Martin Scorsese happily admits that he borrows from the best, and that many of his most iconic scenes are inspired by other directors’ films. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. But of course, Scorsese is smart enough to take inspiration from things that were already pretty good. That one character in Beast wears a Jurassic […]
Martin Scorsese happily admits that he borrows from the best, and that many of his most iconic scenes are inspired by other directors’ films. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. But of course, Scorsese is smart enough to take inspiration from things that were already pretty good. That one character in Beast wears a Jurassic Park t-shirt early in the movie implies that the filmmakers readily admit they’re riffing on Spielberg – and that, like Scorsese, they’re proud of where they’ve drawn their inspiration.
Yet the scriptwriters – Ryan Eagle and Jane Sullivan – can hardly lay claim to writing something worthy of Spielbergian comparison. Instead, they seem to have drawn their inspiration from Jaws: The Revenge, switching the vengeance-driven shark for a vengeance-driven lion. And it’s every bit as silly as that sounds.
Dr Nate Samuels (played by Idris Elba) is the widowed father of two teenage girls who’s keen on the idea of taking his daughters back to their African roots, so they head to a South African nature reserve to see old family friend, Martin (Sharlto Copley). Within a day, however, the family holiday goes terribly wrong. A string of dead bodies accompanied by lion tracks tells Martin that not only is a man-eating lion on the loose, but the lion isn’t interested in eating at all. Therefore it can mean but one thing – the lion is looking for revenge after poachers murdered its pride.
It’s a ludicrous yet utterly accurate leap of logic from probably the most interesting character in a movie that’s largely shorn of interesting characters. Indeed, while the lion takes out pretty much everyone that appears on screen, it just can’t seem to bite the three people whose maulings would undoubtedly improve the whole affair. That Nate can move so freely while wearing so much plot armour is probably his most interesting trait.
While Nate is relatively inoffensive, with Elba playing him as close to an everyman as he can get, the girls’ insistence on arguing with every decision grates very quickly. And it’s indicative of a script that has no inspiration. Nothing smart to do or say. Just a series of cliches and very few pay-offs.
Fortunately, there are two redeeming factors. Astonishingly rendered CGI animals and Baltasar Kormákur’s assured direction. Kormákur uses long, uncut shots in almost every scene in an effort to crank up the tension and pull the viewer into the action. It works to an extent, at least until he drops in the jump scares.
CREDIT: Lauren Mulligan/Universal Pictures
Kormákur has shown a solid ear for sound design in the past – most notably Everest – here, he uses sudden splashes of noise to terrify the audience when a smarter movie wouldn’t require such cheap tricks. It all comes back to a script that actively insults those watching with ludicrous leaps of logic and lines of dialogue that spoon-feeds the stupidity directly into our ears.
Fortunately, Beast is silly enough – and brief enough at 93 minutes – to be a fun watch. Its schlocky B-movie plot moves quickly, largely because there’s hardly an inch of depth to it. It doesn’t get quite as silly as Jaws: The Revenge’s denouement, where a shark is annoyed enough with the characters to impale itself on a boar mast, but when Elba punches a lion in the face during hand-to-paw combat, it comes pretty close.
Over the past few years, Netflix has released a lot of action movies. Yet the likes of Red Notice, Outside The Wire and 6 Underground are rarely remembered. So when a movie like The Gray Man comes along, with its $200m budget (a Netflix record), all-star cast and generic trailers, you wouldn’t be blamed for being a bit skeptical.
The premise doesn’t inspire either: a criminal (Ryan Gosling) is given the chance to leave prison by CIA operative Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton), provided he works as a hitman for them. Over the next 18 years, he becomes an internationally-renowned assassin known only by the codename Sierra Six. And after his most recent job he finds himself on the run from his own government who will stop at nothing to put a bullet in his head.
Despite filling in a cliché bingo card in double-quick time, The Gray Man is unpredictable and far greater than the sum of its considerable parts. The Russo Brothers, the directing duo behind the very best of the Marvel movies, have re-teamed with Avengers: Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely for a script that has an awful lot of fun with conventions while never becoming a parody. The laughs are well-earned, the set-ups are satisfyingly paid off and the stunts feel meaningful to the story.
