Action
BAD BOYS FOR LIFE (15)
Review: If it is possible to teach old dogs new tricks, Bad Boys For Life doesn’t try. Arriving 17 years after the bloated and gratuitously violent second instalment, the supposedly final mission of Miami detectives Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) barks to the same tune as its predecessors, albeit without Michael Bay at the helm. The bombastic ringmaster of the first two films makes a pointless cameo in a party scene but the directorial reins are firmly held here by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. The Moroccan-born duo share Bay’s penchant for blowing up anything that moves, punctuated by salty wisecracks.
A heady scent of nostalgia permeates as Smith and Lawrence work tirelessly to rekindle the sparky rat-a-tat banter of their badge-wielding buddies. It takes a good half-hour for the old chemistry to show signs of recovery and when the laughs come, they are sporadic. Three scriptwriters concoct a perfunctory plot to reunite the leading men and sideswipe us with a final reel twist that teeters on risibility, borrowed wholesale from one of the telenovelas that Marcus watches during his retirement. Action sequences are gleefully overblown, including a terrific motorcycle and sidecar chase, but digital effects can be clumsy. An unconvincing computer-generated doppelganger of Smith performs a dangerous descent during a frenetic rooftop pursuit and shatters the suspension of disbelief.
Mike barely survives a ride-by shooting. When he has recovered from his injuries, he hungers for revenge. Long-time partner Marcus, who has retired from the force to spend more time with his wife (Theresa Randle) and daughter Megan (Bianca Bethune), warns Mike against playing judge, jury and executioner. His wise counsel falls on deaf ears and Mike goes to war flanked by a team of fresh-faced recruits named AMMO led by old flame Rita (Paola Nunez).
Her three-strong squad of Dorn (Alexander Ludwig), Kelly (Vanessa Hudgens) and Rafe (Charles Melton) are hi-tech hunters, who identify Isabel Aretas (Kate del Castillo) and her son Armando (Jacob Scipio) as the architect of Mike’s close brush with death and the shooter. Mike persuades Marcus to join him for a final hurrah across the border in Mexico to the chagrin of their antacid-chugging superior, Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano). “Bad boys ain’t really boys anymore,” he reminds the pair.
Hard-wired to entertain fans of the series, Bad Boys For Life leans heavily on Smith and Lawrence’s bromantic harmony and a few callbacks including the reappearance of Megan’s suitor Reggie. New additions Ludwig, Hudgens and Melton are barely developed as fully-rounded characters beyond their tactical weaponry skills. It’s a missed opportunity when the script shows clear intent to continue the saga with a younger generation. For now, they are locked and loaded but firing blanks.
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Drama
BOMBSHELL (15)
Review: Power taints and corrupts in Bombshell, director Jay Roach’s provocative drama inspired by the real-life sexual harassment scandal which engulfed Fox News and precipitated the downfall of its chief executive Roger Ailes. Screenwriter Charles Randolph, who shared the Oscar with Adam McKay for the whip-smart script to The Big Short, employs similar stylistic devices – characters breaking the fourth wall, pithy voice overs – to ricochet between the viewpoints of three women (two real, one fictional) with the urgency of a breaking news story.
It’s incendiary entertainment punctuated by a few knockout scenes including a sickening audition in Ailes’s office, which involves one naive employee tearfully hitching up her skirt to show her legs until her underwear is exposed because the CEO claims that TV news is “a visual medium”. Prosthetics and make-up facilitate Charlize Theron’s startling transformation into Megyn Kelly, the fiercely outspoken commentator and anchor, who suffered venomous abuse after she berated Donald Trump for his treatment of women during the 2016 Republican debate. Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie add fire to the film’s gym-toned belly, the latter fully deserving her Oscar nomination with a powerhouse performance that tears the heart out of our chests.
In 2016, Gretchen Carlson (Kidman), co-anchor of the morning news show Fox And Friends, meets with lawyers after she endures sexism in the workplace and is demoted to a graveyard slot in the station schedule. She prepares to file a harassment suit against chief executive Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) and is confident other women in the company will support her version of events. Instead, female co-workers wear Team Roger t-shirts and issue public statements of support for him. “I jumped off a cliff. I thought one of them would stand with me,” laments Gretchen to her legal team.
