action comedy

THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD

Cert 15 118mins Stars 4

This buddy action comedy is loud, fast, funny and the whole nine yards of knockout fun.

Ryan Reynolds is an executive bodyguard strong armed to protect Samuel L. Jackson’s hitman.

Pursued by an army of heavily armed gunmen, the smooth triple A rated protection agent has only 27 hours to transport the killer from Manchester to The Hague to give evidence in a trial.

The film trades heavily on the combustible competitive charisma of a formidable foursome of stars.

Elodie Yung and Salma Hayek play the men’s significant others, with the latter magnificent in her fiery foul mouthed fury.

There’s a vague 1970s vibe and the inclusion of Belarusian war crimes and terrorist strikes give real world weight to the James Bond inspired action.

This includes a shoot out in Coventry – which is not something you see everyday in a Hollywood movie – plus there’s a ferocious motorbike and speedboat chase in Amsterdam. Van der Valk was never this much of a blast.

BABY DRIVER

Cert 15 113mins Stars 4

This exhilarating crime caper is so achingly cool and confident, I should be in it.

Sadly for me Hollywood has yet to knock on my door. So you’ll have to make do with Ansel Elgort as Baby, driver on bank jobs for Kevin Spacey’s sharp suited mob boss.

The young getaway driver looks like a young Han Solo with shades and earphones permanently attached. This allows for a stream of great tunes of every type, including Egyptian reggae.

Baby plans to do one last job before hitting the road with Lily James’s pretty waitress.

The thin tread of the plot is pimped to the max by the trademark zippy editing and knowing humour by Brit director Edgar Wright. He puts a fast spin for the heist movie the way he did with zombies movies in Shaun of the Dead. 

The dialogue pops, tires squeal and bullets fly as this non stop thrill ride delivers your new favourite soundtrack to the summer.

 

 

TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT

Cert 12A 148mins Stars 1

Run for your life as the giant alien robot franchise returns to obliterate the box office.

The previous four films have taken nearly £3 billion in total at the box office and this wretchedly repetitive and grindingly incoherent episode will probably add considerably more.

Never afraid to do less with more, director Michael Bay takes his £200m budget and adds King Arthur to this mangled mess of globe hopping machines, endless explosions and terrible bantz. Even the supposedly quiet moments are played with a rock music video intensity.

The plot shamelessly apes the plot of the most recent Fast Furious film. Hero robot Optimus Prime is coerced by a glamorous female villain to turn on his former comrades so she can rule the universe, or something. 

As Optimus is a pompous, vain, and speechifying dumbbell, it’s a blessing he’s sidelined for long periods.

Mark Wahlberg resumes his role as Cade Yeager, a struggling inventor and now legendary resistance leader. He gamely runs around, shooting stuff and flirting with Laura Haddock.

The Brit actress has been jettisoned in to provide a glamorous love interest and miraculously escapes with her dignity intact.

This is despite her character being described as a ‘professor in a stripper dress’ and being obliged to perform a zero gravity pole dance during one of the many lengthy action sequences.

Anthony Hopkins’ broader eccentricities are unleashed as Sir Edmund Burton, a historian with back door channels to Downing street.

He explains the sub-Da Vinci code nonsense as they chase about castles and stately homes in pursuit of the staff of Merlin.

It’s the weapon of ultimate power. Which is useful as the robot planet Cybertron is en route to suck the life out of Earth. I now understand exactly how that feels.

This obsolete hunk of junk should be sent to the wreckers yard.

 

 

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: SALAZAR’S REVENGE

Cert 12A 129mins Stars 3

The supernatural swashbuckling franchise returns to chart a course through familiar waters, but there’s a new star to light the way.

After 2011’s ponderous adventure On Stranger Tides, this adventure moves at a fair clip along its formulaic route of spectacular CGI sea battles and big scale stunts.

The special effects, costumes, sets and locations are a treasure dazzle us, but outshining them all is newcomer Kaya Scodelario. The Brit actress brings fresh life to the regular skeleton crew as a feisty astronomer turned treasure hunter.

Carina is the only woman of note in an ocean of men, and it’s a pity she’s saddled with Brenton Thwaites as a romantic interest. As Henry, he’s a suitably bland son and heir to Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner.

They team up with Johnny Depp’s hapless pirate, Captain jack Sparrow. Though Depp’s pantomime performance becomes more tiresome with every appearance, the troubled actor needs this film to rescue his badly listing career. 

Sparrow features heavily, but through judicious editing, stunt work and stand-ins, there’s a lot less Depp than we’re supposed to believe. 

Bloom and Keira Knightley briefly reprise their roles and Paul McCartney continues the series’ rum tradition of rock star cameos.

