Review Category: Movie

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER

Let’s get right to it: Thor: Love and Thunder is outstanding. More than anything else, it’s a gorgeous, offbeat, and intensely comedic follow-up that feels like an escalation of everything that made Ragnarok such a hit. It works, too! Where Ragnarok felt emotionally hollow and restrained with its humour, Love and Thunder is more fun, more sincere, and less interested in how anyone feels about how bonkers it is. And good GODS this movie is wild.

Ragnarok had more to prove. Taika Waititi’s first foray into the MCU needed to overcome two movies’ worth of weak writing, underwhelming villains, and rampant self-seriousness. And as a tonal pivot from stodgy action flick to lively superhero comedy, it did just that – with aplomb. Love and Thunder doesn’t have that burden. It can frolic unfettered, and frolic it does.

The plot is whatever: Thor (Chris Hemsworth) hitched a ride with the Guardians of the Galaxy after Avengers: Endgame and has been wandering the galaxy since. Meanwhile, his ex-squeeze, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), is back in the game – this time wielding Mjolnir. Together with Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), the ex-lovers team up to fight the aptly named Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) before he… yeah, that’s all we’ll say.

But the story itself isn’t what stands out. It’s Waititi’s writing and direction. One of his gifts as a storyteller is his ability to reshape established characters into caricatures that align with his comedic tastes. With Thor, this was necessary. Gone is the God of Smashing Coffee Mugs at Diners. Banished is the exhausting machismo of the self-proclaimed Strongest Avenger. Here, we see a God of Thunder who’s lost, insecure, and vulnerable. He still doesn’t have dimension, but he is given more relatable things to do and feel.

“Brevity is the soul of wit” is not a rule Waititi is particularly interested in following. There’s nothing elegant, profound, or even overtly smart about Love and Thunder. At least not in the spaces most would look. But Waititi makes small creative choices that reflect his emotional intelligence. A simple but subtle example: Thor’s interactions with Stormbreaker are hilarious redirects from what could have been a toxic reaction to Jane wielding Mjolnir. But Waititi knows better and instead frames this dynamic as fertile comedic soil from which bizarre new jokes and ideas can spring.

Portman and Bale are the standouts, the latter flirting with twisted silliness before embracing a much scarier performance. Portman commands the screen in such a way that rightfully sidelines Hemsworth’s floundering Avenger. This is, by nearly every account, her movie. She’s a better conduit for the film’s themes than Hemsworth, partly because the script maintains that Thor is a quippy, well-meaning man-child.

But as strange as it so often is, Thor: Love and Thunder isn’t interested in your forgiveness or your permission. Waititi took Ragnarok‘s runaway success as a greenlight for him to go bigger, funnier, and weirder, resulting in a movie that’s more ‘trademark Taika’ than just about anything he’s put out so far!

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER is released in cinemas on July 8th

BOB’S BURGERS: THE MOVIE

When you think of long-running TV shows, there are few less cinematic than Bob’s Burgers. The show is aggressively domestic in its scope. That’s kind of the point. This is a mundane family doing mundane things – but it’s funny and charming and they love each other very much so it’s feel-good as well.

And yet here we are: Bob’s Burgers has been given the movie treatment. And what’s even weirder is that it works really well. There’s admittedly very little to differentiate this from an extended episode of the series. Even the quality of the animation is, superficially speaking, almost identical to the show (but it has to be said that the actual movements of the characters are astonishing. They absolutely leap off the screen – especially whenever we get into a song and dance number).

Surprisingly, for such a musical show, there are very few songs actually in the film. Just about enough to qualify as a musical, but it’s definitely on the cusp of being part of that genre and just being a movie with some songs in it. Other than that, the only real difference between this and what you get on television is the pacing. As a movie, this isn’t forced to whip through a three-act structure in 22 minutes, hitting a gag every 60 seconds along the way. Here, we’re allowed the chance to let story beats breathe and it’s something that particularly comes into its own in an especially emotional sequence towards the end, reminiscent of that scene from Toy Story 3 in the incinerator.

