There are echoes of the Jordan Peele in Zach Cregger’s ascendancy from sitcom frequenter to horror messiah. Indeed, much as was the case for Peale’s Get Out, Cregger already finds himself proclaimed the voice of his jump scare generation after just one frightener. In some quarters, at least. That first round – a satiating palette teaser if ever one were – was 2022’s big-time over-performer Barbarian, AirBnb thriller and bidding war instigator. Indeed, Cregger’s sophomore potential lured even Peele himself from the woodwork. Peele’s failure to secure Cregger’s script proved so crushing to him that it would ultimately see him split from his management. Contentious stuff but perhaps unsurprising. More has been spent on Weapons than Barbarian made in profit. It’s not just the expectation that’s high with this one, then.
Play it straight. That was always the key. Certainly, it was what made Leslie Neilsen, an erstwhile straight actor, such a gift in the casting of 1988’s The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad, not to mention Airplane before it. Neilsen shot down the barrel as the OG Lt. Frank Drebin and the writing did the rest. Emulation, then, proves an early win in Akiva Schaffer’s remake, which is titled more simply The Naked Gun, with Liam Neeson pitch perfect as Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. (‘Love you Daddy’). Right out of the blocks, in an opening swing at Mission: Impossible silliness, Neeson has the brief covered. He’s a stupidly safe pair of hands in a riotously stupid 85 minutes.
Set on a pastel painted Earth, parallel to our own and, thus far, unburdened by the weight of the cumbersome perplexities of the MCU, The Fantastic Four: First Steps serves up a breezy continuation of Marvel’s recent revival in legitimate entertainment. It’s ‘no homework required’ – in the words of Kevin Feige himself – fun and so game for good times that it squeezes the titular quartet’s entire origins story into a five minute montage. Wise move. Those in the know, know already that the Four are to join the main fray in next year’s hotly anticipated Avengers: Doomsday. Those who couldn’t care less can sit back, relax, and switch off – assuming they haven’t already, in a different sense of the phrase. Never mind first step, it’s a stride back in the right direction.
The Film Blog 