And it’s not just the script. The Russos and cinematographer Stephen F. Windon have come up with a variety of ways to keep everything looking fresh which, unlike Michael Bay’s 6 Underground, never loses sight of why the characters are fighting. Extra kudos should go to whoever downed a six pack of Red Bull before flying the drone around.
However, as much fun and as clever as it is, The Gray Man is far from perfect. Gosling’s Six is stupidly indestructible while Evans steals scenes up until his schtick wears thin. Luckily, Ana de Armas’ Dani Miranda props up the weaker plot details. She’s not the damsel, nor the love interest, rather she holds her own as an action hero. We’ve seen her do it in No Time To Die, where she was formidable and glamorous all at once – as is Gosling, who’s remarkably believable as a put-upon antihero. A sly wink here, a dry smile there, he quips and scowls his way through proceedings in a role he’ll want to return to in the long run.
That The Gray Man is based on the first of a dozen books by Mark Greaney means a sequel is likely inevitable. Fortunately, the Russo Brothers have managed a rarity in the streaming wars by making a movie that’ll please the Netflix algorithms and human beings alike. Bring on the next one.
Details
Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Starring: Chris Evans, Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas
Release date: July 15 (in select UK cinemas), July 22 (Netflix)
For a 19-year-old nobody making their debut in a blockbuster Marvel TV show, Iman Vellani seems remarkably relaxed. “I did not take the audition seriously,” chuckles the Karachi-born, Ontario-raised actor, peering into the lens of her phone during a Zoom catch-up with NME. “I only auditioned because I love Ms. Marvel and I love Marvel comics. I was shooting my shot, and here we are!”
Ms. Marvel, about a teenage Avengers fangirl called Kamala Khan who discovers she has superpowers, debuted on Disney+ last month. The season finale airs on Thursday, in which Kamala has to use everything she’s learned so far in order to confront shadowy organisation Damage Control and save the lives of her friends. After that, she’ll join up with Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) for the megabucks Captain Marvel film sequel in 2023.
CREDIT: Irvin Rivera
The show actually finished filming two years ago, at the height of COVID-19, so Vellani is only now learning what it means to be the face of a monster franchise. We’re talking about the press intrusion; the constant online barrage from fans; the complete upturning of her life beyond all recognition. On top of that, she’s had to deal with becoming the first Muslim lead in an overwhelmingly white space – a job that has made her an instant role model to millions, and a target for abuse to others.
Yes despite rave reviews from critics, Ms. Marvel predictably upset a vocal minority who weren’t happy about its diverse main character. For Vellani, the hate felt more personal given the similarities between her and Kamala. Like Khan, Vellani is a Marvel obsessive. Like Khan, she was pushed into the spotlight suddenly. And like Khan, she has had great responsibility thrust upon her.
“I feel like I have aged 20 years in the last two”
Luckily, and perhaps surprisingly given her tender age, Vellani was totally prepared. “I feel like in the last two years I have aged 20,” she says. “I got cast on my last day of school and was immediately having meetings with and making conversation with adults. And now most of my best friends are in their thirties.
“I feel like I’ve lived [a whole life] but I’m still only 19. I haven’t really experienced life yet. The people that are on the posters on my bedroom wall, that I grew up looking at every morning, I now have their contact info and we’re talking about shared experiences, it’s incredible.”
CREDIT: Irvin Rivera
Hey Iman, how’s your first press tour going?
“It’s honestly so cathartic to finally talk about the show. For a long time, it felt like this little indie movie that we were making. It makes me really happy that this character is getting the light she deserves.”
How are you coping with the attention?
“It’s trippy and weird because people are very possessive over celebrities. People can access them whenever they want through a Google search or Disney+. That’s scary – and, you know, that’s not me. I think I’ve kept my real self quite private. I am still processing the fact that the show is even out and that people know my name.“
Do you feel any responsibility in being the first Muslim lead in a Marvel series?
“Here’s the thing, it felt very close to home for me. I have a very similar family dynamic to Kamala’s. A lot of the words and phrases that are being thrown in the show are being used in my day-to-day. I don’t feel the pressure.”
Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan in ‘Ms. Marvel’. CREDIT: Marvel Studios/Disney
How important was Kamala’s heritage to you?
“For some reason, every time we see Muslims and South Asians [on screen], especially teenagers, they’re never proud of their culture. It’s always something that’s dragging them down. That’s so not true. Kamala’s story has always been about using her cultural identity as something that motivates her and guides her. That was really important to us [when making Ms. Marvel].”
