STACK #152 Jun 2017

CINEMA REVIEWS

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BAYWATCH

ALSO SCREENING IN JUNE

RELEASED: June 1 DIRECTOR: Seth Gordon CAST: Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Alexandra Daddario RATING: TBC

Life's a beach.

jokes (of which there are still plenty). The boogie board and red swimwear has been passed to the dependable Dwayne Johnson, Alexandra Daddario (those eyes!) and Zac Efron (those abs!), who set out to bust a local drug syndicate after corpses and bags of meth begin washing up on the beach. Some of the set pieces are inspired, including an absurd fight in a nursery and a sequence in a morgue that's not half as disturbing as the later sight of Efron undercover in drag! And the climax is literally explosive. Unlike the recent CHIPS , Baywatch is totally in tune with the spirit of its inspiration, lampooning the series' stereotypes while delivering a tongue-in-cheek comedy caper that's elevated by some canny casting. The combined charisma and chemistry between Johnson and Efron makes Baywatch less painful than treading on a sea urchin, and the ample eye candy and lowbrow shenanigans will score highly with a target audience too young to remember the TV series. Those old enough to have tuned in will enjoy a cheeky nostalgia rush while waiting for the inevitable cameos by Pammy and the Hoff. Scott Hocking from hypersleep early, a strange transmission from a nearby planet warrants investigation. What they find is a habitable world where we discover what happened to Dr. Elizabeth Shaw and the synthetic David, after they took off in search of the Engineers' homeworld at the end of Prometheus . We also find out how the Engineers' bioweapon ultimately becomes the iconic, projectile-jawed and acid-blooded xenomorph. Alien: Covenant continues to explore the philosophical themes of playing god and the nature of creation, and therein lies the problem. Ridley Scott's determination to demystify the origin of the aliens is actually working to the detriment of the franchise – the fear of the unknown is what made the creatures terrifying in the first place. And by the time the film kicks into high gear as a fully fledged Alien movie, it's a case of too little, too late. With a third prequel film to follow that will reportedly dovetail into the events of Alien , it's hard to see how Scott will tie everything up neatly. Sometimes, letting the original director conceive a prequel trilogy isn't the best move (Star Wars, anybody?) – a pair of fresh eyes and the return of Sigourney Weaver's Ripley is what the Alien universe really needs right now. Scott Hocking

Think Baywatch and what springs to mind is David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson running along the beach in slow motion. Chronicling the adventures of a bunch of L.A. lifeguards, both on and off the beach, the TV series was a regular fixture on the tube throughout the '90s and one of the most watched shows in the world at the time. The fact that it was a feast of beefcake and bikini babes might have had something to do with that, but it also featured some decent plots – something the writers of this big screen version haven't overlooked. Ergo, the Baywatch movie has more to offer than just jiggling cleavage and dick

WONDER WOMAN

After a bumpy start to the DC Cinematic Universe, will Diana Prince be the one to turn the tide (or will that be Aquaman)? And more importantly, will we see her invisible jet? The imposing Gal Gadot is perfectly cast as the lasso-swinging Amazonian who finds her calling when American pilot Chris Pine washes up on her island home and tells of a great war beyond her shores. Diana joins the fight on June 1. (See page 8)

Don't expect a retread of the Brendan Fraser version when Tom Cruise becomes involved with Egyptian sorcery and a female mummy in this slick update of the Universal monster classic. Unwrapped on June 8 . (See page 12) THE MUMMY

ALIEN: COVENANT

RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Ridley Scott CAST: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterson RATING: MA15+

Or Prometheus 2.

Is Alien: Covenant better than Prometheus ? Not really, but at least it's a step closer to recapturing what we love about the Alien franchise. However, where Prometheus shared DNA with the Alien movies – namely the nature of the fossilised 'space jockey' discovered in the derelict spacecraft by the Nostromo crew – Alien: Covenant is more of a Prometheus sequel than an 'official' Alien film, with the creatures relegated to a supporting role. Set 10 years after the events of Prometheus , the Covenant is a colony ship carrying two thousand pilgrims and a bank of embryos to a new world. After an energy wave disables it and awakens the crew

Gru meets his long-lost twin brother, Dru, and grapples with a grown-up former child star (Trey Parker) who's hellbent on world domination. All this and Minions too, on June 15 . (See page 14) DESPICABLE ME 3

Expect medieval mayhem and dragonbots in this fifth chapter of the blockbuster franchise. Optimus Prime has left us, Anthony Hopkins has joined the Transformer-verse, and Mark Wahlberg appears to be in dire peril... again. Two worlds collide and only one will survive on June 22 . TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT

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JUNE 2017

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