Film Review of the Week

Action

Masters Of The Universe (12A)

Review: Rapper turned filmmaker Travis Knight, who reinvigorated the Transformers series with Bumblebee, demonstrates a similarly deft touch with a rollicking live-action adventure based on the popular toys and the 1980s animated series which was a staple of my adolescent escapism. A playful wink to a 1987 film version headlined by Dolph Lundgren adds fuel to a fan-service fire that burns bright throughout this nostalgia-speckled origin story, replete with three additional scenes in the end credits that signpost where the franchise may go next.

Fifteen years after his mother Queen Marlena (Charlotte Riley) sent him through a portal from Castle Grayskull to protect the legendary Sword of Power, Prince Adam (now played Nicholas Galitzine) is trapped in a thankless job in HR on Earth as Adam Glenn, desperately searching for the weapon. He locates the mighty blade and ventures back to Eternia with childhood friend Teela (Camila Mendes) to discover Skeletor (Jared Leto) and sorceress Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie) have plunged the kingdom into darkness.

The prince’s awkward return signals a bloodthirsty final battle. Adam prepares to realise his destiny as He-Man, the most powerful warrior in the universe, flanked by hard-punching Fisto (Johannes Haukur Johannesson), headbutt specialist Ram-Man (Jon Xue Zhang), mechanised soldier Roboto (voiced by Kristen Wiig) and feline companion Battle Cat.

Masters Of The Universe is overlong at 141 minutes and childhood scenes could be trimmed, but there’s an innate sense of kinetic energy once the prince returns home. Bombastic action sequences seldom touch the brakes including an airborne chase that nods to Return Of The Jedi. Galitzine embraces the goofiness of earthbound Adam but convinces equally as a swaggering musclebound hero who has yet to accept his calling. Leto has a blast capturing Skeletor’s wild personality swings from sadistic tyrant and bully to flamboyantly camp disruptor and self-aggrandising nincompoop. The script arms him with a rolodex of glorious innuendos and insults.

The camera luxuriates on Galitzine’s physique and Skeletor fixates on the long sword dangling between He-Man’s delightful thighs (the villain’s words, not mine), but four screenwriters drive home a message that a true hero demonstrates empathy and understanding rather than a six-pack. In the same way Barbie, based on another Mattel property, skilfully explored societal expectations on women and girls, Masters Of The Universe trains a lens on representations of masculinity. King Randor (James Purefoy) teaches young Adam (Artie Wilkinson-Hunt) that a man must be physically strong (“This world is no place for the weak!”), public displays of compassion are mocked, and Adam’s roommate (Christian Vunipola) conceals he has been crying at The Notebook. To transform into He-Man, Adam holds aloft his sword and bellows: “I have the power!” The power of Knight’s film is its willingness to poke fun at lore through tear-glistened contemporary eyes.

Comedy

Savage House (15)

Review: The peasants are revolting but it’s the gluttonous aristocrats who stink – blame a gangrenous wound – in writer-director Peter Glanz’s scabrous comedy of errors set in the powdered bosom of 18th-century England. Cast in the mould of Oscar-winning period romp The Favourite, Savage House repeatedly bares its discoloured teeth then fails to bite down hard and draw blood to vividly depict the moral decay of a privileged class as a Jacobite uprising threatens to upend the pecking order.

Malodorous aristocrat Sir Chauncey Savage (Richard E Grant) and wife Lady Savage (Claire Foy) are festering pustules on the bottom of upper-class society, shunned by almost everyone with power and influence. The couple are forced to sell off her family jewels to keep debtors at bay while Sir Chauncey swindles friends and acquaintances, who are partial to gambling, with his loaded dice. Manservant Reginald Halifax (Jack Farthing) and housemaid Dorothy Neville (Bel Powley) begrudgingly do attend to the whims of their master and mistress but secretly plot an untimely demise for Sir Chauncey using poison to elevate their stations without arousing suspicion.