Sharing so much with your character is going to make it harder for people to separate you…
“I know! I feel like I’m cosplaying on a bigger scale! It’s a very vulnerable place to be in because my genuine happy place is Marvel and the MCU. When I’m sad I’ll rewatch Iron Man. But it’s not like I’m the one person in the world who is allowed to watch Iron Man. It just shows how personal these movies and these characters are and the impact they have.”
How do you deal with the negative reactions?
“I know they’re there. It’s something we knew was going to happen going into this. It happened when the comic books came out in 2014. I’m all for constructive criticism as long as people have a legitimate concern or suggestion or something real. Then I care. But all the hatred I’ve seen has no basis, no merit, it’s just purely for the sake of hating – and that’s fine. You’re not gonna impress everyone. We hit our target audience and we hit an entirely new audience that didn’t know they were gonna fall in love with this character – people who have never seen themselves represented in a positive light before.”
“The review-bombing is laughable. I think change is scary for a lot of people”
Have you heard about the review-bombing?
“I’m not on social media. I hear things that my mother tells me though. It’s honestly quite laughable and I think change is scary for a lot of people. And having a show that surrounds a 16-year-old girl who’s Pakistani and Muslim and a superhero is scary for a lot of people. I think this is just gonna rip the Band Aid off and hopefully people will fall in love with her.”
Even the haters?
“This show is for Marvel fans. If you’re a real Marvel fan, if any of those review bombers consider themselves a Marvel fan, then this show’s for them too. We wanted Ms. Marvel to be a love letter to Marvel fans. So yeah, I don’t care about them!”
What can you tell us about the season finale?
“It’s directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah who directed episode one, so a lot of that fun animation and quick Edgar Wright-style editing is coming back. Visually, it’s quite fun to look at…“
‘Ms. Marvel’ is streaming on Disney+. CREDIT: Marvel Studios/Disney
What does Kamala get up to?
“We see Kamala become her own version of what a superhero is. She stops trying to be this watered-down version of [her heroes]. In episode one and two she was copying Black Widow poses and continuing to wear that Captain Marvel costume because that made her feel more comfortable. Now she has her super-suit and goes into full fighter mode. She’s a fully-fledged superhero – and it’s really empowering and badass. I think people are gonna have a lot of fun watching [the finale] and their jaws are gonna drop.”
It must have been fun to do that Black Widow pose in front of a camera, right?
“It was awesome! With those Black Widow poses, a lot of the montage in episode two wasn’t choreographed, it was just me having fun! Any idea that we had, we’d just do it. The crew was more than welcome to be like, ‘what if you did this?’ and I’d be like, ‘okay, let’s film it!’ We got all this footage of me trying different things. It felt like a fun collaboration.”
It’s surprising to hear you had so much freedom on the set of a Marvel show…
“I know, it’s crazy that they trust me to change my lines on the spot. I felt comfortable doing it which is what was so strange!“
“When people see the finale, their jaws are gonna drop”
Have you got any plans for your career post-Ms. Marvel?
“Nope! I didn’t even know I could do this. Ms. Marvel came out of nowhere and so I decided I’m not going to plan my future. I’m just going to see where life takes me. If it’s an indie thing then great, if it’s Fast and Furious 29 then great. I don’t know! I’m going with the flow here.”
Twelve years passed before The Texas Chainsaw Massacre received its first sequel. Things were different back in the ’80s. Long before Disney reinvented franchise filmmaking, most attempts to follow up a popular title were dismissed as needless cash-grabs, which of course they were. Tobe Hooper’s classic slasher, in particular, gave no narratively-justified reason to return to the dusty plains of Texas. It was beautifully simplistic. It was perfect.
And yet, we’re nine films deep now and reaching a point where Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboots have become a sub-genre of their own. Step forward Netflix, with their new reboot that no-one asked for.
Much like Blumhouse’s recent Halloween ‘requel’ films, we’re asked to forget anything we saw post-1974. This time out a group of rich millennial entrepreneurs head to an abandoned Texan town where they plan to sell off real estate and reinvigorate an area long abandoned. It’s a ludicrous, utterly unbelievable plan, but who cares? Arriving in their self-driving car, waving phones around, these youngsters are just crying out for a killin’! They soon rile the last remaining locals, and given the movie’s impressively brief runtime (it clocks in at just 82 minutes), the blood doesn’t take long to flow. And boy does it flow.
