Tag: Universal

Review: Pain and Glory

For the 21st film in his illustrious career, the 69-year-old Pedro Almodóvar has written and directed a film about facing mortality. Like the lead character in PAIN AND GLORY (Dolor y Gloria), he has penned something of a naked confessional for film literate audiences that also has a universality in its appeal.

Almodóvar’s proxy in this tale is Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas), a filmmaker in a creative rut suffering a range of physical and mental illnesses. A revival of an old film prompts him to reach out to its lead (Asier Etxeandia), and the reunion after 30 years leads Salvador to try and become addicted to heroin.

The contemporary story is juxtaposed with his earlier life. The heroin sparks dreamlike flashbacks to growing up with his father and mother (Penélope Cruz) in a village apartment that resembles a cave. What emerges is a tapestry of a life, the history of Salvador’s sexuality, and a love letter to cinema.

You don’t have to look too deeply into PAIN AND GLORY to start calling comparisons to Federico Fellini. While there is definitely a parallel with 8½, a film that has inspired everyone from Woody Allen to Charlie Kaufman, this is unquestionably an idiosyncratic drumbeat present that Almodóvar has been beating for decades. After all, the lead is a gay director whose back catalogue sharply resembles Almodóvar’s own, arguably making this his most personal work to date as well.

Banderas steps up to the plate to deliver one of his finest performances to date. Already winning him the best actor award at the 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival this year, the line between the frequent Almodóvar collaborator and his director is blurred. One of his character’s directions to an actor is to look as though you’re about to cry all the time, which is exactly where Banderas sits for most of this. Cruz and Etxeandia are excellent in their respective roles. A small but significant part for Leonardo Sbaraglia (Red Lights) is one of the high points of Salvador’s arc.

Unlike his avatar in the film, Almodóvar continues to prove that he isn’t Despite some heavy themes and some honest emotional turns, PAIN AND GLORY offers a number of delightful surprises – including an infrographic tracing Salvador’s life – that is likely to leave you in the embrace of cinema’s warm glowing warming glow.

2019 | Spain| DIRECTOR: Pedro Almodóvar | WRITERS: Pedro Almodóvar | CAST: Antonio Banderas, Asier Etxeandia, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Penélope Cruz | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures Films (AUS)| RUNNING TIME: 115 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 7 June 2019 (SFF)

June 9, 2019
Review: The Hustle

To hustle someone usually involves pretending to be something or someone that you are not in order to gain advantage. THE HUSTLE has set itself up as a remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), itself a reworking of the 1964 film Bedtime Story. Yet some old tricks get tired in the retelling, and like the best cons, a hustle is only as strong as its weakest player.

Con artist Josephine Chesterfield (Anne Hathaway) has been living a life of luxury in Beaumont-sur-Mer on the proceeds of her ill-gotten gains. When wannabe hustler Penny Rust (Rebel Wilson) comes stumbling into her town, Josephine sees an opportunity to coach a protégé. However, they soon become bitter rivals, challenging each other to take down a mark in order to win territorial rights.

A straight update of Stanley Shapiro, Paul Henning, and Dale Launer’s 1988 script, Jac Schaeffer (Captain Marvel) never strays too far from the source material. Indeed, there’s several moments where the dialogue is virtually verbatim. Director Chris Addison, best known for the sophisticated comedy of The Thick of It and Veep, relies instead on the two lead personalities.

This also means that Wilson’s broad comedic stylings dominate much of film. As the embodiment of an obnoxious Australian tourist, she totally nails the role. The rest of the time is spend playing up her physicality as a comic, literally barrelling through scenery in the absence of witty dialogue. In one chaotically bad sequence, Wilson fakes being blind for what feels like the entire second act. That said, if you do like her particular brand of comedy, and there’s definitely a solid fanbase out there, you’ll probably love THE HUSTLE.

Hathaway, now adept at playing high class thieves, manages to rise above the meet food the script feeds her. The rest of the supporting cast – who include Doctor Who‘s Ingrid Oliver and relative newcomer Alex Sharp – is uninspiring, disappearing into the background behind montages of physical awkwardness.

