Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

DRIVE (2011)

DRIVE (2011) / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: NICOLAS WINDING REFN / SCREENPLAY: HOSSEIN AMINI / STARRING: RYAN GOSLING, CAREY MULLIGAN, BRYAN CRANSTON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

One of the surprise sleeper hits of 2011, Drive roared into cinema screens and managed to cross over from a sure-fire cult classic to a pop culture hit. It’s an art movie for the mainstream, bringing a sideways take to crime, getaway driver films, with a measured pace, beautiful visuals and blasts of ultraviolence. It was the introduction of Nicolas Winding Refn’s unique vision and filmmaking style to mainstream cinema screens and audiences, sent Ryan Gosling stratospheric, and featured one of cinemas most iconic and coolest jackets, a piece of costume that only works inside the film.

This new release is low on the ground in terms of variation of extras but it’s been brought out with one big, previously unavailable addition: a film rescore. Back in 2014, radio DJ Zane Lowe – in partnership with Radio One – rescored the film with collaborators including The 1975, Chvrches, and Bring Me the Horizon. Broadcast on BBC Three, it’s previously been unavailable as a home release. The rescore seems like an admirable but foolhardy task. The original score to Drive, composed by Cliff Martinez and with tracks by underground bands such as College and Kavinsky, was a perfect marriage of music and visuals, the electronic, synth sounds marrying with the retro ‘80s, neon pink feel and mood of the movie. While the rescore isn’t bad, it doesn’t measure up, making Drive feel more generic, pumping in bass where it’s not needed. The rescore can’t quite help itself in being too obvious, throwing in pounding music over car chase scenes that previously allowed the images and sound design do the talking. You also lose some of the operatic feel of the film. It’s not a failure; it’s just an interesting experiment, a curiosity. It’s worth a watch if you’re interested but we’d be very surprised if anyone chose it as their preferred version.

The release also has a Q&A with Winding Refn, a gallery, and a feature of the making of the rescore. It’s an interesting piece, with some short interviews from the musicians and Lowe himself, and gives you a glimpse into the work, ideas and thought that went into the rescore.

Drive remains a brilliant film, worthy of being endlessly re-watched. It’s good to have the rescored version finally on release for anyone who didn’t manage to see it before, but it’s much more of a curio than a lost classic redux.

THE LEGO MOVIE 2: THE SECOND PART

CERT: PG | DIRECTOR: MIKE MITCHELL | SCREENPLAY: PHIL LORD, CHRIS MILLER | STARRING: CHRIS PRATT, ELIZABETH BANKS, WILL ARNETT | RELEASE DATE: JUNE 3RD

It’s been five years since The Lego Movie made its way onto cinema screens surprising and delighting audiences, but has too much time passed between it and The Lego Movie Part 2: The Second One? Is everything still awesome?

Picking up directly at the end of the first movie, we’re back with Emmet (Pratt), Lucy/Wildstyle (Banks), Batman (Arnett), and the rest of the gang as Duplo invaders attack the city of Bricksburgh. Fast forward five years and the city (renamed Apocalypsburgh) is now in ruins; a Lego rendered Mad Max style post-apocalypse. After the Duplo invaders from space kidnap Lucy and the others, Emmet heads off to rescue them.

The Lego Movie was a wonderful surprise. What sounded like a bad idea of peak capitalism turned out to be a hilarious, entertaining, hugely fun, intelligent and actually quite moving animation filled with energy, laughs and heart, shepherded by Lord and Miller, the comic geniuses behind Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street. Out of the directors chairs and just on writing and producing duties, their imagination is still felt, but directorial replacement Mike Mitchell (Shrek Forever After) struggles to capture the same magic. But then it’s lost the element of surprise. Yes, The Lego Movie 2 doesn’t meet the heights of the original, but that doesn’t mean it’s still not fun.