Elsie Fisher makes her franchise debut. CREDT: Netflix
Outside of the Scream franchise, there’s little to do or say in a slasher flick that hasn’t already been done or said. So perhaps it’s to the writers’ credit that they don’t try to reinvent the format that has served the TCM franchise for nearly half a century. There are no added dimensions to this. No loaded themes. It’s not an allegory for our times, beyond a brief shake-of-the-head towards youngsters and social media.
Leatherface waves a chainsaw around, people die. Horribly. Repeat. The villain himself, still looking much the same as he ever did, despite Mark Burnham having to fill the boots of the late Gunnar Hansen, is now more Jason Voorhees-like in his durability and unstoppable nature. Which serves him well when he finally boards the literal party bus, providing a moment of genuine hilarity as he massacres a cohort of millennials.
For a movie with such a featherweight plot there is still a surprising amount of room for error. The reappearance of a vengeful Sally Hardesty, the sole surviving character of the original movie, is a bit too on-the-Halloween nose, and the laws of physics are regularly defied as characters continue to make ridiculous decisions as they fail miserably at the challenge of self-preservation. Still, nobody ever watches a TCM movie expecting to find more logic than gore.
Leatherface is back for more bloody murder. CREDIT: Netflix
Director David Blue Garcia is safe pair of hands, hitting all the right shots as he tosses blood and guts around with abandon, looking for increasingly inventive ways to put people to the chainsaw. He builds up tension convincingly enough that you wonder if maybe, just maybe, this character is going to to get out alive.
Sure, there’ s no real reason for this story to keep unfolding. This is all about enjoying the imagery of human beings getting chopped up. And in that regard at least, Texas Chainsaw Massacre does not disappoint.
Details
Director: David Blue Garcia
Starring: Sarah Yarkin, Elsie Fisher, Mark Burnham
A little while ago, an intriguing casting call went out in Auckland, New Zealand. An agency was desperately seeking extras with missing teeth, wrinkles and an over-abundance of body hair.
It doesn’t take a detective of Columbo’s calibre to figure out the call was in aid of Amazon’s forthcoming Lord of the Rings TV show. And, given the popularity of the LOTR films, it’s a call that plenty would have no doubt responded to, if indeed they possessed the requisite body-related attributes.
This got NME wondering: just how easy is it to become a movie monster? And is it as glamorous as any other role in Hollywood, or is the time spent in the make-up chair, squinting through latex and sweating in the beating sun, as hellish as it sounds?
With Halloween dress-up season now in full swing, we asked five movie and TV monster extras to tell us what life is like working under the prosthetics.
White Walker
‘Game of Thrones’ (Picture: AA Film Archive / Alamy Stock Photo)
Played by: Ross Mullan, 54, an actor from Montreal, Canada
Appearances: Game of Thrones (‘Oathkeeper’, ‘Second Sons’, ‘Valar Morghulis’)
How did you get started?
“I wanted to be an actor, but the roles weren’t regular [enough] so I was doing jobs I hated in-between. When I got offered monster roles I wanted to do them. I mean, what’s a werewolf movie without a werewolf?!”
Tell us about Game of Thrones…
“My agent asked me if I was interested in Game of Thrones, and I’d never heard of it. But he convinced me, so I showed up at the audition and thought it was a game show! They explained it, and so I showed them what it was like to terrify a baby with a cardboard sword at my audition and got the job! From then on, everyone wanted me to do monster roles: now all my work is monster-related.”
What makes someone want to be a White Walker?
“Quite simply, I like being other beings and people. That’s my thing.”
Scare Factor: 9/10
Varmik
Played by: Paul Warren, 46, an actor from London
Appearances: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
How did you get started?
“I saw an open audition for Harry Potter and they were looking for a body double for Daniel Radcliffe. I was 32 at the time: I had lived a life, and hadn’t considered acting. I went along and I got on the broomstick dressed up as Harry, and that was my first job.”