People familiar with any of the previous versions of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, or even the stage musical of the same name, will find few surprises in THE HUSTLE‘s final act. Director Addison’s sharp comedy resume evaporates in a pratfall, as any emotion the script find is immediately undercut by slapstick. Which is why it is difficult to be too hard on the film: it’s a less accomplished copy, but if you enjoyed the original then this is much of the same.

2019 | US | DIRECTOR: Chris Addison | WRITERS: Stanley Shapiro, Paul Henning, Dale Launer, Jac Schaeffer | CAST: Anne Hathaway, Rebel Wilson, Alex Sharp, Dean Norris | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures | RUNNING TIME: 94 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 9 May 2018 (AUS)

May 9, 2019
Review: Happy Death Day 2U

A sequel to Happy Death Day might be the one thing that makes sense in this crazy workaday world. The subversively clever 2017 film was the lovechild of Groundhog Day and Scream, cognisant of its own influences while sharply aware that younger audiences could care less about the 1990s. HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U is simply here to have fun. Party.

Picking up right after the events of the first film, we learn that ‘dickhead’ roommate Ryan (Phi Vu) is now caught in his own time loop and being hunted by a killer. Yet instead of simply repeating the formula with a different set of players, writer and director Christopher Landon (who directed Scott Lobdell’s script last time) subverts expectations by introducing quantum mechanics, multiverses, and other twisty stories within stories.

Any fear that an over-explanation of the time travel elements is swiftly forgotten with the reintroduction of Tree (Jessica Rothe) and her fledgling boyfriend Carter (Israel Broussard). Landon deftly steers the film from straight-up horror to sci-fi comedy caper as Tree once again gets caught in a familiar loop but with a very different series of encounters to the last lot of times that she went through.

The focus is less on the whodunnit than it is on boldly having fun with the multiversal direction Landon has steered the franchise into. Just like Tree’s investigative montage in the first film, she repeatedly dies (again) in increasingly bizarre ways so she can memorise a formula needed to get back to her normal life. Some of these deaths make no literal sense, but Tree skydiving without a parachute (and wearing a bikini) is part of the anarchic silliness Landon embraces.

Each of the characters are given a little more depth this time around as well. From the get-go, the one-joke Ryan is revealed to be a student of quantum physics and is surrounded by intelligent characters. The surprisingly emotional core comes from Tree’s chance to reconnect with her deceased mother (Miss Yager) and gives the lead’s choices a deeper sense of urgency.

With almost double the budget of the first film – from a mere US$4.8 million to a modest $9 million – Landon allows himself a few more special effects this time around. Most of these are on the device Ryan and his team are working on, but it also allows for a little bit more scope in the various death montages the series is rapidly becoming known for.

Which is where this sequel really succeeds: it expands the Happy Death Day world, giving it the potential to be another big franchise series for the Blumhouse gang. Make sure you sit through the credits for a little stinger that indicates where it will go next. It’s not strictly horror, comedy, or sci-fi, but it is straight-up fun.

2019 | US | DIR: Christopher Landon | WRITERS: Christopher Landon | CAST: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Phi Vu, Suraj Sharma, Sarah Yarkin, Ruby Modine | RUNNING TIME: 100 minutes | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures (AUS) | RELEASE DATE: 14 February 2019 (AUS)

February 16, 2019
Review: Mortal Engines

Peter Jackson may not have directed MORTAL ENGINES but his fingerprints are all over it. It has been on the cards at his WingNut Films since 2009, but the planned production of The Dambusters and The Hobbit trilogy pushed it back on the agenda. Having worked with Jackson since 1992’s Braindead, director Christian Rivers steps out of the second unit to deliver something that’s on par with the scale of his mentor’s work.

Based on the first novel by Philip Reeve, the Lord of the Rings screenwriting team of Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson do their thing by taking the solid bones of its structure expanding the world and placing it all in context. Eons after the 60-Minute War, the Earth is a wasteland. Massive traction cities roam the globe, literally ingesting smaller cities for survival in a philosophy called ‘Municipal Darwinism.’