Its joke rate isn’t quite as high but it still packs in more laughs than most comedies, and the visual energy is still vibrant, conjuring great scenes from the assorted Lego pieces. It zips along at a fair pace, with colour, action scenes and set pieces coming thick and fast. And it doesn’t forget the heart. Where the first one explored parental love, this one looks towards siblings, and nicely handles the visual switches between planes of imagination, while leaving us with a good message by the end of all the brick-based silliness.

The Blu-ray disc gets a nice wealth of extras. As well as outtakes and deleted moments, a behind the scenes feature and promotional spots, a Christmas themed short which is barely anything more than promotional material, and biggest of all, an interactive version of the movie featuring sing-along, trivia, games and more. However, the DVD fares much worse, with just a making-of feature to boast of.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part finds it hard to move out of the shadow of its predecessor, but it’s still an enjoyable, imaginative and funny ride. Fun, but you probably won’t be holding out for the next one, especially if it’s another five years.

DEATH WARMED UP (1984)

DEATH WARMED UP (1984) / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: DAVID BLYTH / SCREENPLAY: MICHAEL HEATH / STARRING: MICHAEL HURST, DAVID LETCH, GARY DAY, MARGARET UMBERS, WILLIAM UPJOHN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (AUSTRALIA)

New Zealand isn’t particularly famous for horror films, certainly not before Peter Jackson shocked with Bad Taste (1987), but this curio predates Jackson’s gorefest by a few years but has a similar irreverent attitude.

Dr Howell (Day) has been carrying out genetic experiments but has been refused backing from his boss, Professor Tucker (David Weatherley). So, doing what any crazed scientist would, he injects Tucker’s son, Michael (Hurst) with his treatment and sets him on his way. Arriving home, he walks in on his parents while they’re ‘at it’ and offloads a shotgun at them. Seven years later, Michael is released from the mental institution he was confined – all the while making out he was brainwashed into committing the crime. He’s not wrong, of course, as Howell’s magic formula has a side effect of making recipients homicidal. Once released, Michael sets about getting revenge on the doctor, but has to face some ruffians – led by Letch’s brilliant Spider – along the way.

Clearly made on a low budget, Death Warmed Up is one of those films that has grown its own cult following since the early video days, but its reputation is greater than the execution. Which is not to say it’s not fun. There are some entertaining moments of gore that more than make up for the convoluted and occasionally wacky plot. The cast do wonders, though, with the material and there are some brilliant moments of hysteria and hamming to add to the pleasures.

Extras-wise, Umbrella’s Blu-ray – as well as looking as best as we can expect given the age and elements – are chock-a-block with goodies. The best being the interview with David Letch, who recalls playing the bad lad Spider and how it affected his career.

Despite being nearly forty years old, the film’s aged rather well. There are expressionistic coloured lighting that bathe the glorious NZ locations with an eerie, almost futuristic glow and Go in expecting less and you’ll be deeply rewarded.

DEAD TRIGGER

DEAD TRIGGER / CERT: 15 / DIRECTORS: MIKE CUFF, SCOTT WINDHAUSER / STARRING: DOLPH LUNDGREN, AUTUMN REESER/ RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Based upon the popular video game of the same name Dead Trigger is an action-horror set in a world where a mysterious virus has wiped out large swathes of the human population and turned many of the survivors into ravenous zombies. An ‘elite’ group of soldiers are dispatched to recover a key scientist who may have made a discovery that could help in the fight against the virus.

So…we have another zombie film, and let’s just say from the start that this one is pretty terrible.

In order to combat the spread of the virus, and presumably after having exhausted every other available and realistic option, a video game is developed to source recruits with very specific skills. These recruits are then given to Dolph Lundgren’s scenery chewing captain for a little real-life training, then off to battle they go.

The main problem with Dead Trigger is that it’s just too dull. There are strong thematic similarities with Resident Evil (2002) – there is even a tyrant-like baddie – and pretty much any other zombie action film you can think of, but nothing here is gory, exciting or scary enough to be of interest. Set pieces are strangely awkward and static, character deaths when they come are side-lined with casual disregard and instantly forgettable, and the zombies themselves are more cosplay than credible. The whole film gives the impression of being hastily put together with little budget, care or commitment, and the confused narrative is chock full of inconsistencies.

