Aubrey Malone
Gal Gadot stars as Wonder Woman in the latest installment
of the franchise. New cinema releases are thin on the ground these days. A few brave souls are still calling “action” instead of “cut” as they seek to revive a form of entertainment that, like so many others these days, seems dangerously close to being on life support.
Chemical Hearts chronicles the teenage romance of two high school students. Henry (Austin Abrams) and Grace (Lili Reinhart) share the editorship of the school newspaper. Grace walks with a limp she sustained after a car accident.
All goes well between them until Henry discovers she isn’t just carrying a physical handicap but a psychological one as well. They’re connected, but I won’t tell you how. Her entrapment in it threatens their relationship.
Wonder Woman 1984 has the dashing Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) trying to save the planet. In the original she lost her sweetheart. Now she’s reunited with him. She strives to protect her fellow man – and woman – and impress her mother, Hippolyta (Connie Nielson), into the bargain as she does her daredevil stuff.
Her main adversaries are Kristen Wiig as a supervillain called The Cheetah and Pedro Pascal as the equally venal Max Lord.
Refreshing
A White, White Day investigates the depth to which grief can go. An off-duty police chief (Ingvar Sigurdsson) mourns the loss of his wife in a car accident in a remote part of Iceland. His grief turns to rage when he begins to suspect a man he plays football with might have been having an affair with her.
It’s always refreshing to see Danny de Vito popping up in something (especially since he recently revealed his Irish roots) even if it’s only aurally. Streaming on Disney+ is The One and Only Ivan, a fantasy about a gorilla that tries to piece together the convoluted jigsaw of his past with the help of an elephant as they try to escape from captivity. It’s based on the children’s novel of the same name and also has the voices of Helen Mirren and Angelina Jolie.
The New Mutants is another escape story. It has five young mutants being held in a facility against their will. Be warned – this sci-fi feature is much more horrific than the Disney release.
Also treading a thin line between science fiction and horror is Deep Blue Sea 3. It’s the story of a marine biologist and her team taking on three genetically enhanced bull sharks. They’re much more lethal than they look. Cue splashy histrionics.
Bill and Ted Face the Music joins the list of even wackier-than-usual Keanu Reeves flicks. It’s the third and final installment of the Bill and Ted series. Phew. This time Keanu is a time-travelling rock singer in search of a hit. Whatever this irritating series didn’t have once, it still doesn’t. All yours.