Young Tom (Robert Sheehan) is low-class apprentice historian who has only ever lived in the travelling city of London. A burgeoning friendship with elite citizen Katherine Valentine (Lila George) is cut short when an assassination attempt is made on her father Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving). Tom and assassin Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar) soon find themselves on the run in the remnants of the Earth searching for a McGuffin.

Fans of Reeve’s original quartet and prequel series will find a fair bit of joy in seeing the author’s creative vision come to life in such an impressive way, and there will be times when you’re swept away with the spectacle of it all. It’s just that it’s also such a mish-mash of ideas and references to other films and tropes that you are always conscious that you are watching a movie. An early appearance of Universal’s ubiquitous Minions leaves a taste in our mouths as bad as the millennia-old Twinkies that show up sometime later.

Which isn’t to say there’s no fun to be had: it’s visually stunning, and Rivers/Jackson know how to stage a film in a grand arena. An early chase through a town as it’s being dissected by London is as inventive as it is thrilling. The bright-red resistance airship flown by fan-favourite Anna Fang (Jihae) is the Millennium Falcon of the picture, and becomes a character in itself. It all builds to a massive battle sequence that looks like a high-tech version of something out of The Two Towers or The Battle of the Five Armies.

It’s a shame then that the principal leads of Hilmar and Sheehan have virtually no chemistry. It would have been far more interesting to follow the sub-plot about Katherine and the completely undeveloped Bevis Pod (Ronan Raftery), who were the true stars of this vehicle. The appearance of Shrike (Stephen Lang), an undead cyborg hunting Hester, feels like one plot line too many, although the writing team at least manage to imbue him with a modicum of empathy. Hugo Weaving doesn’t encounter a piece of scenery he doesn’t find delicious, and even gets his own Darth Vader moment in the climax.

So if Municipal Darwinism is the act of cities eating other cities, then MORTAL ENGINES has swallowed other films whole and recycled them for parts. At the same time, it also feels like a final package: and if there are to be sequels, the film doesn’t necessarily point the way there. There’s a solid adventure story at the centre of this adaptation, but it spends so much time swirling around its own gutsy innards that it’s sometimes hard to digest.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2018 | US | DIR: Christian Rivers | WRITERS: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson | CAST: Hugo Weaving, Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, Jihae, Ronan Raftery, Leila George, Patrick Malahide, Stephen Lang | RUNNING TIME: 128 minutes | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures (AUS) | RELEASE DATE: 6 December 2018 (AUS), 14 December 2018 (US)[/stextbox]

December 8, 2018
Review: BlacKkKlansman

Spike Lee’s BLACKKKLANSMAN opens with an extended scene from Gone with the Wind, often held up as an essential film in the American canon. Immediately juxtaposed with a blooper real of an actor (played by Alec Baldwin) spouting bigoted rhetoric, here it begins Lee’s conversation about cinema’s complicity in the institutionalised racism in the United States.

“Dis joint is based on some fo’ real, fo’ real shit,” an opening title reminds us, based as it is on the memoirs of Ron Stalworth (portrayed in the film by John David Washington). After joining the police in Colorado Springs as the first black cop in town, he soon gets undercover work investigating the local Civil Rights movement, and the student president Patrice (Laura Harrier). His career escalates when he infiltrates the local Ku Klux Klan chapter, using fellow cop Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) as his public face. His work soon connects him all the way to the top of the KKK and David Duke (Topher Grace).

BLACKKKLANSMAN can be viewed on a number of levels. To start with, it’s incredibly funny. Lee and his writing team instinctively recognise that the power of so-called ‘white power’ movements lies in their ceremony and artifice, not to mention the backing of hundreds of years of cultural racism. He immediately sets about tearing those sacred cows down. Some of it is cheap shots at ‘rednecks,’ but more wryly through the portrayal of David Duke as an out of touch politico.

Contrasting this is the strong message of black unity. Civil Rights leader Kwame Ture (played here by Corey Hawkins) warns of the ‘coming war’, but also of the importance of recognising beauty in the African American duality. A powerful moment comes with Lee rapidly cutting back and forth between a Klan initiation ceremony, and an Civil Rights elder recounting the brutal mutilation and death of a falsely accused rapist within his living memory. The point is clear enough: these institutions are our institutions, and we are all responsible for the history that comes with it.

