Sarah Watt, Russell Baillie
Reviews of the new movies playing on major streaming platforms.
SWEET GIRL
Sometime Aquaman Jason Momoa plays Ray, a doting father of one seemingly hellbent on justice for the death of his wife, which he blames on a Big Pharma tycoon suppressing a new generic cancer drug. Although that could promise a debate on medical-business ethics, it’s a fight-athon action film, with Momoa’s blue-collar dad taking teenage daughter Rachel (Isabela Merced) along for the ride as he works his way through a pile of evil henchmen with the FBI in pursuit.
You may think you know how this is going to turn out, but you’d be wrong. There’s a bonkers twist that suggests the writers got bored with rehashing a 90s revenge thriller and hoped chucking some M Night Shyamalan into the mix would keep things interesting. They weren’t wrong. But it renders this utterly daft. (Netflix)
BECKETT
When his romantic Greek holiday is shattered by a tragic accident, a man with one name and no personality goes on the run for his life in this poor attempt at a gritty European thriller.
American tourist Beckett ( John David Washington) finds himself hunted by shady authorities after he becomes privy to something he shouldn’t have seen and doesn’t understand. In the scenes when he’s not reexplaining his predicament to a roll-call of hapless strangers, Beckett spends the film running through wilderness, jumping from great heights and being shot at.
Unfortunately, the repetitive and expositive script undermines the calibre of the performers. As Beckett’s lovey-dovey girlfriend, Alicia Vikander overacts so badly you think her character must be covering up a secret (spoiler: she’s not), and Washington plays it stunned (as in Tenet) rather than dynamic (as in BlacKkKlansman). (Netflix)
VAL
Whatever your feelings about Val Kilmer – notoriously “difficult” on set, a self-centred bad husband – it is inescapably sad watching the now 61-year-old former Batman struggle to speak through a tube in his throat, following his recent fight with cancer.
The actor’s pluck is clearly still alive and well, however. Enlisting his son’s soundalike voice to narrate, Kilmer assembles decades of home-video footage into a fascinating autobiographical account of his colourful life and the workings of Hollywood.
From Top Secret and Top Gun, via Tombstone to his theatrical passion project about Mark Twain, Kilmer – lauded as Jim Morrison in The Doors but nominated for three Worst Actor Razzies – gets to explain how his commitment to the craft hasn’t always reaped rewards.
Val sidesteps being an exercise in narcissism by presenting an honest, illuminating and somewhat depressing peek inside the
showbiz machine. At heart, it’s a portrait of Kilmer’s deeply personal creative experience. (Amazon Prime)
JOLT
Kate Beckinsale exploits her Underworld action credentials and natural British accent to woo the locked-down viewer in this quite funny, very violent and super-fun movie.
Thanks to a traumatic upbringing recounted over madcap, jump-cut opening scenes, the unrelentingly angry Lindy now lives in isolation, suffering “Intermittent Explosive Disorder”. She’s permanently wired so she can give herself a diverting electric shock whenever the red mist descends – be it at rude waiters, loud breathers or criminals.
Lindy’s handler (the wonderful Stanley Tucci) suggests she will only be healed through human connection. But when her third date with Jai Courtney’s accountant ends in tears, Lindy and her furyunleashed set of skills can’t help but seek revenge.
As energetic and great looking as its bleached-blonde protagonist, the joyfully female-centred Jolt doesn’t take itself at all seriously and is all the more fun for it. (Amazon Prime) Sarah Watt, Russell Baillie