With so many zombie films around filmmakers really need to find a new angle from which to present their story. We’ve had love stories, comedies and innumerable depressingly bleak versions of a dystopian future, but oftentimes with something original as to make the film or television show just a little bit different. There will always be similarities – there are too many films in the genre for there not to be – and referencing either the accepted classics or the little-known independents is no crime. But simply throwing the first things you can think into the script and running with it is inexcusable.

The only interesting aspect of Dead Trigger is Dolph Lundgren, even with some oddly dyed hair. He at least seems to understand what sort of film he’s making and his performance varies between convincingly heroic and wearily disinterested, as you suspect he feels that what he’s making isn’t what he signed up for.

The simple fact is there are many, many better zombie films out there than Dead Trigger. Uninteresting and unnecessary this is certainly one to avoid.

NOIR ARCHIVE VOLUME 1: 1944-1954

NOIR ARCHIVE VOLUME 1: 1944-1954 / CERT: UNRATED / DIRECTOR: VARIOUS / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING :DANA ANDREWS, RICHARD BASEHART, ROSALIND RUSSELL, AND OTHERS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Classic film noir, the flavour of this nine-film collection from Kit Parker Films, is an odd beast. The films classified under this umbrella were not a conscious collection, there was no movement associated with their directors and stars; they were just films, mostly crime films, but films all the same. The term film noir was coined by a French critic in 1946 but not applied as a stylistic term until the 1970s. Therefore, there is no definitive list of noir classics, but movies by Orson Welles, Nicholas Ray, and John Huston, and films where the main character is a down-at-heel private detective, an ageing boxer, or a femme fatale, are all good examples of the genre.

The nine films featured on this three-disc set run from 1944’s Address Unknown to The Miami Story from a decade later. True to the loose definition of the genre, they feature a variety of protagonists – mob bosses, hitmen, reporters, bookies, widows – and range from period dramas to spy movies and gangster films, taking in the oddity that is The Killer That Stalked New York, whose principle villain is small pox. And, as with any collection that casts its net so widely, it’s a mixed bag.

The pick of the crop is 1949’s The Black Book, which is perhaps better known as Reign of Terror. A story of the French revolution, it is beautifully directed by Anthony Mann, and stars Robert Cummings as a patriotic Frenchman who steals the identity of a prosecutor. The prosecutor was in possession of a black book, full of the names of those to be guillotined, and Robespierre (played with great fun by Robert Basehart) wants it! The snag? The book is missing, and it’s a race to find it before his identity is uncovered…

The following year’s 711 Ocean Drive centred on a small-time gambler, played by Edmond O’Brien. A telephone engineer who owes money to his bookie, he uses his technical skills to help expand the operation, but falls foul of both the police and gangsters muscling in on his turf. Things get even trickier when he falls for the wife of his nemesis, and the scene is set to watch the downfall of an ambitious yet immoral man. Joseph M Newman’s direction is classic noir, all sordid locations and realistic set-ups. As one of the more straightforward noir classics featured here, 711 Ocean Drive holds up as an archetype of the genre.

The earliest film in the set, Address Unknown, uses the Nazi threat to Jewish lives as its base, with the wonderfully underrated Paul Lukas as an art dealer in wartime Germany. In business with a Jewish partner who emigrates to the US, Lukas falls under the spell of the Nazis and his association with evil brings about tragic consequences, leading to a surprising twist at the movie’s climax. At just over seventy minutes long, Address Unknown makes the most of its running time, and the direction by exalted cinematographer William Cameron Menzies is wonderful.

Henry Levin’s 1947 melodrama The Guilt of Janet Ames is a different animal entirely. The titular Ames is a war widow whose husband sacrificed himself to save the lives of five other men. One of the men, a drunken newspaper reporter who is suffering from survivor’s guilt of his own, helps her to see how her husband’s sacrifice affected the lives of those he saved. Tight and psychological, when viewed through modern eyes it’s clear that most of the characters featured in the movie are suffering from PTSD, and it’s an early – if cautious example of WAR NOT ALWAYS GOOD.