Bob’s Burgers: The Movie is a triumph in that it’s just about the best movie fans of the show could have hoped for without completely betraying what the show is to begin with. It’s a deeper, richer episode of the series and, you know what? That’s great.

Bob’s Burgers: The Movie is currently in cinemas and lands on Disney+ on July 12th.

BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD DO THE UNIVERSE

Fans of Beavis and Butt-Head have been waiting 26 years for a follow-up to 1996’s (excellent) Beavis and Butt-Head Do America. Given that the film expanded five-minute plotlines into feature-length, it was frankly far better than it had any real right to be. Now, we’re going back to the well for the first time since Beavis and Butt-Head was revived for an eighth season in 2011. Despite arguably being the best season of the entire show, Season 8 was a commercial failure due to the changing landscape of MTV. But the world has changed a lot in the last 11 years and, in this new era of streaming, Beavis and Butt-Head fit right in. Well, except for the fact that so much time has passed since we last saw them.

Do the Universe is an odd movie in that it bends over backwards to explain this. Opening in the ’90s, the plot is a time-travel story where a black hole transports Beavis and Butt-Head to the modern day – the film is largely here to set up a forthcoming revival of the TV series and Mike Judge felt the need to explain how they haven’t aged yet despite the show’s last revival being set in 2011 without explanation.

Beyond that, though, that means that this is a full-blown science fiction movie. And it goes beyond time travel; the film could just as easily have been called Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Multiverse given that two prominent characters are two versions of Beavis and Butt-Head we encounter from an alternate reality containing the smartest Beavis and the smartest Butt-Head from every universe in existence.

It should be jarring that Beavis and Butt-Head, a cartoon that, like all of Mike Judge’s work, is pretty firmly set within reality – and a mundane reality at that – is now competing in the same landscape as this year’s Marvel movies but, somehow, it works beautifully. Typically, a 20+ year wait for a sequel doesn’t tend to yield good results – especially when the original movie was such a product of its era. But Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe is a completely worthy follow-up to Do America and, frankly, a frontrunner for the title of funniest movie of 2022.

If there’s one complaint, it’s that the lavish, hand-drawn animation of the first film that wonderfully built upon the crude drawings of the TV series is no more. Rendered by animation studio Titmouse, everything is digital here. It’s a good job of recreation the show’s look with modern techniques, but it lacks much of the warmth and charm that came with the first film.

Still, make no mistakes; with this being a Paramount+ project, you’d be forgiven for expecting a glorified, extended episode of a cartoon (akin to the 14 South Park TV movies we’re currently being given). This is a real movie and it’s frankly a real shame that we weren’t given the option to see it in cinemas – especially when we could have double-billed it with The Bob’s Burgers Movie which is currently playing.

Beavis and Butt-Head do the Universe is currently streaming on Paramount+ in the US and will be available in the UK in July.

POMPO: THE CINÉPHILE

Based in the fictional version of Hollywood known as Nyallywood; Gene Fini, a young aspiring filmmaker who has dedicated his life to movies works as an assistant to B-Movie producer Joelle D. Pomponette (affectionately known as “Pompo”), a girl who inherited an empire in the world of film. When Pompo writes a script and gives Gene his first director role – coupled with working with two leads, one a legendary actor named Martin Braddock and the other, a newbie called Natalie Woodward, Gene realises his ultimate dream along with all the trials and tribulations that filmmakers must overcome during production in Pompo: The Cinéphile.

Adapted from an ongoing manga of the same name, this film is truly something that film fans and filmmakers alike can enjoy and relate to. Gene is a shy, isolated individual that feels his most powerful when surrounded by the creative output of the world of film, Pompo herself wants to discover a film that is truly for her and young Natalie is struggling to find her feet in the land of the silver screen. No matter what angle you see films from, there is something for everyone to enjoy. The story itself, albeit with a fair few cliches and nods to social commentary on the state of the film industry including wilting attention spans from viewers, has a lot of heart and instils a lot of hope for those watching that may be grappling with the future and dreams. One note that Pompo brings to the forefront is that people don’t like long films anymore and anything over 90-minutes will lose people – quite apt that this particular love letter to filmmaking comes in at just over that exact runtime with credits.

