|
 (052121)
Melissa McCarthy has fought a brave, uphill battle to gain respect as a serious
film actress. She was fine in the show Mike and Molly, a decent above average
sitcom, that failed to showcase the full range of her talents. She had her share
of setbacks and early cinematic missteps such as The Boss and Identity Thief.
Film critic, Rex Reed deserved the considerable blowback he received when he
famously called her “tractor sized,” and when he implied, she was only popular
because of her weight in a review, and she claimed the execs from the network
airing Mike and Molly, cancelled her show prematurely because they thought she
was less funny after she became thinner. Apparently, look-ism is not a thing of
the past.
The feminist remake of
Ghost Busters
was only fair, but it got critical acclaim in some quarters. McCarthy was far
better in the crowd-pleasing comedy, Bridesmaids. Also, her comedic performance
in the Indy film, St Vincent was terrific (as was the film), and her acting was
a match for the much more seasoned Bill Murray’s performance. Finally, her turn
as a forger in the Oscar nominated biopic, Can You Ever Forgive Me? was
extraordinary, and was perhaps the most potent, bravest performance of that year
(she got robbed at the Oscars). Also, she recently did some top-notch political
impersonations as a special guest on Saturday Night Live. She obviously has
talent to spare, but she needs the right projects.
Clearly, her overall career has been a combination of peaks and valleys. The
superhero film Thunder Force on Netflix is surely one of her lowest valleys, and
it may end up ruining some of the goodwill in film goers that she has built up
over the years. It is such an unmitigated disaster that if this were the first
film, I ever saw her in, I would never want to see another film starring her. It
is not just the witless script by her husband itself that is awful, she is
terrible in it. This would not even make a decent rental or free viewing. It is
not just bad; it is Death of Smoochy or the Johnny Depp version Lone Ranger
level bad.
The rest of the cast seemed to have been picked solely for their lack of
chemistry together. The actors include Oscar nominee, Octavia Spencer (of
Shape
of Water, The Help, and Hidden Figures), Pom Klementief (Mantis in
Guardians of the Galaxy) playing a completely one-dimensional villain, and Justin (Arrested
Development and Ozark) Bateman in one his least impressive performances as a wanna be super-villain/potential love interest for the lead.
The film was ineptly directed by Ben Falcone, McCarthy’s real-life husband.
Based on his work writing and directing this film and the horrific Tammy, he
might want to consider a career as a door man or street sweeper. A below average
film student would probably have done a better job. He or she might at least
stumble upon or shoot an interesting scene.
Thunder Force is an attempt at a superhero spoof/female buddy film that is
completely devoid of either exciting fight scenes or genuine laughs. Viewers may
want to even see the characters that were supposed to be likeable die during the
film.
Lydia and Emily are two lifelong, mismatched friends that are in many ways
opposites. Emily is a bookish and ambitious person who ends up working in a
giant corporate science lab (she is a CEO/geneticist) while Lydia is a laid
back, beer guzzling, heavy metal loving everywoman with no ambition who works as
a forklift driver.
The film gives us a flashback that demonstrates how the friends had a blowout
and separated for decades. Lydia and Emily were roommates, and Emily is late for
an important appointment because Lydia fails to wake her up in time. This shows
the upwardly mobile, Emily that Lydia might be an impediment to her reaching her
goals.
The film’s villains are a group of mutated people that develop powers from
exposure to cosmic rays called miscreants which obviously are a parody of
mutants in the X-Men (but the heroes are more like the Fantastic Four). But
nothing clever is done with the idea. It is if the writer decided it was enough
to use a dumb, similar sounding name to generate laughs (it is not). Emily
inherited a plan to fight the dastardly miscreants which involves scientific
experimentation.
One day Lydia shows up at Emily’s huge corporation to invite her to a reunion
event. Although she is told not the touch anything, she backs into a needle that
ends up giving her super strength. The injection was meant to empower Emily, who
wanted to take the injection herself so she could directly do something about
Chicago’s miscreant problem (her parents were killed by miscreants), But unless
Lydia undergoes more treatments (which cost a fortune) her body will react
negatively, so Emily so Emily reluctantly completes the experiment with Lydia as
a test subject.
Lydia decides to use her newfound powers to fight crime, and she is joined by
Emily (who gains the power to become invisible) and Emily’s daughter (who gains
the power of super speed.) The powers are not only completely generic, but they
are depicted in an unimaginative way throughout the whole film (as opposed to
the Marvel U films or DC/CW Shows.) It is if a group of people who knew that
superhero films were popular decided to make one without having any idea of what
make the good ones work.
Lydia meets a sympathetic criminal called the crab who has claws instead of
hands (which probably makes it hard for him to open wine bottles) who turns out
not to be all bad. The two have dinner and some romantic sparks are supposed to
occur, but I was unmoved and unconvinced, and it is unlikely anyone would think
they truly have feelings for each other.
But the worst villain behind the scenes is a corrupt Chicago mayoral candidate
(imagine that a crooked Chicago official) played by Bobby Cannavale who is
secretly in league with the dastardly miscreants. Canavale ends up getting his
own superpowers, and he has a tedious, moronic battle with Lydia which never
seems to end (it is even more witless and uninteresting than the one at the end
of Tim Burton’s
Dark Shadows
film.)
I do not usually give films half a star, but except for the sometimes well used
Chicago (allegedly of 1983) setting, this is a mind numbingly inept film with
virtually no redeeming qualities. I have experienced car crashes, root canals,
tax audits, and funerals that offered more entertainment value. Go out and watch
the grass grow or observe fresh paint dry instead. These activities will kill
less brain cells.
God, I miss the Zucker brothers and Mel Brooks.
|
