Chase Andrews; Michael Hyatt ( Snowfall) as Mabel; Sterling Macer Jr ( Double Down) as Jumpin’; and David Strathairn ( Nomadland) as Tom Milton.

Olivia Newman ( First Match) directs the screenplay by Lucy Alibar ( Beasts of the Southern Wild), based on the novel by Delia Owens. The 3000 Pictures film is produced by Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter.

HELD OVER

Three Thouand Years of Longing

What is your heart’s desire?

Dr Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) is an academic, content with life and a creature of reason. While in Istanbul attending a conference, she happens to encounter a Djinn (Idris Elba), who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom. This presents two problems. First, she doubts that he is real, and second, because she is a scholar of story and mythology, she knows all the cautionary tales of wishes gone wrong. The Djinn pleads his case by telling her fantastical stories of his past. Eventually, she is beguiled and makes a wish that surprises them both.

Directed by: George Miller

Written by: George Miller, August Gore

Based upon the short story The Djinn In The Nightingale’s Eye by A.S. Byatt

Starring: Idris Elba, Tilda Swinton

Produced by: Doug Mitchell, George Miller

Executive producers: Dean Hood, Craig McMahon, Kevin Sun

Beast

The law of the jungle rules

Sometimes the rustle in the bushes actually is a monster.

Idris Elba ( Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, The Suicide Squad) stars in a pulse-pounding new thriller about a father and his two teenage daughters who find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the savannah has but one apex predator.

Elba plays Dr Nate Daniels, a recently widowed husband who returns to South Africa, where he first met his wife, on a long-planned trip with their daughters to a game reserve managed by Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley, Russian Doll series, Maleficent), an old family friend and wildlife biologist. But what begins as a journey of healing jolts into a fearsome fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers who now sees all humans as the enemy, begins stalking them.

Iyana Halley ( The Hate U Give, This is Us series) plays Daniels’ 18-year-old daughter, Meredith, and Leah Sava Jeffries ( Rel series, Empire series) plays his 13-year-old, Norah.

From visceral, experiential film-maker Baltasar Kormákur, the director of Everest and Universal Pictures’ 2 Guns and Contraband, Beast is produced by Will Packer, the blockbuster producer of Girls Trip, the Ride Along franchise, and 10 movies that have opened No. 1 at the US box office, including Night School, No Good Deed and Think Like a Man, by James Lopez, president of Will Packer Productions, and by Baltasar Kormákur. The film is written by Ryan Engle ( Rampage, Non-Stop) from an original story by Jaime Primak Sullivan and is executive produced by Jaime Primak Sullivan and Bernard Bellew.

Bullet Train

Is this bad luck or what?

In B ullet Train, Oscar winner Brad Pitt stars as Ladybug, an unlucky assassin determined to do his job peacefully after one too many gigs gone off the rails. Fate, however, may have other plans, as Ladybug’s latest mission puts him on a collision course with lethal adversaries from around the globe — all with connected, yet conflicting, objectives — on the world’s fastest train. The end of the line is just the beginning in this non-stop thrill ride through modern-day Japan from David Leitch, the director of Deadpool 2.

Screenplay by: Zak Olkewicz

Based on the book by: Kotaro Isaka

Produced by: Kelly McCormick, David Leitch, Antoine Fuqua.

Executive producers: Brent O’Connor, Ryosuke Saegusa, Yuma Terada, Kat Samick.

Cast: Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, Benito A Martínez Ocasio and Oscar winner Sandra Bullock.

DC League of Super-Pets

Stronger than you think

Superman’s dog Krypto must learn to be less alien, and more ‘human’ in order to teach Batman’s dog, Ace; Wonder Woman’s pig, PB; Green Lantern’s squirrel, Ch’p; and The Flash’s turtle, Merton; how to harness their new powers, work together, and become the superheroes they were destined to be. But can they defeat a twisted guinea pig named Lulu and save the Justice League and Metropolis from destruction? And will a bunch of strays find homes with the most famous superheroes on earth?

DC League of Super-Pets is an action adventure comedy from Warner Bros Pictures, with animation by Warner Animation Group, based on the DC Comics superhero team Legion of Super-Pets.

Directors: Jared Stern, Sam Levine

Writers: Jared Stern, John Whittington.

Star-studded voice cast includes: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Kate McKinnon, Olivia Wilde, John Krasinski, Vanessa Bayer, Natasha Lyonne, Diego Luna, Dascha Polanco, John Early, Ben Schwartz, Jermaine Clement and Keanu Reeves.

