Shadow In The Cloud (2020) In case there's any misunderstanding about this review.....
We intend to award it a fairly high rating.
Which you may scratch your heads about, considering we're about to tell you how incredibly bonkers, batshit crazy, insane, ridiculous, and off-the-wall, unintentionally hilarious this movie is.
All true. No getting around it. This movie needs a straight-jacket and placement in a rubber room with padded walls. Or you might think you do when you view it.......
Yes......we had the best time ever watching it. It put a perpetual smile on our face, while it made us drop our jaw. at the sheer shameless audacity of it all.
That explains why this post will conclude with a high rating. Happy to clear that up.
First thing that made us sigh and smile at the same time - it's one of those movies financed and co-produced by close to a half a dozen independent companies. It takes forever for all their logos to unspool.
Which made us start to wonder if any of these outfits had the slightest idea of what kind of movie they were putting up the cash for.
Second thing we loved, - a fake but very accurate imitation of a cartoon World War 2 aviation training film. It warns air force personnel to pay attention to how they're operating and maintaining the aircraft so they don't have to blame their mechanical errors on "gremlins" As in actual nasty little green gremlins.
Yes folks, that's a big effin' clue as to where this film is going, but that's all we'll say at this point. Let the funhouse fun commence......
It's World War 2 in New Zealand, and Chloe Grace Moretz is s mysterious Women's Auxiliary Air Force officer who's an unlikely unwanted passenger confounding the wisecracking crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress. She carries with her a top secret box, not to be touched or opened.
Ooooo.......what's in the box? Wouldn't we like to know.........
Forced to sit in the gun turret built into the bottom of the plane, Moretz turns the first third of the movie into a literal one woman show as the camera stays on her and her alone.
While stuck in this claustrophobic prison, she fends off the anger, outrage and foul sexual innuendo hurled at her by the crew on the intercom sets.
And then all hell breaks loose from multiple sources.......from Japanese Zero fighters blasting away at the plane to ....uh......we dare not say.
In the midst of all this bloody chaos, the film springs its most outrageous plot twist.....as if the filmmakers sat down and pondered, "What would be the most beyond-all-belief, lunatic thing we could make happen next?"
We're happy to report......that's exactly what they do. And how we love them for it. If you're going to make a movie this crazy, you might as well go for the gusto. Woo-hoo!
Somewhere along the line, we lost count of how many different genres and tropes the filmmakers threw into the mix here. This movie plays like it came out of a pitch meeting where all the participants were dead drunk or stoned and cocaine'd out of their minds. Possibly all three.
First and foremost, above all the lunacy, stands the movie's ultimate MVP.....Chloe Grace Moretz.
We've always been a CGM fan and this movie more than proves why. This gifted young actress, who never gives less than 200 per cent of herself in a roll, becomes the unstoppable force-of-nature this movie requires.
We adore the way she plows ahead, oblivious to the monumental silliness of what she's doing and gives it everything she's got. Considering the idiocy of what the film puts her through, her total commitment to this utter nonsense is beyond impressive.
There's no doubt in our mind that one day Moretz will finally get put into films worthy of her formidable talent ......and starts enjoying the recognition she deserves.
As for those who put "Shadow In The Cloud" together - especially director and co-writer Roseanne Liang.....we salute you. For letting your freak flag fly high, you gave us one of the most crazily entertaining, fruitcake movies we've seen this year.
Here it comes, as advertised......4 stars (****). We don't care who disputes this rating. We damn well loved it. Long may this freak flag wave.......
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