READY Or Not is a perfect guilty pleasure, a mean little horror-comedy with a powerhouse turn from Samara Weaving.
Ten years on from the first instalment, Zombieland: Double Tap shambles back to dial up the snark, carried along by the chemistry of its stellar central trio. And Shia LaBeouf delivers a career-best performance (yes, even better than Transformers) in freewheeling charmer The Peanut Butter Falcon.
DVD Of The Week: Ready Or Not
(18) 91mins, out now
★★★★☆
SURPRISINGLY enjoyable gothic romp starring Samara Weaving as Grace, the new bride who marries into a wealthy family with a murderous secret.
It strikes that rare balance between horror and comedy, gleefully mean-spirited and with a sense of its own absurdity, while never descending into outright camp.
It’s not wildly original — and don’t expect Get Out levels of social commentary. But Weaving is an irresistible lead, with more than a hint of Margot Robbie about her.
And there are enjoyably ripe turns throughout the supporting cast, including Andie MacDowell (who knows a thing or two about movie weddings… and funerals) and the very good Adam Brody.
The gore is suitably squelchy and a couple of final-reel twists will keep you on your toes. A guilty treat that understands the value of a well-placed rusty nail.
Zombieland: Double Tap
(15) 93mins, out Monday
★★★★☆
THE snark-heavy horror-comedy shambles back for a belated second go-round ten years on — a gap mined for laughs in a bit of early meta-commentary.
Aptly, given the lengthy break, this takes a while to find its rhythm. There is an ominous sense of drift early on, the feeling of going through the motions.
But the jokes keep coming — some are very good — and the talented cast shake off the rust eventually.
Their chemistry carries the day, while the action is kinetic and creative. The climax is more epic than appears likely early on.
Very much more of the same, but wisely kept to little over an hour and a half. On this evidence, the prospect of a third Zombieland isn’t something to dread.
The Peanut Butter Falcon
(12) 93mins, out now
★★★☆☆
ODDBALL buddy comedy about wrestling-obsessed Down’s lad Zak (Zack Gottsagen), who escapes his care home for some road-trip bonding with a revelatory Shia LaBeouf.
He is in career-best form as Tyler, the surly fisherman-reprobate who takes Zak under his sweaty wing primarily for the purposes of getting into the good books of care worker Dakota Johnson.
Cue plenty of bonding, growing and hugging — though it’s not nearly as mawkish or predictable as that might sound.
LaBeouf’s persuasive, nuanced performance constantly surprises, while his abrupt suckerpunching of a tubby tween bully is a joy.
Gottsagen holds his own as Zak, while Bruce Dern and Thomas Haden Church have a high time among the ripe cast of supporting players.
Backwoods Carolina is beautifully evoked and Johnson is a sparky foil for LaBeouf.
It is light on laughs for a comedy but has an irrepressible, freewheeling charm unlike anything else you will see this year.
First Love
(15) 103mins, out Monday
★★★☆☆
RELEASED in (a handful of) cinemas in time for Valentine’s Day, this wry crime camper from Japanese auteur Takashi Miike — director of infamous shocker Audition — lands almost immediately on DVD.
At its heart is the unlikely but likeable pairing of a boxer with a brain tumour and a traumatised girl sold into prostitution by her loser dad.
Think Clarence and Alabama in True Romance, with the California sunshine swapped for the pitch-black back alleys of Tokyo’s seedier hinterlands.
They run afoul of bent cops, vengeful yakuza hoods and a ghost wearing Y-fronts in a single chaotic night — occasionally vicious, often surreal and increasingly breathless.
Perhaps some of the humour is lost in translation, while the action is more exhausting than exhilarating by the time of the unhinged finale. A watchable if ultimately disposable caper that won’t be remembered long after the echo of gunfire abates.
Holiday
(18) 92mins, out now
★★★☆☆
BEAUTIFULLY framed, breathtakingly bleak 2018 drama from first-time director Isabella Eklof.
Victoria Carmen Sonne plays Sacha, the Danish girlfriend, if that’s the word (it isn’t), of Eurotrash drug dealer Michael (Lai Yde). He seems like a scumbag from the off but is gradually revealed to be much, much worse than that.
The title, of course, is bitterly ironic. The idyllic surrounds of the Turkish Riviera are juxtaposed with half-empty nightclubs booming tuneless techno and harrowing scenes of physical and sexual abuse.
The central relationship is like a waking nightmare; one notorious, pivotal scene almost impossible to watch.
Effective in its way, just not remotely entertaining.
Snatchers
(15) 93mins, out now
★★☆☆☆
FAILING to find that elusive horror-comedy balance is this ungainly feature-length spawn of a web series, about unconvincing aliens (or vengeful Mexican deities… or something) wreaking havoc in small-town Merika.
Mary Nepi is a likeable lead and Rich Fulcher of The Mighty Boosh makes the most of his limited screen time, nabbing most of the laughs on offer.
For a time it chugs along with a sort of bumptious energy, as if made by a gaggle of precocious 12-year-olds, rather than grown-ups without a budget, simply too dumb to get boring.
But the final act is desperately underwhelming. By that point, the manic grins are fixedly hollow.
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