Thor: Love and Thunder

The stakes are worth fighting for

Marvel Studios’ Thor: Love and Thunder stars Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, and Oscar winners Natalie Portman, Christian Bale and Russell Crowe. Directed by Oscar winner Taika Waititi.

Following the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019), Thor attempts to find inner peace, but must return to action and recruit Valkyrie, Korg, and Jane Foster — who has become the Mighty Thor — to stop Gorr the God Butcher from eliminating all gods.

Nope

Don’t look up

Oscar winner Jordan Peele disrupted and redefined modern horror with Get Out and then Us. Now, he reimagines the summer movie with a new pop nightmare: the expansive horror epic, Nope.

The film reunites Peele with Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya ( Get Out, Judas and the Black Messiah), who is joined by Keke Palmer ( Hustlers, Alice) and Oscar nominee Steven Yeun ( Minari, Okja) as residents in a lonely gulch of inland California who bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery.

Top Gun Maverick

Feel the need ... the need for speed

After more than 30 years of service as one of the navy’s top aviators, Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.

Directed by: Joseph Kosinski.

Produced by: Academy Award winner Jerry Bruckheimer, Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison.

Based on characters created by: Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr

Story by: Peter Craig and Justin Marks

Screenplay by: Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie

Starring: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Charles Parnell, Bashir Salahuddin, Monica Barbaro, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Greg Tarzan Davis, with Academy Award nominee Ed Harris and Val Kilmer

Minions: The Rise of Gru

Unstoppable from the get-go

This summer, from the biggest global animated franchise in history, comes the original story of how the world’s greatest supervillain first met his iconic Minions, forged cinema’s most despicable crew, and faced off against the most unstoppable criminal force ever assembled in Minions: The Rise of Gru.

Long before he becomes the master of evil, Gru (Oscar nominee Steve Carell) is just a 12-year-old boy in 1970s suburbia, plotting to take over the world from his basement.

Featuring more spectacular action than any film in Illumination’s history and packed with the franchise’s signature subversive humour, Minions: The Rise of Gru stars a thrilling new cast, including the Vicious 6: Taraji P. Henson as cool and confident leader Belle Bottom; Jean-Claude Van Damme as the nihilistic Jean Clawed, who’s armed (literally) with a giant robotic claw; Lucy Lawless as Nunchuck; Dolph Lundgren as Swedish roller skate champion Svengeance; and Danny Trejo as Stronghold.

The film also stars Russell Brand as Young Dr Nefario, Michelle Yeoh as Master Chow, and Oscar winner Julie Andrews as Gru’s maddeningly self-absorbed mom.

NEW KINGSTON DRIVE-IN CLOSED

Scores of patrons turned out on the final weekend of August 26 to 28 to be counted among moviegoers saying goodbye to the New Kingston Drive-In.

Some showed up for the very first time to share in the experience, and many others for nostalgia and what they deemed a historic occasion — the fall of the curtain on outdoor cinema in this 21st century.

Marketing Manager Melanie Graham welcomed patrons at the box office over the weekend, personally thanking them for their support of the drive-in and rewarding them with passes to any Palace Amusement indoor cinema of their choice.

As part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Palace Amusement reintroduced drive-in cinema in October 2020 as one of the safe and convenient options for moviegoing. A year and a half later, the facility proved not to be viable, due primarily to lack of support.

The company’s indoor cinemas, Carib 5 and Palace Cineplex in Kingston, Sunshine Palace in Portmore, and Palace Multiplex in Montego Bay are all open to welcome patrons.

Safety is a responsibility we all share – See you at the movies!

Our cinemas are open for your entertainment – Carib 5 in Cross Roads; Sunshine Palace, Portmore; Palace Cineplex, Sovereign Centre, Liguanea; and Palace Multiplex in Montego Bay.

As restrictions change, we adjust our showtimes so as to be able to remain open, while adhering to regulations.

Our staff is trained to do temperature checks and assist patrons with sanitising as they enter the cinemas.

Once inside our cinemas, please wear a mask for your safety, and observe social distancing in queues at the box office and concession.

Sanitisation stations are available at convenient points throughout.

Our air conditioning systems, installed with the specified MERV-13 air filters, have been regulated to bring in maximum fresh air.

Thorough cleaning and sanitisation is done to ensure a safe and relaxed atmosphere for all.

Thanks again, and PLEASE remember to observe safety protocols for the benefit of all.

Schedules

Schedules are subject to change. For details on your cinema of choice, half-off specials and any other tidbits, check us out in this space, on social media (FB, IG Twitter – insert symbols)@palacemovies or at www.palaceamusement.com.

Please note: At all cinemas, the box office opens daily at 12 noon.