Zack Snyder fans had only just recovered from his four-hour remix of Justice League when the bombastic director launched the next action-packed chapter of his career. The two stars ooze charisma and, even if the script meanders, the film will surely have interest as a historical document: so this is what it was like to live through Covid. The reason it’s empty is that the film was shot, by Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, during lockdown. Zendaya and John David Washington star as a glamorous couple working through their relationship issues in an empty apartment. It’s a by turns poignant and hilarious accent of Forte’s rise, his descent into drugs and infidelity – and his strained relationship with Lampoon co-founder Henry Beard (an unrecognisable Domhnall Gleeson). Straight-to-video production values don’t do it any favours, but this biopic about the founder of American satirical magazine National Lampoon, Douglas Kenney (Will Forte), has its heart in the right place. Read more: Netflix’s 20 biggest critical flops, from Rebecca to Emily in Paris It comes close to being a great action flick for grown-ups before ultimately fizzling out. And JC Chandor (Collateral) directs the action scenes with pizzaz. It’s hugely flawed – but Affleck is convincing as a guy losing his way amidst divorce and middle age.
VINTAGE GAY MOVIES THE HITCHHIKER MOVIE
This team-up heist movie stars Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnum and Pedro Pascal as old marine corps buddies headed to South America for one final pay-day. But when an outsider (Hilary Swank) makes her way to their bunker, their perfect life is shattered forever. In the far future, a maternal robot (voiced by Rose Byrne) raises a young woman (Clara Rugaard) as her daughter. This rickety-looking science fiction thriller delivers where it counts with a twisting, turning plot and several genuine surprises. Still, the film is a topic of conversation – and you wouldn’t want to feel left out, would you?Ī low-key but gripping relationship drama set in Memphis with Mamoudou Athie as a young man dreaming of becoming a master-sommelier and Courtney B Vance as his hard-to-please father. Wheatley plays it straight and gothic Manderley estate isn’t nearly as creepy as it ought to be. Lily James and Armie Hammer are the unlikely lovers from across the class divide, with Kristin Scott Thomas disapproving Mrs Danvers. The ultimate hate-watch or game attempt at reinventing a classic thriller? Opinions are divided on Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of the Daphne du Maurier novel already immortalised by Hitchcock.