Johnny Allegro’s reformed criminal hunting down treasonous counterfeiters, and Assignment Paris’ Communist-encountering reporter, further illustrate the breadth of the scope of the films contained in this set, and that gets thrown even wider by The Miami Story’s semi-documentary warning tones, Escape in the Fog’s pseudo-supernatural elements, and The Killer That Stalked New York’s epidemic-based tragedy. All nine films have something to recommend them – beyond the refreshingly short running times, which range from 65 to 105 minutes – and the performances of Nina Foch, Rosalind Russell, George Raft, Dana Andrews, and Barry Sullivan, brought to life by the direction of Fred F Sears, Robert Parrish, Earl McEvoy, Ted Tetzlaff, and Budd Boetticher, are gripping and engaging.

As you’d expect from a three films per disc set, there are no extras, which lets the movies – transferred almost perfectly in 1080p and with a mono soundtrack – speak for themselves. Unusually in this modern age, this is not a set to be binged but rather sampled sparingly, letting the flavour of each picture settle into the palate, and the moral dilemmas faced by the protagonists ask questions of the viewer. While Noir Archive Volume 1 is by no means definitive, it is a diverse dip into a long-vanished golden age of filmmaking.

DEATH TRENCH

DEATH TRENCH / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: LEO SCHERMAN / SCREENPLAY: MATT BOOI / STARRING: ROSSIF SUTHERLAND, ROBERT STADLOBER. CHARLIE CARRICK / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

War is hell. We already know that. The actions of man in wartime showed us the worst of humanity, and it’s in our darkest moments that a section of the horror genre still tries to add to. But is there anything more that it can bring? Following in the dirty footsteps of films like The Bunker, Deathwatch, and last year’s Overlord is Death Trench (also titled as the much more forgettable Trench 11), one of the latest to mine scares from the worst place of all.

With the end of the First World War in sight, British military intelligence discover a German outpost that stretches miles underground. Fearing the worst of Nazi experimentation, they’re given the go ahead to take a team to explore. Accompanied by a small group of American soldiers, they only need one more person – an experienced tunneller. That’s Lt. Berton (Rossif Sutherland), a Canadian soldier in love with a French civilian and recovering from having been trapped for days following a tunnel collapse.

Death Trench makes the most of what it’s got at its disposal, forming an entertaining if fairly unoriginal movie that never outstays its welcome. Snow-covered exterior locations give you some aesthetically pleasing breathing room before securing the majority of the action in tight underground corridors. The plot throws up your standard Nazi medical meddling, with the threat of an out of control parasitic outbreak warranting the sacrifice of lives for the greater good. Tight and poorly-lit corridors make for some claustrophobic zombie attacks, and you genuinely want to learn what’s been going on behind the sealed-off bunker doors. It’s maybe not as interesting or horrific an infection or monster as you might hope for, especially as the fairly effective build-up sees witnesses doing anything not to go back into the sealed-off site, but strong effects render the squirming horror with enough visceral movement to wish it doesn’t happen to you.

For the most part the characters are standard worm fodder, and you’ll struggle to remember any names, but Reiner (played with wide eyed relish by Robert Stadlober) makes for an enjoyable and hissable villain, and the relationship of Kapitan Müller (Shaun Benson) and Lt. Berton, two good men stuck on the other side of the battle lines looking to make things right, makes you hope for the best from both of them.

Death Trench isn’t going to keep you up at night, but it’s compelling and entertaining while able to do enough with its small budget. An enjoyable performance from Robert Stadlober and some bloody and squirmy effects keep things interesting.