The animation is particularly beautiful, boasting stunning transitions between times and scenes and the passage of portrayal between the scenes of the in-universe film and the narrative are very pleasing to the eye. This all integrated with a subtle yet pleasant score make Pompo: The Cinéphile a truly entertaining yet rose-tinted look into the world of filmmaking.

Although there are cliches aplenty scattered throughout the lean 90-ish-minute runtime, Pompo: The Cinéphile is the latest anime film that holds a strong message of believing in your dreams no matter the sacrifices that you may have to make along the way.

Pompo: The Cinéphile is released in UK Cinemas on the 29th June 2022.

THE BLACK PHONE

Set in the 1970s (how else were they going to work a landline into the story), this supernatural horror film follows the fight for survival of young Finney (Mason Thames). Kidnapped by serial child-murderer ‘The Grabber’ (a supremely creepy Ethan Hawke), Finney is locked in the killer’s basement, with only a phone full of ghosts for company. Can the Grabber’s previous victims guide Finney to freedom before he too disappears for good?

Sinister and Doctor Strange writer-director team Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill return with this adaptation of Joe Hill’s short story. Eschewing the glossy ‘80s nostalgia of Stranger Things, Derrickson and Cargill present a grim, miserable ‘70s suburbia of abusive parents and unchecked kiddy-grabbers. Hill has worked hard as an author to avoid stepping on his famous father’s coattails, but it’s hard to ignore the parallels – children with supernatural abilities, a violently abusive, alcoholic dad, and a serial killer who preys solely on little boys. Even harder to ignore are the kidnapper’s balloons and the presence of James Ransone (It Chapter 2’s grown-up Eddie Kaspbrak), bolstering the unintentional King vibes. Clearly, this was something Derrickson and Cargill were conscious of – changing a line from the Grabber describing himself as “a part time clown” (as it was in Hill’s story), to “magician” instead.

If only most Stephen King adaptations were as good as The Black Phone is to Joe Hill, though. In addition to its compelling monster (Hawke gets less to do than one might have expected, but makes every second count), there’s Jeremy Davies as the alcoholic dad, and Ransone, channelling Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, for some reason.

Up against Hawke and Davies, the child actor-ing is jarring at first, but quickly settles into its rhythm. Thames and Madeleine McGraw are particularly impressive as the brother and sister, tapping into an emotional throughline that could easily have been missed. While Thames gets to face off against a positively demonic Ethan Hawke (hidden behind a series of Willem Dafoe Green Goblin masks), McGraw gets the best lines (delivered with fierce comic timing), holding her own against incompetent cops and Jeremy Davies’ mumbling alcoholic dad.

Ghosts on the phone or no, there are only so many variations upon the kidnapper/kidnappee dynamic, and there will be few surprises in store for the jaded horror fan. Wearing thin after the first couple of failed escape attempts, the film’s endgame is an obvious one, and neither the red herrings nor the jump scares are particularly surprising.

Still, these quibbles are forgotten by the finale, in which each of its intricately dangled threads are pulled taut. For all its atmosphere and scares, The Black Phone is a sweet and tender coming-of-age story, cunningly disguised as something far more sinister.

The Black Phone is in cinemas now.

LIGHTYEAR

CERT: PG / PLATFORMS: CINEMA / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Since taking Woody’s spot on Andy’s bed, Buzz Lightyear has become ingrained into the animated fabric of pop culture. Across the Toy Story series, so many of us have grown up watching his adventures alongside his pals but not since the straight-to-video film and following TV show Buzz Lightyear of Star Command have we ever seen any inkling the character that the toy was based on. Until now. As Pixar state in the opening of this film, In 1995 Andy got a toy based on his new favourite movie…this is that movie.

