STACK June 2017 Issue 152

ALSO SCREENING

JUNE

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)

WONDER WOMAN

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

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

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

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

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

Life's a beach.

BAYWATCH

RELEASED:

June 1

DIRECTOR:

Seth Gordon

CAST:

Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Alexandra Daddario

RATING:

TBC

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

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

Or Prometheus 2.

ALIEN: COVENANT

RELEASED:

Now Showing

DIRECTOR:

Ridley Scott

CAST:

Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterson

RATING:

MA15+

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JUNE

2017