A new release on Netflix and currently #3 in France “Thunder Force” written and directed by Ben Falcone is up front and center on everyone’s dashboard and so it is not surprising that by sheer viewer numbers, this pops into the top 10. It will as quickly drop out of it though since it is simply not a good movie, mediocre at best with a few less mediocre moments and pop culture references thrown in for good measure to appease different age groups, from the comic book style opening to those 80s music choices, which only seem to be in there because we know them so well.
Script and dialogue is just plain awful and pacing is all over the place and after 20 minutes my son was asking “Why are we watching this movie?” and I looked at him and said “Son, movies are like a box of chocolates…”, well not really, but we stuck with it to the bitter end, so you don’t have to!
Thunder Force is trying to be a goofy super hero comedy that fails to deliver on all fronts and limps across the finishing line offering a few morsels of good acting, hello Jason Crabman, I mean Bateman (nb: watch Ozark), pop culture references that may make you feel old and cringe worthy “This car makes me ovulate” one liners.
In a nutshell, you have miscreants (super villains) who reign terror on the city and our two protagonists Hammer (Melissa McCarthy) and Bingo (Octavia Spencer), who will take up the good fight after being transformed into super heroes, thanks to sciency mumbo jumbo treatments. These unlikely heroes will take on ZE King (Bobby Cannavale) and we all know how this ends, including the Crabby Twist.
I guess, if you had nothing else to watch you could, but why would you? There are a plethora of other, better choices out there! Thunder Force had a portrait of Einstein, pointed out that Geneticists are not Gynecologists, although I don’t see why they couldn’t be both, if they wanted to and then there is Laser (Pom Klementieff), miscreant who doesn’t have any lasers. Why Laser? Why? Where are the Lasers? The Lasers are a lie!
Finally you have to ask yourself the simple question: Who are you? The movie answers this question in its own goofy manner: “You could be the rock, you could be the fish, you could be the thrower of the stone, you could be the lake.”
There you have it, take your pick and ponder that before you go “stone skipping” (movie browsing) next time!
Health Warning: Never eat raw chicken! Seriously, BACTERIA. NEVER. EAT. RAW. CHICKEN.
