ALSO SHOWING
PATRICK (18) ★★★★
★
THE smallest wardrobe budget in movie history meets cinema’s most deadpan detective in a quirky Belgian comedy from Peaky Blinders director Tim Mielants.
Kevin Janssens plays Patrick, a handyman who works at his parents’ nudist camp.
When Patrick’s dad dies, the loner channels his feelings by turning detective. There is a hammershaped space in his tool rack, perhaps mirroring a void in his heart. Before he can mourn, he needs to find out which nudist has nicked his hammer and where they could have possibly hidden it.
Every middle-aged camper seems to have a secret agenda, including Jemaine Clement’s rock star and the pushy woman (Ariane van Vliet) who tryies to seduce him with jars of jam.
The tone skitters between the comical, the sinister and the tragic, often in the same scene.
That’s mostly down to the performances, not just because everyone is strolling around with their bits out.
SKYFIRE (12)
“FOR millions of years, mankind lived in fear of nature, we ran from it, we hid from it, we worshipped it,” says South African entrepreneur Jack Harris ( Jason Isaacs). “But now we’ve conquered it for our own entertainment!”
Harris is talking to a group of Chinese investors in the lobby of a luxury resort and theme park on the slopes of an active volcano. If any of the money men had seen Jurassic Park, this would be the bit where they run screaming for the revolving doors.
So when lava starts flowing, followed by landslides and flaming missiles, it’s hard to have any sympathy for the victims. But if you’re in the right mood, the clunky dialogue and ropey special effects could provide much-needed laughs.
This is China’s first big-budget disaster movie and action scenes are on solid ground with Brit Simon West (Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) at the helm.
A father/daughter duo of volcanologists (Wang Xueqi and Hannah Quinlivan) try to save a small village with woeful evacuation procedures.
But mostly, this is a case of trying to guess which character is going to buy it next.
The above films are showing on digital now. Reviews by Andy Lea.