Film Review of the Week

Comedy

Joy Ride (15)

Review: Crazy Rich Asians screenwriter Adele Lim flirts with madness in her feature directorial debut, orchestrating a raucous road trip from Seattle to Beijing which lacerates racial stereotypes under the sweetly fluttering banner of sisterly solidarity. Sex, drugs and spring rolls abound in a freewheeling script penned by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao, which bookmarks a study of cultural identity with outrageous and filthy-minded set pieces fuelled by desperation, desire and a motherlode of illegal substances. Joy Ride packs some of the same travel essentials as The Hangover and Bridesmaids and is fitfully hilarious including a running gag about regrettable body art that crescendos with an anatomically intimate camera shot to capture characters’ reactions to the big reveal.

The fab four of Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu and Sabrina Wu shed inhibitions and underwear in pursuit of sniggers, particularly in an opening hour that focuses intently on female sexual fulfilment, or lack thereof – one character’s raging inferno is extinguished by a devoutly religious fiance (Desmond Chiam), who preaches abstinence until marriage. For its satisfying yet contrived climax, Lim’s picture surrenders the slap and tickle to sentimentality and earnest self-reflection, testing the elasticity of emotional bonds with heartfelt declarations on a theme of “You know me better than I know myself”.

Ambitious and hardworking Asian American lawyer Audrey Sullivan (Park) has always believed that she needs to be perfect to belong in the aptly named town of White Hills with adopted parents Joe (David Denman) and Mary (Annie Mumolo). Her upward career trajectory continues with an opportunity to be made a partner at the law firm. To impress her casually racist boss Frank (Timothy Simons) – “I’m an ally”, he insists after throwing a Mulan-themed office party – Audrey must travel to Beijing to close a deal with one of the company’s most important clients (Ronny Chieng).

Audrey’s grasp of Mandarin is loose so her best friend, body positive artist Lolo (Cola), happily tags along as translator and suggests a detour to track down Audrey’s birth mother (Debbie Fan). Chinese soap opera star Kat (Hsu), who was Audrey’s roommate in college, and Lolo’s eccentric cousin Deadeye (Wu) join the life-changing trek across Asia that includes a memorable night with members of the Beijing Kaoyas basketball team.

Joy Ride isn’t as consistently funny as Girls Trip but there are more peaks than troughs in Chevapravatdumrong and Hsiao’s script and the central quartet navigate the emotional gear changes with ease. Lim captures contemporary China through a rose-tinted lens, making no audible or visible comments on events of the past three years. Characters’ insecurities cause the dramatic turbulence and it’s abundantly clear when we need to fasten seatbelts to prepare for a surprisingly smooth landing.

Animation

Just Super (U)

Review: Heroes never give up, even when their own family and friends doubt their nascent superpowers, in a sprightly Norwegian computer-animated coming of age story which nods affectionately to the turbo-charged antics of The Incredibles. Directed by Rasmus A Sivertsen, Just Super glimpses the world through the spectacles of a physically awkward 11-year-old girl, who struggles in the classroom (one scene hints she may have dyslexia) and prefers to play video games than engage with the scary real world. The conflicted tyke’s transformation into fully fledged saviour necessitates a training montage on a rooftop set to Bonnie Tyler’s barnstorming 1984 anthem Holding Out For A Hero and some perfunctory soul-searching.

The English language dubbed version of a script penned by Kamilla Krogsveen with additional writing and contributions from Jesper Sundnes and Philip Lazebnik trades in simple humour including a sardonic educator who tells her favourite pupil: “You make me almost not regret becoming a teacher.” An underlying message that everyone has a special talent, you just need to unlock and nurture it, is merrily drummed home for young audiences who won’t mind the surface-level characterisation so long as a cute ring-tailed lemur is on screen, causing chaos on a train. Sivertsen’s picture chugs efficiently through key moments of self-doubt and redemption during an efficient 76-minute journey time that doesn’t quite live up to the promise of the breezy title.

