SECOND SCREEN
It is only 13 months since more than 70 people perished in the appalling Grenfell Tower disaster and yet Universal, in a display of surely questionable judgment, still think it’s the right moment to release Skyscraper (12A) ★★, a would-be summer blockbuster about a fire in the world’s tallest building.
True, The Pearl in Hong Kong is fictional and almost no one dies in the fire itself, but there is still something very uncomfortable about watching flames racing up a tall building while a family is trapped inside. Because in real life, we all know there’s no Dwayne Johnson riding to the rescue.
But whatever you make of the decision to release it, this mix of Die Hard and The Towering Inferno is still disappointing stuff, marred by a clumsy script, poor supporting performances and unconvincing visual effects. The Secret Of Marrowbone (15A) is a strange, wouldbe ★★ chiller that is meant to be set in Nixon-era rural America. But a weak sense of place is the least of its problems, as the fleeing Fairbairn family (minus their father) arrive at the run-down maternal family home and change their surname to Marrowbone, their mother’s maiden name.
Director Sergio G Sánchez, who wrote The Orphanage, delivers an odd film that never quite settles.
In First Reformed (15A)★ Ethan Hawke plays a church minister, slowly succumbing to despair, ill-health and alcoholism. Despite being written and directed by Paul Schrader, who wrote Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, it’s not really the sort of film where anything gets better.
Bleak… and slightly barking.