Tell us about Star Wars…
“As a creature actor it’s usually a scene here, a scene there. Sometimes you get to act with the main stars, but then you’re out and onto the next one. On Star Wars it was crazy. I’m sitting there looking through an alien mask at Han Solo and Chewbacca in a space bar. And I’m part of it! Next minute, Mark Hamill is coming over and introducing himself, saying, ‘So how does this work? Is your suit remote control?’ He’s not even in the scene, but he’s there asking questions like he’s still a kid. He’s geeking out on it like me!”
What makes someone want to be a Star Wars monster?
“It was the pinnacle of creature work. It was everything I could dream of to be involved.”
Scare Factor: 5/10
Orc
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ (Picture: LANDMARK MEDIA / Alamy Stock Photo)
Played by: Kane Bixley, 42, a multimedia designer from New Zealand
Appearances:The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Return of the King
How did you get started?
“About 10,000 Kiwis went and did extras work on Lord of the Rings, but I’m average height and they were looking for tall or short extras. But somehow I got in!”
Tell us about Lord of the Rings…
“I spent four hours in make-up with about 400 other people, then got loaded onto a bus full of other Orcs and ferried down the highway. We pulled up next to a car at the traffic lights and this guy looked over and freaked out! When we got on set, [director] Peter Jackson gave a big speech about how important it was to New Zealand, got us ramped up and the fighting was almost real after! Some guy ran up to me and knocked me down during the Helm’s Deep battle, and kept hitting me with a spear while shouting, ‘That’s gotta hurt!’”
What makes someone want to be an Orc?
“It was great to be part of something so important. And it got me into acting. It was my first-ever extra work, so I trained at drama school straight after and acted for 10 years.”
Scare Factor: 8/10
Undead Walker
Played by: Don Teems, a DJ/actor from Atlanta, Georgia
Appearances: The Walking Dead (‘Welcome To The Tombs’, ‘Home’, ‘When the Dead Come Knocking’)
How did you get started?
“I initially turned it down as I wasn’t really into the zombie thing. But then I met Norman Reedus [who plays Daryl on The Walking Dead] at a convention and he explained it to me and said, ‘You gotta come be a part of this show’. He made a call to get me in.”
Tell us about The Walking Dead…
“There are varying degrees of walker. You have deep background walkers just wearing a mask, but then prosthetics for ‘hero’ walkers that are in close-up, which is what I mostly did. You go to zombie school, where they teach you what not to do as a zombie. Don’t drag the leg, do the Frankenstein thing. They tell you to pretend you’re drunk and stagger about, before pointing at something and telling you to go attack it. You could spend a lot of time on something and find out later only your hand was in shot!”
What makes someone want to be a walker?
“I had a great time on set, but a lot of people think it’s all fun and games. You’re working in the Atlanta heat all day and it’s work, you know: it’s work! Sometimes people pass out, so they just edit in a bullet wound!”
Played by: Brian A. Prince, 32, a stunt performer and illustrator from Atlanta, Georgia
Appeared in: The Predator, The Walking Dead
What got you started?
“I’m the tallest parkour runner in the world! So I got offered some work, mostly background stunts. Eventually someone recommended me to the studio in LA where they were making The Predator. There was no pressure so I had fun with it, and the next day they said, ‘We want you to be the Predator’!”
Tell us about The Predator…
“They just told me to figure out how to be the Predator. I’m an illustrator, so I took what I do in drawing characters and what I liked about other characters, like Kratos in God of War, and turned that experience into how I would play the Predator.
“This character never looks behind, he’s always going forwards. I made a playlist of angry fucking music and put it on while I was putting on the suit, and I would mix that with parkour, dance and stuff that [original Predator actor] Kevin Peter Hall did. I spent hours getting into this zone. I’d get up in the night to go to the bathroom and I would walk like the Predator through my apartment!”
What makes someone want to be The Predator?
“Are you kidding me? I get to be the Predator, this is the coolest fucking thing that’s ever happened to me in my life!”
There’s just enough going on in Night Teeth to warrant more than a passing glance during an evening of Netflix indecision this Halloween. Sure, it’s easy to dismiss a movie that appears on the service with little-to-no fanfare, and that seems to be the kind of horror flick we’d have once found in the bargain bin at Woolworths. But Night Teeth‘s is slick enough to belie its meagre expenditure.
Some of the money was clearly waved under the nose of Megan Fox, who spent at least half a day on set in order to help sell the proposition, as well as half an hour in a recording booth voicing the film’s opening monologue. It’s an opening that does a sterling job of summing the film up – a turgid script reveals the backstory of a world peppered with blood-sucking vampires, accompanied by some striking visuals that set the scene.
The plot largely centres on Benny (Jorge Lendeborg Jr), a homely young chap whose elder brother Jay (Raúl Castillo) is, unbeknown to Benny, a shady vampire-hunting type who also drives a limo around LA. Obviously. So when Jay has to go in search of his girlfriend, who has been abducted by vamp overlord Victor (Alfie Allen), Benny takes over his brother’s limo driving duties for the evening.
As (bad) luck would have it, Benny’s job for the night is to drive a pair of women (Debby Ryan and Lucy Fry) to a variety of nightclubs and parties, although the pair have a lot more going on than just partying. As Victor’s henchwomen, they’re on a mission to bump off other vampires before the sun rises.
It’s almost a beat-for-beat rip-off of the Tom Cruise/Jamie Foxx vehicle Collateral, replete with a visit to the car driver’s mother. Still, Lendeborg Jr. sells the whole affair with his innocent, bumbling turn as the kid while Ryan and Fry do their best to chomp on the scenery as the over-confident, bloodthirsty ghouls. Particularly in Ryan’s case, the scenery often gets stuck in her fangs.
Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as Benny in ‘Night Teeth’. CREDIT: Netflix
In fairness to the storytelling, Night Teeth sometimes plays out as an interesting mystery, and while director Adam Randall and cinematographer Eben Bolter have lifted the aesthetic straight out of John Wick‘s playbook, it’s the look, feel and sometimes dizzying camerawork that keeps this tale interesting when the script flags.
As is often the case with Netflix, this is a Frankenstein creation constructed from parts of better movies that came before, presumably because that’s what makes the algorithm happy. Collateral, Blade, Daybreakers – this is derivative stuff. As a result, it all fits together like a picture made from three different jigsaws. Subplots go missing for extended periods and the characters often don’t make much sense. While that stuff is easy to ignore, it’s a missed opportunity to build something far more interesting from a well-worn set-up. You could do worse than to ignore the title and hit play on Night Teeth this Halloween, just don’t expect too many surprises.
Video game franchise Dynasty Warriors has been raking in sales for well over two decades, and while the emphasis of the series is unashamedly on the relentless, almost cartoon-levels of sword-slashing violence, the plots are tangled up with a rich and detailed storyline.
That storyline is, sometimes tenuously, linked to the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history. An era you’ve almost certainly seen in other media, or perhaps even read about since the 14th century book, Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a literary classic. Sadly, while the source material from whence the game was inspired might be classic, this modern incarnation is anything but.
Like a gamer mashing buttons, the film’s writer Christine To has thrown everything she can at the storyboards and kept anything that stuck – and perhaps even elements that didn’t. In among all the assassination plots and ridiculously large and utterly unrealistic CGI battles we find the story of three men: Zhang (a questionably made-up Justin Cheung), Liu (Tony Yang) and Guan (Geng Han) – a trio hell-bent on overthrowing a bad guy, who is also the target of assassin Cao Cao (Kai Wang). Their journey is epic, and sees them breeze through myriad fights against backdrops that look like they were rendered on a SEGA Mega Drive.
The first ‘Dynasty Warriors’ video game came out in 1997. CREDIT: Netflix
While it seems as though a coherent story is forming here, it’s important to understand that none of this story is clearly told. Eschewing the traditional expositionary dialogue that’s the staple of pretty much every other film, Dynasty Warriors elects to throw information up on screen in writing, appearing so briefly you won’t get a chance to read it. Even with the storytelling issues in mind, big budget Chinese flicks rarely translate for a western audience. What works for China can often lead to an uneven tone when translated to a Western audience, as is the case here with a particularly ill-fitting rock and roll soundtrack playing out over fifth century action (which itself requires feats of magic to liven it up).
It’s clear a lot of money has been spent lavishing the film with special effects, it just hasn’t been spent very wisely. Ironically for a video game adaptation, the graphics are abysmal. Not that the script is worthy of more. The dialogue may be suffering from translation, or it might be that god-awful on both sides of the world. Given the film’s paltry performance in China, it may very well be the latter.
