At The Movies: Hidden Strike lands with a thud, Nimona is monstrously enjoyable
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Jackie Chan (left) and John Cena star in Hidden Strike.
PHOTO: SHAW ORGANISATION
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Hidden Strike (PG13)
102 minutes, now showing
2 stars
The story: Jackie Chan and John Cena co-star as former special forces commandos escorting civilians across the Highway of Death in Baghdad, one of the world’s deadliest roadways.
To say the East-West collaboration Hidden Strike co-stars Chan and Cena is somewhat misleading. The two action leads do not meet until 42 minutes into their military adventure.
In a Middle East of the near future riven by oil wars, international criminals attack a Chinese-owned refinery in “the biggest oil heist in history”.
Chinese actor Wu Jing is presumably busy filming Wolf Warrior 3, so Chan’s private security contractor Luo Feng takes charge in the Mandarin-dialogue half of the movie, arriving at the scene to extract the workers. One of these employees getting bussed to safety is his estranged daughter (Ma Xinrui).
Meanwhile, Cena is in his own English-speaking film set of an Iraqi village, where his resettled United States Marine Chris Van Horne teaches local orphans. He is duped by the main antagonist (Pilou Asbaek) into entering the fray, believing he is recovering illicit assets.
Only after a fistfight do Luo and Chris realise that they are good guys on the same side. The new allies must quickly devise a plan to save the day.
Expect no pointers from Scott Waugh. This Hollywood stuntman-turned-director (Need For Speed, 2014) does not know what to do with his marquee players once he has them together.
He inserts a buddy comedy, but the martial arts legend and pro wrestler have no chemistry, and their bilingual bickering over seat belts and hand signals is thudding.
The rescue mission is otherwise the usual business of the heroic duo facing down mercenaries and explosions. There is much vehicular mayhem along the Highway of Death desert that is patently a giant green screen.
This B-movie has the mustiness of a 1980s leftover, except Chan’s stunts were fresh at the time and Cena would have been Sylvester Stallone — who was, indeed, originally attached to the project.
Hot take: What should have been a power-packed pairing of alpha heroes is instead an anti-climax in a stale action flick.
Nimona (M18)
Riz Ahmed and Chloe Grace Moretz voice a knight (left) and a shapeshifting gremlin in animated adventure Nimona.
PHOTO: NETFLIX
111 minutes, available on Netflix
4 stars
The story: Ballister Boldheart (voiced by Riz Ahmed) is a Knight of the Realm sworn to protect his futuristic mediaeval kingdom by slaying monsters. But it is only one such monster, the pink gremlin girl Nimona (Chloe Grace Moretz), who will help clear his name when he is framed for the assassination of the beloved queen.
Nimona is an odd-couple animated adventure, which does not mean Ballister and Nimona are mismatched. The fugitive hero is a gay ethnic commoner among the noble knights and his unlikely sidekick is a gender-fluid shapeshifter. Both are pariahs villainised as monsters for being different.
Directed by Spies In Disguise (2019) duo Nick Bruno and Troy Quane, this Netflix adaptation of American cartoonist ND Stevenson’s 2015 web comic has won praise for being such an openly LGBTQ+ parable on a popular streaming platform.
There were some concerns about Ballister’s same-sex kiss with his hunky beau, fellow knight Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin (Eugene Lee Yang), hence the M18 rating.
And what a shame, because kids would have really liked Nimona’s slapstick transformations – into a gorilla, a rhino, a whale and a dancing shark – as she and Ballister flee from armoured knights on hovercrafts hunting them down with laser crossbows. The action is exciting and boisterous.
In Nimona, the fugitive hero is a gay ethnic commoner among the noble knights and his unlikely sidekick is a gender-fluid shapeshifter.
PHOTO: NETFLIX
She is a fabulous creation, this smart-talking radical agent of chaos committed to destroying everyone, since everyone hates her anyway.
Moretz’s riot-grrrl voice-work, scored to the pop-punk sounds of Dope Saint Jude and Judas Priest is outstanding, as is British-Pakistani actor Ahmed’s soulful Ballister.
The two form an affecting friendship in a mischievous comic fantasy that has messages on inclusivity and acceptance for all ages.
Hot take: Monstrously enjoyable, complete with important life lessons.
