Big Game (12A) ****
In a summer likely to be packed with generic blockbusters, there is something truly likeable about the wackiness of Big Game.
During a summer period where movies often feel like they're being made by committee, it's refreshing to have Samuel L Jackson, against type, as a US president trapped in the Finnish mountains. Nothing generic about that.
There's no shortage of entertainment or action sequences, however. And in its young co-lead, cinema has found a star.
The movie comes from the pen and the brain of Finnish filmmaker Jalmari Helander, who brought us the equally batty Rare Exports, the story of modern-day troll hunters, a couple of years ago.
The child star of that movie, Onni Tommila, returns here and delivers a super performance. The camera loves his face and he has true screen presence.
He plays a boy sent by his community to go hunting as a coming-of-age task to mark his thirteenth birthday, as per tradition in his village. However, his skills with a bow and arrow are lacking, and his father's presence as a champion hunter looms large.
His situation couldn't be more different to that of the President of the United States (Samuel L Jackson) jetting in Air Force One in the skies overhead to a summit.
But when his plane is targeted by unknown forces with very large weapons, the President is ejected and at the mercy of both these baddies and some very alien terrain.
Can this green-around-the-gills teenager actually step up and rescue the leader of the free world?
It’s a movie that revels in its own absurdity by inviting the audience in, but it’s smart too, with brilliant action sequences and a wonderful dynamic between Jackson and Tommila.
It won't be for everyone, but I loved every offbeat minute.
The Canal (16) ***
Shot in the gloomy surrounds of a Dublin canal, this gothic Irish co-production may initially feel over familiar but it effectively cranks up the tension.
From writer and director Ivan Kavanagh, the psychological horror tells the story of a young family whose lives go very badly wrong when they move into an old Georgian house.
David (Rupert Evans) is a film archivist who sets up home with his stunning wife (Hannah Hoekstra) and their young son.
When she disappears in mysterious circumstances, her distraught husband starts to connect strange goings on at their home to the mystery of his wife’s whereabouts. The police, convinced he has killed her because he suspected her of having an affair, are not buying it.
Is David having a marital meltdown or is there really a demonic presence in their home attacking the family?
Kavanagh does a good job of toying with the audience as to what is real and what is in David’s imagination. But the slow pacing does suck some of the drama out of the film, and it struggles in reaching its conclusion.
Still, the movie's genuinely eerie and looks good too. Genre horror is all about the execution and this plays out well courtesy of vivid special effects that look good on the big screen.
