HERE TODAY (12A)
MARVEL INTRODUCES A NEW CAST OF THRILLING CHARACTERS AS ITS HERO’S SEARCH FOR MAGICAL JEWELLERY SPARKS AN EASTERN ADVENTURE
Here Today bids to address the issue of dementia through comedy and a May-toDecember romance between director Billy Crystal and co-star Tiffany Haddish.
Veteran comedy writer Charlie Burnz (Crystal) has Emmy and Tony awards aplenty. Surrounded by twentysomethings in the writers’ room, for hit comedy
This Just In, he’s the voice of experience, but he’s secretly, contending with dementia.
His routine is shattered when he offers an hour of his time as a charity auction prize and aspiring singer Emma Payge (Haddish) turns up for lunch. An allergic reaction to mussels dispatches Emma to A&E with Charlie in tow and an unlikely friendship is forged.
The leads catalyse winning screen chemistry when they trade one-liners and the script from Crystal and former Saturday Night Live writer Alan Zweibel sings when it pokes fun at the business of comedy, but once the tone shifts, it fails to live up to the leads’ performances.
■ In selected cinemas from Friday
SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS (12A)
REVIEWS BY DAMON SMITH
BLESSED with Asian cinema royalty in actors Tony Leung and Michelle Yeoh, and the acrobatic excellence of fight co-ordinator Andy Cheng, Shang-Chi And The Legend
Of The Ten Rings is brimful of eastern promise and largely delivers on it.
Shaun (Simu Liu) and best friend Katy (Awkwafina) work as hotel parking valets in San Francisco and break up the monotony of their day by taking a guest’s turbo-charged motor for a spin along the wildly undulating streets.
Content to idle through life, Shaun and Katy pay scant regard to a friend’s warning that they are now “living in a world where half the population can just disappear”.
On the way home, the workmates are attacked by hulking assassin Razor Fist (Florian Munteanu) and his goons, who demand Shaun hands over a pendant that once belonged to his mother (Fala Chen).
Shaun unleashes a dizzying array of fight moves but ultimately loses the trinket.
“Who are you?” gasps Katy. Reluctantly, Shaun confesses he is Shang-Chi, son of Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung), an immortal who can harness the devastating power of 10 ancient golden bracelets.
Fearful that his estranged younger sister (Meng’er Zhang) is now a target, Shang-Chi races to Macau with Katy in tow.
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings is a rollicking ride laced with plentiful father-son angst.
Director Destin Daniel Cretton’s romp through post-Avengers: Endgame worlds introduces richly-drawn new characters with some of the franchise’s most balletic action sequences.
Actor and stuntman Liu takes the title role by the scruff of the neck, performing many of his own stunts and co-star Awkwafina brings tenderness to her scene-stealing comic sidekick.
Bruising martial artistry on a runaway articulated trolley bus heightens the adrenaline-pumping delirium with a flurry of roundhouse kicks and flashing blades, while one-on-one fisticuffs on the edge of a bamboo forest nod reverentially to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
One glaring mis-step is the reintroduction of Sir Ben Kingsley’s theatrical ham Trevor Slattery from Iron Man 3, sporting a Liverpudlian accent. He’s largely redundant.
Special effects overload threatens a bombastic final act but solid performances largely cut through a digital blitzkrieg. The end credits tease ‘Ten Rings Will Return’. Happy days.