Much has been discussed about this film ahead of time. There has been controversy (let’s avoid that particular ridiculous debate shall we?), rebellion against the decision to not have Tim Allen voice this Buzz and all round confusion as to what Lightyear actually is (a confusion the film clears up in literally seconds) and whether it has any impact on, well, anything that we have already seen (it doesn’t really).

Yet, there was real potential here for a good old-fashioned spectacular sci-fi adventure, as space ranger Buzz Lightyear (Chris Evans) embarks on a mission in uncharted space, resulting in disaster, and leading to Buzz attempting to do the impossible and get his stranded team/crew home. But hyperspace travel has its complications, and when Buzz returns to base after a – for once – successful test mission, he finds the planet in threat from the robotic armies of someone called Zurg.

Lightyear is an interesting movie for us to review because this writer came out of it in two fiercely divided halves. The little boy, who had always dreamed of seeing the real Buzz Lightyear and Evil Emperor Zurg do battle on the big screen was utterly devastated, and yet Pixar have still managed (as is their impeccably high standard) to make an often entertaining and visually stunning sci-fi action adventure. In spite of featuring one of the worst character/plot twists since Hancock.

Allen’s vocal absence is felt (how could it not be?) but Evans does a great job as Buzz, and it makes perfect sense to have a different voice for this take. In fact, the early Interstellar-esque plot yields some exciting moments all round, grabbing elements from classic ‘stranded on a strange planet’ sci-fi, with elements of Alien-like hostile environment beats. As well, as harnessing some poignant notes from its themes of time and consequence, especially in Buzz’s beautiful friendship with the character Hawthorne, which results in an early moment of tear-jerking power.

As the film transitions into its second act, it becomes more of an ensemble caper with a hyperactive jolt of throwback serial sci-fi too, as Buzz and a ragtag team (voiced by the likes of Taika Waititi and Keke Palmer) of equally likeable heroes and anti-heroes seek to get a container of pioneering hyperspace fuel to Buzz’s colony and escape the robotic armies of the menacing Zurg. Plus, Buzz’s robotic emotional support cat Sox (Peter Sohn) is a showstealer, a funny and constantly memorable presence, who is always a joy and even when the comedy hits and misses, Sox is nearly always a hit. So, with all that going right, you might be wondering what on earth (or rather off earth) went wrong?

Well, where the film falls dispiritingly flat is in finally setting the table for its promised third act climax because a hugely problematic and messy finale destroys much of the earlier work. Complete with a ridiculous twist that thinks itself far cleverer than it actually is and is as unsatisfying a creative decision as we can remember in recent cinema, Lightyear nosedives. Overthinking what ought to have been a very simple decision, this plot twist is not only morally tied up in knots in relation to Buzz’s character (going the cold route of Ralph Breaks The Internet) but it is under-thought, superficial and completely disappointing and unnecessary, taking a fun gag in Toy Story 2 and trying to take it deadly seriously.

Simply put, this film has a major villain problem, and its reveal strips a potentially imposing and truly nasty villain in Zurg (voiced very well by James Brolin) of everything that could have made him. It is a decision that feels out of place and immediately destroys any chance of this being a franchise, as it robs the Buzz’s answer to Darth Vader of all his mystique and again is an example of Disney oddly doing all they can to not have real villains anymore in their films…just misguided people or concepts operating as a baddie. Which jars with some of the silver age thrills the film is otherwise trying to aim for.

In better news, The visuals are astonishing, as is Michael Giacchino’s rousing score, but the conclusion does not reward the journey and the entire plot does not hang together. There is not that same magic, spark and wonder that Pixar can always relied upon to offer, and despite the undeniable entertainment Lightyear does have, this film never reaches the stars and completes its mission fully, despite having all the ability and assets to do so. And that is unbelievably frustrating. Still, some kids will likely have a ball, so that is kind of the point. But Zurg fans stay away, and make do with the memories of that opening sequence in Toy Story 2.

Somehow Lightyear is both undeniably fun and equally undeniably disappointing all at once, and the animation studios’ least stellar work since Cars 2.