THE HEAD HUNTER

THE HEAD HUNTER / CERT: UNRATED / DIRECTOR: JORDAN DOWNEY / SCREENPLAY: KEVIN STEWART, JORDAN DOWNEY / STARRING: CHRISTOPHER RYGH ,CORA KAUFMAN / RELEASE DATE: 7TH MAY

Shouldering a heavy burden, a warrior lives an isolated existence in a stone cottage. Tasked with ridding the land of all manner of monsters in the service of a local lord, the titular head hunter fulfils his macabre calling desperate to avenge the death of his young daughter at the hands of the one creature that so far eludes him.

Jordan Downey’s film about a medieval mercenary is a layered, mysterious and atmospheric epic-like horror embedded with genre references while retaining originality at its centre. Christopher Rygh is impressive in what is essentially a single-hander, and conveys the weight of emotion troubling the character with barely more than a few lines of dialogue throughout. No small feat when you consider that for the most part he is wearing heavy armour and a helmet over scraggly long hair and beard. The body language tells you all you need to know as this one-man exterminator carries out his duty upon receiving arrow-borne orders from his master.

That duty initially appears a straightforward one, with any encroachment into the kingdom by monsters to be dealt with. That he adorns his home with the heads of those he has defeated is a dark choice in décor, but when you realise he seeks the one to cleanse his apparent guilt it becomes more of a terrible trophy wall. Often wounded for the cause, the warrior brews a strange, miraculous concoction to treat his injuries, adding a slight sci-fi element to the narrative, and regular visits to his daughter’s grave hint at a once happier life.

But there is clearly more going on in The Head Hunter, evident as the plot progresses. Questions emerge over who the real monster is. What really happened to the daughter and what makes up the strange balm blended for treating wounds? There is intrigue in the wider world, and how the warrior’s isolation come about. All questions that remain largely unanswered, but instead of frustrating the viewer this all adds depth to the film, drawing you into this world of Downey’s creation.

There are flaws – some creature effects don’t quite work, and the final act perhaps doesn’t quite satisfactorily live up to what has gone before – but they don’t detract from the strength of the film as a whole. Downey has built a film that belies its lowly budget and hands-on style of filmmaking. What should have resulted in something akin to a film student’s rough attempt is instead a work of impressive skill. Deft camerawork, creative set design and a strong central performance render The Head Hunter a success, and one built on talent and commitment.

BUMBLEBEE – 4K

It seems like only yesterday that so many of us ‘80s and ‘90s kids were getting hugely excited at the prospect of Michael Bay bringing the beloved Robots-in-Disguise to big-screen life. Only for Michael Bay to go full Michael Bay and centre the franchise on excessive explosions, monotonous paint-by-numbers plots, dire dialogue, soulless CGI battles, Transformers that were near-impossible to tell apart, and shot after shot of Megan Fox’s backside. After five movies that varied from passable to utter horseshit, it’s now down to the ‘80s-set Bumblebee to try and get this disappointing franchise moving in the right direction.

Straight from the off, Bumblebee will have long-time Transformers fans on side for the sheer fact that the opening sequence takes place on a war-torn Cybertron that houses a fight between Autobots and Decepticons that, y’know, actually look like the Autobots and Decepticons that we know and love. With the odds leaning in favour of the bad guys, Optimus Prime gives the order for B-127 – that’d be Bumblebee – to head to Earth and lay the foundations for a base of operations where the Autobots can assess their situation. Unfortunately for Bumblebee, he’s soon stranded on Earth with no voice and no memory but with a new BFF in tow. That BFF is troubled teen Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), who nabs herself what she believes to be a regular Volkswagen Beetle. Little does she know the adventure that she’s about to become entangled in, as Decepticons loom large and the military is out to take down what they deem an alien threat.