Like the writer, director Roy Chow has tried a bit of everything in his quest to make this work. His camera squeezes into the most unlikely, and often unnecessary of places, and while it does occasionally work to create a memorable image, it’s more luck than judgment as he too mashes buttons in the hope of completing his quest. Brand recognition will help Dynasty Warriors receive some attention on its Netflix debut, but it won’t take long for audiences to realise there’s little to be gained from persevering with a franchise that is destined to remain on console and PC for the foreseeable future.
There are few sub-genres of film that are as consistently rubbish as the video game adaptation. The first Mortal Kombat movie came along in 1995 (after the abysmal Super Mario Bros. and the atrocious Street Fighter kicked off the trend) and nearly 30 years have passed since that b-movie became the best by virtue of not being the worst, and for some reason we’re being subjected to it all over again.
This latest incarnation starts off interestingly enough. In 17th century Japan, a bunch of assassins – led by Bi-Han aka Sub Zero (Joe Taslim) – attack and kill a rival clan, leaving Hanzo Hasashi aka Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his family for dead. Fast forward to present day and it seems Hasashi has an ancestor by the name of Cole Young (Lewis Tan), a UFC-style fighter who isn’t very good at what he does. Within a scene or two, Cole is told he has to fight in a tournament to save all humans (for a film that doesn’t have much story, there’s an awful lot of plot to explain). Quite how or why a couple of rounds of MMA is required to dominate the 10 realms isn’t explained.
Lewis Tan plays Cole Young, a rather unskilled UFC-style fighter. CREDIT: Warner Bros.
Still, we’re not here for a world built on solid foundations. The target audience is supposed to care about a handful of things, and plot is not one of them. Gruesome deaths, recognisable characters and many references to a game with only half a dozen lines of dialogue are what matters. Turning that set-up into a three act narrative arc has challenged scriptwriters for three decades. Ironically, the ’90s version of Mortal Kombat worked because it embraced the simplicity of that idea. This remake takes that idea and runs with it, but throws in a bit extra exposition in the hopes of making something more epic.
It doesn’t work at all, because the writers haven’t spent any time developing that backstory. Instead, they’ve packed in too many characters, completely forgotten that the film was supposed to be about a tournament and given way too many lines to Kano (Josh Lawson), a character designed to irritate his colleagues – and who will annoy viewers even more. What’s really odd about it all is that Mortal Kombat is actually pretty well shot. Sure, the character design is a slave to a game that first appeared in the last century, but the look of the film, the fight choreography and special effects are as good as one could expect from an initial sub-$100m budget. So it’s a real shame that the script doesn’t match director Simon McQuiod’s inventiveness. For a commercials director to be producing such a visually attractive debut movie is quite something. It makes this far more entertaining than it would be.
‘Mortal Kombat’ is beautifully shot, if a little lacklustre. CREDIT: Warner Bros
In keeping with the original game, the gore comes thick and fast. It leads to an uneven tone, but the fans are supposed to cheer at the multiple limb-dismemberments and snicker at the dropping of f-bombs; not worry about why the one-liners are so camp. At times, Mortal Kombat is almost as ridiculous as the early-’90s adaptations that did their best to kill the genre. But it doesn’t matter how many times these movies get killed, studios will happily drop a ton of tokens for another round.
The deep, dark well of fantasy adaptions is still churning up plenty of offerings for streaming addicts. In the wake of Game of Thrones, Carnival Row and The Witcher comes Shadow and Bone, taken from Leigh Bardugo’s sprawling series of YA books, known as the Grishaverse.
Set in the fictional kingdom of Ravka, the Netlfix epic details a world of magic and war, where powerful conjurers and armies face off – and a criminal underbelly thrives in the cities. Most of Ravka is cut off from its western coast by The Fold, a large swathe of land bathed in black clouds, where some seriously unpleasant monsters reside.
Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) is a young woman who, along with her best friend Mal (Archie Renaux), has grown up in an orphanage to the west of The Fold, and each year the children are visited by the Grisha (the name given to those with magical powers, such as telekinesis or fire-throwing) who test the youngsters to see if they should be trained in the magical arts. Neither Alina nor Mal show any such talents, so when they reach adulthood they join the armed forces, for there is a civil war brewing in Ravka. And when the pair find themselves required to cross The Fold, Alina discovers that, not only is she a Grisha, but she may be one of the most powerful to have ever lived, bringing her to the attention of the suave and powerful General Kirigan (Ben Barnes).
