Wild times as the star trolls go all techno
TROLLS: WORLD TOUR ★★★✩✩ (Cert U, 91 minutes)
Directors: Walt Dohrn, David P. Smith
Stars: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Sam Rockwell, Jamie Dornan, James Corden, Rachel Bloom Available to stream on all major digital platforms
DANGER CLOSE ★★★★✩
Director: Kriv Stenders
Stars: Travis Fimmel, Richard Roxburgh, Luke Bracey Available to stream or download on all major digital platforms
TIGERTAIL ★★★★✩
(Cert PG, 91 mins)
Director: Alan Yang
Stars: Tzi Ma, Hong-chi Lee, Christine Ko, Fiona Fu, Margot Bingham, Kunjue Li Streaming on Netflix
IF YOUR stockpile of hallucinogens is low, don’t panic. From tomorrow you can mainline Trolls: World Tour through your smart TV and digital devices.the frenetic first 15 minutes may be enough to leave you dribbling face down into your living room carpet, eyes swirling like a cartoon hypnotist.
After an opening song and dance routine where neon “techno trolls” rave underwater, the film switches into full psychotropic mode.
Returning trolls Branch and Poppy (Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick) lead their multi-coloured troops in a kaleidoscopic pop medley that begins with Cyndi Lauper, ends with Dee-lite and pauses briefly for a tiny rapper in sunglasses to pop out of a pregnant male troll’s head.
If three weeks of lockdown has left you feeling a little unusual, things are going to get a whole lot weirder.
Dreamworks’ follow-up to the 2016 hit, which was supposed to be the big Easter release at the cinemas, follows the standard sequel template.the fantasy world has been expanded, there are more star voices, a lot more songs and a new villain.
But, as with Disney’s Frozen 2, bigger doesn’t mean better.
While there are some decent original tunes, none of them has that “sunshine in your pocket” catchiness of Timberlake’s last earworm.
Early on, we learn that our tiny heroes aren’t the only flame-haired music fans on the block. There are now different troll tribes, separated by region and genre... funk, country, techno, classical, pop and rock.
When Barb (Rachel Bloom), queen of the rock trolls, decides to unite them under one rhythm, Queen Poppy of the pop trolls decides to kill her plans with kindness.
The pace is so frenetic, there is no time for the salty back and forth between the leads that provided the biggest laughs in the original adventure.
Thankfully, Poppy, Branch and James Corden’s Biggie go down some amusing by-roads on the way to the slightly preachy finale. Sam Rockwell raises chuckles as a wandering cowboy who rustles up memories of Lee Marvin with a croaky cover of Patsy Cline’s I Fall To Pieces.
But Jamie Dornan nearly steals the show as a sinister “smooth jazz troll” who tranquilises his victims with laid-back beats.
This loud, garish and fitfully funny adventure isn’t a film to relax to. Still, if it exhausts the children, it could be money well spent.
Hollywood began retreating from Vietnam in the late 1980s but
Danger Close suggests Aussie filmmakers still have a few war stories to share.
Here director Kriv Stenders dramatises the little known The Battle Of Long Tan, where 108 young soldiers from Australia and New Zealand fended off an estimated 2,000 battle-hardened Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces who were amassing a few miles from their base.
Unlike classic Hollywood Vietnam movies, Stenders isn’t interested in developing characters or examining the politics of the war.
Instead, he finds drama in military tactics and the mechanics of command. That may sound a little dry, but fans of old fashioned war movies should be impressed with the way the film cuts through the fog of war to show us the chaotic way battle played out.
As a scouting mission turns into a firefight, Major Harry Smith (Vikings star Travis Fimmel) digs in close to a rubber plantation as the grizzled commander of Delta Company. His decision to call in artillery strikes on some of his own men (who are being overwhelmed in a forward position), saps morale and causes consternation amongst the top brass.
Back at the base, Brigadier Oliver Jackson (Richard Roxburgh) fears that he’s being lured into a trap. He thinks the enemy want him to send his remaining troops to the front to leave his base vulnerable to a surprise attack.
As he refuses to send reinforcements, we meet the crews of fighter jets, artillery units and armoured support vehicles.
There are far more sophisticated Vietnam films available to stream or download, but this moral quandary adds some weight to an explosive action movie.
CHINESE-AMERICAN screenwriter Alan Yang is best known for his work on comedy shows Parks And Recreation and Master Of None, but Netflix original film
Tigertail suggests he secretly wants to be the new Ingmar Bergman.
Like the Swedish director’s 1957 classic Wild Strawberries, this is about a wistful old man looking back on his salad days.
Tzi Ma plays Pin-jui who is seeing out his retirement with just his pot plants for company. His wife has left him and he can’t provide his grown-up daughter Angela (Christine Ko) the emotional support she craves.
The old man realises that before he can connect with Angela, he must make up with his younger self.
Flashbacks takes us back to 1950s Taiwan, where as a free-spirited young factory worker (Hong-chi Lee) he abandoned the girl he loved for a joyless arranged marriage and a new life in America.
It doesn’t land the emotional blows of Wild Strawberries, but it’s smartly written, beautifully acted and heartfelt.