For decades, an impressively strong masked protector named Super Lion has watched over the residents of the sleepy town of Tusfjord. The identity of this hirsute hero remains a mystery to everyone except for schoolgirl Hedvig (Reilley Ott). She knows Super Lion is her car mechanic father, Leif (Jean Luc Julien), who inherited the mantle from his mother (Priscilla Bergey). Hedvig is next in line to slip into Super Lion’s figure-hugging costume but the clumsy youngster is currently fixated on setting up a video game streaming channel with her classmate and best friend Thomas (Sammy Holroyd).

When a laundry mishap shrinks Super Lion’s trademark attire, Hedvig nervously embraces her destiny with a simple first mission to apprehend an escaped primate. “Any idiot can catch a lemur,” Leif assures his daughter. Alas, Hedvig’s first foray as her enigmatic alter ego is a disaster and a cruel resident publicly dismisses her as “Super Chihuahua”. Fearing dire consequences for Tusfjord, Leif passes over his daughter and chooses his athletically gifted nephew Adrian (Gustav Bergold) as his successor.

Just Super is a pleasant and engaging yarn, which lacks the sophisticated visuals and multi-layered storytelling of other animated films competing for families’ attentions this summer. Ott’s vocal performance endears us to her pint-sized heroine, and action sequences, including the rescue of a runaway pram, are briskly executed. Just fine.

Action

Meg 2: The Trench (12A)

Review: Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, director Ben Wheatley’s clunky Jaws and Jurassic Park hybrid shreds the rules of engagement and takes the monster-mashing mayhem onto dry land. Adapted from the second book of seven (thus far) by American author Steve Alten, Meg 2: The Trench paddles in dramatic shallows, undecided whether to take the battle between humankind and 75ft long predators seriously or go full blown, tongue-in-cheek camp a la Sharknado and its B-movie brethren. Returning scriptwriters Jon and Erich Hoeber and Dean Georgaris make casual attempts at self-awareness.

“I even made poison-tipped bullets just like Jaws 2,” proudly discloses one locked-and-loaded hero who survived the carnage of the 2018 film. The same salty-mouthed character hits the nail on the hammerhead shark when he lambasts the decision to deviate from a mission plan to venture into uncharted territory as “dumbass”. Plenty of moments in Wheatley’s sequel warrant that assessment, from leading man Jason Statham jousting with three hungry megalodons while riding a jet ski to a hastily contrived escape from certain death 25,000 feet beneath the waves.

Meg 2: The Trench cues up Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie to herald the sweat-drenched return of underwater rescue expert Jonas Taylor (Statham). Accompanied by his 14-year-old surrogate daughter Meiying (Sophia Cai) and her uncle Jiuming (Wu Jing) from the Oceanic Institute in China, Jonas prepares to venture back into a cranny of the Mariana Trench where a layer of near-freezing hydrogen sulphide called a thermocline shrouds and contains an ancient ecosystem ruled by voracious megalodons.

Jonas’s friend Mac (Cliff Curtis) and his cohorts DJ (Page Kennedy) and Jess (Skyler Samuels) monitor progress from the Mana One Marine Research Centre. A rogue mining operation overseen by Montes (Sergio Persis-Mencheta), which is extracting rare-earth metals worth billions of dollars from the trench, causes a breach in the protective layer. Megalodons and other monstrous creatures of the deep escape into water surrounding the all-inclusive vacation mecca of Fun Island. To quote the lyrics of Detroit-based rapper Page Kennedy’s song, which plays over the credits: “Spit ’em out, spit ’em out, chomp, megalodon!”

Opening with a digitally rendered diorama that establishes the shark’s credentials at the apex of the Cretaceous food chain, Meg 2: The Trench is a lumbering sequel which repeatedly tips its sun hat to the Jurassic Park franchise. Statham glowers through each preposterous detour from reality, punctuating one kill with a cheeky maritime-themed one-liner. The body count is extortionate, exemplified by an amusingly macabre shot, looking out from the open mouth of one creature as it skims the water’s surface and swallows shrieking swimmers in gnashing gulps. Hook, line and almost a stinker.