Washington is a charismatic lead. Known mostly for his work as a pro footballer, he actually started his acting career at the age of 9 as a student in Lee’s Malcolm X. Harrier’s strength as a performer opens up a dialogue opens about the “war going on inside ourselves,” as posters of Blaxploitation films Shaft, Cleopatra Jones, and Superfly fill the screen. Through Driver, there’s an unexpected conversation about the dual identity of being Jewish and American as well.

As with most of Lee’s work, BLACKKKLANSMAN is fiercely political. What’s perhaps surprising, for a film set in the 1970s, is how sharply topical it is as well. There are frequent winking nods to “someone in the White House who embodies [hate]” and “America First” as a justification for that hatred. From Birth of a Nation, scenes of which are screened in the film, cinema has perpetuated those power structures, even allowing a reality TV star to rise to power on a platform based on division.

Lee uses the trappings of the Blaxploitation classics he name-checks, right down to the explosive finale. Yet the closing moments of the film segue into footage of the Nazis of Charlottesville in 2017, and the tragic death of Heather Heyer, Lee wants to remind us that life is not like the movies. A hero cop is one thing, but it’s our collective responsibility to hold leaders such as Donald Trump, who refused to call out the Nazis initially, to task at every turn.

The final shot of the film is a chilling vision of the American flag place upside-down, morphing into a black and white version before the credits roll. For some this might be interpreted as a display of disrespect, but most will tell you it is a universal symbol of distress. BLACKKKLANSMAN is a response to a country in crisis, and may be Lee’s most powerful commentary in years.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2018 | US | DIR: Spike Lee | WRITER: Spike Lee, David Rabinowitz, Charlie Wachtel, Kevin Willmott | CAST: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Topher Grace | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures, Sydney Film Festival (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 148 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 16 June 2018 (SFF), 9 August 2018 [/stextbox]

June 17, 2018
Review: Jurassic World – Fallen Kingdom

Let’s face it: none of the sequels to the original Jurassic Park have made a massive amount of sense. The continual attempts to harness dino-power have been perpetually fueled by the misguided avarice of corporate and military interests. Do they not have the Alien franchise as guidebooks in this universe? Even so, this sequel pushes the boundaries of logic beyond the specified parameters on the back of the box.

Director J.A. Bayona’s (A Monster Calls) follow-up to Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World sees the remaining prehistoric beasts facing annihilation at the hands of a now active volcano on Isla Nubla. Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) fights for their salvation, and is given a lifeline when the ambitious Eli Mills (Rafe Spall) offers them a sanctuary. She convinces her estranged ex Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) to join her on a rescure, but they are betrayed: the dinosaurs are only wanted for money and militarisation.

JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM is an often baffling collage of influences. At times it a little bit Raiders of the Lost Ark, with characters chasing the Nazi-esque mercenary Ken Wheatley (Ted Levine) leaping onto trucks headed for a ship. At others, it’s a locked-house horror film, with humans hunting other humans. During these moments, dinosaurs are virtually forgotten for scene-specific thrills.

Yet there’s a lot about Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly’s follow-the-dots script that doesn’t make sense. Dinosaur abilities and sizes morph to fit the given scenario. Characters and dinosaurs can stand next to lava without consequence. The entire child character of Maisie Lockwood (newcomer Isabella Sermon), dressed in Elliot’s outfit from E.T., serves no purpose beyond bearing witness to exposition. Her ultimate payoff is so out of left field as to wonder if we’re still watching the same film.

Pratt is the one saving grace of the film. His natural charisma is always a welcome screen presence. There’s one sequence where a semi-paralysed Owen is rolling away from some lava: the physics of the scene notwithstanding, it’s physical comedy gold. Howard doesn’t fare as well, often sidelined by injury when she’s not deemed necessary. The ragtag gang of helpers are mostly perfunctory. Jeff Goldblum and an angry B.D. Wong both have brief cameos, but deserve better.

On a technical level, the film is a top notch experience. Following the opening moments, inspired by James Cameron’s underwater marvels, we get to see both a T-Rex and a giant sea-bound Mosasaurus attack a helicopter. Sweet. The entire first act, which is one long action chase, is actually a white-knuckle ride of pure fun. Even amidst this chaos, the vision of a lone dinosaur left behind in a maelstrom of fire and fury might just elicit a tear or two. Michael Giacchino’s score channels both John Williams, and occasionally Bernard Hermann, in its scale.

JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM is a missed opportunity. Covering much of the same ground we already saw in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. It might leave us with an incredibly cool setup for future instalments, but it just means this was ultimately a long and messy walk-up to another film entirely.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2018 | US | DIR: J.A. Bayona | WRITERS: Colin Trevorrow, Derek Connolly | CAST: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, James Cromwell, Toby Jones, Ted Levine | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 128 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 21 June 2018 (AUS)[/stextbox]

June 14, 2018
Official: Danny Boyle directs Bond 25 for 2019 release

So it’s official after all: Danny Boyle is directing the 25th James Bond film, and it’s set for a 25 October 2019 release date. As previously confirmed, Daniel Craig will be reprising his role as the ultimate British agent with a licence to kill. Universal have also won the rights to distribute the film.

EON Productions’ Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli made a statement to the press confirming the details of the historic shoot:

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]We are delighted to announce that the exceptionally talented Danny Boyle will be directing Daniel Craig in his fifth outing as James Bond in the 25th installment of the franchise. We will begin shooting Bond 25 at Pinewood Studios in December with our partners at MGM and thrilled that Universal will be our international distributor.[/stextbox]

Prior to Universal, Sony had been the global distributor for the Daniel Craig pictures. The film will begin production 3 December 2018. Following the UK premiere, MGM will release the film in the United States on 8 November 2019 through a partnership with Annapurna Pictures.

BOND 25 will be written by Academy Award nominee John Hodge, who has been working with Boyle since Shallow Grave. His films include Trainspotting, The Beach, Trance…well, Boyle’s filmography really. Minus the 28 Days Later series.

May 25, 2018
Final ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ trailer and poster arrives

Universal Pictures has unleashed the final trailer and poster for JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM, due out in Australian cinemas on 21 June 2018. It’s a curious mix of action and flat-out horror tropes, as can be seen from the still image above. You can check out the full trailer in the embed below.

It’s been four years since theme park and luxury resort Jurassic World was destroyed by dinosaurs out of containment. Isla Nublar now sits abandoned by humans while the surviving dinosaurs fend for themselves in the jungles. When the island’s dormant volcano begins roaring to life, Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) mount a campaign to rescue the remaining dinosaurs from this extinction-level event. Owen is driven to find Blue, his lead raptor who’s still missing in the wild, and Claire has grown a respect for these creatures she now makes her mission. Arriving on the unstable island as lava begins raining down, their expedition uncovers a conspiracy that could return our entire planet to a perilous order not seen since prehistoric times.

Stars Pratt and Howard return alongside James Cromwell, Ted Levine, Justice Smith, Geraldine Chaplin, Daniella Pineda, Toby Jones, Rafe Spall and Isabella Sermon, while BD Wong and Jeff Goldblum reprise their roles from earlier installments.

Directed by J.A. Bayona (The Impossible), the epic action-adventure is written by Jurassic World’s director, Trevorrow, and its co-writer, Derek Connolly. Producers Frank Marshall and Pat Crowley once again partner with Spielberg and Trevorrow in leading the filmmakers for this stunning installment. Belén Atienza joins the team as a producer.

April 19, 2018
Review: Pacific Rim Uprising

It turns out that the apocalypse was not so much cancelled as postponed. Following 2013’s Pacific Rim, the apocalypse was shifted to Boardroom B, a new invite list of attendees was sent out, and catering was informed of the changes. So to quote this sequel, “we’re going with giant robots again,” and there isn’t a damn thing wrong with that.

Set 10 years after the war between humans and the kaiju, Jake Pentecost (John Boyega) lives a life of crime far removed from his hero father Stacker, who died in the Battle of the Breach. After he and young jaeger engineer Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny) fall foul of the law, the duo is drawn back into the world of giant robot piloting by Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), Jake’s adopted sister. However, when a rogue jaeger attacks Sydney during a ceremony, Jake and fellow jeager ranger Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood) attempt to save the world.

