South Wales Echo

INCREDIBLE­S 2 (PG)

-

THERE are few tricks and no treats in writer-director Crispian Mills’s painfully outdated horror comedy set at an elite seat of learning for future prime ministers in leafy Gloucester­shire.

From the moment Michael Sheen wafts into view as the school’s money-grabbing headmaster, who forgets that girls have been permitted into the hallowed halls, Slaughterh­ouse Rulez goes into special measures.

The script grinds through two gears – pedestrian and frenetic – and signposts deaths by positionin­g cast in front of a door or window so they can be torn limb from limb by carnivorou­s beasts, which emerge from a fracking sinkhole.

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost co-star as misfits at the centre of the copious blood-letting but this is definitely not another instalment of the duo’s Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy comprising Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End. They share one brief and superfluou­s scene, which is Michael Sheen as Mr Chapman aka The Bat ★★★★★

IN this animated sequel, public affection is waning for the Superhero Relocation Programme, which supports Bob Parr aka Mr Incredible (voiced by Craig T Nelson) and his wife Helen aka Elastigirl (Holly Hunter). Ardent fan Winston (Bob Odenkirk) and his techno-savvy sister Evelyn (Catherine Keener) propose that Elastigirl fronts a publicity campaign to turn opinion, while Bob takes care of the kids – Violet (Sarah Vowell), Dash (Huck Milner) and Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile). When a masked menace threatens the metropolis, Elastigirl races into the melee, flanked by some superhero wannabes.

■ Download/stream from November 5 and on DVD/Blu-ray from November 12.

defiance of the ruling Tory government.

Her words reverberat­e throughout Peterloo, an impassione­d call to arms across the class divide which builds with sickening inevitabil­ity to the 1819 massacre of protesters at St Peter’s Field in Manchester, which Leigh recreates with all of the sound and fury he can muster.

The cavalry charge should be emotionall­y shattering but it’s a struggle to find faces in the crowd that audiences will care about.

notable for an uncomforta­ble absence of laughs.

More troubling, former Kula Shaker frontman Mills engineers a fight with one critter which – supposedly – necessitat­es actress Hermione Corfield losing her schoolgirl’s blouse so the camera and co-stars can ogle her exposed body.

If a male character offered his shirt in response and went topless to defend her honour, perhaps the scene might not feel so grubby and leering.

A fail grade for on-screen gender equality and representa­tion.

Don Wallace (Finn Cole) is crestfalle­n when his mother Babs (Jo Hartley) secures him a last-minute bed at Slaughterh­ouse School, where cadet training and golf are part of the curriculum.

“It’s like a very exclusive holiday camp!” Babs

 ??  ??
 ??  ?? Elastigirl (voiced by Holly Hunter)
Elastigirl (voiced by Holly Hunter)

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom