SECOND SCREEN
to a dystopian Detroit where the Brick Mansions housing projects are encircled by a high wall and their inhabitants left to their own violent devices.
Walker plays Damien, the courageous cop who wants to close down the enclave’s drug gangs, while rapper-turned-actor RZA plays his nemesis, Tremaine, the local Mr Big. Tremaine threatens to blow up the city unless his ransom is met.
With David Belle, expert in obstacle-training regime Parkour, returning as the vigilante Lino, there’s lots of spectacular jumping off buildings. But sadly there’s also lots of bulging muscles, mindless murder, macho posturing and plain bad acting, too.
Tarzan is an animated and fanciful updating of the familiar ‘king of the jungle’ story that blends it
with Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, Jules Verne’s Journey
To The Centre Of The Earth and, thanks to an ancient meteor promising almost limitless power, even Avatar. With such over-elaboration, it’s not surprising it relies on heavy-handed narration to keep us on track.
Orphaned by a helicopter crash in Africa as his family returned from an expedition to find the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, Greystoke Jr is raised by gorillas. But his life of grunting and swinging through the trees changes for ever when the teenage daughter of his parents’ guide returns to Africa. It’s Jane Porter, of course. But with that meteor still lurking, we’re pretty sure the course of this love is not going to run smooth.
The film has decent 3D animation and delivers one or two modestly moving moments. But it’s hard to warm to a Tarzan who cuts his way into his girlfriend’s tent with a knife and then plays with her underwear, or indeed to a Jane who’s been kitted out in such a tight T-shirt.