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Thunder Force Review

By Dave Griffiths @goodbaduglyshow · On August 19, 2021

The Gist

Two unlikely super-heroes find themselves having to try and save the world.

The Review

With cinemas currently closed in some countries around the world luckily film fans can turn to streaming services for some entertainment. Once again worldwide we have seen Netflix get the jump on cinema chains due to the pandemic and they are proudly showing the brand new Melissa McCarthy (Brides Maids) film Thunder Force.

Written and directed by McCarthy’s real-life husband Ben Falcone (Superintelligence) Thunder Force sees her play Lydia – a dock worker who has always regretted the argument that ended her friendship with her former friend in high school Emily Stanton (Octavia Spencer – The Help). The fight itself was over Emily never wanting to have fun – instead she wanted to spend all her time studying so that she could one day develop a way to destroy the mutants that plague society and killed her parents.

In the present day Emily is now the owner of one of the biggest scientific firms in the world and the world is still plagued by these mutants which include the deadly Laser (Pom Klementieff – Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2) and the just plain strange The Crab (Jason Bateman – Juno). Determined to make things right between them again Lydia reaches out to Emily on the night of their High School reunion and the disastrous result sees the pair become super-heroes.

Now the world finally has a duo that can stand up to the mutants but that also suddenly sees the new-found heroes thrust into the middle of a political election that sees the larger than life celebrity know as The King (Bobby Cannavale – Superintelligence) take on the mild-mannered and serious Rachel Gonzalez (Melissa Ponzio – The Walking Dead).

For fans of super-hero movies there was no way that Thunder Force was ever going to stack up against anything that Marvel or DC could ever deliver but for fans of comedy – well you might be in for a little bit of a surprising treat.

To Ben Falcone’s credit he doesn’t try to make Thunder Force anything it isn’t. From the get go he would have wanted this film to be mentioned alongside films like Galaxy Quest. While Thunder Force is not exactly a parody of a Marvel film it is the next best thing. It is loud and it is dumb, but at the end day it does what it is designed to do – and that is makes its audience laugh.

The key to whether or not you not you enjoy this film all comes down whether or not you normally like the comedy styling of Melissa McCarthy. McCarthy doesn’t do anything different here to what she has been doing for the last decade in cinema. Once again she plays a character who sees herself as a ‘loser’. There are jokes about her looks, joke about her weight, lots of slap-stick comedy and once again her character has to do things she never ever thought she was capable of. Yep, if you’ve seen a majority of McCarthy’s films you’ll know exactly what to expect. But hey, if what she does works, why should she change it?

Aside from McCarthy the rest of the actors and actresses here also seem to have a hell of a lot of fun. Bobby Cannavale seems to be his element playing an over-the-top rogue while Octavia Spencer seems to relish one of the lighter roles of her career. Then there is Jason Bateman who once again re-creates the comedy magic that he had with McCarthy in Identity Thief.

The Verdict

Thunder Force is your typical Melissa McCarthy shtick. You are either going to watch it and laugh along or you’ll be wondering why on earth everybody around is laughing at a film that you find unfunny.

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Related

Thunder Force Review
Dave Griffiths
August 19, 2021
3/10
3 Overall Score

Ben FalconeMelissa McCarthyOctavia SpencerPom KlemetieffThunder Force
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Dave Griffiths

Dave Griffiths has worked as a journalist for over twenty years now -covering topics including film, television, music, travel and sport (with a main focus on AFL Football). That time has seen him host the popular X-Wired television program for seven seasons as well as write for various magazines such as Buzz Magazine, Heavy Mag, Stage Whispers, The Banner and Eternity.. He has even branched out into writing online for Subculture Entertainment, Media Search and The Book The Film The T-Shirt. He also worked as the online editor for Entertainment 360 for three years. Dave's radio work has seen him work on various radio stations including 3RPP, Triple R and Light FM. He is currently the resident film reviewer on Sydney's 2UE radio station and can be heard reviewing what is new at cinemas and on DVD each week on Wednesdays at 3pm with Ed Phillips. He is also the co-host of Melbourne's 94.1FM's breakfast show 'The Motley Crew' and he can sometimes be heard on J-Air's 'First On Film'. David is also the co-host of two popular podcasts - ‘The Good, The Bad, The Ugly Film Show,' and 'The Popcorn Conspiracy' As far as Film Reviewing goes David is an elected committee member of AFCA (Australian Film Critics Association and a member of IPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics)/FIPRESCI (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique). He has also served as a jury member for a number of international film festivals and is considered an expert on cult cinema, horror movies and Australian films.

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