In Bumblebee, those who grew up with the animated offerings of the 1980s have the Transformers movie that they’ve been longing for. Full of fun, feelings and fist-pumping adrenaline, this is a film that even the most hardened, miserable soul will find hard not to enjoy. Simply put, Bumblebee is a thrill-ride, an emotional roller-coaster, and a timely reminder that a film doesn’t have to be po-faced and chin-stroke-inducing to be a great movie. And trust us, Bumblebee is an utterly great popcorn picture that will appeal to a whole host of generations. That’s not to say it’s all-out action here, for part of the charm of Bumblebee is that it serves as a scaled-back character piece of sorts. The minimal amount of Transformers featured and the laser-pointed focus on so few characters works magically as the film conjures up a movie that is a complete joy. Many might lambast the film for wearing its plentiful influences so loud and proud, but the end result is a film that evokes memories of times when we were all a little less cynical, of times when hope was in the air, and of times when Bon Jovi, The Smiths and Simple Minds were running wild.

Where the performances on display are concerned, Hailee Steinfeld is an absolute delight as the anchor of the film. As the troubled teen who finds some solace in the unlikeliest of places – an alien robot who can transform into a car – Steinfeld nails a varied bag of emotions, and her performance here again highlights her out as somebody to seriously keep your eye on. Alongside her as Charlie’s burgeoning love interest, Jason Drucker brings a brilliant level of teenage awkwardness and heartfelt humour, while John Cena as the military man on their tail gets some fantastic one-liners that are ideal for the ‘80s landscape of Bumblebee. And, of course, Peter Cullen’s dulcet tones are always guaranteed to put a smile on audiences’ faces as Optimus Prime, not to mention some good work from Dylan O’Brien as the minimally-used voice of the titular ‘Bee.

For the 4K release of Bumblebee, the film gets given an even bigger wow factor, not least in the sharpness and detail on display in the movie’s stunning Cybertron-set opening. Simply put, this is the sort of film that the 4K format was made for; the vibrant and sunny Earth action popping from the screen, while the battle sequences are crisper and cleaner than anything seen in the Transformers franchise to date.

It may have taken a while to get here, but finally – finally! – fans have the Transformers movie that they deserve.

Special Features: The Story of Bumblebee / The Stars Align / Bumblebee Goes Back to G1

BUMBLEBEE – 4K / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: TRAVIS KNIGHT / SCREENPLAY: CHRISTINA HODSON / STARRING: HAILEE STEINFELD, JORGE LENDEBORG JR., JOHN CENA, JASON DRUCKER, DYLAN O’BRIEN, PETER CULLEN / RELEASE DATE: MAY 13TH

PROSPECT

The plot for writer/directors Christopher Caldwell and Zeek Earl’s sci-fi actioner is pretty basic: “A teenage girl and her father travel to a remote alien moon, aiming to strike it rich. Forced to contend not only with the forest’s other ruthless inhabitants but with her own father’s judgment, the girl must carve her own path to escape.” However, the film ends up seeming like a glimpse into a Wild West in outer space, with a sense of lived-in realism. It’s due just as much to stars Pedro Pascal as Ezra and Sophie Thatcher as Cee, whose performances ground Prospect, as it is to the whip-smart script from Caldwell and Earl and their astonishingly convincing crew of set designers.

The lead performances from Pascal and Thatcher are impressive. Pascal’s work in Game of Thrones and Narcos has brought him to wide attention, but Prospect is Thatcher’s first-ever feature film. She knocks it out of the park by making her character, Cee, simultaneously youthful and yet wordly beyond her years. While the story doesn’t offer much which hasn’t been explored in various claim-jumping Westerns over the decades, the ornate, near-Shakespearean dialogue from the mouth of Pascal’s Ezra offers up something other than the usual techno-babble dialogue so beloved of interstellar features.

As the plot progresses, and Cee attempts to find her way off the planet on which she is possibly stranded, the tension ratchets up considerably, and there are – as in every good Wild West scenario – some intense shoot-outs and confrontations. The supporting characters are all very good, as well, with an exceptionally-focused turn by Andre Royo as the head of a clan looking to expand its numbers. In a low-budget film like this, the performances are so integral to keeping the viewer in the picture, and just one flat reading can remove them entirely, so it’s wonderful to see even the most superfluous of characters portrayed with realism and nuance.