Fate smiles at the Savages and their daughter Fanny (Kila Lord Cassidy) through a grimace when an ill-timed outbreak of pox forces the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire to seek alternative lodgings for a night during their regional tour. The nobles choose the insufferable, social-climbing spouses as their new hosts. Buoyed by the prospect of bona fide titled guests under their roof, Sir Chauncey hires two inexperienced footmen, Leslie (Tom Godwin) and Darby (Tony Way), and pressures existing staff to pull out all the stops – on a budget – to impress the Duke and Duchess. “Let’s be our very best!” Lady Savage encourages staff during a pep talk. Alas, the master’s ailing health and a solar eclipse coincide with the Devonshires’ eagerly anticipated arrival.

Bookmarked into seven increasingly grim chapters, Savage House settles comfortably between a bile-slathered satire and period farce, offering tantalising glimpses of what might have been if Glanz’s script had careened uncontrollably in one direction with unruly or mean-spirited abandon rather than trundling along a path of least resistance. Pungent production design and suitably weathered costumes convey the disrepair (and eventual squalor) of the house of Savage and its odious occupants. Grant is clearly having a blast nudging his extravagantly wigged scoundrel to the brink of a nervous breakdown while Foy plays the straightwoman to his outbursts including myriad tantrums at the dinner table.

A droll narrator (Robert Bathurst) delivers choice epithets about the central couple’s delicious downfall, like when Sir Chauncey’s physical disposition is likened to an undercooked souffle. “He was collapsing into himself,” quips the narrator with lip-smacking delight. Solid work from the leads and impressive technical credits help Glanz’s film to avoid a similar implosion.

Comedy

Scary Movie (15)

Review: It’s been 13 years since horror spoof Scary Movie 5 plundered the Paranormal Activity films for meagre laughs and continued a poor run of form without the creative involvement of the Wayans brothers, who had masterminded the first two instalments of the franchise. The siblings return behind and in front of the camera for a “rebootiquel”, which bolts together plot strands from Final Destination: Bloodlines, Scream 7 and the 2019 Octavia Spencer horror Ma as a flimsy framework for the usual array of potty-mouthed tomfoolery.

Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), friends Ray Wilkins (Shawn Wayans) and Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall), and Brenda’s pot-smoking brother Shorty (Marlon Wayans) survived the bloodbath masterminded by Ghostface 26 years ago and have coped with the catastrophe in different ways. Cindy has become a paranoia-gripped hermit, safely cocooned inside her booby-trapped home. Brenda is trying to foster healthy relationships with her children, the twins Dei (Sydney Park) and Chad (Gregg Wayans), while she supports Ray with life after conversion therapy to “straighten out” his urges for other men. As for Shorty, he’s proud to be celebrating his 25th year as a senior at Woodsville High School.

A new Ghostface-masked killer with a voice changer to conceal their identity emerges from the shadows and deliberately targets Cindy’s daughters Sara (Olivia Rose Keegan) and Tuesday (Savannah Lee Nassif). Sara seeks out her estranged mother with creepy boyfriend Jack (Cameron Scott Roberts) in tow. Meanwhile, delightfully dim-witted police officer Doofy Gilmore (Dave Sheridan) fails to identify any prime suspects for the slaughter and headline-chasing reporter Gail Hailstorm (Cheri Oteri) forcefully inserts herself into the developing news story, searching for a scoop that doesn’t include a knife lodged in her back.

Scary Movie arrives during a golden period for horror on the big screen with Backrooms and Obsession breaking box office records. Alas, that shimmering lustre doesn’t rub off on the sixth chapter in the slash-happy spoofology, which struggles and strains to wring an audible belly laugh from observational material. Four Wayans – Marlon, Shawn, Keenen Ivory and Craig – are credited as screenwriters along with Rick Alvarez and they look to hits including Longlegs, M3GAN, Terrifier 3, The Substance and Weapons for obvious inspiration. Engineering one sequence around a stand-out moment from Get Out feels somewhat dated: it’s almost a decade since Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning race relations nightmare debuted at Sundance Film Festival.

The opening with Teyana Taylor (playing herself with swaggering aplomb) and ghoulish sight gags with a Final Destination theme park elicit smirks but director Michael Tiddes’ ramshackle rollercoaster ride largely heads downhill from there with only fleeting airtime. Wazzup! Not much.