You have to admire a movie that delivers exactly what it promises on the back of the box. While Guillermo del Toro’s film had a certain panache, and a self-awareness of the history of the genre, it was essentially about giant robots fighting monsters. Incoming director Steven S. DeKnight (TV’s Spartacus, Daredevil) wastes little time in bringing us back to this basic concept, even if we have to be a little bit patient before we see any actual kaiju.

In fact, it’s jaeger versus jaeger for the first two acts of the film. For us natives of Sydney, the destruction of Circular Quay and the surrounding harbourside suburbs was as disturbing as it is kind of cool. By the time we get up to the monumental mega-kaiju fight, a seriously spectacular clash of the CG titans on the streets of Tokyo, the script doesn’t even pretend it isn’t blatantly riffing on its Japanese influences.

PACIFIC RIM UPRISING is one of those sequels that is ultimately perfunctory. The giant fights are spectacular and technically proficient, but they don’t really come from any kind of underlying drama. Indeed, in the words of at least one character “That was supposed to be epic, but it wasn’t.” The dialogue is still cheesy (even with four screenwriters), the supporting cast is tropey, but it’s still hard not to feel your inner 12-year-old squeeing in delight.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2018 | US | DIRECTORS: Steven S. DeKnight | WRITERS: Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder, Steven S. DeKnight, T.S. Nowlin | CAST: John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Jing Tian, Cailee Spaeny, Rinko Kikuchi, Burn Gorman, Adria Arjona, Zhang Jin, Charlie Day | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 111 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 22 March 2018 (AUS) [/stextbox]

March 22, 2018
Review: Happy Death Day

Christopher B. Landon’s HAPPY DEATH DAY is not the first film to use the time loop motif as a twist on a familiar genre. Following Before I Fall, it’s not even the first film to do it this year. Yet as the Universal Logo stops and starts several times at the top of the movie, it shows that it’s willing to have some fun with the device.

Directionless college student Tree (Jessica Rothe) wakes up in the dorm room of Carter (Israel Broussard) after a hard night of drinking. Blearily making her way through the gauntlet of college antics, including her fierce sorority sisters and judgmental roommate Lori (Ruby Modine), she attempts to ignore her birthday entirely. However, later that night she is attacked and killed by a masked murderer – only to wake up the next morning in Carter’s room and have to live it all over again.

It might be counter-intuitive, but you have to give writer Scott Lobdell (best known for his comic book work) some props for originality. Sure, there’s more than a few shades of Groundhog Day, a classic that the film namechecks in acknowledgement. Yet the application of the device to the horror genre for the purpose of comedy is disarmingly delightful, especially given that it effectively becomes a whodunnit slasher with a single victim for the most part.

Landon doesn’t take long in this 96 minute flick to get into the groove of the time loop, setting up a series of gauntlets to either avoid or exploit later in the plot. There’s even an attempt to add some rules to Tree’s infinite lives, such as her body starting to feel the toll of the repeated murders. It’s a neat idea, but aside from adding a little bit of a non-specific ticking clock, it’s never really explored any further.

So what makes this work is the presence of the carismatic Rothe, who gets a genuine character arc as the film progresses. Rejecting the ‘nice’ image of most Final Girls, Tree is difficult to like in the opening scenes, and not just because of her ridiculous name. Pushing away virtually everybody with her gruff attitude, it’s remarkable that we begin to feel some level of empathy with her and even like her by third act.

There’s a lot of moments in HAPPY DEATH DAY that don’t stand up to closer inspection, but the inherent cheekiness to the piece allows the film to get away with much of it. While never as consciously satirical as the Scream franchise, or as sharp a take-down of the Insta-generation as Tragedy Girls, it’s definitely a few notches above the average horror flick and maybe even worth a repeat visit.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | US | DIRECTOR: Christopher B. Landon | WRITERS: Scott Lobdell | CAST: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 96 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 12 October 2017 (AUS) [/stextbox]

October 12, 2017