The otherworldly aspect of the film is very important, it being sci-fi and all, but the ability of the designers to create a practical, lived-in world makes Prospect a film to which the viewer can connect because, like Alien, it’s a world which feels used. Things look used, but not cheap, and thanks to the on-location shooting in Washington State’s Hoh Rainforest, the film looks like it takes place in another world entirely, not just over 100 miles from Seattle. It’s a fantastical experience, getting lost in Prospect‘s world.

HOWARD THE DUCK (1986)

HOWARD THE DUCK (1986) / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: WILLARD HUYCK / SCREENPLAY: WILLARD HUYCK, GLORIA KATZ / STARRING: LEA THOMPSON, JEFFREY JONES, TIM ROBBINS, ED GALE, CHIP ZIEN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Always leading the pack and never following the herd, STARBURST was one of the few film publications to give George Lucas’s maligned production of Howard the Duck (bafflingly titled Howard: A New Breed of Hero in the UK) the time of day back in 1986. Way back in issue 100, cocking a snook at the popular opinion that this was actually Howard the Turkey, we came to the conclusion that film was actually “more than a pleasant surprise.” Some things haven’t changed. Nearly 33 years later, now on a gleaming new Blu-ray packed with special features, Howard the Duck is still great fun, if of course, utterly quackers; stick that in your bill and smoke it.

Howard, a talking duck abducted from his home world and stranded on Earth, first appeared in the world of Marvel comics in December 1973, the acerbic and hugely satirical creation of writer Steve Gerber, eventually gravitating towards his own fairly short-lived title in 1976. The comic folded in 1979, but the character continued to weave his way around the Marvel Universe and eventually onto the big screen is this barking mad, tonally peculiar comic book-inspired romp that is, to say the least, a very odd place for Marvel Comics to make their first faltering steps into the world of full-length feature films. The film was a box office disaster, pulled apart by critics and dismissed by fans who bemoaned the stripping away of the wise-cracking edginess of the comic strip iteration of the character. Co-writer Katz saw the character in much more simplistic terms so the film depicts the exploits of a duck called Howard, catapulted across time and space from his own planet and dumped unceremoniously into 1980s Cleveland. Here he meets up with struggling rock singer Beverly Switzler (an often scantily-clad Lea Thompson) and bumbly Phil Blumburtt (Robbins),a janitor with aspirations towards being a scientist, with whom may lie the only hope of Howard returning to Duckworld. The first attempt to get Howard home results in an evil creature known as ‘the Dark Overlord’ travelling to Earth and possessing the body of Dr Walter Jenning (Jones). Howard and his new friends are thrown into battle with the Dark Overlord with the final confrontation leading to poor Howard finding himself stuck on Earth forever… but securing himself the job as the manager of Beverly’s band as, presumably, they go on to become the next big thing.

Time has been surprisingly kind to Howard the Duck, a film whose structure now mirrors all those superhero films from DC and the MCU that, for better or for worse, often follow the basic cookie cutter template of establishing the hero and his new friends, setting up a formidable enemy and then a big CGI-fest finale (and the FX here, physical and computer-generated, are still pretty impressive). Our hero, of course, is a walking, talking, wise-ass duck, who enjoys an entirely inappropriate and potentially disturbing relationship with Beverly (the cause of much of the brickbats the films received back in 1986), which left its audience (what there was of it) slack-jawed. He finds life in 1980s America rather difficult to come to terms with. Howard himself isn’t, of course hugely convincing; this is a child in a duck-suit most of the time and fans of the comic will have been appalled at the softening of the caustic comic strip character. Yet the film is bursting with brio and its tongue is never really far from its cheek. Possessed of an extraordinary, colourful charm, Howard the Duck is probably likely to find favour in 2019 with an audience who didn’t see it in 1986 and if you can sidestep the mullets, the aching 1980s visuals and the thudding synth score (the end theme is a real earworm) you’re sure to find that Howard the Duck, if not exactly a milestone comic strip movie, really isn’t as bad as history has painted it and is, in its own way, rather delightful.