One of Fox News’s most prominent anchors, Megyn Kelly (Theron), remains suspiciously quiet. She confides in her team – executive producer Gil Norman (Rob Delaney), researcher Julia Clarke (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and assistant Lily Balin (Liv Hewson) – that she wants to support Gretchen but is reluctant to put her head above the parapet without the support of other colleagues. Meanwhile, ambitious new arrival Kayla Pospisil (Robbie) worms her way into Ailes’s inner sanctum to persuade him to put her on camera. “I see myself as an influencer in the Jesus space,” she coos, blissfully unaware of the Faustian pact she must strike in exchange for preferential treatment. “I’m discreet,” growls Ailes, “but unforgiving…”
Bombshell bristles with intent but doesn’t always draw blood, delving only so far beneath the powdered and preened surface of a pervasive culture of exploitation. Concealed within a fat suit, Lithgow is deliciously loathsome as the leering puppet master, who professes his innocence until the bitter, bloody, bile-drenched end.
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Legal Drama
JUST MERCY (12A)
Review: Based on lawyer Bryan Stevenson’s memoir Just Mercy: A Story Of Justice And Redemption, writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton’s courtroom drama adds a thick layer of Hollywood sheen to the true story of an Alabama pulpwood worker, who attempted to overturn his murder conviction from death row. The script is tethered to the facts of the case. There are no last-gasp twists in the judge’s deliberations nor any surprise witnesses, whose evidence provides a missing piece of the narrative.
Just Mercy is a deeply conventional courtroom drama, galvanised by strong performances from Michael B Jordan and Jamie Foxx as the impassioned legal counsel and prisoner resigned to his grim fate, who learn valuable lessons about trust during four years of appeals. The two actors savour meaty dialogue, countering hope with weary cynicism in energetic verbal exchanges against a backdrop of racial discrimination in 1980s Alabama – a southern state with a Latin motto that translates as “We dare defend our rights”. Oscar-winner Brie Larson makes the most of limited screen time and London-born co-star Rafe Spall wrestles with a questionable southern accent as the hard-nosed district attorney, whose conscience might be pricked by a miscarriage of justice on his watch.
On November 1 1986, the town of Monroeville, where Harper Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird, recoils from news of a violent crime in the beating heart of the community. Eighteen-year-old part-time clerk Ronda Morrison has been strangled and shot dead at Jackson Cleaners. A trial lasting a day and a half finds local man Walter McMillian (Foxx), known as Johnny D, guilty of the heinous act. The conviction hinges on eyewitness evidence from Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson). Sheriff Tate (Michael Harding) publicly professes Walter’s guilt and a judge overrules the jury’s recommendation of life behind bars to hand down a death sentence.
Two years later, idealistic lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Jordan) takes up Walter’s case and braces for a hostile reception. “What you’re doing is gonna make a lot of people upset,” warns his mother. “You better be careful.” Bryan co-founds the Equal Justice Initiative with southern firebrand Eva Ansley (Larson) and visits Holman Correctional Facility, where Walter is awaiting execution. The lawyer attempts to buoy his client’s spirits but Walter is aware of the slim chances of success against District Attorney Tommy Chapman (Spall). “You know how many people been freed from Alabama death row?” Walter sternly asks Bryan. “None… You ain’t gonna be the one to change that.”
Just Mercy is a showcase for Jordan and Foxx, who forge a compelling and moving screen partnership that energises the bloated running time. The emotional beats of Cretton’s script are predictable but there is undeniable satisfaction when they land, accompanied by heavenly harmonies from a gospel choir on the soundtrack.
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Musical Drama
WAVES (15)
Review: Light. Shock. Heat. Ocean. Sound. A multitude of waves crest and crash with devastating consequences in writer-director Trey Edward Shults’s semi-autobiographical third feature. Opening with the soothing image of a 16-year-old girl riding her bicycle, the wind caressing her hair as shafts of sunlight pierce a tree canopy, Waves exposes the fractures in a South Florida family with urgency and startling precision. Working closely with cinematographer Drew Daniels, Shults conjures a chaotic collage of vibrant images set to a hip soundtrack populated by Animal Collective, Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, Radiohead and Kanye West. If it’s possible for a film to swagger then Waves does just that in a bruising, nihilistic opening hour that can barely contain the youthful energy of the cast with nervous handheld camerawork that spins a dizzying 360 degrees in confined spaces.