9 BULLETS

When local gangsters bump off her neighbours, retiring burlesque dancer Gypsy (Lena Headey) rather inexplicably sets off cross country to deliver the only survivor, a young boy called Sam (Dean Scott Vasquez), into his uncle’s reluctant care. Part road movie, part redemption story, 9 Bullets never quite decides on what type of film it wants to be.

Much of the problem relates to the confused tone. Sole writing credits are attributed to director Gigi Gaston, and yet the script feels collaborative, like several different ideas and themes are simultaneously struggling for prominence. There are elements of an erotic thriller: nipple tassels make an uncomfortable early appearance before an ill-judged, somewhat seedy sex scene. An attempt at light humour involving the theft of an already stolen car misses the mark, and the emotional weight of bearing witness to your entire family being bloodily murdered is quickly forgotten.

Throughout Headey works hard to instil some essence of credibility – any and all of 9 Bullets’ positives can be attributed to her – but her attempts are repeatedly undermined by an incoherent narrative delivered through a cliché-ridden supporting cast; Sam Worthington’s cowboy gangster boss is woefully underwritten.

Headey deserves better. Gypsy is little more than a pale representation of superficially strong and intelligent female characters – retiring from the exotic dancing world she is writing the story of her life – defined more by their circumstances rather than being given any depth of character themselves.

You get the sense of a missed opportunity as Headey tries her best to smoulder and smirk à la Cersei Lannister, but her efforts become lost in this derivative and dull thriller.

9 Bullets is out now on DVD and digital.

MAD GOD

As far as creative endeavours go, Mad God has been a long one. This stop-motion animation (itself already a time-consuming filmmaking process) has taken 30 years to reach the screen, started back when its multi-hyphenate creator, Phil Tippett, was working on Robocop 2 and eventually reached completion due to Kickstarter funding – and we’re glad it did.

Mad God is short on plot but very strong on imagery and mood. The general story concerns an assassin sent into a ruined hellscape with just a quickly disintegrating map and a bomb in a suitcase. From there, he travels through rotting, destroyed, and cursed places where suffering seems to be the only constant. There’s some wonderful creature design and creativity on display in this film, taking us through a world (possibly our own, long destroyed) filled with creatures of big gnashing teeth, bulbous protrusions, and fleshy bodies. Not all of it works, the sections with human actors feel out of place in such a well-realised stop-motion world, and its endless suffering won’t be to all tastes, but many will enjoy being swamped in this reality that sits somewhere amongst Clive Barker stories, Nine Inch Nails ‘90s music videos, and Jan Švankmajer’s adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.

Ultimately, what’s most enjoyable about Mad God is we get to see an uncompromised creative vision. It may have taken 30 years to appear, but the creative mind of Phil Tippet, no matter how dark it seems, is an interesting place to be.

Mad God is available on Shudder from June 16th.

JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION

The real problem with Jurassic World Dominion isn’t that it’s a terrible film – it actually isn’t – but that it’s not the film that we were expecting. It’s not the film that the ending of 2018’s divisive Fallen Kingdom seemed to promise us. The conclusion of J A Bayona’s fudged attempt to blend typical Jurassic thrills with something a bit more Gothic and creepy teases a scenario in which dinosaurs spread across the world unchecked setting up a sequel in which Man battles Monster in the ultimate tussle for – wait for it, dominion – over the Earth. Instead, returning director (and co-writer) Colin Trevorrow delivers an overlong film that pushes the dinos onto the backburner for the most part and focuses on an Evil Corporation Run By An Evil Billionaire (it’s subtly called BioSyn) that has developed a new breed of giant super locust by introducing dinosaur DNA into their genes. Luckily former chaos theorist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldbum) is working for BioSyn and, suspicious of the organisation’s locust-related activities, invites Dr Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) to help investigate their dastardly doings. Even more tediously, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) are simultaneously trying to protect dinosaurs from illegal breeding organisations and covertly looking after Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), the unlikely cloned daughter of Jurassic Park creator John Hammond’s previously-unmentioned business partner introduced in the previous film. When Maisie is kidnapped by BioSyn goons, Owen and Claire set off to rescue her even as Alan and Ellie work to collect a sample of locust DNA from Biosyn’s secret (and oddly unguarded) laboratories.

