SERENITY has been panned by critics including our own movie critic who deemed it “wonderfully awful.”
Here’s everything you need to know about the so-good-it’s-bad film and how to watch it…
When is Serenity with Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey released?
The film will be released TODAY on March 1st, 2019.
The initial US release date was scheduled for September 28, 2018 but was delayed to October 19, 2018 and then pushed back again to January 25, 2019.
Serenity’s distributor, Aviron, scaled back on advertising for the film – despite the film’s stars being willing to go on a full promotion campaign – after test screenings showed that it wasn’t a hit with viewers or critics.
In a statement they said: “As much as we love this film and still hope it finds its audience, we tested and retested the film with audiences and critics alike
“And sadly, the data demonstrated that the film was not going to be able to perform at our initial expectations, so we adjusted our budget and marketing tactics accordingly.”
What is the film about?
The film follows fisherman Baker Dill – played by Matthew McConaughey – from the island of Plymouth who starts having strange visions that he can’t understand.
Baker is fixated with catching a large tuna near the island called “Justice.”
Out of the blue his ex-wife Karen – played by Anne Hathaway – turns up and asks him to kill her abusive husband Frank.
All the while Baker seems to have a telepathic connection with his son Patrick so he agrees to put aside his pursuit of Justice the tuna to do as his ex-spouse asks.
A businessman called Reid Miller tracks Baker down claiming he’s a sales rep from a fishing equipment company and offers him a complimentary fish tracker.
***Spoiler alert***
This is where it turns weird – Reid reveals to Baker that he is actually a character in a video game that his son Patrick is playing and that his visions of his son playing the game were not flashbacks but actually happening in the present.
He learns that he actually died in military service and as a way of maintaining a connection with his father, Patrick reprogrammed him into a fishing game to live out his fantasy of killing his abusive step-father.
The father and son are able to communicate through the game’s code.
After killing ‘baddie’ Frank in the game, Patrick picks up a knife to kill the real-life abusive Frank.
And then the film ends with Patrick programming himself into the game to be with his father.
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What have reviews been like for the film?
Our film critic, Jamie East, was pretty disparaging about the film– giving it just one out of five stars.
He said the film had him ” almost bent double, tears streaming down my face in incredulity and laughter.”
And even went so far as to deem the film “wonderfully awful.”
Meanwhile it’s been given a tawdry 23% – based on 123 reviews – on Rotten Tomatoes.
Likewise Metacritic gave the film an average score of 38 out of 100 based on 36 critics.