All of that pent-up energy explodes at an alcohol-soaked house party, delivering a tear-stained crescendo which neatly bookmarks the film’s second act: a contemplative quest for healing that invites the audience to draw breath and recover alongside the gut-punched characters. This forlorn search for closure, which introduces Lucas Hedges in a pivotal role, dials down the directorial brio a couple of notches and loses some of the relentless narrative drive and focus amid the tears and recriminations.
Eighteen-year-old high school student Tyler Williams (Kelvin Harrison Jr) is a star athlete on the wrestling team thanks to relentless training and sparring with his domineering father, Ronald (Sterling K Brown). “We are not afforded the luxury of being average,” the patriarch sternly reminds his boy. “Gotta be 10 times better just to get anywhere.” Those dreams of excellence are threatened by a level five SLAP tear to Tyler’s shoulder, which requires surgery to avoid permanent, irreversible damage.
Instead, the teenager defies his doctor’s grim prognosis and secretly pops his father’s prescription painkillers to push through the discomfort and maintain his golden boy status in the eyes of stepmother Catherine (Renee Elise Goldberry). Away from the wrestling mat, Tyler nurtures his relationship with girlfriend Alexis (Alexa Demie) and keeps an eye out for his sister Emily (Taylor Russell). Events spiral sickeningly out of control when Alexis learns she is pregnant and the young couple run a gauntlet of angry protesters outside an abortion clinic.
Waves is anchored by a mesmerising performance from Harrison Jr, who is nominated for the Rising Star Award at the 2020 Baftas. He burns white hot with raw emotion and the reduced visibility of his tormented teenager in the second half is acutely felt. By clearly dividing his picture, Shults over-extends by 15 minutes but the calm after the storm is a moving counterpoint to the colour-soaked primal scream of the opening hour. As Tyler’s father would probably agree, it’s better to push too hard than fall far short.
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Anime
WEATHERING WITH YOU (12A)
Review: Centuries of Japanese tradition are drenched by visually arresting meteorological fantasy in Weathering With You, writer-director Makoto Shinkai’s eagerly awaited follow-up to the 2016 anime Your Name. Lightning almost strikes twice as Shinkai raises a conductor rod into the swirling storm of climate change to pluck our heartstrings with nascent love on the streets of Tokyo during a freak rainstorm.
In a cute touch which also highlights some of this film’s shortcomings, Weathering With You incorporates fleeting cameos for Taki (voiced by Ryunosuke Kamiki) and Mitsuha (Mone Kamishiraishi), whose body-swapping exploits in Your Name shattered box office records for a Japanese picture. Their impact on the storyline is minimal but the presence of these richly drawn and relatable characters is a reminder of the narrative clarity that is immediately lacking here. Shinkai replays some stylistic flourishes from his previous picture, unleashing a tsunami of dazzling water effects to move back and forth between real and otherworldly realms as he writes another valentine to the ebb and flow of daily life in the Japanese capital.
The rain-sodden hero is high school student Hodaka Morishima (Kotaro Daigo), who runs away from home to seek his fortune in Tokyo. Unable to afford a roof over his head or food in his belly, Hodaka relies on the comfort of strangers including writer Keisuke Suga (Shun Oguri). The older man offers Hodaka a job on his occult magazine, which includes room and board, and the grateful teenager learns how to chase down a story by shadowing spunky, scooter-riding college student Natsumi (Tsubasa Honda). She is fascinated by rumours of Sunshine Girls, who can manipulate the weather and supposedly banish storm clouds that hang perpetually over the city.
A tip-off leads Hodaka to a bright-eyed girl called Hina Amano (Nana Mori), who demonstrates the ability to usher bright sunshine for a few hours through concentrated prayer. The teenagers advertise Hina’s gift and help a widow to celebrate the anniversary of her husband’s death under a clear blue sky. Hina’s little brother Nagisa (Sakura Kiryu) joins the adventure and bears witness to the physical toll on his sister, which brings the youngsters to the attention of police officer Yasui (Sei Hiraizumi).
Weathering With You lacks the strong emotional hook of Your Name but still impresses with its fantastical storyline. Writer-director Shinkai serves up a hearty feast for the senses, blending hand-drawn and computer animation to dizzying effect. He garnishes with enough heartache to warrant us being soaked to the skin for almost two hours. An English language dubbed version featuring the vocal talents of Lee Pace, Alison Brie and Riz Ahmed will be available at selected cinemas for audiences daunted by subtitles.
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