Animated robots and a double dose of bloody horror are the new films at Westside’s giant multiplex cinemas Cineworld Broad Street and Odeon Luxe Broadway Plaza this week.
Motor city Brummies will be particularly delighted to see loads of gorgeous classic American cars and a green MG roadster appearing in the 1970s-based Salem’s Lot. Plus this is a reminder that Broad Street previously housed various car companies including Adcock’s, Chilton and Co, Stocks, Reave & Steadman and Castle Motor Co.
In fact, did you know that JD Wetherspoon’s pub The Figure of Eight is in a building that first opened as a car showroom in 1932? It didn’t become a pub until 1996.
Transformers One (PG / 104 mins). This is the eighth Transformers film based on the Hasbro toys, if you include the spin-offs Bumblebee (2018) and this ‘origins’ movie in animation form.
On the Transformers’ home planet of Cybertron, sentient robots work in an Energon fuel mine. Two best friends will later become rivals –the Autobots’ Optimus Prime and the Decepticons’ Megatron.
The star-studded voice cast is led by Chris Hemsworth as Orion Pax (the future Optimus Prime) and Brian Tyree Henry as C-16 (the future Megatron) with all-star support from Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne and John Hamm – as Cybertron’s leader, Sentinel Prime.
The verdict: *** The watered-down PG certificate could make this origin story a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ event for younger children unwittingly taken by fanboy parents.
The British Board of Film Classification declares a 2/5 rating for ‘violence’, but then notes: “Fight scenes include … bladed weapons and fistfights. Robot injuries … include severed limbs, impalements, and a heroic figure is shot through the chest, badly damaging his torso.”
Three times in the first ten minutes, one robot whacks another without context. Excuse me! Certificate dilution ignores the fact that younger children will always have varyingly immature degrees of emotional intelligence.
Transformers One is a world away from Toy Story – far less colourful but with clever multi-layered scenes featuring multiple characters. My knowledgeable, adult audience found the frenetic adventure laugh-out-loud funny on several occasions.
Returning executive producer Steven Spielberg, who stayed at Broad Street’s Park Regis hotel during the 2016 city shoot of Ready Player One, clearly remains happy with this failsafe, money-generating franchise. The final credits eagerly point to where the story will clearly – and predictably – go next.
Salem’s Lot (15, 113 mins). Author Ben Mears is seeking inspiration and returns to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot (est 1710, pop 1282). There’s a heavy trunk to be taken care of and sorting out that age-old problem of a bloodthirsty vampire will require local assistance.
The verdict: ** Some adaptations of Stephen King’s novels are terrible (Lawnmower Man / Graveyard Shift), some are serviceable (Dolores Claiborne / The Running Man) and others are brilliant (Misery / Shawshank Redemption).
Now we’re even getting multiple reboots. The 1975 Salem’s Lot novel was a two-part, 1979 mini-series starring David Soul and James Mason; Rob Lowe reprised the same format in 2004.
Here, writer-director Gary Dauberman’s (Annabelle Comes Home) standalone effort was made more than two years ago and you can readily sense how it has been reduced from a reported three hours.
Shot in the dark as well as in sepia tones, there’s an old-fashioned / dated (take your pick) period feel. Offering ‘jump scares’ above building a sense of dread means we’ve seen better horrors, but the clever, classic car scenes will thrill collectors.
Terrifier 3 (18, 125 mins). If you’ve already missed the first two adventures with Art the (mute) Clown, brave this post Halloween massacre Christmas version at your peril. David Howard Thornton returns in the white mask, lots of chainsaw-powered murders and a remarkably stay-clean red Santa suit.
The verdict: * If you fancy an uncompromisingly-inventive splatterfest way beyond anything in Salem’s Lot (despite some throaty similarities with a creatively added rat), then this will be your ‘movie of the weak’.
Multiple speciality dismemberments bring a whole new, all-ages meaning to the term ‘dicing with death’. But the one thing Art can’t hack is the trick of raising the hairs on the back of your neck. Ooops.
●YOUR REVIEWER: Graham Young has been reviewing films for the media in Birmingham for the last 35 years, serving the Birmingham Mail, Birmingham Post, Sunday Mercury, BirminghamLive and BBC WM. He was the 1996 Regional Film Journalist of the Year, and runner-up 1997-99.
ENDS
