Deep blue sea

NANCY ( Blake Lively), a medical student on a break from med school, relationships and her family, visits a “secret beach” for a spot of surfing. Unfortunately, the surrounding waters happen to be the feeding grounds of a great white shark and so she ends up hurt and stranded on a small rocky island far from shore, with Millennial Bruce swimming around in search of his next meal.

And that’s about all there is to the story in this gorgeously- shot adven- ture- suspense- survival yarn.

Pretty fin ... er, thin stuff to build a movie on, for sure, hence the tacked- on family drama and sad backstory ( and gratuitous bikini shots of Mrs Deadpool). But get past all that and the second half of the movie is pretty well done, even if it seems to rewrite the laws of nature at every turn.

Nancy is a resourceful heroine and the shark attacks are effectively entertaining, even startling. A bit short on substance to be the JAWS of this generation, as some have made it out to be, but a good watch nonetheless.

LET’S talk about Bret. He’s ruggedly handsome, has super gorgeous hair and looks like he hasn’t showered in days.

Bret also really, really, really – in a Carly Rae Jepsen way – likes Becca, who has serious commitment issues. But I guess that’s what happens when a girl grows up with a mentally deranged mother WHILE being haunted by a supernatural entity named Diana who only appears in the dark. Now, Diana is the opposite of Becca – she’s super clingy.

But foolishly loyal Bret is willing to look past all that crazy. And in the few moments that he appears during this roller- coaster, heart- pumpingly jolting, shriek- inducing and effectively terrifying horror ride; you can’t help but root for the dishevelled loser- ish two- dimen-

DIRECTOR Renny Harlin’s name today is synonymous with crap. It wasn’t always like that. He used to be a Hollywood hit- maker in the early 1990s, churning out actioners like Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger and the underrated The Long Kiss Goodnight, before the infamous 1995 flop Cutthroat Island permanently sank his career. When I heard Harlin was to direct Jackie Chan’s latest comedy adventure, I feared the worst for Chan.

Surprisingly, the final product is daft, cheerful and harmless summer fun. Yes, it may be clunky in its screenplay and its delivery of English dialogue, being a China- HK co- production after all, but the light, delightfully breezy tone throughout is a much- needed dose of hilarious silliness to counter the over- seriousness of modern- day Hollywood.

As we follow Inspector Bennie Chan’s ( Chan) cross- country quest to bring American con artist Connor Watts ( Johnny Knoxville) from Russia to Macau to aid Chan’s troubled niece ( Fan Bingbing), punches and kicks are thrown acrobatically, bodies swing through the air, quips and gags fly at a

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sional boyfriend.

Because when in life- threatening danger amidst the presence of the terrifying Diana, the man is resourceful enough to utilise technology for those hilariously unexpected lightbulb moments. Bret is smart. Be like Bret. – furious pace, and the whole thing looks like a good China tourism ad.

The plot is rushed and forgettable, and the initial title cards would make even the most ardent Tarantino/ Ritchie fans cringe, but the whole thing is done in good spirit. It’s the kind of movie Chan would have made between the mid- 1980s and the mid- 1990s with Stanley Tong, albeit with less sophisticated martial arts choreography due to his age. No matter; Chan and Knoxville – surprisingly good here in a restrained riff of his Jackass persona – make a good comedy team, and I may forgive Harlin for The Legend Of Hercules after this frothy romp. He hasn’t made a film this entertaining since 2004’ s Mindhunters. –

I DID something while watching Kabali, something I’ve judged others for doing in the past. I played with my phone in the cinema. The only person next to me was sleeping soundly, so no, the brightness of the screen didn’t affect other moviegoers. Anyway, my point is ... Kabali is a drag.

It’s a painfully slow movie without a concrete storyline to warrant my attention for the entire ride. The introduction of

FIRST & foremost, let’s say it would be unfair to dismiss this effort as being just “Fast & Furious in space” because of the presence of that other franchise’s principal director, Justin Lin. Granted, there is some fairly unbelievable, erm, starship kung fu in the finale, but Lin also delivers a Trek tale that’s full of lovely charactercentric moments and nods to series lore while driving the action at a breakneck pace.

Well into their five- year mission of exploration, the crew of the USS Enterprise come up against a formidable threat and find themselves scattered and (

SPEAKING as a huge, HUGE fan of the original Ghostbusters ( who once made the Ecto- 1 out of LEGO before LEGO actually made an Ecto1), this was a worthy remake.

This is a new sort of Ghostbusters, one that is not haunted by the spectre of the original, but manages to take its fun- filled spirit and transform it into something completely new. If I had been watching this as a kid or teenager, I’d totally hero- worship these Ghostbusters the same way I hero- worshipped the Rajnikanth as Kabali gave me chills, but that’s about it. After that, the chills were courtesy of the air- conditioning blasting on max in the theatre. hunted on a hostile world.

Beyond plays out like a very good episode of the original series, although I found it lacked the thoughtprovoking qualities of the very best of those ( and some of the movies with the original cast). This so- called “Kelvin Timeline” – as the JJ Abrams- rebooted Trek universe is named – also seems to suffer from some dodgy villainy, with none of the three films so far featuring baddies who can be considered truly immortal. What is this, the Marvel Cinematic Universe? original team.

Speaking of hero worship, Kate McKinnon’s eccentric engineer Jillian Holtzman steals the show, especially one

It is unfortunate that Rajnikanth, after many years, gets an opportunity to be an actor – not just a superstar on screen – and his talent is wasted on Kabali. Yes, gangsterism is rife in Malaysia and many Indian lives are intertwined with that way of life. But with Kabali, it neither discusses a solution nor does it offer hope that things will get better.

If Rajnikanth really wanted to be part of a movie that would make a difference in the lives of Malaysian Indians, he should’ve taken on a role in Jagat instead. –

The quibbles aside ( at least, it has no zombie Tribbles), Beyond is still a fine, fun romp with two moments that will make longtime Star Trek fans tear up, no matter how they may feel about the Kelvin films. Some beloved things are simply ... transcendent.

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particular scene in the finale that I have named Holtzman’s Ballet Of Ectoplasm, or the Holtz, for short.

So, forget the trailers and ignore the online hate. These new Ghostbusters are definitely the ones you want to call when there’s something strange in your neighbourhood. –