Adapting such a dense world is hugely challenging for an eight-part series, and the opening episodes almost collapse under the weight of it all. A dozen key characters require fleshing out while the lore itself needs even more explanation. For fans of the books – and there are many – this is no problem. But newcomers will be forgiven for wondering what the hell is going on and, more importantly, whether they should bother watching.
‘Shadow and Bone’ is Netflix’s latest teen fantasy epic. CREDIT: Netflix
On the bright side, for a show that centres on a literal battle between darkness and light, there are shades in between, particularly with the plucky group of criminals on a mission to kidnap our hero. It’s this mob – led by a scene-stealing Freddy Carter as menacing gang leader Kaz Brekker – who provide the most intriguing developments, offering a welcome break from the main story’s largely predictable plot. Carter supplies a level of subtlety that seems out of Barnes’ reach, for as enjoyable as it is to watch the Westworld star chomp through the scenery, there are few surprises to be found in where his character goes.
There’s plenty to like about Shadow and Bone, not least its 19th century Russia-inspired aesthetic, and at eight episodes, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Given a bit more time, perhaps the world would be a little easier for non-Grishas to comprehend. But when Netflix serves up fantasy adventures every other week, we need a little more reason to tune in.
It’s been 15 years since Borat first took Sacha Baron Cohen’s pranking from the small to the big screen in an effort to wave a mirror in front of America, and raise some serious social issues. Given Hollywood’s penchant for jumping on a bandwagon, it’s odd that we haven’t seen more by way of such public practical joking in movie form. Perhaps there aren’t enough people with the willpower to put themselves in the middle of such humiliating situations, who also happen to have the creativity to make such endeavours genuinely funny.
Enter Eric Andre and his team of tricksters, who not only have some cracking ideas on how to prank the public in a big-budget way, but also a script that convincingly ties it all together.
TV’s premier punk prankster takes his small-screen antics to a bigger stage in ‘Bad Trip’. CREDIT: Netflix
Bad Trip doesn’t aim to skewer politicians, racists or celebrities. Rather, unwitting members of the public are forced to witness – and interact with – the madcap adventures of Chris (Eric Andre), Bud (Lil Rel Howery) and Bud’s escaped convict sister, Trina (a scene-stealing Tiffany Haddish).
When Chris, while cleaning cars in Florida, sees the love of his life and discovers she’s living in New York, he feels compelled to hit the road and track her down. So he and Bud grab Maria’s pink car and head north. But when the furious Trina busts out of jail, she wants her motor back.
When Tiffany Haddish’s Trina escapes prison to find her car stolen, she’s not best pleased. CREDIT: Netflix
Pranks for pranking’s sake aren’t inherently funny, which is where Bad Trip gets things right – each clever leg-pull is in someway related to the plot, and the unwitting participants play a part in progressing it. Whether it’s the street cleaner who inadvertently helps Trina escape from jail, or the passer-by begging her not to drop a man from a building.
While the earlier stunts – in particular when Bad Trip suddenly turns into a musical, much to the bemusement of a crowd of mall-shoppers – are inventive enough not to need any gross out humour, the same can’t be said for the second act, which relies heavily on the kind of stuff that would make the Farrelly Brothers wince.
There are question marks over the nature of several sequences – one involving a horny gorilla, and another involving a misplaced Chinese finger trap – that could be deemed inappropriate by those caught in them, even if the crew do caveat: ‘Guys, it’s just a prank’ immediately after.
By the end, Chris and Bud are back on track and providing clean and socially awkward japes that no TV gameshow would have the budget for. The plot contains few surprises, but the way the public reacts to these characters in their time of need does. With one knife-wielding exception, the trio elicit positive, heartwarming responses from people who sincerely wish to help, regardless of how zany the situations are.
Similarly, Andre and co. do an incredible job of reacting to the unpredictable. Such is Andre’s commitment to each set-piece that you can’t help but root for him, even when he’s making life a nightmare for everyone else. He’s matched step-for-step by Tiffany Haddish, whose rampaging Trina playfully bullies just about anyone she comes across, including a cop. With leads this funny, Bad Trip is easily as fun as Borat, but feels less weighed down by any desire to raise political or social points. Why bother when you can have a guy falling into a portaloo?
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