A ruddy faced Geoffrey Rush does a spot of acting as Captain Barbossa and gives his one legged pirate some real welly. And one time James Bond villain, Javier Bardem harries everyone amidships as the revenge seeking Salazar, the matador of the sea.

The scattershot script pays lip service to its own plot which involves the Trident of Poseidon. The reappearance of pirate galleon The Black Pearl, brings closure to a major character.

This week Depp was confirmed as the Invisible Man in Universal Studio’s new ‘Dark Universe’ franchise. If his career continues its downward spiral, he won’t need special effects to play the part.

 

 

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: VOL 2

Cert 12A 135mins Stars 4

Brace yourself for cinematic hyper-speed as Marvel’s bickering band of galactic outlaws return in another loony tunes outer-space adventure.

Once again the inadvertent heroes have to save the universe, this time from a celestial being who wants to recreate  all life in his own image. 

The Guardian’s first adventure in 2014 was a £600 million box office supernova, and this one is bigger, brighter and funnier.

Although it is set in the same universe as Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk and the rest of Marvel’s team, there are only fleeting references to it. This gives it a stronger identity than most of their comic book adaptations.

Chris Pratt is the nominal star but is comprehensively outshone by pretty much all of the crowded cast.

He plays the super cocky half human halfwit Star-Lord, the leader of the pack. Sharing considerable screen time with the charismatic Kurt Russell, Pratt wilts in the heat of the veteran’s screen presence.

But even the scene stealing Russell can’t compete with the Baby Groot, an adorably cute animated stick creature, voiced by Vin Diesel. 

The laid back freewheeling groove disguises a remarkably smooth and accomplished ride, of dazzling sophisticated design, and an eye bending sense of scale.

Space battles riff on 1970’s Atari video games and are set to another soundtrack of 1970’s pop hits. It’s a trippy experience in 3D.

With a multi-coloured cast engaged in cartoon action and a laboured emphasis on friendship and family, The Guardians are clearly racing with the Fast and Furious franchise juggernaut to be box office champ. 

Fully clothed, covered in paint and half robotic, Karen Gillan and Zoe Saldana prove to its competitor, films don’t have to rely on upskirt shots to be sexy. 

Almost needy in it’s desire to entertain, this is a rocket-fuelled psychedelic roller coaster of cosmic fun.

THE HOUSE WITH THE CLOCK IN ITS WALLS

Cert 12A 104mins Stars 4

Jack Black stars as a warlock full of tricks in this early Halloween treat of frighteningly entertaining family fun.

With expert comic timing he conjures up plenty of crowd-pleasing magical mayhem in this charming, funny and nicely scary supernatural adventure, based on the popular children’s book by John Bellairs.

As kindly uncle Jonathan to ten-year-old orphan, Lewis, Black sees all hell breaks lose when his nephew secretly uses magic in an attempt to gain popularity at school, and inadvertently unleashes a demonic force in the form of Kyle MacLachan’s deceased evil sorcerer.

This sets the clock ticking on the end of the world, and to prevent it Jonathan and Lewis team up with their neighbour. Suitably dressed in regal purple the imperiously talented Cate Blanchett resembles Mary Poppins’ stylish older sister, and enjoys herself immensely as the brolly-wielding witch.

Blanchett and Black are an unlikely and seemingly mismatched double act but have a sparky chemistry, while Owen Vaccaro gives a bright and articulate performance as Lewis, and is never upstaged by his illustrious co-stars.

After contributing enormously to the huge success of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, early this year and having unveiled his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this week, Black’s career is recovering it’s sparkle.

And although director Eli Roth filmed this year’s woeful remake of Death Wish starring Bruce Willis, he’s recovered strongly with this latest effort and is careful to be faithful to the tone and intention of the source material.

His film bursts with warm nostalgia for the 1950’s US small town setting, typical enough for a film co-produced by Steven Spielberg’s company, Amblin.

Populated with pet-like living furniture and self playing musical instruments, kids will love the handsomely designed house where the action takes place, and they’ll totally agree with the story’s premise that chocolate chip cookies have the power to soothe any problem.

OVERLORD

Cert 18 110mins Stars 4

Zombie Nazi’s make a frontal assault on the senses and take the Second World War to a new level of hell in this full-blooded action horror.

With a knowingly uproarious tone, it’s a brain-splatting, gut-ripping blood-drenched thriller which isn’t for the faint of heart or weak of stomach.

British born actor, Jovan Adepo, is one of a team of paratroopers whose deadly mission behind enemy lines in France is to help enable the Allies’ 1944 D-Day landing goes to plan.