Jurassic World Dominion is fatally overstuffed with plots, subplots, characters, characters with no character and some random bits of action nonsense that we’ve seen time and again. The film is derivative not only of the entire six-film franchise – some scenes are just rehashes of “classics” from the past including virtually the entire final act – but at one point it goes full James Bond/Mission Impossible in a frankly rather silly extended action scene set in Malta. Some lazy beats are repeated again and again – characters saved from certain death by the sudden intervention of someone else who pulls them/lifts them/drag them out of harm’s way, dinosaurs that just turn and walk or fly away from human prey hiding virtually in plain sight. Traditional plot structure is thrown out of the window as the film stumbles drunkenly between storylines, none of which are really of any great interest (the first forty minutes are murderously tedious) and, with Chris Pratt clearly just working his way through his contract and Bruce Dallas Howard still struggling with an underwritten character, the film really only earns its spurs when the legacy trio of Grant, Stattler, and Malcolm are on screen, even if the latter now exists purely as an exaggerated comic relief version of the urbane theorist we met back in 1993.

But it’s not all bad news. When the dinosaurs do show up they’re good value, stunningly animated, and full of primal power even if no one really seems in any danger from them apart from one poor sod in the Malta sequence who gets swallowed by a T-rex. It’s a slick, well-made but soulless concoction that never really engages its audience with its meandering storylines but it does at least offer a fairly neat wrap-up to the entire series, even if it leaves enough room for a return trip to the well when the inevitable box office profits have been totted up. But Jurassic World Dominion reeks of a series that has run out of steam and has nothing left but the fumes of its past triumphs to keep it on the road. Sadly it seems that it’s time for this particular franchise to go extinct.

Jurassic World Dominion is in cinemas now

MEN

Men. Men, men, men. Manly men. Men. Such are the boogey, uh, men of Alex Garland’s Men; a collection of passive-aggressive, aggressive-aggressive, violently aggressive, supernaturally aggressive and otherwise toxic dudes, encroaching on one woman’s much-needed holiday. After the death of her abusive husband, Harper (Jessie Buckley) retreats to a grand country house to recover, owned by ruddy-faced Geoffrey (Rory Kinnear). What begins as an idyllic country vacation becomes a nightmare fight for survival as the village’s male residents take notice, descending upon her space. Men ensue.

There’s the condescending landlord; the sneering vicar; the rude child; the dismissive copper; the horrifying nudist and more; just a few of the many men played by Rory Kinnear (not all men – the abusive ex is played by Paapa Essiedu, the optics of which isn’t great). There’s an escalating sense of aggression to the menfolk’s transgressions – snide remarks by Geoffrey; a wandering hand from the vicar; being called a “bitch” by the creepy village kid. Then there’s the nudist stalking her through the woods, the sneering police officer, and the traumatic memories of a fateful fight with her ex.

Buckley weathers this gruelling assault like a champ, holding her own against each of Kinnear’s eight performances. As a one-man League of not-very-gentle Men, Kinnear does tremendously, without hogging the limelight or detracting from Harper’s story. It’s a smart gimmick, and much of the film’s fun is in trying to predict in which guise Kinnear will show up next – even if they are all in the trailer. Sadly, once the film runs out of its trailer moments, it becomes something of a clumsy mess, stumbling over itself to get to its blunt, heavy-handed message.

There’s no arguing the power of Garland’s images. Cinematographer (and frequent Garland collaborator) Rob Hardy evokes their Annihilation with his lush green forest, while drenching flashbacks in an uneasy orange hue. Together, Hardy and Garland do one of the worst things you’ve ever seen a human hand do – delivering intense gore and Cronenbergian / John Carpenter body horror amidst the religious and pagan symbolism.

All of which is in service of precisely the sort of message you thought Men might be packing. For all it does well, it’s a shallow experience, with very little to say, other than the obvious. Men are horrible and toxic masculinity begets toxic masculinity, who knew?