However the radio mast they must destroy is above a heavily-guarded church crypt, where Nazi scientists are attempting to create a breed of ‘thousand-year’ soldiers of super-human strength. 

Fortunately help comes from Mathilde Ollivier’s glamorous local who has the Germans hot under the collar and is burning for revenge.

Being produced by Star Trek’s J.J. Abrams gives this a big screen sweep and gloss, and though it’s arguably in bad taste, it’s also a great deal of over-the-top fun.

MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL

Cert 12A 114mins Stars 3

This big budget sci-fi action comedy sequel to Will Smith’s 1990’s blockbuster trilogy offers plenty of glossy CGI action but is surprisingly a little beige beneath the surface.

Fresh from starring in mega Marvel superhero smash, Avengers: Endgame, Chris ‘Thor’ Hemsworth and Tessa ‘Valkyrie’ Thompson step into shoes of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as galaxy defending secret agents.

They’re armed with memory altering gizmos, lots of shiny laser weapons and of course the essential black sunglasses, as they encounter lots of small, cute aliens, plenty of large, tentacled, angry ones, and those that change from one to another.

Star of the show  is the warm and watchable Tessa Thompson, who plays a computer hacker recruited by Emma Thompson’s boss of the Men In Black organisation, and given the codename, Agent M.

She’s sent to London to team with Hemsworth’s agent H, where the duo’s mission to protect an alien dignitary goes horribly wrong.

A mole is suspected in the MIB, and the most powerful weapon in the universe is being sought by a species of warmongering aliens, the Hive.

Very much written as a spy caper, it merrily riffs on the world of superspy James Bond with Hemsworth very knowingly playing the hard-drinking womaniser as comically arrogant, reckless, a bit dim and vaguely inept.

And it’s complete with glamorous international locations, flash cars, gadgets, and a beautiful femme fatale in the shape of Rebecca Ferguson’s intergalactic arms dealer. Plus Kumail Nanjiani adds a lot of humour voicing a pint-sized alien called Pawny.

F. Gary Gray directed 2017’s eighth instalment of the Fast and the Furious franchise, and despite rocketing his cast about the globe he can’t get the pace here up to a similar speed.

Will Smith’s swagger is a big miss and script should be sharper, but the natural easy chemistry of its attractive stars prevent the film from crashing to Earth.

 

THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN

Cert 12A 92mins Stars 4

Hollywood legend Robert Redford pulls the curtain down on his long acting career with this wonderfully warm and spirited character-driven comedy drama.

The remarkable tale of a real life career criminal, it’s a deft, funny and surprisingly life affirming caper which is every bit as smart and accomplished as its star.

Redford plays bank robber Forrest Tucker, the dapper leader of a team of geriatric bank robbers who the media nickname, ‘The Over the Hill Gang’, after they go on a courteous spree of low-tech bank heists across five US states.

They’re slowly pursued by Casey Affleck’s hangdog detective cop who is determined to catch the thieves after letting them slip though his fingers.

And a luminous Sissy Spacek shares a marvellous sparkly chemistry with Redford as a horse whispering widow who catches Tucker’s eye.

Director David Lowery previously made the Disney terrific live-action 2016 remake of Pete’s Dragon in which Redford had a minor role.

As camera moves and jazz score offer reminders of Redford’s 1970’s heyday, the tone of nostalgic lament deliberately echoes that of 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The cowboy classic saw Redford in his most enjoyable and best remembered role as a gunslinging outlaw alongside Paul Newman, and Tucker is clearly intended as a septuagenarian spin on the Sundance Kid. 

Occasionally if understandably indulgent with many other nods and winks to Redford’s prestigious career, this misty-eyed eulogy offers an explanation as to why he first took to acting and then stuck with it.

The tremendous supporting cast includes Danny Glover, Tom Waits, Elisabeth Moss, Keith Carradine, Tika Sumpter and John David Washington – but it’s Redford’s show all the way.

They don’t make films like this or film stars like him anymore, and it’s all credit to Redford that after an astonishing career of nearly sixty years, the Kid leaves us crying out for more.

 

BEYOND THE GATES

Director: Jackson Stewart (2017) BBFC cert: 18

 

Rewind to the era of the video nasty with this lovingly made, entertaining and accurate homage to cult comedy horrors such as such as Fright Night and Re-Animator.

When two brothers return to their parents’ defunct video store, they find a mysterious interactive video cassette game movie called Beyond The Gate.

They realise it holds clues to their father’s disappearance, but are warned playing the game could cost them their souls.

There’s a healthy amount of camp fun among  the blood letting action and enough menace to give you the shivers.

★